Serendipitous News

I have a new blogging partner. His name is Javier Camarena. He is a native of my adopted city of Irapuato, Guanajuato, México which I like to characterize in Spanish as "mi patria chica", or in other words, "my little homeland" or "my little home turf". However, Javier now lives in Chicago, the city where I was born and raised and we have discovered that in effect we have traded places. He, like me, is very interested in history and he has begun a blog called "IrapuatoJaCa" which stands for "Irapuato - Javier Camarena" and it is written in Spanish. He is going to translate some of my blog posts into Spanish and place them on his blog in order to share with his family and friends various tidbits of Mexican history and culture that I have discovered. I welcome all of my fellow students of Spanish to visit his blog and see what he has to offer. It will be an excellent way to practice your Spanish and learn a bit of Mexican history and culture at the same time. I hope to translate some of his own original blog posts into English and post them here as well. You can access Javier's beautiful blog by clicking on this link: IrapuatoJaCa

Here is the introduction to Javier's latest blog post called "Muéganos" which I greatly appreciate. I have added an English translation below:

El presente post es una labor mancomunada entre el Sr. Bob Mrotek Autor del Blog “Mexicobob” y un servidor, resulta que Bob es nacido en Chicago y con sangre de ascendencia de Polonia, pero residente en Irapuato y con un cariño a nuestra tierra a prueba de balas pues se nota el corazón de fresa que lleva dentro, para nuestra desgracia él escribe en el idioma Inglés para su audiencia que es principalmente de Anglosajones residentes en México, dando a conocer aspectos de nuestra cultura y tradiciones que a veces son desconocidos aún por nosotros, los nativos de estas tierras, yo por el contrarios soy orgullosamente nacido en Irapuato pero radicado en Chicago y por medio de comunicaciones sostenidas hemos llegado a un acuerdo mutuo consiguiendo su aprobación para traducir algunas de la publicaciones que a través de los años ha sacado a la luz en su columna cibernética, la labor investigativa, el esfuerzo, la dedicación, y el contenido del presente reporte son enteramente producto de su dedicación y esfuerzo como autor del mismo.

A Quienes tienen la fortuna de dominar la lengua de Shakespeare les recomiendo que visiten su sitio, es fenomenal la labor investigativa que realiza y nos lleva a conocer aspectos desconocidos de nuestro terruño y nuestro estado. 

This post is a joint effort between Mr. Bob Mrotek, the author of the blog Blog "Mexico Bob" and myself. It just so happens that Bob was born in Chicago and is of Polish heritage, but is now living in Irapuato and has a bulletproof (See note 1 below) affection for our land because it shows the heart of a "Fresero" (Strawberry Head - See note 2 below) in him. To our dismay he writes in the English language to his audience that is mostly Gringos living in Mexico, revealing aspects of our culture and traditions that are sometimes still unknown for us, the natives of this land. I, on the other hand, am proudly born in Irapuato and based in Chicago and through sustained communications have reached a mutual agreement regarding approval to translate some of the publications that he has brought to light in his column through the years through cyber investigative work, effort, and dedication. The contents of this current posting are entirely the product of his dedication and effort as author.

For those lucky enough to master the language of Shakespeare I recommend you visit his site. The investigative work carried out is phenomenal  and leads us to knowledge of unknown aspects of our land and our state.

Note 1 - I sure hope that Javier is right about the term "bulletproof"!

Note 2 - People from Irapuato are known as "Freseros". Irapuato was the Strawberry Capital of the World for many, many years and the word "fresa" means "strawberry". Calling someone a Fresero is a term of endearment akin to calling someone from Green Bay, Wisconsin a "Cheese Head". By the way, it may be interesting to note that Irapuato and Green Bay are Sister Cities.