As I'm walking out of the bathroom I make a quick right and down the hall I see three elderly people coming towards me on their wheelchairs. I smiled because for a second they looked like they were racing against each other, but the closer I walked towards them, it became clear on how much they were actually struggling in maneuvering to get to their destination. Arrrrgh!! I took a deep breath and thought to myself , here we go again, another one of my maternal female family members, Guillermina, my great aunt suffering in a rehabilitation center with staples from her foot up to the deep end of her upper thigh. She is only 78 years old. Jade and I just hung out with her last year. She was always a spitfire. As I entered her room, she was moaning, her eyes were rolled back from time to time, she mumbled and kept saying pease, pease (Please, Please!). I recognized the fear she had in her voice. My great-grandmother, God Bless her soul, which is her mother, said the same thing to me when she was at the hospital suffering from a leg wound. Both my great-grandmother and my great aunt fell, somehow wounded there leg in such a way that because of the wrenching illness of diabetes attacking both their bodies, the doctors had to cut-off half of my abuelita's right leg, then ended up in an elderly home. The stench of the home was awful. I know they did not take good care of her. As for my great aunt she landed in the hospital for almost the same reason, then fell again in the hospital this time damaging more than her leg. The outcome of my great grandmother was a tragedy. As for my great aunt, I have hope that God is watching over her, healing her wounds while blessing her physical body so she can rest while her spirit rejuvenates for whatever purpose God intends for her.
These tales that I am going to share with you will be an opportunity for you to read about the beautiful, passionate, hard working, Latina women in my family who have taught me to be part of the woman I am today. A little mixture with societal norms and expectations, and a dose of my own self growth, these women have provided the stomping ground rules in my life. Let me introduce the ladies of my life. First there is the matriarch, my great grandmother Ms. Maria Pilar Rodriguez, She was my abuelita. She had two daughters, my grandmother, Brunilda and my great aunt Guillermina. My great aunt had one son but my grandmother had a son and two daughters, her daughters were, my mom Marline and aunt Raquel.
When I was young, I used to stay over both my grandmother and great grandmother's house. they both lived in the boogie down Bronx in the Grand Concourse area on the second floor of an apartment building. Their apartments were literally across from each other. It was the type of building where everyone new each other, if someone was sick or dying, neighbors would visit and support one another. During holidays, sometimes neighbors would leave their door open as a way to invite other neighbors into their home and join their family gathering.
My abuelita was this tall almost what I would describe her to be almost looking Russian woman, except she was darker skin, thick short gray hair, she was strong minded, some would say stubborn, she was always cooking from scratch in the kitchen making foods like cangrejo con arroz blanco y habichuela guisa. Mmmmm...mmmm her cooking was banging (good) in the summer she made limbe in plastic cups and sold them for 25 cents per cups (limbe was made out of coconut milk, evaporated milk, vanilla and cinammon, mixed it, poor it into either a small size paper or plastic cup or in an ice tray. They reminded me of the cups one uses at the dentist to rinse tbeir mouth. Then she would freeze it until it was frozen and ready to eat. During hot summer days, all the kids from the surrounding area came knocking on her door. I stayed over her house to help her make them and help her sell . Some kids that knocked at her door were kids that knew her . They ranged from 4year olds to teenagers. The toddlers were the cutest when asking for the limbe. My great grandmother enjoyed there cute faces and smile so much that she didn't even worry about payment. Not me, I was a young teen and even though they were cutie patudies, these young whippersnappers owed my great grandmother 25 cents. My great grandmother would say, "Hay nena no te precupes del chavo, eso no es nada. Yo no lo hago por el dinero." I learned then that she was creating her own family within the community. She was developing community bonds, informal supports. She loved the kids in the neighborhood and they loved her.
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