The Home of My Childhood -- Patricia Reatiga, 862 S. Nicaragua St. Colonia El Barreal, Ciudad Juarez

My house was located in Juarez in a Barrio for Railroad Workers. It was an adobe house build by my Grandfather (Matias) more than 80 years ago. He build it to my Grandmother (Rita) when he was working for the Railroad in Chihuahua. He was a Boletero (checking tickets) when people aboard the Train. Due to his job we were able to travel anywhere in Mexico. During the Revolution Grandma had 12 kids only five survived: Jose, Tita, Angela, Olga and Lico. Jose and Olga died later.

One day when they were moving the wagons, he stuck and injured one of his leg so got disable. He did not lose the leg do but could not do his job anymore. Without my Grandfather salary, my family got poorer and had to sell his Farm and Animals to move to Juarez with his family. I had a very happy childhood in this house. We were four of us: Rita, Matias, Tita my mother, uncle Lico and mi Paty.

My Grandparents stayed home while my Mother was working all day with two jobs, she was cleaning houses and a factory worker, so my beautiful grandmother took care of me…it was the best experience ever! Since I was the only child and I became much attached to my Grandma, I even called her “Mama”.

Now let me tell you about my house. The house had four rooms, a hallway and a separate bathroom and shower. Two rooms were bedrooms, one a living room that was also use as a bedroom and the kitchen with a beautiful iron wooden stove. It was simple, a table with chairs and a kitchen cabinet. The bedrooms had a chair, a bed and a wardrobe. The bathroom and shower were separate from the house. All the room were open to the hallway who was open to the patio. It has big horizontal vigas (wood beams) and a flat and high ceiling, it was white inside and out it has two big window to the outside. The adobe was cover by plaster and sometimes my cousin and I were eating adobe dirt (wet taste very good). The decoration was simple we did not have much just the minimum necessary. There were some Family and Saint Pictures on the walls. The floors were made of cement. The Patio was all dirt, there was a storage room and in the middle, it had a garden with flowers and fruit trees: Two Fig trees one white and black fruits, the blacks were my favorite...they are sweet. There was an Alamo Tree and around it many flowers and fruits (Crisantemos, Baras de San Jose, Geraniums, Roses, Tomatoes, Watermelons) but the most important part of this garden was my cemetery with wood crosses made out of the “paletas” (popsicles) wood. There was a “pila” (small pool) where we used to take baths and washing our dog. We did not have shampoo so she used Fab powder detergent and our hairs were really nice and soft.

This dog was very special for all of us his name was Capitan and was Lico’s. Capitan used to go with us to buy wood for our stove at another Barrio and he was carrying a log all the way home and place it in from of the door and run back to get more logs from my grandmother. He was old when he died. My Cousin Martin and I cried a lot for that dog.

I had long and curly hair and Grandma used to get it together in a ponytail or braid. Those hairstyles were too tight that my eyes looked like the Chinese people. She used Lemon juice to make mi hair straight and tight it…. Ouch! There was one time when I got lice and she used DDT over my head to kill them! I had to stay with that solution over my head cover with a towel for probably one hour and it work because I never had lice in my life again.

Our stove was amazing, my grandma used to cook every day for her family…she always was doing fresh tortillas, chili and café…mmm delicious! My Mother was a good cook, fresh flour tortillas on Sundays. That is all what we eat or drink…nothing else. Sometimes our neighbor sent us the meat fat and Grandma cooked it with beans…this dish was a glory! We did not have toothpaste so she burned some old tortillas in the stove, smashed them until it was a black powder, and clean our teeth with a wet small towel. We did not have a refrigerator so when we wanted gelatin or ice cream we had to wait for winter when she placed the gelatin glass outside or an empty glass and waited was the container was full of snow then she added lemon juice and there was our ice cream. Grandma use to do a dessert with cut tortillas, milk and sugar it was especial.

As a child, I was anemic and fainting all the time. We had a doctor for the whole community. This doctor knew everybody and he was very kind. Since we did not have money to see him grandma was always taking care of us using home remedies. The treatment for colds were hot tomatoes. It was weird but very effective. She used tomatoes from the garden, warm them, then she would smash and made like a newspaper bandage, then place the hot tomatoes on it and wrapped the plantar area of our feet, behind the knees, on the neck and around the head. It was very messy and had a yucky sound; you had to sleep with it overnight, and in the morning, the tomatoes were cold. It worked wonders. The heat of the tomatoes had an anti-inflammatory effect. My grandmother had a Comadre (close friend) who was. This friend was my mother’s godmother and we used to visit her on weekends. She was very old, older than my grandma was but very nice with us kids. In her living room, it was an altar with saints, candles and herbs. Grandma said she was a good Curandera but also work with black magic. Just after we were leaving her house, she made “limpias” (cleansings) to all of us with “Romero leaves”, she should get a raw egg and wave it all around us, then toss it to the ground, and the insides would be black. This kind of cure was to deflect “Mal de Ojo” (evil eye).

At home we had blessed Palm leaves above the front door with Sabila (aloe) wrapped together with a red ribbon and more Sabila cactus near the front door for good luck. We used to eat tunas (cactus fruit) as well as sour tuna (Xoconostle) with salt and powder chili. On Sunday at home was a lot of activity outside in the street. A lot of vendors selling Multicolor Jello, fruit and vegetables, newspapers and comic books or Novelas (operas) magazines: Yessenia, Memin Penguin. In the corner of our street, there were neighboors who sold sweet Calabaza candies and in the near general store, they were selling candies called Barrilitos, Muelas, Banderas, Jamoncillo, Pinole and Donuts (tipical Mexican Candies). We used to go and buy groceries there and the man gave us what we needed on layaway. All the kids from the neighborhood were playing in the street so am I: Mamaleche, La Rona, Lazo, Escondidas, Cebollas etc.

I remember that in my grandma bedroom was a “petaquilla” (trunk) full of clothes and I used to play with them. I was playing that I was a model or designer. There was also a nice and beautiful old bed done out of iron with an old and not so comfortable mattress and there was a wardrobe full of bedspreads and clothes. She had a Singer sewing machine that I still have it with me. No closets just some boxes to store some clothes. It was a big mirror in the wall and I used to play with my grandma clothes. There were no dolls so I had to cut some babies or persons models from magazines; paste them in carton and designed their clothes. I was their designer, teacher and their doctor. When my carton dolls were torn I used to place them in matchboxes and buried them in the cemetery including a wood cross with their names… like we did with real people. My cousin did not like to play with me especially on the cemetery, he said it was weird but for me death was part of life. This house was very significant to me because my grandma made it very homey and when I was with her, I had any sad moments I just was very happy. My mother loved to sew; she made curtains, bedspreads, pillowcases. She sewed all my clothes with any material available even used cotton bags (used to stores fruits, chilies, corn, beans) to made my underwear or bought me some second hand clothes…it did not matter they were beautiful.

When my grandpa died, we used to go and visit him every year as well as other relatives on the day of the dead.It was music, flowers everywhere, people having fun and some crying. My grandma used to take the flowers from our garden and buy “coronas with flowers” and save some seeds for her garden, I was picking up flowers from the street to place them in my tombs. We used to eat at the Cemetery enchiladas, gorditas, aguas frescas, fruits, candies, etc. Grandma knew how to save money for those occasions.

My grandma was very religious and we used to go to church every Sunday…so boring for me but what I liked the end of the mass when we were at the plaza buying wooden toys, furniture, pots, pans, jars, plates like the traditional real Mexican cookware. I always wanted to have a walking doll but never got the chance and money to buy me one.

At night during summers, grandma and I used to lay down in our outside bed to see the stars and to avoid mosquitos she placed a net over the bed and hugged and sleep in her arms. Seeing the stars she show me that there is no limit to achieve our golds in life.

One time was could not sleep because I was worry about a hole on one of my shoes and my mother asked me what was wrong. I was 7 or 8 years old and I cried and told her that I had a hole and the cement was to hot and the water was going thru my shoe. I needed new shoes! She told me there was no money and she fixed the hole with a carton paper….that night I made me a promise that I will never be poor and I would buy me as many shoes I wanted. I got my first job at age 15 and became the head of the household.

As soon I got a job, my mother stayed home taking care of grandma since she got sick due to her addition to tobacco. Everything changed for my family with the money I was making. We started to remodel the house, floors, windows, bathroom were attached to the house, full kitchen with cabinets, television, radio, refrigerator, and even a telephone.

When Grandma died, the house was sold and my family and I move to a new house. I recently saw a picture of the old house in the internet, looks sad, it has a lower ceiling, and not well kept.

Finally, with hard work, I became a Physician in Mexico and when I moved to this beautiful Country, I decided to get a second degree in Nursing. Life have being good to me giving me a lot of opportunities and challenges. It has showed me that being poor is an attitude more than a situation and you have the power to change it. You can get out of it if you want!