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Secret Babies

Secret Babies
by Norma I García Pettit
I remember how surprised I was to learn that my grandmother Ana Cruz García’s first baby was Matilde, born on January 27, 1907. Sadly, Matilde died on September 23, 1908, just two months after the birth of her baby sister, Adela. (See death record below). It’s amazing to me that none of my aunts and uncles, or even my father, ever mentioned that the oldest child in their family was named Matilde. We were always told that Adela was the oldest. Did they not know about Matilde?
 

Piropos

Piropos
by Norma I García Pettit

Who doesn’t like a sincere compliment? “You’re a good cook,” “I like the way you decorated this room,” “Your children are well behaved,” “You are a talented musician,” or any such positive comments have always been a pleasure to hear.

                Piropos are not quite the same and never did sit well with me. One definition of the term says that it is a flattering comment or compliment. Well, yes, it could be. But in Spanish-speaking countries piropos quite often are “unsolicited flirtatious or sexually oriented comments made by a male to a passing female of reproductive age whom he does not know.”

Are ALL Puerto Ricans Related?

Are ALL Puerto Ricans Related?
by Norma I García Pettit

Years ago, on American Idol there was a Puerto Rican contestant named Tatiana Del Toro. She could obviously sing or she wouldn’t have made it to the top 36. Tatiana was sometimes dramatic and annoying, but I remember her also for a comment that she made about Puerto Ricans: “We are all cousins.” While that’s a standard joke that we Puerto Ricans have, it sometimes seems to be true.                

DNA Cousins Are Both Authors

DNA Cousins Are Both Authors
by Norma I García Pettit

                If you have done your DNA test on Ancestry, you know that you have a list of matches that is broken down into close relatives, first cousins, 2nd-3rd cousins, 4th-6th cousins, etc. Those of us genealogy addicts that are on Facebook refer to the distant cousins as “DNA Cousins”.  Back in July, I was contacted by one such DNA cousin, Marisol Colón Santoni. She told me about her friend, Donna Darling, who (like me) wrote a historical novel based in Adjuntas, Puerto Rico.  However, Donna’s book, The 3 Marias, is set around 1897-1900, while my book, Luisa, is set from 1867-1870. Marisol thought that it would be fun for the three of us to get together and talk about genealogy and our books.

Guessing Someone's Age

Guessing Someone's Age
by Norma I García Pettit
We do it all the time. We meet someone and until we get to know them we estimate how old they are.  But how strange would it be to not know your own age? This actually happened to me. Years ago, I was going through some hormonal issues that caused me to have moments of disorientation. During one such episode, I looked at myself in the bathroom mirror as I was washing my hands, and I said to myself, “Hmmm. I wonder how old I am. Forty-three sounds good.” In actuality, I was 47 at the time.

Ponce's Architecture in 1870

Ponce's Architecture in 1870
by Norma I García Pettit
Just looking at the front covers of Luisa and Sebastián, one can immediately tell that the setting is different. The bustling, seaside town of Ponce to which Sebastián relocated in 1870 has a decidedly different feel to it than the mountain farmland on which Luisa and Sebastián were raised. A big part of this can be attributed to the architecture and the style of homes.

Quenepas - Tasty but Dangerous

Quenepas - Tasty but Dangerous
by Norma I García Pettit

Ponce is famous for its quenepas, a very tasty fruit extremely rich in phosphorus and iron.  In fact, it is the city’s official fruit and Ponce hosts an annual quenepa festival in the town plaza. Of course, I had to include something about them in Sebastián. Here is an excerpt from Chapter 19.

The Barrio of the Freed Slaves

The Barrio of the Freed Slaves
by Norma I García Pettit

The setting for Sebastián is in Ponce, Puerto Rico from September 1870 to September 1871. Even though slavery in the United States had been abolished since December 6, 1865, Puerto Rico was still a colony of Spain at that time. Under Spanish rule, slavery on the island still existed, although it was nearing its end. Sebastián Torres, born and raised in the mountains of Adjuntas, had never even seen a slave until moving to Ponce and visiting the barrio of San Antón.

Do You Know What These Are?

Do You Know What These Are?
by Norma I García Pettit

These are ditas, or traditional Puerto Rican bowls. The larger, oblong bowls are made from the gourd-like fruit of a calabash tree called the higüero.  The smaller ones are made from the dried out shell of a coconut.  The Taíno Indians constructed different types of domestic items, such as bowls and cups, and this practice survived well into the twentieth century, especially in rural areas of the island.

Ponce’s Famous Ceiba Tree

Ponce’s Famous Ceiba Tree
by Norma I García Pettit
In Ponce’s barrio San Antón, there is a park called El Parque de la Ceiba, which opened in 1984. 
In the center of this small park there was—surprise! – a ceiba tree of significant historic importance. It is 
believed to have already been a large tree at the time of the arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1493. In 
the areas surrounding this tree, broken indigenous pottery, shells, stones and other evidence of the 
presence of Taíno Indians have been found. In fact, the name ceiba comes from a Taíno word. Legend
says that underneath the massive tree's canopy, the Taínos celebrated their religious rites. It is also 
believed that the first European settlement in the Ponce region was right in that very area, next to the 
Río Portugués. Later, slaves purportedly danced under that tree when the harvest seasons ended.


 

Washing in the Creek

Washing in the Creek
by Norma I García Pettit

                On our recent trip to Puerto Rico, we took our customary drive to Guavate for some lechón asado – roast pork.  It was a harrowing drive because there were at least a dozen large mudslides along the way, results of Hurricane Fiona.  We bought a few souvenirs and then had lunch at our favorite restaurant, Lechonera Los Pinos. I took a picture of their mural depicting women washing clothes in the creek.

The Mango Tree Incident

The Mango Tree Incident
by Norma I García Pettit

                  On our walk today we passed a mango tree that still had a couple of green mangos on it, despite the season having passed. I was reminded of a story that my father, Oscar, told me many years ago.

                He was a young child, living in Barrio Santo Domingo in the mountain town of Peñuelas. He must have been only about seven or eight years old because he was still in school, and I know that he only studied until the third grade.  

So Much Flavor!

by Norma I García Pettit

In the San Juan area, a nickel is called un vellón de cinco – a five cent coin, but in Ponce it is called una ficha.  In some places un caldero is known as una olla, and what you call it could depend on the size of the pot or what it is used for. Ice cream can be called mantecado or helado, and we already talked about the controversy between empanadillas and pastelillos. For me, una funda is a pillowcase and una bolsa is a bag. But in some parts of the island, una funda is another word for a bag.

Pastelillos or Empanadillas?

Pastelillos or Empanadillas?
by Norma I García Pettit
Do you consider empanadillas/empanadas to be the same thing as pastelillos? My mother always called her meat turnovers empanadillas, and I always thought that pastelillos had fruit filling, like for example, un pastelillo de guayaba (a guava turnover). However, at food trucks and other food vendors, I often see pastelillos de carne o de jueyes (meat or crab turnovers) on the menu. Is it because of a regional difference in lingo? My mother was born in Adjuntas, but her family moved to Ponce at some point.

Mal de Ojo (Evil Eye) and Other Superstitions

Mal de Ojo (Evil Eye) and Other Superstitions
by Norma I García Pettit
     Superstitions can be found in every culture around the world, and Puerto Rico is no exception. Evil Eye is one such belief. Essentially, it attributes the ability to harm others or cause illness or death simply by a stare.
     My introduction to this belief came with a conversation that I had with an elderly family member some fifty years ago. She was telling me about her little daughter that had died as a tot. She had been a beautiful child with abundant curly hair, but she got sick and died quite suddenly. When I asked about the cause of death, the woman firmly declared that her daughter had received the evil eye from a jealous neighbor woman.

Café con Leche

Café con Leche
by Norma I García Pettit
For me, having been born and raised in San Francisco, California, I can’t say that I was used to having a three o’clock cup of coffee, but from ages 18 to 29 I lived in Puerto Rico and quickly acquired the custom.  My family knows that I like to have my coffee with enough milk in it to make it the color of a brown paper bag. My sister and my brother used to tease me about this until one time when the three of us were on a trip to Puerto Rico together. We ordered cups of café con leche and the waitress brought us three cups of the hot beverage…all of them the color of paper bags!  I had the last laugh on that one.

What Are the Odds of This Happening?

by Norma I García Pettit

When a casual conversation leads to discovering a distant relative…

                We rent out our Puerto Rico home as a short term vacation rental. Recently, a couple rented it for an entire month. The day before they left, the lady casually mentioned that they had visited Adjuntas because their daughter’s neighbor was from that town. That prompted me to tell her that my mother was born in Adjuntas and that I had written a book based on my great-grandmother’s family. I was curious as to what part of Adjuntas her daughter’s neighbor was from. She inquired and reported back to me that Joana’s family was from Juan González, the same as my ancestors!

If You Thought Ironing Is a Chore Now...

If You Thought Ironing Is a Chore Now...
by Norma I García Pettit
        Imagine having to heat up an iron like the one pictured below on a wood or coal burning stove to do the ironing. As the iron cooled, it had to be set back on the stove to get hot again. This made the task take ever so much longer. Clothes were sprinkled with water to create a steaming effect when the hot iron came in contact with the damp article of clothing since steam irons did not exist.

What Life Was Like

What Life Was Like
by Norma I García Pettit

 

                It shouldn’t come as a surprise to learn that Puerto Ricans living in the late 1800s were for the most part poor and faced hard times, at least by today’s standards. Houses in the mountainous regions of the island were simple wooden structures usually built on piers and with corrugated metal roofs and no indoor plumbing. As described in chapter one of Luisa, the interior walls did not go all the way up to the rafters and curtains hung in the doorways of bedrooms instead of doors. Some homes had their kitchens outdoors in a lean-to, and stoves were wood burning or coal burning. If the kitchen was inside the house, the sink was generally suspended from the kitchen window. Water for consumption, cooking, doing dishes, and bathing had to be hauled in containers from creeks and springs.
 

Amazing Adjuntas

Amazing Adjuntas
by Norma I García Pettit

                 Before beginning to write Luisa, Randy and I took a trip to Juan Gonzalez, Adjuntas, the barrio in which Luisa Torres and her family lived. The goal was to get as close to where my great-grandmother had lived as a young girl so as to get a feel for the environment in which she grew up. 

                The Airbnb lodging that we chose, Casa Jardín, was hosted by Gerri, who graciously permitted the use of the pictures below.  It is nestled in a mountainside surrounded by lush vegetation and majestic views. The property has hiking trails, hammocks, outdoor seating, and other features that make it the perfect place for a relaxing stay. The morning mist over the mountains is magical, and the coolness of the evenings and early mornings was exactly as I would later describe it within the pages of Luisa.