Caminando Haciendo Camino: Home!!!

We celebrated my Dad's 50th birthday and my homecoming on the same weekend.

As has been happening for the past few months, I let a long time pass between experiences and countries that I no longer wrote the same as I did at the beginning.

Well, lets see how far I can recap. I'll start with-

Now: Back Home

I am back home with my family in Moreno Valley (after some 20 odd years of living in La Puente, my parents moved to MV to live closer to my dad's work). I got to see the house before I left, but it still feels strange to be living out here. I landed back in LAX on July 2nd and it was such a trip to land in Los Angeles and literally fly over the house we used to live in (I saw it!). As the plane was landing I instantly thought of how nearly 10 months ago I was taking off from this same airport to Tokyo; I can remember almost every detail of that day (what I ate, who I sat next to on the plane, the song that was playing at the airport...) and of how anxious I felt! And before you know it, here I am, back home again. It all felt that it happened in a blink of an eye. Some memories of the trip are more distant than others, but overall it feels like it was all a dream. Perhaps this is because I felt I was already home when I got to my parent's hometown in Mexico...

Mexico: Family, Death and Friends

My experience in Mexico was far more intense than I could have imagined. I had moved my Guadalajara flight to an earlier date because I had received news that my grandmother was very ill and my mom was already there (it was her mom). It was so bittersweet to be reunited with her because although I had been really looking forward to seeing her again, I didn't want to see her under these circumstances. After a difficult, long week of hospital rotations and taking care of my grandmother with my mom and her family, she passed away. She had a sudden stroke which led to several other complications; she was not sick or had any major diseases, which made it much more difficult for the family to digest her sudden death. I was very glad to be alongside my mom during this time as well give her a bit of comic relief.

My mom ties a black bow outside my grandparent's house to represent a death in the family.

The days that followed her passing consisted of pueblo (small town) burial rituals and ceremonies which I had never witnessed. It was so strange (I'm not sure if I'm finding the right word to describe this feeling) to be so part of the experience as a family member and yet be an outsider at the same time. For example an aunt explained to me the significance of certain practices, such as placing a bowl of diced onions and vinegar underneath the casket. This is so all the bad spirits ("cancers") will be sort of sucked into the bowl. After the burial, the bowl is thrown away so that the body and house where the body is viewed do not carry these "cancers" either; and yes, the morning of her passing, we cleared the front part of my grandparent's house (the kitchen and living room) and that is where the altar and body are viewed. Within hours of a person's death, the body is prepared and given to the family to view in their homes. It was incredible how within hours all the preparations for the casket, plot of burial land and flowers were arranged. The viewing goes on through the night and the following morning. Throughout the evening (we estimated about 150 people passed through the house) people stop by and offer flowers, cinnamon, sugar, and coffee to serve guests during the night. Throughout the evening people are also praying the Rosary. My mom explained that the more people pray the Rosary in her memory, the easier the gates of heaven will open for her. I asked my mom, "But wouldn't that have already been decided based on her life actions?" My mom replied, "In any case, when I die, you better pray as many Rosaries for me as you can." The continuous Rosary prayers reminded me of the Buddhist prayers (sound like chants) I heard in Thailand and India. I found the Rosary prayer to be quite meditative and helpful after about 10 straight rounds of it.

My grandma had over 20 kinds of herbs in her backyard for just about every ailment you can imagine.

[Funny side note: my mom made a comment about my "grunge" look in Mexico and also noted that I wasn't paying attention to what I was wearing (I would wear the same pants 3-4 days straight), nor whether my shirts needed to be ironed, nor if I combed my hair everyday. It was funny because I didn't really notice these things after a while, but reconnecting with my mom was a taste of reconnecting with home and ideas of dress norms].

My mom returned to California a week after the burial and I left for Guanajuato to meet up with Mari, a friend from Fullerton who was vacationing in Mexico at the same time. Her family has a house in Abasolo, Guanajuato and we agreed that it would be a shame to be so close and not meet up at some point. After a few days of unwinding, at her parent's house, we went to the romantic, historical and colonial city of Guanajuato. There is a list of all the tourist attractions that are a must-see and do if you visit, but at that point, I was no longer in tourist sight-seeing mode, I was just happy catch up with a close friend! Luckily she was also in this mode and so we went with the flow and spent three days eating, drinking and people watching under the green shady trees of the plaza- it was perfect!

With Mari enjoying every minute of doing absolutely nothing.

After Guanajuato, I reunited with Coco and Canek in Mexico City (I took red-eye buses between cities) and that was another great visit. That first evening I arrived they took me to UNAM (they're both grad students) for a discussion on the criminalization of critical thought in academia. This was in regards to the deportation of Colombian scholar Miguel Angel Beltran Villegas, http://www.desdeabajo.org.mx/wordpress/?p=1730%22%3E. As I had written about them before, they are a really positive, healthy couple and aside from the other things this visit made think about (future directions, research agendas, life-long projects) they also made me think about relationships and marriage vs. long-term stability...hm...

With Coco when we went out to eat for my birthday (and had the incredible chile en nogada!)

Canek eating really fast!

Later that evening Canek's parents invited us to an event at the Cuban Embassy (celebrating Che's life in Archipielago magazine). "Just don't say you're from the US," Canek warns. "With the nopal on my forehead, who would think that?" I wondered.

After my two week visit catching up with friends I returned to my parent's hometown to spend the last two weeks with my mom's side of the family. Since I had never really spent as much time with her family (we were mostly raised with my dad's side, which I can get into, but not today) it was so nice to live with my mom's sisters and spend time cooking, drinking and playing loteria every night with them and my cousins as well as getting to know them at a different point in our lives- them a little older and wiser, and me, a little older as well. I am so grateful to have such strong beautiful women for aunts! It was also good to spend time with my grandpa and ask him to share funny anecdotes of his dating days with my grandma. I was glad to see that he was joking quite a bit and had a lighter tone in his voice. Right before I left an aunt even said to me "Gusto en conocerte" (nice to meet you) since in many ways, it did feel like I was just meeting them, and I was so thankful that despite her death, my grandmother was able to bring the family closer and created the space to embrace and rekindle our love towards one another.

Back Home Again:

Now I am home job hunting and I find that even this period is a good test of patience. Before returning I thought I would have had some sort of a job lead, hoping that I'd have a few things more structured after my whirlwind experience, but no. I think in another point in time this would have freaked me out, but the difference is that, despite my surface anxieties, I have a sense of assurance that things will work out. This has definitely been one of the greater lessons of the trip- no matter what, there is a plan for you, and you'll be alright (otherwise, how the hell did I travel around the world alone for 10 months and manage to return in one piece??). I am learning to be patient with the job search and in the mean time, enjoy time with family, friends, continue writing and making slide shows of the trip.

From La Capilla overlooking Ixtlahuacan de los Membrillos (my parent's hometown in Mexico)

What would 10 months around the world look like? That's the slide show I'm working on now. In all, I visited Japan, South Korea, Thailand, India, Egypt, Israel (one day in Jordan, that counts, right?), Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia, Peru and Mexico- 12 countries!