A Little Bit of Everything

If someone were to ask what my “end goal” would be for these little stories or snippets shared by my grandmother I would immediately say “a novel”. Now me writing a novel seems absolutely out there. If you know me you know that the pressure on any editor that would have to take on the task would be HUGE. Spelling and grammar are not my strong suit but I like to think seeing the magic, emotion and over all humanity in even one short story, is. I don’t just see facts or even just memories; I see a whole world. One that has been lived and loved but at the same time untouched and unexplored. I just hope one day I can truly capture that feeling and put it on a page. A mix of a little bit of me and a little bit of her. The main reason I want to create a novel is because I know how much reading and stories have meant to my TiTi. I am not an avid reader, though I wish I was, but I have always known her to be. I found just as much adventure in the stories she told me, the stories she lived out, as I imagine she did and does in the ones she reads. Knowing some of her favorites; a mix of romance, history, make believe and real-life magic… knowing that she has lived all of that.. How incredible would it be to give that back to her?

“Between the pages of a book is a lovely place to be.”  -Unkown

I started reading before I went to school because I had a friend who lived in my neighborhood who was a year ahead of me. When she started learning to read we would play “school” together and she would be the “teacher” and she really taught me how to read. Once I started school I could already read and from that moment on I always always had a book with me. Reading is a very important part of my life. I read because it takes you so many places which is wonderful but also takes you away from so many places. After I got married I figured I had to keep on reading because I had married a very very smart man and I thought I had to keep up. I continued to read every night and I still read all of the time. It is one of the hobbies that I cherish the most. I don’t think I could give up my books, well a kindle now, but any type of reading. 

Wednesday 

One thing I remember in my childhood was Wednesdays in my house. Wednesdays were so much fun. On Wednesdays we got lobsters delivered from Chile for dinner and my mom would go to the big huge open market and buy so many wonderful things for lunch as well. Lunch was very important there too because everyone that worked for my dad would come on Wednesdays. The paper man would come in to get paid so he would come into the kitchen. Then there was Manuel. He was a guy that would bring in the kindle for our fireplaces, he would come on Wednesdays as well and so would the laundry lady. They would all go in the kitchen around lunch each week and it was just kind of fun. They would tell me stories. The laundry ladies would tell me ghost stories and my mom would get so mad because they would scare us and we didn't want to go to bed by ourselves, but we loved hearing them. Just simple things in my childhood that I will never forget. 

Not Just a Mining Town

A lot of people ask ‘what historical event changed your life?’ and I always say World War II. The reason is Oruro was a mining town and had the tin and silver mines. The United States was at war and they needed tin. Bolivia was allied to the United States so we were able to send tin and at one time Oruro was the biggest producer of tin in the whole world. That made it a town that was so very rich in many ways and we were able to get all kinds of artists and musicians from all over the world to come to our town. One time we had Andres Segovia who was the most famous guitar player in the whole world and my dad who was part of the government in the town invited him to our house for tea. He did sign some dollars, some Bolivianos, with his name and as it is right now my son has one kept away in a drawer. We also had a lot of Jewish immigrants which brought us some world renowned professors who taught at the University in Oruro. So that is part of why I feel that World War II was a huge influence on my childhood and why we were able to have access to some incredible luxuries.