Kinda went crazy with the “María & her Abuela on their farm” headcanons lmao. We can all blame @fuckmeyer for joining and indulging me in my María obsession lolz. Y’all can also enjoy a last-minute, aesthetic, mini-moodboard of María, as a treat. 😘❤️
• María’s abuelita is a very gracious woman. She can be very firm/harsh, stubborn, tough as nails, and religious but extremely loving in her own way. She’s warm and hospitable. She always keeps things clean and she will feed just about anyone. But she has two conditions: 1) Don’t track outside in her house. & 2) Don’t even TRY to play her for a fool.
• María gets most of her knowledge and traits from her Abuelita. María is not as religious as her grandmother was but she is very spiritual in her own way. She uses a LOT of her abuela’s old remedies, rituals, and skills that would get her branded a witch lol. She realizes how right her abuela was about everything even after so many years… she realizes that’s where she gets it from.
• Her Abuelita is the smartest woman she’s ever met. She knows a little something of everything. She’s also very grounded. María had a hard time acting on her impulsiveness when she was with her bc she was always there to keep her in line lol. María loved her grandma and would do anything for her but that didn’t stop her from being a wild child sometimes.
• “¡Dios mío, María! ¡Eres peor que tu padre!”
• María never knew whether to laugh or stay silent whenever her Abuela fussed at her lmao bc sometimes her Abuela was just as playful as she was.
• They didn’t have much after María’s parents were murdered. But María was just fine with what she had. In her mind, all she needed was mama ‘nahui. (I hc her grandmothers real name was Chiconahui.)
• María used to run away from home and go to tita ‘nahui whenever things became too much for her and she could no longer stand being around her parents. She loved them dearly but sometimes they were a little too much. She’d usually stay with her grandma for 2-3 days before going back to her parents. Her parents never bothered when María ran away. They knew where she was going…
• “You know where your room is mija” is all her abuela would say whenever she opened the door to her small, big-eyed grandchild standing there with nothing but her stuffed animal in one hand and the clothes on her back. María’s abuela always made sure she saved a room for her grandchild at her house.
• Eventually, it got to a point where she no longer needed to open the door for her. She would come back home from town to see María sitting in her chair… waiting for her. She never told her how she’d sneak in but grandma didn’t care anyways. María was her grandbaby and she was her pride and joy.
• “You’re smart and crafty like your ‘bela.” She’d tell her.
• When María was a baby still learning to speak. She’d always called her grandmother “bela”. Everyone knew she was trying to say “Abuela” and her grandmother thought it was the cutest and sweetest thing ever. Every time she came around María’s eyes lit up. She’d shout “bela!” and reach up for her or run to her.
• María’s room at her grandma’s slowly started filling with more dresses and skirts… her grandmother making them by hand, knowing she’d come back soon to wear them lol.
• But there would come a day where María would have to stay with her Abuela for the rest of her human life…
She could no longer go back to her parents. She ran to Abuela and never looked back… she couldn’t look back. What she’d seen, what was left of it. There was nothing she could go back to… No one she could go back to…
• María doesn’t speak or eat for the first 3 days of her permanent stay with her Abuela. This killed her Abuela’s spirit. It hurt her heart to see the child (her own grandchild no less) with ‘‘that look’’ in her eyes. On the 4th day tho, she makes María something to eat that she simply cannot refuse. Her favorite food made by the person who makes it in the best way. The smell of it cooking is what brings María out of her shell-shock.
• The first thing María says to her Abuela is an apology… but ‘nahui knows she’s not only apologizing for not eating her food for the last few days… she apologizing for ~everything~ that happened. As if everything that happened was her fault… as if she expected anyone let alone her gramother to believe this tiny brown child could have been responsible for the tragedy that befell them, and that it was her duty to save them… This breaks her further.
• She holds her all night, “you’re strong querida, but you’re not invincible. There are things that just happen out of our control. We just have to learn to play with the cards we are dealt with.”
• María learns so much from living with her abuela. Not only about her culture but also how to manage and maneuver around life. It’s harder for them but they always make it by. “It is with time, experience, and especially the struggles that we learn as much as we do vida mía” Her abuela tells her one day when María asked her how she knew so much.
• María learns the ways of Abuela’s farm very quickly. She’s happy to have something to do to keep her mind off of other things and focus on the work. She takes a particular liking to the garden, the animals, and making clothes with Abuela. Cleaning up the waste, gutters, & drains, fixing the fences, and trimming the hooves of the one horse they had were not favored by her, but she did them anyways.
• She loved doing all the work with her Abuela though, but when she notices her breathing become more labored and her grunts become more pronounced. María would shoo her away. María’s biggest concern was keeping her grandmother alive… she was all she had left. She didn’t want her straining herself; but mama ‘nahui was stubborn and María knew this… it’s where she got her own stubbornness from. So even tho her grandma would sit down, she’d never leave her out there alone unless she had to cook or go into town…. Eventually María took over those duties too.
• Over time, her Abuela trusted María enough to be left alone to do her ‘chores’. She’d been taught to do it “the right way” (per Abuela’s words) for long enough… but she still always kept an eye on her, periodically looking through the windows whenever she was out there on her own. Sometimes she’d sit on the back porch and watch out for her.
• ‘nahui didn’t expect to end up raising her little nieta all alone in her old age, but she can’t say she’s not happy to have extra help around since the death of her husband. Especially with María being so young and having so much energy. However, that didn’t stop her from worrying. Worrying about María’s future, her mental state, her feelings, her life… What would María do if something were to happen to her? She’s not getting any younger….
• María always ignored these concerns but deep down, she thought about them too. She knew that being as wild as she can be at times only made her grandmother worry even more. Her grandmother didn’t want her getting into any trouble, but that didn’t stop the trouble from coming anyway.
• María would do anything to protect her grandmother… and that anything included fighting people who were bigger and stronger than both of them. María never cared. Especially not when she blacked out. She may not be intimidating in size or strength but that never minimized her danger level. She knew how to use what she had to gain any advantage she could take, and the thieves who tried to take over the last thing she had left -thinking it would be easy- would find this out the hard way.
• María had always been that way. Even when she was a small child she always defended her ‘bela’ from anything or anyone that bothered her, especially when they were in town. Just imagining a tiny old woman with an even tinier María shouting at someone who’d been hassling them is so 😭💖
• Aside from that, María really liked going into town with her Abuela to buy and sell. She had a small crush on the man who ran the fruit stand and she thought the flower seed lady was one of the most beautiful women she’d ever seen. She’d never tell a soul about this tho. Whenever her grandmother teased her about it she’d just deny everything and hide her face.
• María and her Abuela sold jewelry, rebozos, dresses, sandals, and sometimes food when they could. This is mainly where Abuela taught María the art of selling, persuasion, and manipulation. They always had the “authentic” stamp of approval on their products bc they personally made everything they sold, something that buyers (especially the foreign ones) loved. Mama ‘nahui adored María’s creativity in what they made together, her ambitious nature, and her sponge-like ability to soak up all the knowledge/lessons she gave to her. Having María around really helped them sell more of their stuff around town.
• The idea to sell Abuela’s best food dishes came from María. Her grandmother didn’t expect to have as many sales as she did on the first day. But she didn’t know María had previously went around town raving about her Abuela’s food and how she’d be selling some soon. “They love your cooking just as much as I do ‘bela.” She told her. They couldn’t always sell food considering they had so much else to do and also had to feed themselves.. but when they could, they always enjoyed it. Cooking with her Abuela will forever remain María’s favorite activity. She’d give anything to do that with her again.
• When Vampire!María felt ‘secure’ in her territory, she created a garden. In that garden exists a memorial for her Abuela.
• Later, when the wars have died down and María finds herself spending more time at the Whitlock Ranch as she begins to heal… (per me and @light-miracles hc) she starts a garden and she makes sure to add another memorial for mama ‘nahui.
• Both of her memorials for her Abuelita are surrounded by herbs and plants that would be used for medicinal purposes. (<—This part is courtesy of @fuckmeyer) Her Abuelita’s favorite flower borders the herbs.
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