Paricipant #7 starts off setting the ground for her narrative with the affirmation that her memory is terrible, as many others have stated before her in this group interview. But almost immediately she goes into detail about the summers she was sent to the Dominican Republic when being a kid. She explains that, even though she was her mother’s only child, this was a sacrifice her mom made for her to enjoy her “free time”, even if she understands that this was a trick – her mom also needed a break from her and enjoy free time. She talks about, how even if her mother had anxiety when making the decision of sending her by herself to the Dominican Republic, she always felt assured because her grandmother would receive her in the airport. Finally, participant #7 talks how being back in the Dominican Republic and seeing how service oriented everyone was, taught her to demonstrate love through acts of service.
Original Audio Transcript
****Because this interview is in its majority in English, there is no translation.****
(0:13:00) Participant 5: Imma pass this one cause I’m still thinking about it … if that’s okay
(0:13:05) Gina: Yeah, no… If you don’t feel like… if this is like a question que todavia tu no sabes como posicionarla, we can like, go to the next one … Because the idea is also.. if you don’t, estas son cosas para nosotras tambien go back home and be like “mieeeerda”…perate
(0:13:20) Participant 7: Mhmhhm… So.. I do- similarly my memory is shit. I mean- can we?
(0:13:25) Gina: Yeah, you can curse, it’s art.
(0:13:26) Ok, gotta ask, I don’t know if the children are listening.
(0:13:30) So my memory is shit. But the memory that I remember e – mi mama me mandaba para Santo Domingo, sin fallo, to lo verano.
(0:13:34) Y ella me ponia la mascara dique “Oh, you need free time”, and I am like “No, TU necesitaba free time” *laughs* y tu quería que yo también tendriera free time.
(0:13:43) And it’s fine, I feel like we both won, but you tried to play me. So *laughs* Yo me recuerdo que a mami le daba un miedo dejarme ir, porque at the time she couldn’t afford the trip for the both of us, so at some point she had to sacrifice her trip and just send me alone.
(0:14:04) But, I am my mom’s only child so ella estaba insoportable with her anxiety. She wouldn’t call it anxiety, I can call it anxiety now, retrospectively… umm
(0:14:10) But she did it anyway, she let me go on the plane by myself. And my grandma… She always knew that my grandma would come and welcome me in the airport.
(0:14:18) And you know cuando tu toca pa’ Santo Domingo y tu va a Sali, e like a little, model – Yeah, una pasarela, con tu maleta and then I always saw my abuelita, and my abuelita was always happy to see me.
(0:14:26) Of course, it’s been a year, and she notices how much I grew, and I just remember getting in there and everybody being of service.
(0:14:32) Like, “que te puedo hacer?” “Un cafecito?” and that’s so very much who I am. “What can I do for you? “What can I do for my partner?” “How can I help you?” And it’s been beneficial to have that background for me cause I feel like to me, love …
(0:14:43) When I take my love languages “acts of service” is always at the top and I feel like they are connected.