My object is a pot that was once a shiny bronze but rusted over the years of use by many generations of my family. My grandmother’s grandmother, Yarina Celine Rios, was an immigrant from Puerto Rico who brought the pot to America in the early 1920s. She came to the United States because she was pregnant with her first child, my great grandmother. Yarina wanted a new life for her and her family. Coming into the country she had few pieces of clothing, a pot, and some gold jewelry passed down to her. Her husband tried to find work but he did not speak much English. Meanwhile in order to support her family, Yarina had to sell her mother’s jewelry. When my abuela was 11 she was taught by her mother how to cook arroz y gandules. On her death bed she made my great grandmother promise to teach the same lessons she was taught to her children. When my grandmother was 11 she was also taught how to cook the same thing my abuela was taught. Before my abuela died of kidney failure, she made my grandmother make the same promise as she once had to make. This pot may be just a cooking item to most people but to my family it meant a way to learn about our home country and stay connect to the ones before us. I really wish I could’ve met Yarina.

– - Tyanna S.

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