Edge of (Dis)Comfort in Rural Mexico

2012 - 2013 | Puebla, Mexico 🇲🇽

2012

It was my first time traveling to an unfamiliar, new place without family. I met Ady at a Quinceañera party a month ago and after having a dinner date with her, she asked me to go to countryside Mexico with her when she visits her family during winter break. I said yes without putting much thought into it. I remember my family was skeptical about it at first and just reminded me to be careful of drug-related situations.

Ady and I arrived to the airport in Mexico City where her Tío came to get us with his pickup truck. It was the nighttime and I had no idea where we were heading; I was just enjoying the fresh air and aroma of countryside Mexico while zooming through the desert landscape. I truly felt “young, wild, and free.”

In the beginning, I felt so out of place. When one is so used to the hustle and bustle of big cities (NYC in our case), slowing down like this is a dramatic change of pace. I learned to appreciate it over time, but I did feel homesick before the one-month mark. I used to go to my dad’s hometown in Taishan, China which is also countryside but that was pre 10 years old–I was not introduced to the fast life yet.

Home by Popocatépetl and Iztaccíhuatl

At the ‘home’ here with Ady, my favorite morning routine was waking up in our jammies at Abuelita’s, walking over to Tía’s to make food together, and enjoying breakfast with everyone in the little hut at Tía’s yard. I was learning how to shape the corn dough into tortillas and then heating them up in the old-school stove.

La Familia

Abuelito’s who was young-at-heart and bubbly sense of human; he reminded me so much of my own grandpa and it made me feel at home. Abuelita who couldn’t see very well but knew it all and always warm. Tío who took us places and made sure we returned home safely before dark. Tía who always made sure we ate more than enough. Prima who took us on adventures with good energy and also called me and Ady “Lesbianas.” Wedo who was timid but secretly very sweet and loved Cumbia music. Alexander who was the little trouble maker.

The Pups

The twins (rat terriers) who were always napping together. The main guard (beagle) at Abuelito’s yard. ‘Capitan’ (basset hound) who was always clumsy and had semi-dried drool on his face. ‘Leica’ (labrador) who became blind from a car accident but the sweetest pup ever.

It was a small town where everyone knew each other and it was an extremely rare occasion if anyone new/different comes to visit. When the boys heard that a Chinita was here visiting, they made jokes and bets on “who can talk to her first.” How silly, lol! We had a handful of adventures in wild and one of the memorable days was a hike where we scrambled big boulders to a nearby waterfall.

The area where Ady’s family are situated was near the Popocatépetl and Iztaccíhuatl volcanoes. One of the many versions of the tale behind their love story (based on Aztec mythology) goes as follows: Princess Iztaccíhuatl fell in love with his father’s warrior, Popocatépetl. Her father had sent him to war, promising his daughter’s hand in marriage upon his return. The Emperor assumed that he would not return so he lied to Princess Iztaccíhuatl that Popocatépetl died in battle and she passed away due to grief. When Popocatépetl finally return safely to find the love of his life dead, he was enraged; this turned him into the active volcano that he is today, filling the earth with its “raining fire.”

Wedo surprised us one day when he drove us to a nearby ‘secret’ location and unlocked the front gate to a mansion that overlooked the volcanoes. The inside was beautiful, filled with artwork like it was an abandoned museum. We climbed up to the roof and had a spectacular view of Popocatépetl and Iztaccíhuatl. I felt like we were ‘on top of the world.’

Exploring Cholula

Tío took us on adventure in Cholula to learn about the history and culture of its past. We explored The Great Pyramid of Cholula and visited Museo de Sitio de Cholula (Archaeological Museum).

Danza de los Voladores

We had to have some Michelada in Cholula; the hot sauce used in Michelada is called Cholula, haha! Passing by, I was experienced the Danza de los Voladores (Dance of the Flyers) perform their ritual. This ritual originated from Veracruz with deep spiritual significance and similar to many other Mesoamerican rituals that were connected with fertility and harvest, Danza de los Voladores was a way to appease the gods and end drought. Thus this is probably why the ritual is associate with rain and solar gods.

The Danza de los Voladores consisted of five men with tradition red/white outfits and rainbow headdresses (representing the sun and rainbows). They shimmy up a 30-metre high pole; four of them (voladores) will tie themselves to the top of the pole with a rope and the fifth man (caporal) will play music (flute, drums, and/or singing) at the top. The four voladores (flyers) represent the earth’s cardinal directions and elements; they would then launch themselves backwards from the pole, descending towards the ground with a total of 13 rotations each. This totals to 52 rotations, which also represents the Aztec’s calendar’s century. I felt so lucky that I accidentally stumbled into this performance while in Cholula.

China Poblana

While driving back home, we passed by the statue of China Poblana. While it literally translates to Chinese woman from Puebla, it is actually the name of a traditional style of dress of women in Mexico. The name itself–China (“female servant”) and Poblana (“of Puebla”)–reflects the origins of Mexico’s Indigenous and colonial history of enslavement, revolutionary politics, and nation-building. Today, china poblano dresses are worn in Mexican cultural celebrations and dance.

Luis’ Home

Ady and I went horse riding with her Primo where she picked up a black bunny (we just called it ‘Conejo’ and we just took it with us everywhere, lol! We traveled to a more suburban area with Ady’s other cousin Luis for a period of time. Luis took us on adventures in his town, showed us his chocolate art installations, and played the guitar. I asked him to play my favorite song at the time “Noviembre Sin Ti” by Reik. Today this song reminds me of my adventures in Mexico.

One night Ady and I were at the house all by ourselves so we watched a scary movie (I think we watched The Grudge?) to feel less scared, I guess LOL. Then suddenly we heard banging on the front gate of the house! We ran to the front and clicked in the pad lock that was on the inner door (which was left intentionally opened from the inside because that’s how Ady’s cousin/family would get in–by unlocking the outer door and then manually removing the pad lock in the internal door.) Ady did that because we were scared at the moment but now we were like, “wait, did we lock ourselves in?!” We searched how to pick a lock on the internet to make sure we get it unlocked before her family comes back home. I brought up the idea of trying to find the key instead; we found all the keys that were in the house and tried all of them. We found the one! Haha, what an adventure of us freaking ourselves out.

2013

We return the following year. At this point, Ady’s family felt like my very own. Unfortunately Abuelito had passed between the time from the last visit to this visit.

Atlixco: Mariscos, Boba, and Eclipse

We spent some time exploring Atlixco this time around. We had lunch at Mariscos Altixco, where I ordered my favorite shrimp cocktail. It was so delicious and yes, very different in quality/taste than the ones from NYC. It just hit different!

We passed by a mall and they had Boba there, haha! Ady and I were obsessed with bubble tea so we had to get some, lol! We also ate at a Chinese fast food stand at the mall and the owners there were shocked to see me, someone from their hometown! We had a bonding moment and talked about our family/background.

Tío took us to the suburban area to shop and have lunch. Ady and I were at the Internet cafe and there was a paper post at the door–they were selling newborn pitbull puppies. We called and within hours, we officially adopted one of the puppies and named her Eclipse. This name came from the friendship we had. Ady was the moon–she encompassed this dark, elegant energy. I was the sun–bright with a bubbly energy. Together our friendship was like an eclipse. Since we were returning back NYC soon, we wanted to gift Eclipse to Abuelita to remind her of us and to have a companion since Querido Abuelito is no longer here. <3

Blue Ribbon Friendship

On our last night, Tía prepared our last dinner with love (well, as always!) at the little hut in her yard. She was reflecting on all the fun times and jokes that we shared during the these past two years and started to cry. Tía said that usually the day-to-day was mundane here in the countryside and when we would stay for the month, we were the “light” in her life.

Before going to bed, Ady and I watched the 2011 series called Pan Am (a 1960s Jet Age style “sexy drama”) - Ady always spoke about how she wanted to be a flight attendant and travel the world. There was a girl in the movie that looked like a little bit like me, with the front bangs hair style except I had long hair and she had short hair. Next thing you know, we had the scissors out and Ady was chopping off my long hair (with my consent) that night, leaving one small strand of hair that I would then braid.

We later got matching blue ribbons for our friendship (inspired by Pan Am), which we would put under our pillow. The adventures of Chinese Dream and Mexican Dream continues from there. :)