Since my mom was very young my grandmother named Antonia Gutiérrez taught my mother how to sew. My grandmother wasn’t with my mom for very long because she passed away when my mother was only 12 years old, in the year 1976. My grandmother would make clothes for people in the town with this sewing machine. Not only did she work very hard for this sewing machine but she learned how to sew on her own at a very young age. This sewing machine means a lot to my family and I because this is the only thing we have left from her. Many of my grandmother’s personal belongings were lost because at the end of the 1970’s the civil war in El Salvador began and my aunts and uncles had to come to America because it was very dangerous. Another reason why this machine is important to me is because my mother learned how to sew in this machine and on my first birthday my mother made my birthday dress all herself using the skills my grandmother taught her. I never met my grandmother but through this sewing machine I was told many stories about all the types of clothes she would make. My grandmother Antonia is still very important in El Salvador and very important to my family.

– Amy Hernandez

Relationship:  unknown unknown