Eufemio Alvarez’s Automobile Repair - NY

I suppose I should close out NY and move on, giving myself permission to revisit it from time-to-time. Here are some concluding pictures:

Friday nights were often all-night services at the church on Delancey Street. People from many churches would gather, play music, preach, and pray into the wee hours of the morning. If you got hungry you went out and got something to eat and came back.

The Colon family on Messerole St. in in Brooklyn (Bushwick)  were kind to me. They pastored a church, and across from the church was what they called a “mission house.” Missionaries from all over the world used it as a place to stay and a base of operations when visiting the States. I remember a lively pastor from Guatemala, and an older pastor from Columbia. The older man had been persecuted for his faith – placed in a barrel and rolled down a hill or mountain, he was a gentle soul.

There was another brother, an older man, Brother Maisonete (sp?) with whom I traveled to Haiti who also lived in the mission house.

On E. 10th Street in Manhattan I met a building superintendent who had a chicken farm in the basement of the building. Yep, you read correctly – a chicken farm. He opened the stairs from the sidewalk – the kind that have double metal doors embedded in the sidewalk – took me down into the bowels of the building…and I guess there were at least 50 chickens. He was a nice guy, what you might call a “good egg.”

On one visit to NY Eufemio Alvarez demonstrated his ability to deal with troubled automobiles. You may recall that in an earlier post I described him as “mercurial,” here is what I mean.

“Where is your car,” I asked Brother Alvarez.

“Well, the devil had been giving me problems with that car. It kept breaking down. I’d go to Harlem and it would break down. I’d go to Brooklyn and it would break down. I’d go down FDR Drive and it would break down. The devil kept making my car break down – so I decided to do something about it.”

“What did you do,” I asked.

“I set it on fire. It won’t break down anymore. I showed the devil I wasn’t going to allow him to trouble me.”

See what  I mean about being mercurial?

I haven’t quite figured out why Brother Alvarez thought he got the better of the devil on that deal, and I haven’t bothered to try to work out the theology behind setting his car on fire – but I guess considering other things I’ve seen over the years that the only person Eufemio hurt was himself and I don’t think he propagated a teaching that folks should start burning their cars when they break down.

Come to think of it, he may have been doing his friends and family a favor by burning his car – you'd only have to ride with him a few blocks to know what I mean.  He must have been watching too much Roller Derby because he was forever blocking and passing other cars and (seemingly) trying to knock pedestrians over guardrails. He should have been a taxi driver.

The Gospel According to George Will

In thinking about my recent posts, both about George and about my lack of adult direction in those early years, it occurs to me that I should unpack what George taught me for those who might not be familiar with my passing reference to only God being able to live the Christian life; in so doing I’m demonstrating that George did in fact mentor me in the greatest possible way – he kept my focus on Christ.

In a recent conversation with George I heard, “I am nothing, I can do nothing, I can be nothing – Christ is everything.” That is exactly what I heard from George in the 1960’s.

In John 5:19 Jesus says, “…the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing…” Then in John 5:30, “I can do nothing on my own initiative…” “The Father abiding in Me does His works,” 14:10.

In John 15:15:5 Jesus says to us, “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.”

These are some of the passages that George used in his preaching when I was with him, passages that have become one with him over the years, passages that he still speaks of with passion.

Another passage I often heard from George, a passage that I was reminded of when listening to a recent sermon by my friend Michael Daily, is 1 Corinthians 1:30-31:

But by His [God’s] doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption, so that, just as it is written, “Let him who boasts, boast in the LORD.”

I’m getting to the place where I can really say that, “I’ve lived a long time.” I’m also getting to the place when I can say, “I’ve been a Christian for a long time – 44 years.” This then also allows me to say, “I’ve seen a lot of religious fads and fancies, I’ve seen a lot of substitutes for Jesus in the Christian community, a lot of substitutes for knowing Him relationally (is there any other way to know Him?) and a lot of substitutes for actually knowing the Bible – and none of them amount to anything worth keeping.

More than ever we live in a time of religious personalities with quick fixes, but I ask, “Where is Jesus? Where is the Christ of the Cross and the Cross of Christ?” I don’t believe that I’d be asking those questions were it not for George.

I have not always been a good testimony for Jesus, but God has always been merciful. There have been times I have sought the quick fix, but God has always brought me back to the Cross. And there have been many “Christian” things I’ve walked away from because I haven’t seen Jesus.

Even today George is enigmatic to me, there is a lot about him I don’t understand – but he certainly was used by God to build a foundation in my life.

I am crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.  Galatians 2:20

Profiles – Eufemio and Carmen Alvarez - NY

Carmen Alvarez, Eufemio’s wife, was as patient and gracious a lady as I have ever met. The Alvarez’s lived in a first-floor apartment in the projects off FDR Drive in Manhattan. Carmen was around 5’8”, taller than her husband, with long black hair, somewhat plump but not excessively so, and a round face that always had a smile for guests. With her six children and mercurial husband she had her hands full, yet she never revealed the least bit of stress or irritation.

Eufemio was indeed mercurial, he could go from zero to sixty in 2.3 seconds leaving rubber on the asphalt. Brother Alvarez’s way of parenting his children was often a matter of increasing decibels; whereas Sister Alvarez brought harmony from cacophony  with a smile and melodious words. If you’re familiar with the clarinet, Eufemio played upper-register notes and Carmen played the middle register, along with occasional lower notes with deep soothing resonance.   

This is not to say that Eufemio didn’t embrace his children and didn’t have a warm smile and cheerful word for them, he often did; but Eufemio was always on the go and when he was home it was to grab a bite to eat, change clothes for that evening’s preaching, and exit the apartment the way Jeff Gordon exits Pit Road during the Daytona 500, the difference being that Eufemio didn’t observe a speed limit. 

Mrs. Alvarez always had coffee for visitors, and if you were there during mealtime you could expect an invitation to eat with the family. This was true of every family I knew in NYC. Hospitality was a way of life for the Hispanic community. Perhaps one of the blessings of a basic diet of rice and beans is that you don’t need to worry about calling up Martha Stewart for a recipe for honored guests; guests know they are honored by the simple experience of sharing a meal – it is in the sharing that we find the substance. After all, the greatest meal any of us can prepare for another or partake of with another is bread and wine. Next to the bread and wine I think I’ll list rice and beans.