Response to a letter from John!

KUMQUAT!

What a coincidence that you have the same name as John Keats!  Incredible how the poem (¨A Kumquat for John Keats¨, by Tony Harrison), keeps rhyme all the way through!

We have two Kumquat trees here.  One is at Mustang Ranch (our little countryside house), and was planted by Pascual´s parents some 65 or more, years ago!  It is an old tree and has a lot of kumquats.  The other tree is at the kid´s house.  We gave it to Pascual for father´s day one year.  I found it at a neighborhood plant store and bought it because Pascual introduced me to the fruit when we were young in our relationship.  We made them in conac and laughed about it when we ate them.

The day we bought the tree, Pascual came from his brother-in-law´s house where they had given a similar tree with flowers on it (but I think it was an orange tree or something) to his brother-in-law.  Pascual was shocked to see another tree for him and amazed at the casualty!  He felt he had gone crazy or something!

Sometime later, the tree got a tree disease and it didn´t have even one leaf on it.  I was about to throw it away, when the plant man told me to use a special insect spray he had.  I sprayed the plant, moved the dirt around it, put more good loose dirt, gave it water, and prayed for it.  It resuscitated, and so now it is our resurrection tree, which goes well with Pascual´s name, which means ¨Easter¨ in latin (or so the Carmelita nuns taught us when I was a young child). 

I gave the name ¨Pascual¨ to my son who we call by his second name, ¨Angelo¨.  Easter has always been a very special occasion for me, and I have come to believe even more faithfully in it and the conversion of humaity, as I get older!  The name is much of the reason I went with Pascual when we met in 1975.  In Argentina there was a very difficult political situation.  The University, UBA, had been closed, there was not much opportunity for young people and Pascual went backpacking through South America.  I was a student at a branch from the University of New Mexico, studying Spanish to be a teacher and maybe writer some day!  We met and both of our plans changed drastically.

Well, the trees still produce much fruit and the plan is to take the one that is here in Buenos Aires to Mustang Ranch, where we plan to spend much more time too.  It is in a huge pot, but needs more room!  Maybe it will even be re-born once again!  I don´t have much hope for Pascual, although life has given me many blessed surprises.  He is what he is, basically a good person, but with a very Italian personality.  Angelo, on the other hand is my hope for all mankind, as are all my children!!! 

Oh, I also chose the name ¨Pascual¨ for Angelo because the name has been in the family for many, many generations!  Some people believe that if you invoke a name it brings the essence of the name into being!  Let´s hope this can happen.  I am convinced this is so!

The height of the Kumquat´s season coincides with the Lunar New Year (Chines New Year).  The plant symbolizes good luck in Asian countries.  They are kept as houseplants and are common gifts during the Lunar New Year.  The flowers symbolize prosperity, and are used to decorate during the New Year celebrations.  They give much fruit, are resilient and can be bonsied.  The kumquat appears early in Chinese and other Literature.