Alicia Crespo

Alicia left Cuba during the revolution, leaving her family behind, and went to live in Colombia, South America, with her husband and her two daughters, three and five years old at the time. Life wasn’t easy in a new country with no family around but she was resourceful and strong-willed and determined to provide a stable environment for her children with very limited income in a country with few safety measures in place at that time. Nowhere is this more evident than in one of her humorous writings called “My Resume,” included below. She moved to the United States along with her daughter Alicia and her husband, Diego, twenty years ago.

My Resume

by Alicia Crespo

Administrator, pediatrician, psychiatrist, nurse, carpenter, bricklayer, electrician, house painter and fine artist. Dressmaker, I made all of my daughter’s school uniforms from pre-school to Senior Year, not counting party dresses, prom dresses, costumes for them and their friends, specializing in quick turn around.

Made an endless number of curtains, tablecloths, ornaments and clothing for religious statues; upholstered furniture and made seat covers.

Was a cook and also a culinary teacher.

Volunteered my time at the neighborhood chapel organizing religious events but I also did the flower arrangements and played the organ.

Volunteered in the Carlos Obando Del Naranjal School for Underprivileged Children.

Was active in the neighborhood watch, and sometimes I was the neighborhood watch.

Catered trays and party platters cooked my me, designed and sold ornamental baskets for special occasions.

Party planner for young and old.

I did all this without a car or a computer.

I think I was a good investment for those who employed my services.

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The original empowered woman. The Mother to all. Loved by all. Never to be forgotten; her famous “croquetas,” her love for animals, her boundless generosity of spirit. She leaves a hole in our hearts that will never heal, but maybe could be patched with some of her famous “repollas” (profiteroles). Goodbye to a legend, because that is what she was. Gone but forever around.

She is survived by her daughters, Teresa Dillon and Alicia Crespo and her sons-in-law, Ed Dillon and Diego Manjarrés.

A memorial service will be scheduled at a later date.