My mom, born in 1959 in rural Peru, grew up in a happy home. She always used to tell me as a child: “we had a farm and we used to tell stories and play and dance in the streets. It was a different time back then. Things were simple and happy.” My mom grew up in a large house where her large family of two parents and six other siblings grew up. There were paintings and photographs in the rooms of the house that still remained from their Spanish ancestry. “My grandpa had the mustache that curls at the tip, and his wife wore a white dress and gloves that covered all of her body besides her head. That was the fashion back then,” my mom would say. The descriptions of her childhood have all always been bright, beautiful, fun, and peaceful—she would go to school, ride her horse to her farm, and spend time with her family. The blanket shown in the picture is one that her mom gave to my mom. She said that her mom made it by hand when she was a child. Women at the time and place were raised and expected to know how to have good sewing and cooking abilities according to my mom. This blanket is one of the last remaining objects my mom has from that period of her life. It is something from a nostalgic memory that my mom loves to think about. Her life after she was about twenty years old took a dramatic turn for harsh realities when the Shining Path communist militant group placed a large sign that read: “We will kill [my mom’s name] next.” 

– Brian Alvarado

Relationship:  Child of im/migrant Child of im/migrant