“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.