The First Bombings

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Arminda remembers experiencing the first bombings as a child and being so curious she wasn’t even scared.

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In 1981 the bombings started, and things became very difficult because we had to go inside bomb shelters. All day or all night, depending. They bombed and bombed. You know, the first time they came we didn't know what to expect, it was our first experience. My mom and my brother were there. They killed him in 1981. He hadn't been killed yet. My mom, my brother, and all the little ones. Since we had never in our lives seen anything like that, we thought it was amusing. When the helicopter came, instead of hiding, we went out to look. We went out to see how they sprayed bullet after bullet. When we went out to see what was going on, the bullets fell on us, the big ones, fifty caliber ones. The bullets were falling and my mom said, "Come here, kids!" and she put us all in a line. That was when we were in our house in La Cañada. My mom said, "These aren't candy!" So many bullets. After that we didn't want to get close, but we didn't know what bombardment was. That was the first time. After a while, we were told not to go out, to stay in the bomb shelter, or in a trench. Everyone had their bomb shelter or trench to go into, otherwise they'd be killed.