I have noticed that so far I have concentrated on my father’s family in El Reparto Nautico. I have come to realize that we would see my mother’s family a lot less while in the old country. They lived in El Vedado. I used to love to go to Alberto’s House in El Vedado. Actually I do not know whose house it was. I know Alberto’s kids met us there all the time and I think it was Alberto’s house.

I never met my maternal grandfather. I heard he was a serious person. I know he would always like to hear my grandmother talk to him in the porch of their house. Abuela would always tell me that (she was proud of this). Apparently he was very quiet. Other people have told me he was the president of “Los Escolapios”. I do not really know what that is but I always imagined being a society such as the Knights of Columbus. Whatever it is I know some people who are really impressed by that. One of them was my former dentist, Francisco Bru, also from El Nautico. I am going to find out what it is. His name was Benito Ramon de la Vega. I guess I am named after him and Turi is named after Abuelo Arturo. I think I am pretty happy they chose Ramon and not Benito. He died when I was really young. The first picture is that of his father and mother surrounded by all their grandchildren. I can spot Jose Ramon, Alberto, Maria, Rosa, Ofelita, Rafin, Oscar, and Roberto. In the second picture we see some of the same people, approximately 47 years later. The third picture is of my maternal grandfather with Teresa and Robert. Actually I know the older one is Robert, because I can recognize him. The younger one I believe is Teresa, but I am not that certain. There may be too much of a difference in age. If any of you know, let me know.

Abuela Julia had several sisters; she had at least one brother. I have limited knowledge about any of them. I have posted one picture of them that we found (thanks Rosa). In the back row from left to right are Antoñica, Anita, Josefita?, Cheo and Alberto. Seated are Titia, and abuela Julia. In the front row are Mom, Julita and Alicia. I guess Tia Maria took the picture. I am not sure why the one I think is Josefita seems to be hiding. The male sibling’s name is Cheo (same as the astronaut, this reference my brothers and sisters will understand). Cheo is short for Jose. Cheo was my Godfather. Cheo was the youngest of the family and Abuela Julia was the next youngest. Cheo did not live with his sisters. I think he had a family of his own. Mom says that they could go through the roofs and the third house was Cheo’s. I know he had really bad diabetes and had to have several horrible processes carried out during that time and after we left. I am not going to dwell on those since we are already too familiar as to what those are. Cheo also had a hand tremor. When he wrote, his hand would shake. Although I really do not remember much about him I do remember I liked him. I remember one incident when he was trying to get to know me better and he asked me if I knew how to write. I did, but I kind of said I was just learning; since he was so intent on teaching me. I of course sat next to him and he started to write his name. The writing was barely legible. Not surprisingly, it looked as if as it would if someone had a very shaky hand and could not control the tremor. He then asked me to write my name. I started to, but I thought that the tremor was part of the deal. I felt that if I did not write it like he did, I would not be respecting him. I started mimicking him (I really did not know this was a disease, I kind of looked upon it as an idiosyncrasy or maybe a special talent he was trying to convey to me. Actually I was only five or six so I have no idea what I was thinking) One of the adults was passing by; I think it was mom; it could also have been abuela Julia, actually I do not really know who it was but, I was in trouble. I was scolded. Cheo started to laugh; he knew what was going on. He explained to them. I liked that about him. I remember liking being around him. He did have a very good sense of humor. We would not visit Cheo as often as I would have liked. After that I would hear about Cheo when I was in Miami. It was always something horrible about his disease. The thing about being apart from people is that most of the time when you get news, its bad news. He passed away while we were in Miami. I remember Abuela Julia being very depressed the day he died. She did not say anything about it although I did notice a change in demeanor. I had the stereo on. Tio lulo came by the house just to visit. He saw that we had the stereo on and scolded us for listening to music while Abuela was in mourning. He was absolutely right. The more I remember Tio Lulo, the more I remember that type of thing about him. He looked like someone who was not too sensitive but actually he was. In that way he resembled my dad.
On Sundays (perhaps it was Saturdays) Abuela Julia and Anita would visit our house in el nautico. They would stay for a couple of hours but mainly talked to the adults. They talked to us too but it just was not enough to really get to know them Anita was abuela’s sister. I think she was always a single, but I am not sure. I got to know abuela really well here in Miami. Unfortunately the rest of the family, I got to know hardly at all.

Alicia was my god mother. I loved to visit Alicia. She always had a present ready for me. She kind of looked like a combination of Abuela Julia and Tia Maria. For some reason I always picture her getting up from sitting on a bed or possibly some futon like thing. She was always happy to see me. Alicia did seem to be alone. She never did get married. After we arrived in Miami on the way home from Sts. Peter and Paul Church I asked mom about Alicia. Why did she live with Abuela’s sisters? Why wasn’t she married? Who was her father? Now I wonder why we did not speak to the family in Cuba more often. In that time speaking long distance was very expensive. Sometimes we had to wait for hours until a phone line would free up. That precious time was better invested in things that were needed and not in speaking to the children. I never was able to speak to her after we got here. Alicia died of colon cancer. She was very young. In Spanish that is called cancer del colon. I always thought it was cancer del codo (cancer of the elbow). My mom and her were close. It was indeed a very sad day when we heard she had died.

I remember very few things about Josefita. I remember she was very old. I now learn that Josefita was a type of nun or religious. She would travel a long way just to teach catechism across town. I remember the day she died. We did not see mom for a few days. One morning I asked Lydia why mom was not home. She said she was at a velorio (wake). She explained that they found Josefita dead (natural causes). She was the first person I knew to have died. I guess mom was making preparations. Mom then arrived and I kept asking her questions. Lydia motioned me to be quiet because mom had not slept at all that night. I think I did. Mom then went to sleep.

Antoñica was one of the other sisters was hard of hearing. We of course had a hard time communicating with her so I really do not remember her. I remember everyone speaking differently to her. (louder). All of abuela’s sisters stayed behind in Cuba. They were old. Perhaps they were afraid of change. Perhaps they were not able to leave. At that time everyone thought we would only be here in the states for a few months, a year at the most. She stayed behind in Cuba and I know her health was a big worry for my grandmother and my mom. She outlived everyone in that family except for Abuela. We had no one to look after her and I must say that the social services system in Cuba seemed to work well. We also had Dolores who would spend a lot of time trying to help her. Since we could not really communicate with Antoñica over the phone, Dolores would help and also let us know what was going on. Dolores is of course Misora’s sister.
I shared the same room with abuela Julia for several years. Sometimes at night she would talk about the family, this is why I remember all of this. Abuela would spend time in three places. She would go to Mexico and stay with Alberto’s family. Over there they would call her “la maxima autoridad” (the maximum authority). She would spend time with us here in Miami, always helping mom and dad by keeping the house for them. She would also go to Philadelphia and stay with Jose Ramon, Yoya and Julita. As she became older and could not travel any longer the doctor did not allow her to go to Mexico or Philadalphia. I know Jose Ramon, Alberto and Julita were upset. I know that Alberto and Jose Ramon were going to talk to el mediquito ese y ya veremos… She was always proud that all the members of her family would want her to go to their house and stay. Her biggest fear was to be a burden to anyone.