Gilma Jimenez: Interconnectedness

Gilma Jimenez

6th Hour

Interconnectedness

My family is bizarre -- really bizarre. Rodrigo, my dad, has a total of eleven siblings, making him the twelfth child. Mirna, my mother, has four siblings. All of their siblings had children, which results in there being about more than one hundred cousins, some that I don’t even know. We have a large family, like a circus show. To make things even stranger, my mom married her sister’s husband’s brother. Yes, that is weird. We have the exact same family as our cousins Brenda, Crystal, and Denisse. We’re as connected as a spider’s web.

Anabel and Enrique got married first, in 1984. They have three children; the youngest one is 18. My parents met through my Tia Anabel and Tio Enrique. Mom was studying English in the United States when she first met my dad, having just moved here

They were trying for about 5 years. They decided to adopt my sister, Alexis, in 2001. Afterwards, they were able to have me in 2002, and my brother in 2003. That was a big change for them, having three children in diapers in the time span of three years. Dad worked a lot to be able to provide for us. This impacts me because without this weird connection, I would not be as close to my cousins and my aunts/uncles as I currently am. This similarity in families on both sides has made us all really close, and we see each other at least once every two weeks. It affects how I am as a cousin, and as a sister because it makes me appreciate my family a lot more, knowing how everything started. I am very grateful for this sense of connection between both of our families. It is super unique, and it is a blessing to be this close to your family. Perhaps if we weren’t “double cousins”, we would not be as close to Brenda, Crystal, and Denisse. I can certainly say that we are closer to them than any other cousins. My family may be confusing and somewhat crazy, but I wouldn’t want it any other