What was Payazaro doing in Ethpaña? Meeting up with his lady love and her family to celebrate Christmas and New Years together. It was definitely an experience of a lifetime and very glad and fortunate to go. My Latino Heat held up very nicely in the cold European winter. I missed being in such cool weather. Though my lips and hands got that semi-numbing tingle, it was pleasurable. I wore clothes I hadn’t touched in years! Seriously, Manzanillo is that warm and humid, even during the “winter” months. Most of the time I wear shorts and a t-shirt and still wiping a little sweat off my forehead. People want to go where it’s warm for the winter, I want to go where it’s cold. We always want what we can’t have. Ni modo.
I must admit that I was initially setting myself up not to like the Spaniards. After all, I am constantly reminded of the historical past where they raped, pillaged, conquered and colonized my indigenous ancestors. But to hate them is to hate myself for I too have Spanish blood flowing through my veins and without the conquest I probably would have never been born. My great-grandmother on my father’s mom’s side was born and spent her childhood in Spain before moving to Mexico. I don’t really know much about that part of my family because my grandmother doesn’t like to talk about it. All I know is that there was a bad breakup between her mother and father after my grandma was born and all the drama that ensued makes it a sensitive subject. Bullshit, I say! I deserve to know everything. Unfortunately, whenever I bring up the conversation with my grandmother she repeats what I already know and then changes the subject. I would get her drunk to have her tell me about this dark past, but I’m afraid it will kill her.