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50 Tamale Ridge by: Chuck Cusimano

Francisco slapped the boy in the face and told him to go to the house. He then summonsed some

riflemen and they took off in the direction of the unknown assailant.

Rosemarie went to her brother’s room and found him setting on the edge of his bed.

“Why do act as though you hate me Ramon?” she asked him.

“I have tried to be a good Hermana to you since you were born but for some reason, you

dislike me.”

“I do hate you! My father hates you too!” he said.

“That is not true,” she said,

“He is a very hard man but he does not hate me! I am his daughter.”

“Your mother, Teresa, when she left him for the white man, took all the good in him,” she

continued.

“I hate my mother too! She abandoned me and my father for a gringo and also took the

Bacas.”

“You forget Ramon, or you may not know, that when your mother came she brought with her

two hundred head of cattle!”

“Our father was very hard to be around even before Teresa, left for the United States. He has

changed since the day my mother died… He grew very hard and he used to beat Teresa. That is

why your mother left. She grew tired of the beatings and the abuse,” she said.

Ramon watched her leave the house, get on her horse and ride out of the ranch yard. His face

still stung from the slap of his father’s hand. More than the sting of the slap, Ramon felt the

sting of embarrassment.

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