The Interview:

 

I interviewed Guillerimina, Mina as she is known as to her friends.  Mina is a very happy person, her nickname is Smiley.  Here is her story, which I chose to write in first person because it makes a nicer read:

 

My name is Guillerimina.  I was born in 1968 in Distrito Federal, you know this as Mexico City, Mexico.  I don't remember much about Mexico City, except we lived in a very small house.  I have 2 sisters and I am the middle one.  My parents moved to the United States in 1971, and we children stayed with my grandmother.  I remember all of the smells in her kitchen, her fresh tortillas, her warm posole.  I remember getting perfectly dressed for church every Sunday and the big Sunday feast we had afterwards.

My parents settled in Santa Rosa with my father's cousin, and then sent for us.  We came here in 1972.  The very first memory I had was going to kindergarten- I didn't speak a word of English, and I cried and cried because I didn't understand anything anyone was saying.  To this day, my mother has not learned any English, even though she has lived in this country a long time.  She goes to Mexico to stay with her sister a lot, but then comes home to stay with me. Teresa told me about the movie she watched, "Like Water for Chocolate."  In it, the youngest daughter cannot marry because she has to care for her mother until she dies.  We are like that, in a way, but as a family.  We take care of my mother's every need.  She is going blind and has diabetes, so she is needy.   

One of the traditions that differs from those here in America is Christmas.  We celebrate Christmas all the way through January 6- that is the day the 3 kings came.  It is a great time of rejoicing and a lot of eating!

I think that family values differ in the American culture versus family values in a Mexican family a great deal.  The Mexican family is more united than an American one.  We are all one big family, our sisters, their husbands, their children, our mother, we are all one big family.  Money is never an issue, we give what we need to.  We honor our committments to help parent our godchildren.  We take our marriage vows much more sacredly, as their is no divorce allowed.  We love to have big family dinners- again, more food!  We seem to take care of our mother differently than my American friends do their parents.  And we have a head of the family, like a father, my Uncle.  We look to him for guidance and approval and follow his wisdom.  We all have a great deal of respect for him.

My own children, I teach them the old ways as well as the new.  I teach them Spanish, when they will sit still long enough to listen.  I teach my daughter how to cook mole and enchiladas. 

If I could move back to Mexico City and live comfortably, I would not.  The United States offers so much more freedom than Mexico City.  It is very corrupt now;  if you have money you are ok, if you don't you are nothing.  Even if you get a speeding ticket, you can pay the policeman and get out of it.  I would love to go to Canada!