Rock LA 147, Rice Pudding Blues

This is a list I found yesterday at my grandmother's house. Ninety-five years old now, she wondered how it was, she managed to keep herself married to my grandfather that asked her for these long lists of expenses, piled up in small notebooks, even after 40 years of marriage.

Of course, I'm always interested in psychological blueprints. The list, on her tight calligraphy shows the menu for my mother's 5th birthday: Cake, Rice Pudding, Strawberry and Nuts Ice Cream and Pozole. Of course none of these items were bought, my grandmother made all of it. A piñata was included along a new tablecloth, sodas and some alcoholic drinks for the elderly (Bacardi). I guess Cuba Libres were the thing back then. All for 180 old pesos, way to go grandma!

My grandfather worked for PEMEX (Mexican Petroleum), but unlike any of his co-workers, he never took one dime that didn't belong to him and this could explain his obsession with money and having a clear cut sense of where it went. But on the other hand, I wonder if this was also a very passive-agressive behaviour of controlling my grandmother, especially after so many years together.

What it is of great interest to me is not my grandad's actions but more about my grandmother's endurance as well as her lack of limits. What is it that me as a modern Mexican woman have probably inherited, instilled in me after generations, that may allow for these two characteristics to flourish unconsciously in some relationships?