Family keeps spirits high despite circumstances

Eight-year-old Ashley Nicole Herrera crouches next to a small space heater in her family’s modest kitchen. Some of her siblings huddle together on the L-shaped couch in the living room, trying to stay warm on a cold, November night.

Nicolasa Herrera, 38, tries to quiet her youngest child, Noe, rocking and patting him,
but the 18-month-old continues to cry.

“He is always sick,” Nicolasa said in Spanish.

A constantly sick child is just one of the problems for the Herreras. After their home burned down three years ago, the family had to purchase a run-down mobile home that’s too small for the family of 10. There never seems to be enough money to fix the broken windows or repair the holes in the walls. And now that Cruz Herrera, 59, has been diagnosed with kidney problems, he may not be able to provide for his family as well as in the past.

In that mobile home in Monte Alto, Laura, 11, Alexis, 9, Cruz Jr., 6, Ashley Nicole and Noe share a king-size bed with their mother. Maricruz, 15, and Debbie, 13, share a room and a double bed. Selina, 19, has her own bedroom.
The Herreras struggle to get by on the money Cruz makes as an agricultural laborer. Each year, he travels north to Minnesota for work in October and stays through December. If he gets enough hours, he can make up to $500 per month, Nicolasa said.

The family has to make the money Cruz earns for those three months stretch until the following fall. Government assistance and odd jobs that Cruz finds in the Rio Grande Valley helps to fill in the gaps.

Since Cruz started having dizzy spells and found out he was having kidney problems, he hasn’t been able to go back for more exams. The family has no insurance, only Medicaid. And with migrant work as the main source of income, Cruz ignores his ailments and continues to work.

Nicolasa smiles despite the circumstances. She laughs at the notion of getting enough sleep. Getting enough clothes for the kids is the biggest issue.

In 2006, while the family was together in Minnesota, their mobile home in Monte Alto caught fire and burned to the ground.

“When we came home, it was just ashes,” Maricruz said.

They lost everything.

The Herreras spent an extra month in Minnesota to save money to buy another mobile home.

With help from their extended family, smart budgeting and the kindness of the church, the Herreras replaced some of what they lost in the fire.

Selina helps the family when she can. She has worked at a few fast food restaurants, but it’s not enough to fix everything in their home.

They’ve been fortunate enough to have the leaks in the roof fixed by a local church, but holes - some big enough for a child to crawl through to the outside - remain. The family covers them with scraps of plywood, but the cold still seeps through. The water in the pipes stays ice cold and must be boiled for bathing. Electricity is only available sporadically, often cutting out when a storm moves through the rural area.

When Hurricane Dolly moved through the Valley in 2008, the Herreras couldn’t stay in their home.
“The water was up to here,” said Maricruz, pointing to her hip.

Rainwater poured in from the holes in the walls, soaking into the fragile drywall, saturating the carpet and linoleum, and damaging an already broken-down home.

The setback didn’t dampen their spirit though. They waited for the water to dry up and placed boards over the ever-widening holes, and life continued as normal.

Even after those tragic events, and in spite of the day-to-day struggle the family endures, Nicolasa doesn’t ask for much.

“It’s hard to get clothes for all the kids,” she said. And even with the clothes they do have, there isn’t enough storage in their home.

The children are aware that things could be better if they had more money, but they rarely complain.
“We get everything we need anyways. Like, you know, food on the table and everything,” Maricruz said.
Maricruz said if she could have one thing for her family, she’d want a new house.

“Especially, like, in this kind of weather, it’s really cold, and my little brother gets sick and it’s hard for my mom,” she said.

The Herreras had to celebrate Thanksgiving a day late this year. Earlier in the week, Noe fell ill. Between the coughing and wheezing, Nicolasa decided it was serious enough to take him to the hospital.

Noe was diagnosed with pneumonia, but after three days was allowed to go home.

They still had their Thanksgiving dinner of turkey and mashed potatoes, but Nicolasa had to prepare the bird in the broiler since the oven doesn’t work.

“It was delicious,” Alexis said.

The small table and four chairs don’t seat even half of the family, so they enjoyed their dinner in the living room on the couch and floor.

Though tragedy seems to follow the Herreras, they have a happy and strong household. Nicolasa flits around the house all day to clean, cook and care for her children.

At the mention of her son Abel, however, Nicolasa pauses.
“He passed away,” she said quietly.

In fall 2000, Abel, 8, was playing in a canal in Minnesota with one of his cousins. Nicolasa said that the two boys drowned. She doesn’t offer the painful details.

Had Abel been alive today, maybe he would’ve been working as hard as his siblings do in school.
Alexis proudly announced that he has perfect attendance this year.

“If you get perfect attendance,” he said. “you get to play on the Moon Jump and you get nachos.”
Ashley Nicole was sick this year and missed one day.

“But that’s OK, I don’t need nachos,” she said.

Maricruz stays on top of her schoolwork because she knows she needs high marks to get a scholarship. She’s spoken to her principal about pre-Advanced Placement classes. She attends Jose Borrego Middle School, which just added a ninth-grade campus.

Debbie, an honor roll student, is in sixth grade and is bursting with ambition. She wants to be a lawyer.
Some of the children don’t know what they want to do yet. They’re content to play games like “Duck, Duck, Goose,” and “Hide and Seek” when the weather is warmer.

Though a small, artificial tree stands slightly askew in the living room, decorated with a single string of lights and paper ornaments made in elementary classrooms by some of the children, there are likely to be few, if any, gifts under it this year.

“When my sister worked at Whataburger, she tried to buy us all gifts,” Maricruz said.

Other than the tradition of making tamales for the holidays, Nicolasa said there are no plans for Christmas.

The children’s wish lists are long and include items like a Sony Playstation 3 and a Nintendo DS, but Nicolasa’s wish list reads like a to-do list of home repairs: fix the holes in the wall and floor, replace the faulty electrical wiring and maybe get a new water heater.

And when asked what one item she would want, rather than need, Nicolasa thought briefly before smiling and answering.

“I want a kitchen table that will seat the whole family.”
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Amy Nichol Smith covers features and entertainment for The Monitor. She can be reached at (956) 683-4420.