Una Fiesta

On Saturday night I was invited to a graduation/birthday party for one of my longtime students, Jaqi. I'm always a little apprehensive about socializing with my students and their families, but she practically begged me to come and so I did. Going to parties hosted by Latin American peoples definitely has its quirks, which I found out on Saturday.

The invitation to the party said that it would start at 6PM, so not wanting to be there too early, I planned to get there about 6:30ish. When I got there there were only three cars in the parking lot. At first I thought I was in the wrong place, but there was a sign out front that said "Party Here." I didn't know what to do, so I went into town to get some cash at the ATM and fill my tank up with gas, giving me another 20 minutes for other people to show up.

I returned to the hall at 7 o'clock and there were still only three cars. I texted my student, who told me that the party started at 7, but that I should go inside because her parents were there. "Great," I thought, "just what I wanted to do: socialize with her parents who didn't speak a word of English." I gingerly made my way into the hall and was greeted by immediate stares.

"Who's the gringo?" was the question I could hear from the minds of all of those staring faces. I hoped Jaqi would get there soon. I tried to socialize a bit with Jaqi's parents and friends, but it was uncomfortable at best! Finally after about 20 minutes Jaqi showed up.

"The invitation said 7!," was the first thing I said to her.

She laughed at my naiveté, telling me that for all Spanish parties people know to come an hour after the given time. How was I supposed to know that? Well, at least she was there and I could finally socialize with somebody comfortably. Jaqi started introducing me to some of her family and friends and once they found out I was "teacher," they began to treat me like a king. They all were looking at me in a different way now and they started blindly taking my picture from afar, and I was (happily) ushered first to the buffet line once it opened.

Soon after Jaqi had arrived, her brother Ever came. Ever is a former student of mine, two years Jaqi's junior, and he dropped out during the last school year. Ever is quite the character and even though I told him I would no longer speak to him if he dropped out, his endearing nature prevents me from staying angry at him. Ever was happy to see me and kept by my side for most of the party. It was nice.

The Band

When I had first arrived at the hall, the band hired for the party was setting up and playing really loud Spanish music as I sat there feeling uncomfortable. I later found out that they were brought in from Connecticut and that they were very well-known in the world of Guatemalan-Americans. They hit "traffic on the ferry" (?) and had come over an hour late. They seemed to take forever to set up, but once they did they were certainly a spectacle. All of the band members were dressed in lime green blazers and black pants. They looked to me just as I would have imagined them to. They reminded me of Ricky Ricardo playing at the Tropicana, but when the bandleader began to speak, I knew he wasn't like Ricky at all.

Now my Spanish isn't perfect, far from it, but I get by when I need to, and when he started the festivities at almost 8:30 I was totally lost. I had absolutely no idea what the heck he was saying, and when everyone else started clapping, I just clapped along. I was standing on the side of the room with Ever when I saw him beckon Jaqi from the table. It was right after one of those long rounds of applause.

She smiled back at him and came over towards where we were standing. He took her hand and led her to the dance floor. It was just like a wedding's first dance as the two of them danced across the floor to everyone's applause. The two of them smiled all along and it was very sweet.

Once that first dance was done, it was time for me to high-tail it out of there. Now I can dance, yes, but I don't know any of the Latin dances and I wasn't about to make a fool of myself, so I announced my departure to a disappointed Jaqi and Ever. I posed for a couple of pictures with them, said my good nights to the family and headed home.

In all, it was an interesting evening full of quirks and eccentricities that I'm not used to. I realized that night, though, that I love my job!