Ramona Regina Flores Ponce. My birthday is September 7, 1953. I was raised with my parents. We were very humble people. My father was a good, hardworking man. We would go to the farm to harvest and we enjoyed that harvest. My mom would make a lot of varied foods out of what we would harvest. All kinds of fruits and vegetables. We lived well. Poor, but by the grace of God well and happy. We were poor. Lived in a humble house. We would sleep on burlap cots. The bathroom of today were outhouses. Everything was natural. That’s how we were raised, happily, with our parents. A lot of affection, a lot of stories, a lot of laughter. We were very happy.

In today’s time, the young people don’t adapt to what they have. We were so happy with what we had. How we would dress. That was important to us. My mother had her own way of making dresses. We were happy with what we had. The little girl, so happy, with her little doll. We would make them dresses and enjoyed.

The most important thing to me is that I feel like I am me. And because of that I feel satisfied. We have to compare things with others that have happened. IT’s important to tell young people. So they can understand how things were how we were raised. We didn’t study much, but we were very decent. We respected elders a lot. I’ve taught that to my grandchildren and my nieces and nephews, that you respect elders. That I can explain, but always the upbringing. The upbringing we should have. That they would be respectful. That they would take care of others like they would themselves. We have to take care of one another. That’s my opinion.

My dad, I will tell you this. My dad taught us, when you’re going to greet someone that we should always greet them with a smile. There are people that say hi to you and you don’t know if they said hi even though they could barely move their mouth. So, if you’re going to say good day, do it with a smile. That my dad would say.

I feel proud and I thank God for how I live now and how I lived before. I adapted. I was 13 when my dad died. Imagine. I suffered a lot, a little girl. I suffered a lot. But those are the things of life. I took care of my mother. She got sick when her husband died because they were soulmates. Because of this I wasn’t more educated. I dedicated myself to taking care of my mother. I left my studies to take care of her. Regardless, I’m happy with what I’ve done in life. Happy.

I am Ramona. I am this way. And I was raised this way.