I turned 34 this month and since my last complete blog, I also turned 33. I cannot believe it has been over a year with countless unfinished blogs. I’ve started a few blog posts since my last post, but I could never find enough ganas to finish them. They ranged in topics, including a few trips we have taken, books I’ve read, my first fall decorations in the new house and all the feelings involved with those experiences. I’ve mentioned before that I am a procrastinator and that has seemed to be amplified with age and lack of energy or will to do things. I think about the old nancy that was a full-time student, full time employee, and still managed to do all the other things and I can’t fathom how a Nancy who only keeps one job now, can’t manage to get her little tasks completed.
I made so many excuses to not write, the biggest was pursuing my Texas Professional Geoscientist license. I took the test in October 2022 and failed, which was heart wrenching, but it made me get serious. I officially became a licensed Texas Professional Geoscientist after my second try in May of 2023. Five months and nothing compelled me to sit down and get a full blog down until now.
The first week of October, Alex and I finally made it to Mexico City (CDMX), a place we wanted to visit before the pandemic. In some weird kind of Mexican mom magic, my mom made me feel compelled to get her a ticket and let her join parts of our CDMX vacation. Prior to this, Alex and I had only experienced Mexico through short tequila and elote filled visits to Juarez when we visit my brother who lives in El Paso.
My mom got her green card after I had gotten married and left the house. Her legal status had prevented her from returning to Mexico for the bulk of my life. I have seen my mom really cry exactly one time in my life. It was when her mother passed away. Man made borders prevented her from ever seeing her mom again after she left Mexico. I did not cry for my grandma; I had never met her. I never met my grandfather or anyone from my mother’s family.
Having my mom join our trip to CDMX gave me a rare opportunity to finally meet some family on my mother’s side. We took it one step further and put aside our first two days to travel to Morelia and Teremendo de los Reyes, Michoacán. Teremendo is the small Mexican town my mother is from. I am grateful my mother joined us and I got the opportunity to see where she comes from and therefore where I come from. I am not sure what I was expecting, but it was definitely not anything I could have imagined.
According to the town “historian” that gave us the low-down, the town existed prior to colonization. I can confirm that I saw a plaque in the town square that commemorated the visit of Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, a revolutionary leader who is called the father of Mexican independence. Hidalgo spent a night in Teremendo while leading the independence revolution.
Teremendo was beautiful, but not in the obvious ways a town would be labeled beautiful. Most of the homes definitely look like they have been around prior to colonization. I actually found out that when my mom was growing up there, they still didn’t have potable water or electricity. Teremendo only got running water and electricity after a tragedy where multiple children died from a sand landslide. This tragedy warranted a visit from a governor of Michoacán, when he realized Teremendo had no utilities, he campaigned to get them. My mom and aunt told me stories about how they managed to avoid the tragedy that day, even thought they were present. Even though they have utilities, it is nothing like we have in the states, the day we were visiting, my aunt didn’t actually have running water because it was not her day to have water. Using the restroom was an experience, there were so many buckets of water with different purposes, and we totally messed up the bucket system during our first go. In the evening a cousin let us stay in her home because she had running water and we could shower. This shower was very cold and slightly terrifying because an electricity outlet was located right next to the shower head.
Speaking of cousins, I have a lot. As we walked Teremendo, we kept getting stopped and introduced to aunts, uncles, and cousins. Having a big family, is a new welcomed feeling. We went into so many houses and ate about everything you can think of that is made of corn. Many of the houses have milpas inside of them; cornfields, lemon trees, avocados, chilis; if you can grow it an eat it, they had it! When we first arrived, we had fresh picked corn that had been boiled that was topped this with freshly made salsa made from items picked in the milpas.
This was an experience, even for me, who had been exposed to the rancho by visiting my grandparents on my dad’s side. I can’t imagine what was going through Alex’s head during this whole venture. Alex who had the perfect American middle-class upbringing. Alex never ceases to impress me. My aunts were wowed by his ability to make himself right at home and happily eat everything he was offered without hesitation. Funny story: I mentioned that when we arrived, we had fresh picked corn with salsa. You must know that this corn is nothing like the corn we have in the states, this white and red corn grown in the milpas is so hearty, dense, and delicious (yellow corn could never)! So good that Alex went for a second corn. When he unwraps his corn, a boiled caterpillar falls from it! Alex elbows me and discreetly shows me the caterpillar on his plate and asks me if he should get another corn instead. I give him the “hell no, you better eat that” look. He eats it. Glad it was him and not me, I would have died!!! Lol
We climbed the cerros to get a look of the whole town and try to hike to where my grandpa used to have his milpa. My aunt picks eatable nopales (cactus) with a stick as we go. The cactuses here get so big, they look like trees. This town looks magical, simple, and beautiful. While it could be very easy to get caught up in the amazing tasting corn and rich history, the truth is that the town is pretty run down and I am not sure what there is to do for work, except for the small stores and people selling food. It is such a simple life. Many of the people I talked to, left Teremendo for work, but came back to retire. The town “historian” told me my mom was one of the first to leave and one who took the longest to come back and visit.
We had to catch a 45-minute bus ride from Teremendo to Morelia in the morning. The first time Alex ever rode a bus was a tourist bus we took in Denver when we went on vacation with my nieces July 2022 (I never got around to writing that blog and then my phone broke and I lost all my pictures). This bus experience was totally different. We were the last ones to get in, so we had no seats, we had to stand the whole bumpy way. The bus was stopping at other small towns along the way, and even when the bus was full, it wasn’t! At one point the front door was kept open as passengers hanged from the bus entrance stairs. As I was standing there sending Alex glances and laughing at the situation, I got this overwhelming feeling of wanting to cry. If you know me, you know crying is easy for me, but this feeling was different. I did not want to cry of happiness or sadness, it was an overwhelming thankfulness. Everyone I met in Teremendo was so nice and their way of life can be romanticized as beautiful, but the reality is, that it is hard, that is why people leave in search of better opportunities and jobs.
My mom drives me nut sometimes, but I could never thank her enough for being brave enough to leave Teremendo and therefore giving her kids the opportunities, we have. Giving me the chance to say I am a Professional Geoscientist, shoot, giving me the ability to have warm running water every day! I was also very thankful to have blood from Teremendo and Michoacan running through my veins. People living there also must be badass, most of us here could never! I hate talking politics, like religion, I avoid these conversations at all costs, but when it comes to immigrants looking for a better life, looking for more opportunity than where they come from, I will never stay quiet. I am here in my beautiful air-conditioned home writing this blog because of my mom’s bravery to head into the unknown and stay here and work through the challenges that brought us to this moment.
Before leaving Michoacán, we stopped to have carnitas in Quiroga, then headed to Patzcuaro, La Isla de Janitzio, and finished with a brief stop in Morelia. It was a very long day!
We didn’t even get to CDMX yet…
