Guadalupe Curiel shares her story on how it was growing up as a kid, having to deal with the responsibility to mature at such a young age. She had ups and downs during her teenage years throughout her school experiences and with her family. At the age of sixteen she had a child. This was a struggle but she ended up making it in life.
Transcript:
Sophia Saldana: Okay, what is your name and age? [Laughs] What is your name and age?
Guadalupe Curiel: My name is Guadalupe Curiel, I am 30 years old.
SS: Where and when were you born?
GC: I was born in Los Angeles, California. Wait what was the second question?
SS: Where and when were you born.
GC: When?
SS: Yea, where and when.
GC: The year?
SS: Yea.
GC: Oh, 1993.
SS Okay, um. How was it like- like growing up?
GC: Uh, It was fun. We did not grow up with a lot of money and stuff so we always had to like be creative with our toys and what we played with so… because of that I feel like we were always happy.
SS: Hmm. How was it like having two siblings around? Well first how was it like with Frank (brother) and then with Ale (sister).
GC: It was hard being the oldest one, um but it was fun to cus it wasn’t lonely. And it felt like a lot of responsibility cus I had to be the one to put that initial influence for them.
SS: Mhm. Um, what were your favorite memories as a child?
GC: Favorite memories was playing in the yard with Frank when I was little.
SS: What would you guys play?
GC: He would do his own thing and I would do my own thing. So I would play with like my dolls and be in- playing with my little kitchen toys in the mud, and then he would be I don’t know something with his fire trucks or his planes.
SS: Nice, How was your relationship with your parents? [Laughs]
GC: [Sigh] It was better with grandpa then with grandma, cus grandma had anger issues so sometimes she would get mad for no reason and she was a very big believer in spanking, where as grandpa wasn’t like that as much. Like he would yell at us when we did something bad but he wouldn’t hit us as much as grandma would.
SS: Did you get in trouble a lot?
GC: I was a bad kid, I was a real bad kid. Sometimes when grandma told me not to do something I would purposefully do it.
SS: Um, and how did you feel about that. [Laughs]
GC: [Laughs] About being a bad kid?
SS: Yea.
GC: I don’t know I just feel like if grandma was a little bit more lenient like I wasn’t allowed to have friends over, I wasn’t allowed to borrow toys from friends. I wasn’t allowed to do any of that stuff. And I just feel like grandma was always trying to like control everything I did like a- I don’t know. If she was a little bit more flexible and letting me be a kid I feel like I wouldn’t be so much as a bad kid.
SS: Yea, um well, turning into a teenager how would you describe yourself at that time?
GC: I did good in school, so I always- it was weird. I always did good in school but I was still a bad kid. [Laughs]
SS: Oh Okay! Um last question. How did becoming a mother challenge you?
GC: I became a mother at the age of 16, a couple of days from seventeen. And I do think that… having you was what helped me go to college, because I wasn’t really going on the best of paths but um having, you have, being alone with you without your dad around, I had to figure things out quickly. So I went to school, got my bachelor’s got my master’s and because of that I am able to support you without needing anybody else’s help. So I fell like I had to grow up quick-
SS: Mature quick.
GC: I did have to mature quick. And I just I- I always wonder like what if I wouldn’t have gotten pregnant how different that would’ve been.
SS: But you did it!
GC: I did to it.
SS: Okay, that’s it. Thank you!
