As the woman who gave birth to the first generation born in the United States, my mother did her best with us. She held on to a marriage as long as she could; living in a two-bedroom apartment in the Bronx, in a neighborhood with drugs, with police sirens and where watching people get arrested was a daily occurrence. We were no better than anyone else living on the block and many others, but somehow we were different.
The Hood
Despite how and where we lived, on weekends we went to the museum, and did almost every cultural activity the city had to offer. My mom knew almost every corner of Central Park, we went to the planetarium, the Met, saw the Nutcracker almost every winter, the Radio City Spectacular - you name it, we saw it. Sometimes we complained and groaned but most of the time we enjoyed it. Tchaikovsky's music on its own is boring but with huge rats running about, sugar plum fairies and a ton of kids popping out of the skirt of a woman - who'd be bored? These rich people were just like us: they had rats we had rats too and gave birth to too many kids (my sister and I are my mom's only children, but there were plenty "big" families on the block). The Nutcracker was like a ghetto rock ballet! What's not to love?!
But what did Picasso, the homo-habilus, homo-sapien, Monet and Degas do for me? They taught me to me to want more. I never thought I would be a painter, a paleontologist, a physicist or anything like that but that appreciation of culture: mine and that of others made me a richer person. It gave me wealth. She created a wealth in me and my sister that no one will ever take away - educacion. I didn't make a spelling error, education is the translation but it is not meant in the literal sense of school and higher learning but it is learning. It is/was learning beyond the Bronx, poverty, being Dominican, American and me - it was above and beyond the scope of my eyes.
Some women were taught to drink "pa que no te engañen" but as a child and into adolescence, my mother purposely took us to fancy restaurants so that when we got to dating age we did not embarrass ourselves (or her for that matter) by not knowing how/what to order and worse by not knowing how to eat. By age 6 I knew which fork to use and how, by 8 I knew how to use chopsticks and by 10 I had an appreciation for spicy foods, stinky cheeses and many fine things in life. It was mostly food and a couple art exhibits, but for me it was the finest and fanciest a kid living off the Grand Concourse could imagine! No one else in school made weekly trips to Macy's, Lord & Taylor (how I hated that walk from 34th & Broadway to 38th & 5th) and all the stores along the way never missing any Christmas displays.
The Future
I can only hope that I am exposing my son to diveristy, culture and educacion as my mother instilled it in me. I know my son remembers going to see the King Tut exhibit recently, the dinosaurs at the Museum of Natural History but my hope is that he will continue in the same tradition that was started more the 30 years ago by his Nana. We love you Nana.
Sincerely,
~Cher
Sent from my iPhone
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