Paraguay–Uruguay Sign Language family

Transcription

Complicated, modern but not self-conscious about it Montevideo has many aspects that reveal it's true nature. Sidewalk cafes here, as in other capitals of the continent, are centers of social, business, and even political life. Still, it is a city in which you would feel at home, a city you would like. Here as in the United States, you will encounter a large powerful middle class. A middle class so big that it embraces many levels of family income and living standards. If you were to search for this middle class among the big estates along the boulevard, you would search in vain. Nor of course, is it in the few tin can shacks, which springs the outskirts. You might expect to find it in the quiet old houses around the park, or in the new apartment houses that peer over the shoulders of the old summer houses along the beach, or even in the worker's housing developments clustered near the harbor. But none of these places shelters the middle-class as we think of it, people with standards, habits and advantages similar to our own. Look again, down a quiet street in the middle of the city, look into a house like this one neat and modern, a house for living in, and here does live such a family. Here is the mother María Gardice, born in Montevideo of parents born in Italy. The father, Gabriel, is Uruguayan too, but his people came out of the rugged Basque country of Spain. This is Raquel who is eight going on nine. And this is Pepe who is six. If you were to ask them what they regarded as typical of their lives, you would get many answers. The mother might say "Why my husband and I drink "mate" together with the children on holiday afternoon, and play games, many Uruguayans do that". And the father would say "Our national custom is typical. Perhaps you didn't know we have one. You hardly ever see it in town of course except at an asado." "We wear the Basque beret, the scarf and sash and the bombacha, trousers of the gaucho". Raquel like any good little Uruguayan girl is learning the precepts that make up the ritual of feminine charm. What is typical of Pepe is typical of any small boy anywhere, cleaning out the jam jar. But ask the grandmother who lives next door, what she thinks is typical. She would say: "Why my old criollo gardener, once a gaucho, sitting with his dog under the biggest ombú tree in all Montevideo, that's typical". Their day begins early, the steel shutter has tightly enclosed the bedroom during the night. Wardrobes like this one are commonly used instead of closets. The maid gets the morning milk from a sidewalk vendor. And in the breakfast room the family is having its first meal. Bread or crackers with jam and butter and coffee with hot milk, which is drunk even by the children. Father goes to work early, about seven. It is not however an unusually long workday with hours off for lunch, follows an American custom. Sounds and sights of early morning are universal, the busy brooms and the long shadows. See the people hurrying to work. In the house, the long daily ceremony of cleaning begins. For houses are kept in the best old country manner and the mattresses are aired every morning. The old gardener is sidewalk tender too. Pepe who goes to a catholic day school, is waiting for the bus which will take him there. Uruguay's large and progressive public school system is known throughout the scholastic world. But devout families like this one, still prefer to send their children to church school. Later Pepe will be sent to a secondary school, and probably the university. Mother is in the garden, pruning flowers and sipping mate, the bitter and well loved tea of Uruguay and the Argentine, which is almost as much a ritual as a beverage. Mother and grandmother own together a flock of chickens, which are kept in the deep space between the two houses. It is Raquel's job to feed them, although she dislikes to do it. Grandmother insists, as a matter of discipline. Back in the house, the little servant girl Bella, is mopping the tile floor. Bella was the one too many of a large poor country family. She makes her home here, receives a small allowance, she's already an excellent servant, and lives a dull but apparently satisfactory life. Because the family possesses a variety of household appliances, like this vacuum cleaner, Bella's work is little harder than that of a similar housemaid in the United States. Raquel goes to convent school in the afternoon, so does her homework in the morning. She copies her arithmetic in the lesson book, which will be a record of her year's work. With painstaking accuracy but no consuming interest. Uruguay leads all Latin America in it's tradition of active careers for women. But Raquel may be destined for marriage and the home. Already she is beautiful, already her ears are pierced for tiny gold earrings, a persisting remnant of the European heritage of femininity. Mother goes out to the vegetable cart to bargain for fresh green corn and tomato. Even the foods of Uruguay are the familiar ones. The vegetable man, en route from Italy to South America, once lived in Pittsburg, but he preferred Montevideo. Raquel is still at work, this time on another of those ladylike pursuits so dear to mother's the world over. Raquel's friends suffer with her. In the afternoon, mother dresses to go downtown to a movie. Her clothes are much like those of an average North American woman, fashionable but conservative. Her shoes were manufactured in Montevideo, her hat, something of an extravagance, imported from New York. Her yellow wool suit and jersey blouse were made by a neighborhood tailor. It is interesting to note that the Gardice's do not own an automobile but do have a full time servant. While in the United States a family of the same income, would have a car but not be able to afford a maid. Nowhere in South America are north american movies more a part of daily life than in Montevideo. Perhaps you would be interested in the manner in which the titles are changed to tell a story. "Wake Island" becomes "Volveremos", or "We Will Come back". For Latin American distribution, "The Glass Key" has required an explanatory title, "The Man Who Knew How To Lose". While mother is at the movies, you might want look in on father, at the warehouse, where he is a wool broker. He continues a business founded by his father, whose picture hangs over his desk. He trades in the shipment of wool and skin from the big sheep ranches of the Uruguayan interior, to textile mills in North and South America. He is proud of the fact that one of his recent consignments was to the army of the United States. The Gardice firm is one of many such small warehouses in the same district, each employing ten or fifteen clerks and handlers. As a broker, Sr. Gardice is one of a large economic group, comprising small owners and tradesmen, government clerks and many other white-collar workers. As such perhaps he would be less prosperous than about one third of all Montevidean businessmen, but if you consider the rest of Uruguay only about one tenth would be better off than he. All business intercourse here involves much friendly conversation, and a round of handshaking seems to make a deal more binding. At home again, mother and Raquel are preparing supper in the neat kitchen, with it's shining porcelain and the new electric refrigerator of which they are so proud. Supper is a light meal, with soup and a green salad, and as a main dish, cheese souffle'. Montevideo eats more dairy products than most Latin American capitals. While this process is going on, Raquel and her friend Patricia go upstairs to the bedroom, which Raquel and Pepe share, to check on the condition of an ailing doll. There are communion pictures of the children on the wall. Dumbo looks on, from atop the wardrobe. Supper is a good deal more formal than supper usually is with us, and later, at eight thirty or nine. The food is not elaborate but there is much changing of plates, for the small amenities are highly regarded. The atmosphere of mealtime remains that of all Europe, full of manners which only the children are able to ignore. The traditional "asado" or barbecue is weekend entertainment for the Gardice clan and their friends. A whole lamb, roasted with spicy sausages, basted with strong brine. It is their form of picnic, hardier than any of ours, but part of the same old festive custom, a feeding out of doors. This then, is the family of Gabriel Gardice, small businessman. A family which describes itself with a certain pride as "mediana" middle class. You really feel, although they speak a language different from yours, that they are strangers. If they live next door to you, wouldn't they be good neighbors?