Have you ever been to a Mexican birthday?

Hi everyone :)

An update on what's going on here. Saturday was my birthday, so it's the perfect occasion to tell you something about Mexican birthdays.

Many of you will know the Mexican tradition of the "piñata". For those who don't, the piñata is a container (generally very colourful) filled with candies and/or toys, that the birthday girl/boy has to hit until it breaks during the celebrations. No, I didn't get one of those, but I thought it was interesting to know that the tradition actually comes from Europe, and was brought to Mexico by the Spaniards. The name actually comes, according to Wikipedia, from the italian word "pignatta" (free lesson of italian, guys: "gn" is basically read as the spanish "ñ")...I would really like to know who, of the italians out there, knows what a "pignatta" is. Well, it's a pan, and among its characteristics there is the fact that it breaks easily if it's hit by something. Nowadays I've never seen a piñata at a European birthday!

Anyway, for my birthday, I had got a taste of other traditions. Firstly, the song "las mañanitas". All the Mexican people reading this will be smiling and nodding. It's a very, very popular song, not only in Mexico but in all this region apparently. I had heard it so many times during my month here, as we had a few birthdays at the comedor, and it was my Mexican friend's birthday at the beginning of the month (by "Mexican friend" I refer to the one I came to visit last year. It's getting a bit confusing as I now have more than one Mexican friend - I think). So when I woke up on saturday, I was very excited because this time it was gonna be sung for me. There are many versions, but in general it says something along the lines of "wake up dear, we've come to celebrate your (15th) birthday". It doesn't always say that it's the 15th birthday, but, if they are in the mood, the singers might say it even when you're turning 89. Even though you don't have to be 15 to hear it in the song, it is important to remember that the 15th birthday is the most important one here in Mexico, and that's why it says that.

Here is a version of "las mañanitas"...enjoy!

The migrants and volunteers sang it to me at the comedor (where I had brought a chocolate cake). One of the migrants also sang another birthday song, a Christian one. It was very nice! I didn't do much work at the comedor that day XD I sat with the migrants and played cards or dominoes, while listening to music on my tablet (migrants were showing me videos of bands from Honduras). It was a nice way to spend a birthday afternoon! Here, I learnt two more facts about Mexican birthdays.

Firstly, you have to hug people when they wish you happy birthday. It's a "must"! Don't make the same mistake as me, of simply giving a kiss on the cheek and saying "thank you". The friend I did that too smiled and said "do you know you hug each other when we give our birthday wishes, here in Mexico?". I could feel the disappointment in his voice, and I think I was only saved by the fact I've be living here for just a month, and that this guy knows something about dealing with different cultures himself...but from then, I was ready to promptly hug whoever said "happy birthday"!! ;)

Secondly, there is another tradition called "mordita". Let me show you with a video:

*I have just been informed its "mordiDa", with a "d". Oh well, still a long way to go before I learn spanish well...I'll change it from now on, but yeah. Be aware of these terrible mistakes!* You can hear the kids screaming "mordida, mordida, mordida!". "Morder" in spanish means "to bite". The birthday person is expected to give a bite (without cutlery, literally by biting the cake directly), allegedly to "see if it's good". You can see that she's moving one hand behind her head, and that is to check that the man is not doing what he inevitably ends up doing: trying to push her face into the cake. That's the real reason why they want you to bite the cake. You're supposed to do it (push the person's face into the cake) without them realising you're going to do it, but it's very difficult because nowadays everybody expects it. I luckily succeeded in avoiding this tradition too, although one of the volunteers really wanted me to "see if the cake was good"!

In the evening, we went to a typical Mexican restaurant. There were mariachis and there were also typical dances. The light was really poor (and I was getting a bit tipsy!) so I don't think I have decent pictures to show you, but basically the dances consists on couples dancing together. The women have these colourful dress with really big skirts that they move around as they dance, and the men are typical Mexican men, with sombreros and moving their feet as if they hadn't done anything else but dance since they were born.

We ate nice food, had our good share of beers, and then we ordered a bottle of tequila. I saw my Mexican friend talking to the waiter and I knew she was on to something, but I didn't investigate. I soon learnt what it was about anyway, as some waiters came next to me and, before I could realize what was going on, poured a shot of what seemed like "red tequila" (tequila with some tomato juice, I guess) into my mouth. They then shook my head while making as much noise as possible with some whistles. In a few seconds, they were off like nothing had happened...I had seen this last year, but I had completely forgotten about it....it was fun to try, but not my favourite way of tasting a shot of tequila!!

I'll leave you here, I feel like I've already written too much. Just to briefly tell you, we finished off the night dancing salsa (and, sometimes, pop music too) until 5am. It was a great birthday!

Hope you found it interesting :)

Mexican hugs to everyone

Caterina

P.S.: the title, once again, is an adaptation of the title of a Gogol Bordello's song, "Have you ever been to an American wedding?"

Singing helps the troubled souls

Hola familia! :)

First thing first, the title is a sentence from one of my favourite songs, "Immigrant Punk", by Gogol Bordello. Check it out if you're into (gypsy) punk/rock! I chose it as a title because today in the comedor (I hadn't talked about it yet, it's the place where i work in the afternoons: migrants can come in between 4 and 7 pm to have a shower, hot food and, in some cases, the possibility to call home), we had a very interesting visit. A group of migrants were bringing along two guitars and amazing voices, so they gave us a private concert after eating. They were singing Christian songs (they were part of a church - surely catholic, but I don't remember exactly which denomination) in spanish...it was really cool (*free spanish lesson* in Mexico, to say "cool!" you can say "chido!" or "padre!". The last one is particularly interesting for me, because it also means "father")!

Now I have completed a whole first week of working with migrants and it's been extremely intense. I wanted to write my posts in a logical order, so the next one was gonna be about getting ready to come here, but I really needed to reflect on my experience tonight...so here I am! Today it was a particularly emotional day as I was, for the first time, in charge of interviews. Let me explain, there's four main areas in the comedor in which volunteers are needed: the kitchen (where you cook and serve the food), roperia (=literally, clothes shop...of course it's not a shop, as everything is for free for migrants), interviews and door.

The door is where the first selections is made: only migrants who are passing through Guadalajara before continuing their journey can come in. The comedor is in a street with a lot of homeless people, so you need to be able to distinguish them. Also, sometimes migrants decide to remain in Guadalajara for a while, but they can't come in to shower and eat more than a few times, so you have to tell them "no" if you realize they're not continuing their journey. The first day I talked with my supervisor here in FM4 Paso Libre, he explained to me that it is important to understand that the organization, as it is small and voluntarily-founded, has its limits and cannot welcome EVERYONE. Sad but true!

When they come to the comedor for the first time (or their first time in this camino, as sometimes they have been deported so they're repeating their journeys), they have to go through an interview before showering and eating. This serves many purposes: it lets us know them better, it is useful for research aimed at improving the protection of human rights, and it gives us the opportunity to know if there has been any abuse, and of which kind. So, today I was at the interviews for the first time. It wasn't easy as my spanish is not so good yet (I know the grammar and everything, but I don't know that many words), but all in all I think nobody complained. However, it really gave me a lot to think about. Sooo many of the migrants just took it for granted that in their camino, it was normal for them to be robbed and to be pointed guns at. When asked "have you been victim of a crime?", they might often say "no", but then once you talk to them a bit more they'll tell you that one night, as they were waiting for the train, a dozen of armed men with their faces covered robbed them of all their money. And maybe even killed a guy who was travelling with them. Say what???!! Yes, it happened to one of the migrants I interviewed today. What's more, a couple of them told us that the federal police, at the border with Guatemala, asked them for money, otherwise they wouldn't let them come into Mexico. Interestingly, only migration police can deport people, but obviously most (...all?) migrants don't know it, and therefore they pay. It's disgusting and very saddening, but I always try to put on a brave face, as obviously I am not the only one who witnessed these things in person, so I don't really have anything to complain about compared to the people I'm talking to.

At the interview we see if they need anything - shoes? a new t-shirt? a hat? - and, if yes, we write it down on a piece of paper that they bring to the roperia. After receiving these things + a towel and a soap, they can go and take a shower. They then have to wash the towel they use (which, I find, is a very intelligent method to do it!) and finally they can go and eat a nice, hot meal, served with some agua fresca (a drink made of water, sugar and some kind of fruit, depending on the type) and/or coffee. Before today I generally worked in the kitchen, and I loved it. You really get the chance to talk to people (yes, you do that in the interviews too, but that's a more formal setting) and you see these big, beautiful smiles when you serve them food.

Well, to (hopefully) cheer you up after all the talk about robbery/human rights violations, let me put a few pictures I took today. All taken in the kitchen area, in the first one you can see three volunteers, in the other two the migrants playing and singing.

Hopefully next post is gonna be about getting ready for Mexico, but who knows...Vamos a ver! ;) (=we'll see)

Ciao!

Caterina