Lo que quiero aqui es una opportunidad a apprender. So I ask questions… and try not to ruin the Spanish language…

Monday night, while on a mission to find Flan – you see, Jenny my roommate is from Sweden and she has never tried Flan nor, if you can imagine, Horchata – we ended up in the restaurant Lol-ha with Sergio as our server. Well, I have this bad habit of ordering a drink every time I go out.. as i …f I am enjoying a week of vacation and not my first week of work at CEA. At any rate I haven’t exhausted the list of specialty drinks … so I ordered my flan de carámel and a wanted a ‘beso Maya’ …this is the name of the drink. I asked Sergio, of course, “Qué es un beso Maya?” (What is a kiss of the Maya?) … My Spanish is not that good, but it is good enough to tease the server a little. He told me that he is Maya so he should know and then I found out not only that the drink has rum, khalua, coconut milk and …something else but, that ‘kiss’ in Maya is ‘dzudz’…. So many Zs ( pronounced like ‘sh’)!

una retrato de nuestro mesero, Sergio (a portrait of our server, Sergio)

Sergio Pool is his whole name. Sergio is a Mexican name while Pool is Mayan. He is from a small village near Merida where he grew up with 6 younger sisters, 2 younger brothers and 1 (or 2?) older brothers. Sergio said that he also wanted to have about 10 or 15 children - he was just kidding… he really only wants only 2 or 3 children because it is really too hard economically as well as physically and mentally for the mother to raise 10 plus children. Uh yeah.

All this in Spanish too! Sergio was easier to understand than some people I think because Spanish is his second language as well. He learned Spanish in school. 6yrs of Spanish and only 6 months of English. He speaks only Maya at home and only Spanish at work.... though sometimes he has to speak English and then switch to his little bit of Italian or German for different customers at different tables.. He said it was sometimes super confusing and often he will end up speaking a mixture… and I can totally sympathize because I mix my Spanish and German together all of the time. It is crazy difficult for me to keep them separate. Ach die Verdamte Sprache!

When I asked Sergio about the Mayan culture he had a lot to say. First of all, he gave me ten million examples of the ancient Mayan rituals, i.e., the most beautiful virgin out of all of the virgins in the empire is sacrificed… the strongest man once a year has his heart taken from his body while still beating … etc. until I got the point. Furthermore, he said that other Mayan traditions though still recognized are being overwhelmed. As they grow up within the broader Mexican culture many Maya deliberately choose to no longer recognize their own cultural traditions. One example he gave was that of salutations…The ‘typical’ Maya – Sergio’s father for example - would say ‘hello’ to a person he passes on the street and similarly, a ‘hello’ to his mother at home. Sergio when he goes home, gives his mother not only a ‘hello’ but a hug - and Sergio greets people with ‘buenos dias’ or ‘hola’ and ‘Comó está?’ Another example Sergio gave was the concept of the ‘caballero’, the gentleman. A Mayan man would not seat his wife before himself…whereas, in the broader Spain/Mexican culture, the caballero (gentleman) seats the woman and then himself.. Sergio has decided that he would rather be the caballero.

But Sergio is still very much Maya. Though he recognizes the physical and cultural and economic impact of coastal/tourism development, Sergio is not particularly concerned. He is Maya and the Maya are not particularly fond of the ocean…He doesn’t go snorkeling, he doesn’t lie on the beach to get a tan and he isn’t used to eating seafood.

He is grateful that he can work in a restaurant and doesn’t have to be clearing rainforest for cattle. His sister too, works in the tourism industry as a hotel manager.

Keep in mind that this cuento that I have written is based entirely on what Sergio himself told me in Spanish. There is to be sure some question of translation. That is the reason, besides it being not so short, that I left out our conversation on religion. Though religion is really really important to Sergio it is also a very complex subject … reconciling Catholic theology with personal experiences and Mayan ancestors. And really, I just met the guy and don’t feel like I can expound on his religious beliefs and experiences.

-So! My name is Breeanna and I am a volunteer at CEA.