Bertha Waiss

“Don’t think about what they are going to say. No. Do it. Live it. Exist without the feeling of guilt”.

Bertha Waiss

Interview with bertha

What is your full name?

My name is Bertha Skvirsky Jutorski.

Does your name have a special meaning?

Well, I have my name, with which I am registered, which is Bertha. And when I started going to school, they gave me a name in Yiddish. So my name in Yiddish is Bashe. For everyone, I am Bashe. And for my family, I am Bertha or Bertita. And people who know me from the outside, call me Bertha I am the same person.

What is your date of birth?

27th of August, 1944. I also have a funny story about this. I don’t know what exactly happened but on my birth certificate, it says that my birth was on the 27th. But I found another paper from the hospital where it said 28th of August. So now I celebrate on both days, the 27th and 28th.

Where were you born?

In Mexico, in the Federal District.

What is your favorite food?

I really like Mexican food. Mexican snacks. Sometimes I sneak around to places where I’m not supposed to eat–like street food because my family thinks it will make me sick. But I love going to these places with my sister Jane. It’s delicious.

What do you have for breakfast?

Coffee, chilaquiles, whatever we want. And very cheap.

Tell me about a friend you have in your life or someone who was a good friend during your life. I

I didn’t have many friends. I had a friend when I was a little girl. I was invited a lot to play at her house. I was a very young orphan. I was 8 years old. My friends invited me to their houses to eat maybe because they knew about my situation. Who knows why? But they invited me. I was very friendly. It was another kind of life.
I remember I met kids on our school bus. I would take it every day to go to school. When I was little, when my dad lived, my dad would take me to school and pick me up every day from school. When he died, I would go on the school bus.

What do you remember about your childhood?

It’s very sad. My childhood was very sad because, at the age of 8, my dad died. We lived at my grandmother’s house–my mother’s side of the family. I never met my dad’s mom, she died in Russia because there was a pogrom [massacre of Russian people during the Second World War] where the Nazis raped her daughter. And she died of sadness. My dad’s dad went to the United States, from what a cousin told me. He went to the United States and worked fixing skins to make coats and all that. He went to New York or wherever and he was doing great. But he left his children in Russia. But while he was in the United States he sent oil, food, and other things to his children. Things that weren’t in Russia. There was poverty, and they didn’t have anything.

My dad worked as a was a driver. He was the first firefighter too. He had a lot of different jobs. They weren’t people with a lot of money. My mom came to Mexico City after living with an aunt in Veracruz. Here they met and got married. She got pregnant immediately after. She had my sister Jane and then she had me. We lived in Alamos. In a rented house. My aunts lived in the building in front. And we had a park in front. We went out to play every day. And it was very quiet. The truth is that it was very quiet. And from there… My dad dies. The biggest hell I’ve ever lived through in my life. My mom turned very cold after–it was like she had also died. Her mourning was awful. We couldn’t count on her. I don’t know how she got out of that hole
We were alone, and my mom’s family instead of helping us betrayed us. My mom used to have the bus business, and my uncle stole it from us. Well, they made our lives a little bit more difficult. My dad’s family also. No one ever helped my mom at all.
I remember I spent many afternoons crying outside my grandma’s house because I couldn’t get into mine–my mom hadn’t come back from work. I didn’t have anyone to feed me. I think I was 12 or 13 years old. My aunt lived two houses down, my mom’s brother’s wife and she didn’t invite us. They had a television and we have television–we were poor.
And then we left that house–it was the best thing that could happen to us. We went to live in a department in the Condesa neighborhood. My mom worked like a donkey. She worked a lot. That was life for her as a single woman. And I remember that I went with her in the trucks. I was going to work. To the truck. And we would go to the City Center to eat in a restaurant called La Rambla. They still have it to this day. And when I go, I always go.

What about school?

I did middle school and halfway through high school I left to do a seminar to become a teacher. I was a Yiddish teacher and also taught Hebrew. I worked in a kindergarten.

Did you get married?

At the time that I started working almost all of my friends were getting married and I thought, I’m going to be left alone. I was seventeen. And that’s when I met my husband in the middle of this we had terrible news; my mom was diagnosed with cancer. She has a tumor in her brain and was very bad
I got married and exactly after one year she died, and at that time I was already pregnant with Ethele. The only thing my mom told me before she died was That she was going to have very pretty hair and blue eyes. That’s the only thing I remember. And in the hospital, I couldn’t even say goodbye to her. They didn’t give me a chance. I was 19 years old. I had two more daughters after that, Francis my second child, and Sharon who is my youngest.

How was it to have your first child?

Incredible. Incredible, but I was crying. I cried all the time. I was mourning a lot and I think I gave my daughter a lot of depression–I passed it on to her. My husband, Bernardo, helped me out a lot, he was 25. And his mom was like a mother to me. She took care of me. I dedicated myself to my daughters, 100%. That was all my life. My husband started to grow in the social sense, but I stayed at home, to comply with my mom’s role. I was the mom, and I was the wife. But I als9 had to work–I worked very hard. It was not until years later in my marriage that I actually got to work in what I liked, as a kindergarten teacher. I started off as a substitute teacher–they would call sometimes. And they liked my work so much that they asked me whether I could stay full-time. I said yes. I loved it.
That is a whole life. And I have been very happy with it. But certainly, I will tell you, that behind a man there is a woman. You must give the last word for it not to continue I’ve talked about it–death. The epigraph, what will it be. I still don’t know what I want it to be, but I know what I don’t want it to say, that I was an organized person. That’s what I don’t want you to say. That I was organized. Please say many other things. That they loved me a lot. That I was… I’m not the most affectionate woman.

How do you want to be remembered?

I want people to say that I was a good wife. That I was a good mother. That I was a good person. Very important for me to say that I was a good person. That I have helped. And that people love me. They respect me. That’s what I want. Because I’m going to tell you: everything has a reason.

How would you describe your family?

First, I’m a shopper. Compulsive. There is no… But I also think that has a reason. I didn’t have it. And now I have it. I have many things that I tell you that… Now I go and I can choose and I can buy. It’s another thing.

What advice would I give to a young woman?

Many. I think that… Starting with… That she be the way she is. That she be sincere with herself. And that she does with her life what she wants to do. And that she does what she wants to do with her life. As long as she doesn’t bother the other. That she be the way she is. That she be the way she wants to be. Don’t think about what they are going to say. No. Do it. Live it. Exist without the feeling of guilt.

Bertha Waiss

Mexico City, Mexico