Minda Suson Chavez Colinares

Photo by Joshua Albeza Branstetter for Mana, with archival images courtesy of Pearl-Grace Pantaleone.

My lola, Minda Suson Chavez Colinares, is the ultimate matriarch of my family. We live and breathe around her. She is the strongest, fiercest, and most kind-hearted person I know. She also makes the best lumpiang Shanghai ever. I’ve never met anyone so kind. She is a role model for the whole family.

Born in 1946 in Cebu, Lola always knew she wanted to be a mother. She had seven children with my Lolo Jr. (who passed in 2017): six daughters (one transgender) and one son. She sadly lost her only son at 12 months old to the flu. She waited in line at the clinic for a day with him burning hot in her hands only to be passed by people who had insurance and money. 

She gave birth to her fourth daughter in the street. She was so far away from the hospital, her friends helped pull the baby out. 

Once while walking her two daughters to the ocean, which served as their bathroom, she caught a stray bullet in her leg. They heard loud bangs and then saw blood dripping down from her leg. If you ask her today, she’ll lift her pants and show you a protruding lump on her leg where the bullet still lays. 

She was petitioned to America in 1987 and brought all six daughters with her, wanting a better life for her family in Juneau, Alaska. Fast forward to today, she has 12 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren in Anchorage, Alaska, and the family celebrates at least two birthdays each month expect March.

Now legally blind and in her late 70s, she watches her great-grandkids every week, is the first and last person on the “disco” floor, and has never missed creating a group chat at 6 a.m. saying happy birthday to all her children, sons-in-law, grandkids, and great-grandkids.