Sunday, May 29, 2011

There is nothing I find more exciting than.....

There is nothing I find more exciting than.....
finding the answer to something I don’t know
May 29, 2011
By: Gina Roman


For many years I’ve struggled with a very minor health problem which has been treated but not one single medication has helped so as I type, I’m doing a Google search of how and why this issue originated and how it can be prevented; one of the most fulfilling things in life is help oneself plus help others at the same time. This issue, a tooth ache and “sarcopenia.” (Sarcopenia derives from Greek roots, "sarx" meaning flesh and "penia" meaning loss - which means the loss of muscle fiber and coordination as the result of aging and the lack of movement; most runners develop sarcopenia at some point after wearing their muscles and joints out when running on cement), have been my Achilee’s hill; as a health aware individual these issues stress me out majorly but they are always left on the back burner because of a million excuses but this summer when things slow down a bit, I will take action and emancipate my body from all the pain and uncomfort it’s been through all these years.

Although as of February first I started a rather slow process of giving up a few bad habits such as chewing gum EVERY Day as I only aggravated my tooth ache, May first was the landmark for some HUGE changes that I talked about earlier in the year when I posted “Rules for Being Human.” One of those decisions was to give up meat for good, or at least for a long time – the reason being is because I want to challenge myself and see how much discipline my body is able to withhold.

I was reading a book about veggie/vegan lifestyle and I was disgusted and felt EXTREMELY guilty as I learned about all the downsides of consuming meat and all the unecessary torture we put animals through.
Most of the time my main focus is my outer shell, I nurture my body with the most liberating experiences in life; exercise and a healthy diet….. the internal aspect is always forgotten though so I have to find a balance. Lately I’ve been thinking about the holistic and spiritual aspects and what needs to be done to improve that area. In order to feel better internally and externally, we have to equalize every single aspect of our existence and avoid falling into monotony.

That is exactly how I’ve felt lately……For the last couple of weeks this tedious monotony has been striking me but the answer is lying in my grip that’s why there are a few projects to be done no later than this year. But before doing that, I’ve been forcing myself to make more time to read, to write and to rest.

Just last weekend when I posted I was feeling a little annoyed and overwhelmed because it seemed as if life was just about work, work, work but I was wrong. We can always squeeze in a little more if we really make an effort so this weekend I am feeling more refreshed.

So now that my mind is more refreshed I’ll concentrate on planning. Strategizing and planning always lead to many questions and every night when I lay restlessly in bed I question many things. Ever since I was a child I’ve always had this undaunted curiosity. “There is nothing I find more exciting than picking a Question that I don’t know the answer to and embarking on a quest for answers. It’s deeply satisfying to climb into the boat, we never know what we’ll find until we get there. Jim Colins in “Good to Great.”

So while I’m on this quest to find out the answers to my pain and freeing myself from it, I am also on a journey to find answers to a million things, such as; why do people in México say “salud” when someone sneezes? Why is a thumb up a sign of good, or approval?

With these questions in mind, I will head straight to bed and read some more so I can increase my knowledge, yet I don’t Intend to increase my knowledge in any way; my only attempt is try to lessen my ignorance and share my thoughts with the world. No estudio más por saber más, sino por ignorar menos.” Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz.

Sunday, May 22, 2011

The Struggle is yet to Begin

The Struggle is yet to Begin
May 22, 2011
By: Gina Roman

The cause of my all day-lasting migraine must’ve either been the heat, the lack of sleep or the full moon last Sunday. Monday I woke up feeling like if a train had ran over me. All these mixed emotions were stirring inside me and as much as there is always something to do, I couldn’t help and fight melancholy because the most important little man in my life left to England.

I dropped off my brother and my nephew Alex at the airport on Monday night. Right before picking them up I went to a casting to work at Expo Belleza where I worked as a demo girl three years ago. There I was sitting thinking, “what am I doing here” I am so not into this anymore. I don’t like the vibes of plastic, makeup, high maintenance and superficial people. In the end I ended up telling my friend (the one who called me to go to the casting) that I was not up for doing it this year. I figured I’m getting too old plus that it is not my scene and there are more important priorities to set.

Tuesday was also a very hectic day as I’d had an awful Tooth ache since Sunday but I neglected to go to the dentist until I couldn’t bear the pain as I usually do. So I rushed to get checked, then I had to drive a colleague to the Tecnologico Superior de TLRDT to show him how to get there, to give him a run down of the school, to introduce him to the teachers and so forth. Coming back I realized that my fridge was empty and so I stopped and got some groceries.

By the time I got home it was about 9, then there were emails to reply, bags of groceries lying there, staring at me, demanding to be put away. And so the clock ticked to 10:00 o’clock when a a very close friend of mine called me. We had a long chat and she was telling me how I always demand too much of myself because I mentioned that I hadn’t accomplished enough in life. There are times when I don’t absorbe what people tell me but that night, I took in every single syllable she said and her words made me so happy that the next day I woke up feeling like I hadn’t felt in a LONG time.

(Wednesday, Thursday and Friday were just as overwhelming and on top of that, most of the time I only manage to squeeze in about five or six hours of sleep).
I guess pushing ourselves can be good and bad……One of the reasons why I always push myself and strive to be a better person is because I started doing many things late, or much later than many people. So that makes me believe in struggle and to maximize the power of “me.”

Many times I don’t want to even sit down for a minute to relax because I feel as if it were lost time but today and yesterday exhaustion caught up and even though there were a million things to do, a part of my days were spent in bed reading and napping.
I thought of how much I miss reading. Before I managed to read one book a month and now I can’t even manage to finish one book in 3 months! I figured that the time I used to read before, now it is used to write but I really resent that so just like I set a goal to write every Sunday, I am very determined to make time to read.
I’ve never been the sluggish type to sit in front of tv for endless hours, I love Keeping myself busy and doing productive things, in fact I just got back to the library project that was left behind a few months ago because of the lack of effort, communication and motivation.

This thought always pops in my mind, “if I were doing this and that and many things I would be much happier because I would feel a lot more fulfilled as a woman.” Although it takes me forever to get things done sometimes, I still do everything I’ve wanted with all my heart but I will always feel that it will NEVER be enough because there is so much to do and learn that it always feels as if I were in this endless race with time and getting caught up with knowdledge and goals to accomplish.

What many people don’t understand though is that every single stage in our life is about starting all over again and accepting all the changes, being born, becoming a toddler, learning to walk, learning to talk, to potty train and discovering the world, leaving babyhood behind, becoming a child, embracing adolescence, going to college and university and starting a career, becoming an adult, discovering love and getting married, forming a family, becoming a senior citizen, expiring.

It is exactly the way Cypress Hill states it in “Armada Latina. “La Lucha Recien empieza.” The struggle is just beginning.
So giving up is NOT an option as every day we approach is a new beginning, the struggle is yet to begin, and there are a million ways to change our lives for better.

Sunday, May 15, 2011

“La Chingada and Sexland”

“La Chingada and Sexland”
May 16, 2011
By: Gina Roman



Two years ago when I gave life to my blog my writing was very sporadic, random and erratic as I lacked self-discipline and motivation. Now when I look back to November of 2010 when I started posting every week – sometimes twice a week, I think of how there will always be something to write about and share with the world that sometimes I wish there were more time to write; especially since the beginning of 2011, when there hasn’t been one single Sunday when I haven’t looked forward to sitting down and getting down to the needy greedy. I wanted to get writing to the level of my workouts, to a point where I could say, “writing to me is like breathing, I wouldn’t be able to pull through without it." writing is something I’ve always longed for as it makes me whole and it complements the woman I am now.

Every single day at every single moment, while I’m working out, when I’m teaching, conversing with someone, when I’m doing a translation or teaching,even the clothes that I wear and the objects that I carry, it is very exciting to absorbe and process all the thoughts and ideas from my surroundings because when I least expect it a writing topic comes up.

Right now at this precise moment I think and the more I reflect, the more amazed I get and realize how much knowledge I lack of my surroundings of my culture, my community, of the world and the universe, of myself and the more I think about how much knowledge I lack, the more ignorant I feel. That is one of the reasons why I love to manifest myself in writing and as I express my toughts, I watch as my fingers type. Every second I get more amazed as I observe the way each word creates a meaning and the meaning creates a purpose and the way the purpose creates an action and how that action creates a destiny and how each human being creates their own destiny. As for me that destiny is writing.

Now there isn’t a single drop of skepticism that I was meant to be a writer and I’d always wanted to give more life to my writing so I slowly have done so. In fact, I am in total agreement with this quote by Ayn Rand in the foreword of “The Fountainhead.” “I want to see, real, living, and in the hours of my own days, that glory I create as an illusion. I want it real, I want to know that there is someone, somewhere who wants it, too. Or else, what is the use of seeing it, and working and burning oneself for an impossible vision? A spirit, too, needs fuel as it can run dry.”

Among my list of “must haves,” I NEVER leave my house without my running shoes, my bottle of water, my timer, my gym bag, my notebook to jot down writing ideas, a good book to read, my radio (in case an interview comes up), my camera. Although these objects may not symbolize anything to many people they mean the world to me because they are my most powerful tools and official seals that mark my essence in this world.
As we speak about my surroundings that give me ideas and motivate me to write, about two weeks ago I had an interesting conversation in one of my classes about funny city names in Mexico and in other countries. I don’t remember exactly how we got started but I mentioned the fact that my sister in law lives a few kilometers away from a small town called Middlesex in England. We always like to tease her and tell her that she’s from Sexland.

When I was a child, I was very fortunate to grow up between the majic and beauty of two cultures. Among many multicultural events, I grew up on Punky Brewster and "El Chavo del 8.” There was an interesting character, “Jaimito el cartero,”(Jaimito the mailman) who was from this small town called “Tangamandapio.”
Little did I know that this small municipality is very real and is located in the northwest part of Michoacan!

It is always intriguing to know people’s names, last names and city names because when you think you’ve heard it and seen it all, something more ackward comes up.
That day I learned that there is a ranch called “La Chingada” outside of San Juan de Los Lagos in Jalisco. People also say that there is a another ranch with the same name in Colipa Veracruz It is hilarious because “vete a la chingada,” means go to hell. So next time I go to “La Chingada,” I hope people don’t think I’m going to hell.
Next time I will do a run down of funny city and town names in Mexico so we can get a good laugh.

Sunday, May 8, 2011

Cinco de mayo


Cinco de mayo
May 8, 2011
By: Gina Roman




To reminiscence about 5 de mayo is to dig deep down to the true origin of this specific holiday. To this day many people are left with a huge question mark on their heads because the majority of Latinos and Mexicans and the rest of the population always seem to get Independence Day (Celebrated on Septemeber 16) and 5 de mayo mixed up.
I won’t get into depth with this holiday but what catches my attention is that 5 de mayo is more celebrated in the U. S. People go out in the streets flashing their Mexican flags, they go out for a drink with their friends or family, they carry small green, white and red flag shaped pins.
What’s funny though is that here in Mexico not a single soul celebrates this holiday. Other than the fact of school being out, everything else is pretty normal. In fact I had a very normal day… I’m trying to think where I was on 5 de mayo. Oh yes! I met a good friend of mine for breakfast who is very eager to learn English and she wants to start meeting with me more often so we can practice. After that I went to meet a very demanding client that I did a translation for. After making ten thousand changes and printing it four times, he was quite content with the work. Then I came home and carried on with my work as usual.

The night after 5 de mayo I talked to one of my three best lifetime friends and she was indeed under the impression that Independence Day takes place on 5 de mayo. She said that when people ask her why this holiday is so important, she replies that it’s because it is Independence Day. I wasn’t surprised so I decided to play a joke on her. I said, next time someone asks tell them that Mexico and whoever you want, fought for a kilo de tortillas but the reason why they had such a tough confrontation was because this wasn’t just any kilo de tortillas, it was a “special” kilo de tortillas because it was hand made on a tortillera.
That’s why this holiday has been so important ever since. She was laughing so hard that she couldn’t stop.

Celebrating Mother’s Day in Mexico

Celebrating Mother’s Day in Mexico
May 8, 2011
By: Gina Roman
(Article originally written for the May 15, 2009 issue of “The Lake Chapala Review”)



This was an unusual Mother’s Day, but it is fit in my own family, traditions and life perfectly as I am Mexican American and most years it’s confusing, deciding which day to celebrate our mother. The U. S and Canada always celebrate Mother’s Day on the second Sunday in May which coincided with May 10 – always Mother’s Day in Mexico, no matter what day of the week it falls on.

Mother’s Day was first celebrated in Mexico when Rafael Alducín, a jounalist for the newspaper El Excelsior gathered a large group of influential people back in 1922 to select the date for the recognition of Mothers and all the work they do.
While Mother’s Day is celebrated differently in various countries, all the traditions serve the same purpose; to honor Mathers as the core, strength and support of families.

On May 10, Mexicans shower their Mathers with gifts and tenderness, usually spending the entire day with them, giving them special attention, taking them to fancy restaurantes or other lovely places, presenting them with beautiful gifts, bouquets and cards.

We even gather early in the early morning to awaken our Mothers, grandmothers, wives, aunts, sisters, cousins with a serenade – with a trio of mariachis if we can – to open the celebration of the most important and admired person in the family. It’s most exciting when we can have mariachis – the musicians Dresde in charro suits – the tradicional costume of the horsemen and of our state. This impressive serenade of songs about Mathers and the romantic tunes about women given even more emphasis to this most Mexican of holidays, steeped in Mexico’s culture.

Even in the business world, women and moms, are remembered on Mother’s Day when some companies hire mariachis, gather all the Mathers into one room so they can enjoy the enchanting voices of the mariachis, along with the cake, flowers and balloons that celebrate their day.

When hiring mariachis is not within the Budget, groups of friends get together and make a circuit singing to one mother and then another until all the mom’s have been honored. They choose a starting point at 4 or 5 a. m. on May 10 – sometimes at 3 a. m., if the list of Mothers and grandmothers is long. At each house they begin y singing the traditional songo f the serenade, “Las Mañanitas” which goes like this:
“Estas son las mañanitas que cantaba el Rey David, a las muchachas bonitas, se las cantamos así despierta, mi bien despierta, mira que ya amanecío. Ya los pajaritos cantan, la luna ya se metío.”
(These are the little morning songs that were sung by King David, to those beautiful girls, we come to sing to like this, Wake up my dear, wake up, look here is the dawn already the little birds are singing and the moon is already gone).
For those who are not acquainted with this custom, it may seem strange to awaken our hard-working Mathers so early on their special day. Most Mathers are very flattered that their children made a big effort to get up at the crack of dawn to sing just for them an dto see that these traditins are still alive in such an accelerated world and that the children are willing to carry it on.

This day is given such high importance that schols throughout the country put together special programs with children presenting skits and traditional dances and Raffles for the Mathers. Many government employees are entitled to take the day off to be honored by their family or so they can be with and honor their own Mathers.
That’s why the Virgin of Guadalupe is called “Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe.” She’s not only the mother of Jesus Christ, she told Juan Diego when she appeared in 1531 that she was his mother and the mother of Mexico as a Catholic country. Also known as “Patroness of the Americas.” She is the most popular religious and cultural image, the focus of an extensive pilgrimage and the force that holds Mexicans together.
On the December 12 Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe many people gather around her, bringing her roses, bowing to her feet and showing her love and respect in numerous ways – the same way we do with our family Mathers on their special day in May. Also like our Mothers, the Virgin of Guadalupe is known to be very miraculous; she’s the one to grant all her children’s wishes. As a woman and a mother, she’s very understanding and caring, overlookig all our sins and wrongdoings – just like Mamá.

Mother’s including the Virgin, are held in such high esteem that the fastest way to enrage a Mexican is to insult their mother – even as a joke. There is a whole section of Mexican Spanish that is reserved for times when Mexicans want to offend each other – sometimes in jest and sometimes seriously. They use profanity such as, “madrecita, (lessening the significance of the mother), “ni madres” (no way), “no tener madre” (don’t be so cruel), “estar hasta la madre” (to be totally fed up), etc. Of course there are also much more offensive expressions – ones that it’s best to find out on your own.

Sunday, May 1, 2011

tatau

"tatau”

May 1st, 2011

By: Gina Roman

http://ya-somos-tapatios-wey.blogspot.com/2011/05/tatau.html


The word “tatoo,” originates from the Tahitian word “tatu,” or “tatau” meaning “to mark something.” There are different similar speculations according to research which in the end coincide. Another major derivation comes from the Polynesian word “ta,” which means striking something. Another version states that the word tattoo was borrowed from a Dutch word, “taptoe,” meaning “ tap to – shut the tap.

The history of the word tattoo began over 5000 years ago and it is as diverse as the people who mark themsemselves. Back in the day criminals and prostitutes were marked so they would stand out from the rest of the population; nowadays animals are also marked but in that case people use the word “brand.” Many years ago to tatto meant to classify people as low class and vulgar and many much worse classifications.

Last week school was out and there was a little more idle time so I decided to investigate this topic in more depth.The more I’ve read about it, the more intrigued I become and so this morning I woke up with this word in mind.

The reason why this word entailing body art keeps popping into my head is because I love tattoos.......... or so I did ten or fifteen years ago when I was going through the craze of youth, just like every young person, I wanted to venture new experiences and I ended up getting five of them. Looking back at my adolesence although I was never into drugs, there were many things I wouldn’t even come close to doing now.

At this stage in life I wouldn’t necessarily say I love tattos, I mean there isn’t anything wrong with them and like people say, “todo con medida,” or “sin exceso.” Everything is within a limit or without excess. In other words, I’ve been thinking about my body and what it’d be like without all those visible and colorful marks. I had never been so self-conscious or aware of my tattoos until I came to Guadalajara. Many years ago I’d walk around very proud revealing my marks and when I became a young adult I didn’t even think of them they were just there without a specific meaning.

Now that I am in my 30’s I yearn for my old body, the body that I was created with and I think of how much I’ve abused it throughout the years. If I were given the choice to mark my body now, I would be very adamant to say, “No, I don’t want to do it.”

One of the reasons why I’m so conscious about this is because many people in Guadalajara and all over Mexico are very “old-fashioned. ”They promote family, marriage, morals, values, respect, religion, yet they break their own rules behind the scenes many times. Given the nature of my work, I have met many people from all walks of life and it is very interesting to have direct contact with people, especially as they get to know me more they let more and more out. For instance some people admit how they cheat on their spouses and the fact that the only reason they got married was to secure their financial future.

I don’t want to judge anyone or be critical but when specific people have noticed my tattos they can’t hide their expressions of disgust. Someone actually did make a comment once and I told this person, “tattoos, don’t harm anyone, they are in my body,” so is a tattoo really all that bad? What about marrying someone for the wrong reasons and much worse cheating on them?”

I am not a perfect human being but as I get older I strive to become a better person and let my bad habits only affect me.

In fact the other day I told a friend about a few serious changes I’ve decided to make in my life to which he replied, “I think it’s a waste of time, you should go around experience new things now that you are still young.” I don’t have anything against his beliefs but the bottom line is that everyone will always have an opinion so that’s when we have to NOT be afraid to take a stand and fight for our beliefs and stick to them. When I was much younger I was easily influenced and many times I went with the flow, like when I got my first tattoo, I got it because someone very close to me got me into (not forced me) getting it. Another time I got into an accident on a Thursday at the crack of dawn when I was on my way to work, two days later, on a Saturday I was at a concert with my boyfriend in San Jose because he didn’t accept a “no,” since he had already bought the tickets and he didn’t want to waste his money. At the tender age of eighteen I was very vulnerable and influenced by many people unlike now. As an adult, I have a choice to whether or not I want to adopt good habits.

That includes decisions that involve my body as it is the greatest gift life has given me. As an adult I’ve decided to not accept ANY negative criticism over it, I don’t want to ever lose power over my sense of me. I don’t want to be blinded by an empty and superficial society, I don’t want to let anyone ever use it only for their own desires, I don’t want to let anyone ever think that I’m too weak only because they think that I am too skinny according to their standards, I don’t want to let anyone ever take advantage of it, I don’t want to use it to fill in a void of insecurity, I don’t want to use it in any negative aspect. When I was a little girl I didn’t have control of me nor was I able to stand out for myself but now that I am fully capable of that and I want to honor it.

With these reflections in mind, I was flipping through the bible and I found this beautiful verse:

"Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 20 you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body," (1 Cor. 6:19-20).