Yesterday turned into a Mexican heritage day for Lorena. When she was shopping, she found a prickly pear cactus outside one stores with bright purple tunas. She harvested a couple of them on the spot and plans to prepare and eat them later this evening. Not sure whether that thievery or not.
Then, on the way home from Granbury, she saw that the matachines were out dancing in the parking lot of the Catholic Church across the street from the home where we have our Sunday morning meeting. She stopped to watch for a bit and talked to some of the people who were performing the traditional dance to/for the Virgin of Guadalupe. In one sense, this is very sad to us for many reasons, but the people were sweet, sincere people who really did not know any better. They very kindly and sincerely invited Lorena into the mass that occurs after the dancing, but thanked them and was grateful they let her use the church restroom, then wondered what the people thought when she entered the church without crossing herself. This all coincided with the Feast of the Immaculate Conception Day, something Lorena’s family calls Concha’s Day–Grandma Conchita’s given name is Concepción Aurora, so this is always a day that they tease her about. We were pretty surprised when we saw this all happening up here in Texas, but when we thought about it, we really should not have been.
Independence Day is celebrated in Mexico on September 16. Well, really, the celebration starts on the 15th leading up to el Grito de Dolores on the stroke of midnight, but that is another story. In my humble opinion, the very best part of the celebration is the ubiquitous and unparalleled Mexican mustache. The dapper fellow in the picture with the mustache is my nephew, Luis Leonardo at a school event in Queretero on September 15. He wears the mustache well–quite dashing actually. The costumes and sombreros everyone wears are beyond cool. All the family in Monterrey got together for a carne asada. I am stuck up here in Oregon while Lorena is eating carne asada and all the ripe mangoes she wants. That is somehow just wrong.
I LOVE Sarah Palin. The following is from her Facebook 
Today is Independence Day in Mexico. Our Luis Leonardo and Fanny (nephew and niece) dressed up to celebrate a school yesterday. Just as important is that Lorena’s best buddy, Vanesa, from our days in Florida celebrates her birthday on the same day. ¡Viva México!
What a great way to finish her undergraduate career–defending her cultural heritage against all enemies, foreign and domestic. There were some pretty powerful accusations made against NCSU Dining services for featuring sombreros and chocolate mustaches. Kelly and Christian defended their cultural heritage against these whining, perpetual victims and their racist invective. It reminded me of the commie professor and was great fun. Here are a just a few excerpts:
This is a special time of year for Lorena’s family and friends in Mexico. El Grito de la Independencia is celebrated around midnight, the night of September 15th. September 16th, Mexican Independence Day is a holiday throughout the country. We love it for several reasons. Lorena’s best friend from the time after we were just married is a Puerto Rican girl named Vanesa. Her birthday is today. We always fondly remember her birthday and it reminds us of the great experience we had at that time and place.
I struggled to find a good header for the blog. As some of you might have noticed, I put up severally cheesy composite images for which I was justifiably berated. I could not think what to put, but Lorena rescued me again. She suggested El Cerro de la Silla, the most distinctive landmark in the beautiful city of Lorena’s birth, Monterrey, Nuevo Leon Mexico. In the header (and the picture with this post), Lorena’s parents live very close to bottom right corner of the photo with the mountain rising behind them. Cerro really means “hill”. The literal translation for El Cerro de la Silla is The Hill of the Saddle or Saddle Hill. If that “hill” were in North Carolina it would definitely be called Saddle Mountain. It’s height is 5,971 feet. For now, it is just the right choice for a blog header.