Esther's Story, Part 1

The following is from the memoirs of my grandmother, Esther Quintero Jimenez. She has passed along her love of family history to me, and has set an example of the importance of taking time to preserve memories for posterity. I will make every effort to properly translate from Spanish. The stories are extensive and will be posted in parts as I can get to them.

I was born in Jovellanos, province of Matanzas, Cuba, on November 28, 1919, at four in the afternoon. My parents were Manuel Quintero Rodriguez and Maria de los Angeles Plata Roldan; everyone knew her as "Chachita." My father was overseer of the farm "El Toro," and he had an offer to take a position as "second boss" of "Soledad," 7km from Jovellanos.

My aunt and uncle, Dr. Adriano Recio Fors and Otilia Plata, had had a daughter on July 31, their firstborn, named Yolanda. My parents planned to go see the new niece, even though my mother's pregnancy was advanced. The distance was very short but the road was very bad. Cleofe [my grandmother's sister] was two, and Olga [another sister] would turn one on December 2, and they went along with my parents. Soon after arriving, my mother says to my Aunt Martina that she had a small pain in her abdomen; my aunt prepared a remedy and she felt better. My mother didn't expect me until the end of December.

Manuel Quintero Rodriguez (Papo)
(1882-1963)

According to what my aunt told me years later, that day there was much conversation, and my mother's heavy pains continued. My Uncle Recio was a pharmacist at the Pharmacy of Jose Augustin Fernandez, which was at the corner of Marti and Enrique Junco, near his house. When my father went to buy a medicine for her stomach, my uncle preferred to go see my mother; he wanted to examine her. When he came out of the room, he told everyone, "The baby is going to arrive!" and he ran to the pharmacy for first aid, during which time Martina heated water and then help Recio with my birth. Finally, the cry of another girl was heard. Martina told me that she bathed me; then Otilia and my father ("Papo") came in to see me.

Maria de los Angeles Plata Roldan (Mama)
(1889-1984)

My father had to return to El Toro, and that week he returned to Jovellanos to get "Mama" and his three girls. When I was four months old, they sent my father to Soledad, where he began his position as co-overseer. The main overseer of the fields was Ramon Yera. At that time, there was the position of lower administrator, who was Fernando Andreu. When I was three, Papo would take me to his boss's house (Yera); I vaguely remember a family named Valcarcel, Paco and his wife, Adela. I don't recall what was Paco's job, but I saw him wearing leggings and horse-riding pants. Adela would hold me. They had four or five boys; I'm not sure. The youngest was named Esteban and they called him Estevita; he was blond and his hair made him look "pretty." Another son's name was Adel, from his mother's name, Adela. That was around 1922-23.


Be on the lookout for Esther's Story, Part 2!