The Evidence of Her Love

The Evidence of Her Love: A Memoir

Javier Chavez

Print ISBN: 978-1-54392-200-4

eBook ISBN: 978-1-54391-559-4

© 2017. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

Table of Contents

Preface

Introduction

The Uncertain Companionship

Denying and Accepting Responsibilities

God Created Javy

Embarking On a Unique Mission

Lupe Needs a Job

Cerebral Palsy

Bills and More Bills

Embracing Her Burden with Love

Socializing

New Possible Parents?

Diego

Rainy Day

Date Night

Tonia’s Advice

Escaping Death

Fooling Nurses

Diego And Lupe

Javy’s Therapy School

The Cow

Harsh Therapy

Yes/No Questions

The Best Neurologist

Gaining Hope

Javy Learns To Talk

Cerebral Palsy Lost

Screeching Tires

Javy Missing Mom

Piñata Ship

New Family Member

Javy’s Baby Brother

MARCOS

I’m A Real Man!

Trips

Meeting Diego’s Family

Lupe’s Wedding

El Mojado

Missing Diego

Immigration

Travelers

Vending Machines Vs. Slot Machines

New Beginnings

Breaking The Ice

Completely Different Environment

Wheelchairs Save Many Lives

Reunited

Alarm

Diego’s Siblings

Missing Rocky Point

New World

No Brakes

Away From Mommy

Awestruck And Anticipation

Report Card

The First U.S Christmas

Expired

Given A Voice

VALERIA

First Electric Wheelchair

Javy’s New Legs

Standford, CA

Poked And Prodded

Cisco Kid

Other’s Expectations

Begging For A Roof

La Casita

The Best Afternoon

Her Relief

Good Luck

Surgery Preparation

The Surgery

Where’s My Toe?

Three More WEEKS!

Cast Signing

Daycare

Post Surgery Life

Salinas VS Penasco

Dream Come True

The Great Sacrifice

Feeling Excluded

Unpleasant Feeling

The Stepdad

Perhaps

Progressing

Missing Diego

The Apartment

Stairs

Tonia

Back At Home

Missing School

Papa! Papa!

Mixed Feelings

Case Closed

Jealous

Promises

Emergency

A Gloomy Day

Life Continues

Natural

Business Man

Smuggled

Ignorant People

Writing Stories

Charities

Writing Machine

Stumbled

Transportation Issues

Unfair

Painful Confessions

Surviving

Coming And Going

A New Woman

Graduation Day

Christian World

Call The Police!

Lupe’s Poem

Unique Presentation

Sharp Words

Young And Stupid Love

Nana Lupe

Emotional Experiences

Social Security

D. C.

Eye-Opening

Epilogue

Acknowledgements

About the Authors

Preface

by Javier Chavez

I am Javier Chavez. I love my life and everyone in it, especially my mother, Guadalupe Chavez; my sister, Valeria; my two nieces, Christal and Marlene; and my three nephews, Patrick, Marcos, and Ulises.

I give all the glory to my Lord, Jesus Christ for his kindness towards me. Throughout my life, I have been aware of God. I used to believe that I believed in Him. I had never experienced God. I had never read the Bible and had hardly attended church, so I lived by giving pleasures to my flesh. But after my encounter with the Lord, my whole perspective about Christianity changed. Now I am living to please Him.

I have had cerebral palsy since birth. However, just because my soul is trapped in a body that doesn’t cooperate with my brain doesn’t mean that I am miserable. I struggle with many hardships on a daily basis, but the main one is communicating verbally. My cerebral palsy is very severe, and it makes speaking very difficult. My close family and friends understand me easily enough, but when I meet new people, they may not understand my speech or my condition. People sometimes ask my mother how she’s able to comprehend me. She always responds that it takes practice. Even though I have difficulty communicating with them, I still love to meet new people. I don’t mind when they ask me to repeat what I say. I’d rather repeat myself as many times as I need to than get annoyed when people only pretend to know what I am saying. The easiest way for people to understand me is to put syllables together as I pronounce each word. When I am out in public and there is no one who can translate for me, I have a special computer which helps me communicate with others. I ask people to be patient because it takes me several minutes to prepare my answers in my communicator. My computer is a machine, but I am only human.

One of the most embarrassing and frustrating parts of my life has been when I try to talk to girls. The most embarrassing moments have been when I ask them to feed me on our date. I think guys are supposed to feed their date. It is more romantic. I have stopped looking for a wife on my own because I am asking Jesus Christ for my special wife. Everything God gives is good. I want one of God’s daughters as my wife because God’s children fear Him; and if my wife loves my Lord, then she will love me as God’s gift to her.

People may wonder if I question why God hasn’t cured my cerebral palsy. I have questioned it. It is human nature. Yet I can answer my own question with three possible reasons. The first one is that I may lack the faith necessary to obtain my cure. Second, since my Lord knows all of my heart’s desires, maybe he has chosen to fulfill other desires which are stronger than the need for a cure. Lastly, God may need me in this condition for a purpose only he can know. I know my Lord will keep me safe as long as I obey Him through His word.

I have another source of inspiration, as well. My mom would always encourage me with words: Never say, ‘I can’t do it.’ Instead say, ‘I can do anything!’ And never give up. Throughout my life, my mom has encouraged me to succeed. For that reason, I cannot quit.

Thus far in my life, I have accomplished many great things thanks to my mother’s inspiring words, which forever echo in my mind. One of my achievements is that I am able to own my own micro-enterprise called Divine Reflections. I create all-occasion greeting cards. I compose all of the messages with my Lord Jesus Christ’s help, and the staff at an organization called Creative Hands Employment Services has helped me manage my business. Despite my success, I don’t dress myself up in arrogance because God loves humble hearts. I am aware that my Lord has guided me in all of my successes. That is why I give all the glory to my Lord.

With my autobiography, I want to share with the world all of the struggles and joyful moments my family has experienced. I want to share what my life has been like living with cerebral palsy and how my family has been encouraging and loving through my struggles. My mother overcame all the obstacles that could have stopped us from living a better life. Her journey wasn’t easy. There were many bitter moments which could’ve caused her to become a miserable person. But instead, she overcame the hard moments with a triumphant smile.

I dedicate this book to my mother, Guadalupe Chavez.

Introduction

by Keith Kirouac

In my (thus far) short career as an educator, I have encountered many interesting people, each with his or her own set of fascinating stories. Few of those individuals have lived a life anything like that experienced by Javier Chavez.

Javier is an individual who has faced a whole host of challenges and has battled against discrimination on multiple fronts. First, he was born with a disability which limits his power to control his own body, and he grew up with this impairment before the Americans with Disabilities Act existed to protect his rights as a human being. Javy is also an immigrant in a time when immigration is sometimes called criminal. He has experienced verbal and institutional mistreatment for no reason other than his desire to pursue the American Dream. Javier Chavez also believes, with all his heart, in a higher power during an age when religion is often dismissed as mere superstition. No one of these challenges alone makes Javier’s story unique. There are millions of Americans who struggle with each of these situations every day. However, no one else I know—nor anyone I’ve ever read about—has had to face all three of these challenges simultaneously.

Javier has not made great discoveries in science. He has never won a Pulitzer Prize or been named Time’s Man of the Year. He has earned no great achievements in the field of sports nor in that of politics, and, being relegated to his chair and lacking full control of his body, he is a difficult figure to glamorize. However, some people should be celebrated not for what they have accomplished so much as what they have lived through. Javier Chavez is one such man. Javy must also be respected for the courage he demonstrates through his willingness to share his story with others. Very few of us would show the same nerve if we were in his position.

Javier and I were first introduced by a mutual associate. He, I was told, had written a book and was seeking a freelance editor to clean it up for him. At the time, as a full-time grad student, I hesitated to add to my work load; however, as a part-time English tutor, I looked forward to the opportunity to apply my skills in a new way while earning a little bit of extra cash. Textbooks and caffeine can be rather expensive. The job was worth looking into, so I sent an email.

Upon first inspecting The Evidence of Her Love, I immediately recognized Javier’s writing as that of an English language learner. Growing up in Fresno, I sat next to ELLs all through my schooling, and I had tutored many of them over the past several years. Yet I also sensed something else going on, something I could not easily identify.

At the time, I had no idea that Javier had cerebral palsy. If I had known, I’m honestly not sure that I would have agreed to work on the project. After all, what did I know about CP or the people who live with it? Furthermore, how was I, a (mostly) white, lower-middle-class intellectual in the making, supposed to judge the voice of a Mexican-born product of a specialized education system? But most of all, as a die-hard agnostic (a perpetual spiritual swing vote), was I really qualified to put words in the mouth of a devout Christian?

The answers to those questions are still unanswered, but when I asked myself if I wanted to be part of delivering Javy’s story to the world, I found myself answering with a hearty yes.

After several weeks of mutually well-intentioned (and slightly frustrating) negotiations, Javier agreed to enlist me as the narrator of his story. I, in return, agreed to tell his tale without making any claim to it as my own. Make no mistake about it; though I may have crafted many of the particular phrases you read in this book, the thoughts, feelings, and history conveyed originate with Javier and his family. Wherever imagination comes into play, it is strictly out of necessity.

Javy may not have an effective means to tell his tale to a general audience, and my attempt at relaying his experience may not be any more apt, but what you are about to read is the result of our best combined effort: an experiment which is one part autobiography and one part novelization. The text is formed from an amalgam of voices: mine, Javier’s, those of his various family members, and so on. It is not meant to be true fact in every detail. Rather, it is a conglomeration of impressions presented for the readers’ enjoyment and enlightenment.

Without further ado, I now present The Evidence of Her Love, a memoir by Javier Chavez.

PRESCHOOL

Chapter

One

The Uncertain Companionship

All was normal in Puerto Penasco.

Half of Penasco’s men fished for a living. The others worked on construction sites or in the sea shed, where men and even a few women prepared all types of fish for the local market. Most of the females—married women and unmarried young girls—stayed at home, but the men earned good wages during the fishing season, and they saved their money so they could stay home with the womenfolk as they awaited the next spring. Every fall, a new batch of babies was born, and they too would live by this cycle.

The Chavez family of Puerto Penasco (or Rocky Point in English) consisted of Jose, who