Estrea Stern

**Estrea Stern** was the grandmother of Alex Stern and mother of Mira Stern. Estrea died when Alex was 9 years old. She was a devout Jew, having regularly practiced and retained her Sephardic Jewish faith and culture, speaking *ladino* and passing down a mishmash of this knowledge to Alex.

## Biography

### Early Life

Not much is known about the early life of Estrea Stern. At some point she married Alex's grandfather, who carried the Stern name and was also Jewish, and gave birth to Mira Stern.

### Later Life

Estrea Stern was a major link to Alex's Sephardic Jewish heritage and culture. Estrea regularly repeated ladino sayings and sang ladino songs. She celebrated Jewish holidays, for example lighting prayer candles at Shabbat.

Estrea's home was always a place of peace for Alex, who remembers eating snacks as her mother and Estrea argue about what to feed Alex. Estrea's home had smelled of cumin, meat roasting in the oven. Alex remembers her grandmother her peeling a pomegranate, saying a ladino prayer of thanks ("*Somos almicas sin pecado*/*We are little souls without sin*") .

She had a large distrust for pretty men, especially those who were well-dressed, believing them to be deceitful (“*Quien se prestado se vestio, en medio de la calle se quito*"). Mira once told Alex that when she brought Alex's father home to Estrea, that "he took one look at my grandmother, turned right around, and never came back." When Alex would later ask her grandmother about this after she survived her first heart attack, Estrea would compare the pretty man to a bad wind, *Mal tormento que soplo*. He was a bad wind that blew through.

*“Her grandmother had read fortunes in the leavings of Turkish coffee, bitter, dark, and so thick it seemed to take its own slow time down your gullet.” “Estrea Stern never charged for the fortunes she told. But people would bring over treats in gratitude, such as loaves of bread and sweet candies. “those same people had turned from her grandmother in the street, treated her like a stranger in line at the store,”* Although she never shied away from doing fortune tellling around Alex, she would keep from mentioning them from Mira.

### Death and legacy

Estrea likely died from heart problems when Alex was nine. Alex still keeps her grandmother's recipe cards, despite the fact they are nearly illegible.

When Alex discovers more about her powers, Alex remembers that Grays never went near her Estrea Stern's house, protected by the candles lit by the windows. She wonders where her abilities came from, and if her grandmother would have been able to protect her had she lived longer.

## Personal Attributes

### Personality

Estrea was a strong woman and was steady in nature, in contrast to her daughter who is described as flighty. Estrea took great comfort in her Sephardic Jewish faith and readily shared this comfort and wisdom with her family, although many times her repetitions of sayings was construed as superstitious.

## Relationships

### Alex Stern

Estrea loved Alex, doting over her and calling her *presiada,* precious in ladino. Estrea's death when Alex was 9 felt to Alex like a loss of that link to her cultural past. Estrea's influence on Alex despite her early death is not insignificant and Alex thinks of her fondly.

### Mira Stern

Estrea and Mira had a strained relationship. Estrea disapproved of Mira's love of magic, as the kind of magic she poured her money and energy to were lies and scams.

## References

1. ↑ *Ninth House* Chapter 12 (Winter)
2. ↑ https://www.haggadot.com/clip/408814/download
3. ↑ *Ninth House* Chapter 28 (Early Spring)
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 *Hell Bent* Chapter 18