Birth of Benito Juárez

This day was the first in our experiment to try and celebrate different holidays from around the world. We tried to be extra decorative (I blew up red and green balloons, and put a picture of Juárez up on the wall). Most Americans probably imagine that Cinco de Mayo is the biggest holiday for Mexicans, but sadly it's not. Outside of Puebla and the United States, no one really cares about it. No today, we would be celebrating an actual bona fide Mexican holiday: The Birth of Benito Juárez. 

For our meal, we didn't do anything out of the ordinary, only our very inauthentic recipe for tacos. For the homemade tortillas we mix a 1 cup of hot water, 1/3 cup of oil, 3 cups of flour, and a tsp or so of salt. Knead the dough and roll it out on wax paper, then fry it up. Then we just fill it with ground beefs mixed with taco seasoning, refried beans, lettuce, tomato, cucumber, salsa, and sour cream. We used to put shredded cheddar cheese in it too, but since we found out our son is allergic to dairy we never seem to have the stuff in the house.

Benito Juárez

The thing is, we've made this exact same meal several times throughout the past couple of months. But this time it was special. We talked a lot about Mexican history and Benito Juárez himself, who, as I understand it, is looked upon the same way Americans revere Abraham Lincoln. He was the country's only full-bloodied Amerindian president. He served at a time when several different countries were vying for control of Mexico. The US had recently taken most of Mexico's Northern territory in the Mexican-American War, and Napoleon III of France had put an Emperor on Mexico's throne. He dealt with these challenges as well as anyone probably could, and Mexico came out the better for it (well, for the time being). I really like the following quote he gave. I think it could really apply for our times as well:

Entre los individuos, como entre las naciones, el respeto al derecho ajeno es la paz.

Or in English, "Among individuals, as among nations, respect for the rights of others is peace."

But this was a day not just to celebrate a man, but the entire nation of Mexico. Despite living most of my life in a country that borders it, I've never had the opportunity to go yet. I've read Octavio Paz and studied their many muralists, but I haven't had the fortune to visit yet. I hope I will soon. It seems like a great country. It many ways, especially as you read its history, it's also an unfortunate country, but one that I hope starts to get better. We ended the night with my pack of Spanish-playing cards playing Conquian, a rummy-style game from Mexico. I took a little bit of work, but we eventually got it down.