I´m pretty sure I drank the water!

Mexico City, Mexico: Getting close to the end of my stay in Mexico City. For the first time during my trip, I woke up not knowing where I was. Has that ever happened to you? Woke up about 5am, local time, and thought, where am I? It took me a few seconds to realize, oh yeah, Mexico, at my tia´s house.

They say when you start dreaming in spanish, you know you´re becoming fluent. Well, no such luck for me, all my dreams are in english. And most of them are still about people back home. But my spanish is improving, day by day.

I clearly miss home, but that´s to be expected. No worse day than Sunday, though. Sunday is when I see my family, and friends. I always sit next to my grandma at church. So Sunday´s in Mexico are the longest for me. I can´t wait for them to end. But next Sunday i´m visiting my grandma´s old church. Where her legacy of faith began. It´s close to where she grew up. My grandfather also lived nearby, and the Gasso´s. I´ll be sure to take lots of photos for the family.

Pyramids of Teotihuacan

Scattered throughout the blog are pictures taken at the Pyramids of Teotihuacan. The pyramids date back to about 100 AD. It´s amazing to think that these have been preserved for so long. Long before Columbus set sail, there was civilization in Latin America. Pre-Columbian, or Pre-Hispanic Latin Americans were building pyramids!

Sitting atop the Pyramid of the Sun, I couldn´t help but wonder about daily life for those who lived here. Who built the pyramids? Was it slaves, was it a community effort? Why did they build it? What motivated them?

Historians would say they worshipped the Sun and the Moon, and hence, built a Pyramid to their ¨god¨. And evidence of human sacrifice was found by archaeologist at the Pyramid of the Moon (which can be seen in the pictures).

Sacrifice was a common theme in Pre-Hispanic cultures, or before the Spanish arrived. In the Aztec "Legend of the Five Suns", all the gods sacrificed themselves so that mankind could live.

As the story goes, some years after the Spanish conquest of Mexico, a body of Franciscans confronted the remaining Aztec priesthood and demanded, under threat of death, that they desist from their murderous practice. The Aztec response was interesting: Life is because of the gods; with their sacrifice they gave us life.

What the Aztec priests were referring to was a central Pre-Hispanic belief in Latin America: that a great, on-going sacrifice sustains the Universe. Everything is tonacayotl: the "spiritual flesh-hood" or "bodily sacrificial presence" of the gods on earth. Everything —earth, crops, moon, stars and people— springs from the severed or buried bodies, fingers, blood or the heads of the sacrificed gods. Humanity itself is macehualli, "those deserved and brought back to life through penance". So they sacrificed humans, to sustain the universe. It was religious act.

Interesting how at about the same time (100AD), thousands of miles away, a man named John the evangelist was finishing his written account about a man who claimed he was the the beginning and the end, the source of all things, in fact, God. The people here, building pyramids for human sacrifice had no idea who John was, and knew nothing about the man John was writing about. The man who, John would write, gave his life, the ultimate human sacrifice, so that in him, all the world could have life. No longer a need for human sacrifice, one man had paid it all. Thousands of years later, human sacrifice is shunned in most of the world. And Jesus of Nazareth is preached all over the globe. The little book John wrote, and its message, eventually made its way to this part of the world.

The Pyramids of Teotihuacan are the first of three ancient ruins i´ll visit before I get to Casa Guatemala Orphanage. After Mexico City, i´ll head to Palenque to visit more ruins, then to Tikal, in Guatemala. Tikal is supposed to be the best.

I´m from L.A.

Had an opportunity to go out a few times last week with my cousins. I made the mistake of telling one of my cousins that I thought they had better salsa dancers in L.A. Most of the dancers I had seen were ok, but not great. That´s until my cousin took me to a real salsa show. I was wrong. These folks know how to salsa. It was just fun watching. I gave it a crack, but I couldn´t keep up.

The next night we went to a birthday party at a really posh place. I thought there were tons of tourist there. The girls looked European. I even asked my cousin if we were near a hostel? He said no, those girls were all Mexicans, they´re from Polanco. A really rich part of town. The party was fun, but I decided I would try to talk to one of these girls. To practice my spanish of course.

After thinking through in my head what I would say, I gained the courage and attempted an introduction, in spanish. I forget what I said, but the conversation was going no where, until I said the four magic words. The four words that have turned many-a-boring conversations into hours of chat. Soy de Los Angeles...I´m from L.A. That´s it, that´s all I had to say. She did the rest of the talking. Unfortunately for me, she was born in Houston, and insisted on speaking to me in english (very bad english).

I was trying to practice my spanish, and she was apparently practicing her english. I tried to get away, but I was locked down. But she was nice, and interesting. But I didn´t get any practice time. But if I don´t say i´m from L.A., people just think i´m an idiot. A grown man who still doesn´t know how to speak.

She was talking to me so long that the ice in my drink melted. I´ve been sick ever since. Not bed-ridden sick, but let´s just say i´m sure not everything is ok. My guess is the ice melted, turned into water, and blended in to my drink, which I proceeded to drink. I inadvertently drank the water...not good. But i´m sure i´ll be fine, I took my Typhoid and Hep A shot before coming.

Lame James

Can´t wait for the finals to start. There is no Laker hysteria here, but I still watch. Out here it´s all about the Pumas, who just won the Mexican soccer league championship. My family here are all Pumas fans. They won the championship on Sunday.

Now it´s the Lakers turn. But we´re 0-2 against the Magic this year. I would have preferred to play the Cavs. But Lame James (no longer King James) couldn´t get it done in the East. Did anyone see or read his response after losing to the Magic. What a sore loser. He refused to congratulate the other team. His excuse: "I´m a winner, I hate to lose."

I´ve seen many winners, including Magic Johnson, Jordan, Kobe, Bird; go over and congratulate the other team after a loss. It´s called good sportmanship. Lebron is lame. In case he hasn´t noticed, he´s not a winner, he´s not won a game in the finals in his life.

I hope parents across the country use that as a lesson of what not to be. I´m glad he´s not in the Finals. That was just awful. But the best two players in the league will be in the Finals.

Kobe vs. Superman, I can´t wait. I say Lakers in 6; that way we win it at home!

That last part had nothing to do with Mexico, but watching the Lakers does ease the homesickness!