Eleven-year-old Luis Perez Lopez always goes barefoot. Well, okay, he wears shoes when his mom insists — when he has to go to school, or be interviewed by a Gringa reporter like me, for instance. “Mamá told me to wear them,” he laughs, restlessly pulling a soccer cleat on and off a dusty, sock-less foot. “This is how I get around that.”
When I first meet Luis, he’s cycling (barefoot, naturally) down the short dirt path that separates his house from that of his neighbor, 100-year-old Abuela Panchita. (Abuela means “grandmother,” and that’s how everyone in town addresses Panchita, even if they aren’t related by blood.) Luis is on his way to round-up Panchita’s chickens, a chore he’s performed every evening for as long as he can remember. “Round up” may be too casual a term for the hour and a half of stalking, chasing, diving-after and struggling with the chickens. But Luis doesn’t mind. “It helps me run fast in gym class,” he explains, flashing a 100-watt smile. When I ask who makes him do it, picturing the average American kid who must be cajoled or bribed into the simplest household chore, I’m shocked by his answer. “She can’t see or hear very well,” he explains, as if good Samaritanism were the most natural thing in the world.
For Luis, chicken chasing is just one job in a day full of hard work. During the week, he’s up at 6 AM for a breakfast of black coffee, gallo pinto and eggs he’s collected himself. His family — his mom, grandma, grandpa and uncle — all share a tiny, three-room house with a mango tree in front, and a jumble of chicken coops in back. (His mom sells the eggs the birds produce to earn the family’s humble living.) The family dog is a black and white matted-haired mutt with a sweet disposition and a terrible odor. To everybody’s delight, its name sounds almost exactly like mine, “Laiza.”
After Luis finishes breakfast and says goodbye to Laiza and his family, he walks up the street to school (wearing shoes, naturally), where he’s in the fifth grade. Although he claims to dislike school, he admits he digs math and science and proudly shows off an impressive report card, with perfect marks in music (he plays the flute) and agriculture, the study of local plants and farming techniques. Luis would love to go to college, but at age 11 he’s already realistic enough to understand his family won’t be able to afford tuition. His mother had to drop out of school in the tenth grade to start working and while she wants more for Luis — she’s saving money and plans to take out a loan — she knows a scholarship, dependent on good grades, is his best chance to attend university.
Luis doesn’t worry much though. At his age, a year feels like a looooooooooong time, so it’s hard to imagine that far into the future. When I ask him what he would do if he lived as long as his neighbor Abuela Panchita, he can’t envision much beyond turning 18, when he’ll get his driver’s license. He wants to be a racecar driver — he loves the excitement. When I point out that driving racecars is a pretty dangerous profession, he giggles. “That’s why I’m not going to live as long as Panchita!”
After school, Luis runs errands for his mom — mostly egg deliveries to neighbors and a local restaurant. Next up are chores around the house before heading to Panchita’s for a chat and a chicken chase. There aren’t a lot of kids living in the neighborhood, so Luis spends a lot of time with Panchita. What do they talk about? “Panchita is famous,” Luis explains. “Everybody knows her, so she tells me about what’s going on with people in town.”
Then it’s back home for dinner. If he’s lucky, it’s rice and chicken (his favorite), but it’s usually rice and beans. After dinner, he’s allowed to watch a little TV — he loves cartoons — before falling asleep in a bed he shares with his mom.
Luis’ life is radically different from the average American kid’s — he’s only played video games a handful of times, and when I show him the video from last Friday of Panchita, in which he makes a cameo appearance chasing chickens, it’s only the second time he’s ever used a computer. But the habits he’s building now — good diet, lots of daily activity, positive outlook, close family bonds — are strong indicators of a long, healthy life ahead, and growing up in the longest-lived region in all of the Americas doesn’t hurt either. With a little luck (or a lot of luck, if he ends up driving racecars), when Luis is Panchita’s age, a young neighbor down the road will be able to repay him for the good deeds he so gladly does for her.
