I miss my Abuelos

When I was a little girl with piggy tails and fluffy dresses I announced to my mom when we were going home from Grandma's "Ma, I'm staying with Grandma today, and I am not going home with you." She looked at me and just smiled and said "Ok, but if you stay with her you are going to have to help her out in the kitchen, making tortillas, making lunch for grandpa, taking care of the chickens and washing clothes." I know she hoped that I would change my mind and tell her that I would rather go home with her and be the 6 year old girl who didn't like to help washing dishes, but I said "Ok!".

I stayed with Abuelita for the next 3 months. Grandpa would get up at 5 to feed the cows and take the chickens out, then at 6 he would leave to go work in his milpa. Then at 7 she would get me up to go to El Molino, the place where they ground up all the corn then used to make tortillas. After that we would go to Yolanda's store and get Pan and sometimes we would get 3 cookies, not a whole package just 3 cookies. I also remember shopping around to other stores because Yolanda's was more expensive, and once I got 5 Ritz cracker for my breakfast, it was totally awesome!!

Grandma, unlike my mom, made fresh tortillas everyday and she also let me help and make my own creations. She would also make me the Most Awesome huevo en el comal, (over easy egg with tortilla crust) Then right before noon we would pack Grandpa's lunch and walk over to the Milpa (farming land) to take it to him. We would walk about 2 miles to get there, but it was so amazing to have lunch at the milpa, surrounded by the corn and the trees and the small water stream.

By the time we got back we only had time to clean the Kitchen, and start making La Comida (In Mexico, we eat about 5 meals a day. Breakfast, lunch, la comida, dinner and merienda)

Most of my memories from living with my grandmother are of making tortillas, watching her beautiful fruit garden, eating Nopales, and playing with my cousins. I also remember that there was a primo who lived with them, his parents had kicked him out for being lazy, and my grandfather picked him out from the camino and brought him to their house to help out. He was in charge of helping my grandparents with their milpa, grandma with the heavy house work and in exchange he would get a place to sleep and food. Everybody says that my Abuelito made him a real man by teaching him to work hard for everything.

After living with them that whole summer, I went back the following 3 summers. I miss them both soo much.