Ismael Medina is born
Ismael Medina is born in Ponce, Puerto Rico in 1963. Ponce is a large city on the south side of Puerto Rico under United States authority. Known for having the best roads in Puerto Rico, Ponce was in a transition period from a low income economy to the high income economy that it is today, creating a social class division in society.
Source: https://www.britannica.com/place/Puerto-Rico/The-economy
TM: Where and when were you born?
IM: I born in Ponce, Puerto Rico, 19 December 1963.
TM: And what was it like growing up there?
IM: Growing up in Puerto Rico was – now looking back, really fun. Yeah. I mean even though we didn’t have a lot of wealth, it was really, really nice. Now when I look back and reflect, I had a great childhood development. Really nice, yeah.
TM: Did you grow up in Ponce too?
IM: Yeah, I did. Yes.
TM: Was that more of a rural or urban area?
IM: City. Urban, yes.
TM: What were the economics like there?
IM: Economics back in the – well, maybe the ’70s and the ’80s. Again, I was not aware of what was really going on, because I was growing up, so we did not pay attention to that. So, in the ’80s was tough, because in 1980, my father passed away. I was 16 going to 17. So, at that point, obviously, just my mother and four of us, yes. Her try to take care of the household just with the only thing she – the only income that she had was the social security, so it was really tough for her and for us.
TM: Mm-hmm. And what were the most common religions like in that area?
IM: Really, really Catholic. Catholic.
TM: Okay. Talk to me about your parents and grandparents.
IM: My grandparents from my mother’s part, they lived close by, so we seen them almost on a weekly basis, sometimes twice a week, two times a week. From my father’s side, they lived far away, so we only saw them every six or maybe twice a year, so something like that. And he had a lot of brothers and sister, so yeah. So, again, so that one we didn’t have too much interaction with them, because I was little, because we only saw them twice a day. With my mother’s side, like I said, we saw them twice a week, so it was really good, really nice. With my parents, again, he passed away when I was 16. Prior to that, I did share a lot of time when I was off school during the summer. He used to drive for a newspaper company. So, at that time, he used to drive from Ponce to San Juan, about a two-hour drive maybe back then a two-and-a -half-hour drive, so during the summers, I went with him to make company.
TM: Where were your grandparents from?
IM: My grandparents are – on my mother’s side, they are from Peñuelas, which is about maybe 30 minutes from Ponce. But I guess I don’t know when they moved to Ponce. And then, my father’s side, they are from Arecibo. Arecibo’s in the north of the island.
TM: What about where are your parents from?
IM: They are from – I want to say that my mother born in Peñuelas. My mother moved to Ponce when she was little. The same thing with my father. He born in Arecibo, but I don’t know how old he was, when he moved to Ponce.
TM: What did they do for work?
IM: My mother, she stay at home. Stay-at-home mother, take care of us. My father what I remember about him, I remember him being a driver for this company, newspaper company. And then from there, he took another job with a air condition company. Same thing. Bringing equipment from San Juan to Ponce and deliver throughout the island. Later one, he became like a taxi driver. We always had a taxi. We call it a – it’s like a form of transportation, but you pay the chauffeur, the driver and you pack. It’s like Uber today, but back then, it was not Uber. So, he did that. So, most of his life, he did as driver.
TM: Did you ever go to his workplace?
IM: I did, I did.
TM: What was that like?
IM: I remember, like I said, I remember the one about when he was a driver. As a matter of fact, there was a year, I remember the specific year, that the company closed business in Ponce and they moved to San Juan. So, he did make a lot of trips from Ponce to San Juan bringing equipment, all kinds of stuff. On the last trip there, we drove from Ponce to San Juan and on the way back, we left the truck there. So, on the way back, we flew back on a airplane, (inaudible) [00:05:48] airplane the first time of me being on a plane. That was really neat. The other job I used to go with him also and be his partner, I guess. It was really neat, because his boss was a retired command sergeant major. And the way he got the shop set up, it was really organized and neat and everything labeled. So that, thinking about now, I don’t know if I get that from – I’m the same way. When I come to having things in place and organized, I don’t know if I got it from that experience. Yes.
TM: Okay. How did your family change once your father died?
IM: How did my family change? Let me think about that one. Thinking that was 16. My older sister was – I was 16. She was 17. And then my younger, the one who followed me, she’s about two years younger than me. It changed, because right now, we already have her. And my sister move. She move from our house to – because we moved. As a matter a fact, my father died, we moved two more place. Two more time, two more time. Because that house, at that time they worked at that house, it was rented. So, after my father died, maybe a year later, the owner of the house also passed away. So, his family kind of said, “We don’t want to continue renting the house.” So, they told us we go to move. And we moved to another house and we stayed there for maybe about, about a year or so. And then, we moved again to a little farther away and not in such good neighborhood. And at that time, my older sister, she was in college. So, I guess her boyfriend didn’t want her to stay in that rough neighborhood. So, she stayed in the same street where we spend most of our time with a family members of us. So, that changed a little bit, because now she’s – we’ve always been close and now she lived with them for about a year or so. Then, the same year that I enlisted in the army, 1983, my mother – well, my younger sister, she moved to – younger, I mean. But she got with this guy and he was more older than her and they went to New York. So, my mom went to New York right after I came to the army. Yeah, as a matter of fact, my sister, she got married. So, my father passed away, I was the one that walked her down the aisle. And then, they moved to New York and then I went to the army in August ’83. And then, my mother and my younger sister and my younger brother, they moved to New York. So, while I was in basic training, advanced individual training at Fort Benning, Georgia, they stayed in New York. And by the time I got some leave, some vacation from the army in December, they’d already been back to Puerto Rico. So, I went back to Puerto Rico back in December 1993. So, that changed a lot when my father passing away, it changed a lot, because now my mother had to deal a lot of issues. The oldest get married and then the youngest, she got engage with this dude older than her. So, now I’m going to follow her, and took the youngest with her. And me going to the army, so that kind of – Yeah, I guess looking back now, it was kind of rough for her.