Mexican names are interesting. They all seem to have a multitude of names, but for a good reason. Their first name is their Christian name. This is often the saints day that they are born on. Then they may have a middle name but always have two last names.
The first of the last names is from the father’s side of the family and the second name is from the mother’s side. Women do not give up their names when married. Northerners have a problem when a Mexican gives his or her surname as ‘Bello Ruiz’ they only want one name, not two
The question has been raised as to why Mexicans have such indifference to dogs. It’s because they don’t consider them a person as we do. They are just an animal and have no feelings. They are tied up most of the day and as they get older and become less of an amusement they are put on the roof as a guard dog. They get fed last in a family and only if there is enough food to spare. We may not understand this, the same as Mexicans can’t understand why we pamper our dogs so much and consider them a member of the family. There’s a cultural difference.
When there are no tourists in town the people are openly friendly. They say “hola” without being prompted and generally, they know us. However, when the tourists arrive they tend to tighten up a bit. They are rarely unfriendly so if you say “hola” to them you usually get a smile. They also have a great sense of humour.
You can understand why they get a bit up-tight with tourists when they hear things like: “There are too many Mexicans on the beach” or “Why don’t they learn to speak English or French.” “Why are they so noisy” They are wonderful people and unfortunately some of the tourists are not very nice and act badly, forgetting that this the Mexican’s country, not their’s. We are all, just guests.
There are 8 paid statutory holidays here. Plus 12 un-paid holidays. There are also 20 festivals that start 5 or so days prior to the actual day. The festival of Guadalupe, the patron saint of Mexico starts 12 days prior to the day. During the festivals, are when we hear the most fireworks. The priest sets one off at 6 am to call people to church.
Linda, the lady who runs the seminar asked the local priest if there had to be fireworks. He just said “Yes.” When asked if they couldn’t just ring the church bell instead; he just said “No”
In addition to this, each town has its own Saints day. Melaque (St Patricio) has its day on 17th March, St Patrick’s day. Duh!! I have no idea what the day is for us in Villa Obregon or what day next year in Pinal Villa.
Rosalie and I after one of our parties.
We and all our friends here feel perfectly safe. Yes, there are a lot of murders. Fortunately not near us. They are usually between rival cartels, the police or the army. As I’ve said before you don’t hear of Mexicans going into schools, or cinemas, or festivals and just indiscriminately shooting people. They just don’t do that.
We plan of staying here for many years. It’s a great place to spend the twilight years. And that’s what my blog is all about.