Diana Cortina-Rodriguez and Norma Taulet Ball

[00:00] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: 5 seconds.

[00:12] NORMA TAULET BALL: My name is Deanna Cortina Rodriguez. I am 33 years old. Today's date is Saturday, November 19, 2022. We are at the story corpse here in Atlanta. I am going to be interviewing Norma Taulet ball, and she is my grandmother.

[00:35] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: My name is Norma Ilia Taulet Ball. I'm 90 years old. Today's date is Saturday, November 19, 2022. Location is Starry Corps, Atlanta. I am being interviewed by Deanna Cortina Rodriguez, and she's my granddaughter. Yay.

[01:03] NORMA TAULET BALL: Okay, thanks, grandma. So let's start things off with where were you born?

[01:15] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: I was born in Arecibo, Puerto Rico, USA. My childhood memories growing up by myself, in terms of no brothers or sisters. And I did have somebody taking care of me 24 hours a day.

[01:38] NORMA TAULET BALL: And who was that?

[01:40] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: The maid.

[01:41] NORMA TAULET BALL: The maid. Okay.

[01:44] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: My mother was teaching, and she was a principal.

[01:47] NORMA TAULET BALL: Mm. Okay.

[01:48] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Okay.

[01:48] NORMA TAULET BALL: But can you tell me some of your childhood memories, maybe one that you feel like stands out?

[01:57] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Okay. I had a beautiful, beautiful bedroom with a four poster bed. I had a balcony. A house with a huge balcony. And I would just play around. I had a tricycle. And I would just run even off of the carpet in the living room.

[02:23] NORMA TAULET BALL: Uh oh. Did you ever get in trouble? No. Okay, well, I'm pretty sure you were adopted when you were a child.

[02:33] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Yes. Yes. Two years old.

[02:35] NORMA TAULET BALL: Two years old.

[02:36] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Yeah.

[02:37] NORMA TAULET BALL: So what was it like knowing that you were adopted?

[02:40] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Figure it out. Like when I was ten or something like that.

[02:44] NORMA TAULET BALL: So they didn't tell you?

[02:45] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: No.

[02:47] NORMA TAULET BALL: What was that like?

[02:48] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: But this guy kept coming to my house, and he was my father, and I didn't know that. Okay. My real father.

[02:57] NORMA TAULET BALL: Wow.

[02:58] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Yeah. My real mother was having more babies, so she never came to visit, and they wouldn't take me to visit them, so.

[03:07] NORMA TAULET BALL: And who was it that adopted you?

[03:10] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Julia Emilia Bol and Francisco Taulet Pineiro from Arecibo, Puerto Rico.

[03:19] NORMA TAULET BALL: And did they know your biological parents?

[03:21] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Yes, of course.

[03:23] NORMA TAULET BALL: Okay.

[03:23] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Yeah.

[03:24] NORMA TAULET BALL: So do you know anything about how it came to be that you were adopted?

[03:28] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Because she was. They were not doing very well, economically speaking. And then she got pregnant again and again, and that's when I got legally adopted when I was three.

[03:45] NORMA TAULET BALL: Okay. And we refer to your adoptive mother as how in our family?

[03:50] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Mommy.

[03:51] NORMA TAULET BALL: Yeah.

[03:51] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Papi.

[03:53] NORMA TAULET BALL: Okay. But also abui.

[03:56] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: That would be you. That would be your mother being the grandchild.

[04:02] NORMA TAULET BALL: Ah, got it.

[04:03] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Okay. But you called your mother and your father mommy and papi.

[04:07] NORMA TAULET BALL: And was it just you and mommy and Poppy in the house?

[04:11] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: That's it. Oh. On a cook? On a guy. A messenger boy and syrbienta butler, kind of. No. One of them cooked, the other one cleaned.

[04:28] NORMA TAULET BALL: Okay, so a maid.

[04:30] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: A maid. There you go. Okay. Okay. Yeah.

[04:33] NORMA TAULET BALL: Okay.

[04:34] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Already.

[04:35] NORMA TAULET BALL: Yeah, yeah. And so this was in where, though, that you spent most of your childhood?

[04:40] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Arecibo, Puerto Rico.

[04:42] NORMA TAULET BALL: Talk to me about Arecibo, Puerto Rico.

[04:46] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Beautiful place. It's named after a Taino chief. His name was are Cibu.

[04:53] NORMA TAULET BALL: Gotcha. And for those maybe that don't know, who are the Taino people?

[04:57] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: The native Americans. Indians, you call them native Americans, whatever.

[05:04] NORMA TAULET BALL: Indigenous people.

[05:05] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Indigenous people from Puerto Rico and the Caribbean.

[05:08] NORMA TAULET BALL: Mm hmm. Gotcha. Okay. And your time in Arecibo, what was that like?

[05:17] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Wonderful. Wonderful. I went to a catholic school with nuns, and they spoke English, and that's how I learned English. And my I class was very big. Eight.

[05:33] NORMA TAULET BALL: Eight whole people.

[05:34] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Yeah. Wow.

[05:35] NORMA TAULET BALL: Yeah. That's huge.

[05:36] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Eight seniors. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[05:40] NORMA TAULET BALL: Did you, what were some of the experiences like being in a school with nuns, in a catholic school?

[05:48] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Perfecto.

[05:49] NORMA TAULET BALL: Perfecto.

[05:49] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Perfecto. Oh, yeah. We learned English and French from them, and they were very good teachers. Very good teachers. So, yeah.

[05:59] NORMA TAULET BALL: Okay, so maybe for people who have never had the wonderful opportunity of going to Arecibo or even Puerto Rico, how would you describe it if you had to paint me a picture of what Arecibo looks like? What does it look like?

[06:12] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Arecibo. The core of the town itself looks like a town from Spain. Okay. The church is the main building, and then the other one is where they. Oh, gosh. Where the mayor lives. But it's not a capital. It was a two.

[06:38] NORMA TAULET BALL: Like a double.

[06:40] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Yeah. Okay. And then we had a casino.

[06:43] NORMA TAULET BALL: Oh.

[06:43] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: For dancing and playing cards for the guys, not the women. I wouldn't go there. No. But dancing was there, and everything was just about perfecto.

[06:56] NORMA TAULET BALL: Yeah. Are there any beaches near Arecibo?

[07:00] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. The atlantic ocean right there. And we had a big river. It was called the Rio Grande because it was very wide and very long, all the way from the mountains to the sea. That would have been about maybe 18 miles. Wow. Close to the mountains. Yeah. Okay.

[07:23] NORMA TAULET BALL: And did you spend time at the beaches or what would you do for fun?

[07:27] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Well, when I was a little girl, my mother would take me there with the maid, and she would just hold me all the time, and I could get my feet on the water, and that was it.

[07:38] NORMA TAULET BALL: You couldn't ever go in by yourself?

[07:40] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: No way.

[07:41] NORMA TAULET BALL: Why? What would happen?

[07:42] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Well, when I was a teenager, that was a different story. Then I could go, gotcha. And get in yeah.

[07:49] NORMA TAULET BALL: What do you think made it hard for her to want to let you go into the water by yourself?

[07:53] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Okay. I don't know. Extra, extra. Taking care of me.

[08:01] NORMA TAULET BALL: Yeah. She never had, like, a bad experience herself at the beach?

[08:05] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Yeah. No.

[08:05] NORMA TAULET BALL: Okay. So she was just really cautious.

[08:07] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: She never went to the beach. She would sit there.

[08:12] NORMA TAULET BALL: But she took you, so that's nice.

[08:14] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Remember, an adoptive child. Yeah. So I'm talking about my adoptive mother.

[08:19] NORMA TAULET BALL: Yep.

[08:19] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Okay.

[08:20] NORMA TAULET BALL: Appreciate the clarity, though.

[08:22] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Okay.

[08:22] NORMA TAULET BALL: Yeah. Okay. So you guys would go to the beach with the maid. What else would you do when you were young?

[08:29] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: That was it.

[08:30] NORMA TAULET BALL: That was it.

[08:31] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: The beach? Yeah, I couldn't. They wouldn't let me ride my tricycle except on the balcony, not down there, you know, and go to school and that's it.

[08:45] NORMA TAULET BALL: Okay. But you didn't do sports or dance or sing?

[08:47] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: No, no, no. Started as usual. When you are 14 or 15, you turn 15 years old. You are supposed to be, you know.

[09:01] NORMA TAULET BALL: Mm hmm.

[09:02] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Very important.

[09:03] NORMA TAULET BALL: Yeah. Gotcha.

[09:05] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Yeah.

[09:05] NORMA TAULET BALL: Well, so then you mentioned being a teen, so maybe we can jump ahead to some of your teenage years. And if I'm doing math correctly, you were a teenager during World War Two, right? Mm hmm.

[09:16] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Yeah.

[09:17] NORMA TAULET BALL: What do you remember from being a team member?

[09:19] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: You know what I remember? I remember we lived close to an air force base, and I remember the airplanes going by, the tanks going from San Juan, which is the capital, where they were brought in in a ship, and they would go all the way from the capital to the air force base over there. And I remember the noise. I mean, you know, really, really loud.

[09:48] NORMA TAULET BALL: Yeah.

[09:49] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: And the policeman telling everybody, get out of the way. And I was right by my house. Wow. Yeah.

[09:55] NORMA TAULET BALL: I feel like I would have been a little scared.

[09:58] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Well, I was having fun.

[10:00] NORMA TAULET BALL: Yeah, you were enjoying the parade.

[10:02] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Yeah. But, yeah, I didn't know what was going on. Whatever war. What is that?

[10:07] NORMA TAULET BALL: Well, do you think it impacted Puerto Rico as an island since, you know, supply is pretty limited already as is? So during the.

[10:13] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: No, but it did. It was nice. And a lot of Puerto Ricans were in the army and in the air force, and the fact that the two bases were there for Buchanan was for the army and the other one was for the air force, so, yeah, they would be there.

[10:32] NORMA TAULET BALL: Okay.

[10:32] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Yeah.

[10:33] NORMA TAULET BALL: So life was pretty much status quo during World War Two for you in Puerto Rico. Nothing was kind of.

[10:40] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: No, they never bumped us or attacked us. I knew they never bombed, but I.

[10:44] NORMA TAULET BALL: Didn'T know if, like, there was ever any, like, issue with, like, buying the groceries that you needed or having. Yeah.

[10:51] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: The grocery were mostly native. Gotcha. Maybe canned food. Yeah. But everything else was.

[11:00] NORMA TAULET BALL: Do you remember if there was any type of celebration in Puerto Rico when the war ended?

[11:04] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Oh, yeah. They had parades of the. They received the veterans that had been in the army. Oh, gosh.

[11:12] NORMA TAULET BALL: Did you get to go?

[11:13] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: No, because it was in the capital city, San Juan.

[11:16] NORMA TAULET BALL: Uh huh.

[11:16] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: And I didn't live there.

[11:18] NORMA TAULET BALL: In Arecibo?

[11:19] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Yeah.

[11:20] NORMA TAULET BALL: Okay, so you didn't spend too much time in the capital?

[11:23] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: No. My. A very good friend of my mother lived in Miramar, which is in San Juan, and she would go there, at least, I don't know, every once every month, you know, and we would stay there. But we go in the train. We had a train.

[11:45] NORMA TAULET BALL: Oh, yeah. Nice.

[11:47] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: It took 5 hours to get from Olivia. Yeah. A train. Very slow.

[11:52] NORMA TAULET BALL: Well, that's funny, because it now only takes 2 hours by car to get from one side of the island to the other. Must have been a pretty slow train.

[12:00] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Yeah.

[12:01] NORMA TAULET BALL: Yeah. Okay. Well, something I really would love to hear about is you sharing about your romance and your love story with my grandpa.

[12:15] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Okay. There's. This night, nothing was going on. So I used to live right next to my cousins, and I hear voices, and I said, well, what's going on? So I look out the window, and there were people there on their balcony. So I said, you know what? I'm gonna go back down there. So I went down there, and I said hello to everybody that I knew. And then I feel somebody telling me, hey. And I looked around, and he says, I'm Jorge. And I said, yes. Yeah. And you're norma. I said, yes. So I remember you when you were in high school. And then that night we went dancing, and we couldn't stop dancing, and that started the whole thing.

[13:14] NORMA TAULET BALL: Mm hmm.

[13:14] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Okay.

[13:15] NORMA TAULET BALL: So then what happened after that?

[13:17] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: After that, well, he had to go back to camp, but he would write to me and call me.

[13:22] NORMA TAULET BALL: Yeah.

[13:23] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: And then he shows up in September, I think it was, and he said, you want to marry me?

[13:31] NORMA TAULET BALL: Yeah.

[13:32] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: I said, yeah, why not?

[13:33] NORMA TAULET BALL: So how long had that been?

[13:34] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: From the time February, and maybe. No, Christmas, too. October. From Christmas. That's when we went dancing.

[13:44] NORMA TAULET BALL: Yeah.

[13:44] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Yeah. And then.

[13:48] NORMA TAULET BALL: He asked you to marry him in October. So less than a year.

[13:51] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: And then he said, what about us getting married? And I said, well, what about. My birthday is on October 11. Okay, let's go for that.

[14:00] NORMA TAULET BALL: Okay.

[14:00] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Okay.

[14:01] NORMA TAULET BALL: Why? And was there any peculiar reason he was maybe looking to get married at?

[14:06] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Because she was going back. Yeah.

[14:09] NORMA TAULET BALL: To where?

[14:09] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Korea.

[14:10] NORMA TAULET BALL: Okay.

[14:11] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Yeah.

[14:11] NORMA TAULET BALL: And so Grandpa was going to fight in the korean war.

[14:14] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Yeah, yeah. And then before he came back, he wrote me and told me to move to Miami.

[14:24] NORMA TAULET BALL: Okay.

[14:24] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: And, well, this is another. May I go on?

[14:28] NORMA TAULET BALL: Yeah, of course.

[14:29] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Okay. To Miami. Because he wanted to go to the University of Miami and finish his architecture, his degree as architect. Okay. So that's what I started to do.

[14:43] NORMA TAULET BALL: Yeah.

[14:43] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: So you moved to Miami.

[14:45] NORMA TAULET BALL: To Miami by yourself?

[14:47] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Yeah, I waited for him.

[14:49] NORMA TAULET BALL: While your husband is fighting in Korea.

[14:51] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Yes.

[14:52] NORMA TAULET BALL: And you are a puerto rican woman moving to Miami.

[14:55] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: And I was working for a cuban person that didn't know English.

[15:00] NORMA TAULET BALL: Yeah.

[15:01] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Okay.

[15:02] NORMA TAULET BALL: What was that like, moving to Miami from Puerto Rico? That I imagine Washington particularly. A culture shock.

[15:09] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: No, no, no. Puerto Rico is not like that, honey.

[15:13] NORMA TAULET BALL: I know, but I mean, moving from your norm to somewhere else is usually nice.

[15:18] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: It was very nice. I just made it perfectly okay because I knew English and I knew Spanish, and there were a lot of Cubans in Miami.

[15:28] NORMA TAULET BALL: Yeah.

[15:28] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: That were hiding from you know who.

[15:30] NORMA TAULET BALL: Yeah.

[15:31] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Fidel Castro. So I was very useful in terms that I could try translate to the Spanish speaking people. I translate in English and to the English speaking people in Spanish.

[15:46] NORMA TAULET BALL: Yeah.

[15:47] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Yeah.

[15:47] NORMA TAULET BALL: So wonderful. You kind of had an easier transition.

[15:53] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Oh, very easy. Very easy. I loved it. Yeah. Well, I'm glad I fit in there.

[15:58] NORMA TAULET BALL: Yeah.

[15:59] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: If you speak both languages. Yeah, it's easy.

[16:02] NORMA TAULET BALL: Yeah. Well, I guess Miami is also.

[16:04] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Yeah.

[16:04] NORMA TAULET BALL: A little husband.

[16:05] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Yeah. Yeah. And then he came back from Korea, went to school, to college at the University of Miami in Cora Gables. Finished and started being an architect, working with a big firm in Miami. And then that's when we decided to move back to Puerto Rico. And then he started his own office. Yeah.

[16:34] NORMA TAULET BALL: And then I think it's important. I realize we haven't even said grandpa's name.

[16:39] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: What was Jorge Amaury Rodriguez Martinez.

[16:44] NORMA TAULET BALL: It just rolls right off the tongue.

[16:45] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Yes.

[16:46] NORMA TAULET BALL: Mm hmm.

[16:47] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: And you know, Rodriguez is one of the most common names in Spanish. I'm Martinez.

[16:53] NORMA TAULET BALL: Don't say.

[16:53] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: There you go.

[16:54] NORMA TAULET BALL: But when you all moved back to Puerto Rico, you were not moving with.

[16:58] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Just the two of you with your mother, Denise Desiree Rodriguez Taulet

[17:04] NORMA TAULET BALL: Yup. Born in 1955.

[17:06] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Yeah. And that's why we call her D. D. Denise Desiree. Two ds. DD.

[17:13] NORMA TAULET BALL: Yeah. And it still sticks to this day. And then when you got back to Puerto Rico, you all added more to the bunch.

[17:22] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Yeah. Oh, yeah. We lived in Rio Piedras. Yeah. And then there was the second son, Jorge Alberto Rodriguez. Then another one popped up. Gerardo Amaury. Yeah. Eduardo Rodriguez, then Amaury Rodriguez, then Normailiana.

[17:50] NORMA TAULET BALL: Maria Rodriguez, also known as nyanja. Yep.

[17:55] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Yep.

[17:55] NORMA TAULET BALL: So you had five kids, a husband.

[17:59] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Oh, five dogs.

[18:00] NORMA TAULET BALL: Five dogs.

[18:01] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: One rooster, three hens, one canary, one parakeet.

[18:08] NORMA TAULET BALL: So a full house.

[18:10] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: That's a full house.

[18:11] NORMA TAULET BALL: Yeah.

[18:11] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Look at her.

[18:12] NORMA TAULET BALL: And not only that, you also told me that your house was always the house where everybody would kind of come and congregate.

[18:19] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: The whole neighborhood? The whole neighborhood, especially teenagers. They would play ping pong. I had a waterfall fountain, a basketball hoop, a table for playing cards. So the whole neighborhood, that was the casino of the subdivision?

[18:35] NORMA TAULET BALL: Yeah. Did you. I know Grandpa was really good at ping pong, but did you ever play?

[18:40] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Yeah. And I never won.

[18:41] NORMA TAULET BALL: No. Because Grandpa was a champ. He's a really good ping pong player. What are some of your favorite memories with grandpa?

[18:51] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Oh, gosh. Dancing.

[18:53] NORMA TAULET BALL: Yeah.

[18:54] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Yeah. He belonged to the physicma alpha fraternity, and I was working with the ladies there, and we had dances almost every other month. Wow. And getting together for lunches and.

[19:10] NORMA TAULET BALL: Yeah, yeah.

[19:11] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Wonderful, wonderful life.

[19:13] NORMA TAULET BALL: And so is this kind.

[19:14] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: And they had a swimming pool, so I would take the kids there. Yeah.

[19:18] NORMA TAULET BALL: What was your favorite style of dance that you guys got to dance together?

[19:22] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Bolero.

[19:23] NORMA TAULET BALL: Bolero.

[19:24] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: You know what that is? Bolero is the slow dancing.

[19:31] NORMA TAULET BALL: Okay, grandma.

[19:32] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Yeah. Either that or mambo.

[19:34] NORMA TAULET BALL: Mambo.

[19:35] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Yeah.

[19:35] NORMA TAULET BALL: Nice. So no salsa or bachata?

[19:38] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: There was no salsa way back then. No merengue was starting to come in. Remember, we're talking here about 1950, 1953.

[19:48] NORMA TAULET BALL: Gotcha.

[19:48] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: 1955.

[19:49] NORMA TAULET BALL: So those things haven't come on.

[19:51] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Merenge from the Dominican Republic. Yeah. And boleros from Puerto Rico.

[19:58] NORMA TAULET BALL: Was grandpa a good dancer then?

[20:00] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Very good dancer. Both of us.

[20:04] NORMA TAULET BALL: Who do you think was a better dancer?

[20:05] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: I.

[20:07] NORMA TAULET BALL: Okay, maybe you guys were both.

[20:10] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Yeah, both were good. We were very good. And we would dip like that.

[20:14] NORMA TAULET BALL: Oh, yeah. Very nice. Okay, so dancing every weekend, almost.

[20:19] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And going out to eat on Sundays? Of course.

[20:25] NORMA TAULET BALL: Okay.

[20:25] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: You don't cook on Sundays. You go out to eat.

[20:28] NORMA TAULET BALL: Did you all ever do trips or anything as a family around the area?

[20:33] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Yeah.

[20:34] NORMA TAULET BALL: Yeah.

[20:34] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Going to the different other biggest towns. Maya gwes, pompse, umacao. Yeah. And then we bought a condo in front of the ocean. Yeah.

[20:45] NORMA TAULET BALL: Where was that?

[20:46] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Luquilloquillo beach.

[20:49] NORMA TAULET BALL: So those are my most fondest childhood memories, is in that condo.

[20:54] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Yeah, definitely. Oh, yeah. Every single Friday I would just pick them up at school, go to the kio, stay there, have whatever. Next day, Saturday and Sunday. Beach, beach, beach.

[21:10] NORMA TAULET BALL: And you actually got to go into the beach this time.

[21:12] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Oh, God. Yeah. Oh, yeah.

[21:14] NORMA TAULET BALL: Yeah.

[21:15] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: I did learn how to swim also, but yeah, it's just taking care of the kids. Yeah.

[21:21] NORMA TAULET BALL: Yep. So you bought the Luki Okando when? Oh, I don't know how old was like, how old were you at that point?

[21:29] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Oh, gosh, I don't remember, honey.

[21:32] NORMA TAULET BALL: But all five kids.

[21:33] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Let me see. Gerardo was born in 19, 60, 61. So it must have been around there. The sixties.

[21:40] NORMA TAULET BALL: Okay. Yeah, gotcha.

[21:42] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Yeah.

[21:42] NORMA TAULET BALL: So then you're in your thirties ish again this time. Yeah. Okay, so you're in your thirties. One of the things that I was kind of curious about is what it's been like for you to kind of see the different changes of the roles of women throughout time.

[22:01] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Oh, yes. Yeah. Women were not supposed to be bossy or do anything, even work. You could work as a teacher. Okay. Or a secretary or a nurse. Or a nurse. And that was it. You couldn't be the boss of men. Oh, no. Yeah. Yeah. So. But not, like now. Yeah. Yeah, but that's true. Yeah. You brought this up and that's true.

[22:30] NORMA TAULET BALL: Yeah.

[22:30] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Women were to stay home, take care of the kids, cook for the guy when he came home.

[22:38] NORMA TAULET BALL: Isn't that why you also went to etiquette school, so that you could learn some of that stuff? No, now that I.

[22:45] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: My mother taught me all of that.

[22:47] NORMA TAULET BALL: Oh, I thought you went to an etiquette school.

[22:50] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: No.

[22:51] NORMA TAULET BALL: Did my mom go to an etiquette school?

[22:53] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: I don't know. Maybe. I don't know.

[22:55] NORMA TAULET BALL: I know that's come up with her.

[22:58] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: No, my mother taught me all of that.

[23:00] NORMA TAULET BALL: So what were some of the things she taught you that as a woman.

[23:03] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: You should be, to be proper.

[23:04] NORMA TAULET BALL: Mm hmm.

[23:05] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Yes. Sit with your legs crossed like this and your hands on your lap.

[23:11] NORMA TAULET BALL: Mm hmm.

[23:13] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Yes.

[23:14] NORMA TAULET BALL: And that was it.

[23:15] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: And that was it.

[23:16] NORMA TAULET BALL: Yeah. Kind of to be seen but not heard.

[23:19] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Exactly. And you don't talk to people that you don't know nowadays. I talk to everybody.

[23:25] NORMA TAULET BALL: So what did she think of you and grandpa going out dancing all the time?

[23:28] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Oh, wonderful.

[23:29] NORMA TAULET BALL: Okay.

[23:30] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Because he was a very good dancer.

[23:32] NORMA TAULET BALL: Yeah.

[23:33] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Yeah. Do you know what paso doble is? I've heard of it, yeah, from Spain. Oh, we did that also. Ambolero.

[23:41] NORMA TAULET BALL: Did you guys teach yourselves how to do those dances?

[23:43] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: I don't know. It just came naturally.

[23:45] NORMA TAULET BALL: Oh, wow.

[23:45] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Yeah. Nobody taught me. I just did.

[23:48] NORMA TAULET BALL: It must have skipped a generation.

[23:50] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Yeah yeah. Yeah. I used to play the piano also when I was a little girl. Yeah. One of those huge very tall piano. Yeah, that's what I had.

[24:05] NORMA TAULET BALL: But how long did you play the piano for?

[24:08] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Until I went to college because the piano was, you know, left at home.

[24:13] NORMA TAULET BALL: Yeah, yeah.

[24:14] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: So whatever. And I had my mother for my senior year, bought me a lp player.

[24:28] NORMA TAULET BALL: I don't even know who that is.

[24:31] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Where are you? That is a music disc.

[24:37] NORMA TAULET BALL: Oh.

[24:38] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: That is long playing LLP, which means it has six or eight.

[24:44] NORMA TAULET BALL: Oh, you're talking about a record.

[24:45] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Yeah.

[24:46] NORMA TAULET BALL: Ah, so a record.

[24:47] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: We call them discs.

[24:49] NORMA TAULET BALL: Ah, okay, gotcha. What was your favorite disc that you listened to?

[24:57] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Oh, God. Peripheral. From Cuba.

[25:00] NORMA TAULET BALL: Okay.

[25:01] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: That was mambo.

[25:02] NORMA TAULET BALL: I gotcha.

[25:04] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Yeah. So that was Danzas from Puerto Rico.

[25:07] NORMA TAULET BALL: Okay.

[25:08] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Yeah. And boleros. Also Rafael, buno, whatever.

[25:12] NORMA TAULET BALL: Okay.

[25:13] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: I love music, period, no matter where I'm from.

[25:17] NORMA TAULET BALL: What's your favorite genres of music now?

[25:24] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Getting to sleep.

[25:26] NORMA TAULET BALL: Getting to sleep. Sleep music. Yeah.

[25:28] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: No, no, no. I still play boleros. Boleros and Danzas. Yeah, yeah, that's it.

[25:33] NORMA TAULET BALL: But your favorite artists are.

[25:36] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Okay. Hilberto, Monroy, Mark Anthony and nowadays Willie Nelson.

[25:44] NORMA TAULET BALL: Yeah.

[25:45] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Yeah.

[25:46] NORMA TAULET BALL: The trifecta.

[25:47] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Because I used to dance line dancing and.

[25:49] NORMA TAULET BALL: Yeah, not only that, you used to teach line dancing.

[25:52] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Yay. Yeah.

[25:54] NORMA TAULET BALL: Yeah.

[25:55] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: I love it.

[25:56] NORMA TAULET BALL: Yeah. So line dancing, what else did you use to teach?

[26:02] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Spanish, how to write your memoirs, how to use your computer, how to. Let me see, what else? Oh, gosh. Yeah.

[26:15] NORMA TAULET BALL: So safe to say that being a teacher was.

[26:18] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: It was natural. You know, that's what I went to college to learn how to teach. So. Yeah.

[26:26] NORMA TAULET BALL: Did you want to teach a certain subject?

[26:30] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Hmm. Spanish.

[26:32] NORMA TAULET BALL: You wanted to teach Spanish on how.

[26:34] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: To write your memoirs? Those two.

[26:36] NORMA TAULET BALL: Okay.

[26:36] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: I also taught a little bit of genealogy, how to, you know, look where you come from.

[26:43] NORMA TAULET BALL: Yeah, yeah.

[26:44] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: A little bit of everything.

[26:46] NORMA TAULET BALL: Yeah.

[26:46] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Okay.

[26:47] NORMA TAULET BALL: And then for people that don't know, I think that may have influenced several of our family members to then take the teaching route.

[26:56] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Yeah.

[26:57] NORMA TAULET BALL: So who are teachers now in our family?

[27:00] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Ta da. Yeah, she's good at it. Also your mommy.

[27:07] NORMA TAULET BALL: I was gonna say we have multiple teachers, you know. Tell me, Carrie, Elise is a teacher.

[27:13] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Oh, gosh, that's right. Who is?

[27:15] NORMA TAULET BALL: My cousin.

[27:16] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Yeah.

[27:16] NORMA TAULET BALL: Yep. So she teaches. And then my mother, Denise Rodriguez. And then you've got Laura Maria Selich. And where is she currently teaching?

[27:28] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Vietnam.

[27:29] NORMA TAULET BALL: Yeah, she's in Hanoi. She's pretty far away.

[27:35] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: That's crazy. Well, at least she's coming for Christmas.

[27:38] NORMA TAULET BALL: For Christmas. Yeah, she's pretty far away right now, but she's having a good time.

[27:42] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: A little bit far away. I would say, yeah, the other end of the world.

[27:46] NORMA TAULET BALL: No big deal. Twelve plus hours ahead of time.

[27:48] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Yeah, yeah, whatever.

[27:50] NORMA TAULET BALL: But, yeah, I think that a lot of that inspiration came from you.

[27:55] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Probably because she grew up in my house.

[27:59] NORMA TAULET BALL: Yeah.

[27:59] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Yeah. With her mother.

[28:01] NORMA TAULET BALL: Mm hmm.

[28:02] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Yeah.

[28:02] NORMA TAULET BALL: Yeah. So I was curious if you could talk to me a little bit about just lessons in life that you've learned. As we talk about teaching, what are the lessons that you have learned?

[28:21] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: You mean personal?

[28:23] NORMA TAULET BALL: Whatever you feel comfortable sharing.

[28:27] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: How to deal with people that, may I be frank and sincere and open.

[28:36] NORMA TAULET BALL: I hope so.

[28:37] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Okay. When I moved to Atlanta and I start talking, some people, you know, they do the. With the body like that.

[28:50] NORMA TAULET BALL: You know, where they move their body away from you.

[28:52] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Yeah, yeah. Where are you from? And I tell them from Puerto Rico. And what? So nowadays I tell them, Puerto Rico, USA. And then they ask, what? And I tell them, you mean to tell me you don't know the Puerto Rico's part of the USA? That I was born a us citizen? Yeah, that kind of stuff.

[29:15] NORMA TAULET BALL: Yeah.

[29:16] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Yeah. To me that's very important.

[29:19] NORMA TAULET BALL: It's how to deal with those people.

[29:21] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Oh, yeah.

[29:23] NORMA TAULET BALL: So how does one deal.

[29:24] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: I had a mini problem yesterday with one of those people.

[29:29] NORMA TAULET BALL: Yeah.

[29:29] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Yeah.

[29:30] NORMA TAULET BALL: So how do you deal with them? Because they.

[29:32] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Well, it all depends how important they are. Okay. If they. I think they need to know, I will tell them. If not, I just turn around. Let them be ignorant.

[29:45] NORMA TAULET BALL: Yeah, yeah.

[29:46] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Whatever.

[29:47] NORMA TAULET BALL: It's hard to rationalize with an irrational person.

[29:50] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Yep.

[29:51] NORMA TAULET BALL: Yeah. So you kind of save your energy for something better.

[29:55] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Exactly. There you go.

[29:56] NORMA TAULET BALL: Yeah.

[29:57] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Yeah, yeah.

[29:58] NORMA TAULET BALL: Well, that's good. Yeah, kind of. Let your haters be your motivators. Have you ever heard that one?

[30:03] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: My what?

[30:04] NORMA TAULET BALL: Let your haters be your motivators.

[30:07] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Yeah, I know what that is. It motivates me to forget about them.

[30:12] NORMA TAULET BALL: Yeah.

[30:12] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Yeah.

[30:13] NORMA TAULET BALL: So do you feel like I'm hearing you correctly? You've had experiences of people being.

[30:20] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Putting me down.

[30:21] NORMA TAULET BALL: Yeah. Putting you down or being racist or microaggression.

[30:24] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Yeah. Yeah, all of that. All of that.

[30:29] NORMA TAULET BALL: Well, what was that like at the.

[30:32] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Beginning, I didn't know what was going on. Then I finally figured it out. They are ignorant.

[30:39] NORMA TAULET BALL: Yeah.

[30:40] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: They don't know the Puerto Rico's part of the USA, so I'll deal with it. If they want to learn, I will teach them. If they don't want to, I'll just ignore them.

[30:51] NORMA TAULET BALL: Yeah. But what's kind of sad is that even sometimes when you tell people that we're from Puerto Rico, it still doesn't change. Their ignorance to, if they want to.

[31:01] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Learn, I tell them.

[31:03] NORMA TAULET BALL: Yeah, yeah.

[31:03] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: All about the spanish american war, 1898, you know, invasion, blah, blah, blah. Yes. Yeah, I will. They want.

[31:12] NORMA TAULET BALL: Would you say that's more the experience that you have, that people are more wanting to learn or.

[31:17] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: No, all the way around.

[31:18] NORMA TAULET BALL: I figured you just had to confirm.

[31:20] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Yeah, yeah. It's amazing people that. Oh, well, whatever.

[31:26] NORMA TAULET BALL: Yeah. But it's hard because even though you do a good job of turning away from it, maybe saving your energy for something better, it still doesn't feel good to be treated as less than just because of where you were from or what.

[31:40] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: I had that experience today with somebody.

[31:43] NORMA TAULET BALL: Yeah.

[31:44] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Yeah. But it's his problem because he is the ignorant one.

[31:49] NORMA TAULET BALL: Yeah.

[31:50] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Not me.

[31:51] NORMA TAULET BALL: I think it's all rooted in fear. People are afraid of what they don't know.

[31:56] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Yeah. Telling me not to talk to somebody. Yeah. Hello.

[31:59] NORMA TAULET BALL: Oh, yeah, yeah.

[32:01] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Forget about move on.

[32:04] NORMA TAULET BALL: Mm hmm. Okay, so any other important lessons in life that you've learned?

[32:13] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: You talked dealing with people.

[32:14] NORMA TAULET BALL: Dealing with people, yeah.

[32:19] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Enjoying life to the nth power.

[32:22] NORMA TAULET BALL: Yeah.

[32:22] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Yeah.

[32:23] NORMA TAULET BALL: But what does that mean?

[32:24] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Because, well, honey, I walk, I take care of myself. People who are nice, I am nice to them, and they are my best friends, and if they are not nice to me, I just walk away. That's it.

[32:40] NORMA TAULET BALL: So you walk. How else do you enjoy life or live life?

[32:45] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: I walk almost a mile in the morning and same thing in the evening. That's physiological, mental. I read a lot.

[32:55] NORMA TAULET BALL: Yeah.

[32:55] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: I play games that have to do with your mind, like crossword puzzles and, you know, that kind of stuff.

[33:06] NORMA TAULET BALL: Yeah. What were some of the things that you did for fun not too long ago? You've been to a few different countries.

[33:15] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Oh, gosh. I've been to Russia, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Ireland, England, France, Spain, the Canary Islands, Italy, Switzerland. That's it.

[33:32] NORMA TAULET BALL: Yeah.

[33:33] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Venezuela, shout out. Yeah. And some. I've been to Montana, California, Texas, Alaska, New York, Alaska, Boston. Yeah. And of course, Florida and Georgia. And Mississippi.

[33:51] NORMA TAULET BALL: Yeah. So I know one of the things that really rubbed off on me, at least from you, is your passion to travel, because that's something is very special to me.

[34:01] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: I'm so glad I did it when I could do it.

[34:04] NORMA TAULET BALL: Yeah.

[34:05] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Yeah. I would go with Trafalgar and they'd take care of you, and they'd take you here, there, and everywhere. And I also went by myself.

[34:13] NORMA TAULET BALL: Yeah.

[34:13] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Yeah. So, yeah, here I am.

[34:16] NORMA TAULET BALL: Well, okay. I wanted to say thank you because I feel like not a whole lot of people get that exposure of wanting to explore other cultures and lifestyles. I remember that was something that you would always talk about.

[34:31] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Inspired me. I loved Ireland.

[34:34] NORMA TAULET BALL: Yeah.

[34:35] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Oh, God.

[34:35] NORMA TAULET BALL: Did you kiss the Blarney Stone?

[34:37] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Yes, I sure did. Yeah, I did. Yeah, I did.

[34:43] NORMA TAULET BALL: That's pretty cool. Would you say that's your favorite foreign country you visited?

[34:46] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: My foot. You know what the foreign country that I like the most was? Spain. But it's Spain. It's not foreign if you're from Puerto Rico, you know.

[35:00] NORMA TAULET BALL: But Spain is beautiful.

[35:01] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Beautiful, yeah. Sevilla. Those ladies dancing like that. Oh, God, Madrid.

[35:08] NORMA TAULET BALL: Beautiful.

[35:09] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Barcelona. That's where my father family come from. Barcelona.

[35:14] NORMA TAULET BALL: Nice. Well, so I wanted to explore a new subject, if that's okay. What do you want your legacy to be, or how would you like to be remembered?

[35:28] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: That I like to be with people that I enjoyed working with people that I did like a lot. To let people know about where I come from and who I am and why.

[35:46] NORMA TAULET BALL: Yeah.

[35:47] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Yeah.

[35:47] NORMA TAULET BALL: Why was that important to you to know?

[35:49] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Well, a lot of people, especially here in the USA, you tell them I'm from Puerto Rico, and they just.

[35:57] NORMA TAULET BALL: What? So just spreading the knowledge.

[36:01] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Exactly. Letting them know how we came to be american citizens by birth.

[36:07] NORMA TAULET BALL: Yeah.

[36:08] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Yeah.

[36:08] NORMA TAULET BALL: So as far as legacy for your family, though, like, think of Mateo. How would those. No, no. Mateo is grandma's greatest grandson.

[36:21] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Yeah.

[36:22] NORMA TAULET BALL: And my sister, Alex Cortina, is first born, and he's five months old. So when you think of Mateo, how would you kind of want him to remember you as or kind of your legacy?

[36:34] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Let me see. Right now I'm dealing with Kevin's kids also.

[36:41] NORMA TAULET BALL: Yeah.

[36:42] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Yeah. They see me coming, and they run to me and they say tita. That's what they call me.

[36:49] NORMA TAULET BALL: Yeah. Titamani.

[36:50] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Tita Magne. So Mateo will grow, and I'll teach him to call me Tita Magna also.

[36:56] NORMA TAULET BALL: Okay, well, I have a little surprise for you. What? So one of the things that I did before the interview is I polled the family, and I asked for them to describe you.

[37:10] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Okay.

[37:11] NORMA TAULET BALL: In one to two words. And. Or they could just give me a sentence, and so can I read those?

[37:16] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Sure. Oh, I love that.

[37:19] NORMA TAULET BALL: So this is what our family had to say in describing when you say.

[37:23] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Your family are struggling with your mommy.

[37:25] NORMA TAULET BALL: I was actually going to leave mom's for last. Okay, so here are some of the descriptions. Matriarch. Beautiful inside and out. Tenacious, cultured, fun loving.

[37:43] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Oh, gosh.

[37:45] NORMA TAULET BALL: Strong, determined.

[37:47] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Hey.

[37:48] NORMA TAULET BALL: Mm hmm. Intelligent. Boricua.

[37:52] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Boricua.

[37:55] NORMA TAULET BALL: And then the pillar of our family and our family's foundation. Oh, gosh and this was from mommy.

[38:03] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: My mom.

[38:04] NORMA TAULET BALL: And she said, mommy, in referencing to you.

[38:07] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Yeah.

[38:07] NORMA TAULET BALL: Is the strongest, caring, knowledgeable and life of the party.

[38:12] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Oh, gosh. Oh, I'm so proud of myself.

[38:18] NORMA TAULET BALL: Yeah, you should be. And I feel like those are all very accurate descriptions of.

[38:23] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Thank you, Deanna. Thank you.

[38:25] NORMA TAULET BALL: Hey, laddie, I want to say thank you for doing this with me.

[38:28] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Yay. It was a lot of fun, and I am so grateful that you did think about me. Okay.

[38:35] NORMA TAULET BALL: I love you very much.

[38:38] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Keep on surfing. Okay? Yes. Okay, so, okay, if you could say your dad's name again. Your father's name. Okay. I am going to Julia's husband, Francisco Taulet Pineiro. And that's with an Enya. Do you know what the Enya is? Okay, and then you talked about your children. Jorge Alberto Rodriguez. Well, the oldest one is her mother, Denise Desire Rodriguez. And that's why she's called Dee Dee. Denise Desiree. Okay.

[39:27] NORMA TAULET BALL: All right.

[39:29] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: The second one is Jorge. I got Jorge. Okay. And then Gerardo Amaury. And then Eduardo. And then Amare.

[39:41] NORMA TAULET BALL: Eduardo Amari.

[39:44] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Okay. No, Amori is his Gerardo son.

[39:48] NORMA TAULET BALL: Right, so she's. I think you said his middle name.

[39:52] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Jorge. Eduardo Gerardo.

[39:58] NORMA TAULET BALL: Yeah. There is no a Maori. That was a middle name. You heard.

[40:02] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: Okay, okay. And the youngest one, Norma. Got you. Okay, that's it.

[40:08] NORMA TAULET BALL: That's it.

[40:09] DEANNA CORTINA RODRIGUEZ: And I didn't call her Norma, but when I woke up after having the baby, the nurse comes and tells me, you wanna. You wanna meet Norma? And I said, what? Yeah, that's her name. What? Who did that?

[40:29] NORMA TAULET BALL: My grandma.