(Ir/Sur)reality

I lived in Sinaloa with my parent until I was 17. I moved to Guadalajara to attend college. And I never thought of this before until I arrived to Tijuana, but I'd never met a divorced couple in Sinaloa. I knew of the “casa chica” (mistresses’ house) that some people had, or other families people I knew had, but never of anybody divorced.

The same way with parent-child relationships. I was never aware of the kind of problems that really exist in families. Living with my parents, brothers and sisters was an exercise on how not to communicate. I do not think my parents did, but most of my brothers/sisters lived with (at least) two personalities. In the town my parents still live none of us could do no wrong. Drinking, driving, going to the movies; any activity we did, it was reported back to my parents (they were school teachers, all the town knew them, or so it seems!) Any toe out of the line will be treated as a mortal sin. And even I was hurt at times by my parents talking about disappointment, I knew two things: 1) I was not doing anything really wrong and 2) my parents cared and loved me.

However, I attended High School and Jr. High School in Los Mochis (45 minutes away) and since there were no buses between my town and Los Mochis after 8:30 pm, if I was going to a party I have to stay overnight. Problem solved, I could do anything I wanted, since my parents never knew. My brothers did the same thing (except one of them, who did it at home and therefore is known as the party-goer/bohemian brother).

Finally going to Guadalajara was a eye-opener. I lived with relatives (my aunt, sister of my father) and they had a similar attitude against going out and having fun (partying especially). For a while it was back to square one, but I had the process set this time.

That was one of the things I did not want to do to my children. I would like them to have a clear personality, not that they don’t hide something from me, but I would like them to try not to do it or to feel comfortable not doing it. In any case, it does not work properly. But hell, we try.

See you around