Okay, so I said I’d never be that way, that I had no interest in being a grandmother that I’d never gush and feel about to burst from pride and love for the extraordinary being that is my granddaughter Violeta. She always manages to surprise but yesterday I was dazzled by her mind and sense of self. She not only knows exactly what she wants but can articulate it in a most impressive way.
She is three years old.
Victoria, my daughter-in-law, was preparing dinner and I asked her in a loud voice if she needed help. Violeta, turned to me and explained that loud voices and noises bothered her. I completely understood and it brought two anecdotes to mind.
The first is a family story about the time my Tio Manuel, my father’s brother, went for a hair cut and the barber asked him how he’d like for him to cut his hair. His response: “In perfect silence.”
My son, Rodrigo, came home from work and a friend commented on Violeta’s vocabulary and he quipped :”Yes, we read Ivanhoe to her each night!”
After graduating from high school I was shipped off to Guadalajara to a finishing school where they prepared you to be a good housewife by teaching you how to de-stain, arrange flowers crochet make layette sets and cook the food of the upper classes. But one year was enough of that though in retrospect I now know how valuable that was.
Me teaching at the ITESO (Instituto Tecnologico y de Estudios Superiores de Occidente) in Guadalajara 1968
But I wanted to go to the University but I couldn’t because I had not gone to Prepa, a two-year college prep course. I got a big break came when the ITESO launched a Mass Communications program directed by a Mr. McMahon and Father Boyle of Fordham University. Neither spoke Spanish so I was admitted to the universityi provided I became their assistant and translator and taught English to my co-students. It was a challenge so one day I got fed up with their lack of attention and dictated the following very apropos poem and asked them to translate it.
I will post only the first paragraph because it is what fits the story but you can easily find it on the internet.bbb
Desiderata
Go placidly amid the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence.
As far as possible without surrender be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even the dull and ignorant; they too have their story.
Avoid loud and aggressive persons, they are vexations to the spirit.
If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain and bitter;
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Max Lehrer
