This entry has knawn at my gizzard for a bit, (amended on 22 December during the late afternoon)

     It should be of some interest that in Mexico, Christmas is an important issue.    Beginning on the 12th of December  the entire Republic, no matter what, goes into kind of a slow motion brought on by the Celebration of the Apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary to the Otomi' Indian man in 1532.   The appearance occured, ostensbily, on the Hill of Tepayac, situated on the northeast corner of the the most intensely populated part of what is present-day Mexico City.    You are spared the explanations about the solution to the problems presented by this apparition.   Suffice it to say that all Mexicans pay serious homage to the Virgin de Guadalupe as this apparition of Saint Mary is known.  All Mexicans...observant Catholics, non-participating Catholics, atheists, agnostics, Jews, non-Spanish-speaking Indians, foreigners, Protestants, and the entire rest of the country is committed to the celebration of this Apparition and its importance to Mexico.

      It is commonly observed that Yahweh and Esua are only God and Son, while Mary is the Mother of Mexico. During the days leading up to the 12th of December and the days shortly after, there is said to be the arrival and departure of 3,000,000 visitors, pilgrims, visitors, and other sorts of interested participants and bystanders.    Numerous Indian dance groups and Matachines....people from parishes throughout Mexico who form Indian dance groups but who are not specifically this or that nation or tribe of Indians.     The whole affair is crowded, but strangely calm and clean.   It is rare that there is an incident such as a robbery or pickpocketing....and the restrooms stay clean and functional...in my experience.

Another popular event around Christmas, Las Posadas:

    The Posadas, returning to popularity after a couple of generations of neglect, have come to the fore again.   This involves known people of the area and/or neighourhood going around in a group to sing Advent and Christmas anthems and to deliver a doll/effigy of the Christ Child for safe-keeping until the same or slightly larger group comes around again to sing and pray and then take the Christ Child on his search for an appropriate place to be born (rest his head) or otherwise fulfill the prophesies.    El Gringo Viejo has a hundred or a thousand stories about this event.   It is very noble....but at times....shall we say, interesting.

This is a picture of prep-school types conducting a Posada in their
neighbourhood.   There are rules, but there is a lot of variation in the application
of the traditions.

    The Posadas can be participated in everyday attire or with folkloric garb, or coat and tie and party dresses, or in regalia identical or reminiscent of that worn by people of the era and the area concerned with Bethelehem.   It can be all adults or a gaggle of school classmates or a mix of the two.   It can be unsponsored or a very elaborate effort by a large parish.   Protestant churches have posadas.

This particular Posada consists of children from a
local Parish Church.   By their attire it could be assumed
that they are in southern Vera Cruz State.



      The posadas last for twelve nights, until finally on the 24th of December the baby finds that place where he can lay his head.   Of course the next day is the Feast of the Nativity in the Orthodox Church and Christmas to the world of Jew, Gentile, and all the rest who know and love Santa Claus.   When the twelve days are finally past, the devotions of the faithful will have included at least 50,000 Hail Marys and 30,000 other prayers of intercession and consideration.

     Something of importance to submit to the attention of the OROGs is the fact that although Mexico during the 1900s...and at other times during the 1800s....and until very recent days has been an officially and stridently anti-Catholic country.   It seems strange, perhaps, but it is true.    Much of the Revolution of 1910 was fought to re-invigorate the Laws of Reform included in the previous Constitution of 1857, which essentially called for the total expropriation of the Church and all its properties.   The Constitution of 1917 is vigourously anti-Catholic specifically and fairly anti-religious in general.
      To this day, all churches, new, old, or ancient have to be titled to the central government's Secretariat of Government (the most important of all the Secretariats).    Anymousity between the Church and the government lessened in large part when the National Action Party (PAN) took over the Presidency in the last two elections.   The old government party, the PRI seemed tired of defaming and demagoging the Catholic Church and going through the motions of enforcing the several hundred specific Constitutional prohibitions of certain acts, rights, and prerogatives allowed the common citizenry but denied to the Roman Catholic Church and its priests, nuns, and schools.

     Anti-clericism and anti-Catholic and anti-Christian and anti-religious sentiments still abound within the ranks of the intellectually ever-duller  Mexican Left.   Their hatred for the unseen is absolute, so much so, that one wonders if they believe in the oxygen they steal from the breathing believers.    Should the left sweep to power again it would be inevitable that the persecutions, closings of churches and other repressions would begin as they did in the 1920s.   In those years Mexico suffered another war, the Guerra de los Cristeros (Christers' War) in which the central (marxist driven) government lost some 40,000 soldiers in 4 years of war and disorders and the Cristeros lost about the same number, principally in Guanajuato, San Luis Potosi', Michoacan, and Jalisco States.   Disorders took place throughout the nation but the most involved area was the very centre....are area still to this day thought to be "more Catholic than the Pope".

     Still to this day, it is illegal and anti-Constitutional for Mexicans to march publicly (under the canopy of the sky) with a curate, priest, or other identifiable Catholic officiate during a public religious celebration.    But still in all, Mexico is a strange, contradictive, and compelling place.   Therefore, when one travels throughout Mexico, even in areas where the leftist PRD party is in charge, one will encounter publicly placed announcements proclaiming, "Feliz Navidad! or Feliz Navidad y Prospero An~o Nuevo"....and one will find, on public and private grounds, building, facilities, or where ever, humble to incredibly elegant and intricate Scenes of the Nativity....with manikins and/or living people and animals.

This is on one of the main downtown thoroughfares
in Mexico City.   Behind the Three Wise Men one can see
the Emblem Mountains of Mexico City, the always
 snow-capped Popocatapetl and Ixtoccihuatl. 

      Banners and pennants can be seen in Social Security Hospitals, government offices, public schools and universities with religious scenes and even prayers of homage.   A palacio municipal with a green, white, and red (incandescent) lighted "Protegenos, Virgincita, a tu familia" (Protect us, Little Virgin, your family)   or "Rogemos para la Paz, Sn. JesusCristo" (We pray for peace, Lord Jesus Christ), or the sounds of "White Christmas, and God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen" and the like are heard from stem to stern everywhere in Mexico, public or private, without apology....everywhere scenes of the event in Bethelehem.

     Below, one can study the Scene of the Nativity on the ground floor, to one side of the main stairs leading up to the action area of the Palacio Nacional....the Center of the Mexican National Federal Government....on the Zocalo in the center of Mexico City.   Some of Diego Rivera's marxist inspired frescoes are seen in the background.   Quite a  nice arrangement, actually.

      Anyway, it was just our thinking that perhaps this might be one of the small reasons that El Gringo Viejo might feel a bit more in a zone of normalcy of the olden times.    Typical song of lament of a geezer, I am sure.
El Gringo Viejo.

The Return of Curly

      It was good to see Curly back in Hollywood. He has been out for so long, and we all missed him.      It turns our he's been out doing role research and visiting places in Latin America. There are rumours that he and Michael Moore are in collaboration with the Obama White House concerning a movie about how millions of Mexicans, Canadians, and Americans are swimming and tubing to Cuba to gain opportunity for business and employment, as well as access to their famous free medical

The debonair Mr. Moore, reciting the Rosary and the
Pledge of Allegiance to the American Flag at the last state
convention of the Catholic War Veterans.    This is shorty after
being granted a restraining order against Angelina Jolie for
her compulsive stalking of  Mr. Moore.

          The problem is that because of the American "Blockade" of Cuba, only 195 nations of the 196 that presently exist trade with Cuba. Since there is absolutely no commercial connectivity between the United States and Cuba, the United States accounts for only 77% of the foreign income that arrives in Cuba via family "remesas" and other American-originated activity.

Because the Americans are meanies, the Cuban economy is now the 2nd poorest per capita in the New World. Curly and Michael Moore are almost certain to be going to Venezuela to collaborate with the democratically elected President for Life, Michillin Pillsbury who is creditted with having elevated Venezuela from 6th place in the New World per capita income line-up in 1980 to 23rd place in 2010. Since the number 23 is bigger than 6, President Michelin Pillsbury has declared that there is now almost four times less poverty in Venezuela, and also, four times fewer people in the wealthy and middle classes. When asked by a reporter about the impossibility of having "four times fewer or four times less"....that perhaps it should be accurately stated as one-fourth as much...President Pillsbury sent the reporter on a 32-year paid vacation. His daughter was sent to the Venezuelan Prison for Male Pyschotic Murderers on a scholarship to study applied criminology. Never underestimate the generousity of President Michelin Pillsbury when he is paying bills with other peoples' money.

Curly is going to be making an announcment soon about the possibility that Arnold Schwarzenegger may play the lead and title role for the new movie, which will be titled "Return of Evita" . It is all about Frida Kahlo, and how Hillary Everest's conquering of Mount Rodham influenced Frida to make movies for little girls' inspiration. Since the movie is determined to appeal to sensible adult and mature audiences, the Peoples Republic of North Korea will loan the embalmed bodies of both Kim Dad Ded and Kim Son Gone to be included in every scene along with the embalmed bodies of Nikolai Lenin and Uncle Joe Stalin. Selma Hayak and Louise Ciccone will play Siamese Twin reverse-transgendered daughtsons of sub-commandante Marcos. The embalmed body of Frida Kahlo, along the the red flag with the hammer and sickle that was draped over her body at the Palace of Fine Arts in Mexico City will play the role of Jose, the taxi driver who knows everybody and every place. Leon Trotsky will be played by Hillary Rodham due to their look-alike screen presence. Barney Frank will play Miss Kitty.

      Curly has his work cut out for him. Scheduled to open on the first day of Kwanzaa, 2012.

El Gringo Viejo

FD HIDDEN DIV

FD HIDDEN DIV

The Way We Still Get Around in Texas and Mexico

Here is a bit of a connexion with our past.   I remember running out to see the steampowered Mikado engines on the Southern Pacific line that ran about a half mile from our place near McAllen, Texas in those days.   It made our windows rattle, and enthralled a four year old with its noise, power, and friendly engineers.

http://www.westtexaspolarexpress.com/

We offer this up as a contempletive interlude for quiet moments of remembrance and

gratitude for the past year's blessings and for last year's trials.
A tip for navigation; click onto "The Real Polar Express"
and work through it or speed it up as you wish.   Then when it ends, click onto
"All Aboard!" and repeat, selecting at the end "Polar Express, Texas State Railroad
Palestine, Texas.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xh5wvNwa57U

This excerpt is a bit more instructive, and equally inspiring.   Perhaps it is less for
personal reminiscence than for general and pleasant history worth knowing.

El Gringo Viejo

Racism/Eric Holder/Barak Obama?

Eric Holder has taken the American marxist refuge.   When ones actions cannot be defended in any reasonable manner, it is necessary to begin flailing the term "racist" at ones opponents and assuming an expression of sneering contempt.

     He ties himself to that other paragon of Americanism, Barack Hussien Obama, and declares that he and his immediate bureaucratic superior are both victims of that horrid disorder that only exists in America.   No other place.   And it is only practised by people who have a strain of Southern ancestry, who are Caucasian, Protestant, preferably Anglo/Saxon or Teutonic/Saxon, who own guns, and are, obviously, meanspirited.

     Eric Holder says that discrimination against him is the same as that which is heaped upon the poor, hapless victim Obama because he and Obama are African Americans.   The problem, of course, is that Barack Hussein Obama is not an "African-American" in any American sense.    The Gringo Viejo was perhaps among the very first to point this out during that ghastly 2008 election episode when almost no one knew anything about Barack Obama....about his ancestry, about his collegiate and post-graduate studies, about his proclivity to vote "present" on almost any piece of legislation, about his saturation with communist and anti-American instruction and associations, about his lack of any significant history, substance, concrete accomplishments, or attachment to any philosophical guidance save for marxism.    He has no blood-line that in any way represents the history of the Negro race in the British Colonies, the Dutch or Spanish periods or areas, nor the French New World experience.    Barack Hussein Obama is not an "African-American".   He is a marxist-American.

     BHO was like his father in one way....being pretty much dedicated to the sale and consumption of cocaine during his college days.    His father was better, because he could mix his drug use with copious amounts of alcohol.   His father was better, playing out his own minstrel blackface show by becoming the stereotypical stereotype of a KKK Grand Wizard's stereotypical depiction of a Negro male.    University people loved BHO's father, however, because he was "inspired".
     One could tell he was "inspired"  because of his writings.   His writings, papers, treatises and such were almost illiterate jibber, dealing with topic somewhat related to his hatred of white people, The United Kingdom and its Royal House, his lust for women, his hatred of free enterprise, colonialism, and....always....for white people who had pale skin.

     Barak Hussein Obama's father fit in well with another stereotype.    That template is provided by Auntie Zulema  who is an illegal alien, a welfare cheat and fraud, an aggressively  and arrogantly determined "entitled person", and certainly a person who blames the Americans for (1) giving her the free food, housing, lottery ticket money, and walking around money and (2) not giving her enough free food, housing, lottery ticket money, and walking around money.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKdUu6zwDiI
Come to know and love Auntie Zeituni like we all do by clicking on the above linkage.
      The template is rounded out by Uncle Onyango, who is an illegal alien, under complete public assistance, holding a valid social security card, and a frequent visitor to both the bar and the bench. 
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44719768/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/t/obamas-uncle-returns-court-drunken-driving-case/
Come to know and love Uncle Onyango like we all do by clicking on the above linkage.

      The bringing of these matters to the attention of the public is racism, of course.    It was also racism when we pointed out the drunken, pot-smoking  scum who were siblings of Billy Jeff Blythe and Hillary Rodham....both panhandlers, shaking down potential pardon-seekers for "finders fees"....so we are just staying in character.   Sadly they were just being grifting slugs like their respective older brother and sister.   They were, at least, not illegal aliens on complete public support.    Like when we used to make fun of ....many, many, many years ago of Sam Houston Johnson for being a drunk and a slug.   He was, at least, not an illegal alien on complete public support.   He just had the bad fortune to be related to a murderous, perverted slug like Lyndon Baines Johnson.
      Can we all imagine how Barack and Eric hoot and howl with laughter about how they "pulled one over"....on those stupid crackers who like to cleave unto their guns and Bibles...by having them pay Uncle Onyango's and Auntie Zietuni room and board and walking around money.    It's so easy to hate America when you have the Americans paying you to do it.
      Perhaps Auntie Zietuni can qualify for an in vitro process and become a baby mother so she could pick up an extra pittance through AFDC/WIC/and stamp allocations.   In Massachusetts that would amount to an extra 15k per year if she could sell her checks and stamps for 50% on the dollar at the liquor store on the corner.    She could even take her payout in lottery tickets.    After all, she and Uncle Onyango are on a roll.
     Eric....Barack....the Old Gringo is really sorry about all the racism you  all have had to suffer.   More money is on the way to the IRS so that you can send more and more folks some more "gettin' even" money.   That money makes their lives better  and gives them that uplifting sense of personal value.   It liberates them from the bondage of dependency.    Right?
Always appreciative of fundamental transformation, El Gringo Viejo slouches off to the dark parts of his cave and grumbles with his moldy tofu and funny smelling goat's milk smoothy.
(put together, it tastes really good....like the way a old ash tray smells after two or three weeks).
El Gringo Viejo

More Glimmers of Normalcy

Old fools are the hardest ones to convince and then, at times, to be re-convinced.    It is not my wish to plow over ground that cannot be broken.   It is hard on the plow.  It is even harder on the mules.
    So, that is why, when somebody asks me about "the situation" in Mexico and I respond and then the questioner contradicts me....my conversation is over.   The second party can say whatever he wishes, but the Gringo Viejo neither responds nor hears.   The usual case is that the less a person knows about Mexico....the less he has been throughout Mexico....the less he has experienced things in and about Mexico....the less he has studied matters concerning Mexico, and the more he relies upon authoritative news and information sources, then the more he knows that he knows more about Mexico and most other things than I.

     El Gringo Viejo will continue to post certain facts and interpretations for the benefit of OROGs.   Most OROGs are sharp people.   Most are as smart, if not smarter, than the Gringo Viejo.    It is up to the OROG to determine how he or she will stuff his or her pipe with the information provided here,  and whether he or she will light the pipe with a match or with a BIC.

      T0-day, after Mass, El Gringo Viejo and his long-suffering wife had an extremely pleasant conversation with another couple in the Parish Hall.   It turns out that that we had common interests in various things, as one might suspect.   The conversation turned to whether the Gringo Viejo thought that the news, generally being disseminated here on the frontier, about relative stability becoming the rule again, is true.   They were considering going down to Cd. Valles, in the eastern part of the  State of San Luis Potosi' to visit relatives.    Last year the same relatives said not to go....too problematic....etc.   Now they say those same relatives are declaring everything to be normalised.   They asked the Gringo Viejo's opinion.

      Standing there, four people, face-to-face, in real time, it was necessary to make a final judgement, about how to answer these reasonable folk.   It was necessary to say, that for all practical purposes, the family was correct.    The caveat was put in place that one should be reasonable and call or check ahead....study the situation at the moment....but that it is reasonable to assume that things are a mix of almost normal, normal, and better than the used to be even before the disorders.....better police, more military, better highways and bridges, better facilities....all the physical plant has continued to improve even during the Cartel mess.    There are still isolated incidents.   There is still the criminality (or a little less) that one might expect to find in a country with the  demographic of Mexico.   There are still the lunatic political manifestations that occur here and there at various points on the map.....like always.   But....it is....dare one say....beginning to look a lot like normal.

       One little barometer is the following.   Last year there were no hunting permits and gun license permits issued for American hunters looking to bag the famous Mexican mule deer that are found in the great barren, mountainous and desert-like extensions of Northcentral Mexico....overlapping the two northern States of Coahuila and Chihuahua.   The disorders had taken the number of hunters involved in the commercial business of the mule deer season down from around 3,500 American hunters in 2006 to a big fat zed (zero) in 2010.   This year, the Secretary of Agriculture/Department of Forestry and Wildlife issued 1,600 permits for the taking of one mule deer to foreign applicants.     An identical number of hunting rifle importation permits were issued by the Secretary of National Defense.   All such permits must be signed and authorised by a Mexican Army General, either active or retired and commissioned for such action by the Secretary.

      The relationships between the hunters and their Mexican and/or American guides and organisers are very private, very confidable, and very, very personal.   The American operators are people who have been through every up and down imaginable doing business in Mexico.   They are willingly mired in the mess and they love the fishing and hunting business and the people and the locale where they perform their services.  Their Mexican interfaces are the same....and the times the Mexicans provide.... the astounding geographic settings, the food, the liquor and beer, the camaraderie, the hunting and/or fishing experiences are legendary.

       Many Mexicans think that the involvement of the American hunters has resulted in the massive rebounding of the mule deer, brown bear, quail, migratory geese and duck, and types of dove populations.   Ducks Unlimited of Mexico has been very contributive.   The improvement in Mexican enforcement of basic husbandry and conservation rules and laws has had considerable impact as well.    The return of the Gringos to the field and lake marks another step in the slow return to normalcy....only this normalcy will be to a better level than what existed before.

Click onto the linkage below to see the world's record largemouth bass caught during a tournament at Lake Guerrero, not far from our place.    This was during the Summer just past, about when things started to begin to think about  returning to full normal.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5AmtWJpVYI&feature=autoplay&list=ULSrN4GSbUay0&lf=mfu_
in_order&playnext=1

      This video is very dull and boring, all in Spanish, but the OROG will see many, many fished being weighed in a over 6 kilos.    One fellow brought in three fish from one contestant that weighted 4o pounds.    The scenes of the two boys fishing from a boat are taken where our Rio Corona makes its entry into the Lake Vicente Guerrero, about 22 miles (by a straight line) away from the Quinta.

All very much fun and, we hope, the harbinger of things to come.
Thanks for your time and interest.   More later.
El Gringo Viejo
    

The Reason the Press Aspirates During Advent, Christmas,and Epiphany

The local press is composed of nice people who have that wondrous opportunity to be inside of a television rather than plasti-molded into a sofa or recliner looking at a television.   Those who are not inside the television are fortunate enough to put their names on human interest article of the season.    You know....those joyful stories about....

       "......due to the government cutbacks on medical and social services put forward by the Republican legislature this is not going to be the Merry Little Christmas that Mary Ann Wompleduffer was hoping to have for her seven children.    It's especially bad this Christmas because  her house burned down again three weeks ago, "ironically" just like last year.   She and her whole family are living in the back of an old abandoned pickup over on the edge of the stockyards and slaughterhouse, next to the sewer plant.

      "Ironically, Christmas falls on the 25th again with is always the same day as Mary Ann and all of her children were born....and they have a connection with Jesus, because, "ironically" he was born on the same day.  And they were really poor, too.     Many people think that it is "ironic" that Mary Ann's name is just like Jesus's mother's name and that there are so many parallels between their situations.

       "'Ironically' Mary Ann's plight was made worse because of the Republican sponsored cutbacks in basic social safety net programs that were provided originally by Barak Obama and the Democrat sponsored legislation that  was stopped before it could arrive to Mary Ann, who is so similar to Mary and so many Americans in this never ending recession.

    But like Mary Ann said, coughing through her black lung contracted during her days as a coal miner, that......

                                             Gimme, Mr. Rich Man

                                 "It really seems so little to ask,

                                   That those, who in their riches, bask,

                                   To give a bit, what they could spare,

                                   But the One Percent just doesn't care
                                                                                                       El Gringo Viejo - 2011
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Please pardon the Gringo Viejo as he reaches for another tissue.

Ironically yours,
El Gringo Viejo

Diana says that I have to declare the poem as a copyright, so therefore the new classic American poem "Gimme, Mr. Rich Man" authoured by the ever humble Gringo Viejo is private property and all benefits derived from the use of said property accrues to the said Gringo Viejo.