1) We protect what we fall in love with

This summer I was vagabonding in Manhattan. After a dance class I went to buy a sweet pastry.

As usual the store was being attended by Mexicans (three).

They spoke me in English 
 -"wat duya wantt miss"

I answered (in Spanish)  
- "err, hola!" (I ALWAYS do this)

they grinned: 
 -"hola!, de donde eres?! / hi! where do you come from?"

I grinned back: 
 - "de Mexico!, de donde mas? / from Mexico, where else?!"

One of them looked at me carefully, not that smiley:

- "ah si? / really?, you don't look Mexican"

I was about to pay, and this same guy, the not so smiley one said to me with serious eyes:

"Well, you are in vacations isn't?, hmmm... is weird to see a Mexican in New York in vacations, isn't?"

His friends started to get nervous

- "I wonder when I am going to have a vacation like you?"

He was staring at me coldly, and we all got tense, but I knew what he was doing.  I try to talk back and try to defend myself, to let him know that I wasn't rich, that I work hard, that I got a cheap airplane ticket, that I had friends over here and...but... what could I say?, I am lucky no matter what, instead I duck my head and thought:

-c'mon let it out, I know you need to do this... I won't go away, I will stay and listen to you-

"I should charge you more" he said acidly. His friends' faces were incredulous of what he was saying. I knew what he felt: resintimiento. I could see him leaving his little town in Mexico, leaving his family, working all day long for years, non stop, rain or shine, and sending money and missing Mexico bad, and I really REALLY understand him.

- "you are one of those Mexicans that can have a vacation" he gave me my change

(he didn't charge me more)

- "because I will never have a vacation like you" he stared at me in silence, maybe waiting for me to insult him.

I didn't know what to do without offending him. I really wanted to let him know I was sorry without triggering more resentment. I really didn't know what to do.  I was just standing there like a stupid... tourist.

One of his friends, trying to soften things, asked me what was my profession. With a week voice, I told him that I was a dancer. I try to smile gently, and timidly I left the store feeling strangely ashamed.

Already in the subway, I thought that of all the Mexicans that he could say this to, he found (maybe not the only one) but the one who is aware of the tough life he is having; he found the one Mexican that has a project to dance for EVERYBODY, and the one mexicana who will understand things better than himself (maybe).

I thought: Maybe THIS is a SIGN!

I felt more happy in the subway, I kept mind-toying with plans of how to expand our project in New York. I felt so much better that I decided to return back the next day and tell him about the project I was working on and that I would love to dance for him and his friends and that I really understand him from de bottom of my heart!.

* you won't believe this, but the problem of vagabonding is that you really don't pay attention to the street numbers (I want to think this) because I couldn't find that store ever again. (weird)*

That night and the next and the next night I pray (I beseech) that every human in this world can have a vacation.

But especially this man.

I wonder, how is it that Mexico has so much "poverty" when we have the richest man in the world?

We protect what we fall in love with.

How do we fall in love with the unfair, the not so lucky, the resented one?

This video is our first performance at the Mexican Consulate in San Francisco, at the peak hours of emigration paper work.  This past October 2011.

We are dancing a piece called "Piruli" which means: candy.

(we just show up, we opened a space to dance and people were like... huuum...QUE PASA?)

Thank you so much to our friends at the San Francisco Mexican Consulate, you are doing such a good a work! You are something different and you know that.  Gracias Marimar.

Good morning and running with a pair of new legs.

I woke up again (yeiiii!)
we are having  late late night rehearsals
til 12am.
I woke up very late this morning
happy, cozy, warm, con suavesito mood
(a cocoon wrap up with coconut smelly blankets)
playing with my imagination my favorite dreams
and
planing bombastic strategies for life and work.

about six things I'm absolute sure:

• I need to buy socks
• The more you focus in your own life, in the magic of your life...the happy you are.
• There is always this point where things are manifesting fast (we are living this point)
• I feel more confident, invaded with calm. I trust. 
• Christmas is coming and I hate Christmas. I need... to ...change... this.
• I found a photo of this great artist named Aimee Mullins, she doesn't have legs,  yet she is a model, an actress, a motivational speaker, a fast runner.

When I saw this photo I instantly identified myself.  

This is how immigrants feel, we suffered an invisible amputation of the image of  "one-self";

we are running behind a new identity that we so badly need to adapt, to belong and to be accepted.

No matter how rich, how poor, how much you know or how much you've studied, this is a fact

that we  live everyday when we become an "outsider, a pioneer an alien".

Even if we go back to our countries of origin, we do not belong there anymore, we are (irreversibly) a bridge between borders.

Thank you Aimee Mullins, what a spectacular, free, powerful, unstoppable, fearless state of mind you have.

You are ONE OF THE MOST INSPIRING BEINGS I'VE EVER SEEN!!!!!!!

G r a c i a s

:D

n

note:
     whenever you gotta take decisions, try to make them all wrap up in security, cozy, warm, suavesito
calm position. clean and after a good rest.

Fantasia Mexicana, Episode No.2 "Blue Burritos and Cucumber Dream Manifesto"

I was talking with my friend, who arrive to USA when he was a little kid, he had to jump across the border with his  mom and siblings. They tried around ten times before succeeding. 
And I asked him,
Of all the works you have done, which was the most difficult?
He said: "not peeking oranges, not working at the factories 12hrs per day, not cleaning toilets, not this, not that... but harvesting cucumbers".
Happen to be that cucumbers have tiny microscopic thorns that make your hands inflamed no matter if you use gloves, plus you are under the hot sun all day in your KNEES.
“i would not wish this job even on my worst enemy” my friend said.

 I painted this blue donkey, this blue burrito in 1994. At that time I didn’t know that in this world, there is a very small percent of people that have the chance to receive an education

The painting is a story about “Celestino, y la Dama” (the little blue burrito and the lady).

Celestino worked in  a circus show having to carry a heavy lady on his back, he was sad. He didn’t know that he was the main attraction, and that the lady wouldn’t have a show with out him.

What would you do, if you went to another country (or another planet) and you find out that 90% of times you meet people from your country they are washing dishes, cleaning toilets, peeking oranges, harvesting cucumbers?. They have the worst and the hardestestest of the jobs in society. What would you do if you were a simple dancer? What would you Do?

....I’m sure you would create some Fantasia Mexicana.

Fantasia Mexicana is about bringing a gift of dignity to brave people.

We’ll present a series of performances, at the heaviest hours at the Mexican Consulate in San Francisco (when immigrants have been waiting in lines for hours, waiting for assistance). Each performance will explore the organic gap between sophisticated scenic language, dance fusion and music interpreted with aerial dance (fabrics and harness), modern dance and live painting. Highlighting the power that is found within the Mexican ancestral art, cosmology, nature, colors and pyramids.

Imagine the face of the people when they’ll watch us dance?

*

  *

     *

Cucumber Dream Manifesto:

*We love cucumber.    *We are full of gratitude with those who harvest (.anything.) around the WORLD. *We believe blue burritos are linchpins. *We are not looking for who is wrong. We are not left nor right. *We are not sectarians nor patriotic. *We respect all faiths and laws, yet, we honor all those whom have risked their life looking for a better future. *We give unforgettable gifts. *We deliver irreversible inspiration. *We celebrate harsh, severe, tough, rough work. *We create adrenalineque cosmic moments. *We are proffessional human beings. *we are GIFTERS. *We are artists. *We are JAGUARS!! *we’ll make your corazon GRUARR. (period).

:)

This weekend, 20th and 21st Agosto.

go go go!

The Tea Dancers / Ballet de la Compasión

(i've heard that we'll have an after party on Saturday, welcome if you want to stay, and bring your grandpas!).

and remember, no matter where you are in this planet, if you look down, there will be always an amazing, magic blue "someone" making life easier.

mucho happy, mucho love.

(and mucho cucumber!)

:D

n