Catemaco Deads

A gringo died last night in beautiful downtown Catemaco.

He had been living in Catemaco longer than I.

I knew him by sight, but along with most of the rest of the local close knit gringo community, we never spoke to each other. Only local Europeans hold love fests in Catemaco.

The projected funeral seems to be going to be a quick dip & tuck.

So here is a nice "Tuba along" to say good bye to the Catemaco gringo, just in case the Mariachis don´t catch him..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PE85pJmNwL0

Now we are down to 9, or maybe 21, or at least 15. Shucks! We need some new blood.

Death to the gachupines in Catemaco

"¡Mueran los gachupines! Viva la Virgen de Guadalupe!" ("Death to the Spaniards and Long live the Virgin of Guadalupe) was the battle cry of Miguel Hidalgo when he called for independence from Spain for Mexico the morning of September 16th, 1810.

The event is now commemorated September 15 in the evening as the "Grito de Dolores" (`Cry of Pain' or 'Cry of Dolores', the town where Hidalgo first shouted it, depending on how nationalistic you feel). This is possibly because many Mexicans have a hard time relating to events occurring early in the day. (Oops, I lack a quote for that one, except for a superficial judgement of my appointment schedule with bureaucrats, but not workers.)

The actual "grito" (shout) ocurred at church service on the morning of the 16th of September.

BUT, to honor Porfirio Diaz, Mexico's favorite dictator for most of the end of the 20th century, the holiday was moved up half a day to celebrate his birthday in the evening and the event has now been institutionalized to occur near midnight on September 15th. The event has now become a two day holiday, the first day to issue shouts, and the second to recover from hang-overs.

Beautiful downtown Catemaco restaurant owners and flag sellers are supporting this welcome diversion. They offer customary recipes such as champurrado, pozole, chiles nogados and other life threatening delicacies on the eve of September 15th, for surcharges of up to 500 pesos to surviving "gachupines" with reservations, and discounted flags of Mexico at roughly one dollar per square foot.

VIVA MÊXICO, CABRONES Video
(English lyrics garbled translation)

Deadend Catemaco

So you wake up one morning in beautiful downtown Catemaco, Veracruz and your street has turned into a dead end. A hive of workers apparently spent the night building a fair size slum shack in the middle of the street to celebrate the 475th anniversary of The Virgin of Guadalupe of Tepeyac.

According to my Popoluca partner, this particular neighbor is famous for an annual ritual and invites the entire town to free food, worship and hot chocolate. Invite is not the word, there is one of those giant loudspeakers on wheels cruising the neighborhoods belting out invitations.Meanwhile apparently a dozen women slaved over rolls of colored paper, creating exquisite flowers, while their male friends are driving my dogs nuts with illegal Iraq sized firecrackers.

By now the downtown streets and the basilica are a parking lot of arriving worshippers, who ran, pedaled or bused into town from places as far as several hundred miles away. Since the reason for these pilgrimages lies in a personal commitment people made during the year to express their thanks, this Virgin must have made a lot of people happy this year.

So tonight, I, too am invited and can’t wait for the goodies. My Popoluca will do the praying. Later on we’ll have the chance to get rid of our 10 peso coins or (tamales by the cash deficient) to hordes of child troubadors repeatedly singing a single refrain from the Guadalupana.

And if we stay up long enough, by midnight the entire town will be singing Las Manañitas. Tomorrow, it will be a rare street that does not have something similar to my dead end happening throughout the day.

AND THEN, a few days of quiet (I hope they ran out of firecrackers) and then the posadas begin on Hanukah (only coincidentally occuring on the 16th of December this year), and this sleepy little village will not rest till after January 6th.

I am considering moving to Oaxaca.

Catemaco Holidays

If you have high blood pressure, stay out of Mexico!

There are only 7 official, legal holidays in Catemaco and the rest of Mexico. Plus an extra one, every 6 years for the presidential inauguration.

But try to find a major government official or judge or transact major business on maybe an extra 40 illegal holidays. GOOD LUCK!

Starting December 12th, after singing the Guadalupana, official Mexico goes into hibernation till around January 6th.

Then there is Easter which stretches a whole week, and of course the Day of the Dead, which is actually two days, and 5 de Mayo, which is always good for a parade, and Mothers day which never gets moved to a Sunday unless absolutely necessary, and visiting dignitary day, when noone wants to be seen working, and every village’s saints day, which might actually might last a whole week, plus Navy day when boat people in Catemaco cook giant soups, and, and, and…
Oh yeah, I forgot summer vacation, mid July to end of August.

During the illegal holidays, you may actually find some government people working, but if your concern requires an “executive” signature, I wish more good luck to you. Of course, the common working people in most businesses work most every day, legal or not, and usually do not get paid those holidays.

Yes, it is wonderful to be in Mexico, especially if you are rich, a politician, or have a management job in government.

Catemaco horse apples

Open Letter to the Catemaco Mayor.

Thank you for buying those dozens of benches now gracing the Malecon with the insignia of your term of office and "ESCAPATE AL PARAISO. That is a very nice slogan to read, especially once I am already here and sitting on my paradise.

A few days ago you sponsored a cavalcada on the flanks of the San Martin Volcano. Apparently this was a remarkable event, 80 horse riders passing from Cuauthemoc to Perla San Martin. It must have been a wonderful experience, and I wish someone had informed me ahead of time so I and my harem could have participated.

That brings me to the point of this open letter. I realize Mexican journalism depends on financial contributions from news sources to create "news". Would it be possible to scrounge some pesos from the Catemaco budget and publish a weekly legitimate ad in a newspaper, (unfortunately all situated in San Andres Tuxtla), which would announce all upcoming events in beautiful uptown and downtown Catemaco?

I hate being on the wrong end of a horse.

Catemaco Expoferia

wonderful idea --- horse races, cattle shows, national entertainment in Catemaco, etc.

So they borrow umpteen hectares from the richest man in Los Tuxtlas, spent a small fortune trying to turn it into a fairground on a few weeks notice, fly giant banner ads on the wrong side of the Tuxtlas highway, and in general ignore anything ever said about business management.

So now the taxidrivers, the potential exhibitors and anyone else with a grudge in Catemaco are trashing the ayuntamiento.

Serves them well.

Catemaco Feria de Conservacion

1er. Feria de Conservacion, Preservacion y Restauracion de los Ecosistemas y su Biodiversidad sponsored by COEPA, Consejo Estatal de Proteccion al Ambiente, Abril 22-24, 2005.

Oh Goodie! Another Organization to add to my list. There are probably more words in the description than there were attendees. But a good time seem to have been had by all.

I bought a copy of Los Tuxtlas - Paisaje Y Pensamiento. Terrible! A tourist guide book for RECT! At 320 pesos for poorly printed stock with a haphazard binding I feel robbed.

On the other hand, I also bought the highly recommendable Los Tuxtlas - El paisaje de la sierra. Great photos, and at 200 pesos, a gift.

My partner was excited by a pamphlet on how to cook pica-pica (a poson ivy type plant) and amost cried over the dog skin mixed with the tigrillo, iguana and tuza pelts. . The rest of the fair was less than impressive but kept a lot of "biologos" happy and talking, and I´m sure tomorrow´s news will reveal a new bundle of high flying promises.