Caibarien

As to Caibarien, I found out today that the town was founded in 1832 next to the port that supplied Remedios. I guess there was not any longer pirate activity to worry about. This small town is currently about a 20 min. drive from Remedios.

My mother Olga talked about Caibarien and how she would walk along the sea shore as a child scooping up crabs into her bucket. You had to go at the right time of day to find the crabs as they were headed in/out of the water (can't remember which). Her face would light up remembering how much fun it was and how she got to eat them. I think that eating the crabs was the one time she could be really well fed and full. At the time, she lived with Braulio (the brother of her mother, Isabel) and Jacinta and they treated (mistreated seems a better term) her as a servant.

I met Braulio and he looked like a shorter version of tio Orestes or abuelo Vicente. Braulio was married to Jacinta and they had 2 kids: Octavio and Maricusa (Maricusa lived for a long time in Venezuela but maybe moved to Miami when Chavez took over). According to my mother Olga and my grandmother Isabel, Jacinta was a nasty demanding woman who was always complaining about her health. Isabel did not like Jacinta but she adored her brother Braulio. Olga, on the other hand, had very bitter memories of him as she did of Jacinta - of his exploitation of her while staying in his house as both a servant and nanny of Octavio. Olga also resented how Braulio had treated his own mother as a servant, her grandmother Angela whom Olga worshiped.