Guatemalan tales!

My Viejo...

He was a charming old man. He was loved by everybody. My viejo worked as a plumber, he never attended school but was always good with mathematics. He met my grandma when he was 19-years-old. "Era tan bellisima", my viejo used to say about my grandma. They had met at a local store when my grandpa was buying a few cigarettes. "Fue amor a primera vista", it was love at first sight he always told me. He wanted to marry her without even knowing her and he did. My grandma was living with her step-mom by the time and she saw an opportunity to escape with in my grandfather. So one night, as my viejo walked the streets of la zona 6, he saw a woman coming closer to him. "Casemonos y escapemos de aqui!", my grandma suggested my grandpa. Right away el viejo began to look for a place to live and get married. A month after seeing my grandma on the streets, my grandparents got married and moved to a very small and filthy house, were they were to live their lives as husband and wife. It was a hard time, my grandma wasn't working and was living with a "stranger", as she referred to my viejo.

She began cleaning houses for a living as my grandpa kept working as a plumber. Within time, they both earned enough money to buy a beautiful, small house with a beautiful front yard, far away from la zona 6. This, being the house where I grew up. A year later, my dad's big brother was born. Four years later, my dad was born. Two years later, my aunt C. was born. And finally, two years after that, my aunt Lorna was born. "Peleábamos diariamente y nos cansamos de estar juntos", my viejo once told me. So, the relationship ended and my grandma decided to move to the US, where she believed could make more money. My grandparents stayed friends and even lived some time together while being divorced. So, my dad and his brother and two sisters grew up in that house, raised by my viejo. When my dad turned twelve, my grandma requested my grandpa to send them to the US to live with her. And so they did. Except for my uncle, who decided to stay in Guatemala and finish high school and eventually attend college.

"It was a hard journey", my dad told me, about crossing the border. He had to take care of my two aunts and forget about his life back in Guatemala. My viejo kept working as a plumber and helping out my uncle with school and picking out a career. He also became the ambassador of la colonia del 1. He enjoyed spending time playing poker but never as much as he loved soccer. He created events in which he always included soccer like friendly matches of soccer or competitions to see who was the best soccer player of la colonia. Everybody was fond of my viejo. I remember, every other Sunday, he would bring me and my brother a little pinata for each of us to break. He always had time for my brother and I and loved my mother like his own daughter.