baby, the bread is rising

the first fiesta was last night. in honor of el doce de diciembre. el día de la Virgen de Guadalupe. the anniversary of the appearance of an apparition of the Virgin Mary. the party went until 2:00 a.m.!! All day!! Until 2:00 a.m.!! In the evening there was una banda, un grupo and el castillo. We danced!! The second time in a week– throwing our bodies around and jumping about — OUTSIDE IN THE JARDíN!! It is incredible to me the communality of the festivities. In my perception, there were so many people in this village– I had no idea that there were as many as there are, although they tell me that many of the people are visiting for the December festivities from Kansas City and Chicago and other places. And the music could be heard throughout the entire village. And el castillo– was this fireworks structure, that had about a five minute performance complete with fireworks in the shapes of la Virgen de Guadalup and in the shape of Jesus Christ on the crucifix. mysterious.

The crucifix and the Catholic churches are mysterious to me as well. In los estados unídos I have one or two recollections or experiences with catholicism, so I am unaware if the decor is similar. Here, the templos I have seen are in the center of town by the jardínes and they have murals on the high ceilings and gory images of the crucifiction of Jesus Christ in various places throughout. I have also seen glass coffins with bloodied Jesus Christs in them. I find these images scary and curious. What do they mean? [I suppose they are, and do not necessarily need meaning assigned to them.  slash] See how Jesus Christ SUFFERED FOR YOU??? and what a glorification of his suffering, and how “good” he was. No wonder there was a time I believed that suffering equaled spiritual purity and righteousness…this concept is so innate to our society.

And firecrackers. I often hate them because along with this display of lights is a stream of smoke. Of something floating up into our atmosphere. And I also appreciated the firecrackers last night, as particularly el castillo, I had never seen anything like it.

oh Mexico, what a curious, connecting, exciting, scary, relaxing, living place you are-