All I could say about my family history, that is different from my childhood. For the assignment I interviewed my mother, Emilie Escobar , before her name was Emilita B. Herrera. I interviewed her about her childhood, and how it was like. Her childhood is really different from my childhood life. My mother’s childhood was mainly about separation, persevering in education, family, and money.
My mom’s family had thirteen children, (six boys, six girls;one was a miscarriage, and two died before reaching their teen years) that makes them ten in total. My grandparents were very conservative and religious. They both were very hard on their children, but they never spank their children. One example is that my mom and her siblings had to be inside the house before six in the evening or if they heard their parent’s whistle really loud that means its time to go home. And if they were late for dinner, bad things would happen. They are also deeply religious, their religion was Catholic. My grandfather would read this little booklet that had prayers in them and she would read it out load before they go to sleep every night. My mom’s family was strict, timid, and holy people, but they are not rich.
My mom side of the family had very little money. My mom’s parents worked day and night at the market trying to sell fishes, so that there is enough food for everyone in the table. (Just imagine, having ten children and just having the right amount of money to feed and make them attend public school. Is a lot to handle.) The money was enough for everyone’s food, for breakfast, lunch, snacks, and dinner. Including the some of money to pay going to the education of my aunts and uncles.
To their family, education is key to a great and complete life. They believed that by getting a full education and having good grades in school, will help their family move up from poverty to a higher status in life. My mom’s parents did everything they could to get money, just for their children to have a complete education. Money was not the issue, but it was hard to handle.
When my mom was a child she did not live with her parents. She lived with her older brother (Kuya) Renato (Tito (Uncle) Nato). Her brother already had his own family and can provide for his own. Ever since my mom was little, she would get sick multiple times in a year. She almost did not finish her education because she would alaways get sick. There was one time where she and her mother went to the market and she felt dizzy, its not because she is hungry, thirsty, or the heat; once in a while she would just randomly faint. So her parents decided that it would be best for her to stay with her brother because he was a lawyer and could pay for all hospital bill, (In the Philippines there is no such thing as medical insurance) and that it would be much safer and better than her parent’s house. She would get sick, but not as much when she stayed with her parents. She got sick very often and there was one time she when she went to a state similar to “coma”. She was just asleep all day long for a week, and she told me that she opened her eyes and she saw bright light shinning in the corner and she was the only one could see the bright light. As she get closer to it got smaller and smaller, but turns out it was just a dream, then she woke up from her “coma” and the bright light was not there any more. The dream she had meant that it was not time for her to leave earth and she still has to fulfill her life. Including the time that she drop out of college for a while because she kept getting sick before the finals. she would get sick and so some of her classes she took was incomplete and some classes she passed because she had high grades. With her sickness interfering with her education she decided to stop schooling.
When my mom went back to her parents house, it was around the end of high school years. She went because her brother Nato already passed away and her sister-in-law treated her like a monkey. It was time to reconnect with her parents and her nine brother and sisters. When she arrived home, her brothers and sister were not very welcoming. They would tell her hindi ka aari dito! or hindi ikaw ang aking kapatid! Which in English means “you do not belong here” and “you are not my sister”, these insults made my mom felt like an outsider from her family, so it just made her work harder to gain their trust and love. So over the coarse of years, she did gain their trust and love, and made her feel the oldest because she would deal with her siblings problems and act as if she is the oldest, even though she is the second to the youngest. She grew up in house that was conservative, religious, and loving; which, helped to became a successful woman. And became a mature woman that has to be my mom.
By the time she got used to the way things were at her parents house, she learned to work hard for her own. Because when she was living with her brother and his family she was treated like a daughter to him. Kuya Nato did not like the fact she did chores around the house because she might get sick, and he wanted her to focus on school work. When she got back, she did not have as much as she did in her brother’s house hold. In all meals, the food was enough for everyone. The parents did their best to make everything equal, so that there would not be any conflicts about who got more or less. Everyone had equal portion of food, for lunch she only plain rice, but it was very rare for them to have ulam which is a type of dish that goes with rice. They barely had any food every day for school.
My mom’s childhood was very different from my childhood and current life. Her parents was deeply Catholic and conservative.My life is not like her childhood, I more have freedom and Independence. Not like her, she has to be home by six pm unless she is going to out with friends, but she has to be back in a certain time. My life is similar to her’s, when I ’m out with my friends I need to be home by a certain. If it’s with my Church friends and the event we went to is during the evening, i just need to call her if we have to stay a little longer because of the event or we are going out to eat, but if its with my school friends and were out in the middle of the afternoon i need to be back home before or by five pm. The similarities is that the parents need to know who we are with, or they would not let us go out. The other difference is that i did not live a family member because i get sick to often. Because when i often get sick like my mother when she was a child, i went straight to the emergency room and was later moved into a private room. Not my mom, her family could not provide a private room like i did, probably in the room she was at there are at least four to six people in there. They did not have the money for a private room. I guess after my mom lived a life that had trouble with money, a life that did not give her everything she needed, a life that gave her full of love; she wanted me to have much more. She wanted me to have a life that is satisfying.
My mom has been telling me about her childhood ever since i learned how talk. She would talk about how her family was very poor and they all depended on education for them to have a better life, that they had a spot in the market and they were selling fishes, and so on. My mother’s childhood is has a significant affect to me because her life was full of hard work, blood and tears has been shed just for food in the table. While I’m complaining at home we have no food because i did not like the food. I guess during my mom’s generation they learned to work hard on something, while my generation of kids has been only about technology, new things, and laziness. I just shows that the two generation are completely different. My mother’s generation is full of conservatives and persevering people, while in my generation we have more of a open mid on things and a little but more lazy. My mom’s generation and my generation are both incompatible because both is different from each other.
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