T-day in México

I've invited my whole English department for a little cultural event at my house this Thursday.  They are coming after work; I am taking the day to cook.  Can't any American cook a turkey?  I hope so! Here's a running diary of the experience:

Oct 30- See ad on Cuernavaca expat listserv for organic turkeys. 

Nov. 8 - Decide to buy organic turkey.  Email contact, who asks me to pay for half upfront and the rest when we get the turkeys.  Is this something I would do in the States? I decide to go for it.

Nov. 9- Regina and I are truly not sure what day T-day is.  This goes on for some time, until a few days later we look at our American calendar.  Oh.  

Nov. 11- Meet turkey contact, who turns out to be a dynamic mom of 3 bilingual kids.  She is married to a doctor who is currently in Geneva.  I think this will turn out ok.  I hand over

 my 200 pesos. 

Nov. 14 - Plan menu, revise yams for a salad, since I can't find raw yams anywhere (I've looked in 2 towns).  Remind myself I will need to go to at least 4 stores to find everything.  

Nov. 22 - Guest list is up to 7.

Nov. 23 - Tianguis (store #1): buy veggies. Discard salad idea. No sage to be found.  Store #2: Look for turkey and pie pans and sage.  No luck.  Store #3: Find flimsy turkey pan.  Buy potato chips and beer - I'm going to need them this week. Start to worry about stuffing. 

Nov. 24 - Coffee/kitchen supply store (store #4) sells me a meat thermometer.  Espresso, frying pans, and meat thermometers- my kind of store! 

Costco (store #5) run for wine, butter (scratch that - all they have is unsalted), and of all things pumpkin pie!  I feel mildly pathetic for buying a Costco card, but the idea of being able to take pumpkin pie to my kiddos  makes me feel less pathetic.  

Turkey connection emails; the bird lands tomorrow, NOT Wednesday as originally scheduled. The pies suddenly look like a problem.  

Nov. 25 -  Eat potato chips and drink beer while waiting to pick up turkey.  

Regina goes to store #6 for butter and yams. 

Nov. 26 - T-minus 1.   Pies go to school and the Pilgrims are defrocked as robbing, land-loving interlopers (well, in my classes at least).  

    I bake the apple pie, improvising with a wine bottle to roll our my crust, (the hardest part was emptying the wine bottle, but we managed).  Discover oven appears to have a slight tilt forward.

Nov. 27 -  Turkey turned out beautifully, our Southern friend saved the gravy, none of the guests thought any of the food was disgusting, and we have left-overs (yeah!) :)

el 20 de noviembre

The 20th of November celebrates the beginning of the Mexican Revolution of 1910.  The ideals of the revolution were based on Zapata and other's beliefs in land rights (land for those who work it) and free education for all.  It was recently pointed out to me that every 100 years Mexico has a revolution (the independence movement started in 1810), so watch out travelers in 2010! 

      In my school we got the Monday off, and spent a few hours ensayando (practicing) the paso doble (a marching - and dancing- step), and the "at ease" and "at attention" required for the parade. Sounds like the military?  It did indeed sound like the military, especially with the PE instructor using his megaphone to shout out commands.  But having seen the same thing in Ecuador, I wasn't shocked (I definitely was shocked to see the kindergartners  in Ecuador marching military-style), and since I had a group to manage, I practiced my own pasos dobles... most of the time.  Mostly I busied myself to making sure they were in straight lines and that E.H. didn't throw rocks at M.P. and A.R. didn't keep switching lines.  I also kept thinking how getting kids in the US to do the same thing would be like herding cats - here the kids have been doing the same thing for years, so they're used to it.  

            On Thursday, Nov. 20th all primeros (first year, first semester prepa kids) lined up and marched out of the school to town, where we were joined by all the other schools (K-9).  We marched through town, turned around, and marched back, and at about 10 am we were done and the kids all had the day off.  Yes, another day off- but what a sight to see all the students marching through town with community watching proudly.  We could use a little civic pride like that.   

Death and the Lady

The month of August was dedicated in the Aztec tradition to the goddess Mictecacihuatl, "Lady of the Dead."  This goddess of death has come to be known as La Catrina in current Día de los muertos tradition, and she is portrayed as a sexy, bony skeleton dressed to kill.  

    Cuernavaca celebrated its 2nd annual La Catrina competition this year, and the Catrinas wer

e quite something.  Made out of a wire and paper maché body, their clothing ranged from an outfit made out of candy to a gold creation imitating the Ángel statue  in D.F.  While each had a skeleton head, they are in no way frightening or malevolent.  Rather, they are Death as a sex symbol, Death as a lady, Death as something you might not mind spending time with.  

     The other tradition that casts death as something other than terrible is the writing of calaveras.  Calaveras, lterally "skulls,"are verses that make fun of death, usually mixed 

with a politician.  The writing of calaveras were inspired by the illustrations of José Guadelupe Posada.

 

 "Death, " wrote Posada, "at the end of it all, is democratic, and everyone, rich, poor, white, brown, ends up being a skull."   He drew notable figures of his time as skeletons, and made popular the image of the Catrina with a flowered hat (image).  

      My students were able to whip out calavera rhymes in a matter of minutes, which impressed me.  Here are two: 

          Estaba la maestra Reed Scott                                      

          tomándose contenta su taza de arroz                          

          llegó el maestro Santiago                                             

         y del susto le dio la tos.                                        

      

                             - Medardo

        There was the teacher Reed Scott

         contentedly drinking her mug of rice

         Teacher Santiago arrived  

         And the fright gave her a cough.  

                              

          Estaba Rubi comiéndose un budín                          

         cuando de repente llegó la calavera                        

         y se echó un pedín.    

                           - Erick 

            There was Rubi eating a tart

            when suddenly Death showed up 

            and let out a little fart.  

                                                    (changed to keep rhyme) 

    

To me, the Catrinas  and the tradition of writing calaveras embody the Mexican ability to make fun of death, laugh at her, tease her, and ultimately, allow the love of life to triumph over death.  

Día de los muertos

     Many people in the US are familiar with the "Día de los muertos," term, or Day of the Dead, but I think what is often forgotten is the celebration behind the day.  We are so accustomed to death being equated with sorrow, fear, and all that is bad, that to rearrange one's cultural perspective and consider death as part of the journey of life, as did the pre-Hispanic cultures, can be a difficult shift.  The Aztecs and other indigenous groups set aside specific months for remembering and honoring the dead, and it was (and still is, in Mexico) believed that the dead came back during that time.  In the small town I visited, signs stating "Welcome Back Dad!" or "Here is your house, Mom!" were set up over the entryways to the houses that had ofrendas. 

The Spanish Catholic missionaries, who found the Aztec celebrations to be too light-hearted and, dare I say, flippant, in their attitude towards death, moved the Aztec August and November celebrations to coincide with the Christian celebrations of All Saints Day and  All Souls Day. However, their efforts to eradicate traditions of the Aztecs were in vain.   While the pre-Hispanic ceremonies have been shortened to 4 days (starting Oct. 28 and going until Nov. 2), the spirit of 

the celebration is still alive: it is a time to welcome back the departed, to help them on their journey, and to remember with joy the time they lived among us.  

     Each  area in Mexico has its slightly varied take on the day, but the staple of Día de los muertos is the ofrenda, or altar.  Altars represent the deceased, and often include their favorite food and drink, and a photo.  In Ocotepec, the town I visited, ofrendas for the recently deceased include their clothing laid out with a sugar skull at the head area.  Altars traditionally have the four elements of water, air, fire and earth 

represented.  Water is to calm the dead's thirst, fire, represented by the candles, to symbolize purification, wind, represented by the movement of the papel picado, and earth, often represented by the bread pan de muertos.  Copal, an incense made of resin, is also burned on every altar.  Here in Morelos mole, limes, mandarin oranges, and tamales are also considered to be standard elements.  

      In Ocotepec, the night of Nov. 1st is the night to welcome back the adults who have died (children are celebrated the days before).  Each family in the town creates a huge ofrenda to the deceased, and welcome in visitors, who follow the cempasúchil-marked path to the ofrenda. Cempasúchil is the Nahuatl word for marigold, which the traditional flower for the day.          

           As we entered each home, we gave our candle to a family member, stood before the altar in silence for a few moments, and then walked out of the room, where another family member handed us something to eat and drink.  The food varied - in some houses we were given slices of pan de muerto, in one house we were given a tamal.  The drinks were either a hot ponche of fruit or coffee.  Each house must have seen over 500 visitors that night.  

     After we visited the ofrendas, we went to the panteón, 

 or cementerio.  Candles, papel picado, and cempasúchil had been brought during the previous days to the children's graves, and many adult graves had been decorated as well.  We were not the only people in the cementary - besides other tourists, many family members had come out to sit beside graves and tend the candles.   Unlike a typical US graveyard, this one was alive with light, music, and people. 

     We returned to the panteón the next day.   The activity was amazing - families gathered to clean gravesites, place more flowers, and eat food together.  Teenagers and children hung out between the graves, and food vendors crowded the entrances to the panteón, selling everything from sandwiches to ice cream.   A twelve-piece band played most of the morning and a Mass was celebrated in the early afternoon.  

     Inspired by our surroundings, Regina and I set up our own ofrenda earlier this week.  Instead of cempasúchil, I placed roses in memory of Bobbi, an amazing gardener,and Regina laid out a dictionary in memory of her grandmother's love of crossword puzzles.