For the sake of integrity and rich storytelling, many parts of this interview have been left unedited and have been transcribed exactly as Marina has shared her story.

Marina laughs as she tries to name her favorite movie. “Oh, it’s uh—oh, I got a lot of ‘em,” she says. Marina mentions older films like Tarzan starring Johnny Weissmuller and Where the Boys Are with Connie Francis. Then, she gravitates back to why The Sandlot is also one of her favorite movies. “Because I remember when I was young and how—how life was then,” she says.

Marina describes the life of a girl who spent her afternoons running everywhere, chasing chickens across the yard and chasing adventure up into the trees where she could look down at everything all around.

“We used to live in a lumber yard, right, and it was fenced in. What I remember is how we used to run—run free outside—we would climb up the rocks and we’d jump down, and we’d run outside! And, oh, we’d go get the eggs because we had chickens,” she says, sharing the brief story about chicks and baby turkeys that were sold out of a side door at the Las Palmas Shopping Center when she was a child. “So, we had chickens and we had turkeys also!”

Even while growing up in the shadow of fear during the Cuban Missile Crisis in a city known for its number of military bases, Marina remembers a happy childhood.

“I remember when they killed President Kennedy—I was in the fifth grade. And I remember when Cuba had the missiles. Where we lived we had Lackland, we had Kelly, we had Randolph, Fort Sam. The first ones that were gonna get hit were here, so we were all—mom was scared—we all prepared everything. She bought some bottles of water and we were all scared of that, but everything passed and nothing happened. I guess those were the best times ever.”

“I think I had the best childhood when I was growing up,” Marina says. “I used to climb up trees and get stuck up on the trees. And my mom used to buy me pretty dresses and I used to get stuck up in the trees and the dress would rip,” Marina says as she laughs while remembering those exact moments. “My mom used to tell me, ‘You got to sew it,’ so she’d give me a needle so I could sew my dress. Then one day she bought me one of those two-step dresses.”

Author’s Note: This is where I had to ask what a two-step dress was. Marina explained that it was a dress designed to fit a little more snug around the legs. Naturally, this limited the wearer’s movements.

“What I did,” Marina says, miming scissors to fabric. “I got the scissors and I cut [the dress] so I could run! And then [mom] got mad and said, ‘wait until your dad gets home,’ but every time my dad would get home, I would go up the house and just stay up there.”

Marina laughs some more when she describes climbing up onto the family home’s roof to escape her looming punishment for cutting the dress. Once she was older, Marina’s relationship with her mother changed.

“I didn’t keep it for myself. I’d give it to my mom,” Marina said, describing the years she would work and use most of her paycheck to help her mother and her daughters. “I’d give her all my money. I never kept anything. All I kept was $60 for myself, but I had an understanding with my mom. ‘Whatever my daughters need, just go ahead and buy it for them.’”

Before her mother’s passing, Marina enjoyed surprising her mom and treating her to lunch. “So, mom and I—she would tell me ‘Where’re we going’ and I’d tell her ‘Just get dressed’—after work, I would take her out to eat or I would take my daughters and her out to eat. And I was all covered with paint and everything,” Marina says as she begins to laugh. “I didn’t care how I looked. I just wanted to say ‘hey, mom, don’t do nothing. Let’s go out to eat!’ And I think I had a pretty good life.”

Marina looks back on her life and laughs at things now like the time she ran into a cedar pole as a child or the time she learned to drive for the first time in a multi-ton cement roller—before then crashing it into a factory wall. And, with a concentrated look in her eyes and careful consideration for the little girl she was, Marina also recalls the moments she struggled.

“When I was an adult, I—okay, going back—I’m a dyslexic person. I can only read third grade level and I have a hard time reading big words. That’s why I come to Natalia. She helps a lot,” Marina says, referring to Merced’s on-site Resident Services Coordinator who helps residents like Marina get connected to community resources and services.

“I didn’t have the education that my sisters and my brother had,” Marina says, listing off the private schools her siblings attended, including Incarnate Word High School, St. Teresa, St. Gerard, St. Francis, and St. Cecilia. “I didn’t get to—I didn’t—I guess at the time I was growing up the teachers did not know dyslexia and they didn’t pay attention to people that were slow. I used to be an A student when I was little, when I was in the first grade. But then after a while I didn’t get any help when I was in third, fourth, or fifth grade. I only went to the sixth grade, finished sixth grade, went to the seventh grade, stayed for two months, and I got out of the seventh grade.”

For Marina’s two daughters, born in 1983 and 1986, their experiences in school were different from their mother’s.

“When my oldest daughter graduated, she graduated with her education paid. Her college was paid for. And my youngest sister would say ‘oh, she can thank me because I pushed her to finish school’ but it really wasn’t that. I told them ‘You do your best in school and—because I didn’t have the help that I needed—you have the help at school. Get it, mija, and do the best you can. I don’t care if you’re an F student or a C student or a B student. Try your best.’ And I encouraged them to do their best because I couldn’t do my best.”

Upon leaving school in the seventh grade, Marina joined the workforce. From studying to be a nurse’s aide and learning about cardiovascular health, to working for many years in manufacturing multi-ton cement rollers, plus work as a seamstress and studying for a little while at a business school, Marina never stopped trying to provide a stable life for her daughters and her mother.

“I did my best at working with pliers and wrenches and all that. I worked like a man. And that was hard. I mean, I used to do men’s work. And that’s one thing I think helped me out a lot with giving my daughters what they needed. And I gave them love—gave them what I give of myself because I had them and I didn’t ask for any help from my brother or my sisters. And I would give my mom money so she could get them what they needed. So, I had a very—I guess I had the very best of my life. And still God has given me what I need.”

About Community Stories: Community Stories is a segment that honors the stories of different people Merced serves through its Resident Services, OORP, and Multi-family programs. With stories, we create community. Are you or another Merced community resident or homeowner that you know interested in sharing a personal story? Reach out to us at larissa@mercedhousingtexas.org.