Some of you had some questions about my last entry in regards to chickens, and Tia Maria. I hope the following will answer some of your questions.
It is an old tradition in the Azores, that family members and friends come and visit you when you arrive to as ilhas (the islands) on vacation. I remember quite fondly the many visits from relatives coming to our home with bags of sugar, multiple colored tissue wrapped bottles of liquor, and live chickens. Yes, I said chickens. People would bring chickens so we could have fresh eggs each morning during our stay. It may sound a bit odd, but it was customary to have at least one chicken brought to us by a relative each time we came to visit.
There was one chicken in particular that I was quite fond of. Her name was Jenny. She was a beautiful little red feathered hen, who would often meet me at the door each morning. I think she thought she was a cat or a dog. She was a friendly chicken—the only one that never chased me in the yard.
I remember one day my daughter was working on an essay for school. The assignment was to write an essay about your family, and your given name. My daughter was curious, and wanted to know if I hadn’t chosen her name Elizabeth as her name, what would have been my second choice.
I thought a moment, and wondered whether or not I should reveal to her that I had almost named her after my beloved chicken.
“I almost named you Jennifer.” I responded
“Why, Jennifer?”
“Um, I knew a Jenny that I was very fond of. I decided against it because I wanted you to have a name that would translate from English to Portuguese well so your father’s relatives would understand your name. I had a favorite doll named Elizabeth, so I chose your name.”
My explanation just went over her head, and she wanted to know about Jenny.
“Jenny? Who’s Jenny?”
“My pet chicken, Chicken Jenny.”
My daughter was not amused.
Tia Maria. I hear Tia Maria is a great bottle of liquor, but the Tia Maria I was referring to was my dear, long-departed, Tia Meriquinhas – (translated to mean “little Mary”.) She was my mother’s oldest aunt who lived alone in a dark house in my grandmother’s childhood home. She was afraid of electricity, and didn’t have any in her home. I remember vividly her little face looking out of the window as we drove up to the house. She was a small woman, with red hair and blue eyes, who had gone through much disappointment in life. She was known as a very determined, and very stubborn. Growing up, I was often compared to her because I was known to be a stubborn child. I would take it as an insult most of the time, but after I knew of her story, and the struggles and disappointment she had in life, I didn’t think of it as an insult anymore. She was a very strong woman who in the end didn’t care what other people thought of her. I admire that.
Anyway, one of Tia Maria’s most proud possessions, next to her gold bracelets she hid in her mattress, was her chickens. I’m sure she had a name for each one of them. (Another thing we have in common.) She could talk for hours about her chickens for they were never a dull subject. When I was younger, there was a song my mother used to sing to us. It was a song about a Tia Merquinhas and her “galinhas” (chickens). Of course the song wasn’t written about this particular aunt, but when I was younger, I thought it was. The song went sort of like this:
Listen Tia Merquinhas..
Watch over your galinhas..
Your rooster is single….
Okay, it sounds pretty stupid in English, I know.
Don't worry..I won't be wearing these on the plane.
