Day of the Dead

Day of the Dead (officially Nov. 2, but the preparations and festivities start days before) is not Mexican Halloween.  It does involve skeletons, but Christmas in Mexico involves devils, so forget the iconic images and the coincidental dates.  Skeletons represent the form of the dead, much like in the states we might think of angels.  Candy skulls are gaily decorated and skeletons are elaborately dressed or portrayed having fun... these decorations are meant to put us in a joyous, celebratory mood.  When the dead come back, we want to entertain them and let them know we miss them.

To me, Day of the Dead is a lot more like Thanksgiving combined with Memorial Day.   You prepare traditional foods and buy traditional decorations and you have relatives over -- only they're dead.   It's, in fact, a lovely holiday and we got completely into it by creating a traditional altar for Florence and Walter my deceased parents.

I painted a portrait of them, which took several days,  and we bought the traditional flowers -- marigolds in particular -- tons of them are sold here the week before Day of the Dead.   Other necessary elements are candles to light the way for the deceased to return; paper flags to represent air/spirits; a special round, sweet bread to share as communion; fruits and other foods the deceased might enjoy including some brandy for dad and some chocolates for mom (we also bought dad a couple of cigarettes, a very traditional thing to do).  We included sugar skulls and even little sugar skeleton figures in coffins that sit up when you pull a string... think Easter candy.

I can't speak for all of Mexico.  But we live in the state of Michoacan which has many towns with predominantly indigenous populations.  In these places the cemetaries are decorated in elaborate carpets of flowers and candles and the families bring traditional foods and sit by their family graves all night singing and waiting for the dead to arrive.  In the city, where we live, schools take over large plazas and students compete to make the best altars -- think homecoming floats.  Stores, and restaurants all have altars.

Last night we went to bed after lighting the candles and copal incense and setting out the food on our altar.  When I woke up at three, I was enchanted to see the paper flags fluttering and the flames dancing in front of the portrait of my parents.  I didn't think twice before speaking aloud to them.  I was so pleased to be able to have a way to invite them into my home for a little while.   I think you can see from their smiles that they were happy too.

Darwin

Alice:  Science was pretty interesting today.

Me:  (My eyes brighten)  Really?

Alice:  Yeah.  We learned about this guy....  I think his name was Darwin.

Me:  Sounds right.

Alice:  You've heard of him?

Me:  Uh-huh.

Alice:  (Gives me a look like I'm kidding... )  Are you sure?

Me:  Darwin?  Yup.  I'm pretty sure I've heard of him.  But maybe I'm wrong... tell me what you learned.  

Alice:  Well.  About giraffes.  Like, this is just an example.  But say most giraffes had really short necks and ate grass.  But some giraffes had really long necks so they could eat the tops of trees and because the short-necked giraffes ate all the grass, they starved, but the long neck ones survived! 

Me:  (I was ready to die happy right then, but it got better.)

Alice:  But then there was this other guy.  Lamarck.  And he thought that the giraffes got that way because they just kept stretching their necks to reach higher and higher into the trees when the grass ran out.

Me:  And was he right?

Alice:  No, because even if they really did stretch their necks out like that, you don't pass that on to your kids.

Praise the Lord.

Just saw Quentin Tarantino

Morelia's 7th annual International Film Festival  started today and Quentin Tarantino is this year's special guest so when we went to the theatre this afternoon I brought my camera because, I said, ya never know, Quentin might be there!  

My husband once downloaded the entire script of Pulp Fiction and has been known to recite whole sections at inappropriate times.  So when we realized Tarantino was arriving at the theatre for real, I stood with the photographers and tried very hard to get a photo for him.   I got a lot of photos of photographers' hair.  But Geoff got to see Tarantino turn and wave to the crowd.

  

Tarantino's forehead is in the last photo.  Does anyone know who the guy is in the sunglasses?

Tanks - a lot!

It's the birthday of the man for whom Morelia is named:  José María Morelos.  

He was of lowly mixed birth, he struggled to become educated and became a priest in his 30's.  In the war for independence he proved to be a brilliant general, and he is always portrayed wearing a really cool bandana around his head.  I understand it was soaked in something that helped his chronic migraines... someone correct me if I'm wrong.  

President Calderón was scheduled to be here for this holiday and the centro (the historic center of the city) has been closed down to vehicles since yesterday morning and pedestrians could only get through on a few streets.   We live just 4 blocks from the parade route, but it took us a half hour to get through the security check point so we missed all the soldiers marching... I could see their helmets in the distance and I think there were thousands!  

We got there for the tanks, which, let's face it, aren't as thrilling as floats. But we were entertained by this little girl in front of us.  Her other red bobble earring is in her mouth. 

Cinderella Dresses

When I was a little girl I had the big box of crayolas, the one with the built-in sharpener, and my favorite thing to draw was girls in Cinderella style gowns.  I'd make the gowns in every color.  Little did I know that there was a place in the world where my imagined creations were real -- and it wasn't Disneyland.  It's Morelia.  

There has to be hundreds of shops that make these dresses here.  I took these photos on one side street of the downtown.  

Not Happening

Even if we were in the market for suitors, which we definitely aren't, we would not under any circumstances accept fellows who hang out under cars.  Even ones with blue eyes -- admitedly an unusual trait -- but we're still not even considering it. 

When we found LuLu, 10 days ago, my concept was to take her immediately to the vet and have her spayed.  But the vet had other ideas. Like waiting for three weeks to make sure she was really healthy.  

So her care is being strung out (this is at the vet school clinic).  Last week was the physical exam.  Yesterday, she had the first vaccination containing five different serums.  Next week she'll get a booster.  

Then finally, in two more weeks, comes the esterilización.  Meanwhile, LuLu has gone into heat (celo) and has attracted the attention of all the neighbors' dogs plus a couple of strays who have taken up residence under parked trucks near our door.    

That's LuLu on the roof, moaning like a grounded 16 year old.    At any time she can get at least six dogs on our block barking.  Once they start it's like a scene from 101 Dalmations. Remember when the dogs start sending out the word about the lost puppies and soon dogs are barking all over London and beyond?   It's like that.  Only in Spanish.  

Independence Day

Tuesday was Mexican Independence Day -- the day the war to end Spanish rule began. The war was started by a priest named Father Hidalgo.  It was his decision to bring the Indigenous into the independence movement.  A plot to oust the Spanish had been secretly underway for some time and involved a lot of folks who would've been happy to keep the Indigenous as slaves.   But because the Spanish got wind of the independence plot and were about to start arresting conspirators, Hidalgo, who had been warned that we was about to be arrested, made a flash decision to start the revolt himself with the aid of his parish -- which was made up of poor and indigenous.  Because these folks actually began the war, they stayed an integral part of the independence movement.   If Hidalgo hadn't been involved, slavery and the caste system might have stayed in place even after the Spanish were routed.   For this reason, he's a very popular hero.  

The war for independence began 199 years ago.   

The celebration is where, at 11:00 p.m., someone (the President, your governor, the host of your party), recites Hidalgo's call to arms (the Grito) and everyone yells, Viva Mexico!  about a million times.  

We skipped the Grito, but we did go to the parade the next day.  It was mostly a show for the military and civil defense forces.  Just seeing those women marching in high heels was enough to make me feel well defended.  (Alice and I just watched the Charlie's Angels movie, so I know women in high heels kick major butt.)