“That purse was always with me. It accompanied me throughout my whole life, and I still keep it. Nothing else represents the memoires I have held onto like this purse does.”
Norma grew up in Sonora, Mexico.
I was 16 years old when I used this purse. I bought it using the money I earned as a secretary. Not many like this came out at the time.
The purse, on display here, in its style and its print evokes the cosmopolitan world of fashion that Norma and her sister strongly identified with as adolescents.
I loved the style of the purse - it’s like a folded up magazine. It was very European. My sister and I loved to watch European films. For many of the films we watched together, everyone else would leave the building and we would be the last ones. We knew more about European actors , directors, and musicians than anything else. I don’t know why, but we loved that European influence. I had actually seen this style of purse in a movie, and when the style of purse came to Mexico my sister and I couldn’t believe it.
Watching movies together helped Norma and her sister to develop a special bond.
I remember that whole life when you’re young and go out. When my sister and I would go to the theater together, we would go alone. Going with other people was too distracting. We always just made it about the two of us.
Later in their lives, Norma and her sister would travel together to live in the US. Few possessions made the move along with them. The purse was one of those items.
Everything else I left behind in Mexico, but this came with me. I think this is because I associate it with my first job. It was my first purchase! So, it has a special significance for me. Out all the things I could’ve brought with me this is what made it.
Today the purse reminds Norma of the life she lived across the border with her family, especially her sister. The two had a close bond, which has since been lost.
We were together up until we were twenty years old. Then she got married and, well, I lost my companion. From then on, I didn’t go out as much, or in the same way. It was different -- all I had left was the purse after that. Today our relationship is difficult. She has a different way of life. We never got back together because too many years passed and we were not compatible any more.
This purse stores much more than money and key; it holds Norma’s memories of her and her sister.