Introduction to la Familia Martinez-Alvarez

My name is Rafael Martinez, and let me give you a brief introduction to my family. My grandparents, Jesus and Casimira Alvarez, were born in the late 1930s in San Luis del Cordero, Durango, Mexico. The town that my grandparents live in has a population of around 1,000 people. They still live there, but they visit their children occasionally— most of them live in Oklahoma but I have an uncle who lives in Colorado — and their children visit them every now and then. One of their children, Diana, is my mom who moved to the U.S. when she was sixteen and she met my dad, Adam Martinez, three years later. They had a total of four kids, and I was the last of the four. In total, I have a very large family, way more than I can count or even remember. On my mom's side I have four aunts and four uncles, and all but one has children. Now on my dad's side I have lost count. I know that I have one aunt and five uncles but I have no idea how many cousins I have. I want to say I have more than twenty but I personally only know like three of them and one of them is already a grandfather. When I say my family is large, I mean large. But I wanted to write this and focus more on my abuela and her gossiping nature.

Every time we visit my grandparents, my abuela has a new story about one of her neighbors to tell everyone. That why my family like to jokingly call her 'la chismosa', which just means the gossiper. Most of the times, she only tells her children because they actually know who my abuela is talking about since they grew up there. The town is mostly made up of big families who have lived there their entire lives. So my grandparents know a lot of the people in this town. More often than not, my grandma Cachi can be found gossiping with the other grandmothers in this town in the plaza right after church is dismissed. Most of the times, though, I only get to overhear them but the ones I am going to share are ones that she told my mom and me about directly. And like every other story told by abuela, I get lectured at the end about their morality. But I get food out of it, so I guess it’s worth it. Plus there isn't much to do in this town, so it was like watching a movie, a dramatic one at that.

My abuela is an amazing women and I love her to death. I remember once when I was younger and my older brother didn't want to play soccer with me, she stopped ironing and joined me in a game of soccer, which I'm sure she let me win. She is the embodiment of a kind soul and she is just someone that everyone enjoys being around.