Phadua S.

Avila 

September 20th, 2019 

Humanities Period 2 

SURVIVAL 

When I was a little girl, my mother would tell me many stories about our family 

and who and where we came from. I remember when she told me how my great 

grandmother, Natividad Pedraza, survived the M

​ exican Revolution War.​ When my 

mother told me this story, I was terrified. I couldn’t imagine having to live as a girl 

during this time. This story has influenced me to be brave, proud and grateful for every 

day of my life.  

My great grandmother and her twin sister were born during the ​Mexican 

Revolution​. As many of you guys might know, this war was between 1910-1920. 

Unfortunately, since they were at war my family wasn’t able to afford the money to buy 

food. My great grandmother was really skinny and her twin was chubby and because my 

great grandmother was so skinny, her parents didn’t think that she would make it alive. 

Instead it was the opposite. My great grandmother made it alive and her twin sister 

passed away because she got sick. Their story has influenced me to be grateful for the 

small things and for every new day that I get to live because you never know when your 

last day is going to be. 

As my grandmother got older, the Revolutionaries went through the towns, 

destroying, raping, kidnapping and taking whatever they could, including rice and 
beans. Since all the Revolutionaries would kill people, my family had to hide in a very 

small cave. Meanwhile they were in the cave, there where the two groups of 

revolutionaries that were fighting each other which were the Zapatistas and the 

Billistas. These Revolutionaries would both yell, “¡Quien vive!” And if you answered 

Zapata and they were Billistas they will kill you, and the same thing would happen if it 

was the opposite, but if you were from the same “team” they would let you live. When I 

heard this story it made me want to be brave because if I was alive during this time, I 

think being brave was going to be my only chance to survive.  

As I have heard this story told to my family, it has taught me how to be proud of 

who and where we come from. It makes me even prouder to know that one of my family 

members was living during a very historic time and was able to survive by hiding in a 

cave and sometimes not being able to breath fresh air, or being able to eat food 

everyday. Although this was a very hard time, I am proud to know that this story is a 

story that is and can be told to many of our generations.  

This story has influenced me to be brave, proud and grateful in everyday of my 

life. Growing up hearing this story has shaped who I am today. It has helped me to be 

brave in any situation that I have to face. As well, it has taught me to be grateful for 

everyday of life because you might be here one day and the other you might not. To end, 

it has shown me to be a proud person of my family's history.