My midwinter break this year consisted of a trip to see my son and his family in Aguascalientes, Mexico. My time in Mexico provided some welcome relief from what has become one of Michigan’s most brutal winters in a long time. (See The Winter of Our Discontent). My flights down and back were an adventure because of the weather. On the way down, the plane for my flight needed to be de-iced three times, so we were late leaving. As a result, Several of us missed connecting flights. Fortunately, later planes were available. On the way back, the problems were caused by weather in both Chicago and Kalamazoo. After a number of delays and gate changes I returned to Kalamazoo only to find my vehicle buried in snow. While I was gone and since I returned the polar vortex has continued to plague much of the Northern U.S. east of the Mississippi River.
My son works for Calsonic Kansei and has moved from the Detroit, Michigan, area to mid-Tennessee, and most recently to Aguascalientes as his job required. When he and his family lived over by Detroit, I could drive over in the morning, have lunch with them and drive back to Kalamazoo in time for dinner. When they were in Tennessee, I would drive down on a Friday, spend the weekend with them, and drive back home on Monday. The flight to Aguascalientes took longer than the drive to Tennessee. Fortunately, I am a good airplane sleeper and was able to spend much of my flying time sleeping.
Although Aguascalientes is a major manufacturing center, with several international companies having plants there, it is not so well-known as many other cities in Mexico. The first Mexican cities that come to mind are usually Mexico City and the popular vacation towns (including Puerto Vallarta, Acapulco, and Cancún) and the border towns (such as Tijuana and Matamoros). Aguascalientes, usually referred to as “Aguas” by the locals, was founded in 1575. Boston, one of the older cities in the U.S. was founded in 1630. St. Augustine, the oldest city in the States was founded in 1565. It is, however, easier to see “history” in both Boston and Aguas than it is in St. Augustine.
In Aguas, most of the central city, including some magnificent old churches, shows its age. If you’ve driven in Boston or other old cities, you’ll know what I mean when I say that I was glad that my daughter-in-law was doing the driving. Especially in the central city, the streets are old and narrow. Away from the center of the city, the streets are wider, but the traffic tends to be fast and furious. In spite of that, I did not see many accidents. Most of the modern neighborhoods are in gated communities with private security. I didn’t see any evidence of a high crime rate and wondered whether all the security was really necessary or whether it was intended to provide employment opportunities.
My son and daughter-in-law were fluent in English and Japanese before the move, and my grandson and granddaughter were working on fluency in both languages. They are now all learning Spanish as well. This is a very good thing, as there’s no better way to increase intelligence than learning a second language. We often forget that many of our ancestors, including the “Founding Fathers” of the U.S. knew several languages. Although the Internet has brought much of the world closer together, knowing a second language provides insight into the way members of another culture think that isn’t necessarily evident in Web pages designed for English readers.
When you know only one language, it is easy to get trapped in “cultural monovision,” the tendency to think that one’s own culture sees things correctly, and those who see things another way must be wrong. I’ve met a number of people in the States who think that what we call “Mexican food” is what Mexicans eat all the time. That’s not the case, of course, and I knew that from previous trips to Mexico. One of the things I didn’t know is how many people I would see commuting to and from work by bicycle or walking. That may be peculiar to Aguas, as the other places I’ve been in Mexico were resort communities, where I didn’t have much opportunity to observe people coming and going in their daily routines. According to recent reports, obesity in Mexico exceeds that in the U.S., but I saw no evidence of that in Aguas.
Those of us in the States tend to think of English as the “universal” language, but our general sense that “everyone” speaks English is not correct. While many Mexicans have some English, only a few are truly bilingual. Although I had studied Spanish in both high school and college, I have retained very little of what I learned. Fortunately, the people I encountered in Mexico were patient and understanding. Between my limited Spanish and their limited English, we were able to communicate the essentials. And, also fortunately, the long-forgotten can and does return with exposure and desire.
While I was there, we took a day trip to Zacatecas, a nearby city also known for its history and for its many churches. Zacatecas started as a mining camp in the mid-sixteenth century. Much of the landscape through which we drove on the way there and back reminded me of the rolling hills of Central California. I don’t know what happened to the silver mines that were responsible for the founding of Zacatecas, but the area seems mainly agricultural now. Two things to remember if you ever find yourself driving through Mexico: First, distances, speed limits, and bridge heights are all posted in the metric system. If you see a 90 on a speed-limit sign, it means 90 kilometers an hour, which is the same as 60 miles an hour. And second, if you’re tempted to speed, be aware that Mexico controls speed on streets and highways with very serious speed bumps. If you hit one at highway-speed, you’ll be launched into space.
Meanwhile, back in Michigan, I discovered that winter was still in full swing. We seem to be setting records this year for snow, number of single-digit days, and ice cover on the Great Lakes. At this point, it is hard to tell what spring and summer might bring. In Michigan, we worry about our fruit crop, especially blueberries, cherries, and apples. Fruit trees and bushes are weather sensitive and require what we might consider a “normal” transition from winter to spring and then to summer. A frost at the wrong time or too hot too soon can wreak havoc on fruit crops. In California, the concern is how the drought will affect fruits and vegetables grown there.
As I considered what seem to be our increasingly unusual weather patterns, more than once I have thought about the old TV commercial in which we are told, “It is not nice to fool Mother Nature”. Humans may still have lessons to learn about who (or what) is really in charge. We are fond of declaring war on things we don’t like: We have wars on cancer, drugs, poverty, terrorism, and all sorts of stuff. What people tend to forget about wars is that they have no winners. The “winner” is the side that looses the least. Our relationship with “Mother Nature,” our natural environment, has been a “war.” When we didn’t like what rivers were doing, we built dams and otherwise altered nature in ways we thought were superior. Joni Mitchell was the first to warn us that we have paved paradise and put up a parking lot.
Perhaps it time for us to remove the parking lot and bring back paradise.
