Teatro Alameda in Falfurrias by A. Lopez-Cadena 8-17-14 My grandmother Maria Gonzalez de Cadena, and I would got to Saturday matinees at Theatro Alameda in Falfurrias (see photo), when I was a kid. Wed watch a double feature, unheard of these days! It was usually a Mexican film with the likes of Cantinflas, or Pepe Aguilar, and another with Roy Rogers or Gene Autry. I asked grandma who she liked best, she said Roy Rogers, cause he was a gallon (cute, ruff and tumble cowboy). The Mexican films took one back to a different way of life, no doubt abuela related to this better than I, as she was born in Agualeguas Nuevo León, Mexico. Let me back up a little. A lot of Tejanos arent new arrivals. Mind you our ancestors have been going back and forth across the Rio Grande since 1800, and beyond. Antonio de la Cadena-Bullon, and many other families arrived in Santa Fe as early as 1598 with the Oñate Entrada. All these lands in the American southwest were New Spain, people have crossed over for hundreds of years. Growing up in south Texas has a particular aspect. One isnt Mexican, and Mexicans dont think of us as like them, and Anglos see us as upstarts. Back to my story, Id stay with my abuelos in Falfurrias during summer--theyre unforgettable memories. Talking to them about their life in Mexico, their customs, and their history, was for me my first understanding of where our roots were, I was 8. They never really explained why they didnt return to Mexico, all they said was my granduncle Juan Gonzalez-Gonzalez was murdered during the Mexican Revolution. They fled for their lives. We didnt feel safe in our own country, grandma said in Spanish. (Please see a photo of our ancestral cemetery in Agualeguas.) Since then Ive learned Mexicans wanted reform, a piece of the pie, so to speak. Land reform? Im not sure it happened. Carlos Salinas de Gotari, former president of a Mexico is from my grandmothers village. His family owns most of the land there. Were distant relations through the Salinas in our genealogy. Its because of abuela I speak Spanish, its part of your heritage, she once said. You learn English, but Spanish too, she once told my sister, and I in front of our parents. Guelita never learned English, she didnt need to, Falfurrias was segregated, all her neighbors spoke Spanish, and or English. It was truly an awful period of injustice in our country. Abuelo Rosendo never went with us to the movies. Id sit and translate the Roy Rogers movies. Shed punch me in the ribs, and ask, what did they say, or what happened? Shhhhh, the audience would insist, and grandmother would shhhhed them back! Before the movie started shed give me a couple of bucks and ask I get her a Butterfinger AND Baby Ruth, her favorites. Both are Swiss-owned by Nestlé today. Between shhhhhhes, munches, and elbowing we enjoyed our lives. When we did travel to Nuevo Laredo or Reynosa, wed have different kinds of candied sweets. Camotes, piña, cacahuates, mangos, old world candied fruit. Perhaps not as popular in Texas, theyre still available in Latin America, and Europe. Ive bought candied fruit like this in Venice last year, and have had them in Paris, Rome, and Madrid too. Its fancy-wrapped, perhaps much more refined, and found mostly in specialty stores. Ive been to Mexico City once, in 1988. It was a month-long trip to Mexico, and Guatemala. I also travelled to Acapulco--beautiful, Gualemala City, Tikal, Lago Atitlan, Antigua, and Chichicastenango. In Mexico, I happened to come across Dulceria de Celaya on avenida Cinco de Mayo. My mind immediately drifted back to my times with abuelita at the Alameda. The similar dulces I imagined shed had growing up in Mexico. Before Agualeguas, our ancestors lived in Zacatecas, Monterrey, Puebla, and Mexico City. I doubt shed seen anything like Dulceria de Celaya, or did she? (Enjoy the video). youtube/watch?v=-QNQqmx98Sg&sns=em
Posted on: Wed, 17 Sep 2014 19:58:18 +0000
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