Farewell to Manuel

I just got an e-mail and learned the very sad news that my friend Manuel passed away after having some sort of accident at his daughter's house. He was such a pleasure to be around, and we really have enjoyed getting to know him whenever we have been in Monterrey, Mexico. He was a construction machine, and consistently outworked most of us. I believe he was 79 years old. He will be dearly missed by us, and especially by the Los Nogales Iglesia de Cristo where he was a member. I hate that I won't be able to work with him again, but I am glad that I got to know him these last two years.

My First Bull Fight...¡Ole!

Mexicans--particularly older Mexican men--love bull fights. I have always found the idea of them really disturbing, but in honesty, the only bull fight I had ever seen was the one with Bugs Bunny slapping the bull to the music. So since I was in Durango, and there was one about to happen, I decided to go to it as sort of a new cultural experience, and so that I could decide completely how I felt about them.

Here is my experience:
**Warning: This will get bloody**
Arriving at the arena, there were a few people outside protesting the treatment of the bulls. There were people selling souvenirs, such as stuffed bulls and padded seat cushions for the hard cement seats in the stands.

The arena is fairly small, so any seat in the house is a pretty good one. We chose to sit farther back, as rain was in the forecast and we wanted to be under the covering.

A professional band of musicians showed up to provide the music during the event. There is also a separate area with the judges, a trumpet player and a drummer who would queue the different stages of the bull fights.

There are three matadors, each of whom will face two bulls.

They begin by getting some rings put down in the arena with chalk, and with a sort of opening ceremony, introducing the matadors.

When it is time to begin, the bull faces the matador in different phases.
1. A little guy runs out holding a sign with the bull's name and statistics while the drummer does a drum roll and the trumpet player blasts some little theme music.

2. The bull is released, and around six matadors are out in the arena with pink cloths, getting the bull to chase them. They would dodge behind these little wooden partitions around the edges of the arena. When the main matador is ready to begin, he looks at the judge and takes off his hat. He will also usually dedicate his performance to someone in particular, whether a local authority figure present, to the crowd, to a family member, etc.

3. At the sound of a trumpet, two men come out riding horses that are both blindfolded and padded on the sides, carrying spears. Whichever one the bull comes closest to will stab him in the top of his back, just past his neck, between his shoulders. Five of the six bulls would attack the horse as they was getting stabbed. But the heavy padding on the horse prevents the horse from getting extensive injuries, and the blindfolds keep the horse from knowing where to run.

4. The matadors get back out and get the bull to chase them. When the trumpet sounds again, one matador will take two sticks with small blades at the end covered with white and/or colored fabric and go to the middle of the arena. Eventually, he will rush at the bull and attempt to stab the bull in the same place near the top of his back with both sticks. Sometimes the men don't stab very accurately, or at all, and several of the bulls came very close to mauling the men doing this. The process of the sticks is repeated about 3 times. Over the course of the fight, the sticks soak up the bull's blood and cause him to weaken.

5. At the sound of the trumpet, this is when the main matador comes out to face the bull alone. He will have a red cloth instead of a pink one, and he also carries a sword. The majority of the bull fight is during this time where the matador will agitate the bull, who then tries to attack either him or the cloth. There is a lot of shouting, "¡Toro!" and gesturing. The main goal is to take lots of risks, hence providing the crowd with entertainment. During this time, the people would shout, and would request their favorite songs from the band to be played.



6. Finally, when the bull seems worn down, and no longer wanting to fight or be bothered, the matador will take the sword, approach the bull head on, and stab the sword down into the same place the bull has been cut. The bull will keep fighting for a few seconds, but quickly sits down. As soon as the bull sits, someone stabs the back of his neck, putting him quickly out of his misery.

7. Depending on how well he thinks the matador performed, the judge will give points. The points involve body parts that are cut off from the bull. A decent matador will get one ear. An excellent matador will get two ears. A truly outstanding performance will earn two ears and the tail. One matador got two ears, and through them to some little boys in the crowd who were glad to get them.

8. The bull's body is attached to a horse who pulls it out of the arena.

9. The matador walks around the arena greeting the crowd. People who think he did well will throw him their hat, which he promptly throws back. A lot of people bring little canteens full of wine to the bull fights. If you throw the matador your wine pouch, he will take a drink, then throw it back to you.

Here are some scattered thoughts on the matter, having been to a bull fight:

1. It is definitely barbaric. It is the closest thing I'll ever witness to the ancient Roman gladiator competitions, I think. The violent aspect of the entertainment bothered me.

2. While the bulls do suffer, I was glad that the worst of their suffering is only very brief. The initial cuts make it bleed, but do not do terrible harm to the bull. Only when it is stabbed with the sword does it seem to be in much pain, and they end its life as quickly as possible.

3. While I felt bad for the bulls dying for my entertainment, it made me wonder exactly how all the bulls and chickens die so that I can eat burgers and nuggets. Also, what about all the people who hunt? Some deer are shot, and run for great distances bleeding and suffering...is this any worse than that? By my existence, it seems that I am causing some level of suffering for animals, but then again, suffering for entertainment seems different than suffering for my sustenance.

4. At the risk of some of you considering me a barbarian, I actually really enjoyed it. It does have a lot of entertainment value. The matadors are at a lot of risk, and are very skilled at what they do. Several of them almost got really hurt.

5. All of us gringos mispronounce the way we say, "ole." We tend to emphasize the "le" part, like Oil of Olay. But they all put the emphasis on "OOOle." Though it isn't the same word, they use the same emphases on the word ole that we use on the word Wally.

So, for better or for worse, that was my bull fight experience.

Engrish in Mexico

I have always gotten tickled at spelling errors in other countries where people try to put things in English. There are entire websites dedicated to people sharing pictures of such things, and I had a couple of my own I wanted to put here. This should also be a good caveat to anyone who thinks using a computer translator to take English and translate it into anything else is always safe and accurate.

My first example is from a bag of chips. They wanted to specify that this was a family size bag with enough for everyone, but as you can see, they missed it. "Size Big Which Everyone Enough"


My second example comes from the Monterrey airport where Alamo rent-a-car has a sign which states, "To Rent A Car In Alamo Is As Easy As Pick Up This Phone."

My friend Leslie and her husband Michael are now living in South Korea. They frequently share interesting adventures they are having, and similar findings.

Carolina with President Fox

I mentioned a couple of posts ago that Carolina got to spend all of last Friday with former Mexican President Vicente Fox and his wife Marta.

It was a great experience for her. I think she came away really happy, but a little disappointed in a couple of ways. He's definitely a politician. He's getting ready to build his own presidential library in Mexico, so when they toured the Clinton library, he was much more interested in getting ideas for how to build his own instead of in learning anything from the tour.

She got to see more of what a day in the life of a president is like, and some of the things governments do behind the scenes to publicize some things and keep other things more quiet. He told her about what was going through his head while he spoke at Harding, and some of the things he tried to emphasize based on what he had been told about the university. He was apparently surprised that we didn't give him a standing ovation when he said we should be out of Iraq by now, which he usually gets in other places. Overall, she was able to tell him how much she has appreciated what he has done for Mexico.

I think the part she was most fascinated by was the VIP tour of the Clinton Library. The picture above is them standing on the roof of the library. They got to go to some places that absolutely no one is allowed. Down in the basement level, they actually do have tons and tons of archives. The librarians down there were thrilled to death to see human beings. They are also continually unboxing gifts that had been given to Clinton. They open new boxes every day to categorize and display the contents. They told them that it will likely take 50 years to finish getting all of these items out, categorized, and displayed.

Also, they got to go to Clinton's personal apartment. It's where he stays whenever he is in Little Rock for a few days.

Proverbios de Mexico

Since I got to hear the former President of Mexico speak yesterday, and I'm teaching Proverbs this week in my Old Testament class, I thought I would commemorate both with a post full of some traditional Mexican folk wisdom.

En boca cerranda no entran moscas
Flies don't enter a closed mouth.

No es lo mismo hablar de toros que estar en el redondel
Talking about bulls is not the same as facing them in the ring.

Como dijo la mosca, "Andamos arando!"
The fly atop the ox declares, "We are plowing this field!"

Para tonto no se estudia
One needn't study to become a fool.

El que nunca va a tu casa en la suya no te quiere
He who never goes to your house doesn't want you in his.

La amistad sincera es un alma repartida en dos cuerpos
True friendship is one soul shared by two bodies.

Mas vale morir parado que vivir de rodillas
Better to die on your feet than to live on your knees.

En cuestion de puercos todo es dinero, y en cuestion de dinero todos son puercos
In the matter of pigs, all is money, and in the matter of money, all are pigs.

Mas hace una hormiga andando que un buey echado
An ant on the move does more than a dozing ox.

Dios habla por el que calla
God speaks for the man who holds his peace.

Contestacion sin pregunta, senal de culpa
An answer without a question signals guilt without question.

No hay mejor salsa que un buen apetito
There is no better sauce than a good appetite.

Solo lo barato se compra con el dinero
Money buys only what is cheap.

Cada quien puede hacer de sus calzones un papalote
Everyone is entitled to make a kite from his underwear.

Mar tranquilo hace mal marino
Calm seas make sorry sailors.

Humorous Things in Mexico #4

I've come to the conclusion that many troubling things in life can either be viewed as tragedy or as humor. The same things we cry at in a drama are a lot of the things we laugh at in a comedy. It's all about context. I've gotten to where I try to find humor in things that might otherwise bother me. I was reminded of this a couple of weeks ago in Mexico.

Carolina's dad thinks I am completely incompetent. This visit was the first time he's ever allowed me to help wash the dishes. He normally insists on doing it, not because he wants to, but because he thinks I'll break them. I have had some bad luck down there, because the one other time I tried to help, I did break a dish. And the first time I went down there, I sat on Carolina's bed, and it broke. I pulled the chain to operate her ceiling fan, and it hasn't worked since. I also break off the towel rack in the bathroom every time I use it. They had finally replaced it this year.

So perhaps he has some good reasons to think I'm incompetent, or at least clutsy. Again, that could be irritating, but I choose to find it funny. This last visit, we were in Wal-Mart, and I needed to go to the bathroom, so I told Carolina where I was heading. When I got in there and went in, Carolina's dad was just finishing up washing his hands. I said hello and went about my business. When I came out, Carolina's dad was waiting on me just outside the door. I thought nothing of it, though I noticed that he said something to Carolina when we walked back to where she was. He looked kind of stern. I asked her later what he had said...

"Why did you let him go by himself?!"

Something that freaked me out...

I was just browsing through some of the things people were searching for who came across my blog. Today, someone came here by looking for "Adams dead in Mexico". Yeah. Uncomfortable.

Travelling Pictures II

This last picture was taken from the Mexico side of the Rio Grande, looking over to Laredo, Texas. It was kind of an emotional moment.

Travelling Pictures

I tried to post this twice, and it keeps not showing the pictures. I think maybe I can't put more than 3 pictures at a time, so here are some pictures related to my previous post. I really love the terrain. It's dry, with lots of cactus plants. But even thought it's fairly flat, there are huge rocky mountains jutting up here and there.

Humorous Things In Mexico #2 - Delicious Bald Hair

How would you like to eat some candy called "Delicious Bald Hair"? That's what "Pelon (bald) Pelo (hair) Rico (tasty)" means. I am afraid to eat these, but Carolina thinks these are really good. It's got this flavored gummy stuff you push up through holes in the top of a round surface, like playdough. Then you eat it.

I'm Home From Mexico

Carolina and I are now home from Mexico. I have all kinds of things I want to blog about related to my trip. I went down last Monday, January 1st, and we drove back starting Sunday the 8th until about 8:30 Monday evening. The total drive time from Durango, Mexico to Searcy, Arkansas was about 24 hours.


One of the most striking things to me about Mexico's terrain is the fantastic mountains. They generally aren't that big compared to the large mountain chains in the USA, but they are very sharp, as if these huge rocks were just thrust up through the surface.


This last picture was an important moment. It's a view from Nuevo Laredo, Mexico across the Rio Grande to Laredo, Texas on the other side. We sat in line for what seemed like forever, but we finally made it across.

About Mexican Culture #1 - Dia de los Reyes

If you didn't wake up on January 6th rushing to your shoes to look for goodies, then you probably are not familiar with Dia de los Reyes. Dia de Reyes (Day of Kings) is something celebrated in Mexico in honor of the wise men visiting Jesus when he was born. There are a couple of elements involved in celebrating it.

First, the children leave their shoes under the Christmas tree on January 5th, and when they wake up in the morning, they find presents--money, candy, toys, etc.--in your shoes! Further down in Mexico, such as in Mexico City, the Kings take the place of Santa Claus. Santa just brings clothes. It's the Kings who bring you toys! When we first got married, Carolina informed me on January the 5th that she was leaving her shoes under the tree for los Reyes, and she expected something to be in them in the morning. I wished her good luck.
The next part of this tradition is that everyone buys and eats a cake called "Rosca de Reyes" (Bundt Cake of Kings). It's kind of a sweet pastry. It has less sugary stuff than sweet roles, but it has bits of fruit and sugar baked into it, and decorating the top of it. Pictured here is myself cutting the cake, Carolina's dad, and our friend Rocio. The rosca goes very well with hot chocolate. There is a great deal of importance to this cake, however, as fruit is not the only thing that is baked into it.

They also bake a little plastic baby Jesus into it that they call "Niño Jesus" (pronounced ninyo haysoos). Everyone eats a piece of the cake, hoping that they don't get the niño Jesus. If you get this plastic baby Jesus (in the picture below), it means that you are in charge of throwing a party and providing tamales for everyone on February 2nd. After eating one of these, you could quite literally say "I found Jesus in a piece of cake". (note: humor attempted here)

As much as I love my American heritage, I've come to a point in my life where I must admit that Mexicans are much better at enjoying holidays than we are.

Humorous Things In Mexico #1

I love the total lack of concern with things like copyright in Mexico. I have a few different examples of this, but this one is one of my favorites. You all have heard of "Kentucy Fried Chicken". But have you ever tried "Koky Fray Chicken"? I decided it was probably wiser not to.