Fruit Salad
Éste es un texto que escribió Santiago para su clase de inglés. Me encanta la idea de la ensalada de frutas y, aunque en realidad no queda con lo dulce, yo diría que ya está sazonada con unas gotitas de salsa de soya de tanta comida china que hemos comido por acá.
Fruit salad
Why, when you ask people what the first thing that comes to their minds is when you say Germany, do people think of Nazis? I mean, seriously, what is up with some people? So, today I’m going to talk about my mum’s part of my family. My German family, or my “Nazi” family as some people would call it.
My whole family is one international mess. My great grandparents (from my mum’s family) were Oswald and Elisabeth and Max and Gerda. Oswald and Elisabeth were both Swiss and he left Switzerland because he was looking for a job. Oswald was a high precision mechanic, and worked on the textiles industries. As the world crisis escalated and the textile industry became less and less profitable, Oswald lost his job. Oswald’s brother was a specialist in tropical diseases, so he had moved to Mexico to be able to study them, because, you know how many tropical diseases there are in Switzerland? When Oswald lost his job, his brother invited him over to Mexico to start working there. Interesting facts;
1. - My great grandparent built the vaults for the Central Bank of Mexico City.
2. – My great grandparents waited 10 years to get married, then (Elisabeth) waited another 40+ years to go live back to Switzerland.
Gerda and Max’s story is the more interesting. Gerda lived in Germany and wanted to be a secretary but she knew that if she studied English or French, she wouldn’t be able to get a job because most experienced secretaries already spoke English and/or French and she wouldn’t be able to get a job easily. So, she learned Spanish and English. With that learnt, she found a job as a secretary and dealt with all the Latino bank clients there in Germany. She got kind of tired of just staying in Germany, so when she was offered a job in Mexico as a nanny, she took the opportunity. Unfortunately, she was fired two weeks later by the man’s wife because she had become jealous of her. Though, she decided to stay in Mexico because she thought: “Well, three weeks on the boat to get here, two weeks here and then three weeks back? Nah, I’ll stay a while longer” She then found a job as a secretary, and chose to stay in Mexico her entire life instead of going back.
Max was also German, and curiously, he didn’t actually want to go to Mexico, he wanted to go to the USA but the government wouldn’t allow it if he was going directly from Germany. So, he first traveled to Mexico but when he arrived, all his possessions were stolen. All he had were the clothes he was in. So, he had to start from nothing to be able to pay the passage to the USA. But, as he started working, he fell in love with the country and stayed there. Then, he started working in a company, and he needed a secretary. Now, remember I told you Gerda was hired as a secretary? Well, Max had just met this young German woman who had just lost her job as a Nanny, and was looking for a job as a secretary. He felt pity for her and hired her. He hired Gerda, his future wife.
Finally, it comes to my grandparents. Oswald and Elisabeth had two boys; Paul and Oswaldo, who became known as Onkel Ossi. He currently lives in Switzerland, near Zurich in a town called Winterthur, he is married to Ruth. Max and Gerda only had one girl; Astrid. Paul and Astrid met each other at church, and married on the 26th of November of 1966.
They had three children: Heidi, Verena and Michael. I know them as Tante Heidi, Mami and Onkel Michi.
As I said, my family is an international mess. A fruit salad. I’m Swiss, German, and Mexican. I even know my German great-grandparents had French family. Just remember; next time you talk about Nazis being evil or bad, remember that without them I wouldn’t be here, and you wouldn’t have your wonderful, handsome classmate.(Nota para la familia: hay algunos detalles, pero creo que en general sí se acordó bastante bien de la historia familiar. Si alguien quiere mandarnos correciones, se reciben con gusto, nos encantaría saber más de la familia.)
Fruit salad
Why, when you ask people what the first thing that comes to their minds is when you say Germany, do people think of Nazis? I mean, seriously, what is up with some people? So, today I’m going to talk about my mum’s part of my family. My German family, or my “Nazi” family as some people would call it.
My whole family is one international mess. My great grandparents (from my mum’s family) were Oswald and Elisabeth and Max and Gerda. Oswald and Elisabeth were both Swiss and he left Switzerland because he was looking for a job. Oswald was a high precision mechanic, and worked on the textiles industries. As the world crisis escalated and the textile industry became less and less profitable, Oswald lost his job. Oswald’s brother was a specialist in tropical diseases, so he had moved to Mexico to be able to study them, because, you know how many tropical diseases there are in Switzerland? When Oswald lost his job, his brother invited him over to Mexico to start working there. Interesting facts;
1. - My great grandparent built the vaults for the Central Bank of Mexico City.
2. – My great grandparents waited 10 years to get married, then (Elisabeth) waited another 40+ years to go live back to Switzerland.
Gerda and Max’s story is the more interesting. Gerda lived in Germany and wanted to be a secretary but she knew that if she studied English or French, she wouldn’t be able to get a job because most experienced secretaries already spoke English and/or French and she wouldn’t be able to get a job easily. So, she learned Spanish and English. With that learnt, she found a job as a secretary and dealt with all the Latino bank clients there in Germany. She got kind of tired of just staying in Germany, so when she was offered a job in Mexico as a nanny, she took the opportunity. Unfortunately, she was fired two weeks later by the man’s wife because she had become jealous of her. Though, she decided to stay in Mexico because she thought: “Well, three weeks on the boat to get here, two weeks here and then three weeks back? Nah, I’ll stay a while longer” She then found a job as a secretary, and chose to stay in Mexico her entire life instead of going back.
Max was also German, and curiously, he didn’t actually want to go to Mexico, he wanted to go to the USA but the government wouldn’t allow it if he was going directly from Germany. So, he first traveled to Mexico but when he arrived, all his possessions were stolen. All he had were the clothes he was in. So, he had to start from nothing to be able to pay the passage to the USA. But, as he started working, he fell in love with the country and stayed there. Then, he started working in a company, and he needed a secretary. Now, remember I told you Gerda was hired as a secretary? Well, Max had just met this young German woman who had just lost her job as a Nanny, and was looking for a job as a secretary. He felt pity for her and hired her. He hired Gerda, his future wife.
Finally, it comes to my grandparents. Oswald and Elisabeth had two boys; Paul and Oswaldo, who became known as Onkel Ossi. He currently lives in Switzerland, near Zurich in a town called Winterthur, he is married to Ruth. Max and Gerda only had one girl; Astrid. Paul and Astrid met each other at church, and married on the 26th of November of 1966.
They had three children: Heidi, Verena and Michael. I know them as Tante Heidi, Mami and Onkel Michi.
As I said, my family is an international mess. A fruit salad. I’m Swiss, German, and Mexican. I even know my German great-grandparents had French family. Just remember; next time you talk about Nazis being evil or bad, remember that without them I wouldn’t be here, and you wouldn’t have your wonderful, handsome classmate.(Nota para la familia: hay algunos detalles, pero creo que en general sí se acordó bastante bien de la historia familiar. Si alguien quiere mandarnos correciones, se reciben con gusto, nos encantaría saber más de la familia.)
Me encantan las historias sobre la descendencia de alguien! Que interesante tener toda esa información de sus ancestros, y muchas gracias por compartirla!
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