Spanish Project March 2010

So I had a Spanish project that I waited last minute to do. My project-partner's name was Nicole and we had to interview someone that had been raised in a Spanish-speaking country. Nicole had a friend named Maria whose mother grew up in Mexico, so we decided to interview her mom. Maria's mom was also named Maria. She was quiet, but friendly. I felt bad asking her a list of questions the teacher had plotted out for the project.

In the interview, we found out Maria had been born in a small, religious town centered around agriculture. She said her family was Catholic so they went to church every Sunday and there they would visit with other friends and families. They had a very strong sense of community. Most of the people in the city were poor farm families, but they all seemed to lead pretty happy lives. Since they didn't have much, they would throw and go to many parties and fiestas to have fun and see people. Maria grew up in the country on a farm with lots of animals. Her mom worked cleaning houses and her step-dad was a police man. She had 3 brothers and 3 sisters, which was small compared to the family sizes other students talked about in their Spanish presentations.

Maria lived in a small house that only had 2 rooms and one bathroom -again, pretty nice compared to other people in presentations who grew up in shacks with no running water. Maria said the biggest room o her house was the kitchen. When she was 11 Maria first started learning how to cook, and after that she cooked every meal for her family and her siblings. She spent most of the days cleaning floors, washing dishes, and ironing clothes. At 3 in the afternoon she would take her siblings to school and at 7 p.m. they would return home and Maria would do her homework. Because they were poor, Maria never had any toys growing up, so she would have fun playing outside with her siblings and occasionally some of the farm animals which included a goat, a turtle, and a rat. Maria said she also enjoyed Bingo, Dominoes, and reading.

We asked her about some natural remedies her family would traditionally use, because it was part of the list of questions we had to ask. We found out that most people in the city couldn't afford to go to the hospital and the hospital's weren't of the greatest quality, so they would usually use herbs and plants to help them when they were sick. Most of the remedies had been passed down from generation to generation and mostly included various teas and plants. They also believed in spirits though, and said that if a baby was sick they would run an uncracked egg over its body then place the egg under its crib. In the morning they would take the egg and put it in the trash because the bad spirits were caught in the egg.

When Maria was 16 she got married and moved to San Jose, California in 1979. Maria was a little vague about this, and we found out later from her daughter that Maria had been bought by a wealthy man who visited Mexico. They married there and then the man payed for Maria and her family to be moved to San Jose. The man was also 25 years older then her. Since Maria didn't know anyone or speak any English she spent most of her time in the house cooking and cleaning. She said sometimes when her husband went to work she would cry because she felt isolated and alone. A few years later she had a son and several years after that another son and a daughter. Now her oldest son is 30 and her younger kids are in there 20s. Maria separated from her husband -although they are both still technically married- and is seeing a 23 year old. She also spends a lot of her time partying and dancing now -probably trying to recapture the youth she never got the chance to enjoy. Her daughter doesn't exactly approve of her mother's behavior, but Maria (the daughter) also has a girlfriend that the mother doesn't exactly approve of because she is Catholic and wants her daughter to be a traditional housewife.

It's amazing to see the changes that occur in a persons life over the years, but also the changes in culture and perspective. After hearing everyone's Spanish presentations I am amazed that it has been so recent that large families have been forced to live in small shacks, working all day for little to no pay. And then for us as Americans to go to the store and pick up coffee and plants that work at to harvest, as if it's nothing . . . I don't know, just seems sort of backwards. It's almost like that country is working to support other, wealthier countries and people and are etting very little for it. To stay together and keep the community strong they have stringent tradtions and customs and any deviation from that seems like a threat to the stability of the community. I'm thankful to be living in the U.S., not just because I have so many opportunities availiable to me, but because I can see where things come from and I can understand that I am apart of the process and if I want to change it I can. Anyone can. We don't have to accept life as it is if they way it is is unnaccpetable. We should feel free to break out of our prescribed roles and do what we want to woth our lives. We should look around us and reach out to other people. Take less so those with none have more. We should see the lives others are forced to live in other countries and help them acheive a greater levl of prosperity. Having 16 children and being forced to live in a small shack with no hot water and no medical assistance and working all day in a field to make ends meat is not the life humanity was intended for. We should find a way to change this imbalance. Gracias.