Dad found a place on the boat sailing away. Both Dad and his brother left the country with a promise of keeping in contact of their whereabouts.
His only consolation was leaving a difficult life in a country that literally had him under the power of a communist ideology and no chance of progressing any how, anyway, anytime.
Only his strong will of finding a better life and bring his family. But he needed to make the way clear for his family.
Dad barely spoke Spanish. As a young kid, he would pick it up...
On arrival, he made friends with other migrants, meeting my uncle that at that time ran a cinema.
Mom was the ticket master.
Cool
My uncle organized a party for his workers of the cinema, a Christmas little get-together dinner Xmas party.
Dad was invited to the party.
That's how they met
After that they continue seeing each other, went out together, started dating. They started to go out more often, worked together. He accompanied Mom on her way back home.
Then, day came, he proposed and few years later, they got married.
It was a beautiful wedding, I was told.
Great day for Mom and Dad…
They moved to another city to start a new life.
Mom stayed home to raise my 3 brothers, while dad worked at a different job at at type of home hardware store. He became the new manager later.
That store it's still open.
In the city centre, selling same stuff….
Then it was time to take part in the play, show up in the map; and, change the future of the family.
As far as I remember, Mom told me she thought she had a bad case of stomach flu. Neither the family nor the doctor knew it was a different serious story.
Mom always wanted a girl,
Wish granted.
And after a troublesome delivery, a girl was brought to the world.
That make the family up to 4 siblings, 3 boys and one girl. ME!
Soon I became the amusement of the family- the only girl…..
My brothers became my guardians, myself…. Had to prove I was as capable and self driven; even better, than my brothers. My pride started to grow as I grew, had to excel, had to prove I am better. My parents never compared us. Only wanted us to be respectful and responsible. Good kids with reasonable careers.
So we grew up to be a family of five. Mom and Dad had the hands full of responsibilities, mouths to feed and survive. Mom stayed home. Left the job she ran with my uncle. The cinema was not in the list anymore. It got sold. Mom came back home to take care of us and Dad looked for another job at a type of hardware store. A mix of convenience and home hardware store.
And the store is still there, in the city centre, in the middle of all the noise and commotion a busy downtown is, a mini New York, amongst restaurants, pharmacies, furniture and street food vendors.
The strong smell of cars passing by, buses, taxi cabs, delivery trucks, police patrols, military trucks, and the sporadic mounted police to control any possible street disturbances. The tall horses were really intimidating, and tall. So everyone respected them and kept their distance.
After all, they controlled everything was in order and the streets were chaos free.
Competition to sell was interesting: you could find the same product inside the store and out with the street vendors,offered to you at a cheaper price than in the stores already stablished, it was up to you where to purchase it from.
Problem was, it it was defective or not.
No guarantee for exchange if defective.
That was the risk.
Watch out for hustlers and snatchers….