My grandparents lived through the depression in the town of Arecibo, in the beautiful island of Puerto Rico. Both my parents are technically baby-boomers, but they never had the opportunities afforded to their counterparts on the mainland. All of my grandparents started their work lives in the fields, tending and harvesting sugar cane. My maternal grandmother was able to leave the fields for domestic work. That would be the line of work my mother and her two sisters would also do before and after school. My paternal grandmother wasn’t as lucky and spent all of her working life in the fields. It’s hard to imagine my tiny grandmother, all 4′ 8″ disappearing into the tall stalks of sugar with a “machete” in her hands, swinging and cutting from sun up to sundown. My maternal grandfather also spent most of his years working in the fields, but later on, when they moved to the capital city of San Juan, he started working construction. I guess you can say he traded cutting down for building up. I still remember him coming home in the evening cover in cement dust. He was strong and silent but always had a tinkle in his eyes. My father’s father was a more gregarious type. He moved up sooner by moving away. He join the U.S. Army about a year before end of the great war. So he didn’t get to see any conflict, thankfully. He took the opportunity to stay in the states for a bit and learn a new trade as a barber. I guess it aligned perfectly with his personality. From all my grandparents I learned that whatever your circumstances, you can make a difference if you believe in yourself and you persevere. All types of work can be hard in their own way. But if you focus on your goals (in their cases, to bring up their children and provide a better life and opportunities), every drop of sweat is worth it. That was a lesson handed down from my grandparents, to my parents, then to me. Now it’s my turn to pass it on from my sons to their children and hopefully to their children as well. And so the legacy can continue.
