Independence, My Origins, and a Dress

As some of you  may know, yesterday was Mexico's Independence day. Since i have dual citizenship i feel like it's only my duty to be patriotic on that day as well. I mean, i was patriotic this fourth of july so why not right? I guess patriotic would be the wrong term actually because that would probably imply that i would wear green, white and red. whoooops. Okay i guess we can say festive. Yeah, festive is a good descriptor here. hehe. 

We didn't really celebrate the holiday because it was a Monday but we did get together on Saturday night at my parents place to watch the boxing fight between Saul "Canelo" Alvarez & Floyd Mayweather Jr. That was really special to me. Now that i'm older i feel like i'm learning to truly appreciate my family and spending time with them is very important. Also i really like boxing (so what?) and Canelo Alvarez is my maaaaan. I love gingers and maaaaan have you seen those freckles? He didn't win the fight, but it's okay guys, he's only 23, he's got a long career ahead of him. But everyone at my parents house was pretty damn bummed (i kind of still am). 

Oh yeahhh, I'm not sure i have mentioned it here but I'm Mexican-Vietnamese. In case you were wondering why this asian girl is always talking about "growing up mexican",  i was born in beautiful Sinaloa, Mexico and moved to the states when i was six. Yes, i am fluent in Spanish and i'm deeply connected to my roots. I can't say the same about my Vietnamese side, although i do know all the curse words and words about eating and food, so i mean, i know all the important stuff, right? Hahaha but in all seriousness i'm really ashamed that i didn't apply myself and stick it out learning Vietnamese--i want to travel to Vietnam someday but i know that in order to get the experience i want, i will need to speak the language first. Perhaps that will be my goal next year, to learn Vietnamese (obviously i won't be a master at it but my goal is just to get by haha).

dress: from Guanajuato, MX, belt: thrifted, shoes: urbanog, glasses: coastal, necklace: erica weiner

So the thing you actually wanted to know: where did this dress come from!? This dress i purchased on a trip to Guanajuato in 2009. I went to visit my good friend Angie who was at the time studying aboard. It was quite honestly one of the most amazing trips i have ever been on. Guanajuato is a college town and it's full of beautiful colors and amazing people and of course the yummiest food. Guanajuato is also known for its mummy museum. Yes, you read that right. hahah maybe i'll post photos from that trip someday. i dont think i even wrote about it on LiveJournal...you know,  back in the LJ days haha. Anyway the dress was actually floor length and had short sleeves that fell down to my elbows! I really had a hard time cutting the dress because the embroidery work is just so delicate and beautiful i didn't want to wreck it! Luckily though the embroidery design on the middle of this dress fell right where i wanted it to be and i didn't have to break up the embroidery too much and then i just removed the sleeves with a seam ripper and added a hem. I wear this dress all the time (even during winter with tights) and i have a feeling it's a dress i'm probably gonna keep forever, or until the very last thread falls apart. Sometimes i wear it unbelted too!

Good Reads: Loteria by Mario Alberto Zambrano

I'm gonna come clean. I judge books by their cover. There, I said it. I just can't help myself, good cover design gets me every time. EVERY TIME. You guys have no idea just how many books I have purchased solely based on their covers. Oftentimes it really works out and the book turns out amazing but sometimes I get a few that are terrible books but have great covers. Also, cover redesigns sometimes get me. Even if I already have a copy of a book with the original cover, if there's a cooler redesign I have to get the new one. I have a problem. Obviously.

Anyway, I came across this charming little book Lotería: A Novel by Mario Alberto Zambrano. I mean, look at this cover. LOOK AT IT. As soon as I saw it, I had these fond memories of playing lotería as a kid with my family. I knew that I had to have this book, even if the story was awful, it wouldn't matter because the book cover was so beautiful and the illustrations inside were equally as beautiful and besides I had a coupon for it! Yay coupons!

So lotería's protagonist is an eleven year old girl named Luz who currently finds herself in a government home for children who are currently displaced or have been removed from their homes. Her father is in prison and her sister in critical condition at the ICU. Luz won't speak to anyone as is the cause of the traumatic events leading to her arrival at this home. At the encouragement of her aunt she begins to write in a journal to see if she can piece back together what happened and to prove her father was innocent by using the lotería cards to spark her memory. Each lotería card if you're unfamiliar with comes with an illustration. These images remind her of a memory, some good memories, others, not so good. But it is through these memories that as a reader we can piece together what has happened to Luz.

This heart wrenching unique little novel reads so beautifully. You don't even need to be a native spanish speaker or even had to have played lotería to understand the beauty of a child's innocence. I love books with child protagonists like Pigeon English and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time because children will just tell you how they feel. The innocent mistakes they make are endearing and the kids themselves can have a humor that is unmatched by an adult. But I can tell you that being a native spanish speaker and having had played lotería before made this book much more enjoyable just because I can relate to having those relatives who always are urging you to never forget your roots as well as all that spanglish that's spoken in the home.

If you're unfamiliar with lotería, by the way, it's a Mexican game similar to bingo but instead of numbers the cards have an array of images and there is an accompanying deck of cards with illustrations instead little numbered balls. The dealer reads the card's illustration out loud and you mark it off your card if its on there. Usually you use beans to mark off your card or you can also use small coins like pennies. Apparently I've been playing lotería all wrong since in the book it mentions how all lotería cards have a riddle, so the dealer gives the riddle instead of reading the card and the players have to be attentive and wise enough to guess the correct illustration on their card. They way I've played it the dealer reads off the names on the cards really quickly like those men at auction houses and you have to claim lotería before the next card is dealt or it doesn't count. Either there are different ways of playing the game depending on the region of mexico or my family has lied to me and we've played the game all wrong.

Anyway, I hope you get a chance to pick this gem up. It really is unlike anything else I have read--a perfect debut novel from author Mario Alberto Zambrano. You can catch up with Mr. Zambrano via his tumblr. Enjoy!