Um, this is Boris Solis interviewing for Creative Push on December
14th at um 11 o'clock. And can you give me your name and your age? Delfina
Geos, 61 years old. Excellent. All right, so if you can uh tell us about
the family history like you were saying, OK, well, from what I understand
, our our family came from Spain. And originally our name was Maas. It
didn't have the TAS at the end. And uh Trinidad, Colorado is named after
one of the great great uncles, Trinidad Maestas.
And they owned apparently most of the land from. In New Mexico, there were
cattlemen.
But as as people started coming in, they started homesteading and bringing
the land further north and further north. And um Apparently, uh. It was a
very wealthy family. The Maesta's family. And um
Eventually in time it just kept going north and north. The majority of our
family lives up to the northern part past Cuba. And uh my father left
there and came homesteaded in Corralis where he raised 10 children. 5
girls and 5 boys.
And uh
Still to the day my my brother lives in my mother's home. And um Of course
we're all scattered around a little bit. There's only 7 of us left. But,
um.
Uh, my older sister now is 84 years old. What brought you here? I married
a man from here. And uh eventually, uh, I just stayed. After he left, I
stayed and raised my other children here. And I remarried to the Gallego's
family and uh We've just lived here already over 40 some years.
Um, so can you tell us about, so was that the father of your first child,
your first husband? My first husband was, was a child of my first two
children. Richard and Lucy. And then I remarried and I have a daughter now
with, her name is Gabriella. So can you tell us about how you and that man
met? Had you planned on starting a family? Not really, you know, after,
after divorce and stuff, you're kind of holding back. But uh he's a very
nice man. But how about that first marriage, your, your first, um, it was
a trying marriage uh he he drink and stuff like that, so I figured I
worked all the time. I constantly worked and I said one day, if I'm gonna
support him, I'm gonna support my children instead. So I let him go.
And uh we were still friends till the end. He passed away four years ago,
but um.
It it's just a crying thing and and and it's just something that that are.
Our ourselves have to try to keep our families together. It doesn't matter.
How bad it is.
My mother raised us loving each other. And um I think that's one of the
most important things here in New Mexico, is that families try to stay
together for as long as possible. And we teach our children who their
family is.
Very important. Very, very important because you never, you don't want
them to marry into each other's family. Because blood attracts blood. And
a lot of times we have met people that end up being our cousins.
We have a family reunion every 2 years on my father's side of the family.
And we have over 500 people that show up that are family members.
From all over the United States.
Did you guys talk about, um, like were you, did your mother talk to you
about birth or did you witness any births or raise your siblings? Well,
yeah, yeah, I, I was witnessed a lot of the births, um. Uh, my, my nieces
, I've been there at the birth of my children. I've always been there for
them, um.
And
It's a, it's a very beautiful thing to be there present. And um
My sisters and we all raise each other's children.
That's what I miss a lot about not living at home. Because the whole
family lives down the road from each other. And uh we all raised each
other's children and as we, as we grew up, I was the youngest of the girls.
So usually in the summer I had like 10 kids to watch. But it wasn't a
burden because where there was 10, it was the same as having 3. They
entertain themselves. And my mother was always one to say, you know, if,
if they carry your blood, they're here at home.
So we have children from all races in our family.
And there are a lot of children.
How old were you when you had your first child? I was 17. Did you feel
prepared? Yes, because by the time I was 10 years old, I would go out and
and clean houses, mind you, or help my mother clean restaurants or
whatever she did. My father always worked away from home. Because he had
hurt his back and um. He came home and he'd come home every 2 or 3 years.
So we helped Mother. Mother practically raised us all. By the time I was,
by the time I was born, my oldest sister had already married. And my and
my brother was helping my father in where he was working.
And Uh,
My
I well my second oldest sister too. Uh, she had a, I have a nephew the
same age as as myself. So she was already married. Do you know if you were
born in a hospital? Yes, I was born at the doctor's hospital, the old UNM
hospital. It's a black building next to you and him. Um,
That was the only practically the only hospital there was back then. It's
um It's a very small building. And and if you go into town, I think it's
still there. The doctor's hospital. Where did you give birth when you were
17? At the UNM Hospital.
Which was the only, the only hos well, it wasn't the only hospital, but it
was the only one that that lower income people would go to. So, you know,
then my second child I had her at the um. Uh, University Heights Hospital
was just down the road from UNM. Did you, how did you feel about your
first pregnancy? How was the experience of being pregnant for you?
I thought it was beautiful. I thought it was a beautiful thing because
it's gonna be something that was mine for me to, to raise, for me to teach
, for me to. To be able to hold and say no, nobody's gonna ask me to take
him back. And I had already been raising all my my nephews and nieces, so
I knew how to do it. I mean, uh, my mother was very, very strong on common
sense.
What we learned, we learned to cook, we learned to clean, we learned to
sew, we learned everything. Work the fields.
Everything we did, we did. We canned all summer long. We dried fruit.
To make things and you know, through the winter, we could make it through
the winter cause there's so many of us. There was times I remember. When
we were younger and apparently mother didn't have enough. And uh She'd
feed us all and then she'd ask, we, we'd all row stand in a row next to
her and she'd said, OK, open your mouth, let me see if we're full. And
she'd say yes. Oh yes, OK, you can go play. And we to us it was
psychological.
And um But
Being raised actually in Corrales where I was raised. It was the most
beautiful things. Neighbors helped each other. It was just like, it was
back, back, back in the days where farmers would help each other and
neighbors or neighbors. It's, it's a horrible thing now that we can't do
that. Yeah, we were noticing a lot of people have their homes fenced off
and. You, you were so approachable, you know, and friendly. Uh, I, I don't
like to. I love people. I don't like to keep him away that much, but it's
um. But it's harder and harder to do every day, you know, even families
learn to. To distance themselves from from each other. We try to keep our
our immediate family together. We try to get together at least once a year
so we can see each other and meet our children because a lot of them we
don't know. Um, do you remember your when you gave birth to your first
child, um, did you? Did you take medication? Did you practice any special
, you know, breathing or anything like that? Not really. You just went in
there and had a child.
My sister went with me, I remember that. And uh basically, either my
mother or my sisters would be with me, and I had my children. It's it's
just comforting. Were there any um family kind of superstitions or you
know things that you should eat or shouldn't eat or anything like that?
Yes. But my, well, my mother, my mother was always one that once we had a
child, we couldn't have, we couldn't have anything that made us too gassy.
We couldn't have things that we had a lot of protein. We had a lot of
chicken, a lot of um. If we had beef, pork was kind of. Off to the side
because supposedly it caused infections and things like that. And um.
Beans was another thing nobody could have. So you ate really like after
that, you ate really like foods so. Until about About the 3rd week, then
you could start, you know, introducing your body back into regular food.
Did you know the baby sucks before you had them? No. Never knew. So what
was that experience when you know they did they pull up the baby and say
you have a boy or how well yeah because uh back then if you were, you had
an ultrasound only if you needed it. And that was very, very few and far
between, so. Yeah, you just wait and see. Yeah, you have a boy, which is
great, you know, if you have a girl that's even it's good too. The the
only thing I would turn and see if if who they look like.
Yeah. My son looked like his uncle and my my my daughter looked like my
brother and, and my youngest daughter looked like her dad. It's just You
just wanna see them completely to make sure that they're. That they're um.
Perfect in every way. And even if they're not perfect, they're yours. You
accept them anyway, the Lord sends them, you know. So did you stay at the
hospital longer or did you go home? Uh, when my first child, we had to
stay there about a week. Which is strange and then the second one, We're
sent home after 3 days. And then, and then the 3rd 1 also 3 days. That's
longest they would keep us there. Now they don't, 2 days you're out.
Did you nurse? I nursed very little. I couldn't, I couldn't develop that
much milk. That which I wanted to, but. It wasn't it. So I had to bottle
feed him most of the time. In your family, did women nurse each other's
children? Well, actually I did with my 2nd child. Because, uh, when I had
my second child, I, I heed. And I had to go back to the to the hospital
and they sent me to my mother's house. Um, Because I have to stay flat on
my back.
So when I, when I was when I would nursing, the baby was too small. And I
had to hold her like this. You know, over my chest to be able to feed her
, and she wasn't feeding me enough. So,
My sister had twins.
And my mother called her and said, bring the girls over. This girl is
ready to explode here. I was just so full that one time and. She did, she
brought the twins over 11 took it, the other one didn't. But the one that
did drained both breasts and she loved it. She slept for two days almost.
And uh
That those are the only ones that I, I nursed myself, and they're the ones
that are more attached. Yeah.
Interesting. Was there anything about the experience that surprised you?
Not really. It was, it was whatever mother said she knew what to do.
You know it's just uh.
We, we survive, you know, it doesn't matter what it takes, you survive.
And and that was the main thing is getting me well enough to be able to
take care of my baby. And
And helping the other ones out too. You know.
Well, she was the only one I nursed for 3 months, but then I had surgery
after that, so I couldn't surgery that really was related to the birth or
no, no, I had eye surgery then.
Were your birth similar to your children's births?
My mother never really talked about it. About our burst. Uh, the only one
I remember her talking to me about was. Uh, One of she lost one of my
brothers.
Who was stillborn. And the pregnancy after that. The baby was like
floating around in there just. Just wasn't uh steady enough in her belly.
And, and when she, when she delivered that baby, it was, it was a hard
labor. But I don't know if it was because the other baby they had to. Get
him out forcefully and he came out bottom first. So I think that messed
her up inside, but she still had children after that. Which is kind of
hard, kind of hard because. Back then, if, if you had to be real careful
because you worked so hard.
And that's what a lot of girls now don't know, you know, they have their
children and they're off running. And um. Now, back then we had to, we had
to make sure that everything was back in place and everything was, was
ready for whatever, you didn't have children right away. You had them
about every 2 years.
Naturally. And
Um I think that's what it was is that when you took care of yourself,
binding yourself, you really had to support your back and everything
because we had so much hard work to do that. We had a lot of fields to
plow, we had Gardens to grow, you know, it was an ending, never ending
story. In the winter, the same thing, we had wood to chop. Well I was
raised in a home where we didn't have no gas. All we had was wood. Um,
We uh.
Go out and and have to sweep the snow and everything back then we got a
lot of snow. We had up to 4 or 5 ft of snow. I remember that. Which we
haven't had in a long time. So can you talk about that binding? Is that
the binding basically it was is to keep the uterus, get your uterus to go
back in place and it'll firm it because when the babies are nursing that
those muscles are being pulled so when you firm that it brings everything
back into place like my mother used to say where it's supposed to go.
Because that's why I think a lot of people have the uteruses that drop.
Because they never enforced them to. Just go back into the place where
they're supposed to, even though you're not nursing, binding was a very
good thing. My mother put us with tight jeans you know something that
wouldn't stretch. It had to be something hard that wasn't gonna stretch.
Do you know, um, in your family history when people stopped having home
births?
I believe that was like back in the 50s. Because that's where my parents
came from up north. And Her last My my sister was born at home, and after
that, everybody else was born in the hospital. Our family, uh-huh. Did
your mom ever talk about the differences of, you know, home birth and the
hospital birth?
Not really, not that I remember, but there it was very, very harsh. My
oldest sister tells me all the time that she was having a very hard time
having one of her children at the hospital. To the point where. I mean,
she couldn't have it and it was just like it was um like forcing them to
have it naturally.
She had her naturally, but she almost died. They put her, they actually
put her in the morgue.
And And when she woke up. The nurse was in there collecting stuff and she
asked her for for a blanket because she was cold and nurse almost
collapsed.
But it was, he said at that time, says the doctors weren't the same as
they are now. I mean now. They have so much technology and back then they
had to depend on their hands and what they hear.
So that was your mom. That was my sister, my oldest sister.
She said, uh, she said she had a very, very, very hard time back then. And
that her kids were born in the hospital.
So, um, were you there for your children's births? I mean, your, your
grandchildren, my grandchildren's, uh, yes. For my daughters, my son lived
in Colorado, so I couldn't be there, but. My daughters have been with them
all through it. And and It's a, it's um.
It's exciting to see those babies be born. In different positions.
Because Not everybody has them flat on their back. I had a niece that had
hers and all for hands and knees. And I have a daughter and one had one of
her standing. You know,
And the rest were all just flat on their back, but I, I think it all
depends on how.
How their pain is less.
Whatever is comfortable for the mother, and I don't think they should be
forced. So did you try to lay on their backs if they, if it doesn't, if it
doesn't work. Because it's hard because not everybody's made the same.
Were you forced to lay on your back? Yeah. Yeah, when only one doctor told
me I had, I had fallen down. And
The baby would come, but you wouldn't come out, and he told me, he says,
get on all fours, get on your hands and knees and have 2 or 3 contractions
like that, and I felt her drop, and she was born like that afterwards. So
I figured maybe when I fell. And I had a fever on my back or something,
the, the placenta might have stuck to it. See, and that's That's what a
lot of people don't understand. Is that whenever you fall or or or have
something like that, the placenta is the one that gets damaged, not the
babies. That sound is really loud. Do you know what that is? It's my
pressure cooker. Do you want me to do something? I'll wait.
I thought it was the noise getting louder. I was like it it's like no.
The only way I can stop it to turn out. Oh no, it's it's OK. We can wrap
it up, yeah, it'll be good. Um Is there So if you, let's say you're giving
this recording to your daughters and and they're going to give it to their
grandchildren, is there anything you wanna say? Well, the, the one thing
I'm gonna tell him is that whatever God sends you is a blessing. It
doesn't matter whether it's perfect or not. Because he knows what you need
in your life, and he knows, um, What's best for you as a person?
These children are sent to be loved. And to be taken care of. And to grow
up to be. Men and women of, of, of uh knowledge.
And experience the happiness you get from them. Because children are only
joy. That's all they are. And um
I, I really, really expressed to everyone, you know, abortion is not the
way.
Uh, there's always somebody out there to love them.
Excellent. I think that's wonderful. OK, so we're going to stop.