Aunt Petita
After some failed meetings in Iquique, we believed that Chile was letting us go without introducing us to another life story to tell, but Arica, the northern door to Peru, surprised us with a little corner full of generosity and immensurable faith. Again the coincidences in life guided us by the hand. Everything started when a couple of anthropologists from Iquique came happily to talk to us because they had a van similar to our Gardenia. They gave us a tip on a good mechanic in the next city, Arica. We took note without believing we were going to need it. We didn’t know that some adjustments that we had made with an Argentinean friend had left Gardenia out of base, making it crystal clear in the middle of the dessert with an insatiable thirst for gasoline. We wanted to reach Arica to meet the specialist, Eduardo, who after listening to our project, smiled and immediately suggested the Dining San Alberto Hurtado, or better known in the neighborhood as “Aunt Petita”.
We found the first heir and loyal follower of the steps of Petita, Verónica, one of her daughters, who gladly told us the story about her mother and the Dining Room. A story of unlimited generosity, a Lady with Capital Letters, simple and humble, who having 6 kids and raising the seventh one was a nonstop working machine at the service of others. Her great faith moved mountains, more than once, the cooks worried with the lack of food, Petita would say: `Turn on the stoves, something will come along` and this is how it happened, the donations would arrive just in time to the boiling water that was waiting for some rice, pasta or beans.
Everybody around Arica knows the Dining Room, it has been open since 1978, when Petita was almost 50 years old and some kids came to ask her for a cup of tea and bread, the following day there would be more kids and more the day after; so she thought: `If God gave me this house, the only one I ever had in my life, it better be useful and what better thing than to help kids without food`. This is how this little saint started, with her humble house, opening her doors so they could eat. She would wake up at 5am to prepare the food, knead the bread or soak the beans. Shortly after she would welcome more than a 100 kids each meal. The parents and grandparents started to show up. Mothers who are now an indispensable part of the Dining Room, like Norma, Juana or Erica who started leaving guaguas (babies) at their homes so they could cooperate and give back the help that Petita was providing their other kids. Among the men, Pato is the one who organizes the men, security, bars and heavy works.
Auntie Petita, ‘petit’ of size but big of heart, dedicated her life to feed and serve her community, bringing them closer to God and the Sacraments, encouraging the young ones to study, always through the Love. She would emphasize that it was important to feed the body, but also the soul, and she would always follow this rule. There would be no one without a plate of food, even if they arrived late. Norma, who worked with her for 29 years, remembers once 2 people arrived when there was no food left and they didn’t know what to do. Nevertheless, Petita asked for their plates and incredibly their plates were full of food. She would never doubt God’s generosity and his little miracles; Verónica remembers another time when there were too many people to feed and not so much food. Slowly there came some corn donations who would add to the rice and chicken, but it wasn’t enough. Without any explanation, she could see how the rice would increase its volume while she was stirring it, they could feed everybody and there were even left overs! Stories like these, they have a lot, girl toys that just arrive before Christmas when there were only toys for boys, or candies that would multiply when packing little Christmas bags.
Just by looking at pictures of Petita, she looks familiar, her daughters and grandchildren whisper to us: “She looks like the young sister of Mother Theresa, right?” It is exactly like that. We thought that they called her Petita because of ‘petit’, but this nickname really comes from Petronila, her real name. Her white hair, her long and perfect braid reminds me of my own grandmother. They tell us that she was devoted of the Virgin of Lourdes, and that she would not leave her Rosary alone, we can verify this by the results of her work. Every morning around 8:30am a group of men get together to pray the Holy Rosary, like Petita taught them. But this is not all, the same group at 12:30pm prays another Rosary, from Monday to Saturday facing the Dining Room. In the middle of the activities and the meals, the cars arrive, among them Carlos, who happily unload vegetables from the Market; takes and brings a cooler that was donated, and this is how he cooperates. Other bring from their bakeries or market bags loaded with vegetables, fruits, bread and big quantities of eggs that couldn’t be sold and are donated. That was breakfast of the following day, bread and scrambled eggs and a big cup of tea. Every one of them pick up their tray and form a line, the men outside and the women and children inside the house. There were more than 60, everyone thanks for the food and wave “Thanks Aunt Verito!”. Even before breakfast was made, the beans were soaked and cooked for lunch, specialty of the house that we were offered (because “nobody leaves without food”), with vegetables and pasta; a real delicacy that makes it possible to keep lots of families well fed, given the fact that at night only a piece of bread and a cup of tea is what they have.
Apart from the food and the support from the community, the donations bring clothes and toys, that are not distributed but that are offered according to each individual’s need. At Christmas, each child leaves the Dining Room with a chosen gift that comes wrapped in a nice paper, as a surprise, delivered by ‘Viejo Pascuero’ (Santa Claus). They do something similar with the clothes, in which they show what is available and the people chose according to their needs. They exchange a big bag of clothes for a few coins, which they use to buy vegetables. In the Men’s Dining Room there are still some shoes available.
Having breathed this environment of pure selfishness over 33 years, shared their house with the Dining Room, having breakfast and lunch with so many kids, adults and old people from the neighbourhood; made it natural for the children and grandchildren of Petita to feel it as an inseparable part of their life, where everyone finds their own way to cooperate. The Aunt Petita has been with a fragile health the last 3 years of her life, during that time her children have been organizing and preparing themselves for her departure. Among them, Verónica is in charge of the Dining Room and the Chapel, manages meals, donations, purchases even to the last flower of the Chapel’s altar; Nani assist her sister and teaches catechism; her children Paloma and Lorenzo organizes activities for the youth; David, the youngest brother, brings joy to the Masses at the Chapel with his songs; another sister of the 6, who lives in Iquique is writing a book about Petita, this is how each of them has their own participation in this big legacy left by their mother after so many years of service to others. Verónica and David continue to live in their childhood house, “half Dining Room”. Nani lives 2 blocks away from it, and facing it there is the Chapel that Petita had built through raffles and bingos before she passed away. All this is a little oasis, with bushes and flowers grown by Petita herself at the borders of a city that fights against desserts, immense oil tanks and toxic waste buried that continue to cause serious illness.
Aunt Petita is still present in everything and in everyone, she is very much missed after 10 months of her departure, but it was such a strong faith and generosity that transformed the whole community. The legacy she has left is still alive, there are many who benefited from it who have to cooperate to maintain her good work. Her charisma may be irreplaceable, but the foundations are solid and the community moves on thanks to her. She reached out with her hands to the youngest and to the oldest, and this hug keeps everyone united and persevering.
Petita’s big family has a very important mission to accomplish that is deeply sealed in the heart of her family from her children to the youngest grandchildren. But they are not alone, they are many: cooks, assistants, donors, friends, those who eat the meals and those who have eaten the meals in the past, priests and neighbours. Everyone has the mission to continue with Aunt Petita Good Work and feed lots of mouths, specially the hearts. The little she had she would offer to others, sharing her own house with all the community, engaging with the needs of those who surrounded her. A life example that modified the lives of her family and neighbours. A little brave woman with lots of faith and little material possessions started her path, always in the same direction, Up!
Getting lunch ready
In line for Breakfast
Dining and Chapel Father Hurtado
A Big Family
SHARING AMERICA 