Story Three: Desperately Needing the Net in El Monte
"It's hard to do a lot of things without the Internet. Other people don't have that struggle because they have Internet."
The wooden sign in Margaret Ibarra’s kitchen – “Mom’s Diner – Open 24 Hours” – speaks the truth: if a midnight sandwich-and-chat is in order, Margaret is there, sleepy but ready to console.
She’s taken care of her grandson Michael since he started to walk. Now nearly 12 years old, Michael and Margaret have a close bond.
“We watch TV, and we discuss a lot of politics,” Margaret says. She’s been living in the same house in El Monte, Calif., for decades, watching the houses sprout up around her like dandelions.
She’s fiercely proud of Michael and the scholarship he won to attend a private school.
“He was born with a good brain,” she says, patting Michael’s head before he ducks and smoothes down his chin-length hair. She embarrasses him again: “He’s beginning to look at girls recently. He’s at that age.”
Asked if that’s true, Michael looks at his feet and shrugs coolly. “Sorta,” he says.
But because Margaret can’t afford high-speed Internet access on her limited income, Michael struggles daily to keep up with his classmates who can zip through research reports at home.
Desperately needing the Internet
“I know he needs [the Internet] desperately,” Margaret says. “Most of his homework comes through the network. And I haven’t got it. Sometimes he gets angry because he’s got to go to the neighbors to borrow it or to the library if there’s room.”
When Michael was assigned a science project on astronomy, he tried to squeeze in time to do research at school. “Sometimes I look up some information in study hall, but we don’t have very much time in study hall, only 45 minutes,” he says.
Margaret says something that others take for granted – Internet access – is taking an emotional toll on her family.
“He cries sometimes,” she says. “He says, ‘Why do I have to go to the neighbors? Why can’t we get the network?’ ”
Trading shoes for Internet
Michael spreads his workbooks across the plastic-covered kitchen table next to a dish of round peppermint candies and plump brown bananas. His pencil pauses over a troublesome word problem: ______ is to danger as ______ is to pledge. Margaret offers little assistance, saying she’s not “book smart.”
“But she’s streetwise,” Michael says.
Michael’s been studying Greek gods in school, and has become particularly fond of Hades, “because he’s the god of the Underworld.” He wants to look up more information on the Web.
“It’s hard to do a lot of things without the Internet,” he says. “Other people don’t have that struggle because they have Internet. But the people who can’t afford it have that kind of struggle.”
In order to pay for expensive Internet service on Margaret’s $1,400-a-month income, the Ibarras would have to shave off other expenses.
“Well, we couldn’t eat in a good restaurant when he wants to,” she says. “We go to Applebee’s sometimes; we treat ourselves. Or he gets good shoes. He doesn’t care about the clothes, but the shoes he likes to look like everybody else. So he’d have to give up cheaper shoes. Do you think you could do that?”
Michael clicks his red high-tops together. “I don’t know,” he says, and they both laugh. They’d do almost anything to get the Internet. But realistically, foregoing a pair of shoes won’t get them there.
