The judgments of the past prevail embodied in the texts that make up the historical and cultural heritage of a nation. However, from the extensive and anecdotal view of my grandmother, emblematic characters revive in the shadows of their memories. From the memory of our grandparents the culture of our country Venezuela is nourished.
Memory always has a social character, any memory, although very personal, exists in relation to a set of notions that dominate us more than others, with people, groups, places, dates, words and forms of language even with reasoning and ideas , that is, with the material and moral life of the societies that we have been part of.
(p 38) Halbwachs (1968)
Candelaria
Candelaria was a gocha, about forty years old, plump, with big breasts, her white complexion made her look like a mass ball. A long cline reached his waist, the black of his hair began to turn white. His gaze was shadowed by the thick of his eyebrows. Silent and lonely she worked in the houses of the main families of the Caracas of the 20s.
Among the families for whom he had worked were the Volmer, the Pantin, the Semidei and the Briceños. She never looked straight ahead and never ate with the rest of the servants; on the contrary, she went to the corral and sat under an avocado stick to eat alone.
The sun was hiding while the darkness and the thick fog takes over the lonely streets. Slowly the clock of the Cathedral marks the hours and a "calm and serene" rumbles on the walls of the old houses.
Candelaria patiently waits for everyone to go to sleep. A dark and barefoot walks through the middle of the house, crosses the first patio, passes through the dining room to the kitchen, removes the stone and goes to a room that was left in the corral.
Groping in, the moonlight is reflected in the mirror that was lying on the wall. The clineja is released, the wavy hair spreads down the back. Candelaria takes off her saya and with a dry cry exclaims:
- Without God and without Santa Maria, at the end of this sentence he collapses on the floor, an animal that seeks to fly comes out of his mouth, while the inert and naked body remains in the room.
With a chuiiiii, chuiiiiii, chuuuii flies the animal through the window shutter. From Sabana Grande to Los Caobos, from Quebraba Onda to Altagracia and from there to La Pastora. To rest, he rests on the roofs, his ears try to listen to the conversations and then expose those who were against Gomez.
The first glimmers of dawn announce Candelaria that it is time to return but, she did not expect a mustard cross drawn on the bottom of a boxer to knock her to the floor. In one fell swoop he fell to the ground, sticks, insults, kicks rained down on her.
With a: "in three days you come for salt" and release it so that it flies.
In the morning her absence is felt in the group of workers, the cook tells the maid to go to the room and see what happened to Candelaria.
-Mijia, what do you have, how did you wake up? The plump servant can not move from the bed and three days later without knowing leaves the house.
Walk and walk until you reach the site, Candelaria does not know why she does it. Just a toc toc, knock on the door. The hostess looks out the door and listens to a weak voice:
