Sunday, March 20, 2005

Suavecito and spring...

It’s the first day of spring and my mom seems a little sad. She’s been thinking about her mom today. It was brought on by a song playing on the radio,that made her stop in her tracks. The song called Suavecito by Malo
I can't seem to get the link to work here.. but copy and paste it into your browser..
"http://www.angelfire.com/ny/bronxbabygirl/malo.html"
This song takes mom back to her childhood. Give it a listen...
Funny the power music has over us….

When ever she hears this song it brings back a specific memory of her parents and spring in Harlem. My mom was 10 yrs old, her parents were in their 20's (they had her in their teens) living in King Towers on 112th street in Harlem, having moved to the projects during the winter from Park Slope Brooklyn... My mom wasn't used to being indoors on a Saturday.In Brooklyn she'd be outside in her grandma's yard, or around the corner playing with some of her cousins or she'd be in her aunts dress shop several blocks away sewing on her play machine. Her old Park Slope neighborhood was one where everyone knew each other. They watched over each others kids. Almost all of her playmates were related to her, since she had 13 cousins that lived on the same block.In Harlem it was different. She wasn't allowed outside without her parents and didn’t know anyone. On this particular day grandma seemed to sense my mom was homesick for Brooklyn and tried to cheer her up. She promised to take mom bike riding through Central Park and to pick up Cuban Chinese food for dinner once she was done cleaning. At the time my mom felt that Central Park, The Museum of Natural History and Cuban Chinese food were the only good things about Manhattan.

On this warm spring day her mother was blasting "Suavecito" on the stereo as she cleaned her house with all the windows wide open. Suavecito a new song by a band called Malo, was getting alot of air play especially within the latino community.

The house smelled of King Pine and Windex, white lace curtains billowing in the breeze... grandma barefoot dressed in shorts and grandpa's shirt.Her long auburn hair tied in a ponytail.
Grandpa came in through the door early from work and without missing a beat scooped grandma into his arms as the song played. Slow dancing with her in the living room. Looking down at her like as if she were the finest woman in the world. My grandma returning the gaze,smiling at him her deep dimples in full effect. My mother remembers being mesmerized unable to move as she stared at them; watching her father run his fingers along my grandma's high cheekbones and singing with the song as he kissed her on the forehead. She remembers my grandma running her fingers through his curly hair, staring into his eyes and singing back to him. It gave my mom goose bumps. As the song ended they saw my mom standing there and grandma pulled my mom towards them and all three began dancing letting the song play a second time.
As the song ended my grandma singing to my mom, "suavecito mi linda" as she danced out of the room. When she came back she was dressed and all three of them left the house having decided to visit Brooklyn.

Mom spent the rest of the day playing with her cousins and enjoying her grandmas’ attention. At the end of the evening after all the cousins had gone home she was sitting in her grandma's lap when someone turned on the radio and "Suavecito" came on. My mom listened to the song watching her parents playing dominoes with her uncles and wished she never had to leave Brooklyn again... She remembers the smell of gardenia perfume coming from her grandma as she drifted off to sleep as her grandma stroked her hair. The next day she awoke in her bed in the projects never recalling the long ride home from Park Slope. Her parents broke up a year later.

When my mom was 21 they found their way back to each other. It had started the year before right after I was born. The daily phone calls,both of them coming over to see me at the same time on weekends. This went on for awhile and then one day they announced to my parents that they were getting back together. Oddly enough it was during the spring at my mom’s house and Suavecito was playing on the radio, on WCBS FM an oldies station. Once again like so many years before they were in the living room , a warm breeze making the curtains billow. Once again they slow danced looking at each other with so much love. During the years they were seperated from each other they never denied that they were in love with each other, they just said they couldnt live together. Now it was different, they were both in their 30's and grandparents.They were tired of being apart and wanted the same thing now that they had wanted when they were teenagers, they wanted each other and to grow old together.

As the music played my mom watched them dance from the doorway,recalling that spring day 11 years earlier. Only this time it wasn’t my mom that got pulled into the circle to dance with them it was me. I was in my walker trying to catch the curtain that kept flying into my face when my grandma took me out of the walker and she and my grandpa sang to me as they danced holding me in their arms. My grandmother passed away shortly afterwards at the age of 37.

This was one of my moms' favorite memories of her parents. She still gets goose bumps whenever she hears this song. Isn't it amazing the power music has in our lives?



Posted by @ 5:27 PM
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