Spanglish

Tonight I am staying in the house of a very important lady in Ixtepec. 1.5 hours de Salina Cruz. Her son, 25, is a lawyer-mediator in Salina Cruz and I was invited to stay with his family. His mom dresses in traditional Zapotecan wear and she speaks the Zapotecan dialect. Chela means cervaza (beer) and Chawy Chawy (dont know how it is spelled) means despacio (slow). I didnt know I would be learning Zapotec tambien (too).

Last week I was staying with a lady who I thought was a mediator in Salina Cruz. Well, she is a mediator, just not full time. Only when she wants to (but she still receives a salary for it?? I havent quite figured it out). She is a "woman without responsibilities" her mom owns a small resturant in a great location (right in front of the bus station) and She owns an internet\clothing boutique next door.

The day I arrived, last Sunday, this lady lost the baby she was carrying (three months left to go). Apparently, the week before, she was in an accident. She ran into a man working in the streets in a tunnel (she didnt see him). When she got out to help him and offer to take him to the hospital, his sister attacked her. From my limited ability to understand spanish, I gathered that she attributes this incident to losing her baby.

She has two other children. One 7 year old very bright girl and one 14 year old boy. They lived with their grandma the week I was there. Well, the boy always lives with grandma. She had two friends stay with her the entire week helping her out since she was in a lot of pain after the operation to remove her baby. One of them has a 2 year old little boy who was a pain.

It took me the week (and accidently walking into the room during an intimate moment) to figure out that these woman were girlfriends. I am so dense when it comes to realizing these things. In Salina Cruz and much of the Isthmus, being openly gay is accepted. This, in my opinion, is a good thing. The Istmus of Mexico is also very matriarchal. It is pretty interesting.

The last few days I have been staying with another Mediator in Tehauntepec. (20 min from Salina Cruz).

Last week there was a mediation between a pregnant woman and the man who made her so. He doesn't want to take responsibility because he has a wife. But the mediation was the first time he acknowledged that the baby was his. It was quite interesting to watch. Oh how I love mediation!

I am still struggling to know what is going on all the time and I have trouble expressing myself, which is incredibly frustrating....This is the first time I have been somewhere where no one speaks English. Some people know a few words and love to insert them when talking with me. Which is quite funny. In the middle of a sentence in Spanish, English words like "house" "grandma" "dog" "orange" "one, two, three" will find there way in.

Ahhh, Spanglish!