At breakfast, Fatima alerted us that at 2pm that afternoon we were invited to attend the first communion of Roberto, their grandson, combined with the presentation of his little sister, Julia Sophia. She also looked straight at Roger and told him he would be singing at the reception following the religious ceremony. Well, that got our attention.
We managed to squeeze the hike in as planned and showed up to the church on time (an unnecessary attempt, as we are in Mexico and the family rolled in around 2:15). The service was very formal with about 50 friends and family members in attendance. Roger, Elaine (our new house mate from Wisconsin) and I sat in the back row where we had a pretty nice view of the whole occasion.
As my mind drifted from the priest’s words (I understood about 30% - Dios, Senior, Corazon etc…) I couldn’t help looking around at all the dressed up women and wonder which outfit I might try to wear. A word about how women dress here. When I say “tight”, think “as tight as you can possibly imagine”. Skirts, dresses, pants, and of course jeans. Words like flashy and sexy also come to mind.
Immediately following the service, we all walked up the hill to the Lions Club for the reception. This is where it got really fun. We walked into a formally decorated banquet hall, and were honored to sit at the same table as our host family. Thank goodness the table was also about 2 feet from the beverage table where a father/son duo waited on us hand and foot and I don’t know how much tequila our table consumed during the next 4 hours. Yes, as Jesus told us when we sat down, we were in for a long celebration.
The full meal deal, the drinks, the beverages and the decorations are something we could expect in the US, however… Enter the vocalista! (also named Fatima) Let the show begin! She is a paid entertainer with a microphone and back up techno team who run the music while she sings, engages the crowd and sort of MC’s the entire evening. She was HOT and she could REALLY SING! We were sitting right below the stage and often she would wink or nod to Roger and at times would come down and sing to him. Finally, she picked him out of the crowd to dance with her while she belted out some popular song.
While the adults were being entertained, all the kids were outside either playing soccer or with all the new toys that Roberto and Julia Sophia accumulated on this important occasion. The highlight of course was the breaking of the piñata! One for Roberto and another for Julia. That was really fun to watch! After each kid had handfuls of candy, they came inside to dip strawberries and marshmallows into a fountain flowing with chocolate and eat a variety of desserts. Can you say Diabetes?
We wrapped the evening up with more dancing, including some line dancing. The Achey Breaky (to the words “Pobre Corazon”) is always a good ol’ party pleaser. Parents and Godparents went around to all the tables and gave everyone gifts to remember the occasion, including us. I took a lot of pictures and hope to make a little imovie or DVD to give to the family for Christmas.
It’s often so easy to compare cultures when I attend something like this. I was so pleased to be invited, as there really isn’t anything like this in our country. There may be first communions in some churches, but in the US would there be tequila, piñatas, dancing and live entertainment? Mexico celebrates a child’s baptism, Presentation (on the 3rd birthday), first communion, and a young girl’s 15th birthday. Each one is a very big deal and is celebrated with whatever means are available for that family. We feel honored to have been included in such an occasion.
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