Dec. 12, 1916
Dear Mom,

I'm in Beauvoir, France now working in the hospital sometimes assisting the doctors in surgery. It can be very frustrating, we don't always have enough ether or pain medication for the patients. In my dreams I can still hear the soldiers screaming with pain.

In the operating room I have to empty the pot where the blood drains into and it smells so bad I want to vomit but the stench of the operating room itself is unbelievable. There isn't much the doctor can do for the frostbite when it's to the ultimate extreme except to amputate. It's strange that the soldier will still complain of pain in his toes when they're no longer there (called phantom pain) so all we can do is give him pain medication if we have some,

The other day our soldiers caught a German soldier and they needed someone who spoke German so I translated. He was just a private who wanted out of the war and wanted to go home.

Take care and be careful.

Love, Martha


Feb. 24, 1917
Dear Mom,

Thank you for your letter. It's so sad to hear so many young women in widow's weeds, I'm so glad I'm not married and have to suffer like that and the government's little compensation for their dead husband won't pay the rent. I feel so sorry for them.

I read in the newspaper from the States , which is usually quite late but any news is precious to us, that Pres, Woodrow Wilson still wanted to stay neutral even though the German submarine sunk the British cruise liner Lusitania May 1915 off the Ireland coast killing 1,198 people of which 124 were Americans. You'd think he'd want to retaliate for the deaths of the Americans and now with the Jan. 1917 sinking of the American ships by Germany's submarines, he should do something now because Germany had said May 1916 I remember that they would suspend submarine war on those not in the war. I guess the Kaiser lied.

Oh, I also heard after the Lusitania thing 5 Irishmen were shot as spies, they were probably supplying the German subs.

Write soon and God bless you.

Love Martha.


April 20, 1917
Dear Mom,

We just got some poor soldier in the hospital who has influenza. The doctor doesn't think he's going to make it, already influenza has killed over a million people worldwide.

This soldier is so grateful to be in the hospital, even though he's so sick, just to be out of those trenches he's happy. He told me trenches are 6-8 feet deep and only wide enough for 2 men and this is where they live. Can you imagine? I can't, it must be horrible. He said trenches stretch across Europe 450 miles and the area inbetween trenches is called "No Man's Land". He described miserable weather of freezing and snow, standing water, frogs. And the rats are eating your buddy that's been killed laying just a few yards away from you and you're hoping you don't fall asleep while the rats are still there, I don't think I need to explain the reason why. Just Horrible! But then you don't really get much sleep beause your brain is always on half sleep alert listening for snipers sneaking into trenches at night.

Sometimes I have trouble sleeping,too.

Love Martha.


May 26, 1917
Dear Mom,

Sometimes we can hear the German Huns' bombs so close to us but the tell us we're in no danger and at night we see flickering flashes of white fire in the distance. I pray please war be far away.

I got a letter from our cousin Britney in London the other day. She said people are so thankful and grateful when one man volunteers cause he's worth two conscriptionists, isn't that heartwarming. He's obviously thinking of the freedom of his country and giving his life for that freedom.

Britney is disturbed by the rationing she has to endure, and people storing food away when others could be buying it, grocery stores don't even put prices on their food, they know you have to buy it even if they ask a ridiculous price for it, some people are breaking into stores and stealing and there's no petro for cars so she walks a lot, electricity goes off every once in awhile, and there are always search lights at night, Otherwise she's fine.

Finally Pres. Wilson has declared war on the Kaiser and the Central Powers and gave his 14 Points of War aims April 1917. Because of the Zimmerman Telegram intercepted by British spies March 1917 America will be fighting along side the Allies Britain, France, Japan and Russia. I read that the telegram written by German Foreign Secretary Arthur Zimmerman asked Mexico to join Germany's side and fight and then Germany would give them all the land back they lost to the United States in the U.S. and Mexican War 1846. The German Kaiser already has the Central Powers of Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire fighting with him, doesn't he have enough. I guess not.

With best wishes for your good health and safety.

Love Martha.


Dec. 21, 1917
Dear Mom,

We heard Vladimir Lenin overthrew the Russian government Nov. 1917 and published the secret treaties of the Allies (Triple Entente) dividing up all the conquered lands. Boy, that was shocking!

We also heard Ireland didn't receive the American soldiers (doughboys) very well. I guess they don' want to be involved in the war in any way especially with England.

Because of so many wounded coming in we don't have enough room so some of the families with large houses have kindly offered their homes for substitute hospitals. We are so thankful to them, it means a lot. And some of the schools are being used as barracks, they're a little more comfortable than those trenches the soldiers have to live in.

We now have 64 nurses to 2,000 beds, I wish we had more nurses, 64 just isn't enough. Order is awful with this workload, one doctor tells you to bandage a patient and 2 seconds later another doctor wants you in the operating room now. Who do you go to first?

We have 2 blessings coming to us, the Red Cross and the YMCA, who bring us much needed supplies that only a woman can appreciate like makeup and hair pins and also necesseties. Please keep donating whatever you can, we really appreciate it.

Love Martha.


Nov. 12, 1918
Dear Mom,

I just read in an American newspaper where this poor soul Eugene Debs was arrested under the Espionage Act 1917 for his anti-war speech of change but change peacefully. It' sad when you can't say what's on your mind.

At his trial he mentioned others who changed history like George Washington, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Even Daniel Webster and Abraham Lincoln opposed the Mexican War but was not arrested and he just wants the same right of free speech guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.

Now Pres. Wilson could have commuted Debs' sentence of 10 years in prison but he didn't. But remember in Detroit 1916 Pres, Wilson gave a speech about "you can't serve others if you don't understand them and feel humanity for them which binds us together." Well he had no humanity for Debs.

I'm so tired of this Great War business and all because Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to Austrio-Hungarian empire, was assassinated by the Black Hand Gavrilo Princip while visiting Sarajevo, Serbia June 28, 1914.

I'll be glad when it's all over and we can go back to normal.

Love Martha.

I read President Obama is going to have a new health plan, but that it might cost a little now but in the long run it would be money saving. If it helps our nation I'm all for it. And he's going to pull out some of our troops out of Iraq eventually, this is great news.

Remember in our book John Muir organized the Sierra Club in 1890. One of my magazines had a small notice about it. It read, Preserve Wildlife Habitats in Florida. Armchair environmentalists might consider signing up for one of the Sierra Club's 80-plus volunteer vacations. The week-long trip to Ocala National Forest is especially interesting. You'll replant native trees, restore trails and build barricades to protect endangered plant species. You can unwind from all of your hard work on the day off that's built into the schedule. Visit outings.sierraclub.org or call 415-977-5522. If you're interested in conservation here's a great oportunity.

Hi, I,m Alonzo and I just moved here from Zamora, Mexico. It's exciting to be in a new country, Los Angeles is so beautiful, the weather here reminds me of home and I was able to get a job right away in the orange orchard, which is good cause I did similar work back home in Mexico. I'm concerned about my children forgetting the old ways though, they don't listen to me anymore like when I say we need to go to church on Sunday, they're already gone with their friends. I'm thankful that we found a small apartment where there are other Mexicans living but already my children are forgetting their native language and they're speaking English but I as yet have not learned it so I have no idea what they are saying. I ask them to repeat what they say in Spanish and they give me a look of disgust which shows me such disrespect and I am the head of this household, they need to show me more respect and obey me. If they can't respect me and our traditions and our culture then how can they remember who they are,where they came from. But they say Dad you're so old fashion, this is 1920 and we're in America now. My oldest son is dating a white girl from the other side of town, her father owns some kind of business and has money, I'm not happy with this. She knows nothing of our ways and when I asked her to celebrate The Day of the Dead with us I thought she was going to faint, then my son chastised me for even bringing up our sacred day, he said he wouldn't be there either. What has happened to my children? My daughter has a job working for a doctor as a secretary, I had forbid her to work, women in our family don't work outside the home unless they are accompanied by other members of the family. My son and daughter go out to the theatre and the nickelodeum with there friends white and Mexican, but I don't know these friends and I say but this is family time you need to spend time with your mother and me.They say we have jobs and we help pay the rent so we should be able to go where we want and where. But what about my daughter, her chastity needs to stay in tact if she is to marry, I won't be able to find her a good husband if she running around like some kind of tramp. She says she'll find her own husband and she'll be in love when she marries not an arranged marriage like her Mom and Dad's. I have no control over my children. I'm planning on going back to Mexico where I know what the rules are and what's expected of me but my wife won't leave, she wants to stay near the children and she likes it here cause there's more opportunities here like work in Imperial Valley, California and she doesn't have to worry about the revolution in Mexico. I may come back, others do and then go back to Mexico, back and forth.

If you want to see a good movie about football and discrimination in the 60's watch The Express, The Ernie Davis Story. He's the first black man to win The Heisman Trophy in 1961. He thought his coach was just about football but then his coach told him in a subtle way not to date white girls cause Ernie should know his place and he's probably got a girl back home and to remember her.When they were playin a game in the South Ernie's coach wouldn't let him score a touchdown cause he was worried they wouldn't make it back to the bus. There was a news clip of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.giving a speech.1960 in Dallas they played in the Cotton Bowl against Texas Longhorns and won. They wre registered at the Aristocrat Hotel in Dallas but the 3 black players weren't allowed in the hotel even though they just won the Cotton Bowl. It showed him being congratulated by Pres. Kennedy. Great movie.

I kind of understand what the Indian girl went through when they cut her braids. When I was 12 I had my hair cut for th first time. When I looked in the mirror I cried , the hair dresser didn't know what to do. He called my Grandmother over bewildered and she explained that I'd never had my hair cut before. I couldn't stop crying cause it wasn't me anymore, there was someone else looking back at me in the mirror.