homage vovó

today my brother and i spent the day talking about childhood, current life, dreams, aspirations, family, all that brotherly/sisterly grown up stuff. the irony in this is that what seems just like a few years ago, the interaction would have gone down slightly different. he may have stolen one of my french fries or kicked me under the table or i may have faked cried to get him in trouble. but, now being all grown up and stuff, we talked the talk of big people.

coming up in conversation were the similar traits that run through our genes… the obsession our family has with electronics, languages, travel. we came to the conclusion that it was large in part due to my english born father who had one of the few 50lb  video camera in the 70′s and my brasilian mother who traveled the world (and still does) as a flight attendant, speaking a few languages of her own.

but what i neglected to recognise in that moment, was my 88 year old grandmother emailing her family in the background. really we  are mix of all of these people (obviously). however, my grandmother (my mom’s mom) is one of the silent but powerful forces of our molding.  she came to this country in her 30′s with my mother, both lacking a native english tongue.  as usual, she refused to fear the unknown, quickly adapting to her U.S. home. while her husband was working, she’d take secret trips to manhattan from long island to understand her new world. she cooked a whole thanksgiving turkey dinner from a recipe she had to translate teaspoon for teaspoon, for a holiday that had no word in portuguese.

7th of february 1921, julia was born. today she is 88. she ate at Mimi’s twice today and we enjoyed her company for hours.

she is an incredible artist, linguist (even able to write esperanto, among 3-4 other languages), cook, emailer, gardener, maker of capirihna, mother, grandmother, sister and all around human being.

Querida vovó. Eu espero que você tenha um dia ótimo no dia do seu aniversário. Um beijo. Eu amo a vovó. Em boca fechada nao entra mosca