Point Reyes Light - August 14, 2003
Injured Bolinas man becomes more mobile
By Victoria Schlesinger & Ana Carolina Monterroso
This week the Bolinas man found near death close to the town tennis courts July 5 was recovering physically, but his mind remained unfocused.
Cándido García on Tuesday received an album of large, color photographs of his family taken by The Light last week at his family’s home in rural Guatemala.
In a small room of Walnut Creek’s John Muir Hospital, his siblings turned pages of the album for him and pointed to his wife and children as the patient smiled faintly. When asked to name family members in each photo, García, who was barely audible, consistently recognized his wife Irma, but confused his children with other family members not in the photos.
García’s wife and nine children live in Aldea Nueva Chuatuj on the outskirts of the city of Coatepeque near the Mexican border. His wife, Irma Amanda García Orozco, 42, suffers from a heart condition that would require an $8,000 operation to correct, money the family doesn’t have.
Cándido’s uncertain future is exacerbating his wife’s health problems, other family members in West Marin said. "She is scared every time the phone rings that it is bad news about Cándido."
But Irma had reason to breathe easier last week when she and her husband spoke on the phone for the first time. Cándido’s first two questions were "What time is it?" and "How are the children?" the family members reported.
García "looks much better" than during any previous visit, family members noted Tuesday. García was able to sit up and move around his bed, recognize some of his siblings, and mumble convoluted responses to questions. Unlike during previous family visits, he remained awake for a full hour but also appeared to fade in and out of alertness.
At times García became fixated on certain activities, such as playing with the TV remote control or plucking imaginary hairs from the back of a sibling’s hand and placing them in a pile.
"I think physically he’s improving, but mentally he’s confused," one of his relatives said. "I am very scared to see Cándido like this."
Father’s similar injury
García’s father suffered brain damage during an auto accident four years ago. "Physically my father can walk around, but he can’t walk alone because he’ll get lost," the relative said. "Cándido reminds me of this."
Neither García’s siblings nor sheriff’s deputies know if his injuries resulted from a beating, a bad fall, or something else. Sheriff’s investigator Brian Fay, who visited García Tuesday, told The Light that officers still have been unable to have "any meaningful communication" with García. Fay will try again next week.
García was unrecognizable when he was found July 5, suffering from broken bones around the eyes and extreme swelling of the face and brain. Doctors expected García, who was in a coma for three weeks, to die from the injuries, but instead he regained consciousness six days after being removed from a life-support system.
García had been unable to move the right side of his body or face since sustaining his injuries. But as the family visit came to a close Tuesday, García unexpectedly began moving his right leg of his own accord. Doctors still do not know the extent of Garcia’s brain injuries and may not for many months to come.
Better physically; not mentally
"He looks a 1,000 times better," said Mary Bromwell of Bolinas, a friend of the family who had not seen García for a week. "But I’m concerned that he seemed confused."
Bromwell is spearheading an effort to raise $30,000 to purchase an annuity that would send García’s impoverished family $200 each month for 15 years. To date the effort has raised nearly $9,000.
A fundraising account under the name "Fund for Cándido García’s Family" has been set up at the Bank of Petaluma in Point Reyes Station, and gifts of $50 to $1,000 will be matched by an anonymous donor.
García came to Bolinas about two years ago, and his nine-year-old son Martín still remembers his father telling him and the rest of the family: "I will jalar para allá [hitch a ride] to the United States because there is nothing here. I will leave, and you stay here. I cannot make enough money here, not even for food."
Misses father’s guidance
Before García left home, Martin said, his father disciplined and guided his children, assigning chores every day. Martin remembers his father would send them to clear their little plot of land of weeds or to chop wood for the stove in nearby rubber or coffee plantations.
The father urged them not to stop on the way in order to avoid gang members who had bad habits or who might hit them. García had owned a cart and worked moving loads in the Coatepeque bus terminal and the market. Helping were his older sons, José, now 22, and Pedro, now 17. The sons are carrying on the business although Martin, now seven, no longer accompanies them.
Martin also remembers García’s customary admonition to his children attending school: "You are the one who is going to benefit from it." However, García’s older sons, José and Pedro, were able to attend only first grade. Martín and Cándido Junior, 12, are in third grade. Daughter Teresa, 7, and grand daughter Rosa, 7, are not attending school.
Emigration archetype
Cándido’s older children, in fact, epitomize the way older sons and daughters step in to help their mothers and siblings when their father is gone to work in "the States," either by helping with chores or by providing money from jobs outside the home.
For the large García family with two stricken parents, this money is not enough. "We could not live without the money my father sends us," said José.
Santa, at 22 the oldest child, lives in her own house but helps out by washing clothes for the family in the nearby creek. José’s wife, Blanca, 18, cooks, using a corn mill to prepare dough for tortillas.
Irma García now knows about her husband’s miraculous recovery to date. She misses him, saying that when Cándido was at home, she and the family felt better because "he knew what to do."
She smiles and laughs when the children joke around but at other times cannot help but cry silently, not knowing much about the location her husband’s in or whether his recovery will continue. Irma García’s children respect her but are used to seeing her cry and take it as natural when she does.
Sick wife fears having to head family
Notwithstanding a heart condition that has left her often too weak to walk more than a few steps, Irma could be left alone to head the family, she worries.
Holding the youngest child, Julio César, is one of the few tasks she can do despite her inflamed heart. Occasionally, she is able to cook a little or wash dishes, and sometimes even wash clothes in the nearby creek. She cannot, however, bring the pail full of clothes to the house to dry.
Her steps are slow, and when she is particularly fatigued, the children help her walk. "I feel embarrassed not being able to help much," she told The Light.
As for nine-year-old Martín, he acknowledged being frightened when his father departed, saying he felt "left all alone." Now, Martín said, he is more used to it. He loves attending a one-room public school and enjoys reading most of all.
But he also has to help at home and worries there won't be money to continue attending classes and buying school supplies.
"Maybe I will have to work with my brothers moving loads in the cart, too, and quit school," he said resignedly.
His sister Teresa and niece Rosa are supposed to start school next year, but Martín is not sure what the future holds for them.
– Light reporter Ian Fein contributed to this article