HEEHEE Just kidding!
If it wasn't for you guys, I'd be writing for nothing!
But I do need to give a shout out to my Padrino Luis. Hola Padrino Luis!!!!
For those of you who may not know what a Padrino is, it means Godfather in Spanish. My Padrino was the lucky man who poured holy water/oil on my head when I was a baby in front of the whole church. Or was that my Madrina? I really don't remember, seeing I was only like a few months old.
My Padrino is married to my Madrina. Her name is Maria. Doesn't it seem like every Mexican family has a Maria? Well, my Madrina is the Maria in our family. And it also seems like every Mexican family has a Guadalupe. We have one of those, too. The funny thing about a Guadalupe is that the name can be used for either gender. Our Guadalupe is male. We call him Guad. We pronounce it Gwad, with a hard "g". Don't ask me how we got started calling him that. At least we don't call him what we used to call him when I was a kid. I'd tell you what it was, but I think he'd give me an even harder time then he already does. Let's just say what we used to call him could mean honk in Spanish. No, that was not a typo. It's HONK, not HUNK, even though I'm sure he'd prefer the latter.
As far as my immediate family goes, there are 6 of us.
There is my Dad. No matter how old we kids get, we still call him Daddy. But being that we're Mexican, and Spanish was the first language we learned to speak, it's a spanglish-ized version of Daddy. You'd have to hear it out loud to understand it. I can't imagine calling him anything else. My Dad is like Magnavox. He's smart. Very smart. He can fix anything and make anything. You should see him with a microphone in his hand. Or see him on the dance floor. My Dad likes to play poker. He is also very strong. He has lots of tools. He loves playing the "lotteria". I hope he wins someday.
My Mom has been called the Godfather of the family. Like as in the Movie. Final decisions seem to have to come from her. Are we eating inside or outside? Ask Aida. Do we use the brown tablecloth or the flowery one? Ask Aida. Can the kids get in the pool? Ask Aida. Is the sun going to rise tomorrow? Ask Aida. Seriously, she's like THE woman. But to me, she's just my Mom. We used to call her Momma when we were younger, but that sounds so ghetto now. And my Mom is anything but ghetto. She makes yummy yummy salsa, amongst other things.
I'm the oldest kid. I'm 29. I've been called "Little Aida" before.
Then there is my brother. He goes by Ric these days. It was Ricky, and then Rick, and now Ric with no "k". He just turned 28. He's in the Navy. He's really smart, too. Kinda like a Magnavox Jr. He's taller than all of us. Don't get him started on a political conversation or you'll be arguing for hours. And hours. And hours. He's single. I think he likes it that way. God help the girl he marries because he snores LOUD. And he doesn't like to be called "Mocoso". Inside joke there...luv ya bro!!
After Ricky (I still call him Ricky because I'm the big sister and I can!), Mom and Dad apparently took a break. Or just got lucky. Then in 1982 came my sister April. At least she's April to me. Once she hit high school, she wanted to be known by her first name, which is Erin. I can't get used to calling her that. So she's April to me and half the people she knows. She'll be 23 soon. I could call her by her childhood nickname, but she hates it. She had several, but the one we torment her with means “Pine Tree” in Spanish. I have no idea where that one came from. But at least it's not like my other sister's misconstrued name. I'll get to that in a sec. April is the smart, scholarly one in the family. She was valedictorian of her HS class. She just got accepted to PT school. She'll be a doctor once it's all over. She's also the one that was blessed with skinny genes. April doesn't like to be teased. My dad calls her "tee-see-cah"...whatever that means. He also called the neighbor lady that word as well. I honestly don't know what it means. Maybe I shouldn't post that if I don't know what it means. Oh well, I'm sure someone will inform me. April is super responsible and she's so in love with her boyfriend Chris, it makes me want to gag sometimes.
My youngest sister is Karol. She's 21. She's the only one out of all of us kids that is married. She ELOPED. With Brandon. Yep, horror of horrors. No big Mexican wedding, no mariachis, none of those nasty powdered sugar cookies or those nasty minty-melt-in-your-mouth candies. No knocking on the doors of "friends of the familia" asking them to be padrinos of the lasso. (Mexicans are big on the whole Padrino thing). This basically translates into going to people your Mom and Dad know and asking them give you money towards your wedding, which in this case means they will be known on the invitation as the couple who paid for the fake gold rope that will be put around the neck of you and your spouse at the altar to signify two people becoming one. Whew....Karol got out of all that. I don't blame her. I mean, who wants to wear a fake gold rope around their neck? Dammit, if you're going to do it, make mine 14K!! Oh yeah, I almost forgot. We used to call Karol, Lolie, which I guess is short for Lola. But one aunt in particular (I won't mention which) could not pronounce Karol's name too well in English. So to this aunt, Karol was known as "Kettle". That's the best she could do.
Well, this post has gotten way out of hand. I guess that's what happens when you have a big family.
Please leave me comments! Good ones, bad ones, funny ones, mean ones, so-so ones. Just let me know what you think!
Goodnight!
Elisa
aka "Lizard" to my Aunt Dianna
1 comment:
What a nice family. I've known a couple of you and your family was always kind and nice to me. Tell them, "Hi," from me here in Korea!
CJN
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