Creative Nonfiction: Girl with umbrella/ Niña con sombrilla (ENG/ ESP)

3 months ago

_Pixabay

Girl with umbrella

At home we were always advised that everything could be solved by talking. Violence begets more violence and that is why we should avoid coming to blows, our elders repeated to us at all times. In the case of sibling arguments, my parents and my grandmother served as intermediaries and always achieved peace and reconciliation between us.

However, when we started school, each of us had to control our fury and fears, deal with the teasing and bullying of the other children. In my case, I was always a very participative, disciplined and studious child, traits that made me stand out among my classmates, so I was easily the target of ridicule and harassment.

Many times my classmates, boys too, pulled my hair, called me names and even hid my notebooks. My parents, who listened to my daily complaints, recommended only one thing:

"You must tell the teacher so that she would solve".

"But I tell her and she doesn't do anything, she only scolds them and it's worse, because later, at recess, they push me around all the time,” I confessed while I was doing my homework at the dining room table at home.

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One random weekend my godmother Maria came home with a Hello Kitty bag and umbrella for me. I was so happy because I had always wanted an umbrella and just like when you get new shoes and want to wear them soon, I wanted Monday to come quickly so I could take my umbrella and bag to school. The night before Monday, I neatly arranged my supplies in my bag and put my umbrella near my bed. That night I wished for an early morning so I could show my friends my gift.

I arrived at school with my pink umbrella and matching bag. My little friends came over to see my gift, but the other kids started laughing:

"She looks like Penelope Glamour"! -said one, and all the others continued to tease me, “Penelope Glamour, Penelope Glamour, Penelope Glamour, Penelope Glamour...."

And although Penelope Glamour was a character from a Hanna Barbera cartoon that was characterized by using a pink umbrella, I felt humiliated and sad, and what had been an illusion for me, became the butt of jokes in the salon.

After that, I didn't want to take my umbrella to school, but at home nobody noticed, because Mom put it in her purse every morning and it stayed there as an ugly object that didn't deserve to see the light.

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One day, mom had made me two bows and as soon as I entered the classroom, the children began to make fun of me:

"Mariamoñito, Mariamoñito, Mariamoñito, Mariamoñito" -with my head down, as if I was the one doing wrong, I sat down at the desk. The boy behind me said to me as I sat down:

"Mariamoñito, mariamoñito".

"Teacher, Jacinto is calling me a nickname,” I said, doing what I had been taught at home: to speak, to say, to make myself heard.

"Jacinto, be quiet,” was all the teacher said, writing on the blackboard.

"Mariamoñito, mariamoñito,” Jacinto continued from his desk. So, I used another technique I had learned at home: to foolish words, deaf ears. And I began to do my homework.

In an oversight, Jacinto took my umbrella out of my bag and began to mock me:

"Penelope Glamour, Penelope Glamour" -I don't remember how it was, but I turned and took my umbrella from him, and with the same umbrella I began to hit him, furiously and unstoppably. I hit him hard, without seeing, without thinking. Only when I heard the teacher call my name, I stopped, tired, red, agitated:

"Criatura, what's wrong with you?" -said the teacher and grabbed my hand. I didn't know what to say, but I felt that what I had done, though bad, was the first act of bravery.

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Strangely and far from any prognosis, when I arrived home with the school summons, my parents asked me to relate what had happened and rather than scolding me for not following their advice, Dad angrily expressed:

"Tomorrow I go to school and they are going to have to hear me out".

That fight set a precedent in my school life because it was the last time my classmates dared to mess with me and from that moment on, I started carrying my pink umbrella and Hello Kitty bag again, and I really did look as pretty as Penelope Glamour.