This shot goes out to all those women who spent the entire day cooking on Thanksgiving so their families could enjoy a delicious feast. When I took this shot in 1975, the Guatemala Cafe on Wilson was just a couple years old. It was a family-owned and -run business.
The grandmother, her daughter, son-in-law and their two children all pitched in to help. The grandmother sold the restaurant in 2006 after being in business for 34 years. She is now 89 years old and “as feisty as ever” according to the young girl in this photo. The two came to the Uptown library in November 2013 for the unveiling of Uptown: Portrait of a Chicago Neighborhood in the mid-1970s.
The young girl (now woman) considers herself lucky to have been raised in this happy environment. Her grandmother would often sing while cooking in the kitchen. She also inherited quite a work ethic. The girl, who was just three or four at the time now speaks three languages fluently.
