Power
to the People – Bertha Inchausti
Her name is Bertha Inchausti and she’s almost 86 years old.
She is very smart with her words and her actions.
My grandmother has been a great help with my project and I enjoyed
interviewing her. When I asked her
about what the biggest change was in her life she said the use of electricity
and the purpose it serves. She has
lived through a time where people used petroleum lanterns which now seem almost
non-existent in the common household. Back
then, she said you had to go buy fuel and be careful where you hold the lantern.
Luckily, people made the light bulb available to her home instead of only
the United States. At the time she
lived in Mexico with her
My
name is Berta Esparza Inchausti. I was born in Mexico City. I’m 85, almost 86.
In three weeks, I’ll be 86. Well, I love to read, I like to sew and I
like to do crafts, different kinds of crafts.
Yes gardening, I love to be like playing with my plants outside.
My mother and my father never argued, never, if they did, we never saw it.
My family was a very loving family.
They were very careful about things so they didn’t have to yell or
anything. We didn’t have to be
told twice. That’s the way we
were raised. I had three brothers
and three sisters. Juanita, she was the oldest, Angelita, the second one,
Carlos, Ruben, Gustavo, and Emma. I
am between three older and three younger. I have a beautiful family.
Do you want to know how many kids I have? I have 11 children, 34
grandchildren and about 32 great-grandchildren.
They are all beautiful.
The school was different from now because when I was even in 6th grade, we studied botany. The herbs and plants and we had to actually dissect a flower and make a picture of it. And you know the school was more strict, or more intense than now. I can see now the 4th graders doing math that I was doing in 2nd grade.
One time we were supposed to go on a parade from the school, like on September 16 to celebrate our independence. And, one day for some reason I came late and the parade, the whole school had already done about maybe three blocks so I had to run to catch up with them and the teacher. And, when he saw me running, of course I came and got my place. The next day we went to school he said, “Miss Esparza, you have to write this sentence 500 times. You have to learn to obey so you can be in charge. If you want to command, you have to learn to obey first.” And 500 times. At the time, I couldn’t get recess because I had to be writing and I couldn’t do it at home, I had to do it in school because it was a punishment. It was nice because really he taught us discipline. A lot of things he did not expect us to bring, for a project, he never expected us to buy expensive stuff. We used things that we had around the house, like to make a mat, a little rug for the floor. Things like that.
The only job I had before I was married was in the hospital because I was studying to be a nurse for two and a half years. And then after we got married, my husband had a business so I did work in the store. It was Mexican curios or Mexican products that we were selling. Leather shoes, leather purses, silver, a little bit of gold, but more silver than anything else.
In Mexico City there was electricity all over. In Tampico, also except where we lived, it was a new development and we did not have electricity until about a year later. First it was just in the houses and then we had it on the streets and the best part was that we could now play at night outside. We had really good times telling stories to each other with the other children. Inventing ghosts and things that were not real but we tried to make it interesting. We had a good time running around, playing tag and playing whatever, getting all sweaty and then take a shower before you go to bed.
By the time, I was maybe eight years old; the whole city had electricity and then when we moved closer because when I got married we moved to Laredo. So everything was there, what we didn’t have was the computers. But we did have television and washers and all the electrical things we have now. Except for the computer. That’s from your era. Now with the little machine, the washing machine, I mean that was a big change, like a new world. We had a sewing machine but they were pedal machines. They weren’t electrical. Then, my father was a tailor so we did have two sewing machines. We used petroleum lanterns and there was a special place for them to be hanged and of course only the parents handled the lantern. We were not allowed to because I mean if you drop one you start a fire. And it was interesting. And then we had electricity also for the train. We had electric trains. That was the first transportation we had in that area. It was in other areas but in our area that was the first transportation.
After that came the cars and the buses but the first transportation was the electric street cars. Now we didn’t have the lanterns. We didn’t have to do any of that anymore. No, it was a great, great change. A big deal. I think it came from the darkness to light because I mean that’s what it is. You know a big, big change. With all the new inventions and all this technology. It’s all due to electricity. If we didn’t have electricity, we wouldn’t have any of these things so God bless Benjamin Franklin. For discovering it, no, he did not invent it, he discovered it.
Interviewed
by Edmundo Gallegos