Six Plus Four Equals One Tenuous Existence
By Sam Quinones
July 28th, 2006
An illegal immigrant couple with six children were already living in poverty. Then the quadruplets arrived. They’re still in a daze.
With two teenage daughters at home and triplets still in diapers, Angela Magdaleno’s family overflowed from a one-bedroom apartment in South Los Angeles that they strained to afford.
Diapers had to be changed 15 times a day, feedings held every three hours. One triplet, 3-year-old Alfredo Jr., needed special attention because he was born with liquid on his brain and partially paralyzed.
Even simple events — like going to the store — required complex orchestration.
And that was before the quadruplets arrived.
On July 6, Magdaleno gave birth to two boys and two girls, drawing national media attention as a bewildered mother of 10 (with nine living at home). Now, she and her husband, Alfredo Anzaldo, 44, must figure out how to provide for everyone on Anzaldo’s maximum pay of $400 a week as a carpet installer. (….Full Article)
