My name is Sara.
I was born in Istanbul in 1954, many many years ago.
It was a day of Passover and my mother would tell us that she first fried the little bimuelos and then took her suitcase, which was ready, and she left, by walking, for the hospital which was not very far, it was very close
and a little girl was born. She wanted a little boy because she had a sister.
She really wanted a little boy.
Now, my name is Sara because my maternal grandmother, my mother’s mother, was called Sabrina, Sara.
That is how it goes where we are from, the first daughter takes the name of the father’s mother, the second daughter the mother’s mother’s (name).
The same thing for boys: the first little boy is called like his father’s father and the second one like his mother’s father.
Now, they do not give the very same name each time.
Or for my sister, when my sister was born, they would tell us, my mother would tell us that the godmother asked her: “how do you want to name her?”
“Well my mother in law is called Reveka”.
“Oh Reveka… it is an old people’s name”.
“Rivka?”
“Hmm... that too. Give her a name that is a bit more modern. Call her Beki.”
“Oh, Beki”. My mother liked that, or maybe it was my father, I don’t know, or it could be my grandmother I don’t know.
My mother liked it and they called her Beki.
When I was born, I know… my mother would tell me “I was thinking Sabrina so that it wouldn’t be Sara, an old people’s name. Sabrina, or Sandra.
In the end they decided to call me Sara.
It could be because I was my maternal grandmother Sabrina’s first grandchild to take her name. She then had other grandchildren. I was the first one.
Now, in my house they spoke Djudio.
We would say Djudio or Spanish.
Judeo-Spanish, Judeo-Español, no, no. We wouldn’t say Judeo-Spanish. Now they are saying Judeo-Spanish but at the time we would say Djudio or Spanish.
At home they spoke djudio: my mother, my father, my sister who was small.
When I was born, she was 4 years old.
Now, until what, until when I spoke Djudio, and only Djudio, I don’t know, I don’t remember.
I don’t remember when I learned Turkish, where I learned Turkish, with whom I learned Turkish I don’t know.
What I know: when I was six and a half years old and I started going to primary school, I already knew Turkish, I knew Turkish well. How, I don’t know.
And with time, I stopped, I didn’t speak Djudio anymore.
I didn’t want to speak in Djudio anymore. I wanted to be Turkish, like the Turks. “I live in Turkey, I must speak Turkish”, I would say.
And my father and my mother talked to me in Djudio and I would talk to them in Turkish.
Then I learnt other languages when I had been speaking to them in Turkish.
Today, it is very interesting. When we were small, I think that my sister and I spoke to each other in Djudio, when I spoke in Djudio, I would speak in Djudio with her.