I’ve been meaning to write a post about Pedro Infante (1917 – 1957) for a long time. My friend Nancy wrote one recently and it reminded me.
Last semester in my spanish class we read a book called Las Batallas en el Desierto by José Emilio Pacheco. It’s a great book, very short, about a boy growing up in the 1950′s in Mexico City. The discussions we have in class when we are reading a book are fabulous. In one, talking about a passage where he mentions many idols of the 50′s including Pedro Infante, we talked about the similarities between Pedro Infante in Mexico and Elvis Presley in the US. There are more than a few similarities.
Both were singers and actors, both were enormously popular sex symbols who also were macho enough to be popular with men as well. Both mainly appealed to the working class, this is a distinction that we tend to ignore in the US but which is openly discussed in Mexico. Both are still revered many years after their deaths. I don’t know if there have been sightings of Pedro since his death but it’s possible.
Pedro Infante was born in Sinaloa near Mazatlán, thus the statue there that Nancy showed in her blog post. He died here in Mérida in a private plane crash a short distance from the end of the airport runway, in the southern part of the centro. The statue above of him on a horse holding some kind of award is located at the sight of the crash, I went and found it today. It’s at the corner of Calle 91 and Calle 62 if you want to go yourself. I’ve heard that every year on the anniversary of his death in April people come there with flowers and candles.
Pedro was a better actor than Elvis, at least in my opinion. I never thought Elvis was very believable as an actor. Both were great singers, different styles, different times but they both had an enormous effect on the music of their time.
While I was googling around about Pedro, or Pedrito as the ladies called him, I found several clips of his movies. There was one series of 3 movies, a fourth was planned but hadn’t been filmed when he died, called Nosotros Los Pobres, Ustedes Los Ricos, and Pepe, El Toro. Here is a short clip from the first one, it shows him in his prime, acting and singing and looking handsome and strong. ¡Qué guapo!
Here is another clip of him from the movie Los Tres Huastecos where he plays 3 roles, 3 brothers who are very different. This clip is a great song as it is the type of music I think of as Son Jarocho but is called Son Huasteco here. The Huasteca is a very beautiful area of Mexico, in the hills above the Gulf of Mexico that covers parts of 3 states, Veracruz, San Luis Potosí and Tamaulipas. I am guessing that Son Jarocho (a traditional music from Veracruz) is from the Huasteca area of the state. At any rate, this is very similar to the Veracruz style of call and response, Son Jarocho. Pedro plays the army captain, the priest and a third brother that I didn’t see in this clip. It’s really a beautiful style of music and this is an excellent example, well worth watching for Pedro (x2) and for the music. I believe the woman is Blanca Estela Pavón, she has a lovely voice.
There are a lot of stories about his death, not surprising since his life was one of scandal and gossip as well. He was a rake, a pilot, a motorcycle aficionado and a lover of all things beautiful and fast. It was said that a warrant had been issued against him in Mexico City because his second wife had sworn in court that they were never divorced when he married his third wife, making him a bigamist. He didn’t want to fly back to the city on a commercial flight as he expected the police and the newspapers would be waiting for him. He was co-piloting an old plane with a friend, on his way to squash the warrant and get everything fixed, perhaps a bit under the weather from the night before and who knows… something went wrong. The plane veered off shortly after takeoff and went down in a working class neighborhood.
Mexico declared a national day of mourning, when his coffin was returned to Mexico City it was mobbed at the airport, the country mourned its biggest idol. As with Elvis, class plays a big part in who is a fan. You won’t find the fresas in the malls singing his songs but you will still hear his music coming from the open doors in the working class homes and bars of the country.
This is my favorite holiday of the year. No guilt, no religious mumbo jumbo, no presents, no ostentatious shows, no decorating, no costumes – those are all things I dislike about other holidays. Thanksgiving is just about being grateful for what you have and spending time with family and friends, good food and football. What’s not to like?
I gave my Kitchenaid mixer a workout yesterday, making a tropical mince pie, walnut bars and lemon bars. I didn’t feel like searching for canned pumpkin or baking a whole one so I skipped the pumpkin pie, I hope my friends forgive me.
It’s time to get ready and figure out how to get the desserts a few blocks away safely. I hope that all of you are enjoying this day, and that your lives are full and that you are thankful.
Saturday we went to a party for dogs! It was fabulous. It was actually the opening of a new boarding space for dogs just outside of Mérida owned by friends Chris and Jesus and called Perro Paraiso.
It’s a huge lot with some kennels and lots of space for dogs to run and play and even lay in the water – there are two shallow ponds for cooling off. Cuba was the only dog I saw actually go into one of them but they got a lot of attention around the edges by the rest of the canine guests. The Dog Whisperer would have been proud, this huge pack of dogs got along pretty well with only a couple of ‘time outs’ needed.
There was food and drinks and dog treats, lots of convivial dog people and their pets hanging out and talking. It was one of the best parties I’ve been to in a long time. We took Cuba and Hombre with us, Chica ran and hid when we were ready to go, she’s not fond of riding in the car. Hombre seemed kind of subdued, I think he was a bit overwhelmed by all the dogs. Cuba had a blast, she was running and playing and slobbering and panting the whole time. We had a good time too although we tried to tone it down a bit from Cuba’s reaction.
Have I mentioned, I’m sure I have, that we have Canadian TV? I’m not at all sure I’m similar to other Americans* but being from California my concept of Canada is minimal. I know Vancouver which is hip and cool and kind of like Seattle. Other than that, not much. I’ve never lived where it snowed, never even lived where a freeze was not an odd occurrence. So, you could also say that I know very little about the eastern and northern parts of the US. I’ve been there of course, but I flew in and I complained endlessly about the cold and then I flew out. I have never shoveled snow, never had to change my tires twice a year, never lost my entire garden under a blanket of cold stuff so that you can’t even tell where the pond is, never really believed that any plant could survive living half the year under ice and then come back in the summer. Basically, I’ve never lived where Mother Nature was trying to kill me for at least half the year.
Watching Canadian TV I’ve learned some interesting stuff. Like, it seems all Canadians have cottages and there are areas designated as ‘cottage country’. These are houses out in the boondocks usually on a very cold looking lake but they are only occupied for a couple months a year. Some people actually have all year cottages but they have to spend a whole lot of money to spend the weekend on a frozen lake and survive. Some of these cottages you can’t even get to in the winter. I watched an episode of Design Inc tonight where they were decorating one of these cottages and it was inaccesible after Thanksgiving. At first, I forgot that Canadian Thanksgiving is in October and thought that wasn’t too bad. It really put an extreme deadline on poor Sarah Richardson.
Did you know there is apparently a large market in Canada for illegal cigarettes? I’m not sure what makes them illegal but I’m pretty sure they aren’t pot, they look like Marlboro’s in the government warning ad. I suppose it is possible that Canadian pot comes with a filter, I’m beginning to realize that my impression that Canada was just a sort of northern extension of the US like Alaska is not true.
I’m admitting my ignorance here but I’m not sure I’m the only American with this misconception. Because most Canadians speak the same language, look similar to Americans, live next door, and don’t make much of a fuss about us – I think we tend to think they have the same culture. I’ve met more Canadians in Mexico than I had ever met in my life. They are from all sorts of areas that I had never heard of, they are just as opinionated as Americans, they are patriotic, they are proud of their country and their traditions and they have different traditions. Yea, I know, so hit me over the head with a brick.
Even knowing so many Canadians now I didn’t really get it that the culture is so different until I started watching their TV shows. Of course, you have to remember that most of my TV watching is on HGTV and that means I watch a lot of design and renovation and house hunting shows. I had no idea how difficult it is to keep all warm air inside and all cold air outside before this. The amount of caulking and sealing and insulating not to mention the mud rooms (I’d never, ever heard of a mud room) is daunting. I have to admit that the idea of living in a sealed up house kind of grosses me out, all that stale air… yuck. However, if the option was freezing to death or paying thousands of dollars for oil (who knew? they have tanks of oil in their houses that they burn for heat!) I guess I’d get over the aversion to stale air. Especially since I would be unlikely to ever leave the house once that killer snow arrived.
There is one ad that got me to write this post. I am kind of dumbfounded by the idea and can’t seem to stop pondering it. They have these drops, D Drops, that they put on their food to get enough vitamin D because they don’t see the sun enough and they’d get rickets or something. They put it on the baby’s bottles, the kids cereal, for all I know they put it in their gin and tonics. D Drops! I can’t really get my brain around that. No sun, no sun for a long, long time every year. Well, maybe a little sun but low and grey and not sending the vitamin D. That is the weirdest ad of all, I got over the ad where they say that 38% of Canadian women admit they wash their sheets less than once a month. Yea, it’s gross but I kind of figure they are lying to sell their detergent that is so much better at removing old body oils from sheets. But… NO SUN!
So, I started contemplating culture shock. I didn’t really get any of the normal symptoms when I moved to Mexico. Mexico seems familiar to me, I grew up not far away and it’s always been somewhere I’ve gone a lot. Yes, there were adjustments but none of the real, slap you in the face, how friggin odd is that, classic culture shock. On the other hand, I’m now fairly certain that I would be locked in the throes of full blown culture shock if I ever moved to Canada. Let’s be honest here, I’d have the same problem if I moved to New Hampshire. I don’t think I could easily adjust to a life built around surviving the elements. I spent a summer in Alaska once, I thought I was very brave. Actually, I hated it. It was the coldest summer of my life and I lived in San Francisco for years.
I’ve now decided that my easy adjustment to Mexico does not show my cosmopolitan sophistication but actually just shows that it wasn’t much of a challenge. I guess I’ll just go and put on another Jimmy Buffet song and pretend I’m hip.
*American. Yes, I know that there are 3 countries in North America and that people in both north and south America can call themselves Americans. Cool, go for it. The truth is though that the English word for people from the USA is American just as the English word for people from the Estados Unidos de México is Mexican. If you want to pronounce USAian then more power to you, I’m not interested.
Yea, I’ve been MIA for a bit. It’s not that I have been wallowing on the couch watching old MASH reruns, well, only one night. Mostly I’ve been too busy to spend any time on the computer. I talked about it a lot, does that count?
The Blogger Conference was fabulous! We talked and talked and I learned a lot. I had huge resolutions to revamp almost everything and research other things I’ve now forgotten. It was great to meet the next generation of Mérida bloggers, they are energetic and inspired and interested in everything. I felt a bit old hat to tell the truth. I need to get inspired again and start carrying my camera with me and share all the things I still love about this wonderful city.
Nancy and Paul from Mazatlán stayed with us the weekend of the conference and we had a blast with them. The day after the conference was a benefit house tour for an AIDS group and we all indulged our house voyeurism. I love looking at other people’s houses, I guess that’s why I spend so much time watching HGTV. I’m happy to say the benefit was a huge success and the houses were fabulous. The after party at Hennessy’s was great but we had to get Paul and Nancy to the airport so didn’t stay long.
The next morning I was off to Akumal for the annual owner’s meeting. Mimi is deep in the late details of a huge benefit for Evolución, the shelter she volunteers at, and she couldn’t go. My friend Sheila went with me and we spent a day in Playa del Carmen looking at furniture for her house and eating Thai and Indian food. The rest of the time there I was meeting with the other owners or the management or talking to friends. We returned to Mérida this afternoon and I’m exhausted.
Tomorrow I need to get my hair cut again, get some food in the house, check on the damage from another leafcutter attack and meet with the tech from the company that made the light for my inside pond, the one that I loved and that died within a week. Saturday is the big benefit party for Evolución. Sometime in there I really need to do some laundry or I’ll be wearing the same thing everywhere. Right now I need to go and snuggle with my furkids and lounge on the couch watching HGTV.
See the coastline between 2am Thurs and 2pm Thurs? That’s about where our condo is on the coast in Akumal. Rina is bearing down on it, either a cat 2 or cat 3 by the time she hits. We are directly opposite the southern end of the island of Cozumel.
No, I’m not thinking of driving over for the event. I’ll watch from over here and only go over if there is a lot of damage afterwards. It’s been raining over there for a couple weeks already and yesterday the lady who takes care of our place told us that there are 2 leaks in the roof. At this point, they aren’t going to get fixed before Rina arrives so I’m considering them hurricane damage. Maybe we can get a new stove out of this too. One can hope. No hay mal que por bien no venga.
I’m seeing a trend here, the first Blanket Night was on the 17th of October 2009, last year Blanket Night was on the 18th of October. This year we made it all the way to the 21st of October before putting the down comforter on the bed. We’ve had a cotton blanket on the bed for over a week but I decided last year that only the comforter counts. I am not celebrating the night that I give in and put the electric blanket on my side, that’s my private excess.
In looking for the dates from previous years, I was struck with how much the palm tree on our bedroom terrace has grown in just one year. I needed something for perspective as it is hard to tell how tall the tree is, I can comfortably stand under the low branch on the left now and I’m 5’8″. In another year or so it will have outgrown that terrace and we’ll have to move it.
The humidity has dropped along with the temperature, that’s nice except it takes a bit for my sinuses to adjust.
I’m not really complaining (yet) about the cold, it feels good to sleep under fluffy warmth and the cats are snuggling happily into the comforter. My flannel pajamas finally wore out last year so this week I need to go and buy some good flannel and have another pair made. I’m dusting off my Ugs and getting ready for cold nights.
I was in CostCo the other day and the electric heaters and fake fireplaces are all out on display. If electricity weren’t so expensive here I could see getting a heater for the living room. We’ll just make do with the live video of a fire that Canadian TV puts up every year. You can hear it crackle and every hour or so a hand reaches in and adds a log. It’s kind of soothing and makes you feel warmer.
The other thing that has returned after 2 years are the leafcutter ants. Mimi was trying to catch Mancha the other night and saw her staring at something on the ground. It was a line of big ants carrying leaf pieces like flags. We’re lucky to have caught them so early, they had only eaten about half of my big jasmine plant.
We got the Trompa out on the wall right away and they immediately started hauling it off. They were on the opposite wall from the last time, coming from yet another abandoned yard. It must have been a small colony because we have not seen any since that first night. They took all the bait home and it seems to have wiped them out. That’s a win, I only lost half a 6′ plant instead of all of that plant and a bunch more.
Just in case you want to run right over to CostCo for a fake fireplace/electric heater, I’ll leave you with this picture.
