For these within the tradition, “Y el novio?” (“And the boyfriend?”) is a query we get far too usually. At household reunions, holidays, and gossip periods with aunts and uncles, you’ll in all probability hear the prying query requested a few times, particularly in case you’re a single girl over the age of 21. Laura Acosta, 26, is conscious that the reply to it, frankly, is the ultimate boss to beat relating to an ever-growing jewellery assortment. Encased in a protected behind her grandmother’s partitions in Hialeah, Florida, is a gold cigar-style diamond ring, which is Acosta’s to assert as her personal as soon as she will get married.
“Ever since I began courting my boyfriend, she retains bringing it up. It’s technically an engagement ring, however she did purchase it for herself throughout her final marriage. She’s very Elizabeth Taylor. She’s been married 5 instances,” explains Acosta, a Miami-based author with Cuban roots. “I assume what [her husband] obtained her was too small for her, so she obtained one thing a bit of greater. When he handed, she locked it up within the protected and stated the primary granddaughter to marry will get it. That looks like it’s gonna be me.” She’s tried the ring on just a few instances, she admits, and it eerily suits, one thing she takes as an indication from the powers that be.
Similar to caldo recipes written on yellowing word playing cards and oral histories about our ancestors, Latinos cross down heirlooms as a solution to hold our tradition alive. Conventional heirlooms like gold rosaries, birthing quilts, wedding-day silverware, and tarnished silver rings really feel akin to one thing you’d spot at a Brooklyn flea market, however to Latinos, they’re inherently extra invaluable than four-figure watches and classic designer purses handed down from era to era. Whereas our homegrown heirlooms hailing from the Caribbean Islands, Central America, and South America may not resell for a lot on the secondhand market, their wealthy sentimental worth and historical past seeped in generational wrestle and strife surrounding the immigrant expertise makes them really feel priceless.