Into the Good Night

On November 1st, the floral tapestry was orange and yellow.
By December 1st, it changed to red and green.
That was the change in color across Mexico as Dia de los Muertos celebrations changed to Christmas festivities. These weren’t just any Christmas festivities, though. This was Christmas in Mexico.
An old folktale told of a poor little girl. She wanted to present a gift to the baby Jesus. She picked flowering weeds and placed them at the altar of a local church. These flowers, known to Mexicans as Nochebuenas, became a symbol of Christmas around the world. Nochebuenas were also known as Poinsettias.
Sra. Vasquez had filled every room in the house with the fragrant red flowers. No mistaking it, the Christmas season was on its way.
At school, festivities were beginning, too. All of the children in Srta. Diaz' class wrote their name on a piece of paper and placed it into a Christmas stocking. Srta. Diaz secretly picked nine names. The first was ‘Miguel Vasquez’.
Srta. Diaz also secretly passed nine envelopes to these children. These were for their parents. When Miguel arrived at home, he gave the envelope to his mother. She waited until dinner to read the contents.

Dear Parents,

The time for Nochebuena and Las Posadas is coming near. Just like every year, all of my students placed their names in a bag. Yours was picked as one of the families to act as this year's Inkeepers. Please let me know as soon as possible if you are unable to host a Posadas party.

Sincerely,
Srta. Diaz

“I guess we have work to do,” announced Sra. Vasquez.
Step one was a trip to the market. They found a silver and gold star-shaped piñata. They found decorations for the house, too.
On December 16th, the first night of Las Posadas, they went to work setting up for their party. Sr. Vasquez hung the piñata in the back yard. Meanwhile, Sra. Vasquez and her children strung up Christmas lights and crepe paper ribbons.
That night, just after sunset, all of the students except Miguel, gathered at Srta. Diaz’ house. There were adults, too.
There were two children dressed as Jose and Maria – Joseph and Mary. Mary held a tiny doll. This represented baby Jesus. There was even a donkey, which Maria got to ride. The rest of the children were ‘pilgrims’, wandering from inn-to-inn, looking for a place for Mary and Joseph to rest.
They lit tiny candles and proceeded to the Vasquez house. The boy who played Jose knocked on the door..
The children began singing in Spanish:

En el nombre del cielo,
yo os pido posada,
pues no puede andar,
mi esposa amada.

It meant:
In the name of the heavens
I request lodging from you,
Because she cannot walk,
My beloved wife.

The Vasquez family sang to them (in Spanish, of course):
This is not an inn,
Go on ahead
We can’t open up for you
In case you are a crook.

The Pilgrims sang:
Don’t be cruel,
Give us charity
That the gods of the heavens
Will give it to you.

The Innkeepers (couple) sang:
You can go now and
Don’t bother us
Because if I get upset
I’m going to beat you.

The Pilgrims replied:
We come tired
From Nazareth
I am a carpenter
Whose name is Joseph.

The Vasquez family replied by refusing the pilgrims time and again, until the last verse, where the Innkeepers recognized the pilgrims, and gave them the last place they had – the stables outside – with the wild beasts.

The Innkeepers sang:
You are Joseph
Your wife is Mary
Come in travelers!
I didn’t know it.

The Pilgrims sang:
May God pay gentlemen,
For our charity
And may the heavens overwhelm you
With Happiness!

Finally, everyone joined together and sang:

Happy is the house
That shelters today
The pure virgin
The beautiful Mary.

Enter holy pilgrims
Receive this haven
That although it’s a poor dwelling
The dwelling…
We offer to you from the heart.

The Vasquez family invited all of their guests into the house. There was punch and cookies for everyone to enjoy while they talked and sang. People had even brought guitars and banjoes to play while they partied.
It was a grand fiesta.
Sr. Vasquez led everyone to the gumbo-limbo tree in the backyard. He presented his son with a small cane. Miguel held it firmly while his father tied the blindfold. He then spun Miguel around nine times (once for each day of Posadas). Miguel swung the cane over his head, trying to hit the piñata. He missed.
Then, Miguel pointed towards the children with his finger. He picked out his friend Juan.
Sr. Vasquez handed him the cane and fastened the blindfold. Juan’s swing hit one leg of the star. The children gasped and cheered. Although Juan hit the piñata, it did not break.
It was another child’s turn. Juan picked Maria.
Maria swung the cane over her head. It was a direct hit. Everyone scrambled for the candies as they poured onto the floor.
After all the candy was gathered, Srta. Diaz led everyone in a prayer. She held the rosary in her hands as she prayed. The rosary was a small beaded necklace. Each bead was a rose, made of carved wood. She recited parts of the Lord’s Prayer, followed by “Hail Mary”.
When she finished, the guests thanked the Vasquez family and returned to their own homes. The Vasquez’ cleaned house and readied for bed.
“Papa?” asked Miguel.
“Yes?”
“Come, look at my adobe. Is it ready?”
Sr. Vasquez investigated the brick. The shell was hardened and strong.
“It’s cured.”
“Do you think you could use it at the Tenochtitlan project?”
“I wouldn’t be allowed.”
“But you said it was a good building block.”
“It is, but there are building standards I have to follow. Architecture has come a long way since the days of the Aztecs and Maya.”
“We saw adobe used in the houses in the Riviera Maya.”
“We did, but those were personal houses. Very few people use Adobe. Instead, factories make lots of bricks at once.”
“Srta. Diaz’ class makes lots of bricks at once.”
“There are only twenty students in your class. Factories make thousands of bricks per day.”
“I don’t know what I’ll do with this brick.”
“Let us sleep and think about it,” said father.
Miguel changed into pajamas and readied for bed.
“Suenos Amables, mi nino.”
“Suenos Amables, papa.”
“Hasta manana.”
Miguel had no idea what to do with one adobe brick. Sr. Vasquez, however, had thousands of ideas.
The next morning, he woke Miguel bright and early.
“Venga! Venga! We’re going to work.”
Miguel rode with his father to the building site. Sr. Vasquez talked to the workers before heading off in his truck again.
“Where are we going?”
“You’ll see.”
Sr. Vasquez pulled into a factory lot. They checked in at the guard’s post. The guard issued a hard hat to Miguel, just like his fathers. They walked into the factory. It was very hot inside.
“What are they doing?”
“Building bricks.”
Sr. Vasquez took Miguel on a tour of the brick factory. Cold,, wet bricks went into a blast furnace. It was fiery orange inside the blast furnace. The bricks were being cured in a matter of hours instead of several months.
Sr. Vasquez led Miguel outside. Large pallets, stacked with bricks, were lined in rows and aisles. Sr. Vasquez talked to another man in a hard hat. It was one of the sales clerks. Sr. Vasquez placed an order for several pallets of bricks.
“Are we taking them with us?”
“There will be a large truck that delivers them to the site,” replied father, “However, we are taking something back.
A forklift came with two large stone columns. They were wrapped in packing foam. The forklift operator placed the columns into the truck bed. Sr. Vasquez signed a form and away they went.
At the construction site, another forklift unloaded the columns one at a time. Sr. Vasquez cut away the packing foam. The columns were covered with intricate designs.
“These are like the glyphs at Chichen Itza.”
Sr. Vasquez nodded. “It’s a copy of the ancient Nahuatl language used by the Mesoamerican peoples centuries ago.”
“Do we speak Nahuatl?”
“Yes and no,” replied father, “Words like chocolate and tomato and coyote were originally Nahuatl words: xocolātl, xitomatl, and coyōtl. The Spanish brought their own language when the conquistadors came. Modern Mexican is a mix of Spanish and Nahuatl.”
Miguel and his father returned home for lunch. Mother prepared chicken Paella. It was also another mix of Spanish and Mesoamerican. Miguel had always loved the corn he ate, although he didn’t realize it until his trip to the Riviera Maya. In fact, he had never truly known much about where he came from. His eyes were just opening to the past, present, and future.
Las Posadas continued that night. This time, Miguel and his family were pilgrims, wandering to the new innkeeper’s house. They drank punch, enjoyed tasty snacks, danced, played, and swung at piñatas. Most were stars, but Srta. Diaz, who hosted the final party on Christmas Eve, had a donkey. That donkey was a celebration of the donkey that carried Maria and the Nino Jesus.
The Las Posadas celebration was just the same. However, the Vasquez family returned home and celebrated Nochebuena, ‘the Good Night’.
Miguel received one gift. Being the youngest, he was the first to open his gift. It was a shiny brass birdcage, just like Grandpa Juan’s rusted cage in the attic. Miguel wondered what he was going to do with an empty birdcage.
“Meego…” said Junie. She stood in the entryway from the kitchen to the living room. She held a small plastic cage. A tiny quetzal sat inside. He squaked as Miguel pressed his face against the outside.
“What’s his name?”
“He’s your bird,” said father, “You should decide.”
“Can I call him Juan?”
Sr. Vasquez nodded. “I think that’s the perfect name.”
Everyone agreed.
Miguel cupped his hands around the tiny bird as he transported him from his plain plastic crate to his new brass cage. Juan hopped around on the floor, investigating every corner of his huge cage.
On Christmas day, Miguel filled Juan’s new cage. He placed a limb from the gunbo-limbo tree through the wires, creating a perch. He placed water and birdseed pans along one side. He also placed the adobe brick in one corner.
“Perfecto!” he exclaimed.
The adobe brick now had a permanent home. The Vasquez family attended Catholic Mass on Christmas Day. Although Tiilde and Meego had vacation for the rest of the week, Sr. Vasquez had to oversee the final touches at the construction site.
On New Year’s Day, people gathered for fireworks as Sr. Vasquez, the city planner, and other important people of Mexico City dedicated the new site.
Juneta and Miguel hugged their father afterwards.
“Feliz Ano Nuevo,” greeted the children.
“Feliz Ano Nuevo, mis ninos.”
Indeed, it would be a Happy New Year. However, Miguel wondered how there could be a year better than the last.
He would just have to wait until tomorrow to find out.
Hasta Manana.