Chapter 6… Manuela and eternal love

     Mother was constantly busy, all day long. Besides all the household chores that our growing family entailed, she maintained a series of responsibilities, together with the Women’s Revolutionary Forces. She was not only their Regional Secretary, but also, one of the most firm believers in the ideals that the revolution represented. If all the above were not enough to trouble herself during the day, she additionally volunteered to help with different social activities, such as the intense and highly successful campaigns to eradicate illiteracy, in the rural areas of the country. As a consequence of all these activities, she was forced to spend a lot of time away from home, and in a certain way, from our lives as well. In quite a natural manner, it was my grandparents that assumed the role of second-parents in my life, as well as in the life of the rest of my siblings.

     Talking about my mother, it was her who told me how my grandparents met. This happened on a sun-filled afternoon after lunch. My grandparents had left to spend the day in Chinandega, my great-grandparent’s home town. My sisters, my brothers, and I were spread out on the brightly colored hammocks, which hung, in the shade under the balmy palm trees. We were in the patio in the back of the house, and that patio was my favorite in the house. We were lying in the shade, as we enjoyed Mother’s company that lazy afternoon.

     She was telling us the story of how my grandparents had met, and of course, we were all ears, for we had never heard it before. As she explained that afternoon, when Grandfather was only fifteen years old, he had been to the celebrated Sea Festival with his mother, doña Leonor. These festivities were held in the month of May, during The Festivities of the Holy Cross (called Las Fiestas de Santa Cruz) in the port town of Corinto. The festival consisted in a major gastronomical event, where you could find and enjoy, all these different and delicious dishes, mostly prepared with fish and seafood brought in fresh by the local fishermen, who caught them abundantly at that time of the year, in the waters nearby the port.

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