Isabel Alcantar

My name is Isabel Alcantar Garcia.

I was born on October 28, 1927 in the village of Cuto del Povenir, in the province of Tarimbaro in central Mexico.

I had three sisters and a brother and am the second in the family.

I have many memories from my childhood that I have never told. I started working in the fields when I was seven years old. My oldest sister and I helped our father sow and harvest corn and beans. We got up very early to go to work and came home very late. Since it was very hard work, every time my big sister sowed, she put several corn seeds in each hole to go faster, in order to get in more
home early... When it was time to harvest the maize, my father noticed her poor work (because it was growing no matter how) and he scolded her.

At the age of 12, I worked in a mill where they grind dried corn: nitxtamal. “Nixtamalization is a very ancient Mesoamerican process by which kernels of corn are soaked and cooked in an alkaline solution, usually lime water. »

(Wikipedia). This technique allows man to better assimilate corn by awakening the vitamins. This work was very hard, but I have fond memories of that time.

As a child, I had no personal ambition. I was married and a mother at 17. I had 14 children, two of whom died young and three who died of old age. My village, my family and its people were everything to me. That's all I needed.

I learned to read and write at the rural school, a bit late. The education I received there lasted two years.

The activity I enjoy the most is washing. I love washing clothes!!

My favorite music is Ranchera Mexicana music. I listen to it at any time when I do my household chores. One of my favorite songs is called Hay unos ojos by David Zaizar.

My favorite color is “rosa mexicana” (Mexican rose).

My favorite dish is “los frijoles con nopales” (beans with prickly pear/cactus).

My favorite smell is that of a plant that you can smell only at night. In Mexico, it is called “Huele de noche” (the smell of the night).