Various relatives live right around the corner from this family, and for lunch an aunt literally enters the home through a kitchen entrance. Lunch is the important meal here and in this family the 19 year old daughter, her mother, an older aunt, and young cousin, combined with the son if he is back in town from work, all join together to share a meal.
I love my family but have never truly felt a strong presence from my extended family. My immediate family always ate dinner together and now that us children have grown up we have become closer, but here it is more than just the basic family that is close. Clearly distance and number of individuals in a family influence how many people can be close and how often they can join together, so this is not a criticism of typical American families, but rather a recognition of the strength of family in South America.
....
I have just now returned to my room after rejoining the party after more people had come and the eating had morphed into social hour. The extended family where I am staying is full of some lovely people, even if one of the one year olds had recently discovered the joy of scraping legs with his tiny nails. If you saw my legs, you might believe I had been attacked by a cat.
Yes, I am also impressed by the importance of family in the Spanish influenced countries and their hearty generosity to guests, despite the meager resources their economy dealt them. There always seems to be cause for celebration and there are no limits to food, joy, dancing and laughter.
ReplyDeleteI had the good fortune of blending in with the locals in Cuba, quite a few years back, and was eager to try my hand at speaking Spanish. At a lunch spot, while exploring with friends, I wanted a small sandwich with 5 different meats in it, I wound up getting 5 jumbo sandwiches with the 5 different meats. So I totally understood it when, we continued our adventures, communication outside our group was presented, they were being "protective" of me and they told me to stand there and look Cuban but don't speak Spanish..."we will speak Spanish!!!!"
I was always made to feel as one of the family. And many evenings I met new friends and made occasions to socialize and celebrate wherever we could pull up chairs, music and cook food.
You have been the prolific writer here. Lovely to hear of your exploits. I had the pleasure in 1972 to visit Romania and Czechoslovakia at 18 for three weeks. It is amazing to be in a country other then what you grew up in. A communist country as a matter of fact. Changed my life forever. God speed my friend. Keep writing.
ReplyDelete