The story of my unfortunate life: a 1573 child
Being Martín Santos, born in Alcalá de Henares in 1573, a 13 -year -old boy who enjoyed a plate of food per day that my parents served me, I am now on the street, orphaned, with my great friend Alfonso Pérez committing what whatthat the lords call "theft" to satisfy my appetite. Lately we have improved a lot, we already know where the Dukes the maravedís keep while buying the sausage sweets in the market. People treat us with contempt and only with great luck we get some alms. In an attempt to get some apples for Alfonso and for me, the Lord arrived and unfortunately, grabbed me of my throat angry and shaking, shouted and cursed me at the same time. To the present, I thought I had to improve my cunning or if not, I could not survive for myself.
Fortunately, a man took me from the ground and offered me his home to sleep and eat in exchange for helping him in his work. This was my first master, the potter, with him I recovered little by little, although my hands suffered every day the twenty -three jugs he made daily. Alfonso also found a master, I think farmer, and since then I didn’t know anything about him. My daily routine consisted of: waking up at seven and having a glass of fresh water with some other sliced bread, putting other clothes to work, although I only had three shirts, two pants and a couple of shoes, and start making jugsUntil one, when we stopped for lunch, normally my master made a barter with a farmer to get some food, but on Sundays, if there had been luck during the week, I prepared a delicious vegetable stew. At 4 I returned to work, and when my master left home, I took the opportunity to take some fruit. Months passed and although it was better than in the street, my hands needed to recover from all the straws and swells that surrounded them, in addition, my master realized that fruit and bread were missing when he came home, so the damn threw me out ofhis house. Again on the street but this time without company, lacerated from me! What will I do now!
I found a roofed place where I spent the following nights, until a neighbor complained and had to go. I fed on the basis of bread buns and the occasional ruinous fruit, until I decided to go looking for another master, although my hands had not fully recovered. It took two days to find the one who would become my new owner, and the shortest of all, we slept together in a small room that was his workshop, and with him it was how I learned to remove valuable pieces of luxurious gadgets that would serve meTo buy food for the whole week. But as soon as I tried with a collar from a duchess, the master kicked me and left me on the street lying in the middle of the day, and as I named before in a week I was without a roof where to sleep.
This was the toughest stage of my life, my skills stealing had improved but they had taken away my shoes and my other belongings during a May night and only I and my cunning left to survive the misery and famine that ran for those times at that time. In addition, as I had so much free time, I only dedicated myself to thinking about my parents, in Alfonso, in my first master and his stews on Sundays … During this time I worked for different masters, both with short -term potters, as well as a street vendorof vegetables, beads left by hand, taking care of adults and children … but none of this gave me to live more than two weeks.
6 months passed until finally, an old and unfriendly man at first glance, offered me hospitality in exchange for working for him in his garden and flock, since it cost him a lot of work to bend down and not feel any pain, and as expected I acceptedProud and promising me to behave so as not to end up on the street again. His name was Hector, and without a doubt, he was the person who taught me the most, not how to steal, but to learn to live happily with how little he had. That I can say about him, he gave me a bed, a table to eat, new shoes for my first birthday since I was an orphan, in conclusion, treated me as if it were his son, and our relationship was so good, that I passed with himThe time it took to die, five wonderful years. I consider myself a hard boy, but I could not endure the crying and the penalty that the body ran through its funeral. I decided to speak in front of his neighbors and close friends, I told them how he treated me, the manual jobs he taught me to do, his experiences and crush that he had had throughout his life, and especially as he taught me to be the man whoI am today thanks to him. A week later, they told me that Hector had left the house for me, so I worked hard to get ahead and honor him in his memory.
A summer morning I went out to buy bread and vegetables to make a stew and invite the neighbors, when something extraordinary happened. While paying I met Alfonso, I couldn’t believe it, he didn’t recognize me because my appearance had improved but his not so much, so I invited him to lunch. He told me that after his first master, he had had some more, but that he had been in the street for two and a half years and nobody wantednineteen years, and therefore had long hair, beard, was in the bones, and smelled bad. I offered my house to stay and although we hadn’t seen each other for a long time, my best and only friend was still.
Lunch was like silk, we all enjoy and remember some moments that we live with Hector so that Alfonso knew his story. A month later one of the neighbors fell ill and Alfonso offered to help him and although at first they despised him, then they left him alone watching the good boy he was. So to speak, it was another of his masters, since before all the help that the neighbor received both with the cattle and with the Lord himself, he began to pay him to take care of his farm while he was not. I was very proud of him, we had both managedMore damage to society. We tried to protest but it was useless, so we continue with our life, each one with theirs.
I met a girl, Catalina, the daughter of a peasant who lived near me, and after several years of boyfriends, we got married and made a banquet with the closest friends. We lived together and we were going to have a son, I never thought that I would wait for a future, simple but beautiful, living from a farm and a garden that my last master left me, and for the first time since I was a child, I was happy. Alfonso was waiting for a similar life, but in the town next door, where he moved with his wife and two girls, but before we both jur we would do our best so that none of our children suffered what we had togo for so long.
Life spent and my romance with Catalina was breaking to the point where I discovered that I had been unfaithful with a friend of his friend;But since we both carried the Farm accounts, I let it pass. But against more I left it, but it was unfaithful, people spoke a lot, our child was growing and I didn’t want me to suffer, so after talking we decided to go each on our way, it was very difficult for me, I was pieces, butIt was the best way to move forward. However, Catalina left with her lover to live, and I fell into depression, I was sick and I couldn’t take care of our son, so I decided to hire a boy to take care of us, as I did when I was young.
As soon when I wanted to realize I was already making me older, my son was left with his friends and his girlfriend, Catalina no longer lived with us, I hadn’t seen Alfonso and his family for a long time and I was becoming a depressed man, tiredof society and its classification according to your economic and social level, to see people dying through the streets and counts walking flood next to them as nothing.
Seeing my son growing is the only thing that motivates me every day, but still in a world like this I don’t think he is able to be happy ever. Life is unfair and people very ignorant, but I have been able to overcome obstacles and change, so I will continue trying to have a fair life.
Leave feedback