Malena la Mestiza

Rachel and I are SO lucky!  All of the other host families are great but Malena is simply the greatest!  She drives us around a lot-which contradicts what I wrote yesterday but I would be lying if I said I hated it.  She takes us lots of places with her.  Even if she’s just running errands we usually go with her so we can talk and see the city.  It always ends up being a benefit for us.  Most of the time she stays in the car and sends us in for whatever she needs so that we can get the experience and practice with other natives-it’s great!

So tonight she had a high school reunion.  Everybody had to be wearing white.  The options were to wear an hipil or a plain white dress.  So she pulled out her beautiful hipil and put her flowers and bow in her hair and BLAMMO! She was a mestiza.  A mestiza is a Mayan woman.  Hipil is the traditional white dress with colorful embroidery that they wear.  Usually traditional clothing is worn for certain parties or festivities but the Mayan only wear hipils-no matter where they are going.  I love it!  I didn’t think that I would actually see people wearing them.

What’s so interesting is that the majority of the mayan girls around my age and younger don’t wear hipil.  When they turn 10 they get to choose whether they will continue with the family/cultural tradition or not.  The main reason that they choose not to is that they are embarrassed.  The Spanards, when they took over Mexico, made the Mayan people feel stupid and embarrassed of their religion.  So now, many people feel like they’ll stick out like a soar thumb in today’s world.  It’s sad really.  But there’s a twist to this little history.  The Mid-high class of Criol Mexicans (of European descent) have nannies for their children.  These nannies are almost always Mayan women.  So these children are growing up learning the ways, beliefs, and language of the Mayans.  It’s amazing!  It’s so cool because they are the ones really keeping it alive.  Because their nannies are Mayan, they have a certain level of respect and cariño towards the culture as a whole.  If it wasn’t for this twist I think that the Mayan culture would not be as strong as it is especially here in Yucatan.