Then there's my own mother-in-law, Doña Cata. Also giving birth to 7 kids, 6 surviving, during the worst years of Guatemala's 36 years of civil war. When she should have been able to build her home, garden, care for her amazing kiddos, she was fleeing her village, living a few years as a refugee in Mexico, and dealing with doosey of a husband (3 extramarital kids). The minute I met Doña Cata, before she was my suegra and before I was in love with her son, I liked her. She is a woman of few words, doesn't like to dance and makes me laugh. These days her 6 kids are pretty much grown and on their own. She lives in a very hot, humid, tropical climate as well, and for most of her life without electricity (they just got electricity again in Xalbal in January after 3 years of being without because the whole town was against the policies of the utility company). Doña Cata raises animals, tends to her tiendita, and has a molino, a corn grinder where neighbors come to grind their corn for tortillas, tamales, etc. She never learned to read or speak Spanish. What she does know has been self-taught over the years; her kids helped her set up her little store with a little notebook to keep track of sales using some basic math. Anyway, I think she is awesome.

They are both awesome women.