A Head's Up for Coahuilans

This morning we went to the passport office to get the kids' Mexican passports. Immediately, we were slapped in the face with a nasty surprise. Thanks to the ex-governor's impressive levels of deficit spending, all passports issued in the state of Coahuila are slapped with an aditional $1220 fee. That's about 3 times the total cost of the baby's passport. (As an additional comparison, last year the fees that the state applied to passport applications were around 200 pesos . . . yep, we're that far in debt.)

Thanks for that, ex-gob!

Unfortunately for those who came up with this genius pay-off-the-debt measure, they failed to take into account that the two biggest cities in the state, Torreon and Saltillo, are a short drive to neighboring states. Which is why the passport office was eerily silent this morning. Now, instead of the state government collecting 200 pesos from each of the roughly 30 people that would file for a passport daily, they can now rake in 1220 once every two or three days from some poor schmuck who just doesn't have the time to go to Monterrey.

But, the good news is that it's no longer necessary to make an appointment to renew your passport in Saltillo!

Ojo de Agua

My in-laws were here last week. As we've lived in Saltillo for 3 years now, they've seen the sights. But this time they came wanting to visit the Ojo de Agua, or Saltillo, if you will. This is a spring of water on top of a decent-sized hill. Saltillo was founded on that spot and a church stands there now with a small, chapel-like niche housing the spring. I had only breifly visited it myself, and I was also itching to spend a little more time exploring it.Lili inspecting the spring. Mago checks out reminders of all the miracles worked there. The entrance to the spring. In this spot, Captain Francisco de Urdinola, following the process of the law, founded the town of Santiago del Saltillo del Salto de Agua on the 25th of July in 1555, by mandate of the viceroy of Spain, Don Luis de Velasco, the first.
Christ Yesterday, Today, Forever [with unfortunate graffiti below]


The Ojo de Agua is about a block away (a fairly steep block) from the Mirador, or a lookout point. This is also another area I wanted to check out again, having only visited both sites on a sightseeing trolley tour, which only afforded about 5 minutes to check out the view. We went on a beautiful clear day, and enjoyed relaxing in the kiosko on the little plaza for the Ojo de Agua neighborhood, while watching neighborhood boys played a pick up game of soccer.



Clara poses in the kiosk, as I took in the view.





From there, we headed downhill to the grocery store across the street from the Chapulin Park. Our plan all along had been to buy a rotisserie chicken and have a picnic at the park. We dawdled longer than we meant to, so we had a moonlight picnic under the stars. It was a little chilly, but as the park was still open, and we were still hungry, we took advantage and had a memorable meal in the moonlight.

Candelaria Day

Yesterday we celebrated a little-known holiday known as Candelaria Day. The English translation is the equally ambiguous Candlemas Day. The day is to commemorate Baby Jesus's presentation in the temple (Luke 2:21-40). However, the reading clearly states that this took place when Jesus was 8 days old. Why we celebrate this on February 2ed if Jesus was born on December 25th is beyond me. Perhaps just to remind ourselves to not be too literal.

It's a pretty simple holiday all in all. Most people just have tamales for dinner. The more hard-core Candelaria revelers take their Baby Jesus from their nativity scene, dress him up (and many people make or buy him a new set of clothes every year), and take him to church. In the past, I've enjoyed my tamales and watching the little old ladies wander down the street carrying baby dolls tucked under their arms.

However, this year I was invited to a neighbor's levantamiento. This is a whole ceremony for taking the Baby Jesus out of the nativity scene, dressing him up and then sitting him (tying him) to the chair that he'll sit in all year to be displayed on a prominent shelf for the rest of the year.

So at seven o'clock I toted my kids over to Rosario's house. We waited for her family and friends to arrive. Then we prayed a rosary, sang some Christmas carols, and enjoyed the tamales. Simple enough, but I felt blessed to have a friend to invite me over for these cultural insights that I'd miss out on otherwise.

So thanks, Rosario!

And now that Candelaria Day is over, it's now officially time to take down the Christmas decorations!

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Theological side note: in observing people with this holiday, I fear that these Baby Jesus dolls (or those of us who have them) walk a very fine line theologically. Another friend of mine mentioned that if you rock the Baby Jesus doll while "adoring" him (a ritual which drives me beserk) whatever you pray for will be answered. To which my friend Rosario responded [and I translate loosely], "Dude--it's a doll. It's just a symbol. God listens to us wherever we are."

Whew! Too true, Rosario! God does know our hearts [not me, I'm honestly not trying to judge here], and he wants us to worship him, not a plastic doll. The doll does NOT have special powers. Careful y'all!

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Personal note as background to the theological side note:

I really, really, really do NOT want to sound judgmental. So let me explain myself a little better here (after all, I too have one of these baby Jesus dolls and did enjoy myself at Rosario's house for her levantamiento).

If you know me or have been reading awhile, you may know that I grew up Protestant and am now Catholic. However, before I'd apply those labels, I really consider myself Ecumenical. Really, can't we all just get along? To my personal beliefs, that extends not just to all Christian denominations, but I believe that we all have a lot to learn from each other, Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Buddist, Hindu, and whatever other religions are out there, plus those who claim no faith (because those who have made a conscious decision to not believe in a higher power have some very concrete reasons for that decision and I do respect that and believe I have something(s) to learn from that as well).

In the US (at least among Christian denominations (including Catholics) we do seem to get along. However, the rift between Protestants (often referred to simply as Christians (even by Catholics), implying that Catholics are NOT Christian) just breaks my heart. I understand some of the reasons behind it, but man, oh, man, when you get down to the heart of the matter, we all really do believe the same thing.

I've spent time in both Protestant and Catholic communities in Mexico. While my experience here is very limited, from what I've seen, my church (meaning my current parish) does a great job of religious education. However, it seems that that hasn't always been the case with Mexican Catholic churches and perhaps that isn't the case everywhere. Or perhaps it's just individual families that claim to be Catholic but don't bother to send their kids to catechism or read the Bible, or ask questions of their parish priest when in doubt--yes they may still be Catholic (again, thank goodness it isn't my opinion that matters), but education is soooo important.

Which is why I feel we walk a fine line when we parade around our baby Jesuses. Now, keep in mind, I mentioned that I love to see those little, old ladies carefully cradling their baby Jesuses in the street on Candelaria Day. It's a quirk that makes me happy and I'm confident that the vast majority of those ladies carry their Jesuses as a visual reminder of the baby Jesus was, not because they think the doll itself has magical powers.

But every once in awhile, you find a nutter who does believe that. And yes, she's perfectly at liberty to believe that her doll will grant her every wish.

And I'm at equal liberty to believe that she's bat-shit crazy.

But when this woman publicly declares herself to be Catholic, this is where the damage begins. The Protestants, who generally do a much better job of religious education among themselves, see this woman, correctly claim her to be idol worshiping and then chalk it up that all Catholics are idol worshipers. Not true. These statues and pictures are just visual reminders of the heroes of the faith (or Jesus Himself, of course). It's just like displaying family pictures on the walls of one's home.

But for some, admittedly in ignorance, believe that it's more than that. And it's that belief that further widens the gap of Christian unity in this country and does so much damage. That's where my words of caution stem from.

The Turkey Post

Like many Mexicans, we roasted a turkey for Christmas. Having not celebrated Thanksgiving this year, I was pretty hungry for one.

But--shhh, don't tell anyone!--we still had leftovers from last year's Thansgiving turkey in the freezer!!!! (In my defense, we bought a smoked turkey last year, thinking it would be as excellent as smoked ham. We were wrong.) I knew I could not have two years' worth of after-holiday turkey hanging out in the freezer.

After we had eaten as much roasted turkey as we could stand that last week of December, I got creative and made the most beautiful let's-hide-the-leftover-turkey meals ever! Or at least some of the more beautiful meals to grace my table.

Leftover meal #1) Turkey ring. Turkey, mayonnaise, dried cranberried, dijon mustard, peacans, and celery all wrapped in crescent rolls. This meal rivals the original roasted turkey from Christmas Day. Soooo good.

The only problem was that I could not find crescent rolls in Saltillo to save my life. I know they sell them here--Sheila brought some for Thanksgiving in 2009. I guess they just don't sell them on my side of town. I almost bought them in Laredo, but it was a hot day and I realized they'd probably explode in the car on the way home.

So I made them from scratch. (Thank you Joy of Cooking, for the recipe.) It was a pain in the butt, but once I got my 3 sticks of butter and set aside the time to do it, it was pretty fun. The coolest part was simply the fact that they turned out well. All day I'd gaze at that beautiful turkey roll in awe, and exclaim, "look at that--those are crescent rolls! And I MADE them!!!" I'm still a little giddy.

Leftover meal #2) Tamales

As this was our first Christmas in Mexico without Mario's family, I really missed not having tamales. And the last time my mother-in-law was here, I helped her make a batch of tamales, so I had a bit of a clue. I knew ahead of time that they'd be labor intensive, but having the turkey made already, I didn't think it would be too bad.

And it wasn't!

I got the recipe for the dough from Cooking on the Side (after googling tamal recipes). Having worked with my mother-in-law, I was pretty confident about making the dough and wrapping them.

The salsa that goes on top made me super nervous. While my husband is a wonderful, wonderful man, he won't eat things he doesn't like. Or are just vaguely "off". And not being Mexican (OK, just not being a big fan of salsa in general) I have no confidence when it comes to making salsa.
We had two dried ancho chiles and I had no idea what to do with them. Fortunately, the package of corn husks (that one wraps the tamales in to steam) comes with the vaguest of instructions. But that was enough for me. Because they were my only source of wisdom, telling me to SOAK the chiles before trying to do anything with them. Ahhh . . . Then I added garlic and cumin, and it made a decent salsa. I spent about two hours wrapping roughly 40 tamales, let them sit in the refrigerator overnight (not a necessary step, but as I finished at midnight and didn't plan on eating them until the next day, it was necessary for me), and then steamed them for just over an hour before eating them.

And they turned out, just like tamales are supposed to turn out! Even picky husband said they were good! It was another one of those meals where I just beamed and thought to myself, "yeah--look at me, I made THAT!" (OK, I may have said that out loud a few times.)

We'll be eating some less labor-intensive meals for the rest of the month.

Although I might do tamales again for Candelaria Day (Feb. 2ed). I've always wanted to.

Three Kings Day

Happy Three Kings Day!

Today is the day that Mexican children receive their presents. Not from Santa Claus, but from the Reyes Magos, or Wizard Kings--sounds so much more fun than the Three Wise Men! Santa will no doubt make an appearance in future Christmases in our house, but this year we had an old school Mexican Christmas and made our kid wait until today for her Christmas present. Not that she was aware of that.

We've had our nativity scene arranged on the coffee table in the living room, and yesterday in passing, I mentioned that the 3 Kings would be coming to give presents to the baby Jesus the next day. For some reason, that really resonated with her and at dinner, hours after I mentioned this to her, she blurted out with, "Kings coming tomorrow? Bring presents to baby Jesus?"

Huh. I didn't know she was paying that much attention.

Since she was so interested, I read her the story out of my Bible, then the Christmas story from one of her books. She requested both stories again as I was putting her to bed.

She was really excited about this because at midnight, when Joey woke up (and after I had put out the King figurines in the nativity scene, with her present underneath the table), she started rattling her bedroom door to open it. Fortunately, I got to her before I started feeding Joey. Good thing I didn't try to sneak into her room to put her present at the foot of her bed as tradition dictates. I knew she was a light sleeper, but light sleeper + excited = waking up at midnight. Good to know for future Christmases! Yikes!

Thanks to her midnight stroll, I was able to get up before her in the morning, so I could watch her inspect the nativity scene with the Wise Men in it for the first time. She thought they were pretty special. After awhile I had to prod, "is there anything else here that wasn't here before?"

Finally she pointed to her present and I let her know that it was for her. She ripped into the wrapping paper like a pro (impressive, considering that the last time she had a wrapped present was almost a year ago, and then she was quite hesitant to open presents).

Joey thought the ribbon was pretty cool. Those kings know what babies like.

After 2000 years of giving small children presents, they've got this down.

I spent a happy part of the morning sitting on the couch, watching Clara play with her airplane, Joey chew on his ribbon, sipping a hot mug of ponche.

Three cheers for the thirteenth day of Christmas!

You Know You've Lived in Mexico Too Long When . . .

I saw this ad on the side of my email inbox.











I immediately thought to myself, "that would make GREAT Independence Day dress for a little girl!"




Oh . . . right.




It's a Christmas dress.




Oops!

Destination: Xochimilco (y las chinampas!)

When in Mexico City for Independence Day weekend, Mario's family decided that they wanted to go to Xochimilco to celebrate together.

Xochimilco is on the very south side of the city. Its claim to fame are the canals that still exist there. When the Spanish arrived in Mexico, Mexico City was a floating city, much like Venice. When the region was settled, those living in the area built it, quite literally, from the ground up. They made rafts out of reeds, raked mud out of the lake bottom, put it on top of the rafts, and eventually made thousands of man-made islands. This was Mexico City in its hey-day. The streets were canals.

Then the Spanish arrived, drained the lake, and put their medieval city planning to work (you know, the kind of city planning where people dumped their trash out their window so it could rot on the street). We're still wishing the Spanish had at least listened to Moctezuma's city planners. Sure, go on with your world domination, but for pity's sake, keep the lake!

Anyway, the canals and floating islands (which will now be referred to as chinampas) still exist in Xochimilco. The flat-bottomed boats (which will now be referred to as trajineras) can be rented by the hour and are a huge tourist draw. So much so that the docks, canals, and trajineras at Nativitas are getting a bit icky.

So when my sister-in-law suggested that we take a tour with a company recommended to her by someone at the Waldorf school she works for, leaving from docks a bit farther south from Nativitas, we said, "sign us up!"

And what a tour we had.

First of all, it was a 5-hour tour. Lunch and drinks were provided. The lion's share of the lunch came right from fields grown on chinampas right in Xochimilco. The whole point of this company (www.delachinampa.mx) is to promote the organic products grown on these small farms in Xochimilco. Our tour guide said that only 2% of the fields in Xochimilco are currently being cultivated. If that figure were increased so that a mere 10% of the fields were being used, they claim that the entire population of Mexico City could be fed from products produced on that land. Just imagine the positive environmental impact that could have!

Furthermore, they believe in selling produce at a living wage. Most fruits and vegetables in Mexico are taken to a central de abastos. The central de abastos then sells fruits and vegetables wholesale to those who have fruit/vegetable stores, stalls in markets, corner stores, etc. The central de abastos sets the prices. Even if it costs a farmer 10 pesos to produce a kilo of carrots, the central de abastos can say (and often does), "we're buying these carrots at 3 pesos a kilo--take it or leave it." And farmers have to take it. There isn't much of anywhere else to sell to.

So yes, De La Chinampa's produce is considerably more expensive than other produce found elsewhere in the city. But it's an investment. And if it catches on, it's an investment that would reap huge dividends for everyone.

So if you live in Mexico City, think about getting together with friends, family, and neighbors and having some organic, Mexico City-grown produce delivered right to your house. Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought that community sponsored agriculture existed in Mexico City.

But if it catches on, wild dreams could come true.