In Mexico, the biggest and longest holiday of the year is Semana Santa, or Holy Week. I wouldn't even consider Easter to be the most important day, from what I observed. The Saturday eight days before Easter, they arrived. Legions of Mexicans, camping on the beach, constructing palapa kitchens, volleyball courts, fruit stands, ice cream vendors. As the week progressed, more and more arrived, with live music every day, mariachi bands with more than a dozen members. The ocean was dripping with their youth and the beach was baking with men drinking beer. Our beach is a public beach, and I almost proud of that, even if this isn't really "my" community. It is NOT a gated community, and I think the Mexicans should have complete access. A few families to whom Litibu Eco-group are especially friendly set up right on our lawn, playing games, setting up chairs and picnics, getting water from our hose, and using the upstairs bathroom. For anyone who doesn't know, our apartment has no glass in the windows, and no curtains. Only screen seperates us and the endearing sound of an electric generator and the piercing lights which accompany it after dark. I have not experienced that lack of privacy, and while it was enjoyable to watch their celebrations, adorable to watch the chubby little children, and amiable to exchange greetings on the beach, I wasn't sad to see them pack their tents first thing Easter morning. We really are spoiled here! Sascha estimated that there were 2000 people, but I would say less, in a 500 m long beach.
One of the biggest events during Semana Santa is the passion procession, walking around the village to different points and going through the Stations of the Cross. We were both looking forward to participating in this, and made it to town bright and early Friday morning, to find the church locked. We had asked five people the day before, with five different answers, and finally someone confirmed for us it was at five that afternoon. So we returned at five, to absolutely no avail. Now, the fascinating part about Mexicans and time (or distance, or population, or whatever) is that no one knows what time anything is, yet they all manage to be there. It's an amazing system. Luckily, with all the people, we had no trouble catching a ride, and wrote it off to extra exercise.
For our own celebrations, Sascha and I had been planning a trip back to Tequepexpan (see previous post for more info) to participate in a vision quest ceremony, and got as far as Sayulita. Our ride didn't work out, and Sascha was exhausted from Denny's three week visit, and had some back pain. But I, personally, was determined not to let Easter suck as bad as Christmas, Thanksgiving, or my birthday. What is it that makes holidays special days? You do something special on them. Yes, that is what we had been missing, so I planned a surprise for Sascha and hid candy, cookies, eggs, etc in the serenity garden for him to find. We also had a lovely walk on the beach, now considerably more empty, and I made us some chile rellenos for supper, which were much easier than I expected.
Chile rellenos, which are egg battered sweet peppers stuffed with cheese and fried, are the vegetarian staple at any Mexican restaurant (other than the classic quesadilla), but Janet and Miriam (the cleaning women/caretakers of Donnamarie/daughters of friend Carlos) informed us that chile rellenos, camarones (shrimp), and pescado (fish) are their traditional Easter foods. So we came to the conclusion that they really do eat the same things all the time. Sascha's family has goose, rabbit, and lamb with funky potato balls. Maybe it's because their cuisine hasn't shifted to an international palette, so their traditional food isn't on special days, it's still every day. I love rice/beans/tortillas. I even learned to love guacamole. And I admire the cultural value, which every geographical and social group of people have had, of a staple food. Corn tortillas! They go with EVERYTHING. Sascha's favorite combo is Huichol salsa (like tabasco sauce) and peanut butter.
We have eaten some diverse Mexican food. But mostly Mexicans don't eat at nice Mexican restaurants. They eat at comedores and loncherias, where they serve...yep. Rice, beans, tortillas, and probably chicken with a nice sauce which you saw running from a rooster the previous day. It's fresh, and that's no mistake! What judgment am I making about Mexican food? It's delicious, it varies little, but I respect that. It would just be hard for me to do it full time. Our grocery store, the largest in town, is smaller than my parents' living room. A healthy portion of that is taken up by beer coolers and racks of cookies. I will put it up to lack of discipline on our part that we are sometimes fatigued by the lack of selection. The grocer helped me tie my grocery bags on to my bicycle for five minutes the other day, and you can't knock that kind of service.
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