The Story of a Woman Without Borders
Society was even more patriarchal back then. I did not get married, for fear he would hit me, says Nora. At that time women were beaten more frequently. Men wouldn’t allow women to bloom. Women were forced to stay in the kitchen or to clean the house. Nora, however, was not prepared for such crappy life. I learned not to let myself be dominated by a man, one sees so much that at the end, we learn.
I started working at twelve years old. From a very young age Nora showed independence, and started as a child, sewing clothes with a small machine owned by her mother. The machine had a wheel, which had to be rotated constantly with the right hand, while the left hand pushed the garment under the needle. That little machine was given to my mother when she was fifteen years old. Women's dresses, men's shirts, whatever it took. People sent their clothes that needed to be repaired and she made sure it was done.
Nora finished secondary school and spent a year in a convent, with nuns, learning sewing. The basics were covered by experience, but the details were learned thanks to what I learned in the convent, she explains.
In 1972 she emigrated to Venezuela, following an invitation from a friend. Things were getting slow in Colombia and she heard, from her friend, that in Venezuela there were more opportunities. And just like that, she left. Nora says that one afternoon that she remembers very well, the two women were walking through the streets of Caracas, when they saw in a window a sign announcing that a seamstress was needed. The conversation with the Jew, owner of the store, from whom Nora keeps beautiful memories, was short.
- What do you know? - asked the Jew
- Well, I sew - assured Nora
- Well, if that's true, you are hired – replied the Jew
Nothing else was discussed, names and other details were to be discussed at some other time. Nora stayed in Caracas for a long time, she says that when she passed ten years living in the country, one day she received a letter with her name. Intrigued, she opened the package. It was her new nationality, Venezuela granted her the nationality without her even having it processed. She explains that this was something customary in those years, if a person stayed for at least ten years in Venezuela and had good behavior, the government granted naturalization automatically.
In that city, far from her native Yumbo, Nora suffered the most intense experiences of her life. To 1986, Nora calls it "my lucky year," and when I ask her why, she tells me that in January her 28-year-old son disappeared on a trip to Cuba from which he never returned. If you go to Cuba, you go to the cemetery and ask Fidel what he did with my son, she tells me. She never found out what happened to her son. More than 30 years gone, today Nora is still suffering the uncertainty of not knowing what happened. Not even knowing if he died or if he is still alive. Well, I'll keep waiting, if he's still alive, one day he'll show up. In the middle of the same year, her mother dies and on December 15 her 30-year-old daughter died of leukemia. Nora took care of her daughter until the end and her grandchildren ended up in the care of an aunt on their father's side who dedicated herself to those kids for life. Three years later, in 1989, she arrived in the United States. She says that at first she was going back and forth until she decided to stay. In those years she discovered that she had diabetes and it was easier to stay and be treated in the United States.
I raised my children alone, I worked hard, I raised them thanks to God and they studied as much as they could. I like helping others, my family, my friends, whomever I can give my hand, or at least a good advice.
Today her offspring are still in the United States, she has children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren who enjoy the safety of a path, the path that this woman, clinging to her fierce and resolute spirit, managed to forge. She still maintains a family in Colombia and says that her grandchildren call her every day. As a matter of fact, while we were talking, her phone rang, it was one of them. She likes that, she says that in her land young people are still being raised in the old way, respecting the elderly, loving them.