2. What is/was your character’s relationship with their mother family like?
Rokia's grandparents immigrated from Mali when her grandfather won a green card lottery, and live near Detroit. Salif was born in Mali but they moved when he was really young so he doesn't remember it much. Rokia's mom, Fatoumata, was born in the US. She left home when she was 16 because her dad's idea of how to parent a teenage girl was pretty much "she stays home, no boys allowed but also marry young and be a housewife" enforced by corporal punishment that bordered on abusive. She came home when she got pregnant with Rokia, but ends up getting back together with the crowd she ran around with as a teenager, who've since gotten more involved in drugs and so forth, and gets kicked out when Rokia's grandpa finds out she's been using. At which point she calls up Salif, who's living in Chicago and offers her a place to stay, because he's well aware that their dad is not the easiest person to live with.
Once he gets tired of her coming in and out at odd hours and things start disappearing when Fatoumata's around, he tells her to find another place to live, but he keeps an eye on Rokia when he can. So she basically grows up in and out of the shop where he works (and then becomes manager of). They move through a series of Rokia's mom's boyfriends and various other precarious living situations until Rokia and her sisters end up in the foster system pretty soon after Kadi is born (when Rokia is 9 or so). Basically Rokia misses so much school taking care of the girls and her mom that social services starts coming around, and while it takes a while for things to get processed because the south side of Chicago isn't exactly known for effective public services, eventually the kids get taken away. (They all 3 have different fathers, none of whom are involved at all).
Rokia actually tries to help her mom retain custody, because the three girls keep getting broken up and Rokia figures okay, well, if mom has custody at least we'll be together and I can take care of the girls and it'll be fine. So she gets really mad and frustrated and confused when her mom doesn't really fight to keep them, but she keeps trying all through the process until finally mom's parental rights are terminated, when Rokia's maybe 14. She also keeps getting in trouble for sneaking out to visit Allie and Kadi when they're in different places, so while their social workers can't always keep them together they try to at least make sure they're nearby.
Sara and Matt are basically Rokia's family, too: they meet because Matt works for Sal after school, starting when he's 14 (and Rokia's 12), and Sara and Matt are friends since forever, went to school together, etc. Sara's parents immigrated from... let's say Guatemala (Sara was born in Chicago), and she has a whole extended family that's super close, a combination of documented and undocumented and US Citizen and they all look out for each other. So the idea that Rokia basically doesn't have family beyond Sal and her mom and sisters is BAFFLING to Sara, and kinda sad, and frustrating because why doesn't SAL just take the girls (because Magda, as in other universes), or Rokia's grandparents (because they're out of state, at first, and then because they don't check out because Rokia's grandfather is still not interested in accepting US childraising norms), or...just ????? Rokia on the other hand is completely overwhelmed by Sara's family and also doesn't speak much Spanish so when she goes to family things she kind of hides behind Sara the whole time.
Sara's family was initially NOT THRILLED that she was a) marrying a woman and b) not marrying that nice Rivera boy down the block his parents are so great they would get along so well they played together as kids and everyone thought etc etc etc. But they get over it by the time the girls actually get married, and Sara's mom and aunts and grandma become VERY PROTECTIVE of the two of them and look out for Rokia's sisters after Rokia and Sara leave for California/Alaska, and probably show up at Heidi and Marc's place with tamales like HERE WE FEED PEOPLE BECAUSE SAYING I LOVE YOU IS COMPLICATED.
.....and i was gonna do some other ones but then that got ludicrously long omg
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2017-06-23 04:02 pm (UTC)motherfamily like?Rokia's grandparents immigrated from Mali when her grandfather won a green card lottery, and live near Detroit. Salif was born in Mali but they moved when he was really young so he doesn't remember it much. Rokia's mom, Fatoumata, was born in the US. She left home when she was 16 because her dad's idea of how to parent a teenage girl was pretty much "she stays home, no boys allowed but also marry young and be a housewife" enforced by corporal punishment that bordered on abusive. She came home when she got pregnant with Rokia, but ends up getting back together with the crowd she ran around with as a teenager, who've since gotten more involved in drugs and so forth, and gets kicked out when Rokia's grandpa finds out she's been using. At which point she calls up Salif, who's living in Chicago and offers her a place to stay, because he's well aware that their dad is not the easiest person to live with.
Once he gets tired of her coming in and out at odd hours and things start disappearing when Fatoumata's around, he tells her to find another place to live, but he keeps an eye on Rokia when he can. So she basically grows up in and out of the shop where he works (and then becomes manager of). They move through a series of Rokia's mom's boyfriends and various other precarious living situations until Rokia and her sisters end up in the foster system pretty soon after Kadi is born (when Rokia is 9 or so). Basically Rokia misses so much school taking care of the girls and her mom that social services starts coming around, and while it takes a while for things to get processed because the south side of Chicago isn't exactly known for effective public services, eventually the kids get taken away. (They all 3 have different fathers, none of whom are involved at all).
Rokia actually tries to help her mom retain custody, because the three girls keep getting broken up and Rokia figures okay, well, if mom has custody at least we'll be together and I can take care of the girls and it'll be fine. So she gets really mad and frustrated and confused when her mom doesn't really fight to keep them, but she keeps trying all through the process until finally mom's parental rights are terminated, when Rokia's maybe 14. She also keeps getting in trouble for sneaking out to visit Allie and Kadi when they're in different places, so while their social workers can't always keep them together they try to at least make sure they're nearby.
Sara and Matt are basically Rokia's family, too: they meet because Matt works for Sal after school, starting when he's 14 (and Rokia's 12), and Sara and Matt are friends since forever, went to school together, etc. Sara's parents immigrated from... let's say Guatemala (Sara was born in Chicago), and she has a whole extended family that's super close, a combination of documented and undocumented and US Citizen and they all look out for each other. So the idea that Rokia basically doesn't have family beyond Sal and her mom and sisters is BAFFLING to Sara, and kinda sad, and frustrating because why doesn't SAL just take the girls (because Magda, as in other universes), or Rokia's grandparents (because they're out of state, at first, and then because they don't check out because Rokia's grandfather is still not interested in accepting US childraising norms), or...just ????? Rokia on the other hand is completely overwhelmed by Sara's family and also doesn't speak much Spanish so when she goes to family things she kind of hides behind Sara the whole time.
Sara's family was initially NOT THRILLED that she was a) marrying a woman and b) not marrying that nice Rivera boy down the block his parents are so great they would get along so well they played together as kids and everyone thought etc etc etc. But they get over it by the time the girls actually get married, and Sara's mom and aunts and grandma become VERY PROTECTIVE of the two of them and look out for Rokia's sisters after Rokia and Sara leave for California/Alaska, and probably show up at Heidi and Marc's place with tamales like HERE WE FEED PEOPLE BECAUSE SAYING I LOVE YOU IS COMPLICATED.
.....and i was gonna do some other ones but then that got ludicrously long omg