Food and Other Good Thoughts

It´s 5 p.m. and (signs of advancing age), instead of thinking "It´s Miller time!", I look forward to my afternoon cup of coffee. I ordered a "capuchino mocha" and it´s absolutely delicious!
Today is Sunday (when I wrote this), so it´s the senora of the house´s day off, so to speak. This is the day she doesn´t have to make meals for us. I could poke around in the kitchen and come up with toast and juice. Instead I went for breakfast to this wonderful large patio cafe and had eggs "a la Mexicana," which means scrambled eggs with onions, bell peppers, and tomatoes chopped up in it. Yummy! It came with a large bowl of papaya, bananas, and canteloupe, toast, frijoles, coffee, and, of course, tortillas. More yummy! And, since this place obviously caters to gringos with expensive breakfast tastes, it came to a whopping $4.
For my main meal of the day, I had fried chicken with french fries, salad, frijoles, tortillas, chips and salsa. This too cost $4. Ironically, the 12 oz. can of Diet Coke cost $1.50.
San Cristobal is definitely a town of music! Three nights ago it was the marimba orchestra attended by people of all ages, but most noticably, older people and couples with little kids. Tonight it´s obviously young people´s night. The teenagers are in their seats already. It´s 5 o´clock. I assume the concert starts at 6. The band is setting up. The average age of the band members seems to be about 18. Later, as I walked back from a movie, the place was really rocking. Everyone was standing and/or dancing and obviously having a great time.
I completely missed the action last Friday night. The university was hosting a conference on the socio-economic future of Latin America. I saw the signs advertising it. I decided not to go, figuring I would not understand enough of it to make it worthwhile. Lo and behold, a surprise guest appearance was made by Subcomandante Marcos himself, he with the wool mask over his face and short pipe in his mouth.
I´m told that he and his "army" continue to support themselves from the contributions of north american and european gringos. Things, at least in San Cristobal, are very quiet indeed. The locals I have met and talked to would agree that the future of the Zapatistas seems pretty bleak indeed. Given the plight of women in the indigenous communities, it´s no wonder that 50% of his army and 30% of the Zapatista leadership are women. His movement now seems to be against NAFTA, globalization, neo-liberalism, etc. In the 90´s, the Mexican government cut a deal with the Zapatistas and the "autonomous" indigenous governments, in which, in true Mexican style, enough money passed under the table that the revolution came to an abrupt end. Now the Mexican government sends monthly payments to the indigenous groups and buys their cooperation and lassitude.
For the Zapatistas, it´s much easier to fight against something like the Mexican government than it is to take on Burger King or Wal-mart or whatever. You just can´t fight globalized international corporations like you can a local government and its soldiers. Too many kids all over the world can hardly wait to have their next meal at Burger King. In addition, there are now even skeptics that say that Marcos is lining his pockets with the gringos´ dollars. Quien sabe? In order to be a truly romantic beloved revolutionary, you have to get killed off young, a la Che, or resign yourself to failure (Marcos) or the life of a dictatorial bureaucrat (Fidel). Okay, time for me to step off my soapbox and go back to memorizing verbs in the subjunctive mood. Hasta luego!