Chapters (24)
Not only did Caridad have a certain don, a faculty, as a vaso (or as they called her in Santa Fe, a channeler), but La Loca too, and no one could argue this, had some natural gifts as well that were nearly as impressive. For instance, who had taught her to train a horse? Granted, there did appear to be an intuitive connection between La Loca and all animals, but still, none of the other women in her family, not even her mother, rode as well as Loca did.
And who the heck had taught her to play fiddle?
Then there were the things she knew about women’s bodies. She had never delivered a human baby, but she knew all about a woman’s pregnancy cycle. There wasn’t even a medical book around for Loca to have learned from the pictures—since she didn’t read very well and didn’t like to. And it was she who took charge back in the days when Caridad had her untimely pregnancies …
Among other domestic talents that Loca cultivated, such as embroidery, coming out with the most beautiful pillowcases and ruanas as Crismas presents, Loca had become a one hundred percent manita cook. Well, she not only did the kitchen stuff, but all of it. Since she was a child, she was the one who helped her mother slaughter a pig for a matanza, skin it, disembowel it, and roast it outdoors.
She was also the one who helped her mother at the end of every summer with the canning. Together they jarred corn, chiles, peaches, currants, squash, and tomatoes and put them to boil in a big pot on a wood-burning stove Sofi’s mother had left outside many years before just for that purpose, since it would get so hot.
Since Loca did not go to school and did not have to do homework nor get up in the morning, ironing pleats into uniforms and looking for a clean white blouse and a pair of socks that matched like her other sisters had to, she worked hard until sunset with her mother and slept in in the mornings.
Above all, Loca knew how to cook. She was, in fact, a better cook than her own mom, even though she learned most of what she knew from Sofi, who had learned what she knew from her own mother and so on. Every now and then, it happens that a child actually surpasses the knowledge and the knack for doing some things that a parent has shown her and this was the case with Loca.
You’ve got to give credit where credit is due. And Fe eventually did take culinary instructions from her otherwise antisocial and (perpetually held up for scrutiny) kid sister.