"It would have been so much to dance fun like everyone else at my brother's wedding, but I was born partially paralyzed."
Eduardo lives with his parents and two brothers in a crowded area of Caracas, the capital of Veneuzula. He has partial paralysis in his legs and depends on a pair of home-made crutches to get around. He heard that in the US, everyone who needs them can get wheelchairs, and he has even seen some people in San Salvador using them. His brother recently got married, and Eduardo enjoyed dancing at the wedding, but wished that he was able to fly around the dance floor like others participating in the traditional dances of his mother's people.
Eduardo's mother mourns leaving her village in the Amazon, where her family had a small vegetable garden and raised chickens. She misses the green leafy vegetables and especially the chicken livers she would eat when the chickens were harvested. Eduardo's mother had moved when she was a young woman to the city for job opportunities, where she meet Eduardo's father and conceived Eduardo. Unfortunately it was very hard to find good work, and Eduardo's family is still not able to afford all of the foods that they want. Their usual diet is based on rice, beans, plantains, some seafood, and pasta dishes.
After Eduardo was born, a researcher came to visit his parents, asking questions about his mother's diet while she was pregnant with him. His mother tells Eduardo to be proud that the family helped contribute to changes in national food sources, with something being added to the staple flours, although she is not sure exactly what it was.