My grandfather (by Rosana Cáceres)

Joaquin, my grandfather, was born on 27th January, 1935. He grew up with his parents, his brother and his two sisters. He lived in Toneleros street.

My grandfather went to school less than one year and his brother and sisters too. When he didn’t know the lesson, his teacher slapped him and shut him in a room. After school, he ate, if there was enough food at home and then he used to go to work.

In his free time he played marbles and football.
In his adolescence he went through many difficulties. Since my grandfather was 10 years old, he worked. In his house, his brother and sisters slept together in a bed.
When he was young, he never had holidays and at the weekends, he SAM in the river. Those Sundays when he had to go to school, he went to mass.
Until he wasn’t thirty years old and began to work, he didn’t have holidays.

When my grandfather was 22 years old, he went to Canarias to work and he was 22 months there. He felt very bad there.

My grandparents knew each other since they were children as they lived in the same street. One day he broke his trousers and my grandmother sewed them up and they began a friendlier relationship.


For my grandfather, life has changed in education, the treatment to persons and the condition of the life.