Juan Molonko
Juan Molonko (center) sitting against a wooden wall, smoking a cigarette, perhaps taking a break during a ceremony. The woman (right) is wearing a traditional hiniam (shawl).
Irrigation canal that ran through Old Pascua
Elders recall the sekia, or irrigation canal running through Pascua during their youth in the 1930s until the early 1940s. Many remember crossing the plank-board bridge (shown) on their way to the original Richey Elementary School.
The sekia was part of the Flowing Wells Irrigation Canal that ran from 'A' Mountain to Wetmore. Water from the sekia was used for washing laundry, making adobe for house construction and for irrigating gardens but never for drinking. The water was carried from the canal in buckets (as shown), in carts (like the kareeta shown in the image of the children) or with a plankan (a transport system consisting of two buckets suspended from a pole and carried over the shoulders).
The community also used the sekai for swimming and for blessing themselves on San Jan Taewai, (the feast of St. John the Baptist, or Día de San Juan as it is known in the Mexican community). Yoeme men cleaned and maintained the sekia by clearing weeds, moss, and algae. Elders believe the canal "just stopped running" in the late 1940s. It ran roughly along what is now Fairview Avenue and was eventually paved over.
Two boys playing with a homemade kareeta (cart). Presiliano, the older boy, is pushing the cart. The elders commented on the large size of the mesquite tree as compared with the relatively small size and number of trees at Pascua today.
The kareeta is made from a wooden box with metal disk wheels and rope for steering. It is decorated with a diamond pattern on the axle, and a cross on the front of the body. These designs would have been drawn with caliche (clay).
The kareetas were made from a variety of scrap materials available including wooden milk crates, and wheels from old baby carriages. Steering was controlled with rope reigns attached to the front wheels. Carts were put to many uses including the hauling of water from the community water pump located at the entrance of Pascua to individual homes. Individual homes in Pascua did not have running water or electricity until the Model Cities Program financed such improvements in the 1960s.
"Teodoro"
"Teodoro" or "Tiororo" (Theodore in English) was a matachini laveleo, or matachini violinist. He is pictured playing his laventa wiise (violin). Teodoro once lived in the old adobe hospital after it was closed in the early 1930s and divided into multi-family living quarters.