Las Dos Gildas



Gilda Claudine Karasik


As usual, I'm guessing I'm probably the last one finding out about another Laredo-related site. In particiluar, I'm referring to Las Dos Gildas. For those who many not know, this is a Laredo mother & daughter team who have a love for cooking and for their culture. Ms. Gilda Claudine Karasik,the daughter, is also a contributor to BlogHer.Com.  In yesterday's post, Gilda reflected on her ailing Grandmother and their relationship, of which cooking has always been a part. Today, Ms. Karasik, who is also a lawyer and freelance writer, honors Laredo's La Mexicana Restaurant which her aunt Berta has owned for 45 years.

From Blog.Her.com By Gilda Claudine

La Mexicana

Inside a kitchen
not far from the Rio Grande
a 94 year-old-woman stands
but once a week now, her bones too old for more.

A starched smock aids her appearance.
The round comal at her waist is half as old.
She plunges flautas one-by-one into oil that spits and sizzles
and then swipes her hair from her face,
both gestures grooved in time.

The singular dining room
is brick and mortar and windows
The same sun shining through,
the place just as it ever was.

The clamor of patronage
set to the rhythms of swinging
in-and-out doors.
Servers in uniform taking mental notes,
an occasional approbation in the hint of a smile.

Ordinary napkins flat or crumpled
on laps, in hands, moving across a face.
Melamine plates like plastic moons,
merely a part of the perfunctory mood.

And the sense that everything special
is in the kitchen with the old woman,
who is measuring ingredients intuitively and seasoning the fare with memories
until she is young again.