“They almost went home many times before I was born. They even...

“They almost went home many times before I was born. They even threw a goodbye party once. But they always changed their minds at the last minute, because they wanted a better life for their child. It hasn’t been easy for them in America. Back in Colombia my father worked at a bank, but here he cleaned houses. For the first four years of my life we lived in the attic of a large home. It was a big house, with a golden retriever. But nothing belonged to us. My parents took care of the children, and cleaned the house, and cooked the food. Eventually my mom found work as an accountant, and my father would stay home with me. I’m sure that he wished he could provide more materially, because Hispanic culture is patriarchal. But he poured all his time into me. We’d go to the library, and take long walks, and go bike riding. He especially loved music. One of the things we bonded over was a children’s album by Tish Hinojosa, a famous Tex-Mex singer. My father copied it from a CD he’d gotten at the library, and we memorized all the songs. The lyrics were a mix of English and Spanish, which Dad loved because he was trying to teach me to be bilingual. Our dream was to see her perform. But we didn’t have money to travel, and she never seemed to have a concert near us. Recently I’ve reached the age that my parents were when they left Colombia. But instead of cleaning houses, I’m working on my Masters degree. I’ve always admired their sacrifice, but now more than ever I can imagine the difficulty of being in their shoes. A couple years ago I was feeling nostalgic, so I looked up Tish Hinojosa to see what she was up to now. I discovered she was performing in a small town outside of Pittsburgh. It was an intimate show at an old mansion, so I bought us tickets as a Father’s Day gift. I put them in an envelope, with a letter.  And I tried to keep it a secret. I just told him that there was a town I wanted to explore. But I think that during our road trip he could sense my excitement. I have no idea how he figured it out. We hadn’t spoken about her in over ten years. But when we were only thirty minutes away, he turned to me with the biggest smile on his face, and said: ‘Tish?’”