Feliz Cumpleaños, Reina!

During my previous visits to San Lucas, I spent a lot of time learning how to do traditional Mayan weaving with my teacher, Goya. She lives with the family of her husband, Israel, and has a daughter, Reina. Reina is an only child because Goya could not have children of her own. Reina is also adopted, which is incredibly rare in my area of Guatemala. As an only child, she gets everything she wants and is pretty spoiled. She also likes to play at being the baby, and will sometimes refuse to walk without being carried or demand help with things she definitely knows how to do. That being said, she's a pretty awesome, very cute little girl. When I visited the family yesterday, I found out that Reina was turning four and Goya was throwing a big birthday party for her extended family. The grandfather of the family also had a birthday--81 years old. I was invited for birthday lunch!

Reina lives with her two parents, two of Israel's brothers, their families, and their grandfather. The whole family, however, is much bigger. Israel's family has 10 children, each of which is now an adult and has many children of their own. In total, there are about 100 members of the immediate family, and this is only on Reina's fathers' side. So when I was invited to a "family birthday party," it wasn't as intimate as one would imagine.

First, we began almuerzo with a traditional dish, caldo de pollo or chicken stew. The chickens were their own, grown in the house and killed the day before in preparation. There are also local vegetables, pasta and herbs. The soup is served with tamalitos, little maize patties. Its one of my favorite traditional Mayan foods, so I was really excited about being invited. I also got a lecture on the difference between pollo de granja, grown on a farm, and pollo grown in the house. Apparently they are a totally different species of chicken and people argue about which is better. House chicken meat is darker and they survive easier in the "wild" by eating whatever is around. Farm chicken is more what we are used to in the US and apparently is very difficult to grow at home because they are picky eaters and die easily. Pretty much, this is the chicken version of gringos and Guatemalans. Personally, I can't tell the difference, but everyone here swears by one or the other and refuses to eat the competitor.

After lunch, the family whipped out a piñata. I have to be honest--I have never seen a party with one in the States, but I'm pretty sure this is very different. The adults constructed a complex pulley system with the piñata in the middle, so that two people could pull it around and keep it out of reach of the children. One child at a time gets to beat at it with a stick. Little kids get a big stick and can go without a blindfold, the larger kids aren't so lucky. I've never seen two-year-olds be so violent! They chase the prised object around, sometimes coming dangerously close to the spectators who are busy yelling out instructions. Eventually someone, usually a 10-year-old boy, really rams the thing and it begins to explode. At this point, everyone dives to the ground for the candy, the adults pushing the kids out of the way or simply rolling on top of them. How no one got hurt is amazing. After the candy was all grabbed up, they pulled out another piñata the size of the birthday girl and in the shape of her favorite cartoon character. The next victim lasted a little longer in battle, and has to lose a few appendages before being torn to shreds by the candy-hungry crowd. All in all, it was pretty amusing.

After torturing the piñata, two huge cakes (blue for abuelo and pink for Reina) were brought out. Everyone sang happy birthday (in English) to grandpa, but Reina, who decided this was a good time for a tantrum, locked herself in her room and refused to come out for her moment in the spotlight. After blowing out the candles, grandpa took a bight of the cake and someone (per ceremony) pushed his face in to everyone's amusement. Cake was served with sweet tea and corn tostadas covered in beans and salsa. Way too much food, but yum!
I gave Reina a pair of new leather shoes (per her parent's request) and gave abuelo some money. I was so full after the day that I couldn't eat dinner! Reina, who used to be afraid of me and all other gringos, now decided I was her best friend and wanted to be hugged the whole day. This made her four-year-old cousin, Erica, very jealous, and I had the two of them glued to me the whole time. All in all it was a pretty awesome birthday!