Talk thirty tree.
Jalapa, 20th February
- Oaxaca didn’t impress me too much.
- It cannot be that every place we see knocks us out with its beauty. There are some that are just worth seeing, as we learn more about the country and its people. Not all monuments of pre-Columbian history of Mexico are breathtaking, but they are equally important.
- I liked the distillery which produced mezcal[3] - alcohol made from the agave plant in the south of Mexico. At the bottom of each bottle there’s a bug.
- Not a bug but one of the caterpillars which feed on the leaves of agave. We know, their drink called tequila is produced only in the state of Jalisco - north of the capital.
- Often the aim of such "trips" - tourist traps – is to force tourists to shop at places that pay guides - drivers to just stop there.
- I just got enchanted seeing he shop adjacent to the distillery, where the shelves were bending under the weight of the bottles with alcohol. Right next to those shelves there was quite a big altar of Blessed John Paul II, who is worshiped in Mexico more than in his native Poland. If not much more.
- For me it's sick. Trade, commerce, alcohol and an altar at the same place. Total confusion.
- Didn’t you like the loom where with a great skill you were able to spin a piece of wool fiber?
- It was fun. Mainly for those who were watching me.
- There also was a highlight in the form of Tule tree growing in the town of Santa María del Tule[4], about 10 km from the state capital. It has the thickest trunk of the trees growing on the Earth. This was a Mexican taxodium. The tree trunk has a circumference of 36.2 m and a diameter of 11.62 m, and is estimated to be 1200 to 3000 years.
- And we again got on a bus and over big mountains, we went to Jalapa.
- Jalapa is the capital of the state of Veracruz.
- And again we met positively crazy people.
- You must remember her from Wisełka! Krystyna – a Polish graduate of cultural studies, a PhD student at Veracruz University, and her partner Juan – a Mexican sculptor and violin maker.
- Those violins of his he is sculpturing! They are pieces of art!
- Did you see? He would decorate them with charming, absolutely unique inlays which became the hallmarks of the author. Krystyna, in her turn, is a very well-known person in Jalapa and genuine authority in the field of ethnographic research of the local Indians.
- They both seem to be a great couple and they really are a pair of people dividing their time between working professionally and hand-building a house in the middle of a forest near Jalapa.
- The house is unconventional, because finished by hands of a true artist.
- They are a perfect match. They found each other after their previous life turns.
- Juan told me that having met Krystyna was a wonderful turn of fate, and that was a grand prize which met him in the second half of life. How I do understand him!
- I was under impression of Juan’s sister's hacienda, not far from the house of Krystyna and Juan’s, where we stayed and lived practically alone. With dogs, cats, a thirsty-year old parrot and a variety of other technical problems.
- Margarita, a lady in her fifties, told me briefly that after she’d raised four kids, driven away her unfaithful husband, decided to take care of herself. She took up studies in several fields, devoted herself to social and charity work, danced the fandango, and was constantly looking for her new luck. Rarely, if ever at home.
- The fact that her Volkswagen van has not yet disintegrated, confirms the incredible strength of the make! The car is thirty years old! The only binder of the car body must be the rust.
- The way how she’d change the gears, and in general Margarita’s way of driving were worth making a film! She’d perform dozens of moves to start the engine, change gears and get this bone-shaker going. She’d constantly talk at the same time. About herself, about life, about everything. In a very interesting way, with zest, in perfect, colorful language. I learned a lot listening to her Spanish.
- She keeps us in suspense, not only because of these stories. We never know when she comes back home and whether she’ll be back home for the night at all.
- I never know whether I’m supposed to feed the dogs, cats, and the old parrot. What I’m supposed to do with the food left outside the fridge. What I’m supposed to do with the big iron gate to the hacienda and the front door. It’s only we who have the keys. She always forgets to take them with her.
- No phone calls to us, no messages left for us, no information for us what we are supposed to do.
- And that’s why, in our absence, she had to break into her own house. And it was at night.
- She didn’t show up even on the day of our departure! She didn’t have the time, She was pursuing her creative ideas.
- We weren’t on the current list of her interests.
- Did I show up, at some point, on your list of interest?
- On a very short one. One person list.
- No longer had I had such a list. I went to Sweden with you wondering which one of us was braver. You, taking someone who you’d known only for a week, or I agreeing to this trip.
- We’d agreed before we left not to accelerate anything. We’d "drive" slowly.
- It was not supposed to be an express train. I wanted the events to follow slowly, because I have to confess, Przemek still held some place in my heart, which was not meant for him.
- But the express led by us suddenly accelerated. Whose brakes let go?
- The important fact is that we both wanted it. It was beautiful. I wanted it very much and I was aware that it didn’t happen accidentally.
- I remember it all very well. George Michael was singing in the background. From the album Ladies & Gentlemen. The Best of George Michael.
- From that stay in Sweden I do not remember much of what I saw in Göteborg.
- It's a nice compliment for me!
- Whereas from the current visit in the Mexican state of Veracruz I’ll remember coffee fields and the preparation of the coffee beans for roasting. That little private coffee museum was spectacular.
- For me it was the trip to a waterfall where some films were shot, including Romancing the Stone. It was at dusk, so the pictures came out badly, but you with a roll of toilet paper over the abyss looked funny.
- I had a strong cold.
- Juan commented that you needed the paper in case you crapped out of fear.
- How funny!
- For me is not funny, the situation of my Mexican-Polish friends who I’d known for a long time, from the time of their PhDs in Poland. The brothers Mauricio – an architect and Adrian Arredondo – a biologist, got their degrees in Szczecin, got married with two beautiful Polish girls, and now have lived in different parts of Mexico for many years. We’ve been friends for years, I was at the both weddings, and even the best-man at Adrian and Hania’s wedding.
- Meeting your friends was a great experience for me and a pleasure to watch how Poles (mostly women) are doing abroad. I'm very impressed with the careers the girls made.
- Unfortunately, their husbands' careers and their two brothers-in-law, strongly dependent on the political situation in Mexico. The whole great Arredondo family worked in their professions, but also they were heavily involved in the activities of the ruling party. All the brothers had high positions in the regional governments, or political positions at universities. The eldest brother Victor is (was?) a respected scientist and finally rector of the University of Jalapa. He enjoys several honorary doctorates from all around the world.
- Today another party is ruling Mexico!
- Exactly. All the brothers are out of work, frustrated and struggling to find themselves in the business world.
- Their wives are doing fine, aren’t they?
- Of course. Their wives never let themselves become dependent on their Mexican husbands. They differ here from the Mexican wives. Anna (Mauricio’s ex-wife) runs an antique shop in Jalapa and works in the archives of the university. Hania (still Adrian’s wife) runs a private music school and a kinder garden.
- They both seem very confident.
- They have their reasons. They have no complexes of immigrants. They’ve lived in Mexico for over thirty years. Familiar inside out with the Latin character of their husbands’, they never let become housewives only.
- How is Victor going to keep his residence? After all, it's a big property, with its own botanical garden, with its own section of the river and a few residences.
- I don’t think there's a financial problem. It’s a matter of the wounded ambition, loss of position, lack of power, etc.
- He is even accused of something.
- After the loss of power, there’s a chance of getting revenge on him. It’s time to get at him. To reveal all his slips, mistakes, and long-standing grievances. How come it sounds familiar to me?
[1] Mezcal
[2] Tule Mexico
[3] Mezcal
[4] Tule Mexico
