Mexican Riches

Our landlady in Los Barriles last year was Mexican, but spoke quite a bit of English.  Speaking with her for an extended period of time was always intertesting as one or the other of us simply slipped back into our native languages while continuing to communicate.  While giving me a ride to town one day last year, she shared that she had recently lost her father  After I expressed condolences and shared the story of my father's death, she asked if I had any brothers or sisters.  I told her I had one.  Sadly, she told me she also had only one sibling.  Gazing into the distance, the loss still fresh in her heart, she confided that it is easier to suffer the loss of a parent when you have more siblings.  I didn't quite understand what she meant.  As I have more experiences with this culture, I gain a teeny bit more understanding.

Serita shed some light on that story a couple of days ago. We had returned to eat at her cafe and to let her know we found our place to live.  When we had told her we were looking for Las Palmas Tropicales and Wendy, no one in the cafe recognized those names.  She had mentioned that she had a friend who rented places. She had mentioned that if we didn't find the spot we were looking for to come back.  I figured she wanted to hook us up at her friend's place.  Once we got settled in our new digs, I found myself wondering if we might know Serita's friend.  On a subsequent visit to town we stopped again at Serita's for lunch.  When I asked about her friend who rented casitas, it turned out we did know him. "Oh yes," Serita cried, "Your know him?  He is my friend....for nearly 10 years!"  In fact, she motioned to a Mexican  sitting at the lunch counter, saying that he had had business dealings with our mutual acquaintance, a younger married man. Then she told the story that our friend  was crying while trying to strike a deal, saying he was poor had not much money....Serita had interrupted to tell our friend that he wasn't poor, he was "rico!"  At this point I expected references to his large house, his nice car, etc, etc.  She got a twinkle in her eye and said, "He is not poor; he has five children!" And she held up all the fingers on one hand to emphasize her point.  "He is very rich," she said.  "There is much corazon in his house."  Then the twinkle came back in her eye and she said, "He's very good looking, don't you think?"  I could only laugh;  Serita and I are much too old to notice whether or not our young friend is considered attractive.

Later in the afternoon I was thinking about the exchange with Serita and something occurred to me.  I once read a book that talked about the connotations for many Spanish words.  The word, "simpatico" for example, translates in English as "nice."  In Spanish, the word "simpatico" connotes a certain generosity of spirit, a kind and giving attitude; much more than just being pleasant, as we would define "nice."  So later, I wondered if the word Spanish word "corazon" (meaning heart) has as many connotations in Spanish as the word "love" does in English.  I couldn't help but wonder if Serita maybe wasn't hinting at an idea as why there were so many children in that home; why our friend's wife bore five children already.  No wonder she had that twinkle in her eye!