Category: South 2nd Street

Los Sures, Part 6: Ants in My Pants

Our landlord’s name was Mojona, and she used to babysit us when Mami went out to her second job. Mojona lived on the floor below us, and if I ran around too fast or jumped too hard or laughed too loud, she would bang on the radiator with a spoon, and Mami would yell, “See what you did? Behave!” Getting Mami mad was one thing. You would get hit with

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Los Sures, Part 5: Hell Is for Children

They told me the Devil killed my uncle Jesus. My older cousin Fátima told me, “The devil shot our father in the basement.” My aunt Religiosa had seven daughters, Eunice, Fátima, Judith, Mary, Magdalena, Novena, Ruth, and Sarah, and they lived in a house on Cornelia Street in Bushwick. They were very poor, and every time they came over my father told us to watch them. They always came over

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