For some reason, yesterday at Popeyes, they asked me for my name. Actually, I know why they asked. It was because they took 20 minutes to fill my order even though we were some of the only ones in the restaurant.
Anyway, they asked me my name, and I told them Dennis, with the best pronunciation I could. Dennis isn’t a very popular name in Mexico. Denise is a girl’s name, so they always look at me funny when I tell them my name.
As you can see from the picture, the girl didn’t understand me and put “Tenes.” I guess that’s close. I think I’m going to change my name to to Juan Gonzalez.
From left to right: Deborah, Josue, Kareni, Huberto (professor), Gerson, Victoria
As I posted before (click here for earlier post), we have the largest freshman class of youth ministry students in the history of the program.
We worked really hard last year to promote the youth ministry program at the Mexican Baptist Theological Seminary by going to various conferences, camps, and youth events.
While five new students may not seem like many, it is a pretty good sized class considering that our seminary welcomed 13 new freshman this year (only 8 students weren’t youth ministry students).
I’m excited about this year. We now have 14 total students studying youth ministry in Mexico City. Please keep praying for us.
A Spanish blog I read called Vivir Mexico has recently started a great series called (in English), “That’s how we are: Mexicans.”
The idea is that they are going to explore Mexicans and their culture, talking each week about an aspect of Mexican culture (they say they will explore both the good and the bad).
This week’s topic was Mothers (El Culto de La Madre (Spanish link)). Here’s some of what they had to say:
El Culto de La Madre
Mothers and the word Mother is something that is reflected in every aspect of Mexico, from religion to culture; from moral values to politics.
You can see the difference between Mothers and Fathers just by looking at the difference between Mothers’ Day and Fathers’ Day. Mothers’ Day is practically a national holiday while Fathers’ Day goes practically unnoticed.
Motherhood represents the protection, faith, and safety of always having somebody by your side regardless of what happens. Somebody will always be there to comfort you, attend to you, and will always be ready to forgive you and love you unconditionally.
To be a bad mother is the worst possible thing in Mexican society. Bad mothers are the villains of every story. This logic would also explain the controversy over the legalization of abortion, halting the possibility of being a mother.
In Mexico, you can steal, kill, kidnap, beat, and do whatever, but to abandon your children is to fall to the bottom.
The same thing applies to children. You can do anything else, but the child who abandons his mother deserves less than the devil himself, especially if the mother is elderly.
It is even said that the devil acts the way he does because he didn’t have a mother to advise him.
I look forward to this series. There are many things there that I had already noticed, but to hear it from a Mexican and to think about the implications have helped me understand the culture so I can better minister within the culture.
(Image by carf on flickr)
Maybe I’m writing this post because it’s dinnertime and I’m hungry, or maybe just because I miss Mexican food.
Either way, I thought today I would share with you my top 10 Mexican Foods (in no particular order).
My Top 10 Mexican Foods
- Tacos al pastor – a typical taco you’ll find in taquerias everywhere in Mexico. It’s pork meat marinated and garnished with pineapple, onions, cilantro, and salsa.
- Enchiladas – Janell’s favorite Mexican food is enchiladas. She likes them with green salsa, and I like “Enchiladas Suizas”, which have cheese on them.
- Chilaquiles – mostly a breakfast food, it’s hardened tortillas with salsa, onions, and (sometimes) chicken.
- Pozole – A delicious soup with pork or chicken and hominy.
- Tortilla soup – tomato based soup with strips of tortillas.
- Alambre con queso – Janell’s favorite thing to order at the taco joint, alambre is a mixture of beef, pork, cheese, and peppers that is served on a tortilla.
- Arrachera – a delicious cut of beef grilled to perfection. Sometimes, they are selling this outside the grocery store where they’ll grill it up for you.
- Tres leche cake – Super moist and tasty cake with milk poured over it.
- Flan – Flan is flan. And it’s yummy.
- Tacos de pollo – “dorados” are delicious, hard fried tacos with chicken inside.
Hungry yet? I sure am. I post often about food. Here are some videos I’ve made about Mexican food:
I read a great blog post on Pura Vida that compares Mexico City with Gotham City. It has some startling statistics in it about the city we call home, and it references another article from the New York Times about crime in Mexico City (free registration required).
Some startling facts about Mexico
- Since the end of 2006, the Calderón government has sent more than 25,000 soldiers and federal police on high-powered anti-drug “operations” to combat drug cartels.
- This year is on pace to be the bloodiest on record for Mexico’s drug war, surpassing by almost 50 percent last year’s toll of more than 2,500 deaths.
- The U.S. Congress has authorized $400 million worth of aid to Mexico for next year, including equipment and technical support for García Luna’s police.
- In a national poll taken earlier this year in Mexico, 56% of Mexicans think the cartels are more powerful than the government.
- A powerful drug cartel left a “hit list” of police chiefs and mayors on a monument to fallen police officers in February of this year. Of the 22 names on the list, 18 were assassinated within three months.
- Last year the largest confiscation of cocaine in history – 23 tons – happened in Mexico and the amount of $207 million dollars was seized all in one house (there were entire rooms filled with hundred dollar bills stacked from floor to ceiling).
Please continue to pray for Mexico. It is definitely a spiritual battle that is being waged. We know that our struggle is not against flesh and blood, and we know who ultimately wins.
Each of the statistics above represent many lives and families that are being destroyed. Mexico needs your prayers.
(Photo by: bdebaca on flickr)
We spent half a year studying Spanish in Cuernavaca when we first arrived in Mexico. We went down there this week to take Jon and Nicolle and to relive some of our memories from our time in language school. Here are some pictures from Cuernavaca, Mexico.
Click a thumbnail to see a larger image.
You can see all of our pictures from Cuernavaca in our flickr photo set.
We’ve also posted a video from the trip here.
