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Like with many things, time brings forth much change. With regards to the initiation into adulthood in my family, the difference is immense. My great-grandmother feels that her initiation was when she got her first job at age nine. My grandmother feels that she became a woman when she had her first child and my mother thinks it was when she got married. Personally, I feel that my transition into adulthood was when I graduated from high school. It may not be evident but, during my family lineage, the difference between these initiations has been immense because of the social and idealistic views and principles which society has set forth. My great-grandmother, Maria De Las Mercedes Consuegra, was born in September 24, 1917, in Las Villas, Cuba. She was the fifth child out of 12, all of which were born out of wedlock. She did not know much about her father and her mother had passed away when she was only 12 years old. Her family was extremely poor and in order to survive there was an “everyone for himself” type of attitude. The severity of her families’ situation was so bad that her youngest sister was given away to another family when she was just six months old. No one in her family had attended school, although in that time and region there were not many schools to begin with. This type of lifestyle is definitely viewed as being somewhat “survival of the fittest”. Having said that, it could also be referred to as being binary opposition. This is because one is not expected to finish, or even start, school so therefore it is believed that one would just go about life day to day with no real knowledge or education. Also, since no one attended school, almost everyone got married extremely young. This would then mean that people in this time period must have all had the same “job”: the women tending to the children and the housework, the men doing manual labor to provide for his family. My great-grandmother feels that her initiation into womanhood came about at the tender age of nine. As stated above, most, if not all, of the people in her town did not attend school so they either married extremely young or began to work to help with the expenses of the household. My grandmother was put to work at a neighbor house at age nine. She worked at “el Falelo y el paseo Marti”, which roughly translates into the address of her employer. She was what one would call now a housekeeper or nanny. She took care of children, washed clothes and did all of the housework. Ironically, the ages of the children whom she cared for were not too far apart from her own. The oldest was seven, the middle child was five, and the youngest was three. She worked there for five years until she got married at age 14 to my great-grandfather, who was 16 years her senior. Shortly after, at age 15, she had her first child. My great-grandmothers initiation into womanhood could be viewed as being deconstruction. Although it was the norm for boys and girls to begin to provide for the family at a young age, she told me that she was in no way forced into working, though she knew she had to in order for her family to be at least partially comfortable in their living situation. Also, although my great-grandmother did not know of anyone who attended school, she says there had to have been some children who did. Her initiation was one which most girls went through, but it cannot be said with full certainty that all girls did. LA SONORA MATANZERA "QUANDO SALI DE CUBA" Nunca podré morirme, mi corazón no lo tengo aquí. |
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