Larisa Socarras

What You Take With You

I was born in Cuba in the '60s just after the communist revolution. Growing up with two sisters and a brother, the days of my youth were typical of many Cuban children, including getting up early to prepare for school. Part of this daily ritual involved visiting my Father's carpentry workshop, which was situated in the backyard of our house, so he could whittle a point onto my pencil with a wood chisel. It was the most elegantly beautiful pencil point that could ever exist. On the first day of school we would return home lugging a load of new books and notebooks to be covered. My Mom always helped us in this endeavor and she took pride in ensuring that our study materials looked very neat and creative. We would go to the grocery store to procure some of the paper they used to wrap groceries. Then we would peruse old story books and magazines; cutting out figures and characters we found interesting and gluing them to our new book covers. We also adorned our pencils with homemade yarn dolls. These activities were something we always looked forward to at the beginning of the new school year.