Wednesday was the 206th anniversary of Benito Juárez’s birthday. Benito Juárez is probably the most significant political figure in Mexico’s history. I don’t need to get into a biography here (here’s Wikipedia’s or About’s). Basically he was a Zapotec Indian orphan who rose out of poverty to become the leader of the reformist movement in Mexico in the 1850’s. As president during the French Intervention (1861-1867) he was the symbol and leader of the Mexican resistance. He was truly a giant of a man.
March 21st has been a Mexican holiday for, uh, a long time…. A few years ago a law changed the official observance from the actual day to the nearest Monday, giving us all a nice 3-day weekend. However, when your school is named after him, you celebrate on the 21st anyway! So on Wednesday, arriving at school, instead of classes we found a program to honor Benito Juárez. School assembly! So I stitched together the clips I took, unedited because I’m lazy and also busy.
The first several are the 6th grade classes performing scenes from his life and honoring his achievements. The highlights are the Constitution of 1857, the appropriation of the Catholic Church’s (vast) properties, resistance against the French–complete with a firing squad! They also do a folk dance from Oaxaca, Juárez’s home state.
Then the second grade classes conclude with a traditional dances from … American high schools (complete with pom-pom’s), frogs, and … Bambi! Good fun!
The only thing possible to say in conclusion is… I love Mexico!
Here’s the video, bounce around through it as needed!
About noon today we were in the office (aka Starbucks) when the building started to shake, just a little at first then more and more, back and forth. Everyone’s reaction was the same: dawning realization, then looking around to see if anyone else felt it, then looking at each other with the thought, “What do we do?” There seemed to be a bit of a letting up and everyone went downstairs and out. The dumb gringos? We moved away from the window and talked with the few others who stayed. It was strong but not so strong anything seemed at risk of damage. One of the others there had lived through the Mexico City quake in 1985 which killed untold thousands. This was the strongest quake to hit Mexico since then. When things stopped moving I jumped onto the US Geological Service site of recent quakes (ours is in red; look at all the aftershocks, which we didn’t feel). It registered a 7.9 quake in the state of Guerrero. 7.9! That’s about 150 miles from us. It was amazing how fast the information was there, less than five minutes after the quake, I’d guess. So, naturally I tweeted it. There’s no point on trying to call people when that happens; the cell network immediately gets saturated. The quake wasn’t apparently bad enough to worry about the kids at school, or Ethan or Eddie in Pueblo Nuevo. So we got to play “watch the quake numbers”. Eventually USGS rated the quake down to 7.6, then 7.4 which it currently is. UNAM (the university in Mexico City) rated it at 6.6 in a slightly different location, but it looks now as if that’s been increased to 7.?…. On the way home with the kids the news on the radio was that damage was minimal and no injuries or deaths had been reported, not even in the biggest town only 15 miles from the epicenter. I hope that holds up. We got home and there was no damage, nothing on the floor or out of place.
We’re thankful for God’s providential care, not just for us, but for the millions who went through this.
Finally, here’s a US news story (Puebla makes it at the bottom).
Update, 3/21/2012: The news here is calling it a 7.8. There are reports of 9 injured, 1 seriously, and damage to buildings in the vicinity of the epicenter (Guerrero & Oaxaca). Pray for those affected.
I’m on another GK Chesterson fling, this time Heretics. The quote of the day:
But there is one thing that is infinitely more absurd and unpractical than burning a man for his philosophy. This is the habit of saying that his philosophy does not matter, and this is done universally in the twentieth century, …. General theories are everywhere contemned; the doctrine of the Rights of Man is dismissed with the doctrine of the Fall of Man. Atheism itself is too theological for us to-day. Revolution itself is too much of a system; liberty itself is too much of a restraint. We will have no generalizations. … A man’s opinion on tramcars matters; his opinion on Botticelli matters; his opinion on all things does not matter. He may turn over and explore a million objects, but he must not find that strange object, the universe; for if he does he will have a religion, and be lost. Everything matters—except everything.
Chesterton, G. K. (Gilbert Keith) (2011-03-30). Heretics (p. 2). Kindle Edition.
I like the note that “Liberty itself is too much of a restraint.” More and more this appears to be true in a world that seeks to throw off any and every restraint, both man and God-made. A lack of thoughtfulness about our lives and lifestyles sadly describes most American Christians, I’d guess, somewhat judgmentally. We settle comfortably down to watch our shows and leave out the Big Questions, that Chesterton was writing about.
An essay by Wendell Berry in Harper’s Magazine some years ago, at the very beginning of the economic crisis, “Faustian Economics” nails this (disclaimer: it’s pretty deep; the beginning is gripping and then he gets deep fast). But the gist is: we human being need limits, we’re made to have limits, and building an economy and society around the rejection of limits, as we’ve done and are doing, is insanity. He’s right. And we’d best join with Chesterton in re-thinking Everything.
Well, time for another prayer letter! Things are heating up here, both literally (the weather warmed up about two weeks ago) and in ministry (at least with lots of activity).
Here the report. Click here or read it below the jump…
Which language is the most useful to know, globally? That’s the question on the Economist’s Intelligent Life article, “Which is the Best Language to Learn?” by Robert Lane Green (h/t: Rod Dreher). A fascinating question, especially since, living in Mexico, we’re partial to Spanish. And since there are about 450 million Spanish speakers world-wide, it seems to be a pretty useful language. Plus, they’ll understand you in Brazil & Portugal (and a few other places), so tack on another 200 million people you can speak to.
But the argument isn’t “number of people” but “generally useful” and Green argues for…French:
But if I was asked what foreign language is the most useful, and given no more parameters (where? for what purpose?), my answer would be French. Whatever you think of France, the language is much less limited than many people realise.
He makes a pretty decent case. Many, many places in Africa, much of Europe, Canada (!), and Vietnam, well, maybe not there.
Green also makes an interesting argument against the future of Chinese. Read the article. It’s interesting. Learning languages is cool. I’m happy I speak Spanish over French, but my list of languages I’d like to learn would probably be: German, Mandarin, Arabic, Russian and Hebrew. Some of those are for usefulness, some for curiosity.
Your eternity is no more about looking back to this span of time than your life now is about reflecting on kindergarten. The moment you burst through the mud above your grave, you will begin an exciting new mission—one you couldn’t comprehend if someone told you. And those things that seem so important now—whether you’re attractive or wealthy or famous or cancer-free—will be utterly irrelevant.
We may have some idea from the Bible about heaven, but it’s pretty vague. It will be totally other, totally other than our world, than everything we know. We’re infants now, unable to conceive of the life to come.
December 22 our neighbors up the street did a traditional Mexican Christmas party, called a Posada, with a Christmas play, called a Pastorela. We went along and enjoyed getting to know them, and the performance. It’s taken this long to put the videos together and post them. It’s an interesting cultural experience. I put little markers to explain what’s going on, but it’s mostly in Spanish!
Well, we’ve had other things on our plate, but better late than never. Or early! Way early for 2012!
Courtesy of Relient K, “I ain’t gettin nuttin for Christmas” which surely must be the best rendition of the song ever, even though I haven’t gone and listened to every version out there.
Update: here’s a link to last year’s, just to refresh your memory: 2010 Christmas Video
Este es largo, pero con mucho amor. This is a little long, but with a lot of love. Español y English.
Carlos predicando
Christmas Eve morning we got a phone call that you never want. Carlos de la Garza, one of the elders at Comunidad Bíblica (our old church here) and a good friend and dear brother in Christ, died of an infection related to kidney failure. We hustled to the hospital and joined others from Comunidad Bíblicain being with Martha and her mother (also Martha). We were all in shock. He’s been ill, just recovering from pneumonia a few weeks ago, but until the 23rd we had been planning on spending Christmas Eve with them. What do you say? In times like this all you can do is be there. Words are just useless. Read more…
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