Miguel Ángel Salazar González, ‘The Devil’ / Elena Poniatowska

Paula Haro, my daughter, became good friends with The devil, who came to look for her in Chimalistac after cleaning several windshields in Insurgentes and Miguel Ángel de Quevedo. Skinny, bony, smiling, his black hair like a curtain over his eyes, The devil I came to have breakfast, lunch or a snack. He did not refuse the offer of a shower of hot water. After almost 20 minutes underwater, he appeared in the same clothes and his smile was shining.

For a change, I was a questioner and our ritual lasted a few months. My daughter moved to Yucatán, and to my sadness The devil He disappeared, but a few happy days ago he knocked on the door again and we were able to talk:

–My name is Miguel Ángel Salazar González, I am 34 years old. And you, sir, how many?

–Oh, I’m going in at 93.

–So many? If I see her walking!

–Oye, Diablo, Since you were a child, did you start working?

–About seven.

–When you met Paula, what were you selling on the street?

–The same as today, candy, gum, lollipops.

–Did you have your mother and father?

–To my mom.

–How many brothers were there?

–We were eight. My brother Beto disappeared. The others are Fernando, who is the oldest of the men and is a bricklayer; continues Tomás, who sells sweets like me; next is my sister Lourdes, who sells basket tacos on Avenida de la Paz; She only works there, the position is not hers, but she has even gone to sell sweets in San Jerónimo.

–Are you from San Jerónimo?

-No. Our home was the park that is in front of the French Alliance, San Luis Potosí.

–Do they sleep there?

–Yes, in French.

–Who made you sell?

–My sister Ángeles, the oldest.

–Did he ask you to help?

–No, to me it sounded more like exploitation back then, because he took my money. My sister Ángeles has already passed away; She kept the money, she spent it on her things, she gave it to her husband.

–What time did Ángeles get married?

–She got married when she was 12 or 13. When I was seven, eight years old, my mother died in Miguel Ángel de Quevedo, exactly where the winery is, she was run over by a bus that runs through Taxqueña, the ones on Route 1.

–Did you see it?

–No, we were in a place that we had just rented; through Zapotitlán, through Tláhuac, in the Mar colony.

–Did you never see your dad?

–Yes I saw it, but not as a child, but when I was older.

–Did it help you?

-Well no. He wanted to hug me, he wanted to tell me: my childbut then I was already a person, not an adult, but already older, I no longer needed it.

–What is your real name?

–Miguel Ángel Salazar González.

–Why do they tell you The devil?

–Because I was always very tremendous as a kid.

–It’s not true, you were good, here you came to the house and you were good, you ate well, you laughed well, you talked well.

–Oh, yes, but here! By not having my mother and living on the streets, I picked up the habit of chemo with the same kids on the street.

-What is chemo?

–The yellow, the resistol.

–Have you never taken it off?

–Yes, because I had three overdoses. A guy from there where I lived took me in his car, he was about 25 or 26 years old, he took me to the hospital because I no longer had much of a pulse; If I hadn’t arrived in 10 or 15 minutes, I wouldn’t be here right now. They took me to the emergency room, they gave me IVs. I was there for like three days. Then a social worker came in and told me that I didn’t value my life, that I didn’t love myself, that who my parents were; I told him that I no longer had a mother, much less a father, just my brothers.

–Have you never wanted to approach any government institution?

–No.

–But do you know how to read?

–Neither, and I would like to learn.

–Why didn’t you tell Paula?

–Because time changed, everything changed.

–But you came here laughing and laughing.

–But Paula got married and I stopped coming for a long time, because I was involved in drugs, I stayed on the street all the time, day, night, afternoon, there it was dawn.

–How did you get off drugs?

–Asking a lot from God.

–Oh, if you, Diablo! What was a day in your life like?

-Difficult. Without drugs it was difficult.

–Did you feel happy with drugs?

–Yes, because I forgot my pain.

–What pain did you have?

–Well, having lost my mother at such a young age. As an eight-year-old child, I was left without a mother, I suffered beatings and abuse.

–Who hit you?

-Ángeles, I was getting to work. Being high was my way of forgetting what I felt inside.

–And now, what do you do?

–Now I thank God because I asked him to help me, to take me by the hand, and today I bring a motorcycle taxi that people get on, but I can’t go to Chimalistac because of the stones and the very rejecting people.

–What area is good for your motorcycle taxi?

–Tláhuac. Do you know the pantheon of San Lorenzo? All that, from there to there, towards Zapotitlán, La Concha, towards Chalco. Do you know the Nopalera station? (His white-keyed smile covers his entire face.)

-No. Hey, Diablo, you have really good teeth!

–Not so much.

–And you have a nice smile. Have you never wanted to approach the DIF?

–We stay better here in Viveros. We were eight children: Fernando, Tomás, me, Miguel Ángel, Teresa, Beto and two others…

–Do you have children?

-Yeah.

–How many do you have?

–Three: two men and a woman.

–How do you take care of them?

–Well, sometimes it gets complicated because I pay rent for the motorcycle taxi, it’s not mine, I just work for it… There are times when I earn 500, 600, but I have to take away the money from the gas and my account. A man who has several rents the motorcycle taxi to me at 34 years old!

Not even by mistake The devil He’s that old! Skinny, bony, his white-toothed smile is beautiful, his eyes shine, even though he claims in a hoarse voice that he doesn’t have it easy.

–What did you put in the mona?

–You go to the tlapalería and you just say that they give you a can of active.

–Didn’t the shop assistants tell you that you were very young?

–No, that doesn’t matter, and if it does, you ask other older people as a favor to go and buy.

–Why did you decide not to?

–Because I wanted to make a change in my life.

–But at night, where did you sleep?

–The police do not pass in La Bombilla, but also in the Taxqueña terminal; They don’t run you. Also to Father Chinchachoma, I don’t know if you remember now that you are old…

–Yes, I do remember, he invited everyone to have breakfast at Vips. He would sit in one stable to talk to me and five or six would have breakfast in another. Between laughs and some kicks under the table, he paid for breakfast.