El Cargadero, Zacatecas
12.21.05
I’m not a nap person. I find it difficult to go to sleep with light streaming through the windows. My whole anti-nap policy flew out the window today. Well, there is really no window. The room where I’m staying is incredibly dark and cold. I wrapped myself in a blanket and slept until darkness fell.
The other thing that had never attracted me about naps is that I just wasn’t sleepy in the early afternoon. That’s different today too. I’m dealing with a time change coupled with a new level of boredom I am not used to.
I know I’m being selfish and bratty and all the things I often accuse Lori of, but I’m really starting to regret spending $300 just to be out of LA six days earlier. I should have just waited for my parents. At least then I wouldn’t be stuck all the time with Mamá Toni and Papá Chepe. I know someday I’ll value this time with them, but not as a 25 year-old who wants to see things quickly and be on her own, even in a place she doesn’t know too well.
It’s this, my need for control of myself, that bugs me about being with them all the time. They treat me like a 4 year-old.
Oh… and el Cargadero seems like a ghost town during the day. Few cars pass by the central plaza, maybe a cow or tractor. Few young men and women are around. I see baby boomer men and a few kids. But at night, the youth come out to play volleyball in the central plaza. That looks cool.
I know now why my mom told me not to come here during my August 2004 trip. There’s not much for me here. I have very little family here and then my grandparents are not up for showing me around.
I miss Ralph a lot too. I really just want to tell him I’m thinking of him, a lot.
I have another 10 days of this, but at least mom, dad, tío Pancho and tía Martha and the girls will be here by Saturday. That should be good.
Oh yeah, I think I’m getting sick, or maybe it’s the internet withdrawal.
very descriptive writing, I could visualize myself in the room, i know the feeling well of being with your grandparents, but wanting to be somewhere else, and you are very correct, when you said later on the time spent with them will be invaluable. One time I was drinking with some family members, at a “birthday” party for the kids, and I took my grandma, she wanted to go home, so I took her, and when she got home she started telling me all kinds of stories of her youth, and all i could think about was, “I gotta go granny!” I stayed and listened to her for like an hour, then split..
I know exactly what you mean about being treated like a child at the age of 25. I love going to visit my family, don’t get me wrong. I don’t have that party kind of fun, because most of my family is Pentecostal, so. . .no drinking, no clubbing, no nothing pretty much. Once when I was 21, I went shopping with three of my aunts. I’m closer to them then my cousins, because most of my cousins are around 12. Well, we were all about to cross the street, and I kid you not. . I had 5 hands come at me ready to “hold my hand” to cross the street. My mom was laughing so hard she had to stop midway to catch her breath.
Yeah. . .i got more stories, but those I’ll keep to myself! LOL
Treasure the memories. They’re worth more then a thousand words.
well the town may not have much but it might be a good time to reflect on life and stuff. write ralph a couple of letters, kick back and journal, nap or read a book. we live in such a hurried state that sometimes coming to a complete stop like that shocks our system.
like these thingies ju put on the internet. more fotos of el cargadero would be nice …preferablu wis out cement..i.e does anyone have any pics of el cargadero before “los imigrantes” gringosized it? tank and guns!
p.s. I love gringos/gringas!
best time to go to mexico is october, december, or april, august is always dead. its boring, a few years back i went with my dad and there was nothing to do at all.
what do you get by talking about the rancho you dont have anything better to do….
Hello:
I would like to comment on the wounderful pictures you’ve taken of a place I hold very dear to my heart. My parents are from El Cargadero and I visit very often, mostly in April. I noticed that you are attending UCLA. I have a second cousin by the name of Sandy Saldivar who is a sociology major who also is a descendent from El Cargadero. I’m curious to know more about you and how El Cargadero relates to you.
my wife’s family is from El cargadero… the Ureno/Gamboa family
those were the good old days being in my home town and i people i really care about viva el cargadero y la familia gamboa y mejia
It seems to me that eventhough I was mainly raised in the U.S. and went to UCI, got my degree, I have never forgotten my roots and the quality of my people. Its kool to see that there is a place to share our thoughts that there is a little ghost town that will always be in in our hearts that brings us together.
Y ahora ahi les va en Español Compas!
Parece que aunque me crie mas en los estados unidos y estudie en la Universidad de California en Irvine, nunca se me han olvidado mis raices ni la calidad de mi gente, que hay un lugar bonito, para compartir nuestros pensamientos, que hay un ranchito abandonado que estara en nuestro corazones y nos unira.