Mexico 2009

I embarked on another trip to Mexico this year and I'm happy to say that I faired a lot better than the last. This year's trip was only a month long but involved a lot more traveling than last year's, with the last part of the trip spent in Chiapas. I also had a traveling partner this time; Veronica. The first part part of the trip was spent in the states of Queretaro, Guanajuato and Michoacan. With a couple of days spent with my grandparents in Guanajuato. Veronica and I spent most of our time talking to my grandparents and taking photographs of their town. As always, it was great to see my grandparents and listen to them recite stories of growing up in rural Mexico. This is the part of me that I feel is most at risk of being lost, as my family and I slowly become more and more rooted in the United States. It would be tragic to feel like I never took the initiative to nurture this aspect of my existence. Mexican culture, specifically Mexican campesino culture, is a part of who I am. This is evident in the food that I eat, the songs that I've grown up with and the idioms that I quote: agarra tus chivas. Literally, get your goats. This idiom is used to tell someone to grab their things. Just one generation ago, my father, was working in the fields in Guanajuato, at the age of 6, waking at 5am in the morning to tend crops with my grandfather. My mother, in Michoacan, was waking up in what could hardly be called a town, as there were no roads and only a handful of houses. It's amazing listening to my grandfather impart his knowledge of crops, weather patterns and tools: los chayotes, las lluvias, el arado. My grandfather and his father worked under the ejidos. My great-great-grandfather and his father worked under a different system: las haciendas. I come from campesinos. Campesinos turned obreros. In no way are any of these stories my experience. I grew up a city slicker, in Chicago. A Chicano. Ni de aqui, ni de alla. But all of the aforementioned people have had a part in shaping who I am today. They taught me to speak. They fed me. They imparted their customs. I would hate for them to be lost.