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Published: March 17th 2007
Immigration Office
Outside the immigration office, work Visa in hand with My Mexican Attorney, Arturo. He was really excellent and processed the paperwork very quickly.I have reached some conclusions about Mexico. First, I really like it here. The people here are very kindhearted and the culture differs greatly from the United States. People are much more willing to help and seem to feel very comfortable displaying their emotions. A few days ago, Haley went to a friend’s house to work on a school project. When it came time for me to retrieve her I became hopelessly lost. I ended up on a narrow dirt road leading to a large ranch. As I was turning the car around, the gate to the ranch swung open. A Mexican “cowboy” on a beautiful large white horse came riding out. It was dark now and my lights were shining directly on them - he did not seem bothered in the least. I drove back to the main road, but was still hopelessly lost. I was ready to give up, when the horse and its rider appeared again. This time I rolled down my window and asked for directions. He did a “High Ho Silver” turning the horse around on a dime and rode off for a block and a half to show me the location of
Birthday Party
Birthday party at the office. Some of the faculty from the Business Division the street I was looking for. Then the horse and the man just trotted away. Wow! Did that just happen? The following day I was driving the streets of Santa Rosa. Santa Rosa is a small village about 10 minutes from our house. Suddenly in front of my car about 30 yards away three bulls with very large horns were running directly towards me. If you have never seen my car, it is bright red. I quickly drove to the extreme right side of the road. The bulls went running by my car. That is when I noticed a rancher on a horse about 30 yards back from the bulls. The horse was running at full speed, the rancher was clearly trying to catch up to the three bulls who had most likely escaped. This is why I love Mexico!
Work Visa I became legal this week. My Mexican attorney, Arturo, called and told me that my work visa was ready. We went to the immigration office and they took my finger prints and I signed a bunch of forms and in the end, they gave me a work visa. Only took 2 months. Pretty quick!
Birthday Birthday Party
Laura is the faculty secretary and she has been wonderful to me. Anything I need I go to Laura! My birthday was last week and the Business Division at the College surprised me with a little party. They decorated the conference room and had tacos, quesadillas, sopes, and a really great birthday cake. They sang the Mexican Happy Birthday Song - it was great fun!
Trip to Morelia Teresa and the girls planned a trip to Morelia. Morelia is a wonderfully traditional city that is a very popular place for Mexicans to visit on the weekend. Teresa had reserved a room at a really nice hotel (Hotel de la Soledad), but we needed to call them with our credit card # to hold the room. Two days later when we called they no longer had a room available and were now full. I start calling hotels and was turned down by each. The best hotels are now all full. I lower our quality standards. Then I lower them again. One of my calls finally hits pay dirt; there is a downtown hotel available - Hotel Carmen (described as a “friendly budget hotel”). I ask for an upstairs room with a window. I am told, “no problema.” I should have known, in Mexico that it is a clear signal
Morelia
Lunch at Super Cocina La Rosa. that problems lie ahead. We arrive on Saturday at about 1:00 p.m.
The information I found on the hotel indicates it is located across from a beautiful park. One problem, the park is under construction. Surrounded by a plywood wall with graffiti all over it -- just beautiful. We enter the lobby, it looks, well, ok. I tell them my name and that I have a reservation. He looks at me with this blank face and says that I have no reservation and they are full. I tell them when I called and with whom I spoke. Ok, I now have a reservation. But, it is the last available room. The room is on the first floor and the door opens to the lobby (about 10 feet from where I am standing). I am thinking, no way! But then I start thinking about all the phone calls I made. Suddenly I think this room has real potential. It does have an outside window and the owner promises me that things are “muy tranquilo en la noche” (very calm at night). Things do get relative real quick when I'm feeling desperate. Ok, we will take it. Cost for a single,
Morelia
Lunch at Super Cocina La Rosa. $23, but I have my kids so it costs $40.00. You get what you pay for sometimes. In this case I got less, way less. The beds are like rock, the type that could make a monk change faith. Lobby noise echoed directly into our room - the window over the door refused to close (even after I wedged it with a coat hanger. Cars pulled in late at night and early in the morning. There was about 2 hours maximum quiet. I stayed awake to enjoy it. Morning finally comes, and I think, oh well, we can wash off the night with a great shower. Well, most great showers begin with warm water. That was something we did not have. Parking was also a real treat. They told me to leave the car in the street until 6:00 p.m. and then I could put it into the parking area. The “parking area” was a spot in the courtyard of a house that proved to be a real squeeze. The next morning is a back up ordeal. These old building with inner patios are space challenged by SUVs and my Mercury Mountaineer barely made it.
Morelia is a wonderful
Morelia
Lunch at Super Cocina La Rosa with music! city. It looks Spanish and, despite a large indigenous population, it feels Spanish. The streets are broad, lined with seventeenth-century mansions and outdoor cafes sheltered by arcaded plazas. It is a city made to be walked and enjoyed. We did just that. Our first stop was “Super Cocina las Rosa,” a small place with a wide selection of Comida Corrida. This was food like my mom would have cooked, if she had been Mexican. Two thumbs up from the whole family. While we were eating, musicians stopped by and played music for us.
Then we headed for the main square and the Cathedral. The massive Cathedral is in the center of town and has two soaring towers. Construction of the Cathedral began in 1640 (but was not completed for almost 100 years!). On both sides of the Cathedral are plazas. On the west side is “Plaza de Armas.” This is a place to sit and relax while enjoying a coffee. On the east side of the Cathedral is “Plaza Melchor Ocampa.” It is smaller yet very beautiful. On the day we visited a demonstration was occurring. Perhaps 100 people or more had built small structures (or had tents) and
Morelia
Pictures of the City. were essentially camping in the Plaza. They were protesting for the poor in one of the cities in this state of Michoacan. It appeared they had been there for several days.
In the evening, we ate dinner at San Miguelitos. If you are in Morelia, this is a place that should not be missed. The decorations can only be described as an eclectic mix of antiques, Mexican stuff, and religious artifacts. It is busting at the seams with this stuff. The bar area is a recreated bullring, another room has hundreds of effigies of St. Anthony and in the room in which we ate everything is hung upside down. The food was wonderful. Teresa had white fish in banana leaves. I had a three a cheese soup and one of the best salads I have ever eaten.
Day trip to Delores Hidalgo Teresa and I took a day trip to the town of Delores Hidalgo. Delores Hidalgo is where the independence movement began in earnest. This is the town where Father Hidalgo first made his “cry of independence.” Father Miguel Hidalgo is one of two of Mexico’s most revered independence heroes. The other is Benito Juarez. The city
Morelia
Pictures of the City. is not much of a tourist site, but made a great day trip for us. It has some museums and a beautiful square, but is mostly known as a great place to buy ceramics, especially talavera ceramics. Teresa did not want to disappoint so we purchased our fair share. Actually the prices are just incredible and all of the pieces are hand-painted. Pretty incredible.
The Bull Fight I have attached two videos of the bull fight. The first one is just the bull passing the matador. The second is a bit graphic becasue it shows the matador place the sword. Watch them as you see fit. This week we decided to attend a family event --our first bullfight. Wow, the modern bullfight - a matador alone on foot facing the powerful animal. Well, actually not. In truth there are three shows for each fight. First, the bull is allowed into the ring. He runs and dances for a while kind of acting crazy. At three points on opposing sides of the ring are wooden walls, behind which appear men who taunt the bull and then run back behind the wall. All the matadors and assistants stand at
Morelia
Pictures of the City. the ready when the first bull enters the ring, with long, pink capes. So the place is full of men all making the bull angry. Our friends told us that the matador is studying the bull to see how it reacts to movement. In this way he will know how it will react when it is time for the matador to face the bull.
The second part of the bullfight then begins. The assistant now plant the banderillas - barbed dowels covered in colorful paper - into the bull's shoulder blades. The placing of banderillas is something to watch. The assistant waits for the bull to charge him. At the last minute he steps to the side and plant 2 banderillas into the bulls shoulders. They place a total of six banderillas in the bull.
Then the third and final part begins. Actually this is the only thing I knew about bullfighting until tonight. Here the matador stands in his nice black shoes that look like ballet slippers and pink socks with his small cape and looks at the bull! By this time the bull is kind of pissed so it looks back real mad like. Once the
Morelia
Pictures of the City. staring is done, the real performance begins. The matador must get the bull to perform as his dancing partner. The dance will, of course, end with the death of the bull. At this point, the bull just wants to hit something. This is the stage when the matador can show the crowd that he has the ability to handle this angry bull! Getting the bull to pass close to him (but not too close) and charge for the cape is the name of the game. Each time the bull passes, the crowd responds with a yell "ole!". By the end of the night we were yelling “ole!” with the best of them! After this has gone on for a while, the matador gets his sword. The sword curves downward at the tip. If properly placed, it will puncture the heart causing instantaneous death. None of our matadors caused instant death. One did place close enough that the Bull went down within 20 seconds or so. The matador faces the bull, raises the sword, aims it at the bull and waits for the charge. This is the part that is most dangerous for the matador. Their attention is on planting the
Morelia
Pictures of the City. sword between the shoulders. If the bull charges wrong, the result can be disastrous for the matador. If the sword is not placed correctly, the bull will not die immediately but will continue to fight for a minute or so.
The matador is then judged. If he was GREAT, the judges will award him both ears and the tail freshly cut off of the bull. If the matador was really good, he will be awarded both ears. If the matador was pretty darn good, he is awarded one ear. If not so good, they get nothing. On this night, two matadors received nothing and two received one ear. Well, I was impressed by all 4 matadors.
When the bullfighting ends, the really crazy part begins. They bring a baby bull (well kind of a baby, maybe more like a teenager) and let anyone in the audience go into the ring, all at the same time as well. This is just insane. This “baby” bull is really crazy and very energetic. He runs crazily around and it would seem impossible to predict his next path or victim. One girl was knocked up into the air, to the ground, and
Morelia
Pictures of the City. then run over. She jumped to her feet and continued her fight. It was surprising how many people from the audience went down to participate.
This is a Spanish tradition and a sporting event that is widely accepted by the Mexican culture. While we had some reservations about witnessing what some might consider a barbaric event, we felt it was important to take part and observe what has truly been going on for centuries. In the end, we enjoyed the night and learned a lot. As they say, “when in Rome, do as the Romans do.”
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kendall
non-member comment
cool bullfight
that bull looks angry but you problay had a good time their but i mostly enjoy that i'm coming to see you in 3 months!! we better have fun!!!!!