My Personal Example of Strength and Determination
This is Alfa Bernal de Trejo, my grandmother, matriarch of my father's family.
She was mother to 11 kids (no twins, triplets, or quads etc.--yikes!) Here she stands w grandpa, or Tata Genaro (Trejo) and a couple of the grandchildren younger than myself by about 6-7 yrs. Nana Alfa was a fiery woman to say the least. Maybe she was just tired. Her outbursts were LEGENDARY, and so was her strength, loyalty & perseverance.
Her determination to give her children the best opportunities life had to offer, lead her to move back & forth across the Mexicali/ Calexico border, living in the USA illegally at times & being deported back to Mexicali. Back then, there was no welfare & many Mexicans in same situation worked hard to earn what they could for their families. I was one of the first grandchildren to be born, raised, & educated in the US up to the college level. In a way, her determination & perseverance were just as responsible for my success as my individual effort. My graduation from college was a culmination of 3 generations following a dream. Many of us 2nd & 3rd generation Trejos are said to have a little "Alfa Bernal" in all of us, when we get determined or outraged about something.
Nana Alfa passed away a few months before my husband & I moved back to the states after a 3-year stint in Australia, in December, 2003. She is greatly missed. I remembered her today, when I read 13 Real-Life Badass Grandmas Will Make Your Day on huffpost, today. She had many health problems as she aged. She lived into her mid-70s.
No comments:
Post a Comment