Valentine's Day in Tlaxiaco

Every day in Tlaxiaco, vendors set up their goods alongside the main plaza. Recently, in and among the regular vendors selling fruits, vegetables, clothes, pirated cd’s and movies, have been vendors selling Valentine’s Day items. Fake roses with perfume, stuffed animals, bags of candy, and heart-shaped balloons saying Kiss Me. Which all seemed funny to me. Apart from being overly cheesy, it all seemed out of place... so very American in a place with relatively little outside influence.

At Casa Hogar, we had our own Valentine’s Day event. Students chipped in 10 pesos apiece to have some carne asada and refrescos. Also there was a gift exchange planned, and an evening campfire. Before all that, though, we had a short prayer, Bible study and sang a couple songs.

As I was standing by the campfire, I looked around at everyone enjoying their carne asada, saw new pink blossoms on a nearby tree, watched people bring their presents for the gift exchange… it was all quite festive… in a way that seemed somehow familiar, yet entirely different at the same time. It seemed to have a little bit of a summer BBQ atmosphere, plus springtime, plus Christmas gift exchange…. all around a campfire. It was good.

For the gift exchange we stood in a circle around the campfire to give the gifts. One person started by saying a mí, me tocó a (person’s name), and then gave the gift and a hug to the other person. The person who received the present did the same thing until everyone had a turn. There were always oohs and ahhs when the gift was exchanged between a boy and a girl, along with chants of beso! Beso!

All in all, a good way to spend Valentine's Day.

Lots of onions!

The carne asada, onions and cactus were all grilled up over the campfire.