Now somehow I missed that the Grandmother died. I realized she was dead when Celaya went to Mexico and she kept seeing the grandmother pop up in her mind. I thumbed back through and although I knew she had a stroke I missed an entire chapter. The Grandmother died on a night in January and Zolia made them open all the windows in the house even though it was in the 40's. She wanted to air the house out and get the smell of the Grandmother out. Lala doesnt think she left. She says things fall when she is in the shower, doors slam, and all kinds of weird things happen.
When I last left off Celaya called her dad to come pick her up from the hotel in Mexico. Lala's dad has a friend come to pick her up and he travels to Mexico to get her. When he gets there she expects him to scream at her, but instead he breaks down and cries. Celaya expects to fight her father, but she cries too and ends up consoling him. She thought it would be the other way around. She doesnt want to tell her father that Ernesto did "steal" her, but she wanted to be stolen. That she lost her virginity at the young age of 15 and then was left by the boy she thought loved her. She did not tell her father that after Ernesto left she walked over to the old house on Destiny Street and it was worn down. It was painted the color of "caca" and it made her very sad.
Shortly after they return from Mexico Lala's father gets into a fight with Mars, the owner of shop he works in. They get into very nasty name calling and he quits. Inocencio calls up to Chicago and decides to go back into business with his brothers. They leave San Antonio and buy a 3 story house in Chicago. The business is going awesome and they even rent out their basement for extra money. Then one night Inocencio suffers a stroke and spends the next month in the hospital. He is expected to die. Lala's mother tells her about the father her father had out of wedlock before she met him. Then she reminds Lala of the time in Acapulco and tells her that is when she found out. It is a lot to take in. Lala goes into the room and pleads with her Grandmother to leave him. She is not ready to live without her father and they barter back and forth. Lala promises to tell her grandmothers story and that is how we find out about Soledads past. They agree and Lala is left her father to take care of. The story ends with Lala's parents having their 30 anniversary. Everyone dresses up and dances. The last part of the book is Lala promising her father that she will try her best to go down the right path. She is now just like her grandmother, obsessed with her father. She tends to his every want and need is completely ok with it.
I liked PRABE, but it was hard for me to find time to read for 90 minutes a week. I was happy to get the chance to read, because it is one my most favorite things to do. It is hard being in school full time, full time job, 2 year old daughter, grouchy husband :), cant keep up with house work, and recently pregnant, its time consuming. I make it work and I am happy to do it. Just a little stressed when it boils down to finishing everything up! Although, I have to admit that it was nice to have a reason to spend more than 15 minutes in the tub :) That was the time I was able to concentrate and submerge myself into the reading.
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Sunday, December 4, 2011
Caramelo Week 10
"The Little Grandfather died on a Tuesday in the time of the rain. He had an attack of the heart while driving on the periferico and crashed into a truck filled with brooms. The Grandfather's face looked startled. This would not be the death he had imagined for himself. An avalanche of brooms of all colors spilling onto the windshield like crayons. The thwack of brooms under car wheels. The thunk-thunk of their tumbling on metal. Brooms twirling in the air and bouncing. The Grandfather, who never lifted a broom in his life, buried under a mountain of plastic brooms, the ones Mexican housekeepers use with a bucket of sudsy water to scrub the patio, to scrub the street and curb. As if Death came with her apron and broom swept him away"(p.249).
I started the blog with this excerpt from the book because Narcisco, The Little Grandfather, has been a main character in my last few blogs. They said that when they pulled him out of the car he muttered the name of a woman from his past, but it was not that of his wife. The 3 Reyes brothers fly down from Chicago to help their mother. Lala goes with her father and when they get there the Awful Grandmother is beside herself. She talks non-stop as if the death was not her husbands. At the funeral it takes 5 strong men to hold The Awful Grandmother back when they begin to lower the casket into the ground. She does what is expected of all Mexican wives and screams his name while trying to throw herself on the coffin. Once back at the house the grandmother abruptly decides to sell her house and move up north with her sons. So once again the Reyes kids miss another summer stuck driving down to Mexico but this will be the last time. This time it is to sell the house on Destiny Street. The Grandmother goes back into her room to clean it out. She misses her husband now that he is gone. She misses the smell of stale cookies and iodine that he had to put on his war wound everyday of his life. She misses hugging him until he fell asleep and how his cold feet would push between hers like fat tamales. When Lala walks in to help her grandmother she picks up an old sephia picture of her grandfather when he was in his twenties and asks who the person was that is cut out. The grandmother yanks the picture out of Lala's hand and slams the door shut. Lala can hear her silently crying behind the closed door.
The Grandmother convinces Inocencio to take his family and move to Texas. She takes the money from her house on Destiny Street and they buy a fixer upper in Texas. The other brothers and sister are very upset that all the money from the house is for Inocencio and his family and not split equally. The house that they move into in Texas is not a nice house, but they plan to fix it and it is theirs. Celaya is upset because she has to move and leave her friends that she has known her entire life. The girls in Texas make fun of Lala because she is only half Mexican. Her mother is from Spain and she speaks broken Spanish. They say she is not a real Mexican. Her father attempts to open his upholstery shop with a friend that he fought with in the war. They do well at first, but Inocencio has to pay his friend rent and they start having trust issues. During this time Lala falls in love with a boy. He is a friend of her brothers and she likes his awkward and shy ways.They run off to get married and haul up in a hotel. They do things that people who are about to elope do and before they decide to get married he has a change of heart. He calls his mother and tells her what he plans to do. While Celaya is asleep he leaves her sleeping on the bed with a note basically saying he changed his mind. Lala is forced to call her father to come and get her. Needless to say he is not happy and it sets up for another awesome chapter.
Time read 90 minutes on December 4 while my husband and daughter napped :)
I started the blog with this excerpt from the book because Narcisco, The Little Grandfather, has been a main character in my last few blogs. They said that when they pulled him out of the car he muttered the name of a woman from his past, but it was not that of his wife. The 3 Reyes brothers fly down from Chicago to help their mother. Lala goes with her father and when they get there the Awful Grandmother is beside herself. She talks non-stop as if the death was not her husbands. At the funeral it takes 5 strong men to hold The Awful Grandmother back when they begin to lower the casket into the ground. She does what is expected of all Mexican wives and screams his name while trying to throw herself on the coffin. Once back at the house the grandmother abruptly decides to sell her house and move up north with her sons. So once again the Reyes kids miss another summer stuck driving down to Mexico but this will be the last time. This time it is to sell the house on Destiny Street. The Grandmother goes back into her room to clean it out. She misses her husband now that he is gone. She misses the smell of stale cookies and iodine that he had to put on his war wound everyday of his life. She misses hugging him until he fell asleep and how his cold feet would push between hers like fat tamales. When Lala walks in to help her grandmother she picks up an old sephia picture of her grandfather when he was in his twenties and asks who the person was that is cut out. The grandmother yanks the picture out of Lala's hand and slams the door shut. Lala can hear her silently crying behind the closed door.
The Grandmother convinces Inocencio to take his family and move to Texas. She takes the money from her house on Destiny Street and they buy a fixer upper in Texas. The other brothers and sister are very upset that all the money from the house is for Inocencio and his family and not split equally. The house that they move into in Texas is not a nice house, but they plan to fix it and it is theirs. Celaya is upset because she has to move and leave her friends that she has known her entire life. The girls in Texas make fun of Lala because she is only half Mexican. Her mother is from Spain and she speaks broken Spanish. They say she is not a real Mexican. Her father attempts to open his upholstery shop with a friend that he fought with in the war. They do well at first, but Inocencio has to pay his friend rent and they start having trust issues. During this time Lala falls in love with a boy. He is a friend of her brothers and she likes his awkward and shy ways.They run off to get married and haul up in a hotel. They do things that people who are about to elope do and before they decide to get married he has a change of heart. He calls his mother and tells her what he plans to do. While Celaya is asleep he leaves her sleeping on the bed with a note basically saying he changed his mind. Lala is forced to call her father to come and get her. Needless to say he is not happy and it sets up for another awesome chapter.
Time read 90 minutes on December 4 while my husband and daughter napped :)
Saturday, November 26, 2011
Caramelo Week 9
When I last left off Narcisco was sneaking into Soledad's room. His father lays helpless watching each night as his son sneaks into the kitchen through the maids quarters. He wonders if his wife knows that their son is doing this or if she is just turning a blind eye. After months go by Soledad's stomach starts to swell and it is obvious she is pregnant. The thing that confused me is that between the time Narcisco is hurt during the war and is sneaking into Soledad's room is actually a 7 year span. I think maybe it was a peek into what was next to come, but it honestly had me confused at first. The book jumps around a lot from character to decades often, but I picked it back up quickly. When the book started back on the chapter on Narcisco, he was living in Chicago with Uncle Old. He lives there for 7 years and during that time he becomes a womanizer. He goes to all the bars and does the Charleston dance, which is supposed to be forbidden. He falls in love with a night singer named Tompi. Her stage name is Josephine. She is half black and Cherokee Indian. He wants to marry her. He sends a letter home and tells his family of her heritage. He tells them that he plans to marry her. This is the news that makes Senor Reyes have a stroke that everyone thinks killed him. He reads the note while sitting at the table reading and has a massive stroke.
They wash Senor Reyes and lay him in a casket in the living room for family and friends to view. During these times bodies were not embalmed and the body was put out for a day or so for viewing. Regina Reyes sends an urgent message to her son that his father is dead and to come home. Narcisco asks Tompi to wait for him while he is gone and she says she will cry everyday until he sends for her. He later finds out from a friend that the same day he leaves to go to his fathers funeral, Josephine is on a train with her company traveling to another state to marry a man with the last name of Baker. She divorces him and goes on to perform in New York and Paris and well, we know the rest. Narcisco is devastated when he hears the news, but now back to Mexico where his fathers funeral is being held. Before Narcisco arrives, the viewing has begun. While a niece bends over to kiss the cheek of her dead uncle she shrieks. Everyone thinks she is a great child who must have loved him best, but then she yells that he is breathing. The doctor is summoned and it is true. Senor Reyes is indeed alive, but he cant not move the left side of his body and his speech is slurred. He is still able to write and play music with his right hand and if people took notice they would have seen how much life was left in him by his piano playing.
Once Narcisco is home he finds that his father is not dead and that the woman he planned to marry has run off with another. One day he takes notice of Soledad. He wonders how he did not notice her perfectly shaped back side and her perky chest. He thinks of her as a way to get over Tompi and decides he wants to show her a thing or two he learned back in Chicago. This is where the last chapter left off. Now, Senor Reyes watches helplessly as his son sneaks through the kitchen into Soledad's room each night. He notices the swelling of her belly and watches this for months, unable to speak. When Narcisco decides he wants to go back to Chicago his mother turns a blind eye to Soledads stomach and throws him a going away party. This is the first and final time Senor Reyes speaks with his new condition. In front of a huge party crowd he grabs Soledad and screams at his son "We are not dogs!" Narcisco then finally notices Soledad, standing so frail with her swollen belly and realizes what his father means. No bells rang when they married, but Soledad was very happy.
Narcisco moves Soledad south with him while he works, but she stays in Oaxaca while he goes south to the jungle to work. She has an awful pregnancy. She never sleeps and always aches. She is worried her husband is having an affair and has dreams of him with women. She has right to worry. While he is in the jungle he falls for a woman named Exalatcion. She is considered a witch who sells potions and wears live iguanas tied in a crown around her head. He first goes to her when he gets an infection in his eye and he beds her. While he is there so tells him that she likes to have fun with him but it means more when you are in love. Over the next few months he is obsessed with her and pesters her until she lets him in the house. He falls in love with her and she laughs at him. She reminds him that he is married and she has no feelings for him. This makes him want her more. One day they go to a carnival and take a picture and she befriends one of the ladies in the carnival. The next morning with out word she leaves with the carnival. Never to be heard from again. Narcisco is devastated and when he goes home to visit his wife he is annoyed by her. He cant stand how big she is from her pregnancy and how emotional she is. He treats her awful and she knows what he has done without him saying a word. Weeks later he gives her a picture with the other half cut out. He tells her it is friend that he works with, but the neighbor boy asks Soledad who the woman is sitting next to her husband. She is filled with rage and screams at the child that there is no woman, but then she notices what the child did, shoes off to the right that belong to a woman.She then notices a scarf and runs into the square in a panic. She faints and when she wakes up in calmed by a vendor she has befriended while living there. She calms herself, goes back to the hotel and later that night goes into labor.
They wash Senor Reyes and lay him in a casket in the living room for family and friends to view. During these times bodies were not embalmed and the body was put out for a day or so for viewing. Regina Reyes sends an urgent message to her son that his father is dead and to come home. Narcisco asks Tompi to wait for him while he is gone and she says she will cry everyday until he sends for her. He later finds out from a friend that the same day he leaves to go to his fathers funeral, Josephine is on a train with her company traveling to another state to marry a man with the last name of Baker. She divorces him and goes on to perform in New York and Paris and well, we know the rest. Narcisco is devastated when he hears the news, but now back to Mexico where his fathers funeral is being held. Before Narcisco arrives, the viewing has begun. While a niece bends over to kiss the cheek of her dead uncle she shrieks. Everyone thinks she is a great child who must have loved him best, but then she yells that he is breathing. The doctor is summoned and it is true. Senor Reyes is indeed alive, but he cant not move the left side of his body and his speech is slurred. He is still able to write and play music with his right hand and if people took notice they would have seen how much life was left in him by his piano playing.
Once Narcisco is home he finds that his father is not dead and that the woman he planned to marry has run off with another. One day he takes notice of Soledad. He wonders how he did not notice her perfectly shaped back side and her perky chest. He thinks of her as a way to get over Tompi and decides he wants to show her a thing or two he learned back in Chicago. This is where the last chapter left off. Now, Senor Reyes watches helplessly as his son sneaks through the kitchen into Soledad's room each night. He notices the swelling of her belly and watches this for months, unable to speak. When Narcisco decides he wants to go back to Chicago his mother turns a blind eye to Soledads stomach and throws him a going away party. This is the first and final time Senor Reyes speaks with his new condition. In front of a huge party crowd he grabs Soledad and screams at his son "We are not dogs!" Narcisco then finally notices Soledad, standing so frail with her swollen belly and realizes what his father means. No bells rang when they married, but Soledad was very happy.
Narcisco moves Soledad south with him while he works, but she stays in Oaxaca while he goes south to the jungle to work. She has an awful pregnancy. She never sleeps and always aches. She is worried her husband is having an affair and has dreams of him with women. She has right to worry. While he is in the jungle he falls for a woman named Exalatcion. She is considered a witch who sells potions and wears live iguanas tied in a crown around her head. He first goes to her when he gets an infection in his eye and he beds her. While he is there so tells him that she likes to have fun with him but it means more when you are in love. Over the next few months he is obsessed with her and pesters her until she lets him in the house. He falls in love with her and she laughs at him. She reminds him that he is married and she has no feelings for him. This makes him want her more. One day they go to a carnival and take a picture and she befriends one of the ladies in the carnival. The next morning with out word she leaves with the carnival. Never to be heard from again. Narcisco is devastated and when he goes home to visit his wife he is annoyed by her. He cant stand how big she is from her pregnancy and how emotional she is. He treats her awful and she knows what he has done without him saying a word. Weeks later he gives her a picture with the other half cut out. He tells her it is friend that he works with, but the neighbor boy asks Soledad who the woman is sitting next to her husband. She is filled with rage and screams at the child that there is no woman, but then she notices what the child did, shoes off to the right that belong to a woman.She then notices a scarf and runs into the square in a panic. She faints and when she wakes up in calmed by a vendor she has befriended while living there. She calms herself, goes back to the hotel and later that night goes into labor.
Saturday, November 19, 2011
Week 8 Caramelo
Well, they did leave the Awful Grandmother in Acapulco. The reason being is that the Awful Grandmother tells Lala's mom that Candleria is her husband's daughter. The grandmother has known this the entire time and the girl is only a few months older than Lala's oldest brother. Apparently, every one knew about the girl, except for Inocencio's wife. At the news of this Lala's mother starts laughing while they are driving back to the house on the beach. She then screams at her husband to stop the car or she will jump out while it is moving. He pulls over and she takes off through the streets. Once her husband finally catches up to her she screams of how ashamed she is and how foolish she feels. He keeps apologizing and then his mother chimes in. She tells her husband that he only needs his mother and to let his wife leave. This sets off Zoila and she tells his mother she isnt going anywhere and refuses to get back into the car with her. The Awful Grandmother tells her son to choose her or his wife. He cant have them both and for the first and last time in his life he picked his wife.
I liked how this chapter ended because it picked up with The Awful Grandmother when she was a child and actually had a normal name, Soledad. She was the daughter of a man who was famous for dying rebozos black,which in those times was a very difficult job. Her mother braided them together into beautiful intricate designs. Soledads mother died suddenly and did not get to teach her daughter how to braid and knot the rebozos.She left an unfinished rebozo that no one was able to finish due to the complexity of the knots and it was the color of Caramelo. Since Soledad's father could not do anything with it, he gave the rebozo to Soledad as a play thing. Rebozos made of silk were very big in the fashion back in those times. They were used to accept dates, marriage proposals, to carry water, to carry babies, and to be death shrouds. Soledad cherished her rebozo, even if it had not been completed.
Soledad's father the butchers widow and sends Soledad to live with his sister in the city. Aunty Fina has so many children she can not remember the actual count, but she has 12 when Soledad arrives. The house is chaotic and Soledad is forced to babysit the plethora of children instead of working on things that would make her ready for marriage. Aunty Fina washes and presses people's clothes for a living and her husband is a traveling musician who is never home. One day while crying out the window of a bedroom Soledad vows that the next man to pass will be the one she marries. Next to come through the gate was Narcisco Reyes. He was wearing his ARMY cadet uniform and came to drop off money his mother owed to Aunty Fina. While there the crazy children got his uniform dirty and Aunty Fina offers to clean it free of charge. Soledad follows him out the door crying. She apologizes for crying but tells him the thought of watching him leave brought her great sorrow. She tells him her entire life story and to keep her from crying he kisses her. It takes her by surprise, but since he misses and kissed her eye she knows it was not sexual. He offers for her to come home and work for his family.
Soledad goes home with Narcisco and becomes their maid. He is the only child of Regina Reyes and her elementary school music teacher husband. Narcisco goes back to school and the Mexican War begins. It doesnt last long, but while it does The Reyes' family struggles and they have no food. It is too dangerous to go out into the streets but Regina goes out with a white pillow case for a surrender flag to find food. She comes back and tells Senor Reyes that she offered someone his piano for 2 bags of oats. He freaks out and tells her that it was once played for the King of Spain and Soledad is quick to remind her that the piano is what kept them safe and kept insiders from coming inside. During this time Narcisco is not doing what he joined the ARMY to do. Instead of being a hero he is burning dead bodies and decides to run home to his mother. On the way he gets struck hard in his side. He makes his way home and is quickly taken to the doctor where they remove 3 ribs. For the rest of his life he will have a whole in his chest that he has to put iodine on at night and can no longer go into the ocean.
Narcisco's mother sends him to Chicago with his Uncle Old. While he is there he goes out to night clubs and work. He becomes a womanizer and after a year or so with his uncle he goes back home to Mexico to be with his ailing father. When he gets home his father can barely speak and Soledad tends to him. He can not feed or care for himself. This upsets his son. Narcisco also notices Soledad. She has blossomed and he takes notice. Soon he is sneaking into her room at night....................
It is nice to see where the grandmother came from and see the reason why turned out the way she did. I cant wait to read more.
Read time: 30 minutes each night in the tub for 3 nights.
I liked how this chapter ended because it picked up with The Awful Grandmother when she was a child and actually had a normal name, Soledad. She was the daughter of a man who was famous for dying rebozos black,which in those times was a very difficult job. Her mother braided them together into beautiful intricate designs. Soledads mother died suddenly and did not get to teach her daughter how to braid and knot the rebozos.She left an unfinished rebozo that no one was able to finish due to the complexity of the knots and it was the color of Caramelo. Since Soledad's father could not do anything with it, he gave the rebozo to Soledad as a play thing. Rebozos made of silk were very big in the fashion back in those times. They were used to accept dates, marriage proposals, to carry water, to carry babies, and to be death shrouds. Soledad cherished her rebozo, even if it had not been completed.
Soledad's father the butchers widow and sends Soledad to live with his sister in the city. Aunty Fina has so many children she can not remember the actual count, but she has 12 when Soledad arrives. The house is chaotic and Soledad is forced to babysit the plethora of children instead of working on things that would make her ready for marriage. Aunty Fina washes and presses people's clothes for a living and her husband is a traveling musician who is never home. One day while crying out the window of a bedroom Soledad vows that the next man to pass will be the one she marries. Next to come through the gate was Narcisco Reyes. He was wearing his ARMY cadet uniform and came to drop off money his mother owed to Aunty Fina. While there the crazy children got his uniform dirty and Aunty Fina offers to clean it free of charge. Soledad follows him out the door crying. She apologizes for crying but tells him the thought of watching him leave brought her great sorrow. She tells him her entire life story and to keep her from crying he kisses her. It takes her by surprise, but since he misses and kissed her eye she knows it was not sexual. He offers for her to come home and work for his family.
Soledad goes home with Narcisco and becomes their maid. He is the only child of Regina Reyes and her elementary school music teacher husband. Narcisco goes back to school and the Mexican War begins. It doesnt last long, but while it does The Reyes' family struggles and they have no food. It is too dangerous to go out into the streets but Regina goes out with a white pillow case for a surrender flag to find food. She comes back and tells Senor Reyes that she offered someone his piano for 2 bags of oats. He freaks out and tells her that it was once played for the King of Spain and Soledad is quick to remind her that the piano is what kept them safe and kept insiders from coming inside. During this time Narcisco is not doing what he joined the ARMY to do. Instead of being a hero he is burning dead bodies and decides to run home to his mother. On the way he gets struck hard in his side. He makes his way home and is quickly taken to the doctor where they remove 3 ribs. For the rest of his life he will have a whole in his chest that he has to put iodine on at night and can no longer go into the ocean.
Narcisco's mother sends him to Chicago with his Uncle Old. While he is there he goes out to night clubs and work. He becomes a womanizer and after a year or so with his uncle he goes back home to Mexico to be with his ailing father. When he gets home his father can barely speak and Soledad tends to him. He can not feed or care for himself. This upsets his son. Narcisco also notices Soledad. She has blossomed and he takes notice. Soon he is sneaking into her room at night....................
It is nice to see where the grandmother came from and see the reason why turned out the way she did. I cant wait to read more.
Read time: 30 minutes each night in the tub for 3 nights.
Saturday, November 12, 2011
Week 7 Caramelo
As I said before, the book jumps around a lot. So, it may be hard to understand the sequence of the story or the blog, but I will do my best.
When I started back in the book Lala was about to celebrate her fathers birthday at the Awful Grandmothers house in Mexico City. The Awful Grandmother has a huge party for Lala's father every year because his birthday is in July. She also tells everyone that he is her favorite. She makes him listen to records and read articles about mother's loving their sons more than their wives ever will. She makes him breakfast in bed. He lounges all day and she requires all family members, friends, and neighbors who plan to attend his big birthday celebration to visit him while he is still in bed. She wants people to wish him a great birthday before his feet touch the floor for the day. She thinks this is good look, but his wife hates it. She can not stand her mother-in-law and gets very irritated that her mother-in-law parades people in and out of room while they are still in bed. She had messy hair and has not brushed her teeth! She thinks it is to embarrass her so that people can see that her husband married an ugly woman.
Once the party begins the grandmother brings out her famous mole for everyone to enjoy, but Lala hates it. Her grandmother makes her sit at the table until she eats it all. After her grandfather hears her crying he takes it to the maid and tells her to tell his wife that the girl ate it. He takes her into his bedroom, which is off limits t all the children. He lets her look in their trunk and shows her the rebozo and pictures. The Awful Grandmother does not allow anyone in her room, so Lala knows that everyone will be jealous. Soon she hears the grandmother calling for her and she goes down to the party. People are singing and dance and passed out drunk through out the court yard.
Then the story goes to fighting amongst the wives and Aunty Light Skin. They are fighting and calling each others children liars. Bags begin to get packed and before they know it everyone leaves The Awful Grandmother's house, except for Lala and her family. The kids play with the maid's daughter named Candleria. She is the most beautiful girl Lala has ever seen and just a year or two older than Lala's oldest brother. She is not very clean and very poor. She rides into town with her mother early in the morning to help wash clothes. After the other brothers leave the grandmother suggests that Innocencio take his wife and kids to Acapulco. At first they are very excited but as the trip nears the Awful Grandmother, Aunty Light Skin, her daughter, and Candleria are going to. They all shove into the car and head down to the beach.
I left off where Candleria is sent back to Mexico City with her name and address pinned to her skirt. She gets lost and they have to show her on the television so that someone will come to claim her. The grandmother and Lala's parents are standing far away where no on can hear them talking. Her mother is crying and rushing back to the car. Her father is pleading with his wife and mother and they all load up inot the car and leave the grandmother where she was standing.
I cant wait to read more!
Read 90 + minutes on Wednesday, November 10, 2011
When I started back in the book Lala was about to celebrate her fathers birthday at the Awful Grandmothers house in Mexico City. The Awful Grandmother has a huge party for Lala's father every year because his birthday is in July. She also tells everyone that he is her favorite. She makes him listen to records and read articles about mother's loving their sons more than their wives ever will. She makes him breakfast in bed. He lounges all day and she requires all family members, friends, and neighbors who plan to attend his big birthday celebration to visit him while he is still in bed. She wants people to wish him a great birthday before his feet touch the floor for the day. She thinks this is good look, but his wife hates it. She can not stand her mother-in-law and gets very irritated that her mother-in-law parades people in and out of room while they are still in bed. She had messy hair and has not brushed her teeth! She thinks it is to embarrass her so that people can see that her husband married an ugly woman.
Once the party begins the grandmother brings out her famous mole for everyone to enjoy, but Lala hates it. Her grandmother makes her sit at the table until she eats it all. After her grandfather hears her crying he takes it to the maid and tells her to tell his wife that the girl ate it. He takes her into his bedroom, which is off limits t all the children. He lets her look in their trunk and shows her the rebozo and pictures. The Awful Grandmother does not allow anyone in her room, so Lala knows that everyone will be jealous. Soon she hears the grandmother calling for her and she goes down to the party. People are singing and dance and passed out drunk through out the court yard.
Then the story goes to fighting amongst the wives and Aunty Light Skin. They are fighting and calling each others children liars. Bags begin to get packed and before they know it everyone leaves The Awful Grandmother's house, except for Lala and her family. The kids play with the maid's daughter named Candleria. She is the most beautiful girl Lala has ever seen and just a year or two older than Lala's oldest brother. She is not very clean and very poor. She rides into town with her mother early in the morning to help wash clothes. After the other brothers leave the grandmother suggests that Innocencio take his wife and kids to Acapulco. At first they are very excited but as the trip nears the Awful Grandmother, Aunty Light Skin, her daughter, and Candleria are going to. They all shove into the car and head down to the beach.
I left off where Candleria is sent back to Mexico City with her name and address pinned to her skirt. She gets lost and they have to show her on the television so that someone will come to claim her. The grandmother and Lala's parents are standing far away where no on can hear them talking. Her mother is crying and rushing back to the car. Her father is pleading with his wife and mother and they all load up inot the car and leave the grandmother where she was standing.
I cant wait to read more!
Read 90 + minutes on Wednesday, November 10, 2011
Thursday, November 3, 2011
Caramelo Blog 1
I read this book 10 years ago when I was 19 years old. I remember thinking it was such an awesome book but I never took the time to pick up on the details. I have always said it was one of my favorite books out of all the books that I have read, but I couldnt remember why. So, I started reading it again and was quickly reminded why I was so impressed with it in the first place. The story is about of girl of Mexican heritage who tells tales of her family over a break up of decades. The story starts out with Lala (the main character) and her family on their way to see the Awful Grandmother who lives in Mexico. On the car drive from Chicago to Mexico Lala tells of her father Incencio and her mother Zoila. She describes her Uncles Fat Face and Uncle Baby. She tells of their wives and their children. Uncle Fat Face has a beautiful wife from Mexico, but is very jealous and infatuated with her heavy set bald-headed husband. Uncle Baby's wife is a 1st generation Italian that he met in Chicago who smokes like a freight train. She has plastic on all of her furniture and everything is white. The kids are nervous to touch anything when they visit. All three brothers upholster furniture and moved from Mexico to Chicago. Every summer they go to Mexico to visit their mother and father. They all race down in their cars while the kids hang out of the windows and fight for stops to sit in the crammed cars. My favorite part of the book is when Lala talks about once they get outside of Mexico City. She says that her mind may forget the sights and smells of the city, but her body always remembers. She is so descriptive in all of her passages. She describes the sights and smells of Mexico City. She talks of the cramped life style in their apartment back in Chicago, crowded ride in the car, being the only girl out of five children, being her daddys little girl, her mother being jealous of her grandmother and her grandmother being jealous Lala.The story is kind of confusing at first until you get to know all the characters. It jumps from decade to decade, summer to summer, year to year, ect. The reason for this is to introduce the characters from the Awful Grandmother, her father, and then herself. I am excited to read more this weekend.
Read time: 115 minutes November 2, 2011
Read time: 115 minutes November 2, 2011
Thursday, October 27, 2011
4th and Final Blog on Man's Search For Meaning
Frankl says that there are three ways to find the meaning of life.He states one need to find the meaning of love, suffering, and the will to meaning. You have to find a meaning in your suffering and know that for some horrible reason there is a purpose from it.You can not explain why people are tortured, murdered, die a slow and painful death or are ripped away abruptly from those whom they love. There is no explanation but to know that we as human beings grow and learn from our pain. It is up to us how to approach life once it has occurred the path we decide to take. We can place blame on everyone and everything or accept it and grow from it. Finding meaning in will is basically finding a way to get past the things that are bothering you or temporarily holding you back. Frankl talks about the will to live in the book when discussing a man who fights to live so that he can be reunited with his young son. He wills himself to endure the hardships and unspeakable things that happen at the concentration camps so that he can one day be with his son. He has hope that he will be free one day and they will reunite. His will is what kept him going and kept him sane. The meaning of love was a good one. Frankl tells how if someone knows that they are loved and someone believes in them then they are more likely to make those potential ideals come true. Love is also interpreted with sex and the meaning put behind it. "Love is a primary pheonmenon as sex. Normally, sex is a mode of expression for love. Sex is justified, even sanctified, as soon as, but only as long as , it is a vehicle of love. Thus love is not understood as a mere side-effect of sex; rather, sex is a way of expressing the experience of that ultimate togetherness which is called love" (Frankl, p. 112).
I loved this book, but as far as pleasure reading goes, I plan to read something more along the lines of James Patterson or Nicholas Sparks. I was a bothered when I was finished reading each night. I would read while in the bath tub or while my daughter slept. I had bad dreams every night after reading this book. They didnt have anything to do with the reading, but all of my dreams were violent. I relate them to the book since I had not watched anything violence on the television and I am not in any way a violent person.
Read for 10 minutes Monday October 24, 2011- I went back over what I read and wrote for last week because I could not remember. I have been so busy that I kind of space things off if it isnt on the top of my mind. So this was basically review.
Read for 40 minutes Tuesday October 25, 2011
Read for 40 minutes Thursday October 27, 2011.
I loved this book, but as far as pleasure reading goes, I plan to read something more along the lines of James Patterson or Nicholas Sparks. I was a bothered when I was finished reading each night. I would read while in the bath tub or while my daughter slept. I had bad dreams every night after reading this book. They didnt have anything to do with the reading, but all of my dreams were violent. I relate them to the book since I had not watched anything violence on the television and I am not in any way a violent person.
Read for 10 minutes Monday October 24, 2011- I went back over what I read and wrote for last week because I could not remember. I have been so busy that I kind of space things off if it isnt on the top of my mind. So this was basically review.
Read for 40 minutes Tuesday October 25, 2011
Read for 40 minutes Thursday October 27, 2011.
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