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 :)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)