It´s yesterday and beautiful. We´re on the Jesus Patio at 1 p.m. The great cafecito umbrella is open wide.The sky is mostly blue, and there´s sunshine. It´s the rainy season, but since it deluged Saturday it´s taking a breather.
A white egret flies in the distance from left to right because that´s their direction afternoons. Mornings go just the opposite.
And we´re reading Lady Chatterley´s Lover.
Lord Zapata´s Lover, the Lady Zapata, is in the kitchen heating the green pozole she cooked up Saturday. Two big pots. The Mexican kin are coming for lunch at 3 o'clock.
There will be the widow woman from downtown and her little vaquero. There will be the leftist rabble-rouser from Morelia and her daughter, 13, who decks herself out like a Tijuana tart.
There will be the Morelia taxi driver too, and his wife, the one he met in the lost hills of Sinaloa. And their two kids, 8 and 3, the latter being grievously mislabeled Jesús.
And also an older couple, cousins who own a humble hotel hereabouts. We like them. They leave early.
Yours truly´s not fond of gatherings of more than, say, four souls, particularly with unruly children in the soup.
But these things only happen at the Ranchito about twice a year, and you gotta be flexible. Lady Zapata´s homemade flan eases the pain. Goes real good with black cafecito.
But the sweetest part is when they all head home.
(Note: We like the sound of Lady Zapata, and maybe we´re gonna stick with it. Easier to pronounce for Gringos than La Guapa Señora.)
18 comments:
We've just finished a ten day period of being visited by four nieces and nephews from Florida. There is a sadness with their leaving this a.m. but that will be quickly replaced with the sweetness you describe.
A couple of these little guys could have properly been named Jesus but were not.
Nicely crafted piece, Felipe.
yummy, I made Pork Green Chili yesterday but we didnt have any guests to share it with, so Keith is planning on eating the entire about of left overs when he arrives home theis afternoon.
Thanks, Paul, and Chrissy, I would so love some pork green chili. Never heard of such a thing, but I´m game.
i make a pretty good flan myself and it definitely goes well with cafecito. while i was in miami my sister made me cuban coffee twice a day-yum!
hope the visit went well.
teresa in lake stevens
Teresa, the visit went better than I expected because the rabble-rouser and her Tijuana Tart did not make it here. I wrote the item before the event in question.
When you invite Mexicans to your house, you never know if they will come or not, in spite of what they tell you, which is invariably that they will come. Are Cubans like that? I hope not. I don´t recall Puerto Ricans being like that. I lived in Puerto Rico. But back then I often was snookered, so maybe I just didn´t notice.
So the group was a bit smaller than we expected. Plus, the kids behaved themselves. I don´t know what´s gotten into them, especially Little Jesús. Could be they are simply getting older. But Jesús, at 3, should be at his worst. But he was not. Thank the Goddess for small favors.
The Little Vaquero, I just heard, will be with us 24 hours tomorrow so his mama can go to a party in Morelia, but even he, at 6, has become a normal human being. When he was 3, forget about it. It was almost necessary to hogtie him and throw him in the closet. But my Lovely Wife would not go for that. She has more patience.
You should've learned by now that we Mexicans always say yes to avoid hurt feelings.
What I dread about inviting anyone over for comida is not only wondering whether they'll show but also how many they'll bring with them. That can completely ruin the best-planned effort, particularlry if you're contemplating setting a table with matching silver.
It´s a charming culture. We simply bought a bag of plastic spoons.
I read Lady Chatterly's Lover at the tender age of 13. I had to hide outside the apartment in the stairwell so my dad wouldn't see it. Then just before I got to the...um...climax, he discovered it in my possession, threw a fit, and it was years before I got to find out how it ended.
Don´t tell me! I´m just on the second chapter.
Ah...Children..
To quote W.C. Fields. " I like children...fried"
At least your guests were civil. You are lucky, nowadays it seems parents no longer discipline their offspring. They think it is cute for them to run around causing havoc.
Glad you had a mellow afternoon, no go back to reading your book!
D.H. Larence's home in Chapala is a B&B - I stayed in the Lady Chattrly's Lover suite when I was there in February - alone.
Jennifer, I don´t believe for a moment that the Mexican habit of saying yes to virtually everything comes from a kind wish to not hurt feelings. That is, however, the standard explanation. The real cause is darker and more complex.
Babs, let´s hope you get another jab at the Lover Suite.
All right, so I was executing the Mexican lie when I mentioned the reason for saying yes when you mean no. The truth is that it's just easier to say yes, even when you would rather eat glass than attend and have no intention of attending. Decline an invitation, no matter how compelling and truthful your excuse may be, and you'll frequently be met with interrogation and demands that you change your schedule, bring your houseguests along, or do something that you really do not want to do.
Ah, now we´re getting somewhere: It´s just easier to say yes. We always do what´s easiest for us. The well-being and comfort of others do not enter our thinking.
But wait! A good definition of courtesy is a genuine (or feigned will do) and manifested concern for the feelings of others.
And we Mexicans are soooo polite, as everyone knows so, uh, we have a conflict here, a flagrant contradiction.
Like La Gaupa Seniora How does she feel about Lady Zapata?
BajaDove
BajaDove, she remains unaware. She is scarcely aware she´s been La Guapa Señora for a few years. Due to being English-challenged, she does not read my websites.
I'm not much of a people person, a few is good, many, not so much so. I would classifiy my self as a friendly hermit. Kids are cool, my grandkids come to use the pool, bringing with them hoards of tag alongers, I stay inside and watch, way too noisy. As for the beautific Mizz Babs and the lover, they sold all the furniture, so the Loveren is left to the grassy knolls kept hearabouts. The Chatteren, I'm not sure about, I don't ask.
Ruco, we have a bit in common, I see. A friendly hermit indeed. However, I have no grandchildren, and never will.
I pretty much have only Mexican relatives, the bunch above the border, never a big bunch, never a Wild Bunch (a great movie about Mexico), has mostly died out. A sister with no kids. A daughter with no kids, and an old auntie in Maine with no kids. It´s all for the greater good because, frankly, we are a big mess and should propagate no more.
And my Mexican relatives, numerous of course, never cease to amaze me, though they do not surprise me anymore. They live in riotous disarray, a reflection of chaotic Mexico.
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