Two students of mine are getting married this summer, and they’ve asked me to help them with some pre-marital counseling. I’ve never done anything like that before, especially in Spanish. There’s not a lot of stuff that I can find on this sort of thing in Spanish, either. So, I’m working on creating my own questionnaire and format for counseling them. They are two really good kids, and I’m sure they’ve already talked about a lot of things. So, it shouldn’t be too difficult, I hope.
Anyway, if you have any good ideas or material, I’m more than open to hearing suggestions.
Today, we went to our local tianguis, the traveling market that comes near our neighborhood every Monday. You can buy all sorts of things at a tianguis: clothes, toys, fruits and vegetables, and, of course, pirated DVDs and CDs.
When we got there today, we walked past a stand that was selling DVDs. Right away, we both noticed that there were two cops there, looking to buy some movies. It didn’t appear that anyone was worried about being shut down or thrown into jail for selling bootlegged copies of the latest movie titles.
Today is Benito Juárez Day. Actually, Wednesday is. But it’s being celebrated today because that way it is a three day weekend (I think that got imported from US culture). Anyway, there’s no work today at the seminary or pretty much anywhere else.
Benito Juárez is considered one of the great presidents of Mexico. He was the president who helped with the separation of church and state, which in Mexico meant that the Roman Catholic Church lost some of its political power during his time. If you know anything about church history, you know that absolute power corrupts absolutely, so this was a good thing.
He’s also the president who fought for the rights of the indigenous population. During his presidency, he stopped paying the Mexican debt to some foreign countries, causing problems in foreign affairs. It actually led to the invasion of Mexico by France. A Mexican victory against France in Puebla is the victory commonly celebrated (more in the US than in Mexico City) as Cinco de Mayo, but that’s a story for another day.
Check out the story of Benito Juárez here, and enjoy the day.
Monument to Benito Juárez in downtown Mexico City.
