My Family History

My story began many years ago, by different people coming together and creating life.  My great grandparents were Pedro Pedroza, Carmen Carillo, Matías Huertas, and Toribia López, form my dad’s side, and from my mom’s, Margarito, and Lola Ortiz.  And although I never met them, I got to know them through my mom and dad’s stories, through the food they thought them how to cook, and even the jokes they tell today.

My grandma always talks about her parents, she misses them a lot, her dad was a shoemaker, and her mom stayed at home.  She is the second of 10 siblings, and money often was tight, but that never made them sad or angry, they simply adjusted.  They went to school in the morning and in the afternoon, the older kids would help make dinner while the younger ones played.  Although she was born in Patulul, she had to move to the city with her aunt and her uncle at a young age due to different illnesses, so she didn’t see her family much until later in life.

 

From what I’ve heard from my dad my great grandfather was farmer, and he would sometimes take him on field trips, he remembers running from a cow on several occasions, climbing trees and swimming in the river.  He remembers living in the same house through out all his life.  My mom on the other hand, moved a lot, she had a very different childhood.  She went back to Patulul the day after school ended and wouldn’t come back until the day before it started, those are of her fondest memories, she would take the bus with her grandma, Mama Lola, and when they arrived she got to see all her cousins and getting home late after playing in the park.  As she grew older my grandma remarried, and her life changed a lot, it was better in many ways, but she didn’t get to see her grandma and her family as much, but then my uncle was born and she says she was the happiest and proudest older sister.  

 

After many years, my parents’ paths crossed, and became friends, but it wasn’t until 7 years that they would date.  They went out for a while, but my dad decided to move to the U.S., so they were apart for about five years, but one, he called and decided to get back together and started dating.  One day, he came back to Guatemala without telling anyone, he proposed and she said yes, and they got married in 1998.  Almost five years later they had me, and a year after they had my little brother.  And that is, partly, my story.