by Daniela Herrera, guest writer
Have you ever heard an older person say the line “back in my day”? That dreaded line highlighting the aging decay of an elder. You groan in frustration awaiting your hour-long lecture of “kids weren’t like this at my age” or “we didn’t have a computer when we were younger.” We hear those stories and ignore them, yet the past holds the grounds for the future. For without the past, there would be no present. Just like our parents. I love my mom and even though we do not always see eye to eye, a lot of what I love about the media is because of my mom. This essay I dedicate to her. For all the academic years of writing, I haven’t written an essay about her.
My mother lived in Mexico for her childhood and part of her young adult life, and not in a city like Chihuahua, Acapulco, or Mexico City, the big places only tourists know. No, my mom grew up in a small town out and far from any big city. Think about a small town far from civilization when you step inside it’s like you went through a time machine, but only dating back to the 80s. Bagres is located in the north of Durango, which is one of the states in the country. It’s about a 24-hour drive from here in Colorado. The climate, though closer to the equator, is very similar to here. It’s dry and has hills.
People had the radio and TVs. A lot of global information was from sources like Univision, but more local news would be just like gossip. You would hear it from someone and they would pass it around, but my mom was never really into news and she still isn’t. It would make her uncomfortable with all the toxicity. What she was really into was Music and TV.
There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t hear my mom talk about music. It was interesting to hear her sort of geek out at the mention.
Me: Who was one of your favorites growing up?
Mom: “My favorite at that time…La Revolucion and it still is. La Revolucion de Milinan Zapata, and industria del amor, but more La Revolución”
She then continued telling me about concerts held in the buildings for venues, but she could never go because it cost money and she didn’t have any. This was also the same for the theater. My mother grew up poor. A lot of the luxuries we have today she didn’t have as a kid. Until she married my dad and moved to the US.
She always tells me about how my dad and her would go to the cinema almost every weekend and watch movies. All before I was born. It was like their little dates and would continue as me and my brother would be in the picture. Renting movies on Blockbuster or watching ‘Chavo Del Ocho’ every Friday after cleaning. Music that she would listen to on cassettes was transferred to DVDs. With TV shows still being watched on cable TV.
This brings up another point. Why do your elders hand on the past like a lifeline? They defend it like a crusader fighting for their cause. Why is nostalgia so impactful to the individual? There are several answers to this question. There is no wrong question, but it’s probably because of the emotions associated with those memories. When I did the interview it was awkward. I didn’t know what to ask and my mom didn’t know what to respond but that’s ok because we were learning. To this day as I write this I watch TV with my mom. It’s a staple of my childhood. Not just the notion of watching television but the different types of shows. I have been exposed to children’s shows, drama, and even black-and-white movies. Those movies would take great convincing for a child today to watch, but yet because of this, I grew to love old animations. Like Looney Tunes, Tom and Jerry, and Betty Boop. All because my mom loved to watch these.
Mom: “What I really liked to watch was cartoons, Teletubbies, Dora. What else did I like to watch?”
Me: “Well all that I like to watch”
Mom: “Yes that’s why you like them because I put them on, Winne the Pooh, and all that”
All of this makes me wonder why everyone is always fighting about how terrible the older generations are but what they did is reflective today to future generations. Yes at their age’ it was different but that is what makes it so interesting because you can see the shift and change of media from a loved one’s time to your own time. All the same issues are in different fonts.
There was always the idea of marketing and hidden messages in shows, conspiracy theories, etc. Now we are either more aware or at least more vocal about it. My mother had said that she doesn’t watch the news because of the toxicity and negative information given. That’s a problem we still face. That all news is somber and never seems to release the good moments of the world, or at least that they never get the main focus. We still have to pay to watch movies and the battle streaming service is the cable. Are these new invocations to enjoy entertainment yes, but money is always part of the equation.
We too will become old and gray. Technology and media will move faster than we can catch up, but we can’t focus on comparing our lives to each other, we should all learn from experiences. We say technology is bringing us together so why not act on it?
To my mother who may or may not realize it but is the reason I love movies and animation, and one the reasons I too want to write and illustrate stories. Even though she doesn’t like consuming as much media she raised a kid who can’t stop consuming media.