The story of my great-grandmother, Rosa Puron Garcia, is really my father Domingo Barros’s story. I grew up listening to his many repeated tales and life lessons of his family, but most often it was about his grandmother, Rosa Puron, who he described as an educated, elegant, proud woman. Most important of all, she was of Aristocracy. My father would say, “Los Espanoles (the Spaniards) in Valparaiso, Chile, when they saw her walking down the street, they called her ‘La Goda’ (a Spaniard of noble lineage).” Rosa Puron taught my father to read and write and told him stories of her childhood and adolescence in the mid-1800s in San Roque de Acebal, Llanes, Asturia, Spain. She influenced his values in life, which were passed on to me. This is why I am so intrigued to learn more about who was this person, my great-grandmother Rosa Puron Garcia.
—Gina Barros
(Read the full story here.)