Nhadia GuzmanOral History

Maria Isabel Pereira

Born: August 07, 1955(city) Santa Rosa, (province) El Oro EcuadorSiblings: 12 children 8 girls 4 boys (7 oldest)

What was the house (apartment, farm, etc.) like? How many rooms? Bathrooms? Did it have electricity? Indoor plumbing? Telephones?

“It was a two story house that my parents bought with a kitchen, dining room, living room and 3 bedrooms: one for my parents, the other one for girls, another one for the boys. We had electricity, no indoor plumbing; bathrooms were down stairs in the back yard and we had to bring the water up stairs for cooking and to wash our selves for the morning”

Were there any special items in the house that you remember?

“The fogόn, it was like a pool table made of wood filled with dirt and this was the place where we cooked our meals with charcoal. On top of the fogόn we had some wires were my mom had pieces of beef to make the beef jerky. The heat from the charcoal would dry the beef that was already seasoned. I also remember the big dining table which had bench seats around so we could all fit during meals”

What kind of games did you play growing up?

Indoor: with dolls

Outdoor: rayuela (hopscotch), la cuerda (Chinese jump rope game), hula hoop.

Did you have family chores? What were they? Which was your least favorite?

We had boy’s and girls’ chores. Between the sisters we had a 1 week schedule (dishes, help cooking, cleaning the floors, doing laundry by hand, starching the clothes and ironing (this was my least favorite because of the boy’s jeans). The starch we used was hand made from the yuca root.

Did you receive an allowance? How much? Did you save your money or spend it?

We did not received allowance; for me to have extra many I had to make candy from brown sugar and sell that to my friends in school. We had a tamarindo tree and twice a year we harvest this fruit and sell to friends or grocery stores. We saved this money to have enough for the town carnival every year on August.

What was school like for you as a child? What were your best and worst subjects? Where did you attend grade school? High school? College?

“My memories were having fun during recess, a lot of discipline because I attended Catholic school. My best subjects were math class and least favorite was history. I attended primary, secondary school and college in the town that I was born, Santa Rosa. We graduated with a professional license to work from high school. I was a teacher. Then I attended college for 2 years to get certified to teach more grades.”

What was your profession and how did you choose it?

“I was a teacher and I did not have a choice because we had only one High school in the town that I grew up.”

How were holidays (birthdays, Christmas, etc.) celebrated in your family? Did your family have special traditions? “ Birthdays were celebrated with cake and always a little money as gift. Christmas was very special because we grew up as Catholics and we wrote a letter to baby Jesus asking for the toys. We put the letter in one of our shoe under the bed and the next morning we had presents next to our beds. After opening the gif we would go outside to show and share the toys with our friends from the neighborhood. New Year was also fun. Every family has to make an “Año Viejo” (looks like a scarecrow, made out of newspaper and dressed up) in representation of the year that will end. This was burned at midnight before the new year.