My mom once told me that Mother’s Day was not about me, despite my role as a mother. She said it was a day to celebrate her and the women who came before me.  See, my momma doesn’t play; don’t let her sweet grandma demeanor fool you. She’s more a whoop your butt with the cucharon type of mom with an occasional Mommy Dearest moment. (What, like you don’t have those?)

Momma will tell you what is what.  So when she checked me on the Mother’s Day situation, I listened. She explained that is a day to honor the hard work and effort our mothers make.  She added that M and Rambo had to honor me.  So, instead of viewing Mother’s Day as a new holiday in my honor, it continues to be a day where I thank my mom.

Despite all our battles, Momma is my role model. I know no other woman who has worked so hard outside and inside the home for her children.  I know no other woman who has parented siblings, nieces, nephews, cousins, even play cousins by marriage(who are so trifling they don’t deserve her) with so much patience and generosity. No one keeps a clean house like my Momma. No one can cook a dinner party for dozens of people like my Momma.  No one best take on my Momma because she will let you have it.

My mom has shared that her own mom, mi abuelita Chelia, has always been tough and brutally honest.  She has told me stories of Chelia’s harsh discipline. Mama Chelia is known for her blunt rants on everything and everyone.  I remember a trip we made to Churin.  My mom, who suffers from chronic back pain due to a slipped disk, was miserable during the bumpy bus ride back to Huacho.  She gritted her teeth and braced herself to no avail. Tears of pain flowed silently down her cheeks. Chelia leaned over and asked, “Que le pasa a esta mujer? Estas llorando? Te voy dar un lapo si sigues llorando.”(Translation: Woman what is the matter with you? You crying? I will slap you upside your head if you keep crying.)A few moments later, she wiped my mom’s tears and rubbed her shoulders without another word.

Because motherhood isn’t only nurturing and caretaking, it’s butt-kicking, name-taking, history-making, and barrier-breaking.  To be a mother means to be a woman of strength and character. So to the assertive warriors who came before me, my models of strength, Feliz Día de las Madres.