Doña Andrea Medina, her daughter—in-law Pachita Villagómez, and her granddaughter Lucía; March 31, 1959.
Doña Andrea, who lives with her youngest son, Gabino, shares her kitchen-which is also workshop-with her married son Faustino, her daughter-in-law Pachita, and her infant granddaughter, Lucía. Both of these "families" have separate, though adjoining houses in which they sleep. Macaria, a second daughter-in-law, has her own kitchen in which she cooks for herself and her two children, Adolfo and Celia, but the three of them sleep in the same room with Doña Andrea and Gabino. Son Wenceslado and wife Otilia, and their two children live in a adjacent house and patio, while next to them live Vicente [Rendón] and Nati [Peña] and their three children. Continual visiting back and forth produces, of course, or is the result of, a strong feeling of family solidarity (1948).
Newly married people almost always experience embarrassment and perplexity in addressing their parents-in-law. Except that they are invariably spoken to with the formal "usted," there is no fixed rule. Most young people say they try hard to avoid situations in which they must use either a name or a kinship term. Daughters-in-law are supposed to say "mamá" and "papá" in direct address, but frequently they use circumlocution to avoid this (1967).
CONTINUE >
|
