From Xico

Our Christmas in Colonia Úrsulo Galván

I approach Christmas with some trepidation (to say the least).  I'm one of the people they talk about who experiences anxiety more than anticipation, and so is my husband.  So this year I was surprised by the happiness that enveloped me when we went for a Christmas Eve cena, dinner, at the house of friends in the colonia with grandparents, mother and father, son and daughter in law and our favorite neighborhood little kid. The two other daughters were in and out with friends for much of the evening.   Everardo works in the fish stalls at the Coatepec market and brought up crab and maybe robano or bass which Doña J cooked into a delicious soup.  Everardo is endlessly curious about the United States so we regaled him and his wife with descriptions.  His grandfather had lived in the US, near Chicago and added his own memories, often confirming what we said.  We laughed an awful lot.  It seems odd here to people, almost unbelievable, that Christmas Eve isn't generally  celebrated so fluidly with people in and out and firecrackers going off and finally the the payasos, dressed this time in white and shaking their noisemakers as they danced down the street leading the final posada of the season. We left pretty early, at least early for Christmas Eve.  A lot of people would go to services at the church in the Colonia and then continue partying until early morning.  

Christmas Day is more a day of rest. The streets were quiet when we went to our American friends' house in Xico where we had late-afternoon jambalaya with enormous, juicy shrimp for dinner and plates piled high with sweet desserts.  The father of an almost adopted young woman and HIS father were there and so was Miguel, the now-famous-in-our-area dog trainer and his two sons and a cousin of theirs and his wife.  I know it was unusually warm on the east coast of the US, and it was here, too, with temperatures close to eighty, if not eighty, but it still felt a lot like Christmas.

Umm...Better late than never?

It sounds strange to say it, but Day of the Dead is a holiday that is really fun.  This is due in part today to the omnipresence of Catrinas, often life-sized dolls created by all kinds of people for display. The original Katrina was Jose Guadalupe Posada´s gift to Mexico. Posada (1852-1913) was a prolific cartoonist and illustrator who used
not just Catrina but skulls and skeletons of all sots and just about everything else  in his political cartoons.  Later nineteenth century Mexico, by the way, was home to quite a number of political cartoonists. Posada himself was a primary influence on Diego Rivera who hung around outside his studio in Mexico City to watch him work. Rivera included Catarina in his famous mural Sueño de una tarde dominical en la Alameda Central.  

 In this section, you can see Diego, portraying himself as a boy, holding hands with Catrina and standing in front of Frida Kahlo.As were many of Posada´s cartoons, this mural is satirical, a lightish portrayal of social classes in Mexico.

Below are some Catrinas we snapped fotos of in Coatepec.

A voluptuous (in a manner of speaking) woman in  an athletic costume with pink sneakers.  I really like the sneakers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Catrina in a  sparkly dress in a clothing letter.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Catrina in an antique store, with a tricycle for some reason.

 

 A Catrina up on the 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

roof

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Catrina in a coffee shop.

 

 

 

 

 

Cut-outs in tissue paper hang all over, too: