Spanish

Can you live in New Mexico without speaking/reading Spanish?  Sure you can, but you'd be missing out on much of the culture and much of what is going on around you.  The experience of Abq is greatly enhanced by knowing some Spanish.  Sadly, I took several years of French in high school and college, so I had to start from scratch when I moved here.  I am sorry to say that my brain is much less flexible than it was 30 years ago when I soaked up French like a sponge.  I'm still coming up with French words and phrases whenever I try to speak or think in Spanish, but I don't intend to give up!

Spain colonized this area and land grants were given by the Spanish king in the late 1600's and the 1700's.  After the Mexican War of Independence in 1821, the Mexican government awarded additional land grants.  The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo which ended the Mexican-American War in 1848, specified that the U.S. would honor the Spanish and Mexican land grants.  Ultimately, the U.S. did not honor all of them, and there are groups in New Mexico that are still fighting to claim land grants from those times, tracing their heritage back to the royalty of Spain.  New Mexico didn't become a state until 1912, the 47th state in the union. 

It's hard to explain the ubiquity of Spanish to my New York and New England friends who haven't been here.  For one thing, I couldn't pronounce anyone's name until I learned Spanish pronunciation rules.  The first day I worked as a substitute teacher, I was in for Mr. Trujillo.  When I told the principal who I was there to sub for, she said, "You're not from here, are you?"  I have since learned that Trujillo is a very common name here (like Smith) and is pronounced Troo-hee-yo.  One of the most common first names for girls at my school is Yarely, also spelled Ydali.  I have at least five students with that first name.
The parents and secretaries and many of the teachers in my schools speak Spanish, so when I'm in the main office I never know what's going on unless I ask.  We say The Pledge of Allegiance twice every morning; once in English and once in Spanish.  Many signs in the city are bilingual, but some are only in Spanish.  And lots of jobs require you to be bilingual. In the grocery store and other public places, I hear many conversations in Spanish. 

A city bus.  Spanish only.

Dresses for the traditional 15th birthday celebration.

Restaurant.

Park rules.

Church

If you have a plan for your phone, why not for your health?

La clase de Español visita el mercado.

This semester I have been attending a Spanish class hosted by the music studio where I teach part-time.  The class is on Monday and Wednesday, but since I teach lessons on Wednesdays I have only been able to go to the Monday class.  I have enjoyed it immensely and I feel as though it has helped me with comprehension and pronunciation, in addition to making me a bit less self-conscious about using my limited vocabulary with my kids at school.  This week instead of meeting at the studio as usual, we had a field trip to a Spanish Market on the West side. 

 It is about the size of a supermarket.  On one end there are places to buy prepared foods, cafeteria-style, and there are tables with benches where you can sit and eat.  Then there is a large area for produce, and aisles of dry goods just like you would expect at the supermarket.  The market sells a lot of produce that you would find in Mexico, and lots of Mexican brands of packaged foods.  It also sells many of the same foods that you would find at the supermarket, but with Spanish labels. 

We explored the restaurant offerings first.  La Maestra, Lisa, helped us order our food (en Espanol) and we sat down to eat and go over the worksheet she had prepared for us.

Frijoles y arroz sin quesa (beans and rice, no cheese).

Tamale Fresa (strawberry tamale!  yummy dessert!)

Our worksheet was a scavenger hunt of sorts, arranged by aisle.  We were given the Spanish names and we had to find the food item, translate it, and write down the price.  After we ate, we set off to explore. 

Salsa bar and Juices.

A juice for whatever ails you! 

The fresh ingredients for the juices were displayed on the counter and the "bartender" would make your drink in a juicer while you watched.

Dried chiles.

 I only moved across the U.S. and I had to find different brands of peanut butter and coffee because the ones I liked are not available in New Mexico.  I can only imagine how great it must be for someone from Mexico or another Spanish speaking country to be able to find these imports!  It might make one a little less homesick.

At one point in the search, none of us could find an item on Lisa's list.  She asked a man who was stocking shelves (en Espanol) and he replied, "I'm sorry, my Spanish isn't that good."  LOL!  Everyone else that we spoke to seemed to be a native Spanish speaker.  Seeing us, one woman at the cafeteria started to speak to us in English, but La Maestra explained that we were una clase de Espanol, so she switched back (but didn't slow down, much to my dismay, so Lisa had to repeat everything she said muy despacio). 

Here are some of the types of produce that I couldn't identify.  One of these days I'd like to go back and buy some of them, then look up how to prepare them and have a tasting party!

The experience was lots of fun, and if you come visit, we can add El Mercado to our list of places to see!

Wind

People here say that spring is their least favorite season because of the wind.  Now that I'm working on the West side, I understand that position a bit better although I think I'll always enjoy spring overtaking winter, leaves on the trees, flowers blooming, and temperatures warming.
     We live close to the mountains and there are trees in our neighborhood, so we don't suffer the worst of the wind.  But on the West side where I teach, the terrain is very flat.  In Albuquerque, any land that is not irrigated, except for the narrow bosque along the river, is dusty, sandy desert.  So the wind gets whipping across this flat desert and creates dust and sand storms.  Very often I go for a walk at lunch time, but when it's very windy I just can't.  The first time it happened I tried not to wimp out, but I couldn't breathe and I couldn't see and then a rock hit me in the head!  I was the only person outside, so I took the hint and fled to my room.  The kids with asthma (I estimate 10% of my students) have to be kept indoors during recess when there are air quality warnings due to an excess of coarse particulates.  Because my school consists of a collection of buildings and trailers, the kids have to go outside -- the gym is a separate building, the library is a separate building, I teach in a trailer, and many of the 3rd, 4th and 5th grade classrooms are in trailers.  The kindergarten classrooms are in a building of their own, separate from all those others and from the cafeteria.  By the time the kids get to my portable, three are wheezing and two have something in their eyes...  it is no fun.
     Driving is also no fun on windy days.  Tumbleweed is large and scary when it comes rolling across the highway, and you can't swerve if there's heavy traffic, so you just hit it and it sort of explodes.  If you're lucky, it won't scratch your car.  Stephen saw a road sign the other day that read, "VISIBILITY MAY BE 0."   Driving home from the studio at dusk on Central Ave. (Route 66) the wind buffets the car, the dust obscures your view, and garbage flies around the street.  Add that to the crazy people that come out at sunset, and you have a very tense commute.  One day I was driving Stephen's truck and the wind was so strong that I couldn't open the door to get out when I stopped at the grocery store.  Grocery carts were blowing all over the parking lot, running into parked cars and tipping over.
     We were walking in the open space behind our house one day when we saw the wind start to pick up West of us.   This is just the beginning.

Every day isn't like this, or I would share the general opinion of spring.  Fortunately, there are many beautiful days as well.  But here's a typical spring day in my front yard (and remember, we're somewhat sheltered).

And then there's the red dust that settles on everything.  I took this photo in my portable at school just a couple days after I cleaned this area.

 And... our I blew away.