My Name's Maria, Not Mary

Young Berenita, as she is known, watches as the children walk by giggling and laughing without a care in the world on their way to school. She is barefoot with long blond tangled curls all over her head. She helps her Papá Antonio and dreams of the day she will make him proud of her, she vows that she will make him as proud as her as she is of him. She continues to watch the children. She reflects on the fact that she can't afford to go to school and she doesn't remember her mother. Her father shows her a picture of her mother that died when she was so very young, but she's not that interested. She doesn't really understand what it means to have a mother. She adores her Papá and her brother Álvaro with all of her heart. She and her brother feed the chickens and tends to the other animals of the finca in the countryside of Colombia. They have the full love and attention of their father Don Antonio. The neighbors respect this humble family and help them by giving them work in their homes. They are partially dependent on the other families and some of the other families are dependent on them, to use their sugar mill, el trapiche and buy goods in their makeshift store on the first floor of their home. Once the day has ended, they sit together under the starry dark night sky, away from the all city lights of Bogotá. They all talk and laugh together near the burro powered trapiche. Tired and their hands cut up from picking sugar cane all day, but they greet their neighbors with big smiles on their faces and today, they greet you too. They are inviting you into their humble home for a bowl of soup and a cheese stuffed arepa, because you are always welcome in their home. I hope you enjoy your visit.