Initiation

Last night I felt as Mexican as I think I ever will. There was a street fiesta for the Virgin Mary, and if there was ever an initiation for being Mexican, that party was it. First of all, I ate street tacos. Delicious as always, especially since a full meal and a drink cost about $40 pesos...about $3.10 USD. Then we ate these fried tortilla things called buñuelos that you eat with syrup...it was a huge mess, but it was also delicious...and cost us $12 pesos for three tortillas (less than $1 dollar). These are basically the Mexican version of funnel cakes. We sat and watched a Mass for the Virgin finish up which was followed by a street performance involving dancers dressed as the Devil, Death, a cowboy, a woman and a bull to name a few. It was quite entertaining because the woman dancer was actually a very large man dressed in an incredibly tight skirt, hose, and heels. The two guys dressed as the Devil had whips that they kept cracking over the crowd. It was loud, children were laughing and everyone was having a generally good time. A kind woman gave us free Ponche which is like hot cider, and it kept us warm while we watched the performance.

The most insane part of the night was when we tried to walk away from the performance. The crowd was so dense, that I couldn't control when I moved or what direction I moved in. At one point, I'm pretty sure I could have picked up both my feet and kept moving forward. I was completely wedged between the people beside, behind and in front of me. Half the time I was elbowing the person beside me in the back and the other half, I was being elbowed. Trying to maneuver this was hysterical. At one point, Jessica got stuck between people going in two different directions and literally got turned around so she was walking backwards. Of course, no was disturbed by this at all. People kept walking, pushing, shoving without an appearance of being crushed, uncomfortable or even impatient. The whole idea of personal space was completely destroyed for me last night, and it was kinda fun.

Of course, my participation in all these very Mexican activities did not prevent my standing out as a gringa. Jessica and I had three guys come up to us specifically to talk to me. Three times it was offered to buy me a drink, once to buy me food, and twice to dance. One of the guys was about my age and he came out of nowhere to stand incredibly close to me and ask me if I wanted to go get a beer. I don't like it when people stand three inches away from me to talk to me when there is plenty of space available. The guy who asked me to dance was drunk and wouldn't take no for an answer. He kept coming back to me and asking for "just one dance." We finally just walked away to avoid him. I guess my blond hair will forever prevent me from being truly Mexican.