Pulque and Language

After raking the yard and sweeping the outside area, we all sat down for a pancake breakfast. Banana oatmeal pancakes with fresh fruit and maple syrup. Yuuuuummmm.

I then left with Delia to see her school. Strange to be back in a private school environment, but there I was. I will be back there for real before I know it.

Instead of going straight home, we decided to stop for pulque! Up into the mountains we went, where the temperature drops about ten degrees and the air feels cleaner and fresher. Down a little dirt road we turned, arriving at the Pulque spot. Allí estuvo el Señor, haciendo sus cosas. Nos sentamos a probar el pulque, y placticamos con el por un buen rato. (There was the owner, doing his things. We sat down together to try the pulque, and talked for a good while). I am writing this small segment in both English and Spanish to share with you a new realization of my own. What I say in Spanish doesn´t quite sound right in English, if I translate it directly, and vice a versa. I have come to a point where I don´t translate my thoughts in my head from English to Spanish so that they come out right. I simply talk from my heart, I have delved a bit deeper into the culture and language, to a point in which I do not need to think about translations anymore. What fun! And if I do think of translations, it just sounds silly in the end. For example, we were driving and the people behind us were obnoxiously impatient. I said, Ten Paciencia!!!, which means, have patience, and then laughed afterwards, realizing how silly it sounded in English. Well not silly, but I guess more proper.

I had a special moment at the Pulque spot too. There, talking with el Señor, I realized how much knowledge he held, about his country, his land, his plants, etc. And I became sad, very sad, thinking about all of the indigenous people, people of color, people who are disregarded in our society, whose knowledge, which to me, has great value, is given no value at all. To society at large, this man is a poor, dark man who works in the fields. To me, he is gold. A pot of gold filled with knowledge, history, customs, stories, etc. I only wish we could all acknowledge this gem more.