I really can't overstate how wonderful I've found the homestay experience. Not only do I get three meals a day, a spacious bedroom with private bath, weekly laundry service and endless hours of conversations, but I also get invitations to family gatherings all the time. And when families have 8 or 10 siblings, there seems to be a party every week.
I first met Hector and Margarita at my house. Hector is the brother of my mom, Delia, and his wife, Margarita, is my mom's cuñada, or sister-in-law. However, every time one addresses the other, the sentence begins with comadre. (I've found with my family, that everyone addresses each other with some version of their familial relationship. "Oye, tío, pasame la coca, por fis" or "ay, m'ija cuidate") Hector is a retired mechanical engineering professor and Margarita is a retired chemist. Hector was immediately very easy to talk with and he was genuinely interested in me. Margarita is enrolled in her 8th semester of English classes at the University. I happen to think her English is better than my Spanish, but she's very shy and reserved in conversation.
I went to their house to cut the rosca for Reyes Magos a few days after I arrived in Guanajuato, and I met their family members. Their 35-year-old daughter, Edna Yasmin, lives with them and works at the Comision Federal de Electricidad, like many members of my family. Their son Hector (or Hectorin as I've heard him called-maybe to distinguish father from son) also lives in Guanajuato with his wife Claudia, and daughter Michelin and Juan. Another son, Gabriel, was home for the Christmas holidays but later returned to Germany where he's doing a doctoral program in Mathematics. Another son, name forgotten, lives in Queretaro with his wife, Sandy, and their toddler.
The week before last, Hector and Margarita invited me to their casita in Aguascalientes. Margarita was born in Aguascalientes, capital city of the state with the same name, but attended college at UG, where she met Hector and has lived here ever since. Margarita's father gave her land at one point, on which they built their casita. Yasmin lived there while she went to college in Aguascalientes and for 13 years after that while she worked as a programmer in a geographic institute. 3 years ago she moved back to Guanajuato and she says she's completely bored by the city. Before we arrived at their second home, Margarita made sure to tell me several times that their house was very small and it might not be clean. I knew she was exaggerating, as is the custom, and sure enough their little house is a nicely appointed 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom house that sits above a 2 car garage.
Yasmin really misses living in Aguascalientes and comes back every 8 days. (Right, because a week is 8 days here. I tried figuring it out, but I can't.) Friday night Yasmin took me out in Aguascalientes with her friend Patty. First we went out for tacos! I had the hidrocálido, a sampling of their most popular dishes, including a small bowl of pozole, an enchilada, un taco, and una flauta. Super yummy! Later we shot pool while Yasmin grilled me about my family and life in the US. I had a hard time explaining what I was like in high school, but we eventually settled on the common cultural reference of late 90s Daria from MTV. Later we went to the movies to see Alocada Obsesión (or All about Steve with Sandra Bullock.) - There will definitely be at least one future post about movies. I've been going to the theatre a lot, buying bootlegs and taking a cinema class.
Saturday morning we woke early for a long day that started with yummy gorditas. There are many more "official" gordita shops in Aguascalientes, meaning something more than a card table and comal set up on the side of a street. The one we went to is set up in the front section of a family's home in what was probably once the garage.
Since it's winter the plants were dormant, but we went on a tour nevertheless and heard a platica about the process of cultivating the grapes. Most of the success of each season's wines depends on Mother Nature, as Luis explained to us; while he prays for a dry spring, the corn farmer neighboring the vineyard prays for rain. Only the best grapes of the harvest become wine at Hacienda de Letras; the rest are sold. This operation is still very much at a small scale; Luis produces around 3,000 cases a year and while it takes the time and dedication of a full-time job, he still has to work in another profession to provide for his family. After passing through the fermentation area, we were treated to a nice spread of cheeses and breads while sampling more than 6 of the varieties made on site. Then after a few glasses of wine, I purchased two bottles to share back in Guanajuato with friends.
In the afternoon, we stopped in two pueblitos. In general, Aguas is a very poor state and these were very traditional pueblitos. The first, villa de San Blas (?), was under renovation in preparation for this year's festivities of the Centenario (de la Revolución) and Bicenterario (de la Independencia.) Many places in Aguascalientes and Guanajuato are historically significant to the Bicentenario celebrations because they were stops along the path that Padre Hidalgo took in 1811.
We then drove to the pueblito de San Jose de Gracia, a very poor town that is able to survive from tourist money spent by the faithful visiting Cristo Roto. 14 passenger party boats ferry thousands of people daily to a tiny island in the middle of a presa (the area that includes a dam and the surrounding flooded waters) where a (30 meter) statue of Broken Christ stands on an altar. Surrounding the platform are smaller shrines that represent an image from each of the 40 or so churches in Aguascalientes.
Saturday night Yasmín and I went to the baby shower for her friend, Patti's sister-in-law. The mother to be was around 17 and her husband was 35. It was good to be part of a normal evening with family. As nice as all the sightseeing is, it's good to just sit around with families and talk. There was a very funny woman at the shower who looked like a telenovela star. She wore the seemingly-obligatory mountains of makeup, and a glittery shirt that promoted Herbalife, a small business chain found in Mexico, and in the States, too I think. She spoke super fast with tons of albures, which I didn't get. And according to the definition on Spanichdict.com, I have a little comfort in the fact that I may never get them.
Albures are a distinctive feature of male Mexican lower-class speech. They are rapid-fire puns, chiefly of a sexual nature, which can be stretched into extensive exchanges as each participant tries to top the last speaker's remark. Non-native speakers, no matter how fluent their Spanish, are unlikely to make much sense of an exchange of albures, let alone be able to participate. Indeed, they can be largely incomprehensible even to many Mexicans.
At times I definitely look lost in conversation, but I am really enjoying myself. The exposure to different patterns and styles of speech can only serve to expand my vocabulary and understanding. It just takes a while.
Sunday morning one of Margarita's brothers and his wife joined us for a day in Villa Hidalgo, a small town where their father was born. They told me that the town has changed significantly in the 80 or so years since his birth. What was once a very small pueblito is now a shopping Mecca. People from Aguascalientes and neighboring states come to Hidalgo for streets packed full of clothing retailers. There are tons of good deals to be found, which can be very dangerous for a poor college student with a weakness for fashion.
We also witnessed a parade/pilgrimage down the main avenue. I believe it was honoring the Virgin of Guadalupe, but it could have had something to do with el Día del Candelario, happening a few days later on February 2. Tractor driven floats, 4 wheelers, horses and worshippers made up the 2-hour parade.
After we left Villa Hidalgo we went for dinner at a seafood restaurant in Aguascalientes. And this is where my fun weekend story ends. Maybe I should have known before to eat seafood in central Mexico. Or maybe the following sickness had nothing to do with the octopus and fish I ate. I will just say that there are few experiences more humbling than being very sick in the home of recent acquaintances, while you can't fully express your needs and emotions because of a language barrier. Sunday night and Monday were spent replenishing electrolytes with a healthy dose of MTV Latin America.
Monday I felt well enough to leave the house and accompany the family to Margarita's brother's house, where he was preparing no less than 200 tacos. I politely refused food throughout the whole meal in an effort to stabilize my digestive system. Margarita's brother is very funny and cracked jokes the whole time and also was very interested to know if I had any blue-eyed cousins who wanted to marry his son. (Rosie, are you single?) I think he was only half joking. :)
I continue to be amazed by the generosity of the families I meet. Since the trip to Aguascalientes, I've spent more time with Hector and Margarita. Every Monday Margarita and I meet for English conversation hour. It is very difficult to watch a very bright woman (a professor of college chemistry) become frustrated because she forgets irregular verbs. I try to reassure her that I find it equally as difficult in Spanish. When she exclaimed, "I did it!" after publishing her first blog post, I was cheering along with her.
