I look up at my grandfather and ask, "Yeye, can I have a dollar to buy something from the store?" My grandfather pulls out his wallet and says, "Of course mijo, why not."  This was a usual day at my grandparents' house.  I was about twelve years of age, and I had been living with my grandparents because of family problems.  My grandparents weren't poor, but they weren't wealthy either.  My grandfather provided for the family while my grandmother took care of the house.  I always wondered why my grandfather would give me money to get candy or soda.  I knew that he needed the money for bills, but I still would ask him anyway.  When I was asked to write an essay about a family member I could only think of one person, my grandfather.
     
    I wanted to know why my grandfather would give me money when he needed it for the bills.  I wanted to know why he wanted me to play soccer so much, and pass down his knowledge of the game to me.  However, the bad thing is I got more than I bargained for.  I got his life story.  I got to see my grandfather's eyes teary while he was telling me about his life in Mexico.  I had the privilege of sitting next to that man while he told me about his battle with alcohol.  I hope you enjoy reading about my grandfather's life as much as I enjoyed listening to him tell it.
     
    My grandfather, Jesus Medina, was born in Guadalajara, Mexico on February 17, 1947.  He is the son of Agustin and Francisca Medina, and is the oldest of two boys.  His family lived with their grandmother, Agustin's mother, in Guadalajara.  They lived in a house, which only had a big room for the whole family to sleep and kitchen to cook.  They also had an outhouse for use for the restroom.  The family was like most families in Mexico at the time, poor.
   
     As a young kid Jesus didn't think much about being poor, he just wondered why he didn't have the things others had.  He grew up wishing for a lot of things that his family could not afford to buy.  He wanted things that we take for granted like toys, clothes, food, and shoes.  He said, "We had to make our own toys if we wanted something to play with.  He told me they made toy cars by using a carton box as the body, four soda tops as the wheels, and string to pull it around.  Also, he grew up wishing for a house.  He wanted to have a house because if any of his family members needed a place to stay, they could stay with him.  Also, he wanted a place that he could call his own.
   
    His mother supported the family when he was young because his father was an alcoholic.  This affected my grandfather greatly because he never had the father he always wanted.  He wanted a father that would take his son to soccer games or to other places.  He had to go with his friends if he wanted to do something.  However, a love came into his life at age seven taht replaced all those things he missed, soccer.  Jesus said, "When I played soccer I felt free, because all I could think about was soccer.  I didn't have to think about how poor I was, but most of all I didn't have to worry about seeing my dad drunk."  Not that his father ever abused anyone in the family, it just hurt him to see his father drunk.  Soccer took him away from all that, and became an important part of his life.
   
    For a soccer ball Jesus said, "My friends and I played with anything we could kick.  We used to make our own soccer balls by wading up newspapers and wrapping it around with nylon string."  Jesus also mentions that he played soccer barefooted because when he played in shoes they used to get scratched.  Since they were poor and had maybe one pair of shoes, they would get in trouble for damaging them.  Jesus said, "When I was young, I played soccer on the weekends from sunrise to sunset."  The only time they stopped playing soccer was on Sunday.  On Sundays they would make time for church, but once church was over they went back to playing soccer.  Until the age of thirteen Jesus' lifestyle consisted of school and soccer; however, this would soon change.
   
    Jesus was only thirteen years old when he entered the work force and had only completed seven years of grade school.  He had to work because his family didn't have money to pay for his books.  He worked at a tire repair shop and was paid aboutr five dollars a week.  Two years later, his family moved to Tijuana and Jesus landed a job with a company that sold new tires.  He still repaired tires of this new company, but he also helped change tires.  Jesus' starting pay at his new job was twelve dollars a week, but he got higher wages as he continued to work at this job for the next three years of his life.  After working for three years at the same job, Jesus got paid $24 a week.  It was a large improvement, but it was still not enough for Jesus and his family.  Jesus knew the only way he could get the things he wished for growing up as a child, was to move to the U.S.
   
    Jesus' company gave him paid vacations, so he planned on a two-week vacation to visit his aunt in Los Angeles.  On his eighteenth birthday, Jesus got a legal passport to cross the border and visited the U.S. with a friend.  During this vacation Jesus made a visit to a friend's house in San Fernando, CA.  During the visit to San Fernando, Jesus saw the most beautiful soccer fields he had ever seen.  He said, "Staying in the U.S. was in the back of his mind the whole trip, but once I had seen the firlds I knew I had to stay."  So in 1965, Jesus decided to stay in the United States of America, illegally.
       
    After two weeks of vacation Jesus called his boss and said, "I found a job here and I won't be coming back to Mexico for a while."  Jesus found a job at the San Fernando Car Wash and was getting paid $1.10 an hour, which was double the amount he was making in Tijuana.  While Jesus was working in the U.S., he would send his mom money for groceries and clothes.  Jesus didn't finish school and wanted his little brother to keep attending, so he sent the family $15 a week.  Jesus still had enough money for food, clothes, and rent.  He even had enough money for a car payment of ten dollars a week.  He got the car for $175 from his boss, on credit, at the car wash.  He said, "it was a 1955 stick-shift Chevy.  Having that car was the biggest achievement of my life at the time."
   
    However, Jesus was staying in the U.S. illegally, so when he settled down he sent his passport home.  He sent his passport to his mom just in case immigration caught him.  He said, "Immigration would come by the car wash once a month, so whenever I saw them I would either run or hide.  This worked for a while, up until August of '65 , when I was caught by the Immigration."
   
    "The Immigration came from behind, so I had no chance to run away," Jesus said.  They asked him for his citizenship or if he was born here, but Jesus did not know very much English and could not answer them.  This experience made him want to learn English as fast as he could.  However, Jesus still had his passport because he sent it to his mom long ago.  He said, "They sent me back home Wednesday, but with my passport I was back Sunday."  When he returned to work, his boss gave him his job back.  Jesus' boss knew he did not have any legal papers, bu the knew that Jesus was a hard worker.  Jesus never missed work, never did drugs, and did whatever was asked of him.  Since his boss knew all these qualities, he let Jesus keep his job.
   
    In September of '65, Jesus attended night school to learn English at San Fernando High School.  He had never taken English classes, but still knew a few words because of his co-workers at the car wash.  He said at that age he did not care what anybody thought about how he talked or dressed. All he wanted to do was learn.  He asked co-workers during work what certain words meant or how to say certain things.
   
    After being in the U.S. for one year, he learned only a few sentences in English but still got a new job.  He worked on making air filters for cars.  He said his salary was about 110 dollars a week for 60 hours of work; even after Uncle Sam took his share of the money, he made an easy $100.  He would send him mom about $30 a week.  At this point of his life, work and school took up most of his time.  Now, the only time he had to play soccer was on the weekends.  In June of  1966, the sameyear, Jesus met my grandmother, Gloria Escudero.  In November of 1966, Jesus and Gloria get married.  Gloria has a chold named Michael from a previous relationship, and Jesus adopted him righ away.  August 2, 1967, Jesus father his only child, my mother, Suzanne Medina.

    In November 1968, tragedy struck Jesus.  His father passed away because he was an alcoholic.  The death hit Jesus pretty hard because he respected his dad no matter what he was.  Jesus said, "He was a good father.  I miss him to this day because I never had a chance to tell him how much I loved him."  Jesus' mother and brother came to live with him after the death.  Jesus said, "I'm glad I had my mother and brother.  Without them I do not know where I would really be."

    After the death of his father, Jesus went from job to job until 1972, where he started woking for an aircraft company called Webber Aircraft-Monogram Systems.  Here he started out making $300 plus benefits.  The benefits Jesus received were the main reason he took the job.  He still works at the same job today, and is paid $600 as the lead -man.

    In 1992, Jesus got a diploma from Mission College for chemical dependency.  Jesus took this subject because at the age of 22, 1968, Jesus started drinking and became an alcoholic.  He attended Mission College and AA because he wanted to  know why his grandfather died at age 33 and his father died at age 44.  He does not want to be an alcoholic.  Jesus is now going to be 57 and is dry.  Jesus quit drinking alcohol in 1986, and is dry to this day, with the help of the AA Program.  During this time he has relapsed once, but he went back to the program.  Also, he has a house, and if anyone in his family needs it, then he or she is welcome to stay.

    After my grandfather told me the story of his life I understood him, and all those soccer games that he coached me in, and all those Gatorades that he bought me.  He gave me what he never had as a kid, and things that he wished he could have had.  My grandfather said, "I coach soccer because I want those kids without fathers to see me as one.  I want those kids to gorget about the problems in their lives by playing soccer."  If my grandfather ever reads this closing statement I want him to know that he did succeed in his coaching.  I am one of those kids who did not have their father around while growing up.  I see my grandfather as a father.  He was always there for me, and for the ten years I played soccer I had nothing to worry about.  So to my grandfather, or Yeye as I like to call him, thank you for all those soccer games, Gatorades, and the love that you gave me.