El Arte de La Vida

To give a little background, I first went to Mexico in 1999. I loved it so much that I returned in 2002 and stayed for three months. My love for the culture has grown since, and I've developed an appreciation for the food, music, art and film of Mexico. But my appreciation has seeped from exclusively Mexican to pan-Hispanic. I am even pursuing a Hispanic Studies minor along with my Arts, Media and Culture major. This summer I'm taking a Hispanic Film class, and in the Fall I'm taking Intermediate Spanish.

Last week I was in the Dallas/Ft. Worth, Texas area for my brother's wedding. His wife, my new sister-in-law, is Nicaraguan. It was so enriching to be around her family and a culture so different than mine. My life can feel so blandly American at times, although I do my best to avoid blandness. To be fair, Texas feels like a different country (and often likes to think of itself as a different country), but being around Spanish speakers and authentic Central American food was stimulating.

I took some pictures to try to document the festivities, but they don't fully capture the warmth of the weather and the warmth of the people, the fun of the music and the fun of the whole weekend. But here are some:

I loved G.'s dress because it was off-white (I dislike white wedding dresses) and it looked edible... like a pile of whipped cream. Note the fun costume on the doorman.
Delicious Tapas catering, fragrant flowers and endless sangría.
And live music! An all-girls mariachi band performed for an hour. Apparently, there is no such thing as all-girls mariachi in Mexico, but these trumpet playing, guitar strumming, belting girls were amazing entertainment and great for dancing. We also danced to Juanés.
The last morning in Texas, G.'s mom served an authentic Nicaraguan breakfast, complete with fried plantains, avocado, beans and rice and an exclusively Nicaraguan cheese.
The food was delicious, vibrant and, as La Femme told me, "It makes me embarrassed about this morning's Eggo." Or my plain toast this morning.
The whole weekend inspired me to live a more musical, more flavorful, more colorful life. And it also inspired me to quickly move somewhere warm and Hispanic where I can eat avocados fresh from the tree. Right now I'm listening to Brazilian music (although Brazil is technically Lusitanic) for continued inspiration and this evening my friend and I are watching Todo sobre mi madre by Pedro Almodóvar. (Yesterday I watched La mala educación and Mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios.)