Doña Benita
It was on a hot Saturday of August. The 27th, to be exact. I set up the alarm at 5 am, had coffee, and hit the road with my Dad and a trailer. The destination: Orlando. The purpose: to bring home a new member of the GG Press family. Even though this was not my first experience purchasing old big printing presses, it was indeed the first time I'd picked it up myself.
The trip up north from Miami normally takes around 3 hours and a half. But for us it took around 5 hours. Six wheelers were passing us by as if they were Ferraris.
Here is a picture of the trailer...
We arrived around 11:30 am to our destination. I was so thrilled! Jim, the guy who sold me the press, was there waiting for us. The printing press, a Chandler & Price from the mid 1950's, was in mint condition and with all the perks needed to just plug it in and start printing. I was so happy and felt very lucky to have found such a treasure so fast. Jim also gave me a bunch of stuff, which I'll post on a separate blog very soon. Hang in there!
While uploading the press into the trailer, we started chatting. And that's how I discovered that Jim had already put a name to the press: Big Ben. How was I supposed to change that name into a Venezuelan woman's name?
And that's when Jim's wife gave me an idea... Why don't you call her Benita? (Got it? From "Ben" of "big Ben"). It was a good idea. I tried searching for famous Venezuelan women called Benita with no luck. So I came up with an idea myself. Let me present to you Doña Benita Guaicamacuto...
With Benita already in place, I needed a last name to give her a Venezuelan identity. Guaicamacuto is the name of an indian Cacique and also the name of the building were we used to live back in Caracas and where my two kids were born. The Cacique Guaicamacuto was clever, intelligent, and a very good negotiator. He fought against the Spaniards but he ended up negotiating a peace treaty for the well-being of his tribe. Guaicamacuto has a nice story that I'd love to share with you. He protected and adopted an indian girl named Urimare, who was previously abducted by an Englishman, escaped and was again made prisoner by Spaniards, but managed to escape again. In her last escape she found protection under Guaicamacuto. Eventually, he gave her enough power to become the first Cacique woman in Venezuela.
Hope you like this small piece of history and Doña Benita, a new family member for Doña Bárbara.
