Special Voices:
Gina and lucy

Gina: Are you ready?

Lucy: Yes

Gina: ok. Um, How was my grandpa as a dad?

Lucy: Well he wasn’t such an expressive dad. He was always the type of dad that would leave the sentimental topics for my mom. He would deal with everything economically and he always was like, he was never open with his kids

Gina: What were some of your fondest memories of you and him together?

Lucy:well like i said he wasn’t much of an expressive person, he wasn’t a person who is- well from what i remember my mom was mostly in charge of us but the things that i do remember was that every year he would always make sure we took a vacation. We would camp out on the beach and we made food. That’s the memory that reminds me of him the most.

Gina: what beach?

Lucy: We went to Manzanillo beach; we always went in his old car with the entire family and we stayed for fifteen days and those were the days that we shared the most with him.

Gina: With the whole family?! Like erica and-

Lucy: Everyone!

Gina: Wait Erica was already born-

Lucy: No but with all of his kids. It was hard for him because there were eleven of us (referring to her siblings) to feed. Oh my god.

Gina: obviously I didn’t get to know my granda but how would you like him to be remembered.

Lucy: Well for me id like him to be remembered by; my dad wasn’t very expressive with his kids but with his grandkids, he was very loving, if you got to know him, if you got to hug him or play with him. him he liked to play with his grandkids. And basically have a good relationship with him.

Gina: did he ever come to the US to see Angelica and Luis (my aunt and cousin). So how did he know Jonathan (my brother) Was it only over the phone?

Lucy: He knew Jonathan because I went back to Mexico when Jonathan was about four years old. No, when he was about a year old and six months I remember when I left and that’s how they knew Jonathan and he would always take Jonathan and Luis in a car that he built around the city, he would always speed in the car and they would say “ go, grandpa go!” and that’s how i knew that he was more expressive with his grandkids more than what he was with us.

Gina: Do you know anything about how he was when he was younger?

Lucy: Well the only thing that i know was that my dad was someone who loved to tell jokes and he had lots of friends, he was very pleasant. form the bit that i know from when he was young because I’m one of the youngest siblings is that he played basketball in a team from his work and he loved to play the violin, and from what my older sisters would tell me he was always a person that would fight to have his own things. In the village that he lived in, he was the only person that had a tv at that time. He had his own business of rental bikes in the plaza of his village, and then i realize that he was someone that liked to fight for his own proper things.

Gina: *struggles with reading messy handwriting* What’s one thing you wish you could say to him right now?

Lucy: well one of the things that id tell him is if i was reborn i would ask for him to be my dad again because even though he wasn’t very expressive he was one of the best parents I’ve had because i never saw him drunk, i never saw him- I always saw how he helped other people i saw how he worked hard. That was the best example that he could’ve given me because i am grateful for everything that he’s done for us because we lived a dignified life. We never lacked anything, he protected us and I’d tell him thank you for everything you’ve done for us. Now that i'm a mother i know how hard it is to have three kids that i maintain and he took care of eleven kids, that i don't understand how every day he worked to feed them. And he never abandoned us, that was the most important thing. He never mistreated my mom. And well that’s it.

Gina: yeah that's it. Give me a hug.