Maria Eugenia Rodriguez De Los Rios

Mita Genia and her sister Mita Tonia were seamstresses in Candelaria (Lajas). They tailored tropical white, men's suits; commonly worn by men in the tropics, in those days. When her daughter, Isabel, my grandmother, hemorrhaged and died after giving birth to her 7th child, Isabel, Mita Genia and her sister, Mita Tonia, took charge of the household. The young, Isabel, was taken to "the capital"; San Juan, by Mita Tonia's daughter, "Mati"; who was an RN and married to Juan Orizal, bodyguard to Governor of Puerto Rico, Luis Munoz-Marin. They raised Titi Isabel with their own two children; Juanito and Huldi. They were well established financially and in San Juan society. My mother, Elvira, eleven, and the next to youngest child, Americo, two, were sent to live with their Uncle, Rev Pedro Roura, in Aquadilla. There they helped with the household chores, which included helping in the church. He and his wife, Elvi, had 6 children of his own, four boys and two girls. Mom would tell me how wonderful Elvi was to her and Americo, she loved her like a mother. Then Elvi too died. Tio Pedro, the Reverend, then married his wife's younger sister, Sara. She was not so nice and made mom feel very unwanted. Back in Candelaria, my great-grandmother, Mita Genia and her sister Mita Tonia raised the older boys, Ismael, oldest and runt of the litter because he was sickly as a child, and Benjamin. Though apart, the family made sure the children saw each other often and so they were always close to each other and the elders. The family lived in the main family home while my grandfather, Jesus, occupied a small home on the corner of the property, with his son Yeyo; half brother; a slip by my grandfather, whileworking as an inspector, had a thing with a young girl; she did not want the child, so my grandmother raised him along with the rest. He and Benjamin were approximately the same age. When mom was about 13, she was sent to San Juan. Uncle Ruben went to live with an uncle on a golf course, where he learned perfect English. In their old age, Mita Genia and Mita Tonia both lived with Titi Mati in San Juan. They lived well into their 90s and died in that home. Eventually,mom married my father, who was her childhood sweetheart. Mom told the story of how, as children, dad would come by her house when she was playing in the yard, pull her pig tails and tell her how they'd be married some day. Unfortunately, mom's Presbyterian upbringing and dad's Catholic upbringing, not to mention, the ignorance of the two families, would always be a problem for them. Their original married, in 1944-5, as dad came back from WWII, did not last very long. He'd come to find work (and party), in NYC, lived with his sister Cruz Maria. Mom's brother, Ruben, had paid for her to come to New York. She lived with him and his family because dad said there was no room at his sister's. Mom gave birth to me at NY Hospital on May 9, 1946. Dad visited me in the nursery, but did not visit mom. . Ruben had paid for her to come to the states and seeing the obvious, booked us on a Navy ship back to Puerto Rico when I was two weeks old. Navy ships were used then to transport people from PR to the states. Mom and I lived in a little wooden house on a hill in Candelaria. We had an outhouse and a pump for water in the kitchen and one in the front yard. I had a pet chicken that would hide under the house and my uncle Yeyo would go an get her for me all the time. I ate mangos for snacks, Mom and I would pick coffee beans. She would put them in a cast iron pan and roast them for hours. I can still smell that delicious coffee smell. When the sun went down, mom would close the wooden shutters and light the glass kerosene lamp on the little shelve in the tiny livingroom. We often visited dad's sister, Tia Eloina, who had Myrna, dad's youngest sister's child, living with her; while her mom, Titi Quety, was in NYC. Mom was seen as a "divorcee" and, in those days, shuned, though she'd not been the cause of the divorce. We lived in Candelaria until I was five. Then mom's brother, Uncle Noe, newly married, brought us to live with him, first in Guanica, then in San German There I started school at Colejio San Jose, with dad's cousin, Sister Vivina, as my first teacher. Mom and I visited all of the family often. We would take the black coal engine train from San German, we lived in a house just across the street from the station, to San Juan. I can still hear the clickity clack of the slow moving train, the smell of the compartment and of the peanuts they'd come in to sell when we stopped in Arecibo. We also visited Tio Pedro's house in Aquadilla often. Uncle Americo and Mita Genia, were there. Mita Genia was the person I ran to when mom wanted to punish me for something. Mita would give mom a "peyisco" (pinch). I missed her very much when we moved back to New York. I was 7 the last time I saw my great grandmother, Mita Genia. Mom and dad remarried and two years later had my wonderful little brother Ray.