| GONZALEZ...
Gonzalez is my
mother's maiden name; Maria GONZALEZ
Paz. As soon as
she became nationalized (a U.S. Citizen), she changed her
first name to the all-American Diana. Her new,
nationalized nad married name is, Diana Escanaverino (go
figure).
My mother's brother
and my uncle, Servilio GONZALEZ
Paz, comes to my house every
Sunday with my mom to hang out on my lake and feed the
ducks. We also spend some time playing guitar and
singing (he does all of the playing).
As I get older and my own little family grows on, I
learn to cherish these little pieces of time all the
more. As I listen to their stories, I completely see
the wealth that knowledge about our family and where we came
from really gives a person.
My maternal grandfather, Reynaldo
GONZALEZ Fornaris, was a very loved and admired man, and his
children still cannot stop talking about how wonderful he
was. He passed on when I was four years old and still living
in Cuba, and I still miss him. My memories of him are:
- walking through Palatino Park
and feeding chickens.
- sitting on his lap and adoringly
looking up at him.
- listening to his soft voice as
he spoke to my parents.
My maternal grandmother was
Guillermina PAZ Hernandez. She died approx. 6 months after my
grandfather passed away. The family believed that she
just couldn't go on without him.
I remember her brushing her silky
silver hair at the mirror when I was a little girl. I
would watch her in awe...hoping for hair like that when I
grew up.
 As
I stated before, my mother and uncle spend every Sunday at
my home in front of the lake, talking and reminiscing about
their childhood in Artemisa, Cuba. I can only
"try" to explain how lucky I feel for these
moments they've come to share with me. I've started
recording these sessions and hope to publish all of it
online soon.
I can experience my grandparents
through their memories and nostalgia. I can almost
visualize the five siblings and their mischief.
My grandmother, for instance, went
through 13 pregnancies, 6 of those she went full term.
One of the children, Guillermo, died at 8 months. He
was named after his mother, Guillermina.
The five surviving children are by
order of oldest to youngest:
Two of them made it to the US, my mom
and Tio Servi. The other three stayed behind in Cuba,
not realizing that the two middle kids were bound for
freedom and a better way of life. But that's all politics,
as sadly, now they all regret staying behind.
Click here
to go to my family tree page with all of the names on our
family tree.
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