—The state don’t help no one, unless you’re slitting your wrist. I make no money. I still work forty hours a week, paying my taxes, and when my husband fell in bed, ’cause his liver was out, then his heart slowed down, then he couldn’t breathe right, little by little no le queda nada a ese hombre, I couldn’t stay home; insurance pays for his doctors, but not his medicine. So who gonna pay for his medicine?

—Don’t you have any kids? Esperanza asked.

—Got one son who moved to Russia and another son died in the army. They said it was an accident. Maldito Army ese.

—No me digas. I’m so sorry.

—It was a long time ago. He died during practice. My son was never too smart. That’s why he went to the army. Didn’t do well in school. Didn’t like working too hard, and then I have my other son, who was the opposite. He was too smart for his own good. Wanted too much and he married una gringa who can’t sit down long enough to warm her seat. But at least she speaks Spanish. Better a gringa who speak Spanish than a gringa who don’t…Tienes hijos?

—Two.

—Still children?

—I have Bobby, who’s practically a man, and Dallas, my only girl.

—Watch them, mija. The streets are a magnet for trouble.

—Yeah, but my kids don’t get into trouble. They good all around.

—You say that now, but the next thing you know, you have a kid in prison and the other knocked up. It happens every day.

—But not my children. If you met them, you’d know. They know better than to get into trouble like that.

—You’ve been here long? Mrs. Hernández asked.

—Awhile now.

—You wanna go back like everybody else?

—To Dominican Republic? Oh no. I was thinking Dallas, Texas, would be a nice place to retire.

—Dallas. Why? It gets to be a hundred and ten over there in the summer.

—Oh, I like the idea of a ranch. You know, I always had an affinity for horses. Back in Los Llanos we had a horse. He was the boniest thing you’d ever seen, but give him a good kick and he’d give you a ride to remember.

—Is that right? But Dallas is a long ways from here.

—So was Nueva York and look at me now. Jock Ewing said that any man can win when things go his way, it’s the man who overcomes adversity who is the true champion.

—I don’t know Jock, but no truer words have been said, Mrs. Hernández said, nodding in agreement.

—And Jock’s son Bobby, if you see this man, painted to perfection, I tell you. He said that nobody has it all, you just have to play the hand you’ve been dealt. And my husband and I were dealt a bad hand. We were born in the wrong place, planted in the wrong lot. We were born to be roses or gladiolus, but we were planted among a whole bunch of weeds in D.R. There really is nothing in D.R. for me. God got confused when he planted our seed.