A Witness for Future By Frank Delgado As a child I remember lying on top of a bed, watching my Tia Petra lay out tarot cards for my mom. Tia Petra really was not my aunt, she was my grand aunt, but we all called her Tia. She was ash brown, short, endearing and some say she could charm a snake. She added suspense to her voice, right before she dropped a dramatic revelation or an unsuspected twist, in the tarot card she was about to read. I remember her reassuring words as her clients gasped at a disclosure. The cards dont lie, Mija, they tell all, she’d say, with a stern face, her eyes wide open, nodding that it was the gospel truth. My mother was dark, so of course the other woman, who was flirting with my father, was light skinned or white. When she read for my Tia Eva, who was light skinned, the other woman chasing her husband was dark. Then, there were the cups and the crossed scrolls that seemed to change meaning, depending on her patron. My favorite cards were the two horses, one dark and one white. But the death card, with its ominous warning, was the most dramatic card in the deck. As she laid out the cards I’d cringed in anticipation of that card, the death card, but was captivated in the spell of her reading. At the end of the session she’d hold out her hand for payment, tuck the bills in her bra and off she’d go: shopping I suspect. Whenever my Tia needed more money she would visit one of our family members and tell her that it was time for a reading, with the authority of a family physician. Out would come the cards and the member would instinctively take her position in front of her. She’d mixed the cards, than give them to her client to cut into five separate piles. My Tia would lick her index and middle finger and tap the piles of cards back and forth several times, while blessing them with an incantation. She ‘d say , “ Lo passado, Lo que espea, Lo presente” what happened in the pass, what awaits in the future , and the present. At the end of the session the client would have her suspicions confirmed or new suspicions planted but with the assurance that Tia Petra knew what to do. Her sideline was casting out evil spirits with a limpesa or cleansing. I was never privy to any of them but I heard stories of her rubbing an egg while she prayed a special prayer. Then she would swipe the person’s body and actually remove salt with her hand from that person. If that didn’t cure the patient, then she would resort to the chicken cure for which she charged double. The Chicken Cure involved taking alive chicken and rub it against the patient. The evil spirit possessing the patient would transfer into the chicken’s body. Sometimes the chicken would die if the evil spirits were too strong but the person would live. Then the dead chicken was tossed into a fast running river to assure the evil spirit would never return. One day she disappeared. We searched for her for four day but found no trace of her or her belonging. After five days she finally called and told us that she had decided to visit her daughters 900 miles away in Texas. Things seem to quiet down or at least things were not as exciting as when my Tia Petra was in town. A month later a phone call in the middle of the week came, totally unexpected. “ Hell-o”, I answered. “ Chelo! Soy Yo, Petra” She replied. I recognized her voice and told her that my mother was not here. She asked “ Quien es? New-ess!” She could never pronounce my nickname Junior so she called me New-ess. Come to think of it all my family could not pronounce my nickname, they called me Juner. “ Si” I told her. “ New-ess soy yo Petra” she replied “ Donde estas Tia?” I asked suspecting she was in town and needed a ride. “ estoy aqui” she answered but I didn’t know where “Here” was. So I asked again,” Donde estas Tia? Where are you?” “ estoy aqui, que no me miras?” which translates into I am right here, can’t you see me? I was silent; I didn’t have an answer for her. “Estoy aqui con el Perro flaco” she inserted. I guess she finally caught on to what I was asking her. But I did not know where the “Skinning Dog” was. I asked again and she repeated her answer. Just then my mother entered and I gave her the phone to find out where my Tia was. After my mother finished talking to her she told me that my Tia Petra was at the greyhound depot downtown and to go pick her up. I was excited, as was the rest of my family. I would get to see her cast her spell once again and listen to her spin those revelations of the future. She died in 1975 thirty-four years ago and we still talk about her and laugh. I now see her role in our lives. She brought us assurance in an uncertain world. Perhaps hope where there was none. She was a good woman. Gracias Tia
Posted on: Fri, 28 Mar 2014 03:34:35 +0000
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