Elisa Leyva and Yolanda Leyva
Recorded
April 19, 2023
Archived
April 19, 2023
34:36 minutes
0:00 / 0:00
Id:
mby022645
Description
Dr. Yolanda Chavez Leyva [no age given] speaks with her granddaughter Elisa Jacinta Leyva (19) about Elisa’s great-great-great grandmother Canuta of the Rarámuri people.Subject Log / Time Code
Yolanda (Y) tells Elisa (E) about her great-great-grandmother, Canuta, who her family affectionately
Y shares the story of Canuta that had been passed down in a bible entry. Y says Canuta was raised in
Y reflects on how Canuta might want to be remembered. Y also discloses that she is a historian of the border and has some questions about the story of Canuta that has been passed down.
Y says she has done some of her own research to fill in some of the holes in Canuta's story. She explains that she learned that Canuta had her first child at twelve years old. E says that as a young woman raised in Indigenous spaces, she can relate and connect to Canuta's story.
Y explains that she suspects Canuta's family was in the Chihuahua region harvesting when Canuta was taken.
Y says Canuta's story is important to her in part because it gives a specific time and place for the Rarámuri people.
E reflects further on how she feels hearing Canuta's story. E says Canuta perhaps would be one of the strong spirits in her ancestry.
Y and E consider what Canuta might have looked like. Y says that remembering heals forward and
E says Canuta's life must not have been easy as a servant to a family. E clarifies that it must have been a
Y remembers visiting a Rarámuri village ten years ago and wondered if that was where Canuta had been born. Y says she imagined she was there with Canuta's family.
Y and E discuss the significance of stars.
Y says Canuta's family became separated at the turn of the 20th century and that she would love to meet
Y and E discuss the displacement of Indigenous people from their land.
E says if there were one thing she could tell Canuta, it would be that she was a beautiful woman who raised children who remember that she was Rarámuri. E says she would want Canuta to know that her family still remembers her for who she is.
Y and E share their closing thoughts.
Participants
- Elisa Leyva
- Yolanda Leyva