My Name is Contreraz...and I am America.



My name is Contreraz.  I am America.  How is that for bold? When I say America, know I am using it as a synonym for diversity.  America is diversity.  Contreraz is diveristy.  Get it?  All it took was going to the Contreraz Family Reunion last weekend to be reminded of this.  Someone should have warned Billings, MT that this was going to happen.  The Magic City had a right to know it was being invaded by this bat-shit crazy clan of Mexicans.

Billings, MT before the "Brown Tornado" that was the Contreraz Family Reunion

We gathered for our first gathering on Friday.  About 125 of us at South Park.  It was a typical Montana-Mexican potluck:  Albertsons fried chicken, soggy taco salads, and $5 Little Caeser's pizza.  As I surveyed the gathering I saw lots of colors: brown, white, black, lots of economic diversity, and maybe a few cousins with criminal records. 

Then on Saturday, we had the Mexican Fiesta, the annual fund-raiser for Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church, the backbone to my family's faith. 

All day long, we imbibed in food, music (both live and recorded), folklorico and popular dance performances and drunken people watching. Oh and cascarones.  If you aren't familiar with the tradition of cascarones, basically you spend 25 of your hard earned cents on a confetti-filled egg, find some unassuming individual and slam the thing on their head without them knowing its coming.  The confetti part is only half the fun.  You also get to inflict a mini concussion all to the amusement of the those arround you.  Trust me, after 32 years on God's green earth, it never gets old. 

Later on, Saturday night, we had a Mexican Dance.  This was a blast.  As tradition dictates, my siblings, their spouses, my wife and I all gathered prior to the dance and drank heavily.  The original point of the gathering was to save money by drinking at home before the dance.  One of our family's many  Mexican-like qualities of being cheap. Sorta like bringing your own snacks into a movie theater.  On a side note, I have to mention this:  In an earlier post, "What were they thinking" I blogged about a Mexican monstrosity known as Botas Picaduras.  Guess what!  There was a guy at the dance wearing them!  This fad has spread quicker to Montana than Tiajuanan Herpes! 

Then on Sunday, was the big gathering.  A Menudo/Posole brunch at my cousin Mary's house.  Yes Menudo, the soup made from cow stomach and hominy, that every Mexican pretends they love, but secretly loathes. And here, I really got to see my family's diversity. 

First, as you could probably assume by the fact that I am both Mexican AND Catholic, I have a huge family.  Immediately there are 7 siblings with spouses and kids, etc.  Dad, Mexican (American Born, but Mexican for sure).  Mom white.  Me, mixed (but you already knew that).  I have two adopted sisters.  One fully Mexican.  The other, Mexican, Black, American Indian. Wife and Sisters-in-Law are white.  Brothers-in-Law, both Mexican (the real kind, born there and everything). On top of that, throw in 20 or so nieces and nephews, and we are quite the crew. So that's my immediate family. 

Here are some of my immediate family, before the dance

Then things get colorful. 
Within my extended family, as mentioned above we have some very successful, educated members.  And we also have some who never finished high school.  We have some Teachers and Nurses, as well as some Welders and Welfare Moms.  We have the preppy pink polo-shirted white cousins, and the cholo prison tattooed, "don't f-with-me" cousins.  We have the red-neck Uncle who, though he's Mexican, wears a "Welcome to America, Now Speak English" t-shirt, as well as the deported paisa brother-in-law who couldn't be there because of *a-hem* border issues.  We have alcoholics, drug addicts (both recovering and embracing) as well as workaholics and work-a-phobics.  We have the Pro-lifers (my aunt was wearing a "What if Mary had an Abortion" t-shirt)as well as the Pro-choicers (my cousin works the Planned Parenthood booth at the fair).  We have the sanctified as well as the sanctimonious. All were gathered to celebrate our our roots as Contreraz's. 

It was great to see and talk with family I either only see once or twice a year or rarely if ever.  With some family members, it was like I had seen them just yesterday.  Others, it was great to catch up and find out where life had taken them in the months and years since I had seen them last.

A lot of family weren't able to make it of varying circumstances.  Some too poor. Some too tired. Some too lazy.  Some serving our country in the military.  Some too apathetic.  But they too represent the many facets of the Contreraz family.  It was pretty amazing seeing all these different people, coming from the same ancestry coming together and sharing the love our parents, grandparents and great grandparents had for us all, and taught us all. 

Now, I'm not going to be all "utopian" about this.  Our family has had its falling-outs and fights.  We have family members who would rather not talk to each other let alone see each other.  But that is what makes my huge family so great. With so many options you can find someone who you can connect with, get along with and laugh with.  And to be honest, even for the family members who aren't close,  we can still manage to get along. To tolerate each other.  To love each other.  Why? Because we were taught to.  Our parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins all invested time and modeled for for the younger generations  how to act.  We have a bond that opens the doors of diversity within our own family:  Contreraz spirit. 
Given the climate of our country, I sometimes wish I could bottle it up and sell it to the rest of America.  But until I can figure out how to do this, I will simply just model the behaviors and beliefs towards diversity and respecting others that I learned from my family to those I teach and work with.  Then they too will see how I indeed am Contreraz, and I am indeed what America not only is but should be.



Two more things: 1.  Its been a couple of weeks since I have blogged, and for anyone who has checked to see if I had blogged, I apologize if I disappointed.  I am back to my regular Sunday schedule for blogging.
2.  I have almost had over 2,000 hits on my blog so far, so for that I thank you! As always I encourage you to leave messages or comments regarding my posts.