Lola

Well, i just put down America Is In the Heart. i'm really liking the setting of the opening of the book. The lifestyle they live just made me think about the circumstances under which my parents grew up--and consequently how much their lives have changed.

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Oh ho ho, i fooled you! i bet you thought i was gonna play my brown pride card and turn this into an emoblog where i ranted about my roots.

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Well, okay, maybe just a little. :-X But for serioso, reading how agriculturally dependent Bulosan's family was, how precarious their financial circumstances were, how the residue of happiness lingered in spite of the simplicity and modesty and hardship of their lives--it all just makes me think of my Lola. My grandmother. Like Amado, my lola had to leave school very early to help her family work the land. She's a trooper, that old lady. She's a varsity-level survivor. And now, back home in San Jose, she's content to grow roses and kalabasa. But what amazes me is that, given any conditions--dry land, little rain, no tools--she always manages to make sure her plants grow. And they thrive.

Yeah, i meant that symbolically too. bam!

And no worries, Ms. Gier, you can breathe! I'll write a more English-class-appropriate entry later. :-)