Abuelita’s Birthday

Happy heavenly birthday, Grandma.

I remember the day that I learned to call you Abuelita. It was in the back of a bus.

We're on our way to Mexico, and I have made friends with this girl; she taught me how to say Abuelita, and you were a little upset because you liked me calling you grandma. It was almost as if saying it in English meant that you weren't really a

"grandma."

And it just stuck.

You saw me born into the world

You saw my son be born into this world. You saw my daughter

You saw me get married

You were there. You were the one who presided over the whole situation.

I didn't need a pastor or a chapel. All I needed was your approval, and I got it.

It felt pretty cool.

If I have one regret, it was never having a ceremony for my bachelor's degree and not having you there because I remember when you and I stood there at my high school graduation.

You kept telling me to go to college all the time, and I didn't want to; I hated school. You made me believe that it was the only way I could escape the abuse and chaos.

Happy birthday Grandma thank you so much for being my parent. Thank you so much for dedicating your life to me and caring for me.

Thank you for teaching me how to read in Spanish, how to speak, and how to speak up for myself and for those who have less.

I talked about you recently in this interview for the Wisconsin Historical Society and told them about you.

I told them about when you were six months old, and you came to the US in 1924. I told them how you came back when you were almost in your 50s to restart your life and be a migrant worker and how you picked your way up to WISCONSIN to a cannery and then to be a cleaner for some professor who told you to come to Madison and how you live in a small room at Centro Guadalupe.

I remember how you made me walk to church every weekend down Park Street.

It seems so far and so long for me to walk all the way down there to the church.

Don't worry, I didn’t tell all your secrets.

But I remember them...

Today I remember you🥳