Latin School of Chicago

English literature. ... I was still trying to build up enough credits so that I could eventually graduate. I just kept going. I was very persistent." Fortunately, her hard work ended up paying o, and she was accepted into graduate school for psychology. e year was 1972. By then, Manya and Alejandro had three children: my mother, my Uncle Charles and my Aunt Andrea. Money matters were tight, but Manya still managed to get an education. en, something amazing happened. After nishing her rst year of clinical psychology in 1973, my grandmother was accepted, along with 20 other students, into a top psychology program at the University of Texas. is was the kind of opportunity that only comes around every so often, so she jumped at the chance to go. Her husband, however, did not share Manya's enthusiasm. He told her that he couldn't raise enough money for childcare on his own, that paying for her education cost too much, and that he needed her to stay home and work. "No man wants a wife with a Ph.D.," he told her. Manya tried to ask the people at the university for nancial aid, but because of the marriage laws of the time, they couldn't give it to her without her husband's consent. Eventually, Manya decided to divorce Alejandro. She and the kids headed for Nebraska, where her parents were living in December of 1974, and the divorce was nalized in March 1975. Despite the many struggles she faced throughout her marriage, Manya still had a dicult time deciding whether divorce was the right option for not only her, but for her children. When I asked her what kind of a toll the divorce took on her, she said, "It did take a toll on me. In fact, before the divorce was the hardest ... I was Catholic, and we were married in a Catholic Church, and I had to wrestle with my own conscience about whether leaving my marriage was the right thing to do, and whether it was the right thing to do for my children. After the divorce, even though it was hard to support the family and do all of that, it was actually easier than trying to decide before the divorce if that's what I should do." Fortunately for Manya, the divorce ended up opening up a new world of possibility. ough the rst few years after the divorce were dicult, since Manya was a single mother working many jobs at once, things became easier in 1977 when she remarried. With the support of her new husband, she went back to school in Nebraska and after working as a typist, a teacher, an advisor, a psychologist at a crisis center, and countless other jobs, my grandmother earned her Ph.D. in 1993. At the very end of the interview, when Manya had no more stories left to tell, I asked her what she would say to people like her, who have had to face a lot of things by themselves. She hesitated a little before answering. It wasn't a question she was expecting. Finally, she spoke."I would always say the same thing: You are stronger than you think you are. at's it. You can carry the world on your shoulders and have no idea how strong you are." I could hear her holding back tears as she said it. Calling all Roman writers! Alumni, students, faculty and sta...if you have a story to share, please submit it for consideration to Latin Magazine. We are now accepting stories for the Winter 2019 issue. Submissions may not be longer than 750 words and can be sent to info@latinschool.org. We look forward to hearing from you! 15 LATIN MAGAZINE SUMMER 2018 LATIN MAGAZINE SUMMER 2018

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