The Store/La Tienda
My grandparents Agustin and Maria owned a small corner grocery store in East Los Angeles during WW II. My grandfather was a welder and my grandmother took care of the little store. Back then, my dad was overseas in the service and his sisters, my aunties, were in high school.
My grandparents were struggling and barely making ends meet in those years. Yet, they were able to survive with the small income from the store and my grandfather’s job. At the time, they also owned a very small apartment in the neighborhood which they had purchased years before and rented out to a young and newly married couple.
After a few months, the newlyweds were unable to pay the small rent, and one morning, on his way to work, my grandfather told my grandmother…
”Maria, please speak to them and tell them we need the rent money this week or we will have to ask them to leave.”
She sighed and said she would stop by and deliver the news.
Later that night, my grandfather returned from work and as he sat down at the kitchen table with a cup of coffee, he asked…
”Maria…how did it go today?”
“Did you speak to the tenants?”
“Were you able to collect the rent?”
“Ay Agustin” she sighed
“When I saw how poor they were, I couldn’t ask them”
“What did you do” he asked
“I went back to the store and bought them groceries”
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