Chapter Text
“I am sending you to spain! The sisters of the perpetual flame of purity will straighten you out!” Maria pulled her best gruff voice trying to impressionate her father
“Was abuelito really like that?” Selena asked giggling, as she adjusted her self in her mothers lap Maria nodded and continued, “he really was, He was just tired of keeping up with the trouble I made, Just like your papa can't keep up with Ana'' She saw her daughters terrified face and immediately added “But your papa wont send her away or any of you” Selena let out a relieved sigh and her face lit up again.
“Okay but tell me about Spain now! Please!” Selena used her puppy eyes showing the same dark brown eyes of Manolo. And showing the same amount of interest of spain just like Manolo ‘so this is what they mean when they say ‘Like Father like Daughter’ she thought to herself, “Alright, it was big”
“How big?”
“Bigger than here”
“Mama!” She groaned burying her face in her hands causing Maria to laugh, “Tell me what it was really like”
“Okay okay, I was about 8 years old when my father sent me away to spain”
20 Years ago
Her friends had been the last thing she’d last seen from San Angel; they had stopped running and they were slowly fading away with the rest of San Angel. Now she was on a train with her mother. But the woman sitting in front of her felt more like a stranger than a mother.
The woman was light skinned, she had dark brown hair and hazel eyes,her lips were red and there was a small little mole on the right side of her mouth that almost looked like a black dimple. She wore a simple blue dress with a black coat on top and white shoes.
They had not said much to each other, or Maria hadn't said much to her.
Maria's mother who introduced herself as Dora had asked about the boys chasing the train,
“Are they your friends?”
“Yes”
“What are their names”
“Manolo and Joaquin”
“Are they your age?”
“No”
“What do they like to do?”
“Play games”
Every question was shortly answered but at least Dora was trying.
Maria had her own questions to ask like ‘where is spain?’ ‘Is it far?’ ‘is spain big’ yet somehow she couldn't seem to bring any of these questions up.(to be honest even if this woman is her mother she seemed more like a stranger) Maria stroked her pig that oinked and Dora couldn't help but reach out to it. (Admittedly Dora found it strange that Maria had a pig with her but it was quite cute)
“Who gave you this pig?” She asked as Chuy gladly accepted the older womans scratch behind its ear
“Manolo”
“Why?”
“So I could always have a piece of San Angel with me. His name is Chuy.” Maria smiled as Chuy slowly drifted off to sleep and that was the first smile that Dora saw from her daughter.
“Manolo seems like a very nice boy” She pulled buck her hand and pulled out her watch “We are almost arriving-”
“To Spain?” Maria asked, and quirked a brow when her mother laughed,
“No my dear spain is far from here”
“How far?”
“We have to travel across the sea to arrive”
“How long is that?”
“About three to six weeks it depends”
A silent ‘oh’ escaped Marias lips and she turned her attention to the window, “Will I ever come back?”
“One day you will” Maria's mother checked her watch again.
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Cut to Muelle de san blas Boat port
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Dora checked her watch again and this time the train stopped at their destination. Maria was asleep on the seat with her head resting on the wall and Chuy right on her lap, she had the most peaceful look on her face, and suddenly she dreaded waking her up.
“Maria time to get up” Dora gently shook her daughter out of her sleep
She made a small ‘Hmpf’ noise and stirred awake, Maria help a sleeping Chuy and they left the train and into the busy morning outside world It was bright and lively, where there was a bunch of people some were white and some looked like her there was shouting and announcements kids running around that were playing together making her homesick she stuck close to her mother and hadn't realized when she reached out for her hand.
Eventually they were at a booth, presumably a ticket booth, “How many?” A gruff voice asked
“Two”
“Any luggage?”
“One bag”
“17 bucks” Dora handed him the money and he counted it before saying,“You can go ahead ma’am”
They left and headed onto a plank that led up to a huge, gigantic, enormous ship.
“It's so big!” Maria was in pure awe; she'd never seen anything as big as this, “Did you come from Spain on this?”
“I did if you think this is huge then wait till you see the inside” Dora led her daughter and a dock worker punched their tickets
Well there was no turning back, ‘goodbye Mexico and goodbye San Angel’ she thought to herself.