Manuel and Ana Maria Benitez were born in Mexico. They came to the U.S.A. in the 1950's. My sister Alyssa and I are their granddaughters. My great grandmother who I write about in this article recently passed away. I am enclosing a picture of her taken with me and my Aunt Janice (photo at the left of this article). We are standing in front of the Basilica of Guadalupe. The Virgin of Guadalupe is the patroness of Mexico. The Basilica was my great-grandmother's favorite place to visit and I am happy I could go with her that day. Here's how it happened!

I was wondering what I was going to be doing this summer. All my friends were off to camp and all my sister did all day was watch television.

I was checking my email and started reading a letter my uncle sent. He was telling me about his plan to go to Mexico. My mom was reading it over my shoulder and suggested I ask if I could go along with him and my aunt.

So I quickly emailed him to ask if I could accompany him. Well, ten days later I was on a road trip to Alexandria, Virginia (a U.S state) to their house. We would stay 7 days then hop a plane to Mexico!!

The plane ride there was not very entertaining so I spent my time reading and listening to CDs but then I heard a voice, "Buenos Dias, Bienvenidos a Mexico!" (Good Day and Welcome to Mexico). It was around 11:00 at night when we arrived and my uncle quickly found a taxi for us. We went to my Great Grandmother (Abue Bis's) house -- she is 96 old -- and she cried when she saw me because I hadn't visited her since I was 4 years old. I am now 11 and really made an effort to speak more Spanish.

She gave me my very own room and the first thing I did was drop on my bed because I was exhausted. After eating a bowl of cereal I passed out on my bed not even bothering to change my clothes. The next morning I found out that we were going to go to "la Virgin de Guadelupe" which is the church of Our Lady of Guadelupe, the patron of Mexico. There I bought a blue rosary and we climbed to the top of the hill where Our Lady appeared to Juan Diego hundreds of years ago.

The next day I went to a brunch with lots of aunts and cousins and I bought my cousins each a pack of gum. We headed out the next day to a resort called Cocoyoac. It has been in existence since the time of the Aztec rulers hundreds of years ago. We spent three days there and went horse back riding and swimming. Later we went to a nearby town and bought bead jewelry and clothing. I also bought a colorful blanket called a sarapeí.

The next day we returned to Alexandria and then my aunt and uncle drove me home to North Tonawanda, New York a week later. Wow! What a great summer vacation that was. Thanks for listening to my story.

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