pictures from el salvador
this is a picture of my father. it was taken on the second day we met.
i was very nervous... these were such awkward poses. i didn't expect him to hug me so easily. of all the people at the house, i was the most reserved with him. it's funny, everywhere i went, i was introduced according to who my parents are, "esta es la hija de sonia". "esta es la hija de roberto". and everyone said i looked like his mother, who passed away after i moved to the states. everyone pointed out the big forehead, a trademark of his family... which is my family too, i guess, but not really. these emotions are too damn confusing. everyone pointed out the curly hair too, something i share with the women in his family. some even said his other kids (9 and 7 year-olds, i think) look exactly like me... meeting him was overwhelming enough... i swear, if i saw some little irma-look-alikes running around, i would have fainted. his aunt, Mamá Berta didn't agree with the kid-look-alike stories, hehe. she liked me. made me happy. i notice i did something weird that day. i allowed my hair to curl up a lot and even combed it back (which is why it looks all weird) so the forehead could be more exposed. i don't know, it was some weird attempt to make him acknowledge some resemblance. the first day i met him, he said that i looked a lot like my mother, something i never hear from anyone. i guess i just wanted to hear from him what everyone else was telling me. he did acknowledge the forehead. anyway, the last time my father was a hot topic in my life, i was around 11 years old, and it depressed me, i hardly ate. this time around, i'm eating normally, hehe, but i'm upset over it again. not so much anger this time, more like yearning, some sadness, some weird desire to be accepted and loved. but i'm getting over it, it's just that these pictures are bringing it all back again. also, i'm going to a family gathering this weekend, which means i'll have to recount the whole episode to all of my relatives there.
this super friendly lady, rosaura, is an old friend of my mother's. they were the best of friends growing up. and they haven't seen each other for 21 years! i can't imagine being away from sandra for that long. rosaura told me about all the mischeivous things they did in school and of all the boyfriends my mother had... hehe, my mother and i are a lot more similar than i had thought. well, she let us stay with her for a few days. she was the nicest host ever! the second pic is of my sweet grandmother with her. this is right after mass, in the church in Lourdes, which everyone pronounces as Lo-ur-des. it's under construction at the moment, as is the church in our small town of Tepecoyo - such lovely names. they both fell during the 2001 earthquake. notice the corrugated metal roof. just about every house has one like it, only that nicer homes cover it up. imagine sleeping underneath the bare metal in heavy rain... it sounded like the water was falling right on you.
a pic of one of my grandmother's nieces, whose name i can't remember. the little kids are relatives too and super adorable... can't remember their names either. my grandmother had given the little boy a batman umbrella and he was soooo happy with it. i bought a cake, simply because i wanted something sweet to eat. i shared it with the kids... everytime you buy something, you gotta buy for everyone else too... i mean, that's the only way some of these kids ever get to eat ice cream or pizza or pollo campero... i've never seen kids more appreciative of cake. the boy's birthday was coming up too and my Tio's had just passed, it was good timing. my Tio Carlos is the man in the photos. all my life i knew him only through the telephone... when i finally met him, he was very quiet, he couldn't imagine me all grown up. the picture he still had of me was of this little two-year-old complaining about the house dog... they all tell me the same story, it's cute. once we started staying at his house, he loosened up. eventually, his mischievous self surfaced and he pulled some pranks on me... like keeping the spatula and new comal from me while i learned to make pupusas... that was sooo not cool!!!
this is my great-grandmother... we call her Mamá Lencha... she's about 92 years old. i look monstrous next to her, she's sooo tiny. man, that's an awful picture of me. she's sooo cute. when i told her i wanted to have a picture taken with her, she insisted on fixing her outfit and putting on her nice sweater. she may be super old but her memory is razor sharp. after not seeing rosaura or my dad for like 21 years, she was still able to recognize them on her own... and rosaura supposedly has changed a lot. hehe, she even made some sharp remarks to my father... she's just too cute. my grandmother is in the other pic. she's young and strong for a grandmother of six... barely 60 years old... and that's her natural hair color, too ;p i love her sooo much!!!!!
at the airport in san salvador with rosaura and her husband, don alfredo... after driviing in the dark, taking a major detour due to road closures, and viewing some incredible mudslides along the way... thank goodness, we didn't encounter any of those fabled road thieves. the rain had cleared, it was gorgeous when we left. unfortunately, we only had half a roll of film available for the whole trip.
one more of my father and me.
