You're listening to Code Switch. I'm Lori Lizarraga.

Growing up in Texas in the Lizarraga household,

there were a lot of us under one roof.

Me and my four siblings, our parents,

even Mama Ynelba, my abuela for a while.

So you can imagine quarters were tight,

and privacy was sort of novel.

Somebody even called it crowded or co-dependent as we got older.

But that was our family. Your business is my business.

And because my parents started having us all so young,

we grew up sort of knowing their stories.

The shenanigans they got into as kids,

how they met in high school,

what mommy Nalva first thought of my mom when my dad brought her home,

becoming parents before they could legally drink.

Stories that I guess made my parents more than just my parents from a really early age.

It's like that, right?

When a parent tells you something about their experiences,

something they've done,

somewhere they've been, choices they've made,

it makes them, I don't know,

more of a real person somehow,

...