la tita, epd

para la tita, que en paz descanse

isabel "chavela" tovar romero
5 de noviembre 1927 - 30 de julio 2009

in early july i asked la tita to tell me the story of how her family came to live in tijuana.

before she was born her parents had moved from the interior of mexico to los angeles. in the 1930s, when she was a small child, the u.s. government started a(nother) massive anti-immigrant campaign against mexican immigrants. armed immigration authorities invaded people's homes, raided their neighborhoods, jailed and deported them, displacing 2 million people by the time they were done. my grandmother's entire neighborhood, along with countless others, were emptied. her family heard the migra was coming, that they were snatching people up just a couple barrios over, and they fled in fear. they settled with hundreds of other families in an emergency settlement in tijuana. tita's mother had asthma; she became sick in all that chaos and died that following year.

i recorded our conversation on my cell phone, and i'm so grateful to have her voice still with me now. eventually i'd like to do something with this audio. like learn to make dibujos animados and illustrate or animate it. or maybe i'll make friends with someone at the design school at the uba or unam who can do that for me ;) for now here is about 45 seconds where i'm asking about her father's name. i had never heard of that name before and she was making me laugh...



me: ¿y cómo se llamaba tu papá? and what was your father's name?

tita: eh? what?

me: ¿cómo se llamaba? what was he called?

tita: se-no-vio tovar.

me: ¿cómo? what?

tita: senovio tovar.

me: ¿senovio?...

tita: ¡senovio!

me: ¿qué clase de nombre es ese? what kind of name is that? ¿senovio?

tita: senovio. ¡no "tu novio"! not "your boyfriend" (tu novio)! senovio.

tita: así se llamaba... that's what he was called.. muy nombre, muy raro. what a name, very strange.

me: sí (laughing). sí.

tita: ...que nunca jamas lo había vuelto a oir. that i never ever had heard of again. senovio tovar.

**

la tita carried chiles wrapped in foil in her purse at all times, always ready. at a restaurant she would often eye the plate in front of her suspiciously, take a bite of something and then say, este no pica nada, and reach for the tiny aluminum packet she brought with her for exactly that moment. she was the last surviving, youngest & most mischievous of a band of sisters (& one brother) who lived on both sides of la línea, in san ysidro & tijuana.

i really like these fotos & she did too. all the sisters are here: la chuy, la cuca, la ani, la efi, & there on the right looking cute & tough as ever, my querida grandmother, chavela.

**

y como a ella le encantaaaba la música mexicana... like this!

a ella : el poder del norte



hermoso cariño : vicente fernández



antes de que te vayas : marco antonio solís



por una mujer bonita : pepe aguilar



alma rebelde : grupo límite




¡¡¡¡¡¡tita, te extrañamos y te queremos!!!!!! gracias por todo, todo, todo.