Chihuahua II

Sunday 14 September 2014 kristyChihuahua, dreams, fashion, manufacturing, maquilas, MexicoLeave a comment

When I went home this summer, I got to visit Santiamén, a new boutique specializing exclusively in Mexican design. Everything sold there is designed by Mexican designers, made in Mexico, and it is all beautiful.

frida hayek — I fell in love as soon as I walked in and saw this mural. Is it Frida Kahlo or Salma Hayek as Frida Kahlo? I can’t decide.

The experience was very special to me because I grew up in a city and state full of maquilas, factories that make things for U.S. (and some other international) brands. I could point to factories where American cars, greeting cards, blue jeans, and a huge number of other things are made. But these things are not cheap to buy in Mexico. In fact, they are sold at a huge mark-up because they are ‘foreign’ even though they are made right there! Furthermore, they are designed far away, so most if not all of the Mexico-based employees of these companies only get to realize someone else’s vision rather than playing a role in the creative process. And most importantly, the profits of these companies leave the country and end up in the pockets of executives abroad. In fact, the only reason they manufacture things in Mexico is because it’s cheaper; and many companies have moved their operations to Asia because there the production costs are cheaper and the labor regulations, more lax, meaning that they can pay and protect workers even less.

Oh, perfect black top, I think of you daily.

I dream of a world where national economies are truly independent, manufacturing things where they are and dealing directly with the people who make what they sell. I know it would be better for our environment, and I believe it would be better for our societies because it is harder to ignore injustices that happen down the street than it is to ignore those that happen on the other side of the world.

colorfulshirts — Patterns that seem to dance on the fabric.

When I am in Chihuahua, I make it a priority to support the Mexican economy. My younger cousins laugh because before buying them any junk food, I make sure that it is made by a Mexican company and that we are buying it from a Mexican store. When we go out to eat, I ask to go to local restaurants. Until now, however, there wasn’t a place to buy clothes and accessories other than the traditional things from our region. Santiamén offers an exciting new way to support the Mexican economy, and I hope it is the first of many local stores that adopt this model (think of all the other possibilities: bicycles, furniture, linens, electronics, cars!). And did I mention it was beautiful?

florals — I’ll take one of everything, please!

Chihuahua I

Tuesday 29 July 2014Wednesday 29 July 2015 kristyChihuahua, cousins, Devin, family, MexicoLeave a comment

Devin and I are visiting my family in Mexico this week, doing all the things we never get to do at home, like eating freshly-picked figs and cactus from my aunt and uncle’s garden, taking my niece to the park, and shopping for piñatas. Piñatas are true works of art, and today I think I might have found the very best ones. First, I found this one: I'll be here just swangin' Then, I passed this high-fashion statue: Evil Fashionista Obligatory close-up of the collar: In the end we settled on My Little Pony for my little pony of a cousin Isabella who turned eighteen today!

Cinco de Mayo

Sunday 4 May 2014Monday 16 January 2017 kristyCinco de Mayo, immigration, Mexico, rad holidays4 Comments

Cinco de Mayo is about more than margaritas and som-BRAY-roes (you know sombrero is just the Spanish word for hat, right?). Holidays that reduce cultures to stereotypes and alcoholic drinks have never seemed that fun to me, but I am especially upset by the way Americans celebrate Cinco de Mayo because so few people know what the holiday commemorates.

On 5 May 1862, the Mexican army defeated the French army in battle. It was a David-and-Goliath victory because the French troops were better prepared and had superior equipment. At the time, the U.S. government feared that if France defeated Mexico, the French military would advance to the U.S. and help the Confederate army in the Civil War, so their defeat was cause for celebration in the States. The U.S. government was grateful to Mexico for stopping the French army and, in effect, protecting the U.S.

I heard someone lamenting that people celebrate Cinco de Mayo by going to trendy restaurants and bars that serve “Mexican-inspired” food but are owned by non-Mexicans. She encouraged her friends to patronize Mexican-owned businesses instead, but I think this holiday should be about much more. Currently much of the conversation around migration from the Global South to the United States centers on immigrants as undeserving people who come to take jobs, education, and benefits from U.S.-born people who ‘deserve’ it. Even conversations about amnesty and compassion focus on extending a helping hand to people in need instead of recognizing the myriad ways we are connected.

This year, on the fifth of May, in addition to eating tacos, I hope you will take a moment to reflect on interdependence, what it means to be good neighbors, and how you can put up a fence to keep people out, but you’ll never be able to erase our shared history.

I also recommend you watch the documentary Who is Dayani Cristal? as soon as you can.

Additional posts on transnationalism and immigration here and here.

2013 IN REVIEW: PART TWO

Saturday 22 February 2014Tuesday 4 March 2014 kristy2013, Devin, family, Mexico, Portland, wedding, year in review1 Comment

SUMMER

I arrived in Portland three days before the wedding and was reunited with Devin, friends, and my family who battled the harsh bureaucracy of that cruel border just to say ‘I love you’ in person. That sounds melodramatic, but my little cousins’ visas weren’t delivered until a day after their flight left. The grown-ups in my family came together and bought them new (last-minute, very expensive) tickets. Then, they had to figure out how to get them to the airport and convince the authorities that they had permission to fly without their parents. I should mention that this was their first time traveling by themselves. Just to say ‘I love you’ in person.

The day before the wedding, we took thirty of our friends and family to a little island where we picked berries and flowers for the party. We picked so many, in fact, that we set a record on the farm for most berries picked, and Devin’s parents had to figure out how to get them to their house in Wisconsin so they wouldn’t go to waste!

Devin and I got married on a sunny day. He looked sooo good. Neither of us really remembers the feminist ceremony we planned for months. We do remember the flowers lovingly arranged by our cousins and friends, the surprise ice cream we received in the park while playing lawn games, and dancing to the sounds of seventeen musicians with my cousin Caren on vocals.

After celebrating from noon to midnight, we stayed at a hotel that I’m pretty sure I imagined and willed into being. The building’s architectural details have been preserved for a hundred years; it was decorated with Old Hollywood film stills; and when we asked for ketchup the next morning, they sent us a whole bowl.

We took a train along the Pacific Coast, basking in the beauty of the scenery, white-tablecloth dinners, and a freshly-made bed every night. This would have been a great honeymoon, but we were even luckier, spending a week at a veritable oasis in the Sonora Desert. Though I’m from Northern Mexico, I’d never been to a beach in my region, and it was incredible to swim in the ocean and emerge in a place so similar to my hometown. Devin and I spent our days swimming and snorkeling. We ate fresh fruit with chamoy in a hollowed coconut. At night we danced and learned about Puerto Peñasco from friends we made who live there. On our last day, they led us on an epic scavenger hunt to get souvenirs for our families and eat all my favorite snacks one last time before heading back to the States for a tornaboda on Devin’s family farm!

Where Devin’s from they’re into potlucks, so we asked everyone to bring a pie. In all, our friends brought 20 different pies! I tried in vain to taste them all; Devin succeeded.

We ended the night, and our summer, with a big bonfire and camping on a cold night in our cozy new sleeping bag for two.

México lindo y querido

Monday 16 September 2013Thursday 5 May 2016 kristychamoy, Mexico, ramblings6 Comments

Today is Mexican Independence Day. I started the day thinking about papel picado, yelling ‘¡Viva México! (¡Viva!), fireworks, and mariachis. Then, I over-thought it. What does independence mean? IS Mexico independent? I thought about imperialism—how almost all the foods sold at the Oxxo are American-owned, how practically the only commercials on TV for Mexican companies are the ones for Televisa itself. I thought about immigration—the friends Devin and I made who can’t visit us here, the friend in Texas who couldn’t go to her mom’s funeral. I thought about the drug cartels and ‘la inseguridad’.

And then I was like nope, not today. Today’s not for dwelling. It’s for celebrating. Even better, today could be for dreaming. And so I present unto you kristy’s solution to all of Mexico’s problems.

The solution is chamoy. Yes, I believe that a condiment is the answer. Hear me out.

Chamoy was created from Chinese dried pickled plums way back in the 1800s when the Chinese workers who built the railroad in California were kicked out of the US by the very government that benefitted from their labor (sound familiar?). The Mexican government was all, ‘Sure you can come over, bring food!’ Clearly I don’t know the specifics, but I imagine some people tried the plums and thought, ‘You know what would make this better? Chile piquín’. and thus was created a sauce in which spicy, sour, salty, and sweet flavors enhanced each other. A food with the potential to become the ultimate symbol of harmony.

Most people I’ve met outside Mexico have never tried chamoy. I always assumed it would be too much for people who weren’t used to it, but I was wrong. On our honeymoon, Devin and I ate lots of fruit with chamoy, and he declared that everyone should eat watermelon with chamoy because it is so much better.

We brought a big bottle back and have been revolutionizing our friends’ palates for the past two months. Everyone loves it. We took it to a church picnic last Sunday, and yesterday a womyn in our pew whispered, ‘I haven’t stopped thinking about that watermelon all week!’

I propose that Mexico makes chamoy its number-one export. Once people try it, they’ll love it, and it will be in very high demand. Drug users will decide it’s soooo much better than drugs, and the cartels will go out of business. The economy will be so buoyed that there will be plenty of legitimate jobs for everyone. Instead of narcocorridos, bands will sing chamoycorridos about the thrill of eating and sharing chamoy. Everyone will be so inspired by the harmony of flavors within chamoy that world leaders will decide barriers are bogus, and that life is better when we can all move as freely as chamoy spilling on a kitchen counter. All borders will be taken down, even the U.S.-Mexico border. And no Mexicans will have to migrate to have a better life, but anyone will be able to move anywhere without the fear of having to leave behind the world’s greatest sauce.

¡Viva el chamoy! (¡Viva!)

Mi Sobrina Cosmopolita

Sunday 3 February 2013Sunday 3 February 2013 kristyCarol, Chih., CUU, family, Mexico, Victoria1 Comment

Hoy les presento un vídeo de mi sobrina Victoria. Dura quince segundos, pero como a mi siempre me da flojera ver vídeos, se los explico para que ustedes decidan si lo quieren ver o no. Tomé el vídeo en diciembre cuando estábamos juntas muchas de las mujeres de la familia. En el vídeo, Victoria trae un llavero de la Torre Eiffel, y Carol le pregunta,’ ¿Dónde está Paris?’ esperando que la niña apunte al llavero. Pero en vez de enseñarnos la Torre Eiffel, mi sobrina lista nos enseña a hablar francés! Pronuncia ‘Paris’ con un acento perfecto (‘Paguí’). Llevo más de un mes viendo este vídeo todos los días. Me encanta darme cuenta que aun siendo tan pequeña, Victoria entiende tanto. No cabe duda que lo que tiene de petite, lo tiene de culta e inteligente.

Here’s a cute video of my niece Victoria. It’s only fifteen seconds long, but since I hate watching videos, I’ll re-cap it for you. I filmed it in December when a bunch of the wimyn in the family were together, fawning over Veev. In the video, Victoria is holding a keychain in the shape of the Eiffel Tower. Carol asks, ‘Where’s Paris?’ in hopes that the baby will point at the keychain. But instead of showing us the Eiffel Tower, my smart niece gives us a lesson in pronunciation. She says ‘Paris’ in perfect French! I’ve been watching this video every day for over a month. I am perpetually astounded to see that even though Victoria’s a baby, she understands so much. I can’t wait to see what else she’ll teach us.

New Year’s Eve

Tuesday 1 January 2013Tuesday 1 January 2013 kristyAbbita, Chih., Chihuahua, Devin, family, happy new year, mami, Mexico, Vanessa2 Comments

Tonight a bunch of my family went out for dinner and dancing to bring in the new year. At midnight, my mom, my aunt Menry, and Vanessa whispered, ‘This is your year’ when they hugged me, and my heart skipped a beat every time. And I couldn’t say anything back because I didn’t want to ruin my mascara.

I missed Devin a whole lot, especially during the dancing. But then Menry said, ‘Colecciono momentos mágicos. Creo que este es uno’, which reminded me so much of something my grandmother used to say. And then the band played the first song Devin learned in Spanish, and my aunt Martha exclaimed, ‘La canción de Devin!’

I remembered what it was like to kiss my Abbita on the cheek to wish her a happy new year, and I imagined what it will be like to kiss Devin at the stroke of midnight. And I thought about how the people you love stay a part of your life forever.

This year I finally ate all twelve of my grapes and made a wish for each one. At 12:30, my aunt Menry said, ‘We have to go because we’re getting up early tomorrow’.

But the whole family stayed until the party was over. Like we always do.

Happy new year!
kristy

Borders

Monday 5 November 2012Sunday 4 May 2014 kristyborders, cousins, family, Mexico, Obama, politics, Romney, transnationality8 Comments

babyfirstbatch — Baby cousins with our grandparents, circa 1990.

Though I’ve lived my whole life on both sides of the U.S.–Mexico border, I didn’t understand what a border was until I was eleven years old. That summer three of my cousins were allowed to come back from Chihuahua to Texas with my mom and me. I have ten cousins, four of whom are very close in age to me. I call them my first-batch cousins because we were all born one after the other. Then the parents waited a while and then came the second batch. Some of my second-batch cousins don’t like these designations, but it just makes it easier for me to communicate which cousins I’m talking about—because I talk about my cousins all the time. I can’t help it, they’re just that great!

Anyway, the summer before sixth grade almost all my first-batch cousins were allowed to come visit me for two weeks. Caren couldn’t come because she didn’t have her visa renewed in time, and you need a visa to come to the United States from Mexico. I was so excited! I was going to get to show my cousins my life in Texas. We’d just moved into an apartment complex with two pools and a playground and we would ice skate and go to Six Flags and go to the mall! It was the first time any of my cousins visited me instead of the other way around. But Caren couldn’t come. She didn’t have this little piece of paper. There was no way to get it in time. She couldn’t come.

Continue reading “Borders” →

In which I definitively prove that my family is cute and clever

Monday 2 July 2012Sunday 26 December 2021 kristyCarol, clever, cousins, cute, family, Mexico1 Comment

In May after going to Portland, I got to go to Mexico to visit my family. I went for my cousin Nolan’s wedding, which was beautiful and fun, and did I mention they are sooooo in love? And have been since high school? I was super excited for them to get married because a couple of years ago, Devin and I went on a double-date with Nolan and Anakaren. Afterward, I told Devin that I really wanted Anakaren to be my cousin-in-law. And this year Nolan made my wish come true. Such a good cousin, that one.

Whenever I spend time with my family, I get really happy and silly and want to tell everyone how much I love them and why. I could go on and on about the hilarious jokes my cousin Gaby makes or all the vegetarian recipes my aunt Minou teaches me or how when we laugh, the twenty of us sound like a barnyard full of clucking chickens. The problem is that my rambles can’t really communicate how it feels to have a large team of people who have known me my whole life and who love me and inspire me in countless ways. Maybe some day I will figure out how to say it, but for now, I’ll just share this prize-winning essay my cousin Carol wrote in 1995, at age 9.

In case you didn’t catch the fact that I’m from Mexico, please note that Carol wrote this in her second language at age nine. It’s neat to read this and know that the little girl who wrote that essay grew up to be an English teacher! Carol is also the mom of my niece Victoria, who will certainly grow up to be a polyglot genius.

Oh, and when the author mentions ‘Kristy’ in the above piece, she definitely means me. That’s pretty cool, too.

2011 in review

Friday 6 January 2012Sunday 5 January 2014 kristyMexico, New York, Portland, Texas, year in review2 Comments

Hi, everyone! I’m still visiting my family in Mexico. Today is Día de Reyes, the last day of the holiday season here, which means I absolutely have to post my year-in-review post and stop listening to Christmas carols riiiiight now.

January