The scent of Navidad - Lui

Traditionally in the United States the scent of Christmas is gingerbread, pine, candy canes, sugar cookies, and maybe chocolate. I never thought about the scent of Christmas in Mexico until one day while visiting an office for work.  At this office they had Christmas decorations and the most distinctive Christmas scent I have experienced since moving to USA.

Growing up in Mexico Christmas is a very drawn out ordeal, being a very catholic county we drag out the entire event and make it about the Super Star of the show Baby Jesus and his birth. We do the traditional Novena, prior to his birth, or what we traditionally call Posadas.

Las Posadas that we used to go to growing up were held at Doña Gaby’s house. About a block away, past the factory, the bike shop and the mysterious store that closed down. My mom knew Doña Gaby from selling her seeds for her birds and chickens. Doña Gaby lived in a small house, with her single daughter Trinidad, who we all knew only as Trini. Their Posadas were mostly people from the neighborhood, her daughter and her kids, her son and his kids, the people who lived next to her, the lady who owned the store by the bridge, and a few others who lived close by. All together we rocked the posadas for the 10 years that I remember.

Every kid’s favorite part of Las Posadas is always the Aguinaldos… the treats given at the end of the Posada. There were 9 days of posadas and 1 guest who was in charge of the Aguinaldos each year.  My mom would have a day each year and we would always be recruited to help.

An Aguinaldo is a bag of yummy goodness, packed with the traditional treats for Christmas. The basic staples for Anguinaldos are peanuts, animal crackers, an orange and a tangerine… all of this packed in a bag are the scent of Christmas for me.

I had never realized how much I would miss Las Posadas, or the scent of peanuts, animal cracker, oranges and tangerine in a bag and how much they all together would bring me the scent of Christmas. When I walked into that office was when it all came rushing back, one of their staff was eating a tangerine in her desk and it could be smelled throughout the small office, it only took me 15 Christmases in USA to figure out that I missed something so small about my Navidad in Mexico.

If it wasn’t for that person in the office eating her tangerine, I would have never connected the scent of tangerine to my Christmas. I would have kept thinking of pozole or tamales…. So Thank you random person in Newport PA, thank you for eating a tangerine at your desk and brining back the wonderful memories of my Christmas in Mexico.

Las lecturas - Lui

Las lecturas
Growing up I always liked reading... Didn't realize how much I had read until the last few years thinking about how I read my son books now.
My mom has always been very well read, she wanted to go to
School to be a teacher, but for reasons beyond her she wasn't able to. She always had books in the house and my grandfather was the only person that I remember reading the newspaper in my family.
Mom used to take us to the magazine shop and let us each pick our own magazine or comic book, she would get one too. I used to get Archie, and I remember my mom used to get either a cowboy adult comic novel or a mystery adult comic novel. For reasons beyond my imagination my mom used to let me read her adult novels... Which could have very graphic pictures and descriptions of very adult subjects. I didnt realize then what those were, only cares about reading.
Mom also used to get Good Housekeeping in Spanish and I used to read the articles in it. Once there was an article about different ways to style hair for the beach, and one of them was Sexy... I didn't know what that was so I asked my mom, she didnt want to tell me and demanded to know where I had seen that word; imagine that, she would let me read the adult mystery comic novels with sex scenes drawn in them, but freaked out when I asked what sexy meant!!! My mom is too funny!
I also read my older sister's science book and did half of the experiments in the book, the ones that the ingredients were available to me.
Also read stories of the Bible, which explained to more about God and life than my catecismo teacher had.
When my dad brought us books from USA to start practicing English I read those too... But found the pictures so violent that I had to put them away for a while.
I don't know how many books I have read in my life, but I know there is so much more to be discovered in the wonderful world of them.

The places we could go to by Lui

Hermanitas and I spent a wonderful 20 hours in NYC, where we travel to every year for a concert; Enrique Bunbury every year. We have gotten incredibly lucky that he has come there 3 years in a row, and hope for 4; we'll just have to see.

Almost every time we go we ask the same thing, if we would have stayed in yuriria, would we be doing this trip... And where would we go?

Most of us left there being too young to travel to the next town over without proper permission and adult supervision. As we were getting our documentation ready to travel to USA we had a number of trips under our belt, Leon twice, and Ciudad Juarez. Both with mom and dad, both with limited sight seeing or souvenir
hunting.

Mom did an absolutely wonderful job at taking us places, and letting us go in school field trips to see more places. We all had been to Morelia and Leon, where I had visited the zoo and planetarium.... Where I wanted to move to...

Thinking of our young age and where we had been I can say with certainty that we would travel to Leon to see Bunbury, that we could travel to Morelia to spend the day, that we would even venture as far as Acapulco to go
To the beach, and could even travel to mexico city just for fun.

Sisters and I have had our opportunity at wonderful trips, Philadelphia, Washington, New York city, Las Vegas... The more adventurous have been all over Europe, Spain, Paris, Portugal, Greece, Italy, Czech Republic.

No matter what country we are in, we have the adventure gene given to us by our parents an grandparents, and would continue to embrace it and find things in the world... Next in the agenda for sisters and I ... Nina wants to see the 7 wonders of the world, Bety wants to go to Japan, I'm on my way to Miami Florida and want to take my son to Australia.

Ooops... Wasn't me!

So out of all of us soto siblings, we all have several specialties... Some good and some bad depending on how you look at it. Before I reveal one of my "bad" specialties I would just like to state that no one is perfect and that things happen for a reason and that it's the little things that make up a person and that we all make mistakes and I think you get my point.

So.... I tend to break things.. Not intentionally of course. It just happens. I remember we used to have this mirror that we used to move around everywhere and it would never break and one day it was leaning against the wall in my brother's room. For the life of me cannot remember what he said to me or which one of my brothers was having a disagreement with. Either way I pushed him lightly and like a feather he flew away and leaned into the mirror the wrong way and he broke it. Now some people try to blame me but I say it's debatable. Is that 7 years bad luck. I know I broke a second mirror but I don't remember how. I guess that's 14 years of bad luck... Woopsy!

Then one day Maria had to get a new car! Sheesh why'd she do that.. I dunno. But she used to give me rides... Even after I broke her tape player.... I also think this one is debatable. One day maria and I were driving down the road happily enjoying a sunny afternoon... Then she asked me to change the tape in the cassette player. Me, the helpful sister that I am, did as she wished and did just that. The cassette player must have not had very good instructions on how to put in a tape because it slipped in the wrong way. Now if you were a tape player and someone is trying to put in a tape the wrong way... Would you not accept it?! Well this Cassette player not only accepted it, it also kept it!!! No matter how many buttons we pushed or how much we wished for the tape to come out it wouldn't! :( it was so sad! Maria still thinks it was my fault but I'm not so sure it was!

One year for Christmas, we got our very first DVD player! How cool! Well let me tell you how it ate the DVD! I again was being the helpful sister that I am and I put it the DVD and was looking for the play button. I lifted the DVD player to look for and and it ate the DVD... It swallowed it whole! Some people think that was my fault!

Today I had similar situation at work... And let me just say that it wasn't my fault!

The death of the tooth

I lost my first tooth at 7, right before the end of second grade.

Know that in my house there were no such things as the "tooth fairy" and that losing your teeth was part of the natural process that is growing up. I told my mom about the tooth, she told me to throw it out... What?!? Throw out my tooth? I have had that tooth since my memory could work, throwing it out was not an option. So I did what felt dignified... I held a funeral for it. I made a coffin out of two bottle caps and taped them together. Held mass for it, Bety attended... And payed her respects, so did my imaginary friends who all said something about it while I dug the hole for it in the side of the house where there was sand for construction. I also made a cross to identify its location.

I told my mom who found it to be the funniest thing and asked me to show her where my tooth was buried and I asked her to please tell mi tío Rubén That he was not allowed to use that sand, since it was the sacred place of my tooth.

A few weeks later, after the dance show and the elementary school graduation was over, I dug up my tooth... I wanted to see what it looked like. It was moldy and stinky; and to date my brain can't add up what happened to it after that.

The things that make me, me!

For the past few weeks I've had the pleasure of keeping in touch con mis hermanas very frequently.  We have email threads that are over 100 messages long.  We have long text message conversations on our phones and many pictures have been shared.  For several weeks I've also been thinking about me.  What makes me, me?  I kept thinking of all the things that other people think are unique about me, and as it turned out many are the same that many people notice about mis hermanas.  Owning many many pairs of shoes, cute purses, cute outfits, and other things.  I thought about getting rid of all my shoes because that's Maria's thing.  I thought to myself, I can't start collecting cool rings because that's Ana's thing.  All the fashion stuff is Ana and Maria's thing.  Then I thought about buying all kinds of mexican boots and listening to only mexican music, but that's Meche's thing.  I must admit I was in quite a crisis.  Then today it hit me, yeah I have a lot of things in common with my sisters in the things I like and what my "things" are because I learned that from them.  

Throughout the years from Yuriria, to Nottingham PA, to Oxford PA to University Park PA and back to Oxford again, I've learned my from sisters.  I could sit here and list out all the decisions I've made in my life so far dependent on what my sisters have done themselves in similar situations.  I learned the love of Mexican music, brushing my hair, the color white and courage from my big sister Mechita.  I've learned the love for Rock music, appreciation for my curly hair, the color black and wisdom from my sister Lui.  I've learned the love for Hip Hop music, the wildness of long hair, the color pink and adventure from my sister Bety.  Of course that is not all that I have learned from them.  There is so much more! I hope that despite me being younger and more naiive to the world, that they have learned something from me so far.  

The things that make me are a very good mixture of all three of them!  I love all the things they love but I also love Zumba, sunflowers, pink, loud music, iced coffee...

Above is me...a mix of everything...although its messy and doesn't quite make sense!  :) 

Boys birthday

Happy Birthday to my baby brothers... they are 18 now! I cannot believe that they are 18!

When my mom was pregnant she would tell us that we were going to have a little sister, and would ask us what would we want to name her, we had our ideas and frankly my memory does not recall what those were. I do remember asking, constantly "What if we have a brother?", my mom would always say "no, that's not happening, you will have a little sister." Every time the question came up, the same answer was given.

Then came the morning of their birth, and I remember it clearly. My grandparents were home early in the morning, I found it to be odd... it was a weekday and we were going to school and Mom wasn't there. Then we asked anxiously to Ninfita... "Did the baby girl come?" she smiled and pointed to us to go sit down... " well, you have two baby brothers. They were born yesterday and your mom is with them". The shock of it!! we were not ready for a boy, not for ONE, much less for TWO!!

I went to school and kept telling myself, in complete disbelief  " I have two brothers... TWO brothers!" It sounded impossible! so I only told my closest friend Araceli; I was afraid nobody else would believe me.

Then at the end of the day from school Dad met us to take us to see Mom. When get got there, Mom was in her room... and we were all asking how she was and how she was feeling, when she was coming home, because we had been already fighting, and most importantly; where were this boys brothers of ours everybody kept talking about....  Mom told us they were in a separate room, because they were premmies and twins they had to be put in the incubator. We had to wait for the nurse to come and tell us when it would be ok for us to meet them. It felt like forever, but finally we went over and walked into the room they were keeping them. There were doctors there, they were the only babies at the hospital and the only set of twins they had seen in a while! They were preciously tiny and adorably idential!  They were so small that their diapers were from their knees to their chest, and they were both in the same incubator.

I remember they didn't have names picked out for them, since the names we had thought of no longer fit them; so they were boy 1 and boy 2. Boy 1 had a rounder face, and chubbier cheeks... for a premmie baby, boy 2 had a slender face, and more noticible cheeckbones. We loved them and wanted to take them home righ away.

The day that we learned of our baby brothers will forever remain in my hear at the day we learned to love our Boys! and it is likely that they will be 50 and have kids getting married and having their own kids and they will still be our Boys!

Lui

Milk and espuma

Last night I was at the mall having a cup of coffee while waiting to go to my 7:30 meeting. I took the lid off the cup and saw all the delicious foam in my white mocha! It reminded me of my milk drinking habits when I was a little girl!

I used to think milk was the grossest white drink ever! How come this white liquid was so necessary for our teeth that are already white! It smelled weird and let's face it it's white! The only way my mom could get me to drink it was if it had espuma!! So every morning my mom would heat the milk, and she would have two cups ready for me! I know what you're thinking, no she did not make me drink two cups of milk because I was picky! One cup was full of warm milk and the other was completely. Then the process of getting my milk ready would begin. My mom would pour milk from one cup to the other again and again and again until there was foam or espuma at the top! Once it had a bunch of bubbles at the top, it wouldn't be super hot any more and it was full of bubbles. Then I knew my milk was delicious!

The rule in our house was always that before leaving the house to go anywhere, we had to drink a cup of milk or else you were not going anywhere. I don't remember how this started but I remember when we came to the USA we would still have to drink our daily cup of milk, but I remember we would put a little bit of nescafe and sugar to our milk! It was really good that way too... I can't say it was better than with a lot of foam and bubbles.

Now I love milk in many ways... I even like it cold!!!!

Ahora

Las noches de las enchiladas- Lui

Enchiladas estilo Adelina
1 mole sencillo ( chile Negro, chile ancho, tomates verdes, ajo)
1-3 Paquetes de tortillas
1 taza Queso preferido ( fresco, mortzarella o mexican)
1 Pollo desebrado
1 Cebolla rebanada
1/4 Repollo rebanado
4 papas cocidas
7 zanahorias cocidas

Mi comida favorita son las enchiladas, cuando estaba recién casada hubo una semana que solo hice de cenar enchiladas, y cuando visito a mi familia siempre comemos enchiladas; porque nadie en el mundo hace enchiladas tan ricas como mi mamá y siempre las disfruto mas cuando estoy con toda mi familia.

She always tells me that she invented her own recipe, because there were things about others that she doesnt like. "si las haces con Chile guajillo salen muy pellejudas"; " si las cubres en Chile primero y después la fríes brinca mucho el aceite". Siempre nos dice cuando hacemos enchiladas. Las papas son la invención de un restaurante que visitábamos cuando vivíamos en Yuriria. De pende de su genio, a veces fríe las papas y zanahorias, aveces no.

The entire thing is a long process, And we have a production line when we make them. Somebody has to crumble the queso fresco, somebody has to shred the chicken, while somebody else is slicing potatoes and carrots, another has to chop cabbage, and while mom fries and dips somebody has to catch, fill and roll.

Vicky y Bety usually shred the chicken, I personally hate touching the chicken. I chop the onions and cabbage, because it will be me, mom and dad eating it. Mom slices the potatoes, makes the mole, fries the potatoes and carrots and most importantly fries and dips. On rare occasion, when she is yelling at the boys to eat their food, she lets me help with frying and dipping; I take the responsibility very seriously, it took a long time to prove myself. I am normally the stuffer and roller, which also means selecting the different combinations of enchiladas.

Dad takes his with cheese and onions
Meche takes hers the same way
I am the crazy one- I eat mine with chicken, onions and cheese.
Bety eat hers with pollo only
Nina - until recently she ate hers white (yes honey, we will never let you forget) now she eats them with chicken and cheese.
Miguel eats his with chicken only, you could swear that kid thinks of any cheese as poison when it comes in contact with any other food.
Jim : cheese and chicken
Lalo- cheese and chicken and cold
Mom eats hers mixed- one with cheese and onions, ones with Chicken cheese and onions and sometimes one with just cheese

I put mom last, no because she is the least important, but only because she is the last one we make enchiladas for.

It's amazing the amount of food we move, yet amazing how we make so much with so little. There is also am order of who gets the enchiladas first, mom rule. The men of the house get them first, Dad, Jim. Then the boys, Nina, Meche y Bety. Me and Mom.

As we are making the enchiladas they have to be eaten, we take offense if enchiladas are sitting in the table getting cold, unless there is special circumstances to why they are not being eaten.

By the time mom and I sit to eat, the table is only hosting the slowest eater of the house, Nina.

Every single time we make enchiladas my dad HAS to remind us that Enchiladas are supposed to have a steak and/ or una patita de puerco And That they are to be dipped first, then fried; because they are tastier that way. And my mom always says that she doesn't care, that she know only how to make them her way only.

I love enchilada night with my family, every sense enjoys it. And as time goes by, I want to keep adding list of people to how we eat our enchiladas and packages of tortillas eaten in one night.

Las cosas no cambian... por vicky

Hoy tuvimos mucha suerte de poder estar juntos aqui en La Casa.  Me rocordo a muchas cosas de cuando estabamos chiquitas y viviamos en Mexico.  Luisa siempre tenia las barbies mas chidas con el cabello mas bonito.  Luisa siempre tenia cajitas de cosas que aguardaba que estaban bien bonitas.  Meche siempre tenia las cosas que hermanas mayores tienen como perfumes and spray para el cabello y la curling iron.  Aunque entonces no me interesaba mucho oler bonito o peinarme todavia pensaba que meche estaba ya bien grandota porque tenia esas cosas.  Bety siempre hacia la ropa de barbie mas bonita!  Los ninos, pues ellos siempre tenian la atencion de todos.  Yo pues no me gustaba banarme, ni peinarme, mis barbies estaban bien grenudas como yo y la ropa siempre se me perdia.  Aun asi yo era feliz, pues yo soy la chiquita de la casa, grenuda y todo!

Ahora hoy, pues las cosas siguen casi iguales.  Meche sigue con las accesorios de cabello mas chidas y con bien artisimos perfumes.  Meche es la mas chaparrita pero la mas grandota!  Luisa ya NO tiene barbies pero tiene un hijo tan guapo (yo creo que mas guapo que ken)  e inteligente! Aparte todavia tiene las cositas chiquitas que yo quiesiera robarle..jaja...como sus anillos!  Bety no hace ropa pero es la que tiene el descuento para ropa en Macy's!  Y los ninos todavia les damos mucha atencion por ser los ninos. Quiero decir, los muchachos. Y yo pues siguo grenuda y por querer alcansar a Luisa he colectado tantisimas cosas que ya ni caben en mi cuarto!  Aun no me encanta banarme pero ahora entiendo que es necesario.  Aun trato de seguir el ejemplo de mis hermanas pero a mi propio estilo!

En Yuriria- Lui

No se como, ni porque... pero de ven en cuando me acuerdo de cuando mis Tias nos visitaban en Mexico. Para el Dia de Fiesta, Enero 4, nuestras tias que los ranchos nos venian a visitar y se quedaban el nuestra casa porque no habia autobus para llevarlas de regreso en la noche. Recuerdo que solo teniamos 4 o 5 camas, y nosotros eramos 5.

Recuerdo que todas en una cama, todas encimas de otras y para mis tias y primos les juntabamos 2 colchones, porque asi dormirian mas comodos que en el piso o en una cama.

Me acuerdo porque cuando vengo a visitar a mi mama, hay veces que me toca dormir en el piso en el colchon... que siempre es mucho mas comodo durmiendo con mi hijo que dormiendo cada uno solo en una cama.

Quienes Somos? por Lui

We are three girls who grew up in Yuriria Guanajuato, Mexico. Nos mudamos a Estados Unidos, como muchas familias Mexicanas, buscando lo que creiamos que nos faltaba. Hemos vivido en este pais por 14 años, para algunas de nosotros eso es mas que el doble de nuestra vida.

Queremos recordar las tres juntas, Lui, Bety y Vicky; lo que fue nuestra experiencia creciendo en Mexico. Cada una de nosotros recordamos cosas diferentes, y queremos poder compartirlas con cada una y guardar las historias para nuestra familia.

Muchas historias seran de nuestra vida en Mexico, otras seran de cuando nos mudamos aqui, talvez otras de nuestra vida ahora y como recordamos a nuestro pueblo, pero todas con la intencion de narrar nuestras vidas.