美国国家公共电台 NPR In A Family's First House, A Lasting Lesson: You Can Always Give（在线收听）

In A Family's First House, A Lasting Lesson: You Can Always Give

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STEVE INSKEEP, HOST: 

And it's time now for StoryCorps, which we hear from each Friday. And today we have a conversation from Salinas, Calif. That's where Alicia Beltran-Castaneda grew up in the late 1960s. Her mother was an immigrant from Mexico. Her father worked at a food packing plant, and their family of seven lived in a trailer. At StoryCorps, Beltran-Castaneda told her daughter what it was like when the family was finally able to afford a house.

ALICIA BELTRAN-CASTANEDA: I remember watching my dad paint the walls and just thinking, this house is so huge. But your grandpa passed away when I was 13. So that meant that grandma had to raise five kids on her own, paying the mortgage by herself.

And I loved my room. And I had a nice full-sized bed and my pink cover and my dust ruffles. But I remember I came home one day, and my bed was gone. And so when my mom got home, you know, I kind of gave her a little bit of attitude. Where's my bed? And she says, oh, Alicia, family came from Mexico, and they have nothing. And I'm all, you know, Mom, that's not my problem. And she says, it's not your problem? And I said, no. And she says, follow me.

She took me to the kitchen. She gave me some grocery bags. We started clearing out the cupboards - cans of peas, cans of corn. And I was putting them in the bag. And I said, what are we doing? And she says, be quiet, and fill the bag. So I kept filling the bag. We got in the car, and she took me to the house where my bed was. And it was a family of seven. And the woman had just had a baby, so she was in bed surrounded by her kids. And it was all a one-room house and a dirt floor.

I walked out of there crying because I was ashamed because I didn't realize just how much grandma gave us. You know, and these parents just want food, and they're the people that keep this whole area going because they're the farmworkers. And so I just felt like an ungrateful kid. You know, grandma had high standards in herself. And I cannot think of anybody more wise than grandma.