Day 14 - my earliest memory

I will never forget all of my trips as a child back and forth to Poncitlan every summer with my family. I always looked forward to going to Mexico. It meant it was summer time and it meant taking those long (or what seemed long to all of us girls) road trips to Texas and then Mexico. It meant I would not only visit another country, but I would also get to play with my cousins!

I remember playing with my cousins Gloria Maria, Francisco, and Tonia the most. We would fight each other because we were all close in age, but we also would play well together. We used to play bank in the back of the house where my Tias had some extra rooms and they had these metal doors that had windows that opened. Perfect doors to play bank right? So that is what we did. We would go back there and pretend we were at a bank. Some of us were customers and others were bank tellers. We would end up fighting because the older kids never wanted to be the customers and then we would end up getting in trouble with our parents for fighting because someone always cried, of course.

I remember we also would play in the patio of the house, which was the center. We would drive our Tias and my parents crazy with this but when you are a child; you tend to just focus on having fun. We had our dolls and toys like our Barbie van that we left there for when we would come back we always had something to play with. I also remember that we had our Sesame Street little people house there too.

I remember this one memory when we were out there. We had gone to visit my Tia Pina who not only owned what I felt was the most amazing little store but she too had a pretty awesome house. She had this patio in the center of her entire house and this year was special to me because I had gotten some sandals that I really loved because of the design of them. The heel had a hole in them. That was the style back then I guess, but they also made noise when I walked.

I had learned about flamenco dancing off the television set and in my mind I told myself that I knew how to dance flamenco. I have always loved to dance and even to this day I still think flamenco dancing is beautiful. So I saw the opportunity to test my skills and began dancing my heart out in my Tia’s patio. That is one of the things about being a kid; you just do things for the sake of doing them. So I danced in the patio because I was so mesmerized with flamenco and the sound that my sandals made on the tile in my Tia’s patio.

I put on a performance for my relatives that day and even though I obviously was not a professional, they enjoyed it just the same. I twirled around and stomped my feet and pretended to make noises by snapping my fingers.

To this day I still love to dance and maybe that is why a part of me hasn’t grown up because I do not want to give up that freedom of just going with things because they make me feel good. They never forgot that moment just like I haven’t.

What can I say? I knew in my heart I would perform for people in some way or form and captivate them somehow. Today I do it more so with my writings and my poetry. Sometimes I captivate with dancing and my singing (more like off tune singing, but you get the jist) but I still feel free when I do things like that. My spirit feels released.