Fiesta to Celebrate First Year in Patzcuaro!

Yesterday, Saturday, August 15, 2009, marked our one-year anniversary of living here in Pátzcuaro. We celebrated with a fiesta familiar (family party) for about 40 of our Mexican friends to thank them for welcoming us into their community. We even had a DJ and music for dancing!

A family party means multiple generations. The oldest was 80 -- the great-grandmother of our friends Sandy and Alejandro's son, Leonardo. Norma (Leo's grandmother) is my age; she has a wonderful sense of humor -- we truly enjoy chatting together! The youngest was 16-months. To my great delight, the boys (about 6-8 of them) kicked a ball around in the backyard. It reminded me of our last house on Lake Waubeeka in Danbury, CT.

Samantha, the administrator at our language school, did the cooking, which was 100% traditional Mexican -- guacamole and frizole (bean) dips for totopos (tortilla chips), pozole (chicken-corn soup), corundas, tamales, we had it all! Plus atole (a hot, corn-based drink with milk and cinnamon -- yummy). Believe it or not, I introduced everyone in Spanish by telling our "recuerdos" (memories) of the role they played in welcoming us to Pátzcuaro -- to much good-natured laughter and applause as everyone learned of everyone else's role.

What a lovely group of people -- many really didn't know each other, but by the end of the evening, they were all interacting and everyone enjoyed themselves -- especially Reed and me!

The DJ was terrific. He played traditional Mexican songs and, at our request, kept the volume down so we could converse. Everyone -- young and old -- danced and thoroughly enjoyed themselves, that was clear! Reed, of course, charmed everyone with his dancing, and he made it a point to dance with every woman! Our friend Antonio has four daughters (23-12), and it was delightful to watch him dance with them.

One traditional dance seems to go on forever -- hands up in the air, dancing "sexy" (in English, with Spanish pronunciation!), and other moves I don't remember; finally, we all made a circle and each person takes a turn in the center of the circle, demonstrating their best moves to much high hilarity. It was a kick -- an absolute kick!

Mexico Culture: Afternoon in Patzcuaro

Yesterday was such a delightful Mexican day that I want to share it with all of you! After Spanish class, I caught a cab on the street to go home. I noticed that the driver knew where I live. He said he'd driven me before with my galletitas (little cookies). I didn't pay much attention to his comment.

As we approached Estación the traffic became increasingly congested, and Federales were all over the place. Since students were hanging out in groups in the park and seemed unconcerned, I wasn't either. The driver and I thought perhaps there'd been an accident. As we prepared to make the right-hand turn onto the Carreterra Morelia, the cause of the delay became blatantly apparent: Una manifestación!

Striking protesters had hung a banner across the highway and blocked traffic in both directions! Not only was the Carreterra blocked, but the via that runs parallel to the railroad tracks in front of our house was also blocked. Kids were walking on the railroad track, but that's not an option for me, so we turned around and headed back to Centro. It was my first experience with this kind of action. I didn't know whether to be worried or to sit back and enjoy the diversion!

My driver seemed basically unconcerned as he explained that if I waited one or two hours, the protesters would melt away and I could go home. He also seemed to be highly amused by the entire episode, so I joined with him -- and we chatted away about the rather random impacts of this Manifestación! We were thoroughly enjoying ourselves playing with the situation.

A typical American -- say, like me a couple of years ago -- might have been frustrated, frightened, or even angered by the situation. But I realized that the driver was enjoying the present moment 100%. He wasn't a captive to or worried about the future. He didn't seem to have any agenda other than being with me in the taxi...chatting away about this Manifestactión and brainstorming with me to figure how I might pass the time until I could go home. After some discussion, we decided that I would enjoy a cafecito at an outdoor cafe on the Plaza Grande.

Then he announced, "You are my Bad Luck." "What?" I asked, startled.

"Yes, the last time I drove you, you forgot your bag of cookies, and I had to return to your house to bring them to you," he said.

Then I remembered -- when we had a little get-together for Kyla and Rebecca at Christmastime, I had bought good cookies from the Yolo Bakery in Centro. Absent-mindedly, I'd left them in the taxi. He had indeed returned to deliver the cookies. I ask you all, what are the odds that I would have the same driver with two events like this?

"But," I asked, "how was I able to call you?"

"I'd given you my card," he said. We had a high old time playing with the idea that I bring him bad luck!

"Wait a minute," I proposed, "Maybe you collect all your bad luck in one place, so after you drive me you have only good fortune." He loved that idea. "Perhaps," I suggested, "my name should be la Señora de la Mala Suerte."

He chuckled before countering, "No, your name should be la Patronista de la Mala Suerte."

He laughed again when I said, "Your wife is going to love this story."

By the time I got out at the Plaza Grande, we were old friends and, believe it or not, he gave me his card again! Gotta love Mexico!

P.S. The next day I found out that the protest was to attract the attention of the Municipal Government to a property dispute in Tzurumutaro, the next pueblo. Apparently two sets of owners have documents giving them title to the land. As I said before, gotta love Mexico!