Eduarda Liermo Gonzalez

Hello. My name is Annette and I am Eduarda's oldest granddaughter. On behalf of my family. We want to thank you all for coming tonight to celebrate my Abuela Eduarda. This amazing woman had a huge impact on all of us.

I am going to talk in English since she is not here to correct my Spanglish.

The past week and a half has been one of the most difficult ones for all of us. It's hard to describe this amazing Abuela in a few minutes. 89 years can't be condensed in a few paragraphs. She had an incredible life but also a tough life. But one thing was constant. She always made the best of every situation and was the life of party. She may have been poor as a child in Cuba but she would talk about her childhood with so much joy and would share stories of games they would play or spending the whole day at the beach. She always had her beautiful smile on her face while sharing these stories. She was so proud of her life and rightfully so.

Some of you knew her as Mami, Great Grandma, Eddie, la Curra, Guerra, Eduardita or simply as Edurada . To me and my sisters we called her Eduarda. Not out of disrespect. When I was born my grandmother did not want to be called Abuela. She said she was too young to be a grandmother. She asked that she be called Eduarda. Eduarda for us was another word for Abuela and she was a pretty amazing one at that.

So Who was-mi Querida Abuela

I found a poem that pretty much summed it up for me.

A woman of extreme strength, courage and love,

Who was beautiful, soft and now peaceful and free as a dove.

Someone on who our admiration was built around,

For her womanhood, wife, friend and grandmother since she was brought into this ground. Mi querida Abuela, we will forever hold in our hearts in which we have truly learned the most from,

Your strength as a wonderful mother to our father

Mi querida Abuela, we will always respect all you went through in your hardships and distinguished ways,

Your ability to hold yourself with such dignity and pride in all your days,

Your beauty shines in us all who were lucky to be part of your devoted family,

We will carry you in our eyes, minds, and hearts in which we have a remedy,

Mi querida Abuela, that is to hold you close by all you have taught us to do,

And to remember the beautiful women we owe our lives to,

For giving us life to blessing us with her strong inner spirit of courage,

Her unconditional love and her sensual laughter,

For being such a person in who will always and have always

held deep in our hearts now and here after.

Mi querida Abuela, You are taking a little part of us with you as you follow your angels who wilt guide you to your precious place,

May you look down on us with pride on what you brought into this world with your guidance in which you are now truly our angel of grace.

Mi querida Abuela, as you enter your new heavenly home, may you rest in peace for which you truly deserve,

For you will be truly missed and remembered for your love and honor in which we will preserve. We love you always and forever and may God be with you.

Te quiero Eduarda hoy y siempre.

From Jenny

I want to thank you all for coming. Your attendance here speaks

volumes about the impact that this wonderful woman had on all of

us.

As we have all heard before, life is not a destination but a

journey. One paved with both smooth and rough roads. Roads

which lead you to learn more about yourself, about each other,

and about the world around you.

Eduarda was my grandmother, she gave us a sense of who we are

and where we come from and shared our history.

Eduarda’s journey began in Havana, Cuba and she was born on

a Wednesday January 29, 1929. She lived with her mother,

father and four siblings, Nena, Manolo, Charro, and Anjeline,

Eduarda, true to her character, watched over her siblings and

protected them despite being the youngest. Her father died

when she was four and as a result she took on the

responsibility of helping her family by contributing to domestic

work for the people in the neighborhood. My great-

grandmother laundered the neighbors clothing and Eduarda

assisted her with that. While in Cuba she married Roberto

Gonzalez in early 1946, had her son, my father, later that year.

She was crowned the National Wine Queen of Cuba in 1955.

She was a beautiful and very brave woman. Eduarda

immigrated to the United States in 1956 leaving behind her

only son in order to establish a life for herself and later bring

him to the United States.

In the early 1960s she travelled back to Cuba to get my father.

Upon arriving at the airport she sees my dad wearing a

revolutionary uniform. She was livid. She approaches my dad,

throws off his helmet, and tosses aside his knife and begins

yelling and cursing the Castro Regime and the Revolution. His

uniform was that of the Jovenes Rebeldes (Young Rebels). An

officer approached her and tells her that she needs to watch

what she’s saying. She then tells him, “you need to watch your

balls - why don’t you go shave your beard.” She was detained

by the officer and was later released through the help of a

family friend Elio who she later married when she came to

California.

When she first arrived to the United States she initially lived in

Miami, Florida, and later moved to New York and even lived on

the same street as Celia Cruz. Eduarda left New York soon

after experiencing her first winter there. She quickly

determined that living in below zero freezing temperatures

after coming from a beautiful tropical paradise, New York was

not for her.

Eduarda eventually moved to California in 1961. Here she

worked very hard as a waitress, and eventually a seamstress.

In fact, she made the inauguration dress for Nancy Reagan and

the Oscar dress for Carrie Fisher. She also loved to make all

our dresses for our first communion, birthday parties and

Easter. She was active in the church and loved to sing in the

choir. She loved to crochet and would crochet blankets for any

new born that she knew was on the way including my own

daughter Gabby.

She loved to travel and would go to Spain, throughout different

parts of Mexico, Cuba and took part in every family trip.

She was always the life of a party, known for her jokes (sometimes

not so clean).

Some of you know my grandmother as a strong and brave woman.

Others might refer to her as determined. She would say she was

independent and she was definitely all of that. If she had a

viewpoint and a perspective on a given topic, nothing you could do

or say would alter that. She would budge but only when she was

good and ready, and on her terms - and I HAVE THE HONOR OF

CARRYING THAT CHARACTERISTIC.

She was a devoted and loving grandmother to her

granddaughters, Annette, Diana and myself. We will not forget

her amazing skills in the kitchen she loved to cook. She loved to

play dominoes with her family. But don’t beat her. She did not like

to lose.

She spent the last part of her life with my parents, her son

Roberto and daughter-in- law Cary, in El Monte along with her

dog Flaca, her cat Kiki, two cockatiels, two parakeets and her

ever growing garden.

Eduarda was influential in my life. She had no problem speaking

her mind about what she thought about my choices. Eduarda

escaped the Cuban revolution and the brutality of the Castro

regime, she survived breast cancer and she survived raising me

through my teenage years and early adulthood. She is so much a

part of who I am.

When I reflect on the time I spent with Eduarda, I think about the

last interaction I had with her. My family and I went to a Spanish

restaurant in Claremont to celebrate Eduarda and my mom’s

birthdays. We all enjoyed various tapas and paella, and stories

about her travels in Spain. She shared the story about how she sent

my dad to Spain to avoid being drafted in the Vietnam War. My

father was her only son and he meant the world to her. She shared

that she did everything in her power to keep him from harm in

Cuba and after arriving in the US, they wanted to send him to

Vietnam! She wasn’t having it and was willing to do whatever she

had to in order to keep him safe. She wrote a letter, in which we

found in her room recently, to the Army General insisting that her

only son not go to war. Her perseverance paid off.

Very unexpectedly Eduarda passed away Wednesday,

February 28TH leaving behind a legacy of strength,

perseverance and a deep loyalty to her family.

There are some people that we meet that stand apart from the

others. Meeting them you know that there is something very

special about them. Eduarda was one of those people. She had

a definitive presence. She is unforgettable.

I love you Abuela Eduarda . You will be missed.

From Diana

These hands have suffered far too long

They’ve done so much and still kept being strong

Broken as my heart may be

I’ll always cherish what she’s done for me.

If I can be as strong as one of her fingers

I know I can conquer what lies ahead of me

I wrote those words the morning Eduarda passed away. There truly aren’t enough words to describe how strong of a woman she was, how much she suffered yet nothing would keep her down. Not even cancer. She was a rock.

Some of my fondest memories of her are when I was younger. Like this one time she was driving me back home from running errands. I was probably like 7 or 8. And she pretended she didn’t know how to get home. Well, I thought I knew how to get home and was telling her where to go. She was like, are you sure, Diana? She wasn’t too convinced. And at that point, neither was I. So I started to panic, no surprise. She said let’s ask a cop how to get home and I started crying. I for sure thought we were lost. She just laughed and said she was pulling my chain. She sure loved to joke around.

Another memory is again when I was younger. I would open her bedroom door slowly and bear crawl into her room slowly, then I’d shake the bed with my hands as if there was an earthquake. I thought to myself, aha I got her this time. But the joke was on me. She was watching me in the mirror the whole time and just played along.

Oh, and this one time she took me to toy r us and I of course sneaked away when she wasn’t looking. We’ll I couldn’t find her when I was done so i went to the lost and found area and told them my grandma lost me in the store. They announced something over the PA system somewhere along the lines of her abandoning me in the store and boy was she mad. When she picked up me from the front of the store she was fuming and I was terrified. I thought to myself, I really did it this time. She still brought this story up a couple years ago.

I could stand her for hours and tell so many stories of her strength, her great character, her amazing cooking and how she always accepted me even when she knew I was different. All I can say is that I was blessed to have such an amazing grandma and that I’ll truly miss her. I’ll cherish the many memories I have and they’ll live forever in my heart and hope that one day I can be as strong as she was. Till we meet again, Eduarda. Te queiro mucho.