Letter 12
Carmen Ortega to Elías Ruiz
29th August 2002 (from Pueblo)
Dearest Elías
I'm really sorry I haven't been replying to your letters, and I'm sorry to hear your interview didn't go well.
Things have been really hard here. After the night I told you about when we were up late partying Ana was late to work at the farm and Esteban fired her. Not even a warning, he just fired her on the spot. It was market day so I wasn't on the farm, otherwise I'd have known to call her when she didn't come in. When I got home that afternoon she was sitting in the living room with her head in her hands. She told me Esteban hadn't even let her explain herself. I think he was looking for any excuse to cut down on staff, because production is so low he doesn't really need as many workers as he has.
I tried to comfort Ana but she started screaming at me saying I was a filthy puta who only had the top job on the farm because I was sleeping with Esteban (which isn't true don't worry). I tried not to rise to it because I knew she was upset but she kept going on about what a waste of money my trip to Cádiz was and how we'd be lucky if we can keep our house for another month.
I left without saying a word and I've been staying with my friend Rosa since. I tried to go back to get my mail but Ana wouldn't let me in. She finally opened the door to me today and I took her to the taberna so we could talk. She apologised, but she doesn't know how we're going to pay our rent next month if she doesn't find any work. I'm going to talk to Esteban again tomorrow and see if he'll consider hiring her again.
So, I hope you can understand why I haven't been writing to you recently. As for my phone number, I think getting letters from you is really sweet, so can we just do this for a while, before I can come back to Cádiz?
Good luck with your own job hunt.
With all my affection,
Carmen.
