(a special note: the acronym OROG will be used in this submission. It means, "Order of the Readers of the Old Gringo")
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Your last three comments have been on the mark --- again. I don't think that we will ever get out of the mess that "The Great Society" foisted on us. If you give someone anything, it becomes an "entitlement". For me or anyone else.
Concerning Mexico:
Jose, the man who has worked on our yard, done sprinklers, built walls, odd jobs, etc., since 2008 stopped by to say good-bye. He has returned to Mexico each year, for at least a month but now that he can make a living working in Mexico, he will stay this time. He has also saved a great deal of $ over the years.
He can speak English but prefers not to. For years most people (Texans) would, at least, try to speak Spanish with him but now there are so many new people, Californians and Northerners that won't even try, it's just not worth it.
Oh Well!
Such is life.
_____________________
He required of my father that he should have a veto on any man hired, "...because Mexicans are either very untrustworthy or very trustworthy, and you are too trusting." My father was humoured to a point by Don Agustin, but he also had faith in his honesty and understanding of the work at hand.
There is little as unforgiving as a citrus orchard. And my father had 74 clients who had many hundreds of acres of Valencia and Red Grapefruit.
Agustin would, to make a long story at least a bit more tolerably short, speak in his archaic way, very correctly, in his literary form of perfect Andalusian Spanish. He would refer to the man and wife who were the parents of the girl who married Agustin's son as "consuegros" which literally means "inter-father/mother-in-law" .
For instance, the man who wrote the note to me this morning about his friend going back to Mexico is the father-in-law of my daughter. I am the father-in-law of his son. We are "consuegros", and the OROG certainly knows by now that the Spanish word "suegro" means father-in-law.
Over the years and generations, in English and Spanish, certain words and phrases fall out of use or favour. The word "consuegro" although more precise and easier to use, seemed cumbersome. So, the concept of "inter-in-law" gradually was fused into the other convenient word, "compadre" and "comadre"....or "co-parents", perhaps in English. But, in reality, these two words were actually more closely related to what one would call, after the religious services have finished, a "padrino" or "madrina", which means Godfather and Godmother.
After a wedding, baptism, or confirmation those who had been chosen to be Godparents or sponsors would from thence be hailed down the street, or at the saloon, or in the grocer's store as "Hola! Compadre!" and "Como seta's?, Comadre?" meaning "Hello fellow-father and How are you, fellow-mother?" and that maintains the bond of spirituality.
That spirituality has since been sacrificed to overuse, so that now the word "compadre" can be used sarcastically, in good humour, with no particular meaning, with the old-fashioned meaning, as a prelude to a warning, etc. It can be something in English like,"Look, friend, if you came into this saloon looking for a fight, you're gonna find it!"
In any regard, the man who wrote the words above about "Jose'" is my "consuegro". In a way, he is rather much like Agustin. Independent, opinionated, honest, generous, suspicious, and convivial among people whom he knows and trusts. He is a doer and a veteran, and professionally self-trained due to, frankly, powerful intellectual ability.
He, as I, spent much of his professional life working in Mexico, rubbing shoulders with people who could buy two or three counties in any State in Mexico. He was...and is....a consulting engineer, specialising in gas and oil transmission and storage matters.
He also worked (and still does in his "retirement") closely with engineers and administrators of the company Petroleos Mexicanos and many of their subcontractors. That company is better known as PEMEX, or the fourth largest oil company in the world.
My "consuegro" went into the furthest corners of Mexico, into the charming and mystical cities of the Central Highlands, throughout the trans-Yucatan, the capital, Mexico, D.F. ....one of the top 10 most interesting cities on planet Earth....and thousands of other off-the-beaten-trail and palatial places in that Nation of many faces, moods, personalities, traditions, and complexities.
It would be my hope that I have had some of his ability to adapt, enjoy, lead, and follow as he has, at the highest technical and at times social / cultural levels that Mexico can throw at a person, second by minute, hour by day. He and I have had so many similar experiences in Mexico that we sound like echoes of each other. It is more than just probable that we crossed close paths frequently without having met until our children met.
All of the above leads this writer to the point of the story. We, in Texas, are ridiculed as being intolerant, racist, brutal against homosexuals, past masters of misogyny, and people who fold our white satin robes and peaked, conical masks very carefully, so as not to wrinkle them for the next night-ride.
It is a bit of a warning to those who know what we are thinking, especially those on the left You do not know what we are thinking. You do not know how we think, feel, deduce, or even what motivates us. To those who come out of the Hollywood ethos, or from the instructive of the Obsolete Media, we are not predictable as a group. You will fail yourself if you think you know what we are thinking or how we arrived at our conclusions.
Our life philosophy is fairly uncomplicated except for certain basic precepts. Generally speaking, Texans are:
(1) Guided by the hope of fairness and the application of the common law....or that law that is applied to the prince equally as unto the pauper......
(2) Employers of the triad of life codes supplied by Moses, Hammurabi, Buddha, the Prophets, and the Nazarene, those being the Golden Rule, the Beatitudes, and the Tablets of the Law.......
(3) Almost always giving a person the benefit of the doubt, at least the first time......
(4) Dedicated to friend, family, and at times of distress to near and distant neighbour......
(5) Generally guided by traditional solutions and paths of experience of self and or elders.
Furthermore, as those on the Left attempt to place people into their appropriate identities, with the shouting and sign waving about "Hispanics for Justice" or "Women for Choice"....in Texas you will fail and continue to fail. That failure is produced by the Left's own hubris, conceit, and ignorance of natural law.
In Texas, during the last general elections, that amorphous group the Left calls "hispanic" (a totally useless demographic or sociological term) wound up voting slightly over 50% Republican. Nor did women vote 100% either way in Texas. And perhaps troubling to those with New York Values, there are two people in the Texas Legislature who have Black African ancestry who represent substantially Caucasian districts, and they are Republicans. There are seven more who are of Spanish / Mexican ancestry who represent "diverse" districts, heavily Anglo, and they are Republicans.
And yes, we have a Jew for Speaker of the House of Representatives.
So, shed off, all Lefties and sophisticates, your presumed tolerance and diversity and faux intellectual proweress. Review again the words of my consuegro. The man, his friend of many years who is going back to Mexico, was here legally, as a stone mason. Such people are in very short supply in the Republic of Texas. The area of western San Luis Potosi State, the State Guanajuato, and the area of eastern Jalisco State has numerous master stone masons who work cantera stone in wondrous ways. The man was employed in such things and also spent time between projects doing other projects, just to keep busy. He was, like a lot of people from Guanajuato, a workaholic. We hate to lose him, but I shall....and my consuegro as well....probably be checking up on him during this fall.
Thanks for your time and patience, as always.
El Gringo Viejo
This passage above speaks a great deal to the nature of the mind, heart, and soul of the vast majority of Texians. It is why we do a not-so-slow boil when liberal commentators quickly and blithely lump us into the group they picture to be hooded klanners and dull Bubbas who are too stupid and ignorant to even read the pictures in the comic strips.
The introductory passage is written by my "consuegro". That word is now archaic, and I am trying to resuscitate it into this generation. In that I am now 70, I reflect that it is a word used by a very influential man in terms of my upbringing. He was in his late 70s, and served as my father's majordomo (overseer or manager) for the grove care business. He also served as my governor, guide, and disciplinarian during my ages of 0 - 9. He was a colonial (descended from Spanish colonists....in this case who settled along the Rio Bravo {Grande} during the 1750s) born in Mier, Tamaulipas (1871) and educated up through 9 grades (primary, secondary, and preparatory) in a prestigious school run by French nuns in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon.
His name was Agustin Salinas. He was ruddy faced, skin whiter than milk, and green-eyed. He had blondish-auburn hair. He wore khaki work shirts and pants, along with alway clean, sometimes polished Wellington boots.
 |
| A Good Cluster of old fashioned Red Grapefruit |
 |
| Higher quality Valencia Oranges |
Agustin would, to make a long story at least a bit more tolerably short, speak in his archaic way, very correctly, in his literary form of perfect Andalusian Spanish. He would refer to the man and wife who were the parents of the girl who married Agustin's son as "consuegros" which literally means "inter-father/mother-in-law" .
For instance, the man who wrote the note to me this morning about his friend going back to Mexico is the father-in-law of my daughter. I am the father-in-law of his son. We are "consuegros", and the OROG certainly knows by now that the Spanish word "suegro" means father-in-law.
Over the years and generations, in English and Spanish, certain words and phrases fall out of use or favour. The word "consuegro" although more precise and easier to use, seemed cumbersome. So, the concept of "inter-in-law" gradually was fused into the other convenient word, "compadre" and "comadre"....or "co-parents", perhaps in English. But, in reality, these two words were actually more closely related to what one would call, after the religious services have finished, a "padrino" or "madrina", which means Godfather and Godmother.
After a wedding, baptism, or confirmation those who had been chosen to be Godparents or sponsors would from thence be hailed down the street, or at the saloon, or in the grocer's store as "Hola! Compadre!" and "Como seta's?, Comadre?" meaning "Hello fellow-father and How are you, fellow-mother?" and that maintains the bond of spirituality.
That spirituality has since been sacrificed to overuse, so that now the word "compadre" can be used sarcastically, in good humour, with no particular meaning, with the old-fashioned meaning, as a prelude to a warning, etc. It can be something in English like,"Look, friend, if you came into this saloon looking for a fight, you're gonna find it!"
In any regard, the man who wrote the words above about "Jose'" is my "consuegro". In a way, he is rather much like Agustin. Independent, opinionated, honest, generous, suspicious, and convivial among people whom he knows and trusts. He is a doer and a veteran, and professionally self-trained due to, frankly, powerful intellectual ability.
He, as I, spent much of his professional life working in Mexico, rubbing shoulders with people who could buy two or three counties in any State in Mexico. He was...and is....a consulting engineer, specialising in gas and oil transmission and storage matters.
He also worked (and still does in his "retirement") closely with engineers and administrators of the company Petroleos Mexicanos and many of their subcontractors. That company is better known as PEMEX, or the fourth largest oil company in the world.
My "consuegro" went into the furthest corners of Mexico, into the charming and mystical cities of the Central Highlands, throughout the trans-Yucatan, the capital, Mexico, D.F. ....one of the top 10 most interesting cities on planet Earth....and thousands of other off-the-beaten-trail and palatial places in that Nation of many faces, moods, personalities, traditions, and complexities.
It would be my hope that I have had some of his ability to adapt, enjoy, lead, and follow as he has, at the highest technical and at times social / cultural levels that Mexico can throw at a person, second by minute, hour by day. He and I have had so many similar experiences in Mexico that we sound like echoes of each other. It is more than just probable that we crossed close paths frequently without having met until our children met.
__________________
 |
| My consguegro saw scenes like this often |
It is a bit of a warning to those who know what we are thinking, especially those on the left You do not know what we are thinking. You do not know how we think, feel, deduce, or even what motivates us. To those who come out of the Hollywood ethos, or from the instructive of the Obsolete Media, we are not predictable as a group. You will fail yourself if you think you know what we are thinking or how we arrived at our conclusions.
Our life philosophy is fairly uncomplicated except for certain basic precepts. Generally speaking, Texans are:
(1) Guided by the hope of fairness and the application of the common law....or that law that is applied to the prince equally as unto the pauper......
(2) Employers of the triad of life codes supplied by Moses, Hammurabi, Buddha, the Prophets, and the Nazarene, those being the Golden Rule, the Beatitudes, and the Tablets of the Law.......
(3) Almost always giving a person the benefit of the doubt, at least the first time......
(4) Dedicated to friend, family, and at times of distress to near and distant neighbour......
(5) Generally guided by traditional solutions and paths of experience of self and or elders.
Furthermore, as those on the Left attempt to place people into their appropriate identities, with the shouting and sign waving about "Hispanics for Justice" or "Women for Choice"....in Texas you will fail and continue to fail. That failure is produced by the Left's own hubris, conceit, and ignorance of natural law.
In Texas, during the last general elections, that amorphous group the Left calls "hispanic" (a totally useless demographic or sociological term) wound up voting slightly over 50% Republican. Nor did women vote 100% either way in Texas. And perhaps troubling to those with New York Values, there are two people in the Texas Legislature who have Black African ancestry who represent substantially Caucasian districts, and they are Republicans. There are seven more who are of Spanish / Mexican ancestry who represent "diverse" districts, heavily Anglo, and they are Republicans.
And yes, we have a Jew for Speaker of the House of Representatives.
So, shed off, all Lefties and sophisticates, your presumed tolerance and diversity and faux intellectual proweress. Review again the words of my consuegro. The man, his friend of many years who is going back to Mexico, was here legally, as a stone mason. Such people are in very short supply in the Republic of Texas. The area of western San Luis Potosi State, the State Guanajuato, and the area of eastern Jalisco State has numerous master stone masons who work cantera stone in wondrous ways. The man was employed in such things and also spent time between projects doing other projects, just to keep busy. He was, like a lot of people from Guanajuato, a workaholic. We hate to lose him, but I shall....and my consuegro as well....probably be checking up on him during this fall.
Thanks for your time and patience, as always.
El Gringo Viejo
_____________________
