Bio: Denk, Marla – Mexico Trip (1980)

Contact: Dolores (Mohr) Kenyon
E-mail: dolores@wiclarkcountyhistory.org 

Surnames: Denk, Kato, Vilchis

----Source: Clark County Press (Neillsville, Clark Co., WI) 10/02/1980

Feelings of Mexico (Denk - 1980)

Marla Denk has had the opportunity to learn much of various places in the world this summer and is continuing the same into the present school year. This summer, she was an exchange student to Mexico and is now an exchange sister to Junko Kato of Tokyo, Japan.

Marla, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Bernie Denk, attended Badger Girls State in Madison this summer with mixed emotions. She had to leave promptly for the summer at Colonia Colinas de Taranga, Mexico.

She did have four years of Spanish, which helped her. However, the children in her host family had been exchange students in the United States – Ana, 14, to Ohio, and Pedro, 17, to Tennessee.

Her exchange father, Alfonso Vilchis, is an engineer, traveling much of the time although home on weekends. Mrs. Vilchis worked as a biochemist in the mornings and taught physics at a college in the afternoons.

“The maids were two girls who were twelve and fourteen years old. They did the cleaning, Marla said. “We did go to Acapulco for weekends.” Cuernavaca was another little village here they spent some time.

Shopping centers are quite American with places like Sears and other well-known names. Foods were cheap but appliances were very expensive, she explained.

“They eat two main meals, so we never snacked. Dinner was at 3:00 p.m., when we had meat or chicken. There was no dessert.” She added, “They have dessert when they go out. To them ‘bread’ was really rolls with sugar on top.”

“Oh I got homesick when the folks would call.” Marla found part of the reason in that she spent almost too much time with Ana. There was little to do other than make the bed or go somewhere.

There were several automobiles, but they were always breaking down, so they would ride on the bus or take a taxi.

At the movies, which were mostly American, the captions wee in Spanish. Marla did enjoy the Folklore Ballet, which had tribal dancing along with variety acts.

There was no industry in the area where she was living but “There were a lot of trivial jobs just for people to be working-things which didn’t need to be done. Men were carving on the edge of the sidewalk,” she shrugged her shoulders recalling it.

In places the street vendors sold many different things, from lottery tickets to newspapers to stuffed animals. There were older beggars on the streets. Singers would come around expecting some contribution. The open marked were very clean and she liked the smell of taco food stands.

Since she is home, Marla is aware that she picked up the habit of using her hands in talking. “They (the Mexicans) are very dramatic and always use their hands in telling something.”

Marla said she would like to go back to visit someday but she would like to show her hosts the peacefulness of a small town.

The National Honor Society and the Spanish Club sponsored her as an International Fellowship student. After graduation next May, she plans to take up accounting and data processing like her sister, who was also an exchange student.