Rick's Wedding-July 17, 2010

In July, my youngest son, his girlfriend and her little three year old son, traveled by car with me to my second son's wedding in Corpus Christ, Texas. My second son, Miguel Ricardo, or Miguel Rick, had been living in Louisiana with his girlfriend Sierra and their two children, Alissa Riley(4) and Dylan Michael(1), and they got married on July 17, at Corpus Christi, Texas, in one of the gazebos near the beach. They came accompanied by Sierra's father and step-mother, her grandmother, and her young cousin and it was a small family wedding but very beautiful and romantic. They both seem very much in love and it seemed so perfect in every regard. I had a wonderful time meeting my grandson Dylan for the first time and enjoyed being with both my grandkids, besides being with my son and his beautiful bride and her immediate family. In spite of bad health I truly enjoyed the weekend--it was simply marvelous!
The beach was really awesome with all the boats and scenery. We had a wonderful dinner at Chili's after the wedding, but we were having such a great time we forgot the wedding cake. We did take many, many pictures and they all came out wonderful. We all forgot the bride's bouquet, but the bride's wedding gown was stunning...the bride was stunning too!

Breakfast at my Cousin Tina's

Tina and I always talk on the phone and she had invited me to eat "gorditas" several times and I finally was able to actually go this past Sunday for a sort of brunch. "Gorditas" are corn tortillas, hand made and cooked on a grill, or comal. as the tortilla cooks, it kinda of rises up and then it can be cut witha kinife to use the hollow to fill up with meat, sort of like the pita pockets. The lady that made them is really an expert at Mexican cooking and she sometimes come to help my cousin with the housework. They really were great and i enjpyed getting together with those two ladies and reminicsing about the family and Mexican food while we ate...great Saturday morning! My son really enjoyed it too.

Fifteenth Birthday

I always adapted things to my own ways, because I liked being creative and I did not like adapting to the ways of others, if they did not work for me. When I was in 8th grade, my close friends and I were feeling a little out of place with all the "quincianera' celebrations taking place that year because they were very extravagant, beginning with the dresses being very expensive and beyond our budget. We couldn't be the "damas" or maids in those celebrations, and some girls who were our friends ended up with "damas" they hardly knew, but who could afford the dresses.
When my 15th birthday came up, I didn't want to have strangers around me as maids..I wanted my friends and only my friends celebratng with me. Instead of choosing one color for the 14 girls to dress the same, I decided I wanted them to use whatever they had already making a variety of colors like a rainbow. I didn't care what they wore, but I cared that I would choose and have my closest friends around me celebrating together. Some of them didn't even have a celebration of their own, so this was their celebration too. It was simple but beautiful in our eyes, and that was what was important. None of my friends had to feel left out.
I did have one problem for a while, because my best friend and neighbor was only 10 years old and at that time maids were usually 14, or very close to 14 or 15. At first her mother said no, but I found a way to get past that. I invited her mother to be my "madrina" or godmother and then she felt compelled to say yes.
I still needed one more girl a couple of weeks before my birthday and my mother stopped to talk to a neighbor and she found the last girl because the lady had a granddaughter. At first, I was not too happy, because I hardly knew her since she was only 13, but it was ironic that we later became like sisters for the rest of our lives. In fact, I am still friends with about half of then now that I am old.
My fifteenth birthday was beautiful. My 14 maids walked in to the strains of music with me flollowing and then my godmother. I was so proud of my friends with their pastel promlike dresses of net or lace in pinks, blues, greens and violets--a pastel rainbow. After the solemn mass with all of us receiving communion, we went to my house where we had cake and chocolate and played games, laughed and played music and danced to rock and roll. My mother did not allow boys, but we had some fun anyway. My friends and myself were still not boy crazy yet...we were just starting to notice them!

Tortillas

Weslaco was unique in its way in the 40's. The milkman may not have gone to too many houses in my neighborhood, but the "tortilla" man did. Every morning between the hours of 10am and noon, the "tortillero" drove up to the curve and the housewives were ready to buy packages of corn "tortillas" fresh from the local "tortilla" factory. The "tortillas" were still hot and they were were the best I have ever eaten. My mother always bought some for our lunch, which usually consisted of Mexican rice or "fideo" made by her, with refried beans.
Then about 4pm, she would make wheat flour "tortillas". She never measured anything that I could see. She just put some flour in the bowl, added some salt with her fingers and some baking powder with a spoon, some lard and poured the water and mixed. Her "tortillas" always came out perfect every day. She rolled the out on a flour board, with a wooden rolling pin from little balls of the mixed and kneaded dough and cooked them on a big iron skillet with a heavy lid. Her "tortillas" were big, bigger than most other "tortillas I had seen being made in other houses where they were cooked on an iron "comal"( a flat grill).
When I arrived home I would have a tortilla with coffee to hold me till suppertime at about 6pm.