Flight Time, Friday 03.03.06
As I waited for my 9:30am flight to Guadalajara to begin borading I started conversing with a man clearly in his sixties. He started to reminisce about how and why he had migrated to the United States. He said that when he was younger he believed that he could 'barrer dolares', that is swept up bundles dollars. Many early immigrants from other parts of the world held a similar belief that the United States had mountains of gold. He went on to say that he worked 'a puro lomo' which can be translated to mean that he worked hard jobs such as those working the fertile fields of the San Joaquin Valley. As he begins this trip back home he reminders that journey that began when he was a young man as he immigrated to the United States. He states that the road was difficult and paved with many mistakes. He mentioned that he has bought some land back in his native pueblo but how ten years ago the same parcel of land would have cost him a whole lot less than what he recently paid. Why is it that real estate is always cheaper ten years ago? Why can't it be cheap now? As we were called to board we wished each other well.
As I boarded the plane, I was astounded to see a passenger carrying a hand made carryon luggage. The carryon luggage was made out of a cardboard boxes with handles made out of duct tape. I mean, I know that when we travel back home we takes boxes of full of items such as second hand clothes and used electronics such as older model video game consoles to give out to our relatives but I have never seen a cardboard carryon.
The flight time to Guadalajara is three hours with three hours of difference and another three hours of travel on bus to reach my final destination of Nochistlan, Zacatecas. Nochistlan is a pueblo bordering the region of Los Altos de Jalisco. Nochistlan has a similar meaning as the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan and was the third Guadalajara until the indigenous Caxcane people drove the Spanish conquistadors to president day Guadalajara in Jalisco, which is the fourth city with this name. The legacy and memory of the Caxcane people lives on in the names of the surrounding pueblos and mountains. Along the route to Nochistlan are the pueblos of Teocaltiche, Yahualica, and Mexticacan. Today most people in this region are mestizos speaking only Nahuatl as most Mexicans do when we invoke the sacred names of places.
Nochistlan was an important capital for the Caxcane people. Nochistlan was at the center of the Mixton War in 1541 and it has the good fortune to be the death place of Tonatiuh Pedro de Alvarado. Today in the plaza of Nochistlan stands a proud statue of the heroe of the Mixton War, the Caxcane warrior Tenamaxtli (also Tenamaztle). The city's shield has an image of Tenamaxtli and reads, 'Ashcanquema Tehual Nehual' which was the Caxcane war cry and means 'until your death or mine.'
I reached home just before dusk, and as I enter the door atole is waiting for me along with a piece of Mexican bread. The term Mexican bread does not say that same thing as pan dulce, sweet bread. It was a long days journey and now I am glad to be amongst family, with my aunt, my cousins, and nephews.
La Boda, Saturday 03.04.06
I am here to visit my godson after two years, to catch up with family, and because a cousin is getting married today. I spend my morning visiting with my godson and distributing the small gifts that I have brought, a few items of clothing, some walkie talkies, and a few centavitos. I decided to come at the last possible minute so I didn't have time bring many things. When traveling to Mexico we always bring one extra luggage full of items to give and we came back with one extra luggage full of gifts such as bottles of tequila, Mexican style cheese and candy, and even some nopalitos or roasted pumkin seeds.
By two o'clock I was getting ready for the wedding. I stayed with my aunt, where the bride to be was getting ready with her hair and dress. Family members started arriving an hour or two before we headed out to the church. This has been my first time this year that I attend church. After the ceremony we all head down to the party to eat some birria and dance to some corridos.
El Rancho Sunday 03.05.06
I woke up a bit hung over but I was here for too short of a time to waste my morning sleeping. I woke up early and my cousin and I headed to his ranch a few kilometers outside of town to tend to his animals. He has roughly over 50 goats, maybe about 10 head of cattle, a handful of pigs, two horses and a lot of chickens running around. There is no sabbath in a farm, if God took the the seveth day off then he sure wasn't a farmer for animals need to be tended to and feed on a daily basis. In the growing season my cousin grows corn, squash, beans, and chiles on his fields.
I spent all morning in my cousin's farm shooting the breeze while he did the heavy lifting. By midday we headed back into la colonia were I then proceeded to visit my god son while my cousin stayed behind in the corner store shooting the breeze and drinking some beer.
My co-parents, that is my god son's parents, and some other family members there deceided to take me and the clan to a mesa that overlooks Nochistlan for a day in el campo. We took food and water and we all jumped in the back of an old beat up '70s Ford pick up truck . Once at the base of the mesa, we all sat underneath a big mezquite tree that was standing alongside a creek and eat, took pictures, drank some beers while the kids played in an adjacent open field. Since all these kids are the children of my cousins, all these kids are my nieces and nephews and they all call me tio. I have one sister that is in law school in Washignton, D.C. so it is a little strange having all these kids running around and calling me uncle.
After eating and lounging around beneath the shade we thought to walk off the food by hiking to the top of the mesa. Even though it was steep the mesa was not high enough to be a real challenge. Within thirty minutes we all were in the top overlooking the whole pueblo, we could see los arcos, la catedral, and all the way to la colonia. For me the view from the top of this mesa was as spiritually rewarding as that of Half Dome. Even though the mesa was low lying, I felt as if I had ascended beyond its height. At the top of this mesa stood a small chapel, in fact most peaks here are crowned with a chapel.
Hasta Pronto Monday 03.06.06
In life one does not travel by plane or car but by the memories of our lives. I left with more than a bag full of tequila and candy for I was also packing a weekend's worth of memories. I left early in the morning so I woke up early enough to have some breakfast and say goodbye to everybody, including my wonderful host my aunt who always has some atole ready for me. I said goodbye to everyone and they all replied almost in unison, "come back soon." On my way home, I felt like I flew not on the wings and the lift generated by a plane but on the wings and the lift generated by memories. Throughout my flight back home I keep thinking and repeating like a mantra, 'semos cerras', we are cherries.