Month: December 2019

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Day of the Innocents

Fiesta season never ends! Today, December 28, is Día de los Santos Inocentes, Day of the Holy Innocents. It is a day for all kinds of practical jokes. And beware of lending money! Tradition says money borrowed today doesn’t have to be paid back.  A person who falls for tricks on December 28th is referred to as an Inocente Palomita ~ “an innocent dove who lets himself be deceived.”

Day of the Innocents is based on a tragic biblical story and probably goes back to the Middle Ages. According to the Gospel of St. Matthew, when King Herod was warned of the birth of the “new king of the Jews” (the baby Jesus) he went into a jealous rage and sent soldiers to kill all boys under the age of two. The children killed during the rampage are known as the “Holy Innocents.” Jesus escaped death because his parents were warned by an angel and fled Bethlehem. King Herod was tricked trying to maintain control of his kingdom and the tradition of trickery continues to this day.

Neto remembers Dia de los Inocentes, 2003, as an example of  the truly diabolical Mexican sense of humor. He still laughs when he tells the story. A strong tidal wave hit the west coast of Mexico the previous October. On Day of the Innocents, the Mazatlán newspaper republished the story as if it were happening that very day. People panicked. They fled the city in huge numbers, carrying little but the clothes on their backs. They stayed hidden away until the newspaper published a retraction days later. But the newspaper never apologized. It was considered good fun to fool so many “innocent doves.”

As an American, living in Mexico, most of the tricks played on me were tricks of language. I was an Inocente Palomita. I was easily fooled! One morning as I went to breakfast with friends, someone told  me that if I wanted to order eggs, I should say, “Tiene huevones?” Because huevos means eggs, I believed I was ordering two fried eggs. The waiter stared at me with wide-open eyes. My friends at the table started to giggle, then broke out in raucous laughter. I used a slang expression that compares eggs to male anatomy. I didn’t order a two-egg breakfast. I asked the waiter, “Do you have big balls?” 

Because I don’t have any pictures of practical jokes, I am including a picture I took in Puerto Vallarta on December 28, 2014. I believe the girl on the left is giving me an obscene gesture. Maybe it is her idea of a practical joke?

These children, who spend all day selling trinkets on the street for a few pesos, are my idea of Los Santos Inocentes. They are the beautiful children of Mexico. It is a modern-day story of a baby born in poverty.

As we approach a new year, a new decade, please remember the innocent children around the world. Protect them as if they were your own. Because they are.

Feliz Año Nuevo. Happy New Year!

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Las Posadas

Las Posadas is a lovely Christmas tradition in Mexico. For nine days, from December 16-24, communities hold posadas, traditional religious plays, that commemorate Mary and Joseph’s search for a place to stay in Bethlehem before Jesus was born.

Neto is invited to multiple posadas every year. There will be posadas in his neighborhood and one at Los Colores, the Catholic meeting he attends every Wednesday night. Posadas are usually held after dark. Guests play the part of pilgrims, carrying candles to help them light their way as they go from house to house, knocking on doors asking for shelter.

One year Neto and I were in Bucerias, a small town north of Puerto Vallarta, for Christmas. We attended a posada at Los Arroyos Verdes, a beautiful ecological retreat located in a tropical rainforest on the outskirts of town. Children from the local orphanage played the main parts ~ Mary and Joseph, angels and shepherds. Mary was blind and sat on a real donkey. Those of us in the audience were divided in two parts ~ the innkeepers and the pilgrims.

There is a song that is sung at every posada, back and forth between the innkeepers and the pilgrims. The ceremony begins as Mary, Joseph and the pilgrims ask for lodging, or “posada.” The innkeepers reject the pilgrims and tell them to go away. Finally, after listening to the pleas of the pilgrims multiple times, the innkeepers sing, “Wait! It is you, Joseph, and your wife, Mary! Please come in. I did not recognize you!”

To this, the pilgrims sing, “God will repay you for your charity and fill you with blessings in heaven.” 

And then the party begins! There is a special piñata for the children ~ a seven-pointed star that represents the seven-deadly sins. Children whack away at the piñata with a stick until it is broken, representing God’s victory over the devil. Candy and trinkets fall on the ground and the children run to gather up as much as they can, scooping their loot into their outstretched hands and pants pockets.

Of course, there is plenty of food and drink. At our party, the food was pot luck. Typical Mexican foods are tamales, pozole and buñuelos, deep fried dough drizzled in syrup and rolled in cinnamon sugar. Drinks include Mexican hot chocolate, atole (a hot drink made from corn flour),  beer and shots of tequila. Neighbors often hire a band and the party lasts until early morning when it is finally time to go home.

I love the symbolism of La Posada. At Christmas, a time for candles to light our way during these dark winter nights, I am reminded of these words from the song, Light One Candle by Peter Yarrow:

“Light one candle for the strength that we need to never become our own foe.

And light one candle for those who are suffering. Pain we learned so long ago.

Light one candle for all we believe in. That anger not tear us apart.

And light one candle to find us together with peace as the song in our heart.”

¡Feliz Navidad!

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Ernesto, Huesos and the Police

When I lived in Mazatlan and Ernesto was my handyman, he often asked his friend, Huesos, to help him on jobs that required a strong back and an extra set of hands. Huesos means “bones” in Spanish. That’s his nickname because, although he is strong, he is exceptionally skinny.

Huesos comes from a wealthy family. His father paid for him to go to private schools in Mazatlán and to dental school in the U.S. But Huesos wasn’t cut out to be a dentist. He would have preferred to be a veterinarian. Or a gardener. Or anything other than a dentist.

The whole time I knew him, Huesos lived with an odd assortment of wild dogs in a homemade shelter on the hill behind my house. When he needed money, he rang my doorbell to see if I had work for him. I often hired him to sweep the courtyard and Neto looked for him whenever he needed a helper who was willing and good-natured. Huesos was both.

One day Neto and Huesos were nearly arrested taking chunks of concrete to the dump. It happened at the end of a long day, after they loaded more than a ton of concrete pieces into the back of Neto’s brother’s pickup truck. Back and forth they went, from my house to the dump, carrying load after load of heavy concrete.

On the last trip to the dump, Neto spotted a man who had a huge hole in his front yard. He stopped the truck and made a deal with the man. Instead of going all the way to the dump, Neto would give him the broken pieces of concrete to fill the hole and the man would be happy.

They started to unload concrete into the hole when the police arrived. The policeman told Neto that someone made an “environmental complaint” against him for dumping concrete. The policeman was going to take both Neto and Huesos to jail and impound the truck. Neto was not eager to go to jail and he was especially unhappy about the truck, since it wasn’t his.

Neto told the policeman he had 100 pesos (about $10.00 U.S. at the time) in his pocket and asked if he could just pay the fine right there. The policeman said that since there were two policemen on duty, the fine would be 200 pesos. If the workers didn’t have the money, they would have to go to jail.

Neto then remembered that he did, indeed, have 200 pesos in his pocket. So he paid the policeman, dumped the concrete in the man’s front yard and everyone was happy.

Sometimes it is Life’s unexpected moments of good fortune that lead to the most happiness.

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Our Lady of Guadalupe

I’ve always believed that Mexican prayers have super powers ~ especially prayers to Our Lady of Guadalupe. Mexican prayers need to be strong because Mexican luck is basically so bad. 

The festival of Our Lady of Guadalupe, December 12, is the most important religious holiday in Mexico. It is particularly important in rural areas where people have a special love of La Virgin. 

I witnessed the Our Lady of Guadalupe festival twice. Ernesto and I were in Puerto Vallarta in 2013 as thousands of peasants from the small towns and ranches marched for days to arrive at the Basilica in time for Mass. There were traditional Aztec dancers mixed with mariachi bands. Parents and grandparents carried tired children in their arms. People slept in fields and bought food along the way. By the time they arrived, they were exhausted but ecstatic. It was a Mexican celebration of hope and joy, like nothing I’ve ever seen before or since.

I was also with Ernesto in the village of Hacienda del Tamarindo in 2010 for the days leading up to the festival. Neto’s mother was born in La Hacienda and many of his relatives still live there. Those who live in the United States return every year for the feast day. We arrived on Neto’s birthday, December 5. The novena, nine days of prayer said  at the same time every day, began the day before, on December 4. At 4:30, the morning of December 6, we heard the loud boom of portable cannons, telling everyone to wake up and meet at the local church to walk through the streets and pray the rosary together before going to Mass at 5:30. The entire town was there. 

I loved meeting Neto’s family, especially his uncles Gero and Ramon, and his Aunt Valvina. Always a gentleman, Uncle Gero jumped up when I entered the room. Although he was almost completely blind, Gero held my hand as we circled the room and he introduced me to everyone there. Uncle Ramon invited us to come to his house to see an injured baby deer he rescued while he was out riding his horse. Ramon showed us how he carried the deer home in his arms. He explained that he would feed it with a bottle until it was old enough to take back to the woods where it belonged. Aunt Valvina proudly showed me her home. I saw the sewing room where she makes all her own quilts, curtains and tablecloths. I was fascinated as she demonstrated the barracho room ~ a special bedroom off the courtyard filled with bunks for people who are too drunk to be allowed into the house. The barrachos sleep together, away from rest of the family, until they stumble into the kitchen the next morning looking for fresh rolls and hot coffee.

Like most homes in rural Mexico, Valvina and Gero’s home has no heat and no hot water. It was my first experience taking a shower using only a bucket a cold water. 

Neto’s family is wonderful  to be around. Not only are they breathtakingly handsome, they are charming and full of joy. They tell the same stories and laugh every time they hear them again. When it was time to leave, Neto’s cousins wished us a safe trip home. They told Neto “We like Lynda a lot. How can we get you to bring her back here again.” Neto answered, “Hot water would help!”

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Thanksgiving ~ 2019

This week I learned that I cannot post anything on this blog that will eventually be part of my book, A Citizen of the World. Oops!! It has to do with publishing rights, something I know nothing about. Here goes another trek up the learning curve. Where are the sherpas when I need them?

So I need to broaden the scope of this blog. I will still tell you stories about Ernesto’s life and my adventures living in Mexico, but I will also include entries about whatever is on my mind for the current week.

This being Thanksgiving weekend, I’m especially thankful for some of the whacky and wonderful things that make me laugh in this season of cold, dark days. 

I’m thankful for the Canadian geese that have overtaken Denver by the thousands. I know they poop everywhere. That’s not cool. But they also make me laugh out loud. They stroll through the parks. They stop traffic as they cross the street. They sit down on the golf courses causing the golfers to play around them. Honking at them and chasing them does no good. They are an organized, if somewhat inept, bunch ~ following their leader no matter where he takes them. (I could digress into political analogies, but I won’t this time.) 

I’m thankful for all the birds that sit on the telephone wires. They, too, make me laugh. They sit there for hours, not making a sound. They don’t sing or squawk. They just sit there, quietly observing traffic, meditating and thinking their bird-thoughts as we frantically hurry to our next destination.

I’m thankful for Elf on the Shelf. Last Sunday my grandsons came to decorate my house for Christmas for the 8th year in a row. It is my favorite holiday tradition. The boys (now young men) have Christmas decorating down to a science. The whole house is done in about 20 minutes. At this rate, they could hire themselves out. It’s a lot easier than shoveling snow. 

This year, during the decorating bonanza, I asked if Elf on the Shelf was going to appear again. Max told me “No, that guy is creepy!” I don’t agree. I find Elf to be a charming spy. I like the way he changes clothes and shows up in different places around the house. I remember one year when Max was younger, he worried because Elf on the Shelf sat on their kitchen counter all year. Max figured he could be a good boy from Thanksgiving until Christmas, but expecting him to behave for an entire year was too much. No wonder he considers Elf a little creepy. 

And speaking of shoveling show, I am thankful for the day laborers, all of them from Mexico, who shovel snow throughout my HOA community. Last week, after a huge snowstorm, the men shoveled all day ~ from early morning until well past sunset. They laughed and talked to each other in Spanish until all the steps and sidewalks were cleared. They were unstoppable. I am grateful for them. They, too, make me smile.