Ellie Chavez

Ellie Chavez is a mother, educator, and survivor whose departure from Sells reshapes the lives of her children and opens a path to her own professional independence. At seven, Delia Ortiz feared leaving home with her mother; years later, she would understand that Ellie’s departure required confronting danger, finding help quickly, and making choices under severe family and social constraints. Ellie’s story joins escape to education: she leaves an abusive marriage to pursue teacher training, then builds a career that takes her far beyond the reservation without bringing her back to Sells.

Identity and Background

Ellie is the mother of Delia Ortiz and Eddie Chavez and the wife of Manuel Chavez, whom the narrative also calls Manny Chavez. When her children are young, she is determined to pursue a special program at Arizona State University. Sister Justine has helped her gain entry, and Ellie sees teaching as a way to move beyond a lifetime as a teacher’s aide. Her ambition is practical as well as personal: she wants to qualify as a teacher, but the decision means relocating with the children and leaving a home in which their father remains a source of danger.

Ellie’s circumstances are not fully visible to Delia as a child. Delia knows that her father drinks and that her mother is afraid, but Ellie also carries reasons for leaving that she has not discussed even with her beloved aunt, Julia Joaquin. The story keeps those matters private rather than explaining them. What it does establish is that Ellie’s decision does not arise from a single argument about schooling: she believes she cannot safely leave Delia and Eddie alone with their father.

Leaving Sells

At seven, Delia asks whether she and Eddie can stay with their father or with their aunt while Ellie attends school. Ellie rejects both alternatives. Julia already has grandchildren to care for, and Ellie does not trust Manny to look after the children. Manny then appears during the packing and refuses to let the family go. He has been drinking again after a period when Ellie believed their decision had been settled, confirming that the children cannot safely be left in his care.

When Ellie insists on leaving, Manny attacks her. Delia intervenes when she sees her father about to continue the assault, giving Ellie an opportunity to get the children and their belongings out of the house. Ellie packs in haste, only to discover that Manny’s pickup is missing. Rather than lose time looking for it, she takes the children to a pay phone outside the trading post and calls Sister Justine in Topawa. When Sister Justine arrives, she urges Ellie to go to a hospital; Ellie refuses because she fears Manny will know where to find her. Her immediate objective is escape, not treatment or a confrontation with him.

Sister Justine’s help makes that escape possible. She comes in the convent’s nine-passenger station wagon and takes Ellie and the children with her. The convent also has a derelict 1960 Falcon, which Fat Crack Ortiz is asked to get running. He sees Ellie’s injuries and recognizes the urgency of the family’s situation. Sister Justine insists that the car be made ready that day: registration for the university program closes the following day, and Ellie still needs to arrange housing and schooling before classes begin. The effort to repair the car thus serves two linked needs: getting Ellie and the children away and preserving her chance to enroll.

A New Home and Family Life

The move does not lead to an immediate apartment of Ellie’s own. The following day, she and the children remain with Ruth Waldron, a physical-education teacher who takes them into her home in Tempe. They stay there for four years, the duration of Ellie’s undergraduate program at Arizona State University. While Ellie studies, Ruth provides daily care for Delia and Eddie, helping with homework, attending school meetings when Ellie cannot, and taking the children to local activities. The arrangement gives Ellie the time and support to continue her education while the children have a stable home.

Ruth’s place in the family is deeper than Delia initially understands. As an adult, Delia learns that Ellie and Ruth had become lovers almost from the beginning, after Ruth welcomed the family into her home. Both women are described as exiles: Ellie has left the reservation, while Ruth is estranged from her convent and disapproving family. Their relationship continues for decades, though its public and legal circumstances limit what Ellie can safely claim. At the time, lesbian mothers had few rights, and Ellie could have risked losing both children if she defied Manny’s demand for Eddie. A legal dispute might also have endangered her fellowship, while public exposure could have threatened Ruth’s teaching career.

Education and Later Career

Ellie’s years of study lead to a long professional life in education. She earns a Ph.D. in education and serves for an extended period with the Bureau of Indian Affairs. She later becomes a sought-after consultant in American Indian education. These accomplishments give a concrete outcome to the ambition she voiced when Delia was seven: Ellie does not remain confined to aide work but becomes a credentialed educator whose expertise is in demand.

Her later life remains connected to Ruth. During summer vacations, Ruth visits Ellie and Delia wherever they are living. After Ruth retires, the two women live together in a small house outside Cambridge, Massachusetts, which Ruth inherited. Their lasting partnership contrasts with the secrecy and legal vulnerability that shaped their earlier family life. The narrative presents their continued life together as a durable bond, not as a resolution that erases the risks they faced.

Change and Narrative Significance

Ellie’s departure is a decisive break from Manny’s control, but it is also a carefully supported passage into a different life. Sister Justine provides immediate refuge and practical transport; Fat Crack Ortiz is enlisted to make a vehicle usable; Ruth supplies a home and helps raise the children while Ellie studies. Ellie’s independence is therefore hard-won and relational: she acts with resolve, but the escape and the education that follows depend on people willing to help.

The consequences reach beyond Ellie herself. Delia grows up in Tempe, receives Ruth’s care, and only later understands why her mother could not simply insist on keeping both children and openly living with her partner. Ellie’s later academic and professional achievements stand beside a lasting absence: after leaving on that rainy August day, she never returns to Sells. Her arc holds both facts together. She secures education and a life with Ruth, yet the departure that made those possibilities real also marks a permanent separation from the place she left.