Who is ruth Robinson?
Ruth Robinson is my maternal grandmother. She was born April 6th, 1954 and moved from Tijuana to San Ysidro to Imperial Beach by the time she was 6 years old. Shes lived a simple life full of love and amazing memories.
She is a retired librarian from Nicoloff Elementary and now spends her days taking care of her five grandchildren and spending quality time with her four children.
I interviewed Ruth October 22nd, 2015. Below is the story of childhood.
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The story ruth told me:
My mother lived in Tijuana, her family had come from Mazatlan and settled in Tijuana to be close to be close to the big country U.S of A and hopefully be here one day. My Father moved over to Mexico (Tijuana) to clean up his life. He had had some bad luck, he had just gotten a divorce and his doctor told him that for his health he had to clean up his life. Eat better, exercise every day and just fix up his life or else he was going to die young. That’s what his doctor told him. He ended up in the same town where my mother worked and that’s how they met.
Before I was a year old my father brought us to San Ysidro by the Port of Entry from Tijuana. I remember being in kindergarten at the elementary school over there, I think it was called Sunset School. A year later, when I was six years old, we moved to Imperial Beach where I lived the rest of my life. In a house that we still own today.
Tj has been a part of my life ever since I can remember, my mom visited her family and her mother. So my dad would take her (my mom didn’t drive) he would take my mother and my siblings and I every Friday. We would go Fridays and come back , Saturdays and come back, Sundays and come back and holidays. I learned all the culture and spent a lot of time and got really close to my cousins because of that. We were just like normal kids, we played until night time, we had a lot of freedom. We lived in a little neighborhood so we didn’t have to stay close to the house. It was called a “vecindad” , like a little community, and all of them knew us. We were “The Girls From the U.S” . Even the church knew us. The church was right next door and they always knew us. I guess we dressed a little different but the games that we played were just like the games kids played here but maybe a little different. I remember playing Tag, Hide and Seek but it would be like a neighborhood thing. We would play Marbles , Jacks, Stick Ball and all those games that you can buy for a dollar now, those are the main games we played. We didn’t have equipment, we just had things from the land I guess that’s what you’d call it.
My family never really traveled, I remember my mom getting on an airplane just to go to Vegas one time later in her life. We were just much to the family. I guess we weren’t that wealthy. We were considered “well to do” because we were from the U.S., compared to my cousins in Tijuana. But we still never really traveled. We went to Disneyland a few times and to L.A to visit my dad’s family. We didn’t even go anywhere in Mexico. We had a really simple life and I loved every second of it.
Before I was a year old my father brought us to San Ysidro by the Port of Entry from Tijuana. I remember being in kindergarten at the elementary school over there, I think it was called Sunset School. A year later, when I was six years old, we moved to Imperial Beach where I lived the rest of my life. In a house that we still own today.
Tj has been a part of my life ever since I can remember, my mom visited her family and her mother. So my dad would take her (my mom didn’t drive) he would take my mother and my siblings and I every Friday. We would go Fridays and come back , Saturdays and come back, Sundays and come back and holidays. I learned all the culture and spent a lot of time and got really close to my cousins because of that. We were just like normal kids, we played until night time, we had a lot of freedom. We lived in a little neighborhood so we didn’t have to stay close to the house. It was called a “vecindad” , like a little community, and all of them knew us. We were “The Girls From the U.S” . Even the church knew us. The church was right next door and they always knew us. I guess we dressed a little different but the games that we played were just like the games kids played here but maybe a little different. I remember playing Tag, Hide and Seek but it would be like a neighborhood thing. We would play Marbles , Jacks, Stick Ball and all those games that you can buy for a dollar now, those are the main games we played. We didn’t have equipment, we just had things from the land I guess that’s what you’d call it.
My family never really traveled, I remember my mom getting on an airplane just to go to Vegas one time later in her life. We were just much to the family. I guess we weren’t that wealthy. We were considered “well to do” because we were from the U.S., compared to my cousins in Tijuana. But we still never really traveled. We went to Disneyland a few times and to L.A to visit my dad’s family. We didn’t even go anywhere in Mexico. We had a really simple life and I loved every second of it.