It was a quiet Sunday afternoon, I was alone in my house and I thought I would pass the time by putting some books in my bookshop. I was
mooching through the books in the bookcase in my bedroom when I alighted on a
book that I had completely forgotten about. It is a paperback published in the
USA in 1956 called The Best American Short Stories 1956 edited by Martha
Foley. An American friend of mine called Matt had kindly sent me a box of
books a few years ago and I had stowed this book away and completely forgotten
about it until Sunday.
What is fascinating about this anthology of short stories
is that it contains a story by Jack Kerouac called The Mexican Girl. This
story had previously been published in a magazine called The Paris Review and
copies of that edition now change hands for up to $500. This story I held in my hands
was the 2nd publication published by Ballentine books in 1956. In
the introduction it says. ‘Mr Kerouac is a young American writer of
French-Canadian parentage. He is the author of a number of short stories and a
novel The Town And The City which was published in 1950'. Little did they
know in 1956 that Jack Kerouac would shortly become one of the most influential
writers of the 20th century. It was the publication of this story
that led to his greatest work On The Road being printed and the world
was changed forever.
I sat on the edge of my bed yesterday afternoon and read The
Mexican Girl all over again after not reading it for years. It is a love story about a brief relationship in 1947 and contains some of Jack’s most poetical quotes. (See
picture at top) I also noticed things that I had missed when I first read it years
ago, such as it mentions ‘nature boys’ in beards and sandals. We think
of hippies as products of the 60’s but there were proto-type hippies in America
even in the 40’s. Another thing I thought on reading the story again was that
Jack was a bit of a rat. He left the Mexican girl when he received $50 from his
mother so he could go back to New York. He could have given the Mexican girl
$10 at least. Anyway, who am I to judge?.
When I finished the story, my curiosity was aroused. I know
what happened to Jack Kerouac but what ever happened to the Mexican girl? I
looked on google to find out. In the story Kerouac called her Terry but
her real name was Beatrice Kozera. She had lived her whole life in total obscurity not knowing that she had been mentioned in at least 20 books about
Jack Kerouac. In the film of The On Road made in 2012 Beatrice was portrayed by Alice Braga.
Although she and Jack had exchanged a few letters after they parted,
she had no idea that he had become a famous writer. It wasn’t until 2010 that a
writer called Tim Z. Hernandez tracked her down to her home in Fresno,
California. Hernandez went on to write a story of Beatrice’s life called Mañana
Means Heaven. I looked on the internet for the book and found it was still available, so I ordered a copy and I am
looking forward to reading it. I’ll let you know what I think when I have read
it. I know the ending to Beatrice’s life. She sadly died in 2013 aged 92 shortly
after the book was published, but she will always be remembered forever because she was immortalised
as The Mexican Girl.
