Año Viejo...me dejo cosas muy buenas

Baile "meguiochiga" los invitados bailando con sus cantaritos para la coperación... Ixtepec, Oaxaca Dec. 28, 2010.

I've spent a couple of New Years in el Istmo de Tehuantepec. The last New Year's I spent there was in 2008 in Juchitan de las Flores. I love el Istmo... No no, let me rephrase that... I love love absolutely LOVE EL ISTMO... 

It is unlike any other place I have ever been to, it is unlike any other place I could ever visit. Ah but New Year's in Juchitan can be a bit of a heart stopper. T o d a v í a   me   acuerdo  walking through the streets, the clock about to strike las doce, the viejos made out of hay, dressed in old rags and stuffed with cuetes, sitting outside every other house  waiting  p a t i e n t l y  as I hurried towards la casa de la familia gathered en la septima, a section of town known for it's zapotec speaking people... 

Me  acuerdo  that all the kids in the neighborhood had begun to light fireworks on the sidewalks, los famosos busca pies my mother and father always spoke about, tiny firecrackers that kids throw at the feet of passersby hence the name. 

I can still hear the cacaphony of fiestas con banda music coming at me from different directions, desde la calle from blocked off street parties and from deep deep in peoples backyards... Laughter and chattering, clincking of glass bottles... and in the midst of it all I could only think of getting to la casa de la familia, catching snippets of el año viejo as I scurried along, corre que corre... trying to beat a ticking clock... tick, tock, tick, tock, tiCK! Yeah I didn't quite make it... 

Ya me fregue! Son las doce! and I see los viejos being taken to the middle of the street and one by one being set on fire. Whistles, baNGS, POPS! Squirting lights in every direction... los cuetes escapando de los viejos en todas las direcciones... more poPS and BANGS y PITOS!

I ended up pushing my body against the walls of the houses leaving my foreigness smeared en los muros along the way to la casa de la familia. Kids laughing excitedly, running from one side of the viejo to the other, daring each other to jump over the exploding effigy as the adults congratulated each other con abrazos, con baile, tomando, comiendo, y tomando un poco inside... 

This New Year's Eve was nothing like the one spent in Juchitan... No exploding viejos lying in the middle of the road other than the usual borrachin left in the baldio in front of the house. We did, however, manage to get to el Istmo a few days before the new year. We went on a whirlwind tour to the second day of a wedding in Ixtepec, weddings in the Isthmus last 3 days. It had been two year's since I had been back and yet it was all still so absolutely beautiful and still HOT...

On our way back we were even able to stop and let the Juchitan sun caress our skin. The jardín had been renovated and the palacio was not all grafittied or held in protest as it was last time we were there. We weaved through the istmeño crowds of men and women in their long flowing rabonas to go to the mercado to get some garnachas and drink some agua de coco. We bought betabinguis and frutas en chile y miel for the road and headed back to the city to spend New Years. 

It was a quiet one here, well almost quiet that is, would have been minus the barrage of cuetes that went off a las doce that lasted, no exageration, for over an hour. We made some dinner, listened to some music, and watched a movie with our pets coming in and out most of the night... The next day we headed for the mearcado to welcome the New Year with a tamal de mole negro... Si señor, como Dios manda!

Los novios y los cantaritos rotos, Ixtepec, Oaxaca, Dec. 28, 2010.