Padre Ignacio Illegible

I am beginning to hate padre Ygnacio Salindoz.  Year after year he writes the entries in the Baptismal Book for Iglesia Nuestra Senora del Rosario.  1834, 1836…1840… His handwriting was squirrely to begin with. Then it deteriorates to unreadable.  He writes in Spanish. He uses abbreviations. LA suspects him of being on too good terms with the communion wine.   He does not date his entries…he says things like solemnly baptized “in the same year.” I want to murder him. Alas, he is already dead. Long gone, at least a century past.

I am trying to find an entry belonging to Abata Maltos, suspected great great grandmother. I am digging through a Mexican Baptismal Book from Rosario, Sinaloa, Mexico. Of course it is a miracle it exists in digitized form so I can scan its entries from my laptop. But it is not easy…The pages are smudged. The ink bleeds through the old pages. It is dim. It seems impossible.

Abata's name is lost in a squiggly landscape of almost four thousand mamas who bring their babies to the cathedral. It is a beautiful church with a stately altar decorated with the gold of this colonial mining town. Abata is buried in more than four hundred pages. I dig. Excavating like a miner.

I estimate where the year might fall in this 450 page book

I anticipate where October might be.

Hours go by. Then entire afternoons.

Cursing Padre Y...

Until finally Abata  is found!!

Bata Maltos…. and her son “natural” Jose Miguel de Jesus Maltos baptized October 9, 1838. I am as pleased as any miner striking gold.

But no thanks to Padre Ygnacio.