Christmas in Mexico

Freshly made tamales stuffed with spicy beef, menudo steaming on the back stove, too many kids running underfoot shouting and playing, an excited air of anticipation to the house. You wouldn’t guess it’s an apartment in northern Sonora, Mexico – it’s just Abuelita’s house to us. Warmth, joy and family was what Christmas in Mexico was about this year. A last-minute excursion all the way from Houston, Texas – we drove fifteen hours in one day to save time and money – we spent precious time with the family we left in the southwest when we migrated to Texas sixteen months ago. After building more memories, eating way too much delicious holiday food Mexican style, and visiting Nana Antonia’s gravesite, we headed back home. Another fifteen-hour drive straight through.


It was on that drive home that I realized how hard this trip had really been. Not for the kids, they had the usual “too much fun, candy and fireworks!” But for Juan. And his siblings. And Zenon (Abuelito), and everyone else who loves Kikey (Abuelita) and her family.  This was the first family Christmas in Mexico in twenty-two years.

She lives in that apartment now, located just a few yards from the fence that towers over the border between Mexico and Arizona. Just a few miles on the other side of the fence sits her ghost-like house, empty of her matronly spirit, no mouth-watering smells in her kitchen. No more sitting under the cool, expansive porch next to the rosebushes, watching the kids play baseball. There is no one swinging quietly on the porch swing, spitting out sunflower seed shells while the bees cruise the garden.

I realize that this is a familiar story for too many in this country now. There are far more tragic stories out there, children separated from their families, spouses forced apart by the law. But when it happens to your own, and you live a moment in their struggle, and experience just a glimpse of their pain, it changes perspective a bit. Just a bit.

So we accept this new trial; anyway, what can be done? We stand by our Abuelita and try to give her enough hugs, enough love, to last until the next visit. She does have family there, thank God. They take good care of her and are truly holding down the fort. So we pray for them all; for strength to get through this, creativity to find a better way if there is one, and most of all, that God keep everyone safe and healthy, as He so graciously does.