Here’s a “Kodak moment” with me and my grandma back in 1948. Her name was Margarita Ledesma. All my life she looked the same. She never changed. I have a picture of her when she was a young lady, looks the same. As the years rolled by and I grew up, she looked the same.
She never spoke English. She lived here in California for over 70 years and I only heard her speak one word that was kind of English. She called those cars that were made in Japan, “Coyotas.” Another thing she would do that made us laugh was, cover the TV with a blanket each night before going to bed.
“I can see them. They can see me.” She said, (en español).
Many of the old people in Oxnard addressed her as Doña Margarita. It is a term of respect. She was never called Señora Ledesma. I asked my mama why when I was old enough to notice that. When Grandma and her family came to the U.S. around the year 1910, a lot of people that worked for them came along also. These were the people I heard calling her Doña Margarita.
In the picture, Grandma and I are on the porch of her house in Oxnard. She lived there with my two aunts Katherine and Emily. My brother lived there as well. The house was on E Street, and so was our church.
Grandma walked to morning Mass every day of her life until the years took that away from her, and walking became more difficult. I miss her, now that I am thinking about her.
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