About losing your marbles...

Losing your marbles...

Everyone who knows me knows that I like to sing and whenever I am singing, then people know that I am happy. I strive to be happy as much as I can and there is nothing better than a song in my heart or on my lips to make me feel that way. It just so happens that the first half of the last century was rich in Mexican composers of the type of songs that are wonderful for singing. There were two composers of that time whose songs I like the best because they relate to children and families and the adventures of growing up. The first of these composers is Francisco Gabilondo Soler who is lovingly known as Cri-Crí. I have already written about him and you can access the page by clicking on this link; Cri-Crí - El Grillo Cantor.

The second of my favorite composers is Salvador Flores Rivera who people fondly call Chava Flores because "Chava" is the "hipocoristic" (diminutive) of Salvador. He is considered by many to be the
musical chronicle composer of Mexico City where he grew up and his songs are drawn from real life experiences. Don Chava was born in Mexico City on January 14, 1920 and he eventually devoted his life and work to portraying the personality of the inhabitants of this populous and diverse place. He, more than anyone else, left a chronicle of life in the barrios in the form of songs to document the customs and preferences of his fellow citizens. His father died when he was only eight years old and at thirteen he went to work in a tie factory sewing ties to help his mother support his brothers, Trinidad y Enrique. He started out by sewing the labels on the ties and he received five centavos per dozen ties which was only enough money to buy a couple bread rolls. Little by little he moved up the ladder, first by ironing ties, and then by cutting the cloth, and then by sewing shirts, et cetera. Finally, after years of work, he got to the point where he owned his own clothing store. He wasn't a good businessman, however, and he went through a succession of businesses before he entered the entertainment business. There he found his home.

Before you can really sing a song you have to understand the words and with a song that tells a story you also need to know the history and the related culture. For me, as a non native speaker of Mexican Spanish, this is a real challenge. It has taken me thirteen years of study to come to the point where I could tackle something like this and even then I couldn't do it without the help of my Mexican friends. I suppose this effort is a bit presumptuous of me but nevertheless I found the task to be very rewarding. I intend to translate a number of Don Chavas songs into English and try to explain what they mean because direct translation makes no sense at all without something to guide you. The first song is called "Pichicuás" (pee-chee-KWAHZ) and it is about some boys playing an unruly game of marbles. I translated the lyrics as well as I could and added some notes of my own as you will see below. Remember, these are boys who are playing a game and are bantering back and forth in slang and the song was written well over a half century ago. At the end of this post there is a video that will add the music to the lyrics.

"Pichicuás" 
by  Chava Flores

Pichicuás y Cupertino 
Nicknames of two boys in the barrio. The name Pichicuás may have come from a nearby tienda del barrio (small neighborhood grocery) called “El Pichicuás” and the name "Cupertino" may have come from San José Cupertino who supposedly had a gaping mouth.and a habitual blank stare or perhaps the boy was born on September 18th which is the feast day of San José de Cupertino. In real life the boy named Pichicuás was the best friend of Chava Flores and his name was Raúl Mercado.
Se pusieron con canicas a jugar.
They began to play a game of marbles (Chava Flores is the narrator).
Pichicuás que pide mano; 
Pichicuás called out to go first (In English we would say he called out "first dibs")
Cupertino, rin tin cola, cola y tras' 
Cupertino didn't call it in time so he went second.

Una raya y un hoyito
The "raya" is the line from where the players shoot their marbles and the "hoyito" is the circle that contains the target marbles.
Que pintaron en el suelo del solar.
That they marked out on the ground of the schoolyard. (Note: A "solar" could mean anything from a back alley lot  to a patio where laundry is hung to dry, et cetera.)
Se advirtió que “Tres y el fuerte” 
It was called out that whoever knocked three of the other fellow's marbles from the ring would be the winner.
Que “prohibido comer mano” 
That it was forbidden for the shooter to move beyond the line. (Note: In English we would say "no hunching")
Y que “Al quede no tirar” 
That whoever has no clear shot and "passes" loses his turn.
Que “las chiras son al tiro” 
That a glancing blow is considerd a shot. (Note: A "chira" is the sound made by one marble glancing off another)
Que “hay calacas y palomas” 
That there a dead ones an live ones  
Y “El ahogado muerto está” 
And if your shooter fails to leave the circle you are dead (Note: literally "The drowned one is a goner)

Mi Pichicuás, te sigue Cupertino. 
My Pichicuás Cupertinno follows you
Mi Pichicuás, te quiere calaquear.  
My Pichicuás he wants to do you in.
Si ya las traes, apuntale con tino. 
If you have already had success then aim carefully
Mi Pichicuás, lo tienes que ponchar.
My Pichicuás you need to do him in.

Pichicuás y Cupertino
Las canicas se empezaron a ganar. 
Pichicuás y Cupertino began to win marbles from one another.
Como se jugó de a devis
Because they were playing honestly 
Buenos tiros se cambiaron de lugar. 
Both of them took turns winning.

Cupertino que hace trampas
Y hartos dengues pa' ciscar al Pichicuás. 
Cupertino began playing tricks on Pichicuás wnen it was his turn to shoot by saying things to distract him and throw him off his game.
Pichicuás que se lo poncha, 
Pichicúas trounced his opponent,
Cupertino que hace concha 
Cupertino started goofing off
Y no le quiere ya pagar.
And he didn't want to pay to pay up.

Mis canicas me las pagas,
Pay me my marbles
y que empiezan las trompadas, 
And they beagan to fight and beat each other up
¡Ay, mamá¡, que feo es jugar!
Oh Mama, playing games is ugly business!

Mi Pichicuás, de a devis nunca juegues.
My Pichicuás never play fair and square.
Mi Pichicuás, de a mentis es mejor. 
My Pichicuás it is better to cheat.
Pos no esta bien que ganes y les pegues, 
Well it isn't right that you win and you throw punches
¿Que va a decir de ti tu profesor? 
What will your teacher say about you?

Yo, como tu, también fui pelionero. 
I was also a fighter like you.
Yo, como tu, también fui re hablador.
I, like you, also used to brag about how I was the best
Pero una vez me puse con el “güero” 
But then one time I came up against the light haired fellow. 
Y ya lo ves: ¡se me acabó el rencor!
And now you see?, I don't act nasty any more!

There is a sad story associated with this song. The song is actually a tribute to Raúl Mercado, the boy named Pichicuás. Almost every day the boys played marbles after school in the lot behind their grammar school to see who had the greatest prowess. Pichicuás lived the farthest from the school and when he saw the bus coming he always ran to catch it. The buses were invariably jam packed with people hanging on every which way. Pichicuás would wait until someone jumped out and he would jump in to take their place as best he could. One day they were playing marbles and Chava Flores was the shooter and he was hot dogging it and winning all the marbles. Pichicuás became upset and threw his marbles down at the feet of Chava Flores and ran for the bus but as he jumped for an opening he fell to the pavement and the bus ran over him and killed him. Chava Flores and the other boys were devastated and were traumatized for life by this incident. You see, this is both a happy song and a sad song at the same time. I guess the moral of the story is "Always play fair, keep your cool, and don't lose your marbles."

Heaven on Earth

Today we are celebrating the 465th anniversary of the founding of the City of Irapuato where I live in the State of Guanajuato in Central México. I love this city and her people and for me this is a happy day. This is without a doubt the best place that I have ever lived and I feel blessed to be a proud member of the community. May God bless the City of Irapuato and her inhabitants.

Thank you God, and thanks also to Irapuato, Guanajuato, and México.

¡Viva Irapuato!
¡Viva Guanajuato!
¡Viva México!
.

Take care of Yourself

Every now and then we get a winter season here in Guanajuato that includes a week of clouds, low temperatures, and rain. When this happens everyone suffers because even northerners like me can get very attached to sunshine and mild winters, and when it turns cold we whimper a lot. It is also a dangerous time for the poor people, especially those that are very young and very old, and those with dirt floors and leaky roofs. When I was a little boy we had what we called "feetsie pajamas" to keep us warm but it has been many moons since I could find a pair that would fit me. I am  thinking that to get a pair now I would have to visit Omar the tent maker and have them custom made. But...as hope springs eternal and Spring is right around the corner, I probably won't need them until next year anyway so there is no rush. In Spanish, "feetsie pajamas" are called "mameluco". This reminds me of one of my favorite little stories which I think is worthy of repetition.

Un niño, de rodillas y vestido con su mameluco de niño, rezaba con dulce voz sus oraciones de la noche: "Diosito: cuida a mi papá. Cuida a mi mamá. Cuida a mis hermanos. Cuida a mi abuela. Cuida a mi perro. Y cuídate Tú también, Diosito, porque supongo que si algo Te pasa a Ti a todos nos lleva la fregada...

A little boy, on his knees and dressed in child's feetsie pajamas, was saying his bedtime prayers in a sweet voice: "Dear God, take care of my papa, take care of my mama, take care of my brothers (and/or sisters). Take care of my grandma. Take care of my dog. And take care of Yourself too, dear God, because I suppose that if something ever happened to You then everything would go to hell...

It's time to learn...

On many occasions when I am wandering through the market and I stop to chat with one of the vendors, in order to break the ice I say:

¿Puede hablar usted el Inglés?

Can you speak English?

Sometimes the answer will be "Yes, a little" and then we go on from there and I ask them where they learned English, et cetera, and the conversation that ensues is quite pleasant and we compliment each other on our abilities, they with English and me with Spanish. It is a nice bi-cultural exchange (especially when I buy something).

At other times, however, the answer is:

No señor no hablo Inglés.

No sir, I do not speak English.

Then I say:

Si, se puede hablar el Inglés..."pollito-chicken, ventana-window", ¿no?

Yes, you can speak English..."pollito-chicken, ventana-window", right?

This is generally rewarded with a chuckle and a smile and we go forward in Spanish with a polite conversation. In either case the ice is broken and we are friends.

The "pollito-chicken, ventana-window" thing refers to a song that Latin American children learn in kindergarten or in the first grade. I believe the song originated in Puerto Rico. After the Spanish American War in 1898 Puerto Rico became a U.S. dependency and in 1902 the U.S. declared Puerto Rico to be officially bilingual. Unfortunately, like many government declarations, that never became much of a reality, even after Puerto Ricans were granted U.S. citizenship in 1917. It wasn't until until 1947 when the U.S. granted Puerto Ricans the right to elect their own governor that bilingual education began somewhat in earnest. It was sometime after that when the "Pollito-Chicken" song came along although I don't know exactly what year and who actually wrote it. I was hoping someone who reads this might know and share it with us. In any case, it has been a standard song for teachers all over Latin America including Mexico for almost half a century. This song has been criticized as a form of teaching under the name "Pollito Chicken Bilingualism" but nevertheless the children love it and the grown-ups remember it with fondness.

"Pollito Chicken" (One variation of many)

Pollito chicken,
Gallina hen,
Lapiz pencil,
Y pluma pen.

Ventana window,
Puerta door,
Techo ceiling,
Y piso floor,

Ha llegado la hora de aprender ingles.
Ha llegado la hora de aprender ingles,
Si tu abres la mente podras comprender,
Y veras tu lo facil que es hablar ingles.

Almohada pillow,
Cama bed,
Mesa table,
Y silla chair.

Dedos fingers,
Cabeza head,
Brazos arms,
Y pierna leg.

Ha llegado la hora de aprender ingles.
Ha llegado la hora de aprender ingles,
Si tu abres la mente podras comprender,
Y veras tu lo facil que es hablar ingles.

Pollito chicken,
Gallina hen,
Lapiz pencil,
Y pluma pen.

Ventana window,
Puerta door,
Techo ceiling,
Y piso floor,

Pollito chicken,
Gallina hen,

Ha llegado la hora de aprender ingles.
Ha llegado la hora de aprender ingles,
Si tu abres la mente podras comprender,
Y veras tu lo facil que es hablar ingles.

Pollito chicken,
Gallina hen,
Lapiz pencil,
Y pluma pen.

Ventana window,
Puerta door,
Techo ceiling,
Y piso floor,

Ha llegado la hora de aprender ingles.
Ha llegado la hora de aprender ingles,
Si tu abres la mente podras comprender,
Y veras tu lo facil que es hablar ingles.

Esto ha sido todo,
Lo hicieron muy bien,
Y aqui terminan,
Las clases de ingles.

Esto ha sido todo,
This is the end,
Y aqui termina,
Good bye my friend.

Ha llegado la hora de aprender ingles.
Ha llegado la hora de aprender ingles.

Gong Xi Fa Cai

恭喜发财  (gōngxǐ fācái)

Happy Chinese New Year!

The Year of the Dragon.

In Mandarin it is "Gong Xi Fa Cai"  
(pronounced similar to "goong shee faa tsai")

In Cantonese it is "Gong Hey Fat Choy" 
(pronounced similar to "goong hey faat choy")

It means "wishing you prosperity in the coming year".

Since we are all hoping for prosperity in 2012, and since today is the eve of the Chinese Spring Festival which is known in the West as "Chinese New Year" I say to every person on Earth who believes in peace and good will...

Gong Xi Fa Cai

2012 "Update"

Last year at this time I decided to try a new type of New Year's resolution and allow myself to choose only one word to concentrate on in 2011. The word was "Ideate" (pronounced AHY-dee-aet) which is a verb that means "to form an idea of", "to think of", "to imagine" or "to conceive of". It is synonymous with "to dream", "to envision", "to fancy", to "fantasize", "to picture", "to visualize", "to conjure up", or "to see in your mind's eye". When used in the intransitive form (without an object) and in the imperative mood (command) it means "THINK!".

As it turned out it was a good resolution and the result is that I have "conjured up" all sorts of ideas about things that I would like to do before it's time to exit this life for the next great adventure. The word that I chose to continue this train of thought for the coming year is "Update" which is, of course, a verb that means to make something that was suitable for times gone by more suitable to the present and the future by adapting it to recent ideas. It is synonymous with "improve", "correct", "renew", "revise", "upgrade", "amend", "overhaul", "streamline", "modernize", "re-brand" and "contemporize". The first known use of the word goes back to 1941 but since it is such a forward looking word its age doesn't matter. Neither does mine. Last year I was thinking of retiring this year at sixty-four but then I checked  a number of  actuarial tables and they all seemed to agree that in the absence of divine intervention it is highly likely that I will live as long as seventy-nine years. Heck, there is still plenty of time to accomplish something positive so I think I will keep on working and not retire until I see the moving finger write upon the wall. They say that Mr.Death can walk no faster than three miles per hour. As long as you can still walk faster than that you'll be okay. Just don't look back!

The main thing that I realized this past year is that the pace of change is accelerating at such a high rate that five years from now the world as we know it will be turned upside down. With all the longing for the good old days there is no return to a way of life whose time has come and gone. I think that this fact is awfully hard for "Baby Boomers" to swallow. The more that I learn about history, the more I realize that the decline in the way of life that we were accustomed to is irreversible, especially in the short term. The past is still alive only through pretending, and I am talking about a past as recent as ten or fifteen years ago. People of the 1990's spoke a different language from a different age and we can wander through the melancholy of those ruins caught up in the longing of nostalgia, well watered by our tears, or we can get on with it. That is what my theme word "update" is all about. By the way, in Spanish the word is "actualizar".

If anyone is interested, the following is a partial list of the books that I read this past year that collectively raised my focus and my aspirations to a higher plane. I highly recommend all of them and they are all available for Amazon Kindle. I am excited about what the next few years may bring to those who prepare themselves and I invite you to join me in that regard.

Istanbul  
by   Pamuk, Orhan  

Jerusalem: The Biography 
by  Montefiore, Simon Sebag

The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable 
by  Taleb, Nassim Nicholas

The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood  
by  Gleick, James

Secrets of Mental Math  
by  Shermer, Michael, and Benjamin, Arthur

Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk  
by  Bernstein, Peter L.
   
You Are Not So Smart  
by  McRaney, David

The Swerve: How the World Became Modern  
by  Greenblatt, Stephen

On the Nature of Things  
by  Lucretius
   
The Calculus Direct    
by Weiss, John

Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything
by Joshua Foer

Cod   
by Kurlansky, Mark

Salt: A World History  
by  Kurlansky, Mark


Like my dear departed mother used to say, 

"Onward ever, backward NEVER!".



HAPPY NEW YEAR!




.

A Christmas Fish Story

A few days before Christmas my wife Gina and her sister Cheli (Araceli) went shopping for the ingredients to make the traditional Christmas Eve meal. They bought a smoked turkey (pavo ahumado), beef loin (lomo de res) and the ingredients for things like spaghetti with cream sauce and a dish called "romeritos" which consists of dried shrimp, sprigs of a wild plant known as "Romerito" (Seepweed in English), and potatoes all served in mole sauce. Cheli insisted that they also buy some salt codfish which they call "bacalao" because Nochebuena wouldn't be Nochebuena without bacalao.

The only problem with bacalao is that it takes a long time to prepare because you have to remove the salt that was used to preserve it. If you have ever been to a Christmas Eve supper where the guests took a bite of bacalao and then reached for something to drink you know that the bacalao was still salty. This dish goes back five hundred years or more to a time when the Basque fishermen had already discovered the cod-rich Grand Banks off of Newfoundland even before Columbus supposedly "discovered" America. Thus the dried and salted Atlantic Cod became a staple of  Portuguese and Spanish cuisine and an important trade item. The  Portuguese called the salted cod fish "bacalhau" and we know it in Mexico as "bacalao" which is also what it is called in Spain. When the French explorer Jacques Cartier "discovered" the mouth of the St. Lawrence River in 1534 while searching for the Northwest Passage to the Orient, he noted the presence of a thousand Basque boats fishing for cod. The Basques congregated at a place called Port aux Basques at the extreme southwestern tip Newfoundland. To this day both the Trans-Canada Highway and the Trans-Canada Trail have their start and end points in Port aux Basques.

As things turned out the task of removing the salt from the bacalao fell to me. To do it right you need to keep the bacalao in water in a cool place and change the water every three or four hours for a couple of days as the salt migrates to the surface. It is a bit like caring for a baby. One night I got thirsty just thinking about salt cod and I got out of bed to go to the kitchen for a drink of water. Gina woke up and asked me where I was going and I said, "I'm going to change the bacalao. I heard it crying". By the time Christmas Eve rolled around the bacalao was salt free but there was another problem. We were running out of time. Gina called Cheli and told her that if she wanted to eat bacalao she would have to cook it. Cheli was frantic because she was running out of time also but her husband Luis volunteered to cook the poor bacalao and so he sent their daughter Luis over to fetch it. All's well that ends well however, and the bacalao turned out to be delicious.

When people commented on how good the bacalao tasted both Luis and I claimed credit but Gina said "Este bacalao es como una misa de tres padres" or "This bacalao is like a mass with three priests" meaning that many people had a hand in the success of the bacalao. In the Catholic Church, especially in the old days, a solemn high mass required three priests and a bunch of altar boys and a choir and so this must have been a solemn high cod fish and THAT is my picturesque and colloquial phrase of the day.

Picturesque Speech

When I was a kid growing up in Chicago, the bathroom was where I learned to write because the bathroom is where my father kept his latest copy of Reader's Digest Magazine. While I was sitting there and "concentrating" I would simultaneously peruse Reader's Digest and my favorite section was called "Towards More Picturesque Speech". I just love poetic and colloquial expressions and the turn of a good phrase. I would pick out the best examples and try to emulate them in my speech and writing. No doubt as a twelve year old I sounded a bit strange saying things at the dinner table like "Hey Pops, Spring is coming around the bend like a speed skater rounding the turn on smooth ice". My father would sometime pause with fork in mid-air and glance at me quizzically as if suddenly startled. Nevertheless I never got over my fondness for words.

Now that I live in Mexico I have the double pleasure of savoring the intricacies of language in another tongue. I am never fully dressed without a pen and some three by five cards in my pocket and my ear is always cocked to hear something new. Hardly a day goes by without an interesting scribble or two. I thought I might share a recent example with my fellow students of Spanish.

My mother-in-law, Carmelita, is the Director of a state sanctioned preschool and kindergarten. Just before Christmas she was holding a "kermes" at the "kinder". For those of you that might not know, a kermes is a type of fair held by churches and schools to raise funds. The word "kermess" in English originally derived from the Middle Dutch word "kercmisse", a combination of the words "kerc" (meaning church) and "misse" (meaning mass) and the word was adopted by the English, French, and others and it denoted the mass that was celebrated annually in honor of the local patron saint. The Spanish spelling "kermes" uses only one letter "s".

While Carmelita was preparing for the kermes her good friend Angeles stopped by to give her a hand with the "tómbola". This is another interesting word. It comes from the Italian word "tombolare" meaning "to tumble". In several countries a "tombola" is a raffle where the winning ticket is chosen from a rotating drum that is "tumbled" by means of a hand crank. In Italy, the Italian version of Bingo is called "Tombola". Here in Central Mexico a "tómbola" or "tómbola de beneficiencia" is a charitable raffle in which you win a prize if the ticket you have bought is chosen and the number on it matches the number on the prize. There is generally some kind of a prize for every ticket so nobody leaves unhappy and often people swap their prizes. When the tómbola was almost ready Carmelita said to Angeles,

Estoy in punto de abrir la puerta y hacer la cruz. Elige usted el primero premio.
I am just about to open the door a make the cross. You choose the first prize.

In actuality Carmelita rewarded her friend for helping her by letting her have one of the prizes. Angeles chose a Pyrex casserole dish and was very content. The interesting phase in this instance is "hacer la cruz". If you have ever gone to the market in Mexico early in the morning and happened to be the first customer you may have noticed that when you gave the little old lady your money she kissed the crossed thumb and finger of the hand that held the money. She was thanking God for the first sale of the day. Carmelita used the phrase "hacer la cruz" in a colloquial manner to mean that she was about to sell the first ticket.

"Hacer la cruz" should not be confused with the regular words for "making the sign of the cross" which are "persignarse" and "santiguarse". "Persignarse" is to cross oneself with small crosses on the forehead, lips, and chest and "Santiguarse" is to make a full head and torso sign of the cross. Santiguarse means to bless yourself. Persignarse means to sign yourself. I go into this in detail in my blog post: Persignarse versus Santiguarse

There is another use for "hacer la cruz", by the way, that you have to watch out for. It means to cross someone off your list or to dump someone and in this case the cruz that is referred to is the "X" that you make over their name. And now here's a bonus for you if you have followed me thus far. Sometimes when people are bantering words instead of saying "igualmente" meaning "you too" or "the same to you" to be playful they will say "iguanas y ranas" or "iguanas-ranas" which means "iguanas and frogs" as a kind of play on words. Yesterday my doctor said to me "Iguanas-ranas dijo el sapo" meaning "Iguanas and frogs said the toad". Try it out. You will make someone smile.

A Blue Christmas

The colors that most people readily associate with Christmas are red and green. For a certain percentage of the population these days (including yours truly) the color blue seems more appropriate as in "I'm feeling blue". I have heard it said by some that the feeling is triggered by the diminished hours of sunlight during the Winter Solstice but perhaps it also has to do with disappointment coming from the unfulfilled expectations of prior Christmases. I don't know for sure except that thanks to a new word that I learned I have a better way of expressing the feeling.

I am reading a book by a famous Turkish author named Orhan Pamuk who received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2006. The book is called "Istanbul: Memories and the City ". The author talks about the Turkish word "hüzün" that is pronounced "hoo-JOON" with the letter "J" sounding a bit like the "su" in the word "sure". It is generally translated into English as meaning "melancholy" or "longing" or "nostalgia". The meaning of "hüzün" is related to the description of the "black bile" or "black passion" of the ancient Greeks and can be caused by any number of things.

According to Orhan Pamuk "hüzün" is a special melancholy that binds the Istanbul Turkish community together in a collective feeling of nostalgia for the glory days of the past and the anguish over the increasing decay of the present state of affairs but nevertheless with a hopeful outlook for the future. The word "hüzün" originated in Arabic as a longing for God and it denotes a spiritual loss or separation. It is not the feeling of a single individual but rather it is the common emotion of millions of individuals who are suffering the same dark mood.

I think that we may be hearing more about this word "hüzün" in the coming year as the tensions mount over the presidential elections both in the United States and in Mexico. In both countries there seems to be a growing gulf between the the people with sufficient means to live comfortably and enjoy life and those who struggle for their daily bread or as they say here "el pan de cada día". I don't know where one would draw the line between the two. I have read recently that the average family in the United States needs an income of at least seventy-five thousand dollars per year to meet the criteria of "living comfortably". In Mexico it is no doubt somewhat below that amount but not by as much as you might think. Then there are the modestly rich and I say more power to them. It is their energy, intelligence, and vision that makes a good economy possible. They are no doubt the role model that many people aspire to emulate. I have no quarrel with that. In these uncertain times I think that all three groups can share the feeling of "hüzün".

There is one more group of people who I don't believe can even understand the melancholy of the other three. The word that I choose to describe them is "hubris". This word means "extreme haughtiness, pride, or arrogance indicative of a loss of contact with reality and an overestimation of one's own competence or capabilities and a complete lack of humility". It seems to me that when banks, corporations, and other institutions are labeled "too big to fail" they are tempting fate to the extent that their demise is inevitable and that they may have already begun their descent. Like the Titanic of one hundred years ago, all it will take is one big chunk of floating ice to bring them down. Being an optimist at heart I must have faith that they will not drag us all down with them like third class passengers in steerage. Thank God we have the Congress to save us, eh?

Eye for an Eye

The other day my wife Gina went to visit a relative who has recently given birth to a baby girl and when she returned from the visit Gina exclaimed with incredulity "Ellos ya le pusieron un ojo de venado en su muñeca!" or "They already put a deer's eye on her wrist!". I was just as surprised as she was because the people involved are fairly middle class and well educated but apparently old superstitions and traditions die hard. The "ojo de venado" is an amulet made from the seed of a flowering vine and this seed is large and dark and about the size and shape of the eye of a deer. It's purpose is to ward off the "mal de ojo" or "evil eye" which is also called "el alojamiento". The word "alojamiento" means "habitation" or "lodging" as used in conjunction with the word "hotel" but in this particular case it means "something lodged in the eye".

The "evil eye" concept goes all the way back to the ancient Greeks and Romans and most of the time it refers to envy. It is mentioned several times in the Bible in both the Old and the New Testaments. For example, in Proverbs verse 23:6 (KJV) it says "Eat thou not the bread of him that hath an evil eye" and in Mark 7:22 (KJV) it lists as sins "Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness". The "evil eye" is also mentioned in the Holy Qur'an and is something that the Prophet Muhammad himself was very well acquainted with. Verse 51 of the Sūrat (Chapter) al-Qalam (The Pen) which is the 68th sura of the Qur'an says "Those who disbelieve would almost trip thee up with their eyes.” The Angel Gabriel read an incantation upon the Prophet to protect him from the evil eye.

In Mexico, "el mal de ojo" occurs when someone who is weak, or an infant or a child, is stared at by a person with a piercing glance especially if the stare is a result of jealousy or envy. The stare is said to make the affected person's spirit sick. The symptoms of "mal de ojo" include headaches, high fever, fretfulness, and in the case of children, stomach ache, weeping, and a refusal to eat or sleep. This infirmity is often referred to as "el aliacán". The standard cure for "el aliacán" is the "limpia de huevo" or "egg cleaning". Someone, usually a grandmother, will take an egg (preferably from a black feathered chicken if available) and pass the unbroken egg all over the body of the child while reciting either the Lord's Prayer or the Apostles Creed (whichever one is the local custom). Depending upon the specific situation sometimes they will use a bundle of an herb called "epazote" (Dysphania ambrosioides) instead of an egg. Afterward passing the egg over the body they crack open the egg and put it in a glass jar and set it under the bed (same with the epazote) and in the morning the egg will have become darker and one should be able to see one or more bubble-like "ojos" or "eyes". The epazote has no visible changes. The mother or grandmother then takes the egg (or the epazote) away from the house and throws it in a ditch over her shoulder and returns to the house being careful not to look back lest the "mal de ojo" return.

The "ojo de venado" is supposed to be an "apotropaic" (in English) which means "something to ward off evil". In Spanish it is called an "apotropaico". The charm is made from the dark brownish black seed of a plant whose botanical name is "Mucuna pruriens". In English it is generally called Velvet Bean or Cowhage. The beans grow in pods that have a covering of fine hair-like needles that are very irritating to the skin. Mucuna pruriens often grows near rivers or streams and when the pods pop open the seeds fall into the water and distribute themselves by floating downstream. They end up in the ocean and regularly wash up on beaches, where they are known as "sea beans" and collected as lucky pieces. They are round and flat and about the size of a U.S. quarter. The complete charm consists of the seed with a ribbon or yarn attached with which it is fastened to the body. Often there will also be a holy picture or religious symbol on the bean.

I can't say that I have ever felt the effects of an evil eye but I may have experienced something similar when I failed to put my dirty dishes in the sink or I tracked mud into the house. In those cases perhaps an "ojo de venado" might have helped help but I doubt it. About the only remedy that I have found effective for things like that is to apologize profusely and to beg forgiveness.