In ruins

Jiorgina drove us in her air conditioned car out past the family ranch where they grow, among other things, cebada (barley) that they sell to cervezerias (beer manufacturers), trigo (wheat), fresa (strawberries), chiles and brocole. The ruins are located about three miles from Pueblo Nuevo in Abasolo but no one in B’s family had been out to see them before. There are no signs, but we turn off a dusty dirt road and come to a fenced-in parking lot where a guy in green fatigues stands by the gate. Jiorgina tells him we’ve come to see the ruins and he lets us pass.

When we get out of the car, we’re greeted by a middle-aged guy in faded baggy pants and a light blue tee-shirt. He has a red bandana around his weather-beaten forehead and sun-bleached, matted long hair. He is our guide, Nicolas. (Later on in our walk he and Jiorgina talk and find out that their families are distantly related. Of course.) Nicolas takes us up a dirt path around a hill, where we come to a fully excavated pyramid. He tells us they were found about two years ago and date back to around 300 AD. Beatriz asks if they’re Chichimecas, but he says no, they’re los Avajeños del Bajío. (I can’t find anything about them online.)

We continue past the excavated ruins to another that’s been partially uncovered. Nicolas waves his arm across the areas between the ruins we’re standing on and the hills beyond and says there are buried ruins everywhere. We ask how they were found and he says by infrared camera from airplanes, clued in by longtime talk of ruins buried here. He also points out the areas where priests lived, the ball courts, where food was stored, and where human sacrifice was done – hearts cut out still beating. I joke with Maddy about how she said she always leaves her heart in Mexico when she visits: “¡Maddy dejó su corazon en Mexico!”

There are lots of cacti around, and Beatriz tells us what they are: nopales (pads or stems of prickly pear cactus), which we will eat many times during our stay in Mexico; pitayas, which she says are sweet and delicious; and the xoconostles (green sour fruit, or tuna, of a cactus).

For their part, Beatriz and Jiorgina say they were stunned by the size and extent of the ruins right under their noses. They'd assumed something much smaller and insignificant. I'm glad our visit gave them a reason to come out and see them.

Comments

[e]

The day Jose and I took our English friend Jon to Malinalco, my father had written on the kitchen's message board: "La grandeza de Mexico esta en (sus) ruinas".

[leslee]

De acuerdo. Although we found plenty of grandeza de alma above ground. :-)

[e]

Oh, yes... That greatness cannot be demolished... easily...