Otilia Blue has resided in Chandler for twenty-three years, and she has lived with her family on Kesler Lane for twenty years.  She emigrated from El Salvador, northwest Central America, in 1985 to Los Angeles and came to Chandler in 1993.

Otilia’s mother’s name is Josephina Lopez de Perez and her father’s name was Santos Perez.  He is now deceased. Her husband’s name is Roberto Blue, and he managed apartments and trailer parks. “We are not now together and he lives in Las Vegas, Nevada,” she said. Otilia helped Roberto in his work, when he lived in Chandler. She also works for herself at Chandler-Gilbert Community College in cleaning maintenance to help support her family. She has seven children.  Five were born in El Salvador and two of her children were born here in the United States. All seven of her children live here in Chandler or in the East Valley. She said, “I have four sons: Herminio who lives in Chandler; Nelson lives in Gilbert; Patrick lives here with me in Chandler; and Larry lives in Chandler. I have three girls:  Margarita (oldest) lives in Chandler; Cristabel (second oldest) lives in East Mesa; and Dorothy (youngest of the girls) lives in Chandler.”  Cristabel, her daughter and a grandson named Joseph were visiting Otilia in her home during her interview.

Otilia’s mother lives in El Salvador. However, it seems that Otilia intends to stay here in Chandler, as she became a U.S. citizen in 2007. She is happy here and Otilia keeps busy with her housework and with her church participation in Iglesia de Dios Vida Nueva (Church of God New Life) headed by Pastor Harry Correa. In addition, she has plenty to do with her job at Chandler-Gilbert Community College, and with her shopping at Wal-Mart., “Sometimes we shop at 35^thAvenuein Phoenix,” she added.  For entertainment, she said, “I watch T.V. like Channel 39.1, Telemundo. I see the news, People’s Court.”

When asked about food, she said, “We like Mexican food and I make it. For festivities, I make typical foods of El Salvador like tamales, pupusas. Pupusas combine corn meal kneaded into a dough, like for tortillas, and mixed with white cheese like Monterey or Mozzarella with Loroca, a flower from Central America cut up and mixed with the cheese inside a ball of masa or dough.”   She said, “I purchase our tamales at Rancho Market. I also make my own tamales. For example, chicken tamales placed in Recaudo, cooked as masa, wrap the masa in banana leaves and put to cook.  I also prepare repollo or cabbage that is thinned out, mixed in warm water with jalapeño chili and with oregano, and served as a cold slaw.”  She buys her banana leaves at Food City or El Rancho Market.

When asked about beverages, she said that she makes atole, a thick liquefied drink made from corn meal, canela or cinnamon sticks, and cashew nuts, cooked with milk. “We also drink hot chocolate. It depends on what we celebrate, if during cold weather, we drink hot chocolate. However, in summer time, we drink horchata called Fresco, made of rice with cinnamon and mor’ seed ground up, and we make into Colado.” Frescos are drinks made from fresh fruits like mangos, oranges, grapes, strawberries, and other fruits and out of cooked rice with cinnamon sticks.

Otilia submitted a recipe for cooking Papusas de Queso: