Mañanitas

At Tuesday’s Rotary Peten meeting, the club realized that two of their club members were celebrating birthdays on Saturday. Since Don Pedro is a professional mariachi singer, what better way to celebrate than to have mañanitas and sing mariachi songs for the lucky birthday boy and girl?! This is what happened on Saturday morning.

The tinkling alarm of my Nokia cell phone startled me out of my profound sleep. Was it 3:45 already? I groaned, clicked on my headlamp, check my sandals for cockroaches, and switched on the overhead light. It felt like I had fallen asleep moments before; how could it already be time to wake up? I shuffled into Flor’s bathroom to wash my face and prepare for this early morning. At least I am used to getting up at 5:00 am when I’m in Petén, I thought, 3:45 isn’t that different. The shukos, or hotdogs, I’d eaten the night before grumbled in my tummy. Shukos are cheese-filled sausages covered in guacamole, cabbage, mayonnaise, mustard, and ketchup, and laid in a toasted bun. They’d been delicious the night before, but they, like I, protested this early morning wake-up call. I lay back on my bed, waiting for Flor to stumble out of her room. It was time for mañanitas with Flores’ Rotary Club.

Frantically, Flor rushed out of her room at 4:15 talking loudly to Don Pedro, “Ayyyy, me pasó la hora! Ahorita llegamos! I just woke up but we’re on our way, Don Pedro!” Outside Javier’s white diesel pickup rumbled up to the house. We rushed from the house and hopped into the truck to pick up Don Pedro and his stereo equipment. Flor stayed on the phone calling all the Rotary members to meet at Doña Aida’s house to begin her birthday right or at least really early. The caravan of cars rolled across the gravelly, pot-holed streets of Santa Elena until we reached Doña Aida’s humble house. The men hauled Don Pedro’s stereo system on the roof of the pickup while Flor pulled out a pack of fire crackers from the back of the truck.

With a loud burst of explosions and white-hot sparks, the fire crackers gave a shocking wake-up call to the still dark and silent night (except for the dogs barking and roosters calling but they’re a regular morning feature in Peten). Don Pedro, in his moment, announced the lucky birthday girl and began singing his heart out to Doña Aida. All us Rotary members cracked up at the noise and commotion as we waited anxiously for Doña Aida’s sleepy face to immerge from the house and announce the end of her manañita. Her whole family appeared at the door as we shouted, “HAPPY BIRTHDAY, FELIZ CUMPLEAÑOS Doña Aida!!!” Then, we all tumbled back into our cars, with the birthday girl’s family in tow to celebrate the next Rotarian’s birthday.

Down more dark, early morning streets our caravan drove until we reached San Benito and Julio’s house. The routine repeated itself. Loud ruckus of fire crackers exploded in front of Julio and Sofi’s door spraying sparks and shredded newspaper all over their door step. Don Pedro began his deep mariachi singing to Julio (“Y sigo sieeeeeeeeeendo el reeeeeeey!”). We shouted and hooted for Julio to let us in to wish him a happy birthday. Finally, Julio and Sofi opened the door to the mañanita crew and we tumbled, muddy footed, into their living room.

The women busied themselves in the kitchen heating tamales and coffee, unwrapping the hot cornmeal from the banana leaves, placing them on plates, and passing them to the 14 hungry people waiting in the living room. Julio tuned in music on the radio and settled on techno, adding to the already frantic, heart-stopping morning of fire crackers and mariachi songs. We ate and boogied at 5:30 am in Julio and Sofi’s home. These Rotarians from Peten know how to celebrate birthdays. By 6:30 we began to yawn and think of the days obligations. It was time to go home.