because I ain’t taking it. No, “vaccine or no vaccine, we’re back”!
A hero from my Mexican heritage said, “better to die on your feet than live on your knees”. I come from fiesty, but polite stock. My paternal great grandmother walked along the tracks with her children in tow and followed them from Monterey, Mexico to San Antonio, Texas. On my mother’s side, my grandmother had family in south Texas, Cameron county, but there were pictures of her at the family hacienda in Mexico. My very elegant grandfather, a barber in downtown San Antonio, would show us a picture of Pancho Villa and say he met him. He hailed from San Isidro.
Both my parents grew up in San Antonio during the Great Depression. The Mexican Reparations passed by Hoover brought great damage to my father’s family. My parents went through tough times but learned English and believed they were Americans. My Dad served in the Navy on a destroyer, then worked all his life as a crack welder for the Airforce. American planes flew over our house everyday. We loved them it was fun. Our dad would drive us to Lackland to watch the planes take off.
My dad didn’t take any shit, not my brothers, not my sister and I don’t either. When the country called up the draft during the Vietnam war, the young men around me went straight away, enlisted. My high school was called Memorial in their honor. My brother’s signed up. I, myself, drove 40 minutes one way to cross the border and teach in probably the poorest school in the westside of Buffalo, NY for 14 years. Oh yeah, not to mention a trip through Zambia crossing check points on a scientific insect survey and other research in Africa. I am a rather small woman, but used to teach self defense in Niagara, On in my early 20’s. So, me and my family…. we don’t take shit.
My family is mask wearing, Democrat voting, sheltering in place people. Even through we went to one of the poorest schools in Texas, my mother and father didn’t raise fools. The 50’s came with the Polio epidemic, TB, Salk vaccine, etc. There were 6 kids in my family, so there was no messing around with that stuff. They lined up their kids for the vaccines. When my sister was born, Sputnik was the headline. Science was the new thing that was going to make things better after the war. So, while most of my family is religious, I can guarantee that not one of them will go out into the virus infected world if they think they will bring it back to their grandkids and kids.
My granddaughter has Cystic Fibrosis, we will not send our kids to school because Trump wants to be reelected.