There’s a popular book on Mexico out that starts out with the assumption that Mexicans are essentially different than Americans and in order to understand them, you need to assume this to be true. Razzberries, says I. Yes, there are differences but it seems to me so many of our problems come from obsessing about them rather than enjoying the things we have in common.
Children get greedy about their candy, they dress up in spooky costumes and collect sweets at different houses. Would that be Dias de los Muertos or Halloween? Of course, it’s both.
In Leon, the main square was covered with booths selling sweets and sugar skulls.
At the Casa de la Cultura in Leon, there was a wonderful tribute to the singer Jose Alfredo Jiminez with lots of details about his life and music.
In Guanajato, every nook and cranny in the small city seemed filled with sugar vendors. The quality seemed a little more artistic, even if Sponge Bob seemed to be everywhere.
Choosing the correct sugar skull is very serious buisiness!
I don’t like to get on a soapbox too often but I think it’s amazing how little we know about our neighbors just south of us. The little news we get makes it seem as if they’re a completely different race and we’d better hurry up and build a cement wall to keep them out because they’re coming and they want to take what we have. My travels have proven to me the opposite is true. There are some very poor people who who are desperate for work and are trying to cross the border but most Mexicans I’ve met love Mexico and are very proud of it and want to stay and make it a better place, despite a lot of problems, which sounds a lot like the U.S.A. that I know.
I wonder if all the money being spent on this wall were spent investing in Mexico in a way that would benefit both countries wouldn’t be smarter.
"I wonder if you wonder" – Barbara Stanwick in Double Indemnity.
