Se llama Maria
We kept our daughter’s name a secret while I was pregnant. Our long quest to get pregnant was so public. Me. Big Mouth. I told just about anyone how hard it was to make a baby. Infertility was a great shock. I’m Latin, for goodness sakes. I’m supposed to get pregnant easily. So, I talked about it. A lot. It’s how I cope.
When it finally happened – after many tears and well-targeted injections to the belly – we decided to keep something to ourselves. OK, I decided to keep something to myself. For once.
While we debated the merits of Carmen, Carmela, Fabiana, Emmanuel, and Nora it always came back to Maria. The most popular Latin name. A name that when shouted in any Miami high school hallway in the 1970s and ’80s would have meant half the girls turned around.
“Maria.” A name I never, ever would have thought would be the name my daughter should be given. You see, I once had dreamt of Meagans and Sarahs. But, that was a lifetime ago, before I found my core.
In Miami, my cousins and friends were giving their children beautiful Anglo-Saxon names. Opinionated as my family is, we felt certain that picking Maria — “una Maria cualquiera’’ – we would be mocked and inundated with ridicule.
Indeed, we kind of were. But, my family was more polite than expected and our dark-haired Maria fits her name so well. The name sounds light and lyrical to me and she is. Her name is popular not just in Miami and Mexico City, but in Norway, Greece and Italy. Our hope for her is that she be well-traveled and global-minded. Maybe her name will help guide her down that path.
Plus, giving her such a Latina name, we figured our little Southern boonie babe would not one day be in a classroom with a half-dozen other girls of the same name.
Ha.
When Maria was an infant, we were sitting in the pediatrician’s waiting room. The nurse opened the door and called for “Maria.’’ Two of us stood up. The nurse motioned the other mother forward, an Anglo lady with an elementary-aged Maria. I was gladly surprised, but more than shocked later when the same nurse said there were two more Marias already in exam rooms. Only two of us were Latin.
