Anthropology. 2
Paper Assignment
25 October 2012
Life’s Stories
I am currently a 19-year-old female. I was born in Santa Rosa at Sutter Hospital on March 15, 1993. My immediate family consists of 3 siblings as well as my mother, step dad, and grandmother. I have 2 younger brothers and 1 younger sister. My sister is 18 years old, and my younger brothers are 10 years old and 5 months. My mother is 40 and my step dad is 42, while my grandmother is 59. My ethnicity is Hispanic, so mostly Mexican and Spanish, as well as a little Portuguese. My grandmother’s father is from Spain and so is her mother, but her father’s mother is part Portuguese. While on my father’s side both his parents are from Mexico, but my great grandfather is from Spain. While I was growing up we moved around a lot. We lived in a couple different apartments from when I was a newborn up until I was four, and then we moved into my parent’s first house. I went to only 2 different elementary schools, 1 middle school, and 1 high school. When I was about 7 my parents got divorced so my siblings and I stayed with my mother. It was a bit difficult to deal with at that age and still a little difficult now because my parents have only spoken about 3 times since the divorce, and can barley stand to look at each other now. While my parents were making their divorce final my mother decided it would be good for us to move so we moved to Los Angeles. It was nice and making new friends wasn’t so difficult, but leaving them was hard because after only a year and a half we moved back to Santa Rosa. When we moved back my sister and I went back to the same elementary school, and reconnected with some of our old friends and made a few new ones as well, but things were still hard to deal with because my mother had just had my younger brother, and was engaged, while my father had had 3 different girlfriends -who I never bothered to remember the names of - until he got remarried. My sister and I have hardly seen our father since the divorce, but have been lucky enough to have a great step dad. Alicia Maria Lopez* is a 20 year old single mother with 2 children. She was born in Mexico City, Mexico, but was raised in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She lived in New Mexico with her father as well as her 13-year-old brother. Alicia was able to graduate from high school and continues her education at the Santa Rosa Junior College, and plans on becoming a nurse.
After asking Alicia a few general questions I just let her tell me about herself and what life experiences she has had that she would be willing to share, and the following is what I learned about her. Alicia is of Hispanic decent, and is Spanish as well as Mexican. Alicia had her 2 children with her high school sweet heart at 17. She has 2 boys one of whom just turned 3 years old and the other who is 1 year old. Alicia’s mother is still in Mexico, because she needed to take care of her mother who was very ill, but passed away when Alicia was 9. Alicia’s mother wasn’t able to get to New Mexico because it isn’t legal for her to be in the United States because she has a criminal record, so Alicia and her brother have not seen their mother since they were children and have lost touch. It was really difficult for Alicia to grow up with out her mother, because when she got her first period she thought she was dying because her father had not talked to her about it and she didn’t have her mother to explain it to her. But the most difficult thing she has had to go thorough was an abusive relationship with the father of her children. When she first met her high school sweet heart Javier* he was the kindest and most caring boyfriend she had ever had, but when she got pregnant he wasn’t happy. He wouldn’t always hit her but after a few