My grandmother, Maria Laura Pablo, was the youngest of three children. She grew up in a home that embraced an extended family of three widowed aunts and their six children in the town of Concepcion, Chile. This photo was taken in 1952 by my grandfather one afternoon while they lunched at her cousin Laura Sainz’s apartment. At the time, my grandmother was 25, and was happily married with two young children.

Life in Concepcion in the 1950s was rather sleepy and my grandmother was the quintessential homemaker. At the same time, she was a cultured dame with her mother’s flare for fashion, and her father’s adventurous spirit. Pablo Pablo, her father, was a Castillian who emigrated to Chile at 14 years old determined to make a fortune and help his family back in the old country.

Growing up my grandmother had big dreams of travel and she managed to tour every continent. Over the years her travel bug has led her here to Canada to visit her daughter – my mother – who immigrated.

While it’s been nearly a decade since last I saw her, I’m looking forward to a reunion in Chile later this year.

By Alexandra Samur
Vancouver, BC

vintage fashion