Native Son and Poet returns to Livingston
Monolin Moreno talks about growing up in the city in a different time . . .
Interview with ‘Manny’ Moreno by Kathy Hibma,
Livingston Chronicle correspondent, Livingston, California; October 15, 2008
“Manny
Moreno returns to Livingston as a published author, a dream realized
through the effort of area educators, his sobriety and his commitment to
walking in the ways of his Native American roots.”
Sobriety and Native American roots have given Monolin “Manny” Moreno the opportunity to realize his dream.
Moreno recalls announcing his dream numerous times to those
who would listen, those who would not and those who were too drunk to
hear. Being true to his word, he did write a book and is now working on a
second. His first being poetry and his second, now in process, a
compilation of short stories.
The journey has been a long one for Moreno, his body and soul
marked with scars and images of the twists and turns that 53 years have
brought him. Livingston has changed a lot too, according to Moreno, not
just in commercial and residential areas, but the people as well.
Moreno’s ethnicity and racial imbalance played a huge role in
his tumultuous teen years and early twenties, along with the fact that
his parents, Manuel Bustillos Moreno and Connie Saavedra Moreno died
young. Moreno was only ten when his father died.
The 1973 Livingston High School alumnus recalls almost
suffering a similar fate, crashing his car on the canal bank only a few
feet from where his father died. His grandfather also died on the banks
of one of the area canals. Moreno points to the irony of the life-blood
that the canals have brought to the Valley and the lives lost to his
family along their banks.
With a bar on almost every corner, alcohol became an easy out
for Moreno. In and out of trouble with authorities--some warranted, some
not--Moreno began to sink into a destructive lifestyle that had him
waking up behind bars more than once.
“Not in the drunk tank, again . . . . ” The realization of a wasted life began to gnaw at Moreno.
He shared what led him to sobriety, just completing eleven years.
“I was sick and tired of being sick and tired,” he said.
“Through the ‘fireplaces’ as we say in the Indian world, I began to see
myself in a different light, I continued walking on the Good Red Road,
and through the Native American Church, the sweatlodge, and through the
Sundance Ceremony in South Dakota, I found strength to live a sober
life.”
“I returned to these ways I had learned about 30 plus years
ago, and with the help of some elders I learned to live life in a more
balanced way.” Moreno is part of the Yaqui/Tarascan tribe of American
Indians.
As a third generation immigrant of Livingston, Manny remembers
his early years in the town with fondness, sharing where landmarks,
family and friends, most now gone, influenced his life. The most notable
landmark, the Cressey Bridge, gives the title to his first published
book of poetry.
According to Moreno, in the 1900s, attempted genocide of
Yaquis in Sonora, Mexico, led a scout team to scope out California’s
Central Valley. His grandparents came to Livingston in 1917 via a
caravan through Texas and Arizona, fleeing both the wrath of Pancho
Villa (who reportedly stole Mexican children to take care of his
horses), and the Mexican Government.
Moreno’s memories of stealing ice cream bars from Carlos
Market with a cousin caused a flood of other memories to flow, such as
the rope swing over the Merced River at the Cressey Bridge, the
deafening sound of motorists crossing the bridge while he and his
friends played underneath, and putting sweet potato boxes together for
25 cents a day. He also recalled spending his weekly paycheck on penny
candy, and the Court Theater, “Where you could watch two movies and a
cartoon for 25 cents.”
“One day, Mr. Carlos caught us with ice cream tucked
underneath our belts,” Moreno recounted. “He took us aside and talked to
us as the ice cream began to melt . . . he was a great man. Rather than
turning us in for stealing, he told us to just ask for the ice cream.
We never stole from him again.”
A friend and Livingston resident Ernie Carrera, corroborated
Moreno’s stories, saying Livingston held different experiences and
privileges, depending on the color of a man’s skin.
Now in his early 50s, Moreno has come to realize that skin
color is not a true sign of character. “I now realize that it doesn’t
matter if a person is purple or green, there are persons of true
character in every race; those are the ones I call friends,” he said.
Carrera agreed.
Moreno credits several teachers with nourishing his desire to write: Mrs. Craft, Mrs. Ritchie and Rosemary Eismann.
Moreno credits Eismann with fostering his writing talents,
“She set me straight, encouraging my creative writing. I remember saying
to her, ‘You mean I can write anything I want without getting in trouble?’ There was so much freedom in that. I began to write everything.”
Of her former student Moreno, Eismann wrote, “Manuel Moreno
was a member of the Upward Bound program sponsored at the time by
Stanislaus State. He was recommended by Livingston High School principal
John Lenker and counselor Vince Yaeger. He always was a poet, even as a
young man. I know his teachers are very proud of his accomplishments
and applaud the release of his book of poetry celebrating his life as
well as the community of Livingston.”
At the conclusion of our interview, a red tail hawk began
flying above the treetops. “That’s a good sign,” proclaimed Moreno. “The
hawk is good medicine.”
The hawk may also symbolize the full circle Manny’s life has made, the peace that he has found back where he began.
Copies of Moreno’s collection of poetry, The Bridge is Gone, can be purchased online from back40publishing.com. Manny can be reached by e-mail at monolinpcmkr1@aol.com.
Moreno has also been published in Song of the San Joaquin [a quarterly regional poetry journal] and has been featured on Native American Radio KKUP: Indian Time, and on Native Voice TV. He was a featured speaker at Modesto Junior College on October 27th as part of a feature on Native American Literature.
Reporter Kathy Hibma can be reached at kathy@hibmaphoto.com.
