by Mireya Perez-Bustillo
It did exist because that’s what I heard the most from Mami. She never cut anyone with her words. She’d quietly say “Tendrá sus razones!” It was like a note floating in the air, belonging there, not calling attention to itself. So it sounded normal to me. It’s only now that I understand it.
Papi in his Type A way would slam his fist on the table and let forth a stream of choice expletives regarding so and so and what they had done and what an outrage it was. Mami would listen patiently and say quietly “Tendrá sus razones!” It filtered in like a ray of light swallowing the darkness.
Where did it come from? Not from flightiness. It had such weight that I never heard anyone criticize it. There was a strength in this that elevated the perspective.
Now, I realize it was wisdom. She saw beyond and would make us feel it too!
It is deep in me now when the ugliness emerges from someone and I am called beyond that perspective thinking “Tendrá sus razones!”
Mireya Perez-Bustillo writes poetry and fiction in Spanish and English. Her poetry appears in MOM’s EGG; Caribbean Review; Americas Review; Dinner with the Muse, IRP/LP2 Voices, among others. Her novel, Back to El Dorado (Floricanto Press, 2020), a Latina coming-of-age story, is available on Barnes and Noble and Amazon sites.