Spanish speaking peoples in Utah, oral histories: book 3, numbers 22 through 30

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INTERVIEW: Helendez Page 18 NM: Juni r high was kind a different experience because I was very small still. Physically small. Everybody was still growing, were starting to grow and some people were continuing to grow and now was I not only the blackest, but the smallest. The girls were about a foot taller than I was at that time. I could tell that there were changes. Girls were putting on bras and all kinds of things like that and guys were growing hair all over their body and I about the ninty, ninty, probably abo.ut the seventy-five pound weakling that was still in class. I looked like a rail. In fact, I guess if I stood side ways and stuck out my tongue I would look like a zipper, or something. JG: A black on, huh? MM: Yeah, a black one at that. But my mother tried very, very hard I remember trying very, very to try and make me comfortable. She would say things are going to change and you are a very nice looking boy, and all these things. But it didn't really make any difference, because she is the only one that thought that, you know. Junior high, I guess, is the most traumatic time for most kids. It was for me because people are changing. People are starting to date. People are starting, instead of being children they are starting to become adults. They are going through puberty, you know maturation, the whole thing. I just was not participating in that because I wasn't growing. I sounds funny, but it was very traumatic for me. I was really worried,