I decided to go ahead and finish this piece tonight in honor of my husband, Brian Ross Bradley, who today, died eight years ago. I felt that this would be important for once he became a part of our team, he truly was the key component to our success. Here is to you my dear, sweet Brian...A note to all before you begin to read. This is a piece that is evolving and may take on several transformations before it is completely finished. In order to do complete justice to my series on refugees, I need to take some time to conduct more historical research to weave into this very important series to me. Although, I can hold many facts in my head (as many of my fantastic former professors to this, can attest...;)) I have had some blocks to my memory due to my brain trauma and epilepsy. (I have written some posts in regard to this if you care to investigate further) Yet, anyhow, I had stated in Part One of, Refugee: True Life Stories, that I would be posting Part Two within a few days. I, always do my best to "Keep my Word," :) so this is the reason for posting what I have written, at least, for now...
We all put our minds together and came up with the plan. The three comprised of the financial backer, the main idea man, and me, Maria, the let's reach out to the people and to the stars woman. ;) So in San Mateo, California, this all began. (side note: a wonderful place in the world, the San Francisco Bay, the Pacific Ocean only 15 minutes away, and the weather...ooofff; puuurrrfect!) So how does all of this relate to refugees you may say? Well, please allow me to share...
The time period was 1990. Wow, I realllly date myself with these posts! As time goes by you will see more of what I mean. ;) The eighties had been the time of the Ronald Reagan rampant fever here in the United States. He is so very loved by so many in this country, and to me, quite honestly, he literally changed the course of our entire society. Yet, I will save these thoughts for another time and another day.
Due to the "secret" wars waged upon Central America during the Reagan Administration, they quite frankly, terrorized and up heaved the entire fabric of Central American history. The Contras, the Sandinistas all created once again by what?..The Central Intelligence Agency. (I have to say, quite a contradiction of true "intelligence.") During these horrific times, many in the United States hadn't any clue of to what the people of Central America were going through. Would we have payed attention anyhow?
It was not until the Iran-Contra Scandal and Oliver North (dubbed by many Olly) that the tragedies and atrocities began to come out, began to leak.
I do apologize with all of my heart and my soul, but it is time for me to take a brain break. As I also promised to all of my readers of Beam the Light Be the Change, is that I would always keep it real and always be honest. So as I have said several times before and please bear with me, my writings, as well as, I are works in progress and evolvementation. (That may not be a real word, but I have worked in the legal field and once it is written and published, any jumblation or combination of letters, and or, symbols DO become a word. :)) In the meantime, until I can return to finish this piece, I have attached a link for further history. I THANK ALL OF YOU SO MUCH FOR ALL OF YOUR UNDYING UNDERSTANDING AND PATIENCE WITH ME. En Paz...Maria
http://www.brown.edu/Research/Understanding_the_Iran_Contra_Affair/in
dex.php
I have returned...I have decided that for the time being, in order for me to complete at least the story, that I will preserve more historical information either in this piece or in another in this same series. For you must understand, that what happened in the Central American countries in the eighties was a tragedy and still there remains the impact and remnants of torn and shattered lives today.
Alright back to the story...
The restaurant was beginning to take shape and to take form. Day by day, each one of us three began to see our vision come to life (Oh, and then I met my husband & the three became four! :)). It was becoming more fabulous as each day passed. The neon lights, the mini juke boxes at the tables, and the big BRIGHT old fashioned, checkered taxi cab was our most famous sight! As the building was taking form many a person would walk in... to see what we were up to. This was great! (There it is the Famous Taxi Cab although it is no longer there. :( Also, there is my oldest Preston, his best friend at that time, and Tom Rathman of the San Francisco 49ers holding my new born Alexander...he looks like a tiny football in those hands! Also, his daughter, and the arm taking the picture was my husband.)
As construction was going on, this is when I began the interviews for our future employees, and the unexpected gift we would all later receive, was that we made a great big family. Many people applied and it would always be so hard for me to decide, but I had this certain knack you see, to sense who would be right for our "Taxi's."
Since I have always been an activist and a person of being aware of all that goes on in the world, I realized that we were going to have many refugees from the Central American countries. Sadly, the "Contra and Sandinista" wars had put tensions upon the countries of such and of my beloved Mexico. I had a list of Jose, Carlos, Jaime, Jorge, Juan, and the list goes on. We had hired employees from Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Mexico. Here began a new life in our little restaurant for those seeking refuge from a life they once knew.
I often wonder, if people stop and think, just how much a person who must flee their homeland in order to stay alive goes through. I can share with you this, unless you have experienced it yourself, the horrors we cannot begin to fathom. Our group of forty employees comprised of at least ten men and women who had scars and wounds from their own personal hell, their own personal pain.
I have returned to finish...:) It may not contain all of the historical details that I would like to include, yet I felt it important to finish this story tonight so then I can move on to finishing my "Healing Journey Series." To be quite honest to finish this story alone is a healing process in and of its own right.
I was hoping to find more pictures of the restaurant and our family of employees, I still may yet, the most important thing for me to do is to finish writing the story. So heeerrrre we go! :)
Now, that our team had become four, well let me tell you, it was the icing upon the "Taxi" cake! Brian, came in fresh and full of vigor and he had so many ideas to add. On top of all of this he had a fantastic personality, and having been a super star football player, he knew how to run, and to be a part of a team. So now all the piece were together, the building was complete, the pricing, the menu board, and our whole entire employee team!!! And, what a team, indeed.
Of course we had our Central American Refugees, those from Mexico, someone from the Philippines. We had many teenagers and we had gracious seniors also working. So, I suppose one could say that we had quite the eclectic mix. Oh, what a beautiful mix it was. One of the partners had a great idea since we had so, so many from the community dropping in before our opening. He said "we are going to have a full on run all on the house." "Maria get a list and start getting out invitations and hey let's put an ad in the paper too!"
(we did things like that back in those days...;))
All of us were getting so excited for the big night. We couldn't believe our eyes when the doors opened, there were lines and lines, cars and cars all waiting to get into our darling Taxi's. The evening went beautifully and so smoothly too. Everyone knew their part and they did their part well. We gave out balloons, which became one of our symbols, we handed the food with so much love and smiles!
It was one of the most exciting nights of my life, to see so many happy faces from our customers to all of our employees, and all from so many places whose lives had been up heaved. It was as if a dream come true for me to be a part of making so many people happy in this one night. We opened for real the next day and let me tell you I don't think that anyone from San Mateo stayed away! It was busy all day and all night. This is how it was from the time that we began until the day my husband, my family, and I needed to go away...due to Brian's health.
We were a part for seven years and we had nearly every single one of our employees for all of that time. Those from Central America most certainly. Their lives, although never to be the same, were transformed in our small yet comfortable restaurant. We had all become a family. We not only shared times together at the restaurant, but at each other's homes. We had become a part of each other's lives. Lives so precious and so vital. They had gifted all of us with their smiles, their humor, their joy, and imagine this even with all of their deep, deep sorrow of what had happened in their homelands. Their livelihoods destroyed, families members killed, and yet managed to keep their lives going and with love to give.
One of the most telling things of the many stories that Carlos, Jaime, and Jorge had shared with me, was when they told me about their Mayan villages, which had been all but crushed, were filled with Mango trees! All they had to do was to walk outside and pick the plumpest, juiciest, and the largest mangoes we could ever imagine. Carlos had tears in his eyes when he told me of this, I could read straight to his heart, how much he missed his village, the life, and the family that he once had there.
Oh, there is so, so much that I could share, but I think for tonight, I will stop right here. I may add more to the story and I will hopefully be able to find more pictures to help bring the story more to life. I thank all of you for reading this very important part of my life to me and to many others who were beginning a new life here in the United States. Please, for me, keep them within you thoughts and within your heart. There isn't a day that does not go by that I think of those time and that I think of our wonderful "Taxi" family.
Sweet dreams and sweet day beautiful readers and beautiful world. Please, remember to hold all of the world's many, many refugees deep inside of your heart, for they need us and they need to know that we do care, even if we cannot be right there with them. I shall be writing more about refugees once I have finished several stories. For I do have so much more to write.
Be well my dear friends. Beam the Light and Be the Change, even a smile can transform a person's day. En Paz y amor, Maria
Musical Selection:
Juanes: "Para Tu Amor":
http://youtu.be/yWkQbrfSvfs
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