01/25/2020 – A birthday like no other

On Saturday morning, we were out the door by 7:30 am, making our way along the sinuous and beautiful road to Alto Lucero, a real “city upon a hill” (or upon “un cerro”). On the way, we stopped at a panaderia in Coscomatepec, grabbed some chips de malanga at a farm stand, and tried some yummy jamoncillo, which was almost like fudge but made of things like peanuts, coconut, or guava.

It was in this lovely, smaller city called Alto Lucero that the wedding was held, which started with a mass at 1 pm. The groom was the cousin of Javier, Miss Sonia’s husband, and his family was as welcoming as they were large in quantity. The mass was in a very open church, which, like many churches here, had large models of saints in glass boxes, and what surprised me most compared to American Catholic churches was the kind-looking God figure at the center of the room, as opposed to the usual Jesus on a cross. The priest’s speech centered around the ideas that marriage is like a “telephone” to God and the blessing of seeing the love between the two, as it is a reflection of the love of God. As they said their vows, despite them being in Spanish and me literally never meeting them, I somehow got kind of emotional! The priest’s and friends’ speeches were punctuated by a lively band, and the bride and groom were accompanied by a Mariachi band when they traveled.

After the mass and extensive pictures with the family, we headed over to the party venue, which appeared to be a small, old building on the outside that opened up to a huge room that comfortably housed ~600 people on the inside. The big space was easily filled, however, by chatting, laughing, and singing. The band’s bass boomed, and like the noise filled the room, the food began to fill our table. We started with some totopos with mole to dip, and then we had chile relleno, barbacoa, rice, tamales rancheros and with some other meats. We met some younger cousins including Heydie, Emily, and others, who were very kind. We exchanged Spanish and English, and as we talked, people began to get up to dance, but as that went on we also had some cake, bombons, and coffee candies. The bride and groom had their special dance, and then we participated in a dance where the bride and groom stand on chairs and their bridesmaids/groomsmen have to hold them up as a line of women and men run under the veil that the bride and groom hold between them. As the lines run under the veil, they try and knock into the bride and groom to make them fall from their chairs. That was very fun and we danced/ran so fast – and people were doing it in heels!

More and more people started to dance after that tradition was over. At first, we watched as some of our friends were asked to dance by their cousins or friends or whoever, but later on one of the cousins, Isaic, began to show me how to dance, and Heydie showed Meriah. It was really fun to learn some of the moves of la cumbia, and although it was hard, it was super fun. I could understand why the parties would go on like that all night! Next we danced with some slightly weirder men, including one of the uncles who was a good dancer but pretty odd and VERY sweaty; Meriah mouthed “save me” when he had asked her. But the worst of it was this older man, around 65-70, who had seen me dancing when we were all just dancing solo in a circle, who asked me to dance with him. He was from the bride’s side of the family, and at first it seemed he was trying to be nice, but then he started complimenting my dancing a lot and my dress, and it was pretty odd. He had thought that I was from Mexico, and he asked if I wanted to go on a run with him in the morning, but I politely thanked him for the dance and skrted out of there back to my table. Other than that, dancing and enjoying the music and ambiance was so much fun but so tiring, and by the time we returned to the hotel (which was beautiful!) we went right to sleep.