El 16 De Septiembre - Mexican or Mexican American

El 16 de Septiembre, the party that every Mexican or Mexican American waits for, it’s the day when Mexican independence is celebrated. This last 16 de Septiembre I attended to a party in Mexico near my house in Juarez. The party was organized by my oldest aunt; she has a very good style while organizing parties or celebrations but when she organizes the 16 de Septiembre party, she puts effort in making every party different. The last party I have been was organized by her and it was unforgettable.

When I arrived to the place where the party was taking place, the first thing I saw from the parking lot was a colorful piñata hanging outside, it had the form of a donkey. While I was walking to the entrance I could listen to the nice sound of the traditional music played in that day, a mix of violin, trumpet, guitars and a low and strong women voice. I entered to the party and I saw the colorful decorations that embellished even more the place and the nice smell of good Mexican food reached my nose. The tablecloths were of different colors and I could see the people enjoying their time and the little kids running around the place. I sat down in a table near my family. I looked around and there was every member of my family and close family friends, everybody was extremely happy. My cousin told me that she didn’t want to eat by herself so she invited me eat with her. We went to the table where all the food was placed. Tacos, burritos, gorditas, chile relleno and carnitas were part of it. I saw the most appetizing enchiladas ever and immediately my mouth turned watery. I thought about the strict diet I was doing but just by imagining the taste of the green pepper and the cheese in my mouth made me “forget” about it. I served me a pair of those delicious enchiladas and went back to where I was sitting while I was humming the song that was playing. I sat down next to my cousin while we observed the Folkloric group dancing, specially the waves created for the long and colorful dresses of the girls dancing.

After a while, the mariachi group arrived, they started playing the songs that I knew by memory and I knew what was going to happen next since my family used to do the exact same thing in every party. One of my family members asked me to sing with the mariachi. I had never sung in a big party, usually the times I sang in front of my family was in karaoke nights, but this time it was different, it was exciting. I got up and I took the microphone. I started singing “Cielito lindo”, while I was singing and enjoying the music I could see the mariachis expressions, they were delighted with my singing. At the end of the song everyone clapped and screamed “otra! otra!”. It was beautiful.

The time of breaking the piñata arrived. In Mexico, the tradition is to bind up the children’s eyes so the piñata is even more harder to brake. All the kids made a row waiting for their turn to try to break the piñata.