Christina Marie Oropeza
I have so many memories being at grandma and grandpas house. They are beautiful and fun memories full of love and family. The one that always sticks out in my mind though and still feels like it happened yesterday is a particular afternoon when grandma had us in the kitchen as kids teaching us how to make her homemade tortillas. To this day I have never found a match to her Mexican home cooking and I’m sure I never will. I can still smell the menudo boiling up on the stove as we all stood around the counter and she so patiently showed us how to use the rolling pin to flatten the tortilla dough in a perfect circle. Well, hers came out in a perfect circle. Ours were all varieties of shapes and sizes but it didn’t matter because we were being taught by the pro and we could tell that to her our tortillas were just as beautiful as hers. We were all covered in flour because it was most fun to get to sprinkle more along the counter surface and on the rolling pin as grandma explained how important that was for making sure the tortilla didn’t stick to either of them. She demonstrated how to flip the flattened piece of dough over and to the side. She made it look so easy and I’m positive she was able to do it on what looked like fast forward speed.
Flip, turn, roll... Flip,turn, roll... add some flour. Flip, turn, roll ..... Flip, turn, roll.... throw onto the comal. I know we were probably slowing her down that day but you’d never know it because she was still able to cook up a load full of tortillas to go with that yummy menudo for her large amazing family. That was our grandma and thanks to her, I now enjoy making homemade tortillas and teaching all my kids the way she taught us. Every time we finish a batch and put butter to melt all over one, just the way my dad loves them, and take that first warm bite, I am taken back to that moment with grandma and am so thankful to have come from the legacy of family that she and grandpa built. The love and commitment they shared with each other could only be seen as the admirable and wonderful bond meant to be shared in a marriage.
Grandma was strong in a way that people just aren’t so much anymore. She was a fighter, a survivor and always put her family first.
I am so thankful that my daughter, Brooklyn got to know, love and respect her. And when she got to meet my son a couple months ago, her first words about him were that he had those chubby and adorable Oropeza cheeks and looked just like her son George, my dad.
She is missed but will never be forgotten because we will continue to fill our Oropeza cheeks with those perfect homemade tortillas.
We love you so much grandma. Get some rest and we so hope and have faith to see you again one day.
