![]() ![]() Women across the republic, rich or poor, plain or beautiful, ancient or young, in the times of my grandmother all owned rebozos-the ones of real Chinese silk sold for prices so precious one asked for them as dowry and took them to the grave as one’s burial shroud, as well as the cheap everyday variety made of cotton and bought at the market. As Lala explains, the rebozo was a garment that defined the culture of Mexico in her grandmother’s time: ![]() Soledad is born into a family of rebozo (shawl) makers whose artful creation process includes hand-dying and intricate hand-braiding of the shawls’ fringe. When Lala begins to delve deeply into sensory detail, Soledad repeatedly cautions, “Careful! Just enough, but not too much” (92). ![]() For example, when Lala opens her story with the phrase, “It was such a long, long time ago” (92), Soledad says, “It wasn’t that long ago!” (92). The voice of the Awful Grandmother makes frequent interruptions of Lala’s telling, dissatisfied by certain elements. It begins with the coming-of-age story of the Awful Grandmother, Soledad Reyes. The story is narrated by Celaya (Lala), the youngest daughter of the oldest son, and it illustrates the idea that the threads of life are so closely interwoven that every little side story of every member of one's family impacts one. Lala’s narration takes the reader back in time, not only before her own birth, but to the turn of the 20th century. Caramelo is the chronicle of several generations of the Reyes family, Mexicans recently transplanted to Chicago. ![]()
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