Wiser With Age

Tag: grandmother

  • Grandmother, 81, releases debut album with grandson and is nominated by Latin Grammys for “Best Norteño Album”

    Grandmother, 81, releases debut album with grandson and is nominated by Latin Grammys for “Best Norteño Album”

    A woman with short hair wearing red necklace.
    Irma Silva singing with her grandson, Jorge Loayzat, with the band Buyuchek on their family’s ranch in General Terán, Nuevo León, Mexico. (Courtesy Universal Music Latin Entertainment)

    Irma Silva was born and raised on her family’s ranch, “Rancho El Naranjo,†in General Terán, Nuevo León, Mexico. Ever since she was a little girl, she dreamed of being a singer like her uncles who were members of the Norteño band, Los Alegres de Teherán, which formed in the 1940’s. Instead, due to her family’s wishes, she became a seamstress. 

    However, because of the encouragement from her grandson, Jorge Loayzat (singer and bajo sexto player of the Norteño band Buyuchek), to pursue music, Silva – now 81 – says her days are currently spent doing interviews for press around the world. She has not only completed her first album, “Las Canciones de la Abuela†(“The Songs of Grandmotherâ€), but it has been nominated for “Best Norteño Album†by the 20th annual Latin Grammy Awards. This week, they traveled from their home in Monterrey to attend the red carpet event in MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on November 14.

    • A woman with short hair wearing red necklace.











      Irma Silva and her grandson, Jorge, arrive in Las Vegas on November 11 in preparation for the Latin Grammys. (Courtesy @JorgeLoayzat)

    “I loved to listen to my father sing, and I used to love to sing,†says Silva in Spanish, explaining that during the era of her youth, it was looked down upon for girls to pursue singing as a career.

    She repeats often that she thought her dream of singing was over forever and still can’t believe what is currently happening.

    “I really thought that at 81, that it wasn’t the right time…†says Silva, “I didn’t want to do it, but my grandson is very stubborn. I am very happy now…very happy.â€

    Working on the album, which took approximately a year, was also therapeutic for her because the 14th of November additionally marks the one year anniversary of the death of her oldest child of four. 

    “We filmed the music videos on the ranch of my family,†says Silva. “Working on the album this past year…it helped me.â€

    Creating the album also meant a lot for her 28-year-old grandson.

    “I remember the songs she used to sing me when I was still in the crib,†says Loayzat, explaining he has felt so many emotions working on this project with his grandmother who worked hard her whole life, and gave her all to her family. “I’m happier for her, more than for me. She has never even been to a concert, not to mention on a stage. I’ve already been singing for 16 years.â€

    He says he had always wanted to record an album with his grandmother since as long as he can remember.

    “I was thinking a simple album,†remembers Loayzat. “It was my bandmates that motivated me to make a complete professional album. A lot of people got involved to help us complete it.â€

    “I have a lot of friends whose parents sing very well, but they don’t record them thinking that it won’t result in anything,†says Loayzat, “but I’ve witnessed, in doing this project, that working on something noble brings many rewards…one of them being learning that it’s never too late to achieve your dreams.â€

    It has also opened up more ideas for the duo to work together. Coming next is an album with the Norteño artists of his grandmother’s youth, which is her next dream.

    “We already recorded the song, “Nueve dias†(“Nine daysâ€),†says Loayzat, adding that his grandma sings it with Norteño legend Poncho Villagomez, and it will drop on November 22. “Unintentionally, she has just started a music career.†

    “I now want to tell young people to fight for your dreams,†adds Silva. “I had once thought that I was too old, but here I am singing a very old song, ‘La Pajarera’ – the same song my teachers would make me sing when I was seven, and now I’m singing it again.â€

    This time, however, she is singing on an international stage.

  • How the film, “Mamacita,” became a lesson on the power of forgiveness

    How the film, “Mamacita,” became a lesson on the power of forgiveness


    A woman with short hair wearing red necklace.

    It was a chilly October night when “Mamacita†had its New York premiere at the Margaret Mead Film Festival at the American Museum of Natural History. However, Mexico-born and raised filmmaker/director José Pablo Estrada Torrescano warmed the auditorium as he announced his first feature-length film – a documentary about his grandmother, a self-made entrepreneur who proudly created an empire in Mexico’s beauty industry.

    “I made it with my heart – struggling, sweating…†said Estrada Torrescano, 37, on the stage.

    In the film, he also mentions a painful period in his life when, at 13, his mother passed away, and because of that, he lived only with his two brothers who were 16 and 18 years old. During this time in his life, he says he felt alone and abandoned by the rest of his family. Little did he know that embarking on this filmmaking experience would lead him to encountering some much needed personal inner-healing, as well as to establishing a bond with his usually emotionally distant grandmother.

    Here is a Q & A with Estrada Torrescano about how making this film ended up being a life-changing experience for him, as well as for his grandmother (who turned 100 today):

    What made you decide to make a film about your Mamacita, and how long did it take to complete?

    Before leaving Mexico City to study film in Prague, I told my family during a Christmas party that I was quitting mathematics, after it being my profession for 10 years, in order to follow my heart and study film. My grandmother, Mamacita, was very excited about it and made me promise to make a film about her life. I didn’t take it seriously at the moment, but after finishing my studies, I didn’t know what to do, so I told my professors about Mamacita’s life, and their reaction was amazing, so I finally decided to do her film. This was six years ago! The film took all these years to be finished, since I did it completely independently. At the moment of shooting, I decided not to have a script, or anything to guide me, except my intuition…I managed to get the resources to shoot thanks to a crowdfunding campaign…We managed to premiere “Mamacita†at HotDocs in Toronto, and even received the Top Audience Pick…

    What really stood out to me in your film is your focus on the concept of forgiveness. Why was this important to you? And what made you realize this is what Mamacita needed to do?

    Since everything was made intuitively, I didn’t know that forgiveness was going to be part of the film. Life just guided me in that direction. It was what was needed to be done, and I just did it… Now that I see things behind, and the fact that I managed to forgive Mamacita and my family, it has been crucial for my own development. And after having experienced that, I want everybody to know that forgiveness is the key! Would you imagine a world where we have all forgiven our family, friends and even our enemies? Where we have managed to let go all our regrets, our pain, our suffering? That would be paradise! And we could achieve it, if we would have the courage to confront our internal world without judging it – just seeing it, learning from it, understanding it. Being open to knowing that what others have done to us is because of their own ignorance and limitations – ignorance and limitations that we also have! We might not have the same limitations, but our own. And if we accept that, if I forgive myself for having them, then I can forgive others for having them as well.

    Did the forgiveness element of the film take place at the end of your stay? 

    Yes, “the secret thing that I did†to Mamacita for her to achieve forgiveness was in the end of my 3-month stay in Mexico City. It took me a long time to decide to do “it.†When Mamacita sensed that I was doubting, she said, “You know José Pablo, there are times when one needs to take a risk and do things,†so I took it as an invitation and did it.

    Do you think she has had a healing experience? How would you describe how she changed?

    I think that the whole process of doing the film was a healing experience for her. Before arriving to Mexico to shoot, Mamacita –who was 95 years old at that time– was constantly in a really bad mood. She was continuously fighting with her daughters, and with the people who work for her in her house. But having a camera in front of her, and somebody doing a film about her, made her so happy. She was the best person to work with! When I left Mexico, her daughters and the rest of the family started to come to eat at her house with her everyday, like in the old times. Mamacita is super happy now that her film is being seeing all around the globe in festivals.

    What about for you? How did this whole experience change/heal you?

    This has been possibly the best thing that I’ve done in my life. It was a life-changer. Not only because now I am a filmmaker, and have some kind of success, but most importantly because of having achieved forgiveness. For me to having forgiven my family was a HUGE thing, but it was not easy at all!

    After finishing the editing of the film, I had to confront many feelings that came out after more that 20 years of being repressed. This was probably the most difficult thing that I have experienced in my life. Those three months were like being in hell, and I’m not exaggerating. But after the worst night of them all, I woke up as if I was in paradise! All the terrible feelings just came out of my system, and peace and bliss were there now. I even thought that I was going to die. Anyhow, I’m just telling all this very personal stuff so more people dare to confront their fears, confront their pain. Look at yourself as you really are, learn from yourself, without judging.

    What is the most important thing do you think you learned from your Mamacita?

    Mmm…The logline of the film is “It’s never too late to forgive,†and just now, thanks to your question, I understood that’s the most important thing that I’ve learned from my grandmother, Mamacita.

    This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

  • Filmmaker reflects on grandmother in film, “306 Hollywood”

    Filmmaker reflects on grandmother in film, “306 Hollywood”


    A woman with short hair wearing red necklace.
    The late Annette Ontell, owner of 306 Hollywood, Hillside, NJ.

    Jonathan Bogarín, 40, and his sister Elan Bogarín, 36, loved their grandmother so much, they immortalized her on film.

    The Jewish-American matriarch, Annette Ontell, passed away on April 4, 2011 at age 93 – leaving behind only memories, and artifacts, in her house at 306 Hollywood Ave. in Hillside, NJ, which she lived in for 70 years.

    A woman with short hair wearing red necklace.

    The house was stark white – as if predestined to become the perfect canvas for the film that would be created after her death – using the artifacts from her life as props. She was a middle class fashion designer, with a sense of humor, who loved to make dresses fit for the Rockefellers, and she’d always make a duplicate for herself to wear.

    The brother and sister filmmaking duo named their award-winning film “306 Hollywood,†and its artistically mastered ethereal style, for such a weighty subject matter, landed it in Sundance Film Festival earlier this year. After successful showings in NYC, and Los Angeles, it will be screening next in theaters in Dallas, Portland and Seattle, and on Amazon next year.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pi_b_VdwazU

    “Making the film, made it easier to let the house go – the memories that we hold, and the cultural space that it holds. I can walk in and be in a 1970’s Jewish-American family,†says Jonathan.

    The idea for the film gradually developed. Elan and Jonathan started filming their grandmother 10 years before her death.

    “My sister was in film school when we started filming. Since we went to [our grandmother’s] house every single week, this added to the relationship,†says Jonathan.

    A woman with short hair wearing red necklace.
    Filmmakers, and grandchildren of Annette Ontell, Elan Bogarín and Jonathan Bogarín

    Elan would ask her straight forward questions you might not normally ask someone if you weren’t filming like, “Grandma are you vain?,†“Do you miss sex?,†and “Are you scared of dying?â€

    She’d always respond honestly and with her extraordinary wit.

    Here, Jonathan answers a few questions about the influence his grandmother had on his life:

    What is your most vivid memory of your grandmother since you were a little boy?

    It was more a feeling than a specific memory. She was a person who always made you feel better. She was a consistently supportive person who was always concerned for our well-being – the things she would do like make you food and made sure you ate enough.

    And your most vivid memory as an adult?

    It’s more of a lesson than a memory. It was her philosophy on how to live life. Despite the tragedies in her life, she’d always empathize with others. She taught us how to handle what life throws at you, and be kind and loving to others, and to find humor in situations. She did it all the time.

    What is the most important piece of life advice that she might have told you, or taught you, by the way she lived?

    Now I have a daughter who is 4 and a half years old. And it’s important to me to transmit the secular Jewish culture to her from my grandmother, and also the Latino culture that comes from my father. She set such an amazing example of how to keep the family together – worry about the things that are important, and not the things that are not as important.

  • Cooking With Granny: Korean style pork belly

    Cooking With Granny: Korean style pork belly


    A woman with short hair wearing red necklace.
    Caroline with her grandmother

     

    In the first episode of Caroline Shin’s “Cooking with Granny†series, her adorable grandma, Sanok Kim, shares her simple yet delicious recipe for Korean-style pork belly. During her interview, she is joined by her friend, and together, they recount their dangerous journeys from Soviet North Korea to U.S.-occupied South Korea.

     

    A woman with short hair wearing red necklace.Caroline Shin is a multimedia journalist based in NYC. Recently, she launched “Cooking With Granny” – a Web series in which grandmas teach how to cook traditional dishes from their cultures while simultaneously sharing their funny, sad and surprising experiences with immigration and multiculturalism in a world that’s very different from today’s. Shin was previously a video editor at New York Magazine and holds an M.A. from Columbia Journalism School.