We received Donn's letter and pictures and were interested in his
mention of the Chochinilla He mentioned that it was a beetle to
make a beautiful dye. I told Naoma that the Chochinilla was so
small that we could not tell whether it was a beetle or not. We
went out to what is left of our Prickly-pear cactus to examine the
Cochinilla which had over a period of years destroyed our big
beautiful Prickly-pear plant. Naoma got a good magnifying glass to
examine the tiny creatures.
When we went out to the plant it was all gone except one prickley
pear leaf and several heavy stocks. Naoma found many white patches
of Chochinilla on the different parts of the plant. They were
slowly sucking the life out of that 50 year old plant. Naoma
mashed several spots of white with her finger and produced a
beautiful purple maroon dye on her finger and the plant. When she
examined the tiny bugs with a magnifying glass she could not tell
anything about them, because they were so small.
Over fifty years ago we received a box of prickly leaves from down
south which we planted and nurtured for years. They froze down in
the winter until the plant became climatized and finally could
endure our freezing weather. All through the years that plant
produced an abundance of big white delicious prickly pears. We
would peal them and put them in the refrigerator to cool. They
were a delicious sweet unique tasting fruit. We had to eat them
seeds and all without chewing up the seeds. About fifteen years
ago I was reading an interesting paper about the Aztecs and their
culture. I read about how the Aztecs kings raised Cochinilla and
used it for a beautiful purple dye to dye their cloth. Not to long
after reading about these wonderful little Cochinilla that
produced that beautiful dye we found several leaves of our
prickley pear plant covered with the white Cochnilla. We curiously
mashed the white stuff with our fingers and produced a bright
purple maroon dye. We curiously did not do anything about the
Cochinilla until it started to kill the leaves of the plant. Then
we tried to wash them off with a swift stream of water from the
hose. This was successful for awhile, but the Cochinilla always
came back even stronger and more numerous than before. Then we
tried poison but the the Cochinilla always managed to return. Now
that big prickly Pear Plant that fills the front lawn and was as
high as the house is down to one leaf and a few heavy stocks.
Ventura brought us some leaves of the red sweet prickly pear and
planted them on the south side of the pump room. They have grown
up and produce delicious fruit year after year. Ventura has washed
a few spots of Cochinilla off this plant. The Cochinilla do not
seem to like the taste of this variety, as much as they do the
white prickly pear. We are hoping that we can control this
terrible pest of the Cochinilla, so that we can continue to
produce prickly pears for our use. What we thought was a useful
and interesting animal to produce dye It has now become deadly
pest, with which we have lost the battle on our delicious white
prickly pear plant. For many years that plant gave us an abundance
of fruit and of nopalitos, which are the tender leaves of the
plant. We would take these leaves and burn off the slivers and
dice it up and cook it for a very good food. We would use it in
different ways but our favorite was to use it in scrambled eggs a
la Mexicana. In Mexico nopalitos are a very popular and healthy
food.
Maby Chochinilla can be called a beatle but to us it is just a
fungus like pest. All things were made for the use of man, but
like weeds when they are out of place, they become a pest that
take alought of work to get rid of. Just like a horse when you
have work for him and a good place to keep him, he is a very
useful animal. When you have to keep him confined, and buy all of
his feed, he becomes an extravagant and expensive hobby.
We wanted to use this little narrative to use as a way to write
you all a letter and let you know that we are still alive and
well. We are enjoying working together on the computer. We are
making a special copy of all of our letters and e-mails we have in
our computer. We are putting them in a big folder in alphabetical
order to preserve them in a special folder. They will be available
in writing when the CD players are not around any more. Things are
changing so fast that we decided to do all we can to preserve our
work and histories. This has become a big project because we have
over a hundred and fifty different stories and e-mails apart from
our personal histories. It is a good way to keep us busy and gives
us something meaningful to keep our minds and memories going.
We send our love and greeting to you all and express our love. We
think of you often and remember you in our prayers. Love, Dad
& Mom. c