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Bananas in baby food - Encyclopedia Baby food

For the last 20 years, bananas have been sold in any store. Once an expensive fruit, it is now inexpensive and already considered a local product. Since the banana is available all year round and does not have to be prepared for a child, it has won the love of many parents.

In our article you will find out when a banana is introduced into complementary foods, whether a banana can be given to children and at what age, how to introduce it into complementary foods, etc. Bananas in baby food are an excellent source of vitamins and minerals, perfect for baby's first complementary foods at 8-10 months.

What are bananas?

Contents:

Banana is a perennial herbaceous plant that belongs to the Banana family. Edible in a plant is its fruit with the same name.

There are about 500 varieties of bananas. But not all are known, and some varieties are not cultivated. The most famous varieties of bananas:

1) The most common variety is Cavendish. The fruits are 15 to 25 cm long, their peel is yellow, sometimes greenish. When the banana peel is completely yellow with brown spots, the banana has reached its maximum maturity. The black skin, soft texture of the fruit is a sign of overripeness. Worldwide consumption of bananas of this variety is much greater than that of any other fruit from the tropics. This variety is mainly imported to Russia.

2) Also imported into our country are small bright yellow fruits up to 7. 5 cm long, called baby banana or finger banana. These babies have a rich sweet taste, excellent aroma, creamy texture. They are eaten raw, baked, used in salads and other dishes. This variety of bananas is much more expensive than the others.

3) Banana Barro square, yellow skin, cream colored flesh. Can be eaten fresh or used in cooking.

4) Java Blue Banana or Ice Cream Blue Banana. This banana is small, thick, with a blue-green skin, and has a sweet, creamy taste.

5) Manzano banana or apple banana has a rich strawberry-apple flavor. Its fruits are short and plump.

6) Plantain banana is an elongated fruit with a thick skin. Depending on the stage of ripening, the peel of this banana changes shades from light green to black. The flesh of Plantain is light pink. It is used for cooking and is not edible raw. In the Caribbean and Mexico, it serves as a substitute for potatoes. Plantain is fried or stewed, and when the fruit is fully ripe, it can also be used to make desserts.

7) A red banana is sweeter than a yellow one. Ripe fruits are maroon and purple, the flesh is pink.

Banana season

Although in Russia bananas are considered to be predominantly winter treats, bananas do not have a specific season. In warm countries, it bears fruit all year round.

The climate in Russia is not suitable for growing bananas. Therefore, all bananas come through the import of these fruits. However, in the south of Russia, in Sochi and its environs, this plant is grown. The fruits do not have time to ripen, as the air temperature in winter is below 0C. Therefore, in the south, primarily bananas are grown as ornamental plants.

History of the banana

Banana is a plant known since ancient times. Its geographical origin was first determined by Academician Vavilov N.I. in his work Centers of Origin of Cultivated Plants. The banana is native to the Malay Archipelago. Initially, Malaysians ate the fruit of this plant along with fish.

Malaysians took these fruits with them on their travels in the Pacific Ocean. So this delicious delicacy has become widespread. In the XVII-XI centuries BC. in the monument of Indian culture, the Rig Veda, there are references to the banana. These are the earliest records of this plant in written sources. Since the cultivation of bananas in Russia was not possible, it was possible to taste the fruits of this plant only through its import into the country.

However, bananas do not tolerate long-term transportation: the process of fruit rotting begins at t above 14C. And only in the 19th century, when cargo ships equipped with refrigeration units appeared, did a Russian person taste a banana for the first time. But still, this exotic fruit was not available to the masses, and among those who could afford it, it was not particularly popular. Obviously, during the First World War, as well as during the Civil War, there was no time for bananas. Large quantities of bananas began to be purchased under Stalin, who fell in love with these fruits. Under him, this sweet fruit became widespread throughout the USSR.

Benefits of bananas in baby food

Bananas contain so many important nutrients that it can be considered one of the most perfect foods.

Bananas are an excellent source of the key electrolyte potassium, which is used by muscles and regulates blood chemistry and supports cardiovascular and kidney health. It also supplies the baby with vitamin A, vitamin B6, vitamin B2, vitamin C, calcium, magnesium, sodium, copper, iron and zinc. B vitamins support the health of the immune system, nervous system, hormonal levels, perform basic metabolic functions of the body, and are also necessary for the normal development and functioning of the brain.

Babies love bananas because they have a natural sweetness that intensifies as they ripen, providing kids with plenty of energy for growth and development. In addition, ripe bananas contain pectin, a soluble fiber that aids the digestive system and prevents constipation.

However, it is important to remember that unripe bananas often have the opposite effect and can cause constipation.

Fully ripe bananas are better for the baby because they contain more antioxidants than unripe fruits.

If a child is suffering from a nasty bout of diarrhea, bananas can be helpful in replacing lost electrolytes. Bananas are also included in the Brat diet to improve the condition of the child during diarrhea. Therefore, with constipation, it is best to exclude bananas from the diet.

Food allergies are due to certain amino acids that cause food intolerance or indigestion in some people. Bananas contain simple or benign amino acids that are always digestible. This makes bananas an ideal food for babies due to their easily digestible function.

And if these benefits weren't enough, then remember that bananas are excellent nutrition for children, since their consumption improves the body's absorption of calcium, which regulates bone growth and skeletal development, and plays an important role in the production of certain hormones. Bananas also contain magnesium and phosphorus, which are necessary for the skeletal health of the child, because magnesium is an extremely important element in regulating energy production within the cell, and phosphorus works closely with calcium to help build strong bones and teeth. Iron and copper, on the other hand, are essential for good blood and hemoglobin levels.

Bananas are also known as natural antacids. They are known to help protect the body from stomach ulcers and gastritis. The reason for this rare and almost unexplored fact is that bananas contain "mucilaginous oily substances" that boost natural mucus production.

When is a banana introduced into complementary foods? The most common question among parents. American pediatricians advise introducing a banana after 6 months, but our Russian pediatricians adhere to an age of 8-10 months, i.e. a banana as the first complementary food is introduced after 8 months. This is explained very simply, firstly, the banana does not grow in Russia, and is considered an exotic fruit, so an allergic reaction is possible. Secondly, the fruit belongs to the sweet fruits.

If the baby tries a tender, sweet and airy banana, then you can forget about the introduction of broccoli or zucchini into the diet, fresh food will be much more difficult than sweet. Therefore, many pediatricians advise introducing vegetables or cereals first, and only then introduce the baby to less sweet and allergenic fruits, such as a green apple.

In Indonesia, the most popular first food for a baby is a banana.

Many exotic fruits in baby food are introduced after 12 months, but bananas are an exception. Their wonderful nutritional composition, as well as easy digestion by the child's stomach and incredible ease of preparation, are especially liked by all parents. Moreover, parents like a banana for children as a first food because the fruit can be sucked, crushed, licked, swallowed without chewing. For this reason, a banana is introduced into complementary foods after 8 months, but before the child is 12 months old. However, if the child is prone to allergies, then the fruit is introduced after 12 months.

The first time a banana for children must be boiled, i. it is necessary to acquaint the baby with thermally processed fruit, for better absorption by the body. After the introduction of the processed banana into complementary foods without allergic reactions, you can introduce the baby to banana puree from fresh fruit.

Banana puree is introduced into the diet as a regular product, first the child is given a taste of ¼ of a teaspoon, then ½ tsp. and so on. Complementary foods are introduced about 4-7 days. The daily dose of a banana at 8 months is about 80 grams, after up to 12 months about 90-100 grams, the average banana weighs about 126 grams, so you can give your child half a banana for up to a year. It is not worth giving a banana often, especially at first, so the consumption rate is 2-3 times a week.

By the age of 1.5, a child can eat one medium banana per day, which is about 120-150 grams. From 3 years old, you can give 1 large banana about 200 grams per day and feed up to 5 times a week, from 6 years old you can feed your child 2 bananas per day, which is about 300 grams.

An interesting fact is that if you feed bananas to a child with a cough or cold, the symptoms of the disease increase.

For baby food, it is best to choose a ripe banana, which is more beneficial for digestion, as an unripe banana contains a lot of starch.

The Best Complementary Food

In addition to all the fantastic health benefits of the banana, it is the most favorite natural processed food for children. Fruit in the peel, which does not need to be washed, just peeled and eaten. Therefore, bananas are very popular with parents who travel often, who have little time to prepare a full-fledged second breakfast or afternoon snack. The product takes up little space in the bag, but will fill the baby's tummy by 100% and allow the baby to hold out until a full meal.

Banana Allergy

Banana is a food with a moderate degree of allergy, so it is necessary to introduce it into the child's complementary foods with caution.

Banana allergy is a hypersensitivity reaction to proteins present in the banana. An allergic reaction when eating a banana can be mild or life-threatening.

If you develop any unpleasant symptoms after taking a banana or food with a banana as a supplement, you should immediately consult a doctor.

Allergy to bananas is acceptable due to the presence of protein chitinase. The human body is unable to destroy chitinase, and this forces the immune system to work, which produces antibodies to allergens. These antibodies additionally produce histamine, which acts on various areas of the body, such as the eyes, nose, gastrointestinal tract, lungs, and skin, to cause unwanted symptoms. Such a reaction is a type 1 allergy, a type of hypersensitivity created by the immune system. Banana protein is also present in avocados and kiwis, so it's not uncommon for those who are allergic to bananas to not respond well to them.

Pollen is another possible cause of banana hypersensitivity. If the baby has an allergic reaction to birch pollen, the chances of a banana allergy are much higher. In some cases, banana allergy occurs when a child comes into contact with fresh fruit. Although cooking a banana may reduce the risk of an allergic reaction in some children.

The surprising fact is that latex can be a trigger for those who are allergic to bananas. This is due to the natural level of chitinase in the rubber tree, the sap of which is used to make latex.

Many people confuse banana allergy with banana intolerance. However, these two concepts are not the same, although the symptoms they cause are very similar. It should be noted that banana intolerance symptoms are usually milder than banana allergy symptoms. Under normal circumstances, banana intolerance can take a few days to show up. What's more, banana allergies are more associated with a weakened body's immune system, while intolerance is associated with a weak digestive system.

Interestingly, not all people are allergic to green and ripe bananas. Some may only be allergic to green bananas and enjoy the delicious taste of ripe bananas without any problem. There are quite a few people who are allergic to both types of bananas. In some cases, people have also been found to outgrow allergic reactions at some point in their lives, but this is not the case for everyone. It's always best to check with your doctor to see if your child can continue eating bananas despite some allergy symptoms.

If a child vomits after eating a banana, this is a fairly important sign of anxiety. Banana allergy in babies also causes rashes. Or, you may find that the skin around the baby's mouth is unusually reddish after eating a banana.

Urticaria, eczema or reddish spots may also appear. The sensation of itching is also often possible in infants. Sometimes the tongue becomes inflamed, and the mouth and face swell. In many cases, symptoms may appear unambiguously or additionally as problems with the gastrointestinal tract. Keep track of how your baby feels for a few hours after eating bananas. Some common symptoms are nausea, abdominal pain, diarrhea, increased gas and vomiting.

Some children may experience respiratory symptoms after eating bananas, such as shortness of breath, chest tightness, moodiness, wheezing, congestion or runny nose and cough. In severe cases, fainting is also possible.

Cooked bananas are said to be less allergic than raw bananas. When introducing bananas into complementary foods, it is necessary to follow the rule of waiting for 4-7 days.

How to choose and store bananas

In order to choose quality bananas, first of all, you need to pay attention to the appearance of the fruit: it should be smooth and matte, the color of a ripe banana is bright yellow. Black dots on the banana peel indicate that the fruit has ripened and is ready to eat. However, the presence of black spots on the peel indicates the onset of rotting of the fetus. Also, do not buy bananas with damaged peels. A grayish skin tone can be found in bananas that have undergone hypothermia.

Bananas should not be stored in the refrigerator as they darken quickly there. The optimum temperature for storing fruits is from 7 to 13 degrees. For faster ripening, the fruits need to be placed in a warmer place. Bananas are best preserved as a whole bunch. Depending on the stage of maturity, bananas keep up to one month. In winter, you should buy bananas in stores, supermarkets, hypermarkets, and not in markets, as there is a risk of finding frozen fruits in open outlets.

Pesticides and bananas

Bananas are usually labeled with manufacturer's name. In addition, bananas often have stickers with numbers on them, which can say a lot about the way bananas are grown. So, codes 4011 and 94011 indicate that these fruits are organic, without chemistry. This should be considered when buying bananas for a child. If the fruit has a sticker of five numbers that starts with the number "8", then it is genetically modified bananas. And if the beginning of the code is the number "3" or "4", then the plant was fertilized with chemical reagents and pesticides.

A shipment of bananas is treated with benzimedazole before being sent to its destination. This substance has a dual effect: it does not allow fungal infections to multiply in bananas and does not allow the fruits to ripen ahead of time.

To ripen bananas that are picked while still green and not ripe, they are treated with the so-called banana gas. Banana gas components are high purity ethylene and nitrogen. Temperature and gas push the fruits to ripen. This gas is harmless and similar to the substance that is released during the natural ripening of a banana.

Freezing bananas

I don't know why it is necessary to freeze bananas. They can be purchased at any time in any store at the best price. Although it is possible to freeze a banana, and when the child grows up, then it is necessary. To make natural popsicles, you need a frozen banana cut into small pieces.

It is best to freeze a banana cut into pieces without peel. When defrosted, it may darken slightly and have a runny consistency. You can store a frozen banana for no more than 3 months. Before freezing, you need to decide what the frozen fruit will be used for. If for baking, then it is better to peel and freeze the banana whole, if for ice cream, then peel and cut the banana into small pieces, then freeze, so it will be easier to whip it with a blender.

Banana puree darkens when exposed to air for a long time, so for freezing it is necessary to add a little lemon juice to it (if lemon is included in the child's diet). You can freeze in ice molds. You can store banana puree for no more than 1 month. You can use banana puree mixed with other fresh fruits.

Dried bananas

Dried bananas and banana chips are available at the store. Dried bananas are a dried whole product in a special way. Banana chips are a product cut into round pieces that have been dried in a fast way. Dried bananas are high in calories and high in sugar. This must be taken into account when choosing this dried fruit. Dried bananas and banana chips are great substitutes for candy, but should be given in limited amounts, especially to children under 3 years of age.

Canned bananas

In general, bananas are preserved, although I don't see the point, since bananas are available all year round in stores. But you can make jam, jam, marmalade, candied fruit, marshmallow, banana puree from a banana (sugar is used in the recipe).

Contraindications

1) Babies under three years of age should be given a banana with caution, as it is difficult for the digestive system to absorb such a product, and there is also a risk of developing allergies.

2) Eating too many bananas can lead to an excess of vitamin K. This vitamin causes kernicterus and hemolytic anemia.

3) With varicose veins, thrombophlebitis, people who have had a heart attack or stroke, bananas are contraindicated. They can lead to blood clots in people who have thick blood.

4) Since ripe bananas contain a large amount of sugar, this product is not recommended for people suffering from diabetes.

5) Bananas are not recommended for bile flow problems, as they are slowly digested.

6) Bananas can also cause increased gas and flatulence due to slow digestion.

How to cook bananas

Bananas in baby food are consumed fresh, only at the beginning of complementary foods it is given in cooked form before the product is introduced into the child's diet.

Fresh: Banana must be peeled, cut into pieces, beaten with a blender, served on the child's table.

Cooking: Peel the banana, cut into pieces, boil the banana in water or steam for 3-5 minutes, beat with a blender or mash with a fork, invite the child to try.

Baking: Put the peeled banana on a baking sheet and bake at 200 C for 20 minutes, beat with a blender, serve.

Proposed method of consuming bananas in baby food

Banana is offered fresh, at first the baby eats banana puree, later pieces of bananas, by 12 months the baby can be given a whole banana, which he will eat with pleasure.

A banana is an ideal snack for a child, which can be done on the street, in line, on a journey when it is impossible to eat fully.

The fruit is also very good for breakfast, as it provides a natural boost of energy. You can also add a banana to smoothies, cocktails, sweets, ice cream, pastries, sweet cereals, berry and fruit salad. This fruit makes an interesting sauce for meat and fish dishes.

Banana is great for finger food. It is soft and turns into a porridge in the mouth, which is easy to swallow. At first, you can give small pieces of a ripe banana, as the child grows older, you can offer larger pieces. As a result, by 12 months, the child will eat a whole ripe banana.

I draw your attention once again, we offer the child a soft ripe banana, as he can choke on an unripe product. And also when introducing a banana as a finger food into the diet, adults should always be present and help the baby if he does choke.

Many parents think how to cut a banana into long, thin pieces that are as thick as a finger and fit easily into a child's hand. This is easy to do. We remove the peel to half the banana, remove the black circle from the top of the banana, put our finger in the center and press, as a result, the banana is divided into three equal parts, we get three banana sticks equal in thickness to an adult's finger.

Keep in mind that the banana is a soft product, so the first time finger food will be in the banana. Do not worry, the baby will learn to eat it carefully, but a little later.

Banana drink

Pure banana juice is not made. Banana is mostly used in milkshakes or smoothies as banana puree combined with milk or water.

Banana ready-made baby food

Manufacturers of ready-made baby food offer a lot of banana products for babies. Basically, pure banana puree is rarely sold, as lemon juice, vitamin C, water, cream, and milk are added to the banana.

Therefore, when buying baby puree, it is necessary to carefully read the composition, if the child is allergic to dairy products or lemon juice, or if these products have not yet been introduced into the diet, then this ready-made food should not be given. I draw your attention to the fact that in Gerber, where it says “Only Banana” on the jars, there is citric acid, vitamin C and water.

Citric acid or lemon juice is needed to keep the banana puree from darkening. However, lemon belongs to citrus fruits, so it is introduced into the diet after 12 months. An allergic reaction is possible to it.

Pure banana juice is also not found, mainly this banana pulp is diluted with water and seasoned with lemon juice or acid.

As a standard for all manufacturers of baby food, there are products such as banana puree, banana nectar and apple and banana puree. As it turned out, such a combination is offered by such well-known manufacturers as Frutonyanya, Babushkino Lukoshko, Spelenok, Agusha, Umnitsa, Agu-Agu, Gerber, Heinz, Hipp, Semper, as well as little-known ones - Toptyzhka, Bibikol, Belakt, Little happiness, etc.

Manufacturers also tried and offer many interesting mixes of children's mashed potatoes, cereals, cookies, dairy products and juices:

• Puree apple-Banan-Bannoi Frutonyanya
• Puree apple-Banan-Banan-club 9000 Frutonyanya 9000
• pureur Banana-Carrot Frutonyanya
• Juice Apple-Banana-Cherry-Raspberry Frutonyanya
• Milkshake Apple-Banana-Pear with cookies Frutonyanya Kasha-Apple-Ban
  002 Frutonyanya
• Apple-Banan-Banan-Torog Babushkino Lukoshko, Auh-Agu
• Purean Banana Malin with cream Rolls
• Puree apple-Banan-Perci with creams Swan-ban. gerber
• Banana-Lesnaya berries Gerber
• Puree apple-Banan-Banan-Banan-apricot gerber
• apple-Banan-Persik-mango 9000 Heinz
• PURE-BANCA0005

  This is my earliest memory. Mom holds an old cracked mirror in front of me. I am five years old. The crack makes my face look split in two. In Mexico, there is nothing better for a girl than to be born an ugly girl.

  My name is Lady Garcia Martinez. With dark skin, dark eyes and dark curls, I look like everyone around me. As a child, my mother dressed me like a boy and called me Bob.

  “I told everyone that I was having a boy,” she confessed.

  The girl will be stolen. As soon as the drug dealers hear that a beauty is growing up somewhere in the neighborhood, they will immediately swoop in in their black jeeps, and then look for the wind in the field.

  On TV they showed how girls preen, do different hairstyles, weave pink ribbons into their hair, make up their eyes, but in our house there was nothing to think about it.

  - Knock out a couple of teeth? Mom thought.

  When I grew up a little, I began to smear my teeth with yellow and black felt-tip pen to make it look like they were rotten.

  “There is nothing more disgusting than a gapped mouth,” my mother suggested.

  Paula's mother thought of digging holes in the ground. She lived opposite us in her own house with a papaya garden.

  My mother used to say that our state of Guerrero is a rabbit yard full of holes and shelters.

  As soon as someone's ears were touched by the sound of an approaching SUV or a black dot appeared on the horizon, or even two or three at once, the girls scurried to the shelters.

  Such was life in the state of Guerrero. In the sultry land of ficuses, snakes, iguanas and scorpions - whitish-transparent scorpions, almost invisible and deadly. Spiders from all over the world seemed to crawl to us in Guerrero. And more ants. Red ants whose bites make arms as thick as thighs.

  “We used to be proud of the fact that in anger and meanness we have no equal anywhere in the world,” my mother said.

  When I was born, my mother announced to the neighbors and women in the market that a boy had been born.

  - Praise the Lord, he gave me a son! she repeated.

  — Yes, glory to the Lord and the Blessed Virgin Mary! - everyone picked up, although no one believed her.

  Only boys were born on our mountain, and only by the age of eleven some of them hatched into girls. These girls had to mutilate themselves and from time to time sit underground.

  We hid like rabbits when a starving wild dog roams the field, saliva dripping from his tongue with anticipation of the prey. Warning fellows about the danger, the rabbit drums on the ground with its hind paw. We could not exchange signals because we lived apart, at a distance from each other. But we have always been on the alert and have learned to listen to what is happening in the distance. Mom bowed her head, closed her eyes and tried to recognize in the chaos of sounds the roar of an engine or the squeak that birds greet any car.

  Nobody returned. None of the abducted girls came back and didn't even send news, mother lamented, even news. None but Paula. She reappeared a year after her disappearance.

  Paula's mother never tired of telling us about how her daughter was taken away. And suddenly, one day, Paula returned. Seven stud earrings climbed up the rim of her left ear in an arc of blue, yellow, and green beads. A tattoo encircled her wrist: The Cannibal's Daughter.

  Paula just came down the highway and up the path to her house. She walked slowly, looking at the ground, as if the path to her native threshold was marked with pebbles.

  “No,” my mother said, “pebbles have nothing to do with it. The poor girl could smell where her mother was.

  Paula went to her room and lay down on the bed, still covered with soft toys. She didn't say a word about what happened to her. We only knew that Paula's mother fed her from a pacifier, sat her like a little one on her knees and gave her a bottle of milk. Paula was then fifteen years old, because I was fourteen. Paula's mother also bought Gerber baby food and shoved it into her daughter's mouth with a white plastic spoon from coffee, which she somehow drank in the OKSO store at a gas station on the highway.

  — Did you see? Have you seen her tattoo? Mom asked me.

  - Yes. And what?

  - Do you know what that means? She is tied. Lord Jesus Christ, save us and have mercy.

  No, I didn't know what that meant. Mom did not want to explain to me, but later I found out. I couldn't wrap my head around how a man could be kidnapped from a mountain hut by a shaven-headed drug dealer with a machine gun in his hand and a grenade in his back pocket, and then sold like a bag of minced meat.

  I was looking out for Paula. I was eager to talk to her. She did not leave the house, but after all, we used to be bosom friends, along with Maria and Estefania. I wanted to wake her up, to help her remember how we, dressed as boys, stomped together on Sundays to church, and then our names were Bob and Paulo. I wanted to evoke in her the memory of the times when we looked at TV magazines together and she admired the luxurious dresses of movie stars. I also wanted to know what happened to her.

  Everyone knew that in our part of Guerrero there was no girl more beautiful than Paula. Even the beauties from Acapulco, people said, were no match for her, and that meant something, because all the glamor was going to Acapulco. They talked and talked and agreed.

  In vain did Paula's mother stuff rags under her dresses, trying to disguise her as a fat woman, the rumor that less than an hour's drive from Acapulco, in a house surrounded by a garden, lives with her mother and three hens a girl who surpasses Jennifer Lopez in beauty, spread around the district . Trouble was unavoidable. Sooner or later, but it would happen. Although it was Paula's mother who came up with the idea of ​​hiding the girls in the pits, which everyone did, she did not save her daughter.

  A year before Paula was kidnapped, there was a wake-up call.

  Early one morning, as Paula's mother, Concha, was feeding her three hens dry bread, she heard the rumble of an engine from the road. Paula was still fast asleep. She lay in bed, cleanly washed, with a long black braid wrapped around her neck.

  Paula wore an old white cotton T-shirt hanging below the knees with blue lettering on the chest. She also wore pink thongs.

  - It's better to have a bare ass than some kind of shame! my mother told me.

  So, the bandit broke into the house right to the sleeping Paula.

  According to Concha's stories, she was just feeding the hens, her three chicks who had never laid a single egg in her life, when she noticed a light brown BMW crawling up the narrow path. For a moment she thought it was a bull or a wild animal that had escaped from the zoo in Acapulco, so she did not expect to see a machine the color of cocoa with milk.

  Drug dealers, in her mind, always came in black jeeps with dark windows, which seem to be forbidden, but what's the point: everyone puts them in so that the cops don't look inside.

  “These are their black cars with black windows, full of bandits and machine guns, just like a Trojan horse,” my mother often repeated.

  How did mother know about Troy? Where could a simple Mexican woman living with her daughter in the middle of nowhere, from where Acapulco is almost an hour away by car and four hours on a mule, could hear about Troy? Everything is very simple. The only gift my father gave her when he returned from the States was a small satellite dish. Mom loved the history shows and Oprah's talk shows. [The Oprah Winfrey Show is a talk show that has aired on American television since 1986 to 2011.] In our house, next to the altar of the Virgin of Guadalupe, there was an altar of Oprah. Only her mother didn't call her Oprah. She couldn't figure out what the name was. Mom said Opera. Opera this, Opera that.

  In addition to the history and Oprah shows, we've probably seen the movie The Sound of Music a hundred times. Mom closely followed the program so as not to miss it.

  Concha told her story about what happened to Paula every time in a new way. Therefore, only God knows how everything really was there.

  The drug dealer who came to Concha's house before Paula's abduction had one intention - to get a good look at the girl. Make sure people don't lie. People didn't lie.

  So Paula was kidnapped.

  There were no men on our mountain. And living without men is like living in a desert.

  “It’s like having one hand,” my mother said. And then she corrected herself: “No, no, no. Surviving without men is like sleeping and not dreaming.

  Our men went across the river to the States. They splashed over the wet stones, for some time they wandered waist-deep in water, but, finding themselves on the other side, they died. They washed themselves in this river from their wives and children and perished in the great cemetery of the USA. Mom turned out to be right. At first they sent money, announced a couple of times, and then disappeared completely. So on our land there was a handful of women who worked hard to feed themselves. There were no other men around, except for those who drove around in jeeps, rushed on motorcycles and appeared from nowhere with AK-47 over their shoulder, with a bag of cocaine in the back pocket of their jeans, a pack of Marlboro-red in the breast pocket of their shirt and wearing dark glasses.

  ---

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