Where do we begin? Where's the beginning? The beginning?
Yeah, I remember listening and I remember seeing the river.
I think he was speaking about your abuela, about her being a curandera.
This was my maternal grandmother in Bernalillo, with whom I would spend
great portions of summers when I was probably six, maybe even as young as five.
Since she was a curandera, many people, mostly women, came to visit her on Saturdays
and I was, for lack of a better description, the pharmacist in residence, if you will.
And I would go to the dispenser, dispensary where my grandma had all of the remedios
from Anil de Muerto, Shimaha, Manzanilla.
She knew exactly the remedio that she wanted for a particular illness.
And at the end of the one day, at the end of the day, it was a Saturday, I was tired.
I had been running back and forth, running back and forth between the dispenser and the house.
And finally, the last woman left and I went and sat in the kitchen and my grandmother found me
sitting in a corner like this, pouting.
And she said, Ijito, que pasa?
What is wrong with you?
I said, nada, nada.
And she said, with that kind of an answer, you're not fooling me, there is something wrong.
And I said, instantaneously to myself, OK, grandma, you're going to get it.
Whereupon I responded to her and I said, aquí solamente vienen mujeres.
Only women ever come here.
And she looked at me straight in the eye and she said to me, Ijito, bendito seas entre todas las mujeres.
Blessed are thou who are amongst women.
And as a result, I published a book in honor of Hispanic women called Cuamales.
