World Beginnings

Someone said “you are not dead until no one says your name”.   Families and businesses, here in my part of Mexico, keep their dearly departed ones alive through expressive altars on November 1, for children,  and November 2 for all others. Candles help them find their way to the beautiful memorials where they will find pictures, favorite foods, drink and music welcoming them home for a visit,  if only for a night. Family members come from far and wide to clean the graves and construct altars at the cemetery, home and public spaces. Stories flow, bringing the dearly departed back to life once more. Legend is that they are led back to their eternal rest by a Mexican Hairless dog. Now that came from Trivia last week! These pictures are from altars set up on the Ajijic Plaza this year, but they are everywhere! Through these special memorials the dead do live on!

A Dancing Catrina is the fun loving, flirtatious skeleton representing triumph over the sadness of death. Just as the legend goes, she waits for us around corners and we never know when she will whisk us away to forever. Many expats have elaborate Catrina figures in their homes and she is immortalized in painting; murals; dolls of every type;    dinnerware; candy skulls and even trivets.   The pagan roots of Catrina figures and Mexican celebration of the Day of the Dead, go back to the ancient   Aztecs and the goddess Mictecacihuatl who was the guardian of the dead. This morphed, as many pagan rituals throughout  the ages, into the Catholic All Souls Day. The Catrina as we know her today, began life in Aquascalientes, MX and a political cartoonist,   Jose Guadalupe Posada. She was a satirical figure mocking Mexicans who were following foreign fashion styles. Her depiction soon evolved into representing people from all walks of life, symbo...

Americans spent over three trillion dollars on Christmas in 2013 (https://www.statista.com/topics/991/us-christmas-season/). Parents expected to spend an average of $271 per child, with one in ten planning to spend over $500 per child. Ironically, after all that spending, children often end up playing with the boxes instead of the gifts. These figures don’t even include the cost of elaborate trees and outdoor decorations. I live in a Mexican village where many residents make a living by servicing the expats who reside here, or by farming and fishing. Most families survive on less than $500 per month, with the average family size being four. However, the families I know personally often have six members. Extended family units are common, as pooling resources is often the only way to get by. Last year, I taught conversational English to a group of teens aged sixteen to twenty. As Christmas approached, we discussed their traditions, which revolved around family. Their faces lit up as...

Oh, the irony! This photo was taken at a small market here in Ajijc. Am I the only one whose jaw is gapping? Why aren’t the feminine products next to the diapers? Or the Downy? The Fabreeze? But no! It must have been some man who equates women’s needs with heavy duty cleaners such as Ajax. Or even worse with pest control! There is a subliminal message here that is as old as the ages!

He wasn’t always like this. In the distant foggy past his mom walked him to school, made his lunch, watched him as he made life’s way. Washing clothes clean, folding and placing carefully with mother’s love. Now slumping on a  dead-end corner to nowhere balled up defeated by life demons. No one notices. Two shoes scavenged from trash foul, piled on the street... loosely clinging to his feet. One dingy grey  trainer, bound with dirty tape. One worn out men’s dress shoe no laces to hold them to his aching feet. Such is his broken, mismatched life. So far from his mother’s dreams. Jocotepec, MX , 2018