Today marks 32 years that me and my siblings have walked this earth without our ama. Que dramatica! Everytime a memorial day comes out of the closet I think I must be sad and well, and I am. That’s when I have to choose not to be a chillona and I must make a conscious choice to turn my sadness into something better. I’m gonna text my sis in a while and remember with her our ama.
Mothering Techniques
I miss her, she is a feisty latina woman! She had to be, with 4 strapping boys that had plans of their own and 4 feisty latina daughters! If her command and tone didn’t get the job done, she pulled out her secret weapon: “Vas a ver! Cuando venga tu Padre” Yikes! We never wanted my apa to get involved. Just writing this makes me sit up straight.
In her house the rule was “Aqui van hablar espanol” and we did… our version, el Spanglish.
She wanted us well versed in spanish for when we went to visit la familia en Guadalajara. Ama wanted to prove that we were indeed Mexicanos to the bone. In our opinion, we were the best spanish speakers in the barrio, but when we were in the colonias of Guadalajara…and the primos laughed at our spanish, we showed them. We loosened our tongue into english mode, accent and all, they didn’t know any better. Hay si, muy muy is what they judged us with. We weren’t trying to seem songrones, stuck up, acting like we were better. But hey! Who wants to be laughed at? For our ama we stayed in spanish mode as needed and I’m glad I did, because today I’m muy bilingue, by my own assessment of course.
Mexican American
My ama worried that we’d lose our spanish and Mexican but because of her we didn’t even here in America. She was happy to know that even with my gringo I wouldn’t take off my Mexican.
Hijole! I do regret not appreciating her enough. But, I am comforted to know that as long as I “stay saved” Christianese for stay connected to Jesus, allowing him to cover me over my Mexican American Heritage I’ll see her again and I’ll talk to her in spanish and maybe in Gods heavenly language.
I love you mi Ama!
Mexican-American Girl 
Reblogged this on Mexican-American Girl and commented:
For many people Memorial Day is just a holiday that allows them a day off work. Some will sleep in on that Monday, others will picnic and gather with family, and some will remember their fallen war heroes with family nearby. Graves will be decorated with posies and tears of remembrance will be shed, the “what could have been” pricking at the heart.
Originally, Decoration Day was the day that commemorated the fallen heroes from the Civil War, incredible losses to maintain true freedom. Overtime, as our nation has had to continually fight to keep its dominion, Freedom has been established at a great cost. The wars and the men and women who have sacrificed their lives are too incredible to count. Our commemoration day has been renamed and acknowledged across the Land Of The Free as Memorial Day. Que Dios nos siga bendiciendo! Y de todo corazon I send out my appreciation this Memorial Day weekend to our fallen heroes.
“Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.” – Winston Churchill
For me, Memorial Day is very personal also. My mother went home to Jesus on Memorial Day 33 years ago. y ahora si! She truly does rest in God’s peace. She wasn’t a soldier, she was ‘just’ my ama. She sacrificed her life to form mine and my siblings and a few grandchildren at the time.
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