Fact: No one actually celebrates Cinco de Mayo except ignorant Americans looking for an excuse to drink tequila.
I guess there IS a commemorative parade in Puebla because this is where the Battle of Cinco de Mayo occur ed, but having Cinco de Mayo as an important national holiday is the equivalent of Alamo Day being a national holiday. Sure, it was a good effort, but secretly we lost that one. Cinco de Mayo is the same idea; technically there was an unexpected Mexican victory over the French military, but then the French destroyed the Mexican army a few days later. Definitely a ¨we won the battle but they won the war¨ sort of situation.
So now that all of that confusion is cleared up, let´s get down to business (to.defeat.the.Spaniards.) The ACTUAL Mexican Independence Day is September 16, although the fiesta begins on the 15th. I won´t go into all the history because a) That´s Sam´s job, b) I´m not super solid on the details, and c)THERE´S NOT MUCH TIME.
Classes were cancelled at UDLAP on Wednesday (15th) and Thursday (16th) originally and we were going to have to go to class on Friday until the President issued a national mandate that all academic activities be cancelled on Friday. Ten points for Pres. Calderón! Our study abroad program coordinator, Lisette, arranged for us to stay with our host families for the holiday. This was partially to give us more exposure to the whole culture bit, and partially to keep us supervised during the fiestas. Did I mention that it was the bicentennial?
On Wednesday afternoon, a few of us went to the Puebla zócalo with the original intention of just looking around, maybe buying some cheesily patriotic Mexican trinkets, eating a few chalupas, and going back to our host families before it got too crazy. After a lot of wandering and waiting and huddling under umbrellas and waiting and walking and more waiting, I was getting a little grumpy and hungry. Luckily, there is never a shortage of food venues at these sorts of events in Mexico and I ate the best. cemita. ever. There was quite a crowd in the food section of the festival but it was totally vale la pena (worth it).
We ended up staying in the zócalo for el grito, which is where a government official yells/grita ¨!Viva México!¨ and the whole crowd responds, ¨¡Viva!¨ After the grito there was a fireworks show. One of the other ND girls was surprised by how close the launch site was to the 400-year-old cathedral and the crowd and said something along the lines of, ¨that would never be allowed in the US.¨ I replied, ¨Obviously you´ve never been to a 4th of July celebration in small town Idaho. Believe me, it´s allowed, just insert a high school instead of a cathedral.¨ :) We nearly died in the crush of humanity that was rushing towards the middle of the zócalo after the fireworks, but again, definitely vale la pena. We´ll just say that there was no lack of intimate touches this week either. After a bit of a desmadre finding all of our crew and getting everyone in a taxi, we finally returned to our host families, wet and tired and covered with glitter and confetti, but happy. After all, the 200th anniversary of a country´s independence only happens once and WE WERE HERE.
But this was only the beginning. Thursday marked the actual Independence holiday and Lisette and our host moms were nice enough to arrange a Mexican luncheon for us. I.ate.so.much. After we all stuffed our faces and laid around for a while trying to digest, the host moms broke out the karaoke machine. We didn´t actually know any of the mariachi songs but that didn´t stop us (mostly by us I mean Erica and I. We couldn´t convince any of the other ND kids to sing. Partypoopers.) from stumbling along with the mamas. The karaokefest eventually devolved into a dance party featuring a salsa skills test, some line dances, the Macarena, and plenty shaking of the hips. I had a blast! The highlight of the evening, however, was probably after everyone had helped to clean up and left. My host parents, Gerardo and Olivia, sang karaoke duets together in the backyard for at least an hour. Preciosos.
A bunch of my extended host family is visiting for the holiday weekend and my host abuelo grandpa would give Grandpa Lawrence a run for his money in a Most Precious Grandpa Ever contest. He actually reminds me a lot of my own Grandpa in his soft-spoken-ness, hard-of-hearing nature, affinity for unique hats and multiple naps, and love of storytelling and jokes. He informed me today that he sometimes ¨makes up his own jokes.¨ A 4-year-old host nephew/cousin told me all about Olivia the Pig, a book and cartoon character, after learning that my name was also Olivia. If it is not already clear, I love my host family.
After all the patriotic-ness calmed down a bit, we walked to a nearby movie theater and saw ¨Loco por ella¨ (The Switch, with Jennifer Aniston). Fun Fact: Mexican movie theaters have not only the usual popcorn/soda/candy counter, but also a bar and you can hypothetically order a drink to take into your movie of choice. Just sayin´.
So now I'm just spending the rest of the weekend with my host family, practicing my Spanish, eating a lot of pan dulce (sweet bread; Mexican pastries for the win), and celebrating my complete lack of homework obligations.
I don´t have my camera cable presently to upload photos, but I´ll try to get on that soon. To hold y'all over, here's a picture that I stole from someone else of the decorations in the zócalo.
¡Nos vemos!
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