Soeurette Joseph Part IV: A New Life

After landing in El Salvador, Soeurette was quickly introduced to her new household including her husband and brother-in-law Fred Joseph. A staff of maids, cooks, and one gardener assisted her in household duties and soon after her arrival, a new member of the family was born....

Yeah. It’s not that easy. I had a easy life, to tell the truth, because when I arrived – Fred(brother-in-law) had taken care of the household so for a few months he got – really took care of it so I was like being in a hotel. I was sitting there, everything was done, and it took me about six months to be able to talk Spanish and then it worked. Those six months helped me enormously. Andre would drop me at the Circulo Deportivo at eight o'clock in the morning, pick me up at 12:00. I go home, the table is ready, the food is ready.

(How did you learn Spanish?)

I had a teacher and it was the worst teacher you can imagine. He was so bad. I don't remember his name. They had taken him because he knew French but he was a miserable teacher. You don’t need somebody who speaks your language to learn a foreign language. It was such a mistake and he was so bad. And you learned with the time. You have to learn. I really had a rough time because we never spoke Spanish, we spoke French at home. And with the maids I didn’t have to say anything, they knew their job, they were there for so many years they didn’t need me to tell them something. It was too easy. And when you went somewhere, your grandparents the Reich's, for example, spoke German, the others spoke – other people spoke English, other people spoke French.
I had no problem.

(What kind of food did the maids make?)

Well, what we always ate, regular food. In Salvador we had very European food. You know, it was always the same things, what we were used to eat, nothing very special. We had Sunday morning frijoles and guineos fritos [fried bananas], things like this. For the rest of the time like everybody else.

(What did you think of Salvador – the people, the country?)

I liked it very much. I had no problem whatsoever. You have so many people who hated it, who were unhappy. I loved it from the first day. I was happy as can be. You know,after what we had lived through everything was paradise.

(What did you love about it?)

That I could do what I wanted. I could listen to music, I could read, I could do whatever I wanted. And I had food three times a day. When I worked I could afford one lunch and breakfast and I never had dinner because I couldn’t go out and have another meal outside and so on and so on. All of a sudden you come and everything is there and you don’t have to do anything. I didn’t have to do my own wash, I didn’t have to do cleaning. I didn’t [chuckle] – you know, it’s very easy to be lazy.

(What about your children? When did you have your first child?)

I arrived in January and he was born the year after in September.

(Jean-Paul.)

Jean-Paul. And that was so wonderful to have a child and so easy.

(Where was he born? At home or in the hospital?)

No, in the hospital, at La Merced. No, that was easy.

(What was he like as a baby?)

Oh, he was beautiful. He was so beautiful when he was born. The maid used to call him El niño de Dios [the child of G-d]. And he was so easy. It was very easy with children. And then I had Sylvia who was difficult as a baby but a wonderful little girl afterwards.

(What was she like?)

Oh, she was a doll. She was so – such a happy child, such a happy child. The only problem I had I could never take her anywhere because the little children on the streets would go and touch her, touch her hair 'cause they had never seen a red-head and all the children on the street would run and touch her and so I could never take her outside our circle. I took her once to the mercado. I was scared to death. They had never seen a
child with that coloring.

(So they were only about a year apart.)

Three years.

(Oh, they’re three years apart, sorry.)

Yeah. Jean-Paul was born September ’50 and she was born January ’53.

(Why did you name him Jean-Paul?)

That was – my sister-in-law decided. It was the name of her parents – Andre’s parents. Jean and Paul and I had to call him Jean-Paul. They didn’t give me a chance.

(Did he have a second name?)

No, Jean-Paul. Jean-Paul, that’s it. I didn’t have a chance.

(And Sylvia?)

Sylvia I decided. I wanted a name that would work anywhere in the world and that’s what I did.

Transcription by Claudette Allison, Word-for-Word.com