organization. For the occasion, the living room - the one that was only used for our guests - was adorned.
The guests were treated like queens and princesses, the aristocracy of La Sabana. “Elena I don’t know how you manage to live so far from the shul (synagogue),”
Mrs. Rebeca would say, thinking that coming to Los Yoses. was a journey like Marco Polo’s. Others believed that coming to San Pedro4, as if leaving the country, required a passport.
They were artists of pastry. They brought cakes and desserts that were not seen in the capital: chocolate tart, lemon mousse, cherry pie, milk meringues, pista-chio baskets, famous strudels (apple pie), sweet noodle rolls with raisins, and an endless list of sweets.
The conversations were passionate. Each lady had her own point of view. Mrs. Sarita, who was considered an intellectual but whose true passion was card games, considered Costa Rica as paradise, the real Gan Eden (Eden), and her husband, who worked as a peddler in Turrialba5, believed that democracy protected us. While stuffing her mouth with a pineapple cake, Mrs. Sisa refuted her. For her, Figueres’ government was full of Nazis and Germans who supported the local anti-Semites: We would be better off with Dr. Calderón Guardia. The woman who lived in Puntarenas and smelled like almond wood had 4 San Pedro is a district of the Montes de Oca canton, in the San José province of Costa Rica. San Pedro is in the eastern side of the capital.
5 Turrialba is a district of the Turrialba canton, in the Cartago province of Costa Rica.