Dear Grace
Grace wrote:
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When we left Cuba in 1961 (I was 11 then), we arrived in Venezuela. There were a lot of political problems there, as Castro was trying to take over the country. My father had two brothers living already in the US, so he sent my older brother Ricardo to St. Petersburg, Florida, with one of my uncles and he sent me to Spokane where my other uncle was a professor at Withworth College. His secretary lived on a farm close to the Loshes, so he asked her if I could live with them. Well, before that, in 1965, I lived a year with an American family in Spokane, but I was not too happy there. I wanted to live on a farm, since I like horses and cattle so much. So when my uncle found out that his secretary lived on farm, he asked her if I could live with her family. So his secretary thought of Grandpa and Grandma Losh who had a exchange student years before.
Here is my American mother, Beverly, in 2017, telling the story of how they found me. She didn’t hear about me through the church. She used to find homes for our program’s kid through the church, a little mental lapse. Then she mentioned my uncle’s secretary and started to get the story right. By the way, Bev used to say that my uncle was in love with his secretary, and we always made jokes about it. We have to give her credit for Ernie and the rest of the kids, since she was in charge of the program in Washington state. It’s important to say that she didn’t receive one cent for her hard work in our foundation, as we didn’t receive one cent for ours either.
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The Concert
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The song below I dedicated in the following video to Siomi. Here is the English translation of the song:
“When time passes and you get old, the most beautiful woman, you will have to be….”
“When time passes, and I have no more voice…”
“… very quietly I will sing to you!”
“When we get old, sweet love of mine…”
“… your white head will have in every gray hair a blessing!”
“And your soft hand, as in other times, will tremble on my forehead…!”
“… and my musty mouth, tired of kisses: it will speak to you of love!”
“When we get old there will be no need of heaven…”
“… for your cute eyes of solid moon, for me they will be.”
“… and that’s why I want, sweet love of mine…”
“… let the years pass and get old: to love us more!”
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You know, Grace. You all inherited from Ernie the struggle for improvement, but you all inherited from your mother something very important: the brain!
After watching the interview several times, both Siomi and I came to the conclusion that you are special. You are a world champion…!
You want to know where you came from. The story of your family: and that for me is VERY IMPORTANT.
I have published many essays about my family, because our roots are tremendously important. I am very proud of my roots, as you should all be proud of your roots.
I’m about to translate one of those essays to send it to you. You will see that part of my roots looks a lot like yours.
Why did your dad end up in Deer Park, a lost little town of three thousand people in the middle of nowhere?
Because that’s where I started. Because there, in that little town, my life changed radically.
Below I am sending you some photos of those happy times that have a lot to do with the existence of all of you, children of Ernie Peña.
By the way. I think the most important thing in your father’s life wasn’t the program. The most important thing in your father’s life was your mother, Pamela! Without her his future would not have been the same.
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This is my American mother: God bless her…! You can’t believe what kind of human being she is. Today her health is not the same. This photo was taken by me in 1966. God bless her heart…!!!
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Like all the boys in the program, we had to work on the farms where we lived, which provided us with an attached teaching. I got up every day at 5 a.m. to feed the farm’s animals.
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This is Mark – “Marky Baby”, as I call him – my American brother. When I arrived at his home, he was 4 years old. Today he is the director of a Chamber of Commerce near Spokane.
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This is Mark today with his adorable wife. I love him more than my biological siblings.
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This is the humble home of the Losh family, where all of us started our adventures. Your father came to that house when he landed in Spokane.
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I had never seen snow before I went to the US in 1965. The Losh family assigned me the task of clearing the snow from the entrance of our home. Hard work.
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Here I am on Mount Spokane with my beloved cousin, who lived with the Lohes, Mark and Sharon: my two American siblings.
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This is the magical day I met the Losh family, in September 1966. There we see my cousin, Beverly and my two American siblings, Mark and Sharon. The dog you see was “Terry”, which sometimes slept with me in my room.
How many memories: Grace! You have awakened all those memories for me. Sad memories of a very happy past…!
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I had never ridden a tractor. In the photo I am on the tractor I used to clean the excrement of our cows. What an experience…! If I could do that: I could do anything…!
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This is “Diana”, a Shetland pony bought by Grandpa Losh. It was like a dog. I used to take her in my room: can you believe it? Crazy: right?
I became fond of country music: Hank Williams, etc.
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Here I am riding bare back a wild horse at the Deer Park Rodeo.
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Riding “Gold Digger”, one of the wildest horses that year: 1967.
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I had to wash my own clothes and dry them in the sun… when there was sun, of course. That taught me a lot. When I got married, Siomi couldn’t believe I knew how to do laundry.
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Here I am in the uniform of the Deer Park High School band. That was the beginning of my musical life, for which I am grateful to fate. That musical education helped me a lot in my professional life. I played the baritone.
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The Losh family raised Black Angus and I was in charge of the task of putting them to sleep forever with my .22 caliber rifle. You can’t imagine the size of the beef stakes we ate.
On our honeymoon, Siomi and I went to visit the Loshes. We coincided with the slaughter of a calf and Siomi, horrified, saw how the butcher made the cuts of the meat to take them to a place in Deer Park where they were frozen an placed in lockers. Whenever we needed meat, we would go to that warehouse and take out the pieces we needed.
In bullfights, when the bullfighter does a good job, he is given the ears and if the task was superlative: the tail! So, I asked the butcher to cut off the calf’s ears and give them to Siomi, who was still horrified.
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Siomi is carnivorous. In fact, her favorite dish is Steak Tartare, that is: raw beef meat; but she never imagined that to eat meat, you first had to kill the cattle. But she received the ears as if she was a bullfighter.
We had promised the Loshes to return to Deer Park the following year – 1975 – to spend Christmas with them. When we returned, we found out that Norman had stored in his freezer the ears that the butcher had given Siomi the year before. What I don’t remember is what we did with the ears. Most likely, Beverly has decided to throw them away… knowing Beverly.
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Every winter we took advantage of building snowmen, as a family tradition. I had never seen a snowman in my life.
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Norman, my American father (Beverly’s husband), was famous in the region for his taffy. In the photo I’m grabbing the hook and you can see Bev by my side. Norman also made beer, wine and apple cider.
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This is my uncle José Alonso, who made it possible for me to meet the Losh family through his secretary. Beverly, who is very gossipy, claimed that my uncle and his secretary were lovers. His secretary was young and very pretty and my uncle was old (50 years old?) and very ugly. I always doubted it very much. But you never know…!
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In the summers I got jobs like in the timber industry. Deer Park is famous for its pine trees. Here I am at the sawmill in Deer Park. Working in that place became very important in my future professional life.
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Here I am with Harold Weger, a World War II hero. His stories then motivated me for the political-military struggle for the freedom of Venezuela. Mr. Weger hired me every summer to pick up hay bales: the hardest job I’ve ever done in my life. We worked from 8 am until 10 pm. Recommend your sister Julianna, that if she wants to keep in shape, she should work collecting hay. It was in this job that I developed my muscles, which would have allowed me to win the world heavyweight boxing championship.
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I had never heard country music in my life. In Deer Park I became a red neck: thank God! Up today: it’s my favorite music…!
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This is my little sister, Maria Conchita, when she lived with the Losh family in 1968. She became a Hollywood actress and one of the most famous singers in Hispanic America.
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“Acariciame” (Care me) one of her most famous songs. This video has over 15 million hits. Her professional career would not have been possible if she had not lived in Deer Park with the Losh family.
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“Moscow on the Hudson” was the first film my sister Maria Conchita made in Hollywood with Robin Williams. Then came many others.
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Then “The Running Man” with Arnold Schwarzenegger…
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“Colors” with Robert Duval and Sean Penn. She even made it in Broadway with “The Kiss of the Spider Woman“. In great part, thanks to a farmer family from Deer Park, Washington. How about that?
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The Losh Family, including “Grandpa Hell”; we called him so, because out of 10 words he mentioned, 9 were “hell”…!!!
Well, Grace. There you have a material to entertain yourself for a long time. There’s more: much more. About my story I will not be the one to tell you. I asked Siomi to record a video for you, telling you part of my story, because my story is very extensive.
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Judo
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By the way. In Cuba I practiced judo. They say that mixed martial arts have some judo, but I haven’t seen it anywhere. When we go to Spokane, I will teach Julianna an infallible judo technique that could keep her world champion forever.
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Judo Championship – I was 7 years old then
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In Cuba I was a bully and fought in the streets thousands of times. I always came out undefeated, thanks to the judo technique I mentioned. What I don’t know is if that technique is allowed, but from what I’ve seen in the videos: I think it’s allowed.
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Immobilizing my dad with a judo technique.
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Maybe I will record a video with the technique and send it to Julianna to see what she thinks about it… but I assure you that no one escapes from that technique. Interesting that I haven’t seen it in any of the mixed martial arts videos. Maybe it’s not allowed.
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When you get to be 71 like me, you’ll see that you will have all the time in the world. If you come across someone like you, you will realize that you have enough material to have a good time writing or talking.
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A Teaching
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On certain occasions, misfortunes become blessings. To those misfortunes that become blessings, evangelicals call “hidden blessings.”
The worst thing that has happened to my homeland, Cuba… and to millions of Cubans, was the arrival of Fidel Castro to power. However, if Castro had not come to power in Cuba, I would not have come to Venezuela. I would not have had the need to live with the Losh family in the United States, I would not have met Siomi nor created the “Doña Petra del Amo Foundation”. Ernie wouldn’t have met Pamela. You and your siblings would have been born in Machiques (OMG!); you wouldn’t have married Chris; your sister Juliana would never have been a world champion; Jeff who knows what he was working on, and Jocelynn might not have had five children: nor would I have known you! So maybe we have to thank Castro. Do you think so?
Dinner is ready here, so I will write off. Keep in touch. Send me your story.
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Miami, January 8, 2022
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