Fiesta

In retrospect, my first clue should have been that there was no end time listed for the birthday party on the invitation.

Thing Two was very excited when he received the invitation.  He loves going to birthday parties, and the invitation was from a good friend.  I have to admit (yes, I'm bad) that I was a little bit dubious about this one.  The birthday boy is from a Mexican family.  He speaks English, and his father knows a little English, but his mother (Luz is her name) speaks virtually none.  I like Luz very much, but because of the language barrier, she and I communicate mainly through smiles and charades.  I just wasn't sure how I was going to navigate a birthday party held entirely in a language I don't speak.  But I said we could go because I love my son and I will try virtually anything once.

Around these parts, kids' birthday parties are almost always highly structured, two-hour affairs. Play a game, eat something, have cake, play some more, go home.  With this in mind, I invited a girlfriend to join Himself and I for dinner at our house after the party, which started at 4PM.

When Thing Two and I arrived for the party, the first thing we saw was the huge tents in the yard, one shielding an entire mariachi band plus a formidable and impressive collection of sound equipment.  Then we noticed the whole roasted pig (oh, how good it smelled!), which was at that moment being removed from a brick-lined pit off to one side.  There were a good 50 people there already, of all ages, and more just kept coming.  Precisely three of us were gringos, all parents of classmates of the birthday boy.  We each grabbed a Tecate beer and happily settled in to listen to the music and watch as our sons ran off to play with the other kids.  It was rapidly becoming clear that this was not going to be a run-of-the-mill birthday party.

The hosts turned that pig into tacos, with lime, green salsa and onion on fresh warm corn tortillas.  They may be the best thing I have ever had in my mouth.  Oh my God were they good.  Forget dinner at home!  It was about 6:30 at this point, and I belatedly realized that we really did have to leave, because of the company I'd so misguidedly invited.  But then they wanted us to stay so Thing Two could have his turn whacking at the "first" piñata (no idea how many more there were!), and then we stayed after that to listen to the thank-you speeches, and before I knew it, it was 7:30.  The cake had not been officially cut yet, but they insisted that both Thing Two and I take big pieces home.  We both wobbled out holding our full bellies and our cake!  It was quite a party, and it was still fully getting into gear when we left.  Bet it kept going into the wee hours.  Next time, we'll plan to stay!

I was thinking about Luz this morning.  She comes to class events at school, even though she can't really talk to anyone.  That takes some serious guts, and I didn't recognize that until the tables were turned and I was the one out of my element.  And I was at a party hanging out with a beer, not trying to figure out what a teacher was saying in a classroom.  Luz has cojones of steel, and I'm proud to know her.  

I imagine she does it because she loves her son, too.