There is no formal marriage proposal, only an escape plan.
Lidia takes small piles of clothes to Alejandro’s house. She stuffs them into a plastic bag, waits for her mother to be occupied before darting to her car, tossing it inside. Sometime in June 1993, Lidia flees her mother’s suffocating house, longing for love.
Lidia was free: Signature bobbed hair and bangs, enormous brown eyes, taller than her friends, walking arm-in-arm around the plazas in her home country, Mexico. Her ringing laughter dared you to enjoy life more than she did. But under her mother’s roof, Lidia’s light dimmed. Being the youngest and a woman, she was not permitted to date.
“Family is the only love you’ll ever need,” her mother would say, a curse Lidia was brought up to believe.
If it were up to her mother, Lidia would never marry or leave home. Nevertheless, Lidia met Alejandro at a bus stop. They began a clandestine relationship that remained strong even through their immigration to the U.S. in 1989. Alejandro was Lidia’s greatest love and biggest secret, but her mother was omniscient.
“He’s seeing someone else. He doesn’t love you. He’s lying to you.” Spewing lies to keep her close.
Lidia didn’t believe her mother. Alejandro had a gentle soul, that of a poet. He’d walk her to the corner of her street every night waiting until she got inside safely. When his kindness and sensitivity made her feel like a crash of thunder against the calm of the rain, he’d pull her in, reminding her she could exist freely.
But Lidia’s heart slowly decayed. Did my mother curse me to never be happy? After several years, her mother successfully wore her down. Lidia reluctantly broke up with Alejandro.
”I can’t take it anymore,” she confessed while leaving him. But he was devoted. “Hello?” Lidia echoed into the telephone, pretending not to know it was him calling again, terrified her mother might hear. “I know you can’t talk, but I miss you so much it’s making me sick.”
All she could do was listen as Alejandro professed his love. Cursed to remain quiet, silent tears rolled down her face. “Ignore your mother. Do you want to be with me?” In that moment, their escape plan was born. Lidia moved out illicitly, hiding belongings in bags. Her biggest dream, to marry Alejandro, was just within reach. But as tradition demanded, he needed to face Lidia’s parents and ask for her hand in marriage.
Lidia doesn’t go home from work that June evening in 1993. Or ever again. If she does, her mother might never let her go. At her new home, on Magnolia Avenue, she fidgets with the hem of her bright blue overalls, lost in spiraling thoughts. She doesn’t hear Alejandro’s car pull in, and he finds her sitting on her secretly accumulated piles of clothing, looking beautiful as always.
“Well?”
He tells her everything: Lidia’s father greeted him worriedly. Alejandro explained that Lidia is safe at his house, and they want his blessing to marry. Just then, Lidia’s mother howled from another room, painful inhuman cries, making the house seem haunted. But Lidia’s father gave his blessing.
“Lidia is getting married.”
She exhales. The worst is over. Euphoric, they stay up till dawn talking. That Monday at 10 a.m., Lidia wears a sunshine-colored dress and says “I do” at the courthouse. They’re unstoppable. Alejandro waves their marriage certificate around like a victory flag. It’s just the two of them. Nothing can keep them apart.
Years later, after giving birth, Lidia develops severe OCD that ruins her life. Then, a devastating cancer diagnosis. Was her mother’s curse real after all? Even in hospice care, Lidia smiles, shaking her head with the little strength she has left. She sees her husband and their 10-year-old daughter and thinks how it was all worth it. There’s a quiet victory in her heart. Alejandro holds her hand tightly and she’s reminded of one of the happiest days of her life: her wedding day.
Lidia wasn’t afraid to face her mother that day. She didn’t have the same power over her she once had. Still, she found ways to spite Lidia on her special day. Her mother made sure to crop Lidia’s head out of the photograph of her in her white, lacy gown. At the ceremony, as Lidia floated down the aisle, her mother’s head remained bowed. Standing at the altar, Lidia wondered, Does my mother still love me? She boldly glanced up at her now-husband and nothing else mattered anymore. Lidia beamed for the rest of the night. Never mind disobeying her culture, she had bravely defied her own mother – and won. She was free. There was no real curse, there was only ever love.
Brittany is a writer from San Antonio, Texas, who yearns for colder weather. She holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology with a minor in film from the University of Texas at San Antonio. Her short film Smoke Signals, which explores themes of nostalgia, loss, and friendship, was an official selection at CineFestival San Antonio and the Lost River Film Festival. When she’s not reading or daydreaming, you can find her in the forest.
Stories Matters is a mentoring program founded by best-selling author and award-winning documentarian Leslie Zemeckis. Co-sponsored by the Santa Barbara International Film Festival (SBIFF) and ENTITY Mag, the writing program focuses on craft and confidence. Guest professional female authors join weekly, mentoring the next generation of female storytellers. A six-week intensive challenges every writer to work on an 800-word story about “A Woman You Should Know.”
