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We need better communication between the young and the not-so young. It will inform our present decisions and help us open our future paths. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
A few years ago (noted in an earlier column) when my son Roque was in middle school, he asked my mother about her life and ancestry. She wrote back a long and informative letter, filled with amazing revelations. Details that would most likely have gone unshared if those questions had not been asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For example, although my maternal great-grandmother Margarita lived with us a few years, I never really knew her. Details about her life had not been shared. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
She was a rather stoic figure, extremely religious, who spent long hours tending the garden, always wearing long-sleeved white shirts and a severe brown skirt that reached down to her ankles. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In my mother’s letters, I finally heard more details about my great-grandmother and her \u201ccampesino\u201d roots. Her parents had been illiterate peasants. When my grandmother Tr\u00e1nsito (quite a name!) was born and eventually became an elementary school teacher, she then taught her mother to read.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tr\u00e1nsito was the first teacher in our family. That started a tradition. My mother became a teacher, two of my sisters and myself followed that path and now two of my children are also teachers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In that letter, I also learned that, when basketball first arrived in Chile, in the early 1900\u2019s, my grandmother Tr\u00e1nsito, being the tallest in her class, played the role of\u2026the basketball hoop! She stood there, as tall as possible, her hands in front of her, forming a circle that would serve for her smaller classmates to practice that new sport. A few years later, when my mother was a young woman, she became a member of the female Chilean basketball team. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Again, I would not have learned that story if my son had not asked my mother about our ancestors and if she had not taken the time to respond.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While planning these notes, today I read an interesting interview by Tony Bravo. (SF Chronicle, Datebook section, 4\/14\/2021). It was a conversation with the African American painter Richard Mayhew, who is 97 years young. Some of Mayhew\u2019s works are at the SFMOMA. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Reading about Mayhew helped me to finish this article. I learned that he still paints (and sings) every day and that his work is always inspired by his ancestry, a mix of Black and Native American (his grandmother was Shinnecock).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mayhew also said that \u201c\u2026the painting is only a process for the development of the next painting\u2026[a painting] never reaches a conclusion because it can go on to a continuation of the idea.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In reference to what I am writing, it makes me think, what if we replace \u201cpainting\u201d with \u201cperson\u201d? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
We all are a process, a process that evolves, a process that will be helped or impeded by the degree of communication that we establish with our children, our students, with each other\u2026or with our ancestors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Transcendence requires communication. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When my mother still walked upon the earth, she had a sign posted on her living room: YOU CAN! She had written it on a piece of cardboard, using big characters and placing it where she could read it every day. Sometimes, she would even touch it with her hand as she passed by, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":48071,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":false,"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11905,4],"tags":[],"coauthors":[18445],"class_list":["post-48099","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-devils-advocate","category-voices","entry"],"yoast_head":"\n