Women have always been in my life. The first person who kissed me was a woman, my mother. I can say that I have more female friends than male friends, and I know several women I can call friends. My opinion is that women are unique beings. In Women’s Month, I would like to reflect on the importance of this wonderful being.
Many people think that honoring women is an everyday thing. Therefore, it should not be a single day for women. I think it’s true, but we should have a month or a day to pay tribute to women. If we didn’t have a special day for mothers or a month for women, nothing would ever be celebrated in homage to that being. That is why we must have a day or a month to honor this so sacrificial person, called a woman.
The woman is the only being who gives life. Men are influential, but we cannot give life to another being. The first one who does give us unconditional love is our mother.
When we get married, and the ship that takes us through our lives begins to sink, a large number of the men abandon it and leave the woman paddling alone, with the mission of bringing her children to safe harbor. It’s sad what I just said, but it’s the reality. The woman never abandons her children. If she has to work day and night to support her children, she does it without a second thought. The most beautiful thing about this situation is that she never regrets what she does. She loves them, feeds them, and takes them by the hand until they can fly without her help.
If I have to give an example of what I am saying, I have to say that I have a few in my own family, and with the permission of my sisters, I will tell how important they are for their children.
Of my five sisters, four have had to raise their offspring alone. The other sister has remained married, although perhaps no one knows her sacrifices to maintain her marriage.
It is probably no secret for those who know me that I come from low-income family. The needs in our childhood were the order of the day, but we managed and grew up.
My younger sister had to raise her three children alone. That was never a negative motive for her. She raised her three children, who love and respect her. With much sacrifice, she was at the university and became a teacher. She went ahead, did her mastery, and never looked back. She went ahead and became a doctor. Today with her doctorate, she is a professor at a university in Puerto Rico.
My sisters found themselves alone and with their young children. That is the reality of many women in our society. They are left alone with their children, and the only thing they can do is learn from the failed marriage and move on.
I have always sympathized with intelligent people and those who use their intelligence to philosophize life’s problems. Listening to Facundo Cabral, I learned that his father abandoned him and his family when he was born. Living in Argentina, her mother became homeless because her ex-husband’s family took her from the house where she lived with her children. Lost and with her young children, she walked for many years, begging for food to support her children. Some of them died of hunger and cold. Facundo survived, but the lack of food and medical care left him with many diseases. Their mother never abandoned them and always put on a happy face to adversity. One day one of his sons observed that people had a house to live in, and they were so poor that they had never had one. Facundo’s mother looked at her son and spoke. The poor are those people who have only one house to live in; we have the whole world, which is our home.
It is inevitable to talk about the war between Russia and Ukraine in these times. People try to leave the country to protect their children, but it is worth saying that what we see are women with their children. The men had to stay behind to defend their country. In all the examples I have analyzed, women always take responsibility for their children. The suffering is great, however, at the same time, they do not regret what they do, and those little ones are their most precious treasure.
The most important thing for my older sister is her only child, who she raised alone. My second sister has four and loves them more than anything in her life. For her, they are perfect. The most joyful feasts are one of my sister and her children; all of them are together on the cornerstone days of our calendar. My other sister has two daughters who live with her, take care of her, and respect her very much. They are both grown women, and they appreciate their mother’s sacrifice to push them forward. The next sister is the only one who lives with her husband. She has three children who please her in everything she wants. Of my younger sister, I already spoke.
For all my nephews, their mothers are an example of responsibility and perseverance, and I do not have to tell you that, for them, they have the best mother in the world, and they do not change her for any other. All this reflection that I have done of the women in my family is something you can probably see in your family or yourself, especially women.
With how great the woman is, I must say that she has been marginalized throughout history. I can tell you that I have not found anything that equates women with men in the history books. The most critical positions in our society are men’s, and in many of those positions, it is forbidden to include or consider women. In the United States, we have never seen a woman as president. With how much the Catholic religion has changed, women are still not allowed to be priests. With so many problems this religion has had, it would be convenient to have female priests. I can assure you that we would not have pedophilia problems, but this is a sensitive issue that I do not want to touch on at this time.
The truth is that women can do many things that are impossible for men. I’m just going to mention some of the ones I’ve seen in some poems about women.
Whatever you give to a woman, she will do something fabulous:
Give her a sperm, and she will provide you with a baby.
Give her a house, and she will give you a home.
Give her food, and she will provide you with an exquisite meal.
Smile at her, and she will give you her heart.
She multiplies and magnifies everything you give her.
Reflection:
The final reflection is about four women who have always been in my memory; my grandmother on my mother’s side, my mother, my wife, and my mother-in-law. They have always been in my life, although in different states. There was a time when I had all three of them in physical form. Now three of them are spiritually in my life, and only one is material. All four are in my memory, and so it will be forever.
My grandmother:
My grandmother is the most spiritual person I have ever met. Positively, she spoke and always, putting God first. When my grandfather died, she wanted to have her own house and land. I think I’m hearing her speak.
Grandma: When Gerardo died, I wanted to buy a piece of land. I didn’t have money, nor did I know how to get it, so I talked to the Lord. I didn’t know how I would do it, but He did. Soon I was able to buy my house.
My grandmother was very independent. She always went to buy his things in the town of Río Piedras; without the help of any person. When she got sick and had her leg cut off, I visited her every Sunday with my wife. She was in a bed, but his spirit was intact. She always spoke to me in this way.
Grandma: One of these days, I will be able to get out of bed and walk.
I told her that it was possible;
Me: When you get well, we can buy a mechanical leg to walk.
She could never get out of bed, but she died with his fighting spirit intact.
My mother:
My mother inherited my grandmother’s optimism and combative spirit. I rarely saw her cry, one of those times was when my grandmother died.
Through my grandmother’s illness, the person who always took care of her was my mother. When my grandmother died, I saw her crying, but I didn’t dare to approach and comfort her. She sat in a chair, and I only knew she was crying because tears rolled down her face. That was her way of crying, always alone. She didn’t share her pain with anyone.
My mother always said that if I had to talk to the son of the Sun, she would speak. I told her that I didn’t know that the Sun had children. Now I still believe that the Sun has no children. The difference is that now I also know that many people think they are children of the Sun, just because they have a lot of money. Who knows if that’s why she said it?
When I got married and left the one I called home, I visited my mother when I was in the area where she lived. Some Saturdays, I would arrive early in the morning at my mother’s house, and the door was closed. At first, I would retire to leave, and then I felt someone calling me. I looked everywhere, and in the corner of a small terrace that had the house, my mother was drinking coffee. I would approach, and the first thing she would say to me was.
Mother: I just strained the coffee; go and pour yourself a cup.
I would go to the kitchen and pour a cup of coffee by myself, as she liked, who taught me to enjoy it in the same way. “Prieto and pulla” (black and no sugar) in my mother’s words. I would sit next to her, and we would try to fix the world. My mother had a particular way of being. I assure you that all my sisters can remember the times when they sat down to talk to my mother in the same way that I did.
My wife:
My wife is also an exemplary woman. When I met her, she lived with her mother and cared a lot about her. That same concern has always been for our children. We married, and we lived years of extraordinary scarcity for a long time. Maybe one day I will write a book about our life. For now, I will only give you an example of what a woman does for her children.
When one of our children was born, a doctor prescribed some hooks for his legs. The clips cost about $125, but we didn’t have the money. My wife had a gold ring that she loved and always wore. In those years when our children were born, there was a revolution with gold. Gold was marketed at very high prices, and everyone bought and sold gold.
Without a second thought, my wife took off the ring and gave it to me to sell so that I could buy the hooks for our son’s leg. I went out with the band, and when I was looking for a place to sell it, I found a small establishment in the Country Club complex of houses of the town of Río Piedras, which said: Gold is bought. I entered the establishment and showed the ring to the place’s owner. He examined it, looked at me, and told me that that kind of ring was collectible, and he collected them. He gave me $130 for the piece of jewelry. I agreed, and with that money, we bought the hooks. That’s just an example of what a woman does for her children.
My mother-in-law:
I mention my mother-in-law among the women I have always admired and respected for their trajectory. She was an exemplary woman. When I first went to my wife’s house, my mother-in-law welcomed me well, and I never criticized myself for anything.
I have to say that she was one of those women who had to raise her children alone, with many sacrifices and pain. Of the women who have been in my life, she has been the most who suffered in life. I do not want to detail those sufferings, but I can assure you that there were many.
I never saw her angry, and she always welcomed me into her house with great affection. When I told her I wanted to marry her daughter, she just said that she thanked me for telling her. I did not know a person like her, but I learned to love her as if she were my mother over time. Doña Rita is an example of the best mother-in-law in the world. I carry her in my memory forever.
Finally:
I can’t finish without first expressing something that hurts me a lot. It seems ironic that the most that unite the human being are also what most discredits women. Music has been in our lives for ages. Regardless of time or musical genres, the lyrics have denied and discredited the woman. With this opinion, I am not throwing any genre of music. I think that all of them, and in a very high percentage, the melodies’ lyrics speak in a derogatory and discrediting way of the woman. It seems incredible that those same people who love so much the woman who gave them life are the same people who have composed songs throwing and discrediting that same genre they love so much. I believe it’s time to respect the being we love so much and who gave us life.
