A Wonderful Gift

Today I received a nice surprise. It was a note from my friend Javier Camarena that included a You Tube Video that he made that is an audio visual description of some of the delightful traditions of Christmas here in Mexico. His note reads as follows:

Dear Bob,  I have been reading your blog constantly and I`m impressed  with your writhing  and your research, I didn’t  want to pass the opportunity to wish you end Gina a  Merry Christmas, so I`m sending you a “Tarjeta Navideña” that I made with Villancicos that I remember from my youth and images that make me remember my Childhood in Irapuato, I sincerely hope you like it. Again Feliz Navidad y Venturoso Año Nuevo 2013 to you and your Family. Javier Camarena

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f3lWdZgcFeg&feature=youtu.be

Please visit "The blog of Javier Camarena" which is written in Spanish and dedicated to the town of Irapuato.

Thank you Javier and may the Lord grant me my wish that you and your family have a very blessed Christmas and that the New Year brings you peace, prosperity, harmony and joy. Amen!

The Morning Guy

Every morning my wife Gina and I watch a news/commentary program called "El Mañanero", or "The Morning Guy" (or also "Early Show"). It is a bit newsy but also a bit ribald and it pokes fun at life in general and particularly politicians. The star of the show is a man named Victor Trujillo who appears in clown makeup and calls himself "El Brozo", which is a play on words of the name "Bozo" as in "Bozo the Clown" who was a beloved figure in Mexico as well as in the United States and Canada. El Brozo, however, has green hair while Bozo the Clown's hair was red.

Victor Trujillo created the character "Brozo, El Payaso Tenebroso" (Brozo, the Creepy Clown) in 1988 as a parody of Bozo for a TV Azteca program with Ausencio Cruz called La Caravana (The Caravan). He pleased the audience with double-entendres and adult humor. He became so popular that TV Azteca asked him to join the reporters and anchors during coverage of the FIFA World Cup in 1990, 1994, 1998 and 2002. He also gave his commentary on the Olympics, starting with the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain until the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece. From 2002 to 2004, Trujillo as Brozo, was anchor of a popular and successful TV news show, El Mañanero. It was broadcast on Canal 40 XHTVM-TV and later Televisa. Trujillo discontinued the Brozo character following the death of his wife, producer Carolina Padilla, but brought back Brozo in a new TV program that began in early 2006. He is an influential political commentator.

Here is his tongue in-cheek morning "prayer" that he sings in a pseudo Gregorian Chant. He calls it "Oración contra todo mal" (Prayer against all evil). I added a rough English translation to the end of each line.


Oración en El Mañanero
de Victor Trujillo, El Brozo

"Santa Pascuala, 
que no me alcance una bala. (that a bullet doesn't reach me)

Santa Antonieta, 
que no me quiten mi camioneta, (that they don't steal my pickup)

San Macario,
que no me persiga un sicario, (that a hit man doesn't follow me)

San Andrés 
líbrame de un secuestro exprés, (deliver me from a snatch and grab kidnapping)

San Abulón ,
líbrame de un levantón, (deliver me from a high-jacking)

San Timoteo,
que no me toque un tiroteo, (keep me from being shot in a drive by)

San Federico,
que no me rompan el hocico, (keep them from breaking my face)

Santa Librada,
que no me caiga una granada y me lleve la chingada. (keep me from being blown to hell by a falling grenade)

Amén".

What is your purpose?

Many years ago when I first became a supervisor over a group of my fellow workers I had a bit of trouble learning the ropes. The problem was how to keep the work moving along moving and make sure that things didn't bog down. An old timer gave me some valuable advice. He said, "Just remember that many times workers unconsciously act just like cattle and it is your job to keep them from bunching up". He was right. When several workers find themselves in close proximity they tend to either start bickering or they start socializing and that takes the focus off of the job at hand. Later on I read somewhere that too many people have no real purpose to focus on. They are like cattle who do nothing but eat the grass that grows up underfoot out of their own excrement. Yucko! It seems to me that those people might be giving the poor cattle a bad name. The point is that without a purpose and a focus we are somewhat like cattle. Why do we get up in the morning and why does anyone care? There just has to be more to life than primordial routine body functions. This video by Simon Sinek provides some food for thought, but don't worry...it isn't grass.

What motivates YOU?

I have recently turned the corner on my 65th birthday and at the end of the coming year 2013 I plan to retire...if God grants me the license to do so. Like the countless multitude who have preceded me I am now thinking about how to spend the rest of my life. I came across this motivational video from RSA Animate that talks about something that I have always believed in and that none of my employers seemed to understand...that money is a necessary evil and beyond providing the basic necessities of life it ceases to be a great motivator for many intelligent people. There is something else that is much more important. I am sharing this video in the hope that there are others out there who share the same view that I do. In fact, I'm sure that there are. Please stand up and be counted.

Mouseland Revisited

I am very fond of the famous "Mouseland" speech of the beloved Canadian politician Tommy Douglas who is considered the "Father of Canadian Health Care". He is so admired in Canada that in a poll taken by the Canadian Broadcasting System in 2004 he was named "The Greatest Canadian of All Time". The Mouseland story was told by Tommy Douglas in 1944 but it is so apropos of the coming presidential election in November that I want to share it with you again. Tommy used this story many times to show in a humorous way how voters fail to recognize that neither the Liberals nor the Conservatives are truly interested in what matters to ordinary citizens, yet people continue to vote for them. Perhaps the next time around we will have a winning third party candidate if we can ever find a popular Libertarian without a loose screw or a well-meaning Socialist like Tommy who doesn't give the people the communist scare.

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.

Rosalinda the Pretty Rose

Rosalinda (Pretty Rose) is the title of a Mexican Soap Opera that is available on You Tube with English subtitles. This is an excellent aide for English speaking people to learn how to speak Spanish as well as a tool Spanish speaking people who are learning to read English.

Rosalinda, starred by the very pretty Mexican actress Thalía, was produced by Televisa in 1999. It tells a story of this girl who sells flowers and decorates a restaurant. One day, she meets Fernando José, a man who plays the piano at the restaurant. They fall in love, get married, and have a child named Erika, but the villain,  Fernando's stepmother Valeria, desires to split the happy couple up as villains always do and...well you will just have to watch to find out what happens.

Rosalinda Part 1

Rosalinda Part 2

Rosalinda Part 3

Rosalinda Part 4

Rosalinda Part 5

Rosalinda Part 6

Rosalinda Part 7

Rosalinda Part 8

Men & Women of Science

Joseph Glanvill (1636–1680) was an English writer, philosopher, and clergyman. He was not a scientist, nevertheless he was very interested, and even excited, about scientific undertakings in the last half of the 17th century when for all practical purposes modern science was born. The following excerpt is from a book that he wrote in 1661 which he revised and expanded several times in the years following. Today I was thinking of something profound to say about the passing of Neil Armstrong and the other brave NASA astronauts (including Christa McAuliffe) who preceeded him in his next wonderful adventure to the great beyond.
For me, I think the words of Joseph Granvill say it all:

SCEPSIS SCIENTIFICA, Or THE VANITY OF DOGMATIZING 
By
JOSEPH GLANVILL
1661

"Methinks this age seems resolved to bequeath posterity somewhat to remember it: the glorious undertakers, wherewith heaven hath blest our days, will leave the world better provided than they found it. And whereas in former times such generous free-spirited worthies were as the rare newly observed stars, a single one the wonder of an age: in ours they are like the lights of the greater size that twinkle in the starry firmament: and this last century can glory in numerous constellations. Should those heroes go on, as they have happily begun, they'll fill the world with wonders. And I doubt not but posterity will find many things, that are now but rumors, verified into practical realities. It may he some ages hence, a voyage to the southern unknown tracts, yea possibly the moon, will not be more strange than one to America. To them, that come after us, it may be as ordinary to buy a pair of wings to fly into remotest regions; as now a pair of boots to ride a journey. And to confer at the distance of the Indies by sympathetic conveyances, may be as usual to future times, as to us in a literary correspondence. The restoration of gray hairs to juvenility, and renewing the exhausted marrow, may at length be effected without a miracle: and the turning of the now comparative desert world into a paradise, may not improbably be expected from late agriculture."

Ah-Wim-A-Weh

I am not a cat lover. I just don't have it in me. However, I must admit that I am tolerant...Nay! I am actually partially fond of one particular cat. I have never seen him and he comes around at night and makes awful noises and he usually leaves a calling card fashioned out of cat doo-doo which I always step on by accident and then stink to high heaven. He also leaves me notes written in paw prints on my car's hood and windshield that I have yet to interpret. Why do I tolerate this cat? It is because neither of us can tolerate mice. The reason that I can't tolerate mice is because my wife can't tolerate them and whenever she thinks that there may be a mouse around the house my life becomes unbearable. Where I live in Mexico, one must always be careful not to leave an open door unattended, even for a few minutes, or a mouse will sneak in. It most often happens when there is a sharp change in the weather, especially just before the rainy season or in the autmn when it gets colder. If I could only know where the cat lives I would send over some catnip or some cat vitamins or something. I worry about the time when something might happen to him and my backyard jungle will go unguarded. I am always careful to check for his calling cards in the morning so that my wife won't step on one because that will be the last of cat's nine lives no matter how many he has left. A man named William Congreve once wrote a line in a play called "The Mourning Bride" that said "Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned, nor hell a fury like a woman scorned." I would like to add "or a woman who is frightened by a mouse or steps in stinky cat crap". Sometimes I think that life is like walking a tightrope between cats (or women) on one side and mice on the other. I just pray that in my case the Dear Lord grants my buddy the cat an extra nine lives. I will take the crap...one way or another.

In the jungle, the mighty jungle, the lion sleeps tonight. I think that I shall call the cat "Ah-Wim-A-Weh".

Mother's Day in Mexico Revisited

Tomorrow, Thursday, May 10th, is Mother’s Day in México. It is always on the 10th of May. My wife Gina is taking the afternoon off to go to her mother’s house with a hired helper to clean the house from top to bottom in anticipation of tomorrow’s celebration.  In the United States Mother’s Day is always on the second Sunday of May regardless of the date. In 2009 the second Sunday of May fell on May 10th and so that  year the people of both Mexico and the United States honored their Mothers on the same day. That won’t happen again until the year 2020. Why does Mexico celebrate Mother’s Day on a fixed date and the United States celebrate Mother’s Day on a variable date but both in the first half of May? It's a rather long story. Originally they celebrated on the same date but things got a bit confused along the way. The important thing is that Mothers everywhere get their due. Let’s take a look at how the whole thing got started.

First of all, celebrating motherhood is nothing new. The practice goes way back in history all over the world. In England it evolved into “Mothering Day” which was a Sunday in Lent when servants were given the day off to return to their ancestral home and visit their mothers and share time with their families. The practice did not fare well in the American colonies at first and it wasn’t until after the bloodshed of the American Civil War and during the Franco Prussian war that an interest in celebrating Mother’s Day was revived. A lady named Julia Ward Howe, who in 1861 wrote the “Battle Hymn of the Republic”, made a “Mother’s Day Proclamation” in 1870. She called on mother’s the world over to come together and protest the futility of their sons killing the sons of other mothers. Her motive was not so much to revere motherhood as it was to use motherhood as a catalyst for peace. During the ensuing years the celebration of Mother’s Day was disorganized and sporadic but the seed that Julia Ward Howe planted began to grow.

At the same time that Julia Ward Howe was writing the “Battle Hymn of the Republic” there was a lady in West Virginia named Anna Marie Reeves Jarvis who was organizing women to work for the well-being of their communities by holding “Mother's Work Days”, which were days when groups of women dedicated themselves to campaigns involving better hygiene, sanitation, and medical care in the small communities of rural West Virginia. During the Civil War she helped not only her neighbors but wounded soldiers from both sides as well and through all that she managed to keep peace among the various political factions in her neighborhood. Taking their cue from Julia Ward Howe, a women’s group led by Anna Marie Reeves Jarvis began to celebrate an adaptation of Howe’s idea called “Mother’s Friendship Day” in order to re-unite families and neighbors that had been divided between the Union and Confederate sides of the Civil War. Her many humanitarian efforts were only cut short by her death on Tuesday, May 9th, 1905.

After Anna Marie Reeves Jarvis died, her daughter Anna M. Jarvis campaigned for the creation of an official Mother’s Day in remembrance of her mother and in honor of peace. The idea for Mother's Day came to Miss Jarvis on May, 9th 1907, the second anniversary of her mother's death, which happened to fall on a Thursday. On May 10, 1908 which was the second Sunday in May, the first official Mother's Day celebration took place at Andrew's Methodist Church in Grafton, West Virginia. From there the idea spread from state to state and foreign countries as well, including Mexico. In 1912 West Virginia became the first state to officially recognize Mother's Day, and in 1914 Woodrow Wilson signed it into national observance, declaring the second Sunday in May as Mother's Day. This may be where the fixed date versus variable date separation took place. What had been originally celebrated May 10th had now been officially transferred to the second Sunday.

In Mexico City in 1917 a young man of 28 from the State of Puebla named Rafael Alducin Bedolla founded what was to become an important newspaper called Excelsior. In April of 1922 he invited all interested parties to a convention to propose a nationwide holiday in Mexico dedicated to Mexican motherhood. As a result of this convention the first official Mexican “Día de la Madre” was celebrated on May, 10th, 1922. Guess what…it was a Wednesday! Why they didn’t follow the second Sunday idea we’ll probably never know. If anyone does know, please tell me. Father’s day in Both Mexico and the United States is celebrated on the third Sunday in June. This year Father’s Day in both countries will fall on Sunday, June 17th.

There are various ways that Mexican people celebrate Mother’s Day depending upon their local customs. Here in Irapuato, Guanajuato, where I live, it is the custom to stand outside of the mother’s house after midnight and sing “Mañanitas”, a very old traditional song. It is usually reserved for the Blessed Virgin, Mother’s Day, and birthday celebrations. If the people are wealthy they may hire Mariachis to do their singing or perhaps a small “Norteño” type band.  Some people, who are not so wealthy, band together and go in turn to the houses of each of their mothers with the men singing one part and the women singing another part. It is very beautiful. The night doesn’t end until everyone’s mother has been serenaded. On the morning of May 10th the mothers usually attend morning mass at their local church and after mass the children treat mother to breakfast. In the afternoon everyone gathers at the home of the oldest mother in the family and the ladies make chicken with mole sauce, jalapeños, corn tortillas, and red rice. If they don’t want to cook they send out for “carnitas” (braised pork) which is another favorite dish and it is served with refried beans, tortillas, and rice. Afterwards there is a desert of either ice cream or cake or both. Oh, yes, I almost forgot…there is generally plenty of tequila too, usually served with the carbonated soft drink “Squirt”. It is a special time that reunites the family with the mother at the center. Here is the Mother’s day version of “Mañanitas:

Estas son las mañanitas, que cantaba el Rey David.
Hoy por ser día de las madres, te las cantamos a ti.
Despierta Mamá despierta mira que ya amaneció.
Ya los pajaritos cantan. La luna ya se metió.


Que linda está la mañana en que vengo a saludarte.
Venimos todos con gusto y placer a felicitarte.
Ya viene amaneciendo. Y a la luz del día nos dio.
Levántate Madre mía. Mira que ya amaneció.