All right, this is Boris Solis, um, interviewing for Creative Push on
December 17th at 3:12 p.m. Can you say your name and your age? Yeah, um,
I'm Geraldine Toya and I'm 50 years old. Great. Um, can you just, uh, set
the stage for us, like tell us, um, maybe where you were born or just a
little bit about your background? OK, well, according to my mom, I was
actually born in uh one of uh my my dad's company then. So, um, our
distance from where we actually go to a hospital is usually um like an
hour drive. So on the way to the hospital, that's where I was born, but I
was actually, you know, um. Um, taken to the UNMH Hospital in Albuquerque.
Um, so it was an hour drive from where? From our Pueblo, which is Jemma
Pueblo, and our main, um, the main area then was in Albuquerque, so we
didn't have, you know, the The hospitals that are near us right now, which
is only like 20-30 minutes now compared to back then that was in '66. Do
you have sisters and brothers? Yes, I do. I have two brothers and one
sister, so I'm actually the second child out of four. Wow. So do you
remember your mom being pregnant with your other siblings? Um, well, we're
pretty much, um, um, closely, you know, at age, so I think I'm like 2
years, well, from my older brother, he's between me and him is only 1 year
and then between me and my other brother after me is 2 years and then the
sister after. My brothers were like 3 years apart, so did you close? Sorry
about that. Did you, um, uh, grow up kind of living near your family even
as you got older? Yes, yes, that's nice. Yes, so it was, you know, and
then for me, for my part, um, I have 6 children. Yeah, I have 4 girls, 2
boys, um, but they're actually, um, you know, they're not as close as we
were when we when we were born, so my oldest to my second oldest is 4
years apart. Then from my second oldest to the 3rd, next one is, um, 2
years, and then from the 3rd to the 4th is another 3. The 4th to the 5th
is another 3 and then the 5th to the 6th, 10 years. Wow. Did you always
want a big family? I actually did. Um, my husband, um, had, uh, 5 or 6
siblings as well, so he grew up in a big family, so he was more wanted a
big family because that's pretty much how he was raised, so. That's what
we have. So do you remember, um, being pregnant with your first child? Yes
, yes, um, she Well, me and my husband, we, we, um, we're dating and so
right after high school we got married, so we've been married for 32 years
, but we had our oldest when we're still in high school, so we, we had her
at a young age, but my parents actually wanted to raise her so we can
continue on our education, but then we felt that. She was our only way of
being, you know, staying together as a couple, so we didn't give her up,
we raised her ourselves, you know, and then we actually moved to Dallas
together and that's where I had my second daughter, so she was born in
Dallas. Interesting. So were you, did you also have to make that hour
drive to the hospital when you had your child, your first one? My first
one, yes, yes, I did because she was born at Presbyterian Hospital and
that was in downtown in Albuquerque, but I was taken by ambulance. Because
during then my dad was um an EMT, so he was uh one that got the ambulance
service in our Pelo so he's the one that actually drove me to the hospital
in the ambulance. Did you enjoy being pregnant or how was it for you? Well
, to me, as far as um being young, you know. My mom and my well my parents
never expected me to have a child early so it pretty much I wasn't um
informed how pregnancy was or you know um any you know how being pregnant
was and stuff so I experienced that. I always say I experienced that um in
the you know hard way because I didn't know anything about the nause you
know, being nauseated and all this stuff and morning sickness, you know
what comes with it. The second time around, I was pretty much, you know,
knew and I was aware of what, what, you know, I can go through. With the
first birth, did you um take any, an epidural or any medication? Um, yes,
I did. Oh my God, yes, I did.
It was an experience. My mom never told me what was gonna come, how it was
gonna be, but all my kids were natural born. I didn't have Cesareans on
any of them. My oldest one was the only one I did epidural. The rest of
them, I just did it all natural, yeah. Mhm. So did you, how did you find
that inner strength? How did you cope with the pain? Um, during that time
with all for all my pregnancies, um, well, the first, after my oldest
daughter, my husband was with me, so he pretty much just calmed me down.
He did a lot of native music like singing, um, and I just kind of focused
on what his songs were about and kept me, you know, just. Doing what I had
to do, you know, and my second oldest when I was um having her in Dallas,
she actually, she just came right out. It's like I didn't even know she
was already out and they said congratulations and I was like, what you
know so that I didn't have but then the other ones I kind they were bigger
so they weigh more, you know, my oldest was the lightest, the second one
was kind of bigger. And weight and then the rest of them were pretty much
8/8 pounds, close to 99 pounds. Yeah. So, um, Did you, so did you know the
sex of your first child before you gave? No, no, I didn't want to know the
, the 4th child was the only one that I was, I wanted to know, but the 1st
3 I never asked I never wanted to know what the sex were, you know, what
they were, they were gonna be. I wanted a surprise and um, so that's
pretty much what we had. So we had 2 girls and then the third one was a
boy. Fourth one was a girl and a boy and then the last one was a girl. So
with your, um, children, did you um have the naming ceremony with the
godparents or did you guys name your children? Um, we actually name them
ourselves, um, except for the godparents, we would leave the middle name
up to them so that way we know that they were, you know, they're a part of
them. That that way when they do come to see them and it's a part of their
lives, they can, they can call them by that name that they've chosen to
give to them. That's nice. Yeah. So out of all your children's births,
were they very different or were they kind of similar? Um, I think they
were all similar. They were pretty much similar, you know, I knew what to
expect and when I did, it happened that way. So pretty much it was, you
know. Did, was there anything surprising about the experiences? Um
Just the first one. Yeah, just the first one. Yeah. No, I think it might
be.
That's Donny. It's my youngest. I'll call. That's so nice. We're he could
tell you we're talking about that.
So have you been there for any of your children's births? I mean your
grandchildren, grandchildren? Yes, yes, I, I, on all of them, yeah, all of
them, and my second, I mean my oldest daughter, when she had her oldest
daughter, um, I actually kind of saw myself in her, you know, because, um.
The my granddaughters. Father, the other side of the, you know, the other
grandmother came and she played the flute. And my daughter was like. She
was like, get her out of here, you know, she was so annoyed and irritated
by it because and she was just trying to calm her, but she was like, I
don't wanna hear nothing. I just wanna deal with this for myself, you know
, and that was her, her way of getting through um her pain. And, and it
was, I was like, no, she didn't mean it like that, you know, I'm kind of
explaining to the other grandma but she said, oh no, I, I went through it
so I know she said and you know I don't blame her so but you know she
apologized and said you know I didn't mean to I didn't even know I did
that but there's times where she didn't know because she was too much in
pain and that's pretty much where I saw myself in a way and then. I kind
of comfort her by telling her, you know, it's all right because that's
what I went through. Yeah. Did you feel that you could provide her more
preparation because were you more open with your children about the
process? I'm always, I've always been, and before she went into labor,
I've explained to her what she's gonna kind of, I said every woman's
different, you know, I, but I told her how I what I went through when I
had her because she was the oldest. So she pretty much was, you know,
trying to keep it brave and said, you know, I can do this and I don't
wanna go through what you want you went through, but sooner or later she
found out, OK, yeah, there's no way you can control it if you're in pain,
you're in pain, you know. So, but my, but. I had all of them natural, but
then my 3 daughters, 3 older ones, they all have uh children, but they all
have Cesareans. Yeah, so none of them had natural. So the oldest one has 2
girls. She has Cesareans, both of them. My second daughter has a boy and a
girl, Cesarean, then my third daughter has Cesarean because her baby was
like almost 10 pounds. Yeah, so she, yeah she, she had and she stayed in
the hospital for a whole week in labor. Yeah, there was, they tried to
induce her everything she couldn't have it natural, so finally they said,
you know, the bag already broke. We can't let it, you know, being him in
there for. You know, appear, you know, they can only have him in there for
so long. So then they decide it's time for Crean, when you saw that you
must have thought you had, you had good experiences. Yes, and I was kind
of like. Hoping that they all would have it the way you know I did, but
you know I said well we're all built different, you know, so and they even
talk about that. They always say, why did you have a natural? How did you
do that? And we all had to go through Cesarean, you know, so we're open to
talk about the differences, you know, like how they seen it or they
experience and then. What I tell them, what I went through. Yeah, that's
great. Do you know in your family who um what generation or who was the
last person to be born at home? Um, Probably my grandmother. My
grandmother, my grandparents actually, and that was the old ways then
cause um. Um, my grandmother used to say her mom and her dad were each
born, um, in separate homes, but back then when they were born they were
already put together to be married when they grew up, so that was the
tradition back then but a lot of it has changed now. So actually like say
my great grandmother was born, my great grandfather was born, and they
were born pretty much like almost the same days the parents actually
talked to each other and said, well, when they grow up, he's gonna marry
her and she's gonna marry him, so that's how it was back then but my grand
grandparents um they were both. Um, born at home, yeah, and my mom and dad
, my dad was born, I think in California because his dad was in the
railroad, you know, um, traveling, so he was stationed different places
and my mom, the great grandmother, remember the picture I showed you, she
actually says that um that um my mom's dad was born in their home. And the
, the, the, one of the Klan men was the one that um like a medicine man, I
guess that um helped her deliver and clean the baby up and everything. But
back then, meanwhile, like now, up to now, when we give birth. We have to
fast, which means there's 4 days of fasting where we can't just have
anything with sugar, salt. Everything has to be like natural um foods like
corn bread, cornmeal, porridge that's made with corn. So everything like
that, and that's what they say cleanses all the birthing that you, that's
inside of you as a woman, and they would tie a shawl around you with a
belt. To help you put pressure so everything can cleanse out. So you have
to fast for 4 days. Yeah, that makes sense. Um, someone just the other day
was talking about that, um, binding, you know, to get the uterus to shrink
back. Yes, that's what we did. They would wrap you and you stand there and
they would pull that belt real tight. So that's pretty much what we'd
still do today. That's still our tradition. Did you nurse your children?
Yes, yes, I did breast fed all of them, yeah, and I, and my. My oldest
daughter, she breastfed the oldest one. The second one, she can't produce
, you know, enough, so she actually just had to deal with the, but my
second daughter, she breastfed both of them, and then the same one, my
third daughter, she breastfed him. So that's incredible, particularly for
C-section too because sometimes the milk is harder to, yes, yes. Well,
Ashley, do you have any questions?
I don't think so. OK, I don't know if is there anything else you wanted to
add? I feel bad that we're taking your time, but your story is fascinating.
I cannot imagine all those children. Yes, yeah, yeah, so, well, next time
if you guys are around, you can always interview my daughters. We will be.
Where are they? They're at home and he miss number. Can we visit, um, to
be here till Tuesday. Are you? Yeah, OK. Well, I'll see the second one is
able to tomorrow. That would be amazing, yeah, because she lives a real
rancho. I would love that. OK.