Don Manuel and the Fifteen Year Old Girl

I met the Visoso family when I worked at Centro San Juan Diego. The husband and wife team seemed to  always be together, they seemed shy and quiet, and the one outstanding thing I noticed was their faith. They both were very religious and brought up their children in a strong spiritual home. He was referred to as Don Manuel.

They had come from Puebla, Mexico and settled in Boulder, Colorado. The children in Colorado consisted of one daughter and two sons and I noticed they celebrated every holiday or birthday together. It was a family who loved praying, being together, music and dancing. On one of my planned pilgrimage to New Mexico to the Santuario de Chimayo, while we were on the bus, Don Manuel stood up to sing. He could belt out the songs like a professional. His wife, did not get up to sing, but she mouthed all the words.

Yesterday, March 14, 2014, I was invited to celebrate a friend's daughter fifteenth birthday. I arrived at the home and found a production line of women preparing food. One was chopping, some were putting fruit on a stick, one was mixing something on the stove and one was stirring. I sat and watched everyone hustling around in the kitchen and felt a bit out of place since I did not have a job to do! Before long, squash was set in front of me, a knife was handed to me and I began slicing the squash. The men were out in the patio skewering chicken and
beef on a stick for barbecuing. What a warm and happy atmosphere as everyone rushed around preparing for the party. Balloons and streamers hung in the patio and colorful tablecloths covered the tables.

When four handsome men in Mariachi outfits walked in, I knew the party was not going to be an ordinary birthday party. They had come to serenade the birthday girl. We all went out to the patio and were entertained by the four men. My friend's daughters joined the Mariachi -- one on guitar and the other on violin. Two very talented young ladies! At one point, Don Manuel joined the Mariachi and began singing with the group. The man knows the songs, though a few times he ad-libbed after missing a few words and his wife
whispered to me, "He is seventy-three years old so it's only natural he forgets the words at times!" When I was twenty I could
not remember words to one song, much less many songs, so he impressed me with his memory of  songs and  lyrics. He later told me that when he was growing up his whole family was musically inclined. Everyone played an instrument or sang.

The food, as usual, was excellent, the conversation interesting, the wine relaxing, the music exciting, and the atmosphere warm. Everyone sang Las Mananitas in Spanish and then Happy Birthday in English while the young lady blew out the fifteen candles on her cake.