by Constance Garcia-Barrio

Through the rough but authentic voices in stories written by Mark Lyons, 74, of Mt. Airy, or translated from Spanish by him, readers learn the gritty truth of other people’s circumstances. “I live attuned to people’s voices,” said Lyons, winner of fellowships from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts in 2003 and 2009, and a nominee for the distinguished Pushcart Prize. “When I meet people, I listen for their tone, choice of words and accent. Listening to someone’s voice is like listening to music.”

Lyons, who graduated in 1965 from the University of California at Berkeley with a degree in history, began writing in 1995 at age 52. He published a collection of short stories, “Brief Eulogies at Roadside Shrines” (Wild River Books) in 2014, based on people he met who endured tough times but refused to let life defeat them. Kirkus Reviews, which previews about 7,000 books a year prior to their publication, chose “Brief Eulogies” as a “Book of the Year.” Lyons also collected and translated from Spanish true stories from Mexican farm workers.

One story in “Brief Eulogies” is set in Rancho Los Amigos, a facility, now-demolished, for people paralyzed by accidents or illness, in California. Lyons worked there as an orderly in his early 20s, when the Rancho provided a refuge from painful life events for him. “Most of my stories are in the first person. I feel more at home letting people speak for themselves, letting their voices reveal who they are.” Despite their disabilities, two residents’ plan to escape the Rancho in their wheelchairs almost succeeds.

“Arnold’s Roadside Café,” another story in “Brief Eulogies,” honors a moment in 1972 when Lyons, a California native, hitchhiked across the country. He met a hobo, Arnold, skilled at making delicious meals from roadkill. Arnold shared a spit-roasted rabbit with Lyons. “Arnold, down and out by all societal measures, was a philosopher who shared his theories of the universe while he picked the bones of his latest entrée,” Lyons said.

Lyons has lived in Mt. Airy for many years with his wife Jeane-Ann and has worked in the Latino community for the last 28 years, teaching farm workers about healthcare, protecting themselves from pesticides and avoiding HIV/AIDS. As the only Anglo among migrant farmworkers, he had to learn Spanish. In 2001, Lyons began a three-and-a-half year oral history project that recorded the experiences of Mexican migrant farm workers in Kennett Square, Chester County.

He feels that many people have scant understanding of the lives of farmworkers, and since many farmworkers only speak Spanish, there is little chance for the average person to grasp the challenges that farmworkers face. For Lyons, the oral history project gives a voice to people who seldom have one. Yet, much of the food we eat is harvested by Mexican farmworkers both on the East Coast and in California.

“While spending eight years in farmworker camps, I heard many stories of people who took great risks to come to this country and ‘work like burros’ to create a better future for their families,” said Lyons, a trained physician’s assistant who also has a master’s degree in public health.

Those stories resulted in “Espejos y Ventanas/Mirrors and Windows, Oral Histories of Mexican Farmworkers and Their Families” (2004), which Lyons translated and co-edited. One story of a 16-year-old who’d come to the U.S. by himself riveted Seth, 30, Lyons’ youngest son.

Seth, 16 himself at the time, and the photographer for “Espejos y Ventanas,” took photos of Jesus, a 16-year-old boy who had crossed the border alone and was working 80 hours a week to support his disabled mother and demented father. After hearing the youth’s story, Seth decided to become a lawyer specializing in immigrant rights.

An incident at a reading Lyons gave of “Brief Eulogies” drew him into another project that has taken thousands of hours of listening, editing and translating. “Liliana Velazquez, age 15 at the time, came over to me and said, ‘Will you help tell my story?’ Her family in Guatemala had yanked her out of school after first grade to care for her four younger siblings, so she couldn’t write her own story.”

Liliana grew up in Guatemala, near the border with Mexico. “All seven members of her family lived in a one-room shack. Men tried to rape her two times. At 13, Liliana tried to drink pesticide, but her younger sister walked in and stopped her.”

Liliana then persuaded her sister — the same one who stopped her from drinking the pesticide — to lend her $10 to buy a sturdy pair of shoes instead of the flip-flops she’d always worn. At 14, Liliana left home by herself one night. “In her 2,200-mile trek to the U.S., Liliana and others were robbed by drug-runners,” Lyons said.

“They paid bribes, skirted roadblocks and walked miles in brutal heat. Immigration agents caught her small group in the desert in Arizona. If you’re an unaccompanied minor, they can’t send you home without due process. That’s how she ended up in foster care in Philadelphia.”

After two years in courts, Liliana convinced immigration authorities that she would be in danger if she returned to Guatemala, and they granted her permanent residency.

Liliana’s memoir, “Suenos y Pesadillas/Dreams and Nightmares, I Fled Alone to the U.S. When I Was 14,” written in Spanish and English by Lyons — “It’s 95 percent her words” — will be available on Amazon later this year.

Lyons spent 2,000 hours translating and editing tapes from 45 interviews with Liliana. “It’s really important for undocumented immigrants to have a voice. Their voices are often absent in discussions that affect them.”

Now Lyons is set to dip into the well of voices from his own life to write more short stories. “I’ve just returned from a blues harmonica camp in Clarksdale, Mississippi,” he said.

More information at www.facebook.com/mark.lyons.5602 or www.amazon.com/Mark-Lyons/e/B00T8SN9I0. This article was reprinted, with permission, from Milestones, the monthly publication of the Phila. Corporation for Aging.