Tales of Granjenal Really Hit Home

* Your Aug. 3 and 4 articles on the migration of the people from Granjenal to Santa Ana since the bracero movement, aside from being extremely accurate, is emotionally fulfilling and culturally rewarding.

Having grown up in Granjenal during the 1970s, I remember the sacrifices that my mother and my siblings had to endure during my father’s extended absences working in “El Norte.” As a child, these sacrifices were briefly forgotten when, upon my father’s return several months later, the house would rejoice with his presence.

I vividly remember the extended relatives, friends and neighbors that would come to the house to greet the person coming from the north. Upon opening his luggage, the aroma of new clothes emanating from his suitcases was commonly described as “smelling like El Norte.” Several people from Granjenal still remember this metaphorical comment as commonly used when their immigrant relatives would return to the homeland.

El Norte, and specifically Santa Ana, became my family’s home in 1981 when I was 12. Sixteen years later, as a college-educated, U.S. citizen with a promising career, I continue to call Santa Ana home in the United States.

Despite my acculturation and establishment in North America, memories of Granjenal, which had an enormous influence in my cultural, religious, social and family-oriented upbringing, are still vivid. For the past eight years, during the month of December, instead of vacationing in popular tourist spots, my feelings of longing for my native homeland are fulfilled during my two-week visits, which almost automatically recall, as if I had never left, the first 12 years of my life.

There is a heart-pounding, almost indescribably emotional sensation that settles upon entering the dirt roads that lead to this beautifully picturesque town. Despite its disappearing people, granjeno trees and “slow but inexorable death,” it continues to live in the hearts of its descendant people.

ARTURO LOPEZ-GUILLEN

Santa Ana