A story: When I was a kid I always wanted to be a performer. Me and my sister Betty danced and sang all the time, and I played a guitar my parents had given me until I literally had blisters on my fingers. My parents always knew Id be a performer someday, somehow, and they encouraged me and my sister to perform as often as we could. We joined choirs, did school plays, performed for our friends and family, and did whatever we could to be in front of people. We got so good at singing that we [and several of our cousins] made it onto local TV shows in Victoria. Enter my Uncle Felipe... My Uncle Felipe was a kind, gentle, thoughtful, warm and giving man. He, like my parents, held onto his Mexican roots very deeply, and he wanted everyone to know what it meant to be Mexican, what it meant to be around our culture, and what it meant to be a Gutierrez. He wanted so much for people to experience traditional Mariachi music, and to learn and appreciate traditional Mexican folk dances. My uncle and my aunt Socorro were amazing dancers, so very talented, and when they were on stage together you could feel the passion and sense the love they had for showcasing our traditional ways of dance. So many people had never seen it before, and in a sense, this was their introduction to Mexico. Tio Felipe formed a group with some of my aunts and older cousins, and performed at various music and dance festivals in Victoria and the surrounding area. He would then create a junior group which included me, my brother and sisters, and cousins who were around my age. We would mostly perform before my uncles group, and it was because of him that we did so well. Uncle Felipe spent hours teaching us, helping us to memorize our steps, and to appreciate not just the dance moves, but what each and every dance move meant. It was hard work, but he always made it fun. This truly elevated our sense of family too, because we were always together, and we had one common goal: Get out there and show people how beautiful our Mexican culture is. He gave that to us.. Our kids group had gotten so good that wed find ourselves on TV. We danced at several Victoria Folk Festivals, and if memory serves me correctly, I believe we danced in front of Victoria at The Parliament Buildings, too. My uncles dream of getting our culture out there was really happening, and people loved and appreciated it. That will forever be his legacy to me and others. I lost my uncle on Wednesday, and I have such great memories of him. So many that are flooding to me now as I write this. One of my last memories was when he was here, on the couch Im sitting on now, watching my Gabriella on a Disney show. He was grinning from ear to ear and so proud of my little girl. It reminded me of how proud he was of all of us when we did so well on stage. My daughter inherited the performer gene that was lived inside my uncle. My uncle Felipe was a great many things to a great many people. He gave us the courage to stand up and forget our stage fright, to voice our opinions, to learn how to move, and most of all, to learn to appreciate who we are and where we came from. He was Mexican through and through, and that passion is still within us, largely because of the time he spent making sure we understood. I miss you, Uncle Felipe. Rest well. You will not be forgotten
Posted on: Sat, 27 Sep 2014 06:01:54 +0000
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