Ask a Mexican Anything
Aug. 22nd, 2022 10:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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Edit: After thinking about it, I started the post as a place for the controversy regarding ethnic and cultural movements in society and their polite discussion but I think if I make another it would be about other things as well, given the jolly reception, with an opening line of a theme perhaps, as we did with this one about immigration. Is there an interest in a particular theme about Mexico and Latino related things? If yes let me know in the comment section and if not, the next post will be about food. A recipe perhaps? Odd dishes of far away local markets?
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Something I've noticed in the past five years is that some people are very touchy and yet curious about immigration matters; the nations involved and their culture and the corresponding implications in the societies of the nations involved, but most people I've tried engaging with are afraid of getting down to real talk to not offend, me or somebody else. I appreciate the gesture for sure given today's broad hysteria and conversations can get tough, but this I intend for such things to be discussed without them becoming personal.
Me? I like that immigration matters are brought to the fore after centuries of imperial immigrant abuse, but I also think that many of my fellow Mexicans and latinos here in the U.S seem to be enjoying too much the attention that SJWs have given them and turned capricious or they have been dumped by their apparent saviors and switched sides. They have good points but they also have blindspots --and some of their supporters magnify those with wishful thinking, that seems either self-sabotage or just ignorance about politics and economics. And even others, who used to favor the wall vehemently, now live in Puerto Vallarta or what not.
The image is the stunning sculpture Promerica by Polish American artist Stanisław Szukalski and it depicts his vision for the Americas: science and mysticism; engineering and magic; european and indigenous, working together. Oh, and when the wind hits it in the right way, the whole monument hums. He wanted it to be in the border between Texas ans Mexico where a university would be founded. He meant it as a mexican priest blessing an american engineer's blueprints but it can go both ways in today's America. It could very well be a Druid, Wiccan high priestess or Sioux medicine man blessing the code of an Ecuadorian software developer.
Ask me anything about being Mexican in the US; growing up in Mexico and it's history; Spanish language and mesoamerican esoterica; culture shock, food, art or religion; the differences between the US and Mexico; what I think about immigration policies, stereotypes. You get the idea, controversial, pleasant or just curious, I'll gladly answer it. You can just drop by and I'll listen too.
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Date: 2022-08-23 05:06 pm (UTC)Based on your knowledge of Mexico, do you think that's a good idea? What do you think Mexico will look like in the long descent, as the U.S. empire wanes and we all have less access to fossil fuels? Any regions you think will fare better than others?
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Date: 2022-08-23 05:56 pm (UTC)Bam, straight ahead ;-) I like it.
It's a terrible idea in my opinion. I personally don't really like people doing that. It's a huge stress in the social and economical structure and it's already had many problems and displaced many families from the areas tourist find pretty and cool and gentrification is already felt just from these two years very strongly. Remember that 70% of Mexico is poor, and 30% extremely poor and has been one of the most abused cultures during the colonization of the Americas, I think we've given them enough. I guess that's the karma we have to deal with, LA being the second capital of Mexico and most by illegal immigration, but I honestly wish it becomes an illegal practice for example, for American or European people to buy all the land at local prices, a tax should be applied that makes it square with foreign land to help house and feed the poor or at least being able to make competing offers by locals. I don't have a problem in itself, it just isn't fair and it's having way too much of an impact, unfortunately and I truly do not like beaches turned to resorts. My cousin works for an American owned hotel and the sentiment isn't good; wouldn't like Mexico to become what was of Costa Rica were all the locals please the foreigners and are displaced to the slums. A Costa Rican tour guide told me a harrowing story about crack abuse and family violence in Costa Rica after this. This of course, speaking in very general terms, you'll understand, speaking from the problematic side of things. A friend of mind moved to Mexico City and loves it, but he moved to a local job for a Mexican company, I'm okay with that.
The locals are getting angry however, it's already made the news and the government there won't really do anything if someone gets lynched by angry peasants or pissed Narcos. Unfortunately we have a very complicated relationship that way... and the government doesn't care as long as it sees a cut from those sweet dollars.
In the longer span of things, I think Mexico is going to do very well in the Long Descent. Though I am afraid of the shock, because the U.S gets very keen of Mexico sometimes but forgets we have strong intellectual ties with Russia and our president is a populist, with no sight of the trend changing for the whole of Latin America were most heads of state are populists right now. For example, the largest research university system, UNAM had a lot of russian intellectuals as teachers after the World Wars and we work closely with Cuba and that can still be felt.
Huge changes are coming for the next 50-100 years that I think will include a recovery of indigenous identity among other things. I am not sure we have enough water for the Northern part of the country to exist as is, but with the climate belts moving upwards, the south of Mexico might get more tropical jungle and the now deserted north will become the climate that is now north of Mexico City, leaving the East Coast in the middle of what now is the Sonora Desert. So at least in that sense is looking lush for the territory. A Mayan Revival? I don't think that'd be a completely crazy idea. Today there are thousands and thousands of practitioners, and traditional medicine mixed up with hoodoo is making a comeback in the popular eye as well as the works of Jacobo Grinberg regarding mexican shamanism, so whatever the powers that brought once that civilization seems to be very much active and making contact with all sorts of people. I saw someone in Magic Monday asked about a dream he had about Tonatiuh, the God of the Sun, most likely.
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Date: 2022-08-23 06:09 pm (UTC)(This may not be a question you can answer, but you said to ask you anything and this has actually been a concern of mine for a couple of weeks, so why not ask I guess?)
If I can ask two questions, what do you think of the situation at the US border? Back in my factory days, I knew a migrant worker who felt that the Southwest should belong to Mexico anyway, so he felt pretty justified in coming to the US to live, even though it's illegal. I have no idea if that's a common opinion.
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Date: 2022-08-23 07:08 pm (UTC)Multiple questions are okay.
Trying to speak Spanish without any sort of fluency doesn't seem like a good idea to me and it wouldn't do much for your confidence in learning but using some stock phrases from time to time would be a nice touch, perhaps until you get some fluency in some months. Just greetings, perhaps some food dishes and stuff for the small talk. The best way I know to learn a language by the way is the modern equivalent of Giordano Bruno's technique, if you like movies or shows. The trick is to put the show in the language you want to learn and subtitles in english and pay a lot of attention and most importantly train you brain to listen to the subtle differences; or the old version with a book translated into both works best but is much harder work. This triggers the neuronal pathways for language and speech that we used as children to learn, and in my experience, both americans and mexicans haven't exercised it much ever since so it's a good idea to make our language structure more lax with listening.
I don't think the argument holds water. It was a terrible deal when Carlos Santana sold that portion to the United States, but it was legally sold and signed so it isn't ours anymore. Period, end of sentence. The remaining sting is still there among many of us for sure, it's a popular sentiment among the general population, but acting on it isn't justified by any reasonable means at this point and feels more like an immature excuse. When I was in high school I put it bluntly in debate club. If someone breaks into your home every night and eats the food, wouldn't you want to kick that person out? Now society is much more complex than that, but such issues should be solved by diplomatic and humanitarian agreements between nations, not underwater. That's too much to ask from a corrupt system however so I don't think it will change. "Coyotes", the guys you pay to cross the Bravo, are popular and you hear all the time about people that had crossed and came back (much common) or stayed there, even if for safety reasons. There is a really good movie -- I am no longer here -- about a counter-culture movement in northern Mexico surrounding Colombian cumbias regarding the latter reason for crossing the river with a Coyote.
It is odd however, because we have really good relationships with Spain, but I guess since, as nations, "we live together" and we come from different families it is much harder and we haven't gone to therapy.
Favorite Food?
Date: 2022-08-23 07:29 pm (UTC)Also, do you have any favorite kid shows in Spanish? I'm working with PrayerGardensJr. on learning Spanish and we'd be up for learning more that way but I don't know where to start.
Gracias!
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Date: 2022-08-23 08:05 pm (UTC)The guy I used to work at the factory came to my area from California, and he was quite well-spoken and articulated his thoughts and ideas well. He was very unpopular with my co-workers, especially when he said at a company meeting that he felt like we could all be working a lot harder and he would be happy to do so. A couple of the guys wanted to stomp him, and another was threatening to report him to immigration. Luckily, I don't think anything came of it, although I left not long after he started (for unrelated reasons).
I did get a fair number of notifications, but no worries :)
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Date: 2022-08-23 08:19 pm (UTC)Sounds like you are a good boss and it is very much appreciated : )
That doesn't sound like pleasant, it is what happens with culture clash with different economical backgrounds. The things is that people in Mexico that do a lot of manual labor are really tough workers and usually their families in extreme need so tend to be confrontational. The problem is that it ends up being sacrificial too, of which a more advanced culture clearly notices and disagrees with, understandably. Very different set of circumstances. I don't know if that was his case, but there is a lot of that. The father of the person that helps us with our house back home has his spine damaged and he needs to cut his fingernails with gardening scissors with help as he used to plow fields barefooted with tools he would make, mostly by himself and then his sons. He is old, but that is not decent way to get there.
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Date: 2022-08-23 08:41 pm (UTC)Once upon a time I thought I'd write a novel based on my experiences in the shop, I thought it was an interesting microcosm of rural America. I don't think that a frank novel dealing with race, sex, and class written by a white guy would be publishable in modern times, sadly.
I've done some fairly light gardening with hand tools and it was a lot of work; I can't imagine plowing a field with hand tools or what that would do to a human body.
Re: Favorite Food?
Date: 2022-08-23 09:09 pm (UTC)I recall a lot of cartoons by the national culture channel Canal Once's children branch OnceNiños which PrayerGardensJr might like. I doubt any are from mexican origin, I remember a French one and Mona de Vampire, all dubbed. Here are a few playlists on the tube with a selection:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC723JdayZqCTPzpP-VhRFZw/playlists
This might be more for you, though some of them like this one about St. Michael can be children friendly. It is a set of animations using local children drawings about traditional creation myths and their spiritual traditions that are beautiful to watch and listen. They also have an english version, the originals are narrated in their language with spanish subtitles. Here is their channel:
Sesenta y ocho voces
My favorite mexican dishes are barbacoa, Cochinita Pibil, Tacos al Pastor and hand made quesadillas and tortillas in all its corn variations and modes of preparation.
Like this one with Oaxaca cheese and Pumpkin flower:
And huazontles in tomato sauce. It is a plant from the family of amaranth with some refried beans on the side:
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Date: 2022-08-23 09:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-08-23 09:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-08-23 09:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-08-23 10:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-08-23 11:15 pm (UTC)Also, that statue is indeed stunning, thank you for sharing!
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Date: 2022-08-23 11:31 pm (UTC)I agree that Tex-Mex has evolved to be its own thing.
As for traditional mexican food. Here in the U.S, probably enchiladas, tortilla soup, sopes and tacos are the easiest to find but there are a lot of mexican imports these days with fresh ingredients for things like mole and chiles rellenos. I have a sense you'd like chicken mole. The sauce is made of toasted nuts, cacao beans, several sun-dried chiles for flavor and cooked for several hours and then strained.
Szukalski was a mad genius at modeling, and remains to be one of my highest inspirations in an art world were ugliness is art, there's a documentary of his life in Netflic called Struggle
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Date: 2022-08-24 12:01 pm (UTC)I think the religious aspects of these changes will be very interesting as we see regionalism across the Americas increase and US influence fade.
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Date: 2022-08-24 12:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-08-24 06:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-08-24 07:56 pm (UTC)They exacerbate am area and it requires deliberate work to balance it with reality. Specially, in this interconnected but isolated world.
Mexicans clearly aren't all drunk and lazy and clearly not all Americans are polite and considerate successful businessmen. The inverse is also true, neither life in Mexico is as easy as some make it sound, even with money, nor all American tourists are annoying.
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Date: 2022-08-24 10:09 pm (UTC)I've had mole a couple of times, and I've found that some varieties taste great to me, and so me not as much. We have a restaurant in Houston called "Pico's" that has a few different regional varities of mole dishes on the menu - maybe I'll have to go back and work my way through the options.
I saw in the comment that prompted my own question that you mentioned tacos al pastor - those are by far my favorite tacos when done well, but unfortunately, I haven't been able to find anywhere as good as the trailer in the 7-11 parking lot I went to back in college, which has sadly since closed. Lots of "pretty decent", but nothing amazing, but whenever I go to a new place that serves them, I give it a try.
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Date: 2022-08-24 10:30 pm (UTC)If we had a holy grail, it would be a platter of tacos al pastor. The key in the preparation is an ingredient that is hard to find here. Also, gas is expensive, so the traditional "trompo" is hard to find. Fortunately not in Seattle.
I have a pic I took of a taco place before returning so I don't feel away haha
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Date: 2022-08-24 10:50 pm (UTC)Centroamerican migration
Date: 2022-08-25 01:44 am (UTC)How much of an effect does it have on Mexico, that so many people are using it as a thru-way on the way to the US? It's not a subject I've ever seen addressed, so... not much at all? A lot but it doesn't make the news? Do Mexicans have feelings about this? Inquiring minds want to know.
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Date: 2022-08-25 02:05 am (UTC)How do Mexicans define the terms "Hispanic" and "Latino"?
This question nags me a lot, for a completely white-bread American person ;) But... we traveled a bit in our youth, and my first child was born in South America (so, not Mexico, but still Spanish-speaking and has dual citizenship there). In the US, lots of bureaucratic forms ask two separate, baffling questions about race and ethnicity, but they're both: Are you Hispanic? I never know how to answer that for my kid. He doesn't speak much Spanish, despite our best efforts to teach it. He's just as white as we are, and we moved back stateside when he was just a baby. But he's technically a citizen of a Spanish-speaking country, and it's clearly not a racial thing, because Latin America is wildly racially diverse, but at least in the US, everybody there is "Hispanic"-- even if their grandparents were Italian. So... is being Hispanic or Latino a language/cultural thing, a country of origin thing, both, or neither?
Re: Centroamerican migration
Date: 2022-08-25 03:09 am (UTC)Thank you so much for asking this, methylethyl!
I think it has had an effect, and a big one, though it is not yet felt completely. What I think is in danger are our traditions, culture and ways of living; and an informal socio-economic safety net that provides and alternative to the miserable and low paying jobs offered by big enterprises and companies. We still plant with traditional agriculture for example, and even though most has been left for agrochemicals, it is still practiced and valued. Many local markets in the small towns are fed by that and they are a huge venue for the informal economy.
Most mexicans don't pay taxes on what they can get away with and the informal economy is one way for that. It sounds bad, but with a corrupt government --that can easily be traced back to an imposed one-- that sucks in the money instead of doing something with it, it is what the people have managed to live off. All that is in danger as the people that support it give up against a centralized system, or move to a different country. It is also why cash is how you pay, almost no one outside the big places accepts card.
That's one reason why I think homeless people here in the U.S are such an iconic archetype, there isn't any safety net and even though our net is "illegal" and "informal" it still sustains most part of the middle and lower classes from spinning downwards into a socio-economical pit very hard to get out off. Say, by just renting a place cheap and doing whatever business you want to make without bureaucratic roadblocks, or as many do, the first floor of your house is a mechanic shop or grocery and above is your house, entire concrete-cities are built like that. They aren't pretty, but they are something and its payed for mostly by the informal economy (if not, the narco economy, which is huge, related topic)
Many of these same people are also the bearers of ancient culture and knowledge. My Traditional Mexican Medicine teacher lives in one of those and depends entirely on it and the people that live there. Mayan shamans, raramuri seers, aztec healers, temazcaleros, potters, ebanists, artists, weavers, cooks. All that is being help up by that net and is the only thing left after the unrelenting European conquistadors destroyed everything else.
For what is worth, I haven't seen these points addressed or even touched upon directly and part of the vision for my life is to try to do something to change that.
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Date: 2022-08-25 03:22 am (UTC)I don't consider myself racially Mesoamerican, unfortunately for me I can't even get away with faking it, so when they ask for statistical purposes I just say white, as most people put my face as Italian or Spanish but the truth is I am genetically Mexican, but also, Peruvian, Brazilian, Swedish, Irish, Spanish and Croatian...
The Hispanic/Latino phenomenon in the US, I think to be a heart breaking and desperate longing for an identity that isn't industrial. They don't have the ties to the european families and their culture, nor the ties to the native tribes; only the memory of ancestry in their tales, and in their genes.
Re: Favorite Food?
Date: 2022-08-25 12:01 pm (UTC)Related, are there any Spanish-language children's books (illustrated or not) that you'd recommend? The problem with not being fluent with Spanish myself is that I can't tell the difference between actually good stories and just crap publishing :(
Re: Centroamerican migration
Date: 2022-08-25 12:29 pm (UTC)I get the social safety net thing. I was blessed to be born into a very large, very local extended kin network in the Deep South, where that still means something. We live far better than our income, because there are so many things we do not pay for, but simply arrange with family in a very informal way. For example: my family drives two cars. We do not own either of them. The truck that I own... my Dad drives it, because I can't fit the baby's car seat in it. I am currently driving my brother's car, because he is working on my Dad's truck. We do not bother with switching the titles around, and we drive whichever vehicle meets our current needs-- it is the "family motor pool". It is the same for most things. My brother drops off his kid with me for a month in the summer, because single-parent childcare is hard. He is a repairman, and he gave me for free, my gently-used still-works-great washing machine. When I need a bit of extra help with the kids, my mom or sister come over to my house. When my sister needed a house, we found one cheap (needed a lot of work), and we all worked on it until she could move in. We all live better than our incomes because of this-- because we would not dream of paying for roadside assistance, a taxi, minor car repairs, a new washing machine, a repairman, childcare, etc-- no, all of those things are stuff that family does. We would be very very poor if we had to *pay* for that stuff!
My childhood was full of great-aunts and great-uncles who'd give us cookies and a sandwich if we dropped by on our bicycles :)
But over time, the more extended network of cousins and aunties... it is not holding together so well. So many have moved out of the region for better jobs, that I think a lot of family "stuff"-- stories, skills, attitudes, the things that made us more of a clan than just "relatives"-- is getting lost.
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Date: 2022-08-25 12:51 pm (UTC)I did notice when we were in SA that nobody talks about themselves as Latino or Hispanic. Only very occasionally as (country of origin)-- such as "Ecuatoriano" or "Peruano" or "Chileno"-- because why would you? People are much more likely to refer to themselves by the region or city they came from: cusqueñas and limeños first, Peruanos after. But it's the same in the US: we mostly identify ourselves by what region we're from, before we think of ourselves as Americans-- Bostonians, Floridians... only when we're outside the country do we really become "Americans". Mostly because nobody outside the US would know or care about the difference between a New Yorker and a Kentuckian ;)
In my hometown, the Spanish-speaking immigrants and contract workers seem to prefer being called "Spanish."
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Date: 2022-08-25 06:55 pm (UTC)Could you go into more detail on the revival of the indigenous identity in Mexico? I'm also curious to know how much the old Mesoamerican religion has been preserved and how much of it has made a comeback. I'm curious about this largely because a good buddy of mine who is Mexican-American has been doing a lot of research on the Aztec religion, though from a very heady/philosophical angle, specifically presenting the pre-Columbian Mexica religious lore in a Neoplatonic framework. Also, he had what he believes to be some sort of spirit contact from one or more of the Aztec deities. This seems to square with a few mentions JMG has made that the old Mesoamerican contacts are still open and that the gods/sprits may at some point be reestablishing contact with people they deem to be appropriate. Now I'm wondering how all of this squares with the everyday experience of people in Mexico via whatever remains of old native beliefs and practices.
Again, thanks!
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Date: 2022-08-25 10:19 pm (UTC)Compared to today? A lot remains, but remember the amount of richness. At one point Tenochtitlan was the biggest city on the whole planet, so the diversity of spirituality and magic must've been humongous.
I think a lot of people are reconsidering their spirituality and many are looking back to the traditions of the land though I don't expect this to become a semi organized religious movement again for quite a while. It seems a redescovery among a few is happening first and slowly creating clusters.
Personally, I have yet to know someone who I truly see as an initiate in the Mesoamerican tradition, I've read about them in the books of Jacobo Grinberg, I just posted an essay about that with a translation and in stories people that seem serious enough tell me but I haven't gotten deep enough, but there seem to be. And witch-doctors are everywhere too. Many people still go but not out of a spiritual process. The religion part is harder because of Christianity. Most has been lost to it but tradition seems remain in some groups. the ceremonies I've assisted invoke the mexica gods in the directions and make altars for them.
Astrologers and healers of the mesoamerican traditions can still be found and also many dance groups.
As for how much is available. To give you an idea, I have 3 encyclopedic tomes just about gods and the traditional Mexican medicine book I use is as fast as medical tomes, though more anthropological in nature. We have the Popol'Vuh as well, we have decoded the Maya writing and have a fair share of codexes and myths. The researcher I mentioned has a 7 volume set just about shamans, which I will be posting essays about it bit by bit here.
Also look at Santa Muerte, clearly a mesoamerican syncretized power given they worked a lot with their conception of the death and of Mictlan and Mictlantecuhtli.
Has he mentioned which deity he is working with? His Neoplatonic framework also sounds interesting.
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Date: 2022-08-25 11:52 pm (UTC)The deity he has had experiences of is Tezcatlipoca.
Re: Favorite Food?
Date: 2022-08-26 05:42 am (UTC)When I was a kid I used to have a big tome like this one with those lovely illustrations
https://www.amazon.com/Cuentos-hadas-clasicos-Spanish-Gustafson/dp/8491452915/ref=asc_df_8491452915/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=416638939404&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=13280216741721345890&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9033313&hvtargid=pla-843007974160&psc=1&tag=&ref=&adgrpid=93867144197&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvadid=416638939404&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=13280216741721345890&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9033313&hvtargid=pla-843007974160
Re: Centroamerican migration
Date: 2022-08-26 05:44 am (UTC)I am happy to see the system you and your family have managed to arrange for yourself! It is exactly something like that what happens in Mexico too, most small towns are made of families like that but movement to cities and kids not wanting the same lifestyles is changing that rapidly.
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Date: 2022-08-26 05:46 am (UTC)Re: Centroamerican migration
Date: 2022-08-26 11:26 am (UTC)Re: Centroamerican migration
Date: 2022-08-26 11:27 am (UTC)Re: Favorite Food?
Date: 2022-08-26 11:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-08-26 07:22 pm (UTC)AFAIK he doesn't do anything ritualistic wrt Mexica Gods. Just some prayer and academic-type of research. When he does do ritual stuff it's Orphic Hymns to the Greek Gods. From what I can tell he has very balanced and well-reasoned personality; none of the telltale signs of what happens to people who dabble with the more unsavory types of neopagan practice. So I'm to believe whatever contact he's had with Mesoamerican gods or spirits has been of an entirely benign nature.
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Date: 2022-08-26 07:25 pm (UTC)Re: Favorite Food?
Date: 2022-08-29 01:32 am (UTC)https://68voces.mx
Re: Centroamerican migration
Date: 2022-08-29 01:34 am (UTC)Re: Centroamerican migration
Date: 2022-08-29 05:11 pm (UTC)Re: Favorite Food?
Date: 2022-09-21 07:34 pm (UTC)