Family chapter Three: Jonathan's Magical Mexico
The Fernandez- Macgregor family from Los Angeles visited us in May, stayed with one of our lovely Mexican-Maya host families, and fully immersed in the language and culture. Journalist mom Hilary, screenwriter dad Jonathan and sons Theo and Benji all wrote about their experiences in travel blogs that they're keeping up as they continue an amazing adventure through South America. They’ve kindly allowed us to publish excerpts from their entries describing their experience at Na'atik and in our town, Felipe Carrillo Puerto. Below, Jonathan gives his account of his experience
My Magical Real Life in Mexico!
For us in America, the stories of Latin America are a special genre of literature: magical realism. Even before we came, every time I told Benji what we would see on our trip he would say, “When you talk about Latin America it sounds like a dream.”But you get here, and you realize that when Gabriel Garcia Marquez wrote his great fiction, he was just writing the truth. Life is magical here–in ways both good and bad. The mystical mixes with the real and all are delivered as fact. You hear stories you think must be legend, and then that thing happens to you, and you know it is true. Things start to feel like omens–and you start to look for meanings in small events. Nothing feels like a coincidence. There is portent in all. Last night when we walked down the street after dinner the moon hung low in the sky and the stars looked so close you could touch them and it felt like we had gone back in time, to when the earth was closer to the stars. It looked like a dream. We woke up this morning and there was a dead cat behind the wheel of the car. We thought it was sleeping, but Dona Norma came out and told us it was dead. She said it was hit by a car, or killed by dogs. We will never know. She moved it out of the way and placed it, dead, on the wall. “Es duro,” was the only thing she yelled to her daughter. In the afternoon, it was still draped there on the wall, as if taking a nap in a weird position. Down the street a dead dog was lying in the street. Was it an omen?Today we had classes at a lagoon in the middle of the jungle. It was a lagoon called Sihil Noh Ha, which is Mayan for something like the place where the water is born. In the middle of the lagoon is a cenote. We had classes under a giant palapa, then kayaked out to the cenote, where there was a dock, and a diving board that consisted of a board nailed to to it, plus a rickety bamboo ladder held to the dock by old rope, with rusty nails protruding. The water was warm as a bathtub, until you go to the cenote, where the water is cool. Edwin, our teacher, said no one knows how deep it is. When you swim, little fish nibble you. In Tulum they take these same fish and put them in a box so they can eat the dead skin off your feet for a pedicure.The lagoon and the cenote were absolutely deserted. Just us, swimming in this totally magical place, that could be a portal to another world. In fact the Maya will tell you, in all seriousness, that some believe that when the Spanish came they believed some Maya escaped to the underworld, and have been living there ever since. They say that some divers and fishermen see the lights of UFOs flying out of the cenotes in the ocean, and flying off into the night towards the stars. They cite evidence of Mayan technological genius, the Mayan number system, Mayan astrological knowledge (the way pyramids and cities were built to let light hit certain buildings at certain times) and a place in Chichen Itza where you can clap your hands and the echo sounds like a quetzal. There are those who claim that the Maya, always advanced in technology, have continued to create an advanced society deep beneath this world. The cenotes are one way in. The first day you are here, still practical and American, the story seems so absurd you just try not to laugh. Two days later, it seems possible.Our teacher, Edwin, comes from a famous family in Felipe Carillo. His grandfather was Spanish, and came to the new world when his step-father came to hunt for gold in the Mayan cities. One day, as he was returning home from school with his books, his stepfather called to him, “Come!” And he set off with his step father, a translator, a woman and two explorers, to look for gold. They came upon some Mayan warriors who instantly killed them–all except the little boy. He put a book on top of his head and it stopped the machete from killing him. The Mayan warriors believed it was a sign so they took him back to their leader and they were still going to kill him, but the Mayan women intervened, saying, you cannot kill him, he is just a little boy. So he was raised by Mayan women, taught the Maya Spanish, and became fluent in Maya himself. Later he became a Mayan Secretary General, and led the Maya against the Spanish during the resistance. There is a plaque to him in the town square. So you see, you start out thinking this is the craziest story you have ever heard, but it is true! Always, I am listening to Spanish, thinking, I cannot be understanding this correctly! Bees without stingers? A trucker who killed a police officer right here? A man who drove off with pineapples and men from his village in the back of his truck? A road of white so you can see jaguars? Dogs can lead you to other worlds…I assure you, I have not had a drop of tequila or a sip of ayahuasca. Life here just feels magical. Like anything can happen. There are wells of deep, sweet water in the forests and jaguars by the lagoons. There are wild dogs in the street and pregnant girls and people die in horrible accidents every day, and then you have the best agua fresca you have ever had in your life made from a strange fleshy fruit called a mame, that is a custardy relative of the avocado, and you think life could not get any better.This is Mexico. I feel like anything can happen here.
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The best way to experience the Mexican lifestyle is in person, with a Na’atik Immersion experience. Not only do you live with a local Mexican-Maya family, sharing home-cooked meals and free time, but also receive expert instruction in your chosen language at our school. Best of all, every immersion experience helps fund our subsidized and free local education program, helping local students to access opportunities and make their own futures.