Quadroons and octoroons.

Chapter III

One day, Maria decided she was going to make a different dish on Saturday, she warned her uncle the previous Saturday, "I'm not making Ox-tail next Saturday; I'm making earth-crabs." "Earth-crabs, but you would have to go to Cardenas for earth-crabs." "Someone is going to get them for me, some I knew from college, her family is from Cardenas, and they go and get earth-crabs, and bring them back." "That's almost eighty-miles from here, well: if you say so, see you next Saturday."

Earth-crabs are huge, some can weigh as much as six-pounds, and two feet across, but they are exquisite to say the least. They live in large palm trees and eat kumquats; they have large claws, and are absolutely delicious.

Maria was going to omit the frijoles this time, since the crabs are made in a way that produces a great deal of sauce; this is used on the white rice, and makes this all taste superb! Again, she didn't have pork-lard to make the meal, so she went to the store to get it. She sees Roberto and decides to do something she would never ever do before: she asks him out on a date, instead of accepting though, he tells her to come over to his house and meet his parents, and have dinner with him instead. "Okay" she says, and they make a dinner date. Roberto kisses Maria, and she was glad she waited for her first kiss, even if she was twenty-five years old....

"Maria was nervous, what will they say when they see I'm black?" But she was worried about making a new dish and breaking tradition; which she then thought she was going to do by dating a white man. So she went home and didn't mention it to her sister or father what she was about to do. The dinner was exquisite though, earth-crabs are one of the best tasting Cuban dishes of all time. The only problem is getting to the crab-meat, this can be a very messy ordeal, and it was so; but worth it when you consider how good the food tasted.

The big day comes, she was still living at home, since this was tradition back then for a young single woman, or man for that matter: Latinos stay at home forever and a day until they marry, and if they don't marry they live at home until their parents die, and are then forced to move out or something like it. Unity is very strong amongst Latinos and African people, and Cuba has influences from both cultures.

She comes to Roberto's house, and a black woman answers the door, she says to herself: "she must be the maid." "Hello" she says, "Hi" back the old lady says. What's your name? I'm Andrea, you must me Maria, Roberto can't stop talking about you: you're even prettier than he says. "Thank you Andrea!" "Who are you" Maria asks. "I'm Roberto's Grandmother!" "What?" Maria was almost in shock, "but he's white" Maria replied. "So was my father" Andrea said. "He's actually creole" Andrea said, "creole!"

This was too much for Maria to take in one night, all this time Roberto was black like her, but she thought he was white, and as a result stayed away from him for ten-years because she thought he wouldn't have anything to do with her because she was black. "I'm sorry Andrea, I thought he was white all along; I was terrified of my dad finding out, but now: I'm going to marry him!" Married they were. They were engage for two-years and then married. They had four wonderful children, and a wonderful life even though Roberto didn't have any college education, and made little money working on the docks, etc. Maria was an quadroon, and Roberto was an octoroon.

THE END.

Learn more about this author, John Sarkis.
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