Thanksgiving in Mexico

The week before Thanksgiving, while those of you in the States were happily surrounded by Thanksgiving food, decorations, sales, and overall ambience, we Americans here in Mexico were scouring the stores for items that would be staples in the United States at this time of year. Although Monterrey is close to the U.S., not very many people celebrate Thanksgiving here. There are those few Mexican-American families who celebrate it with turkey tacos (literally, I’m sure), but for the most part, it is a holiday that goes unnoticed (for obvious reasons, since it’s American!). However, for this very reason, my American friends and I decided to take advantage of this opportunity to share one of our culture’s most important traditions with both the Mexicans and the internationals here in Monterrey. In fact, I celebrated Thanksgiving twice!:

Thanksgiving #1: For the Rotaract Club
Kristen, the other Rotary Scholar here, and I realized that we wouldn’t have a more perfect opportunity than Thanksgiving to do exactly what Rotary has given us scholarships for: to further cross-cultural understanding and friendships. Thanksgiving is an all-American holiday that in and of itself celebrates friendship between cultures – the Native Americans and the pilgrims – and so we decided to share every aspect of it with the Monterrey Rotaract club: the food, the giving thanks, and the cross-cultural friendships.

We had this Thanksgiving dinner the Sunday before Thanksgiving. Kristen and I went shopping a couple of days before, crossing our fingers that we could actually find a turkey in Mexico at this time of year. We lucked out and found one at Costco! But you would never think that shopping for a holiday that for us is such a given would be so difficult. Certain things that would be at every grocery store in the U.S. we had to search high and low for in various stores here. And other things we didn’t think we would find we actually had no problem finding! For example, we had no problem finding a turkey or an already-made pumpkin pie, but we couldn’t find pumpkin-pie filling or packaged stuffing (we eventually found the stuffing at Wal-Mart after we had already started making our own). And don’t even try to get fresh cranberries here. Canned cranberries, yes, but you have to dig! But, after going back and forth to Wal-Mart, Soriana, and Costco, we eventually got everything together for the Thanksgiving dinner.

We spent all day cooking on Sunday and the Rotaractors arrived around 7 p.m. Neither Kristen nor I had ever made a turkey before, but it turned out GREAT! Since none of our guests had ever experienced Thanksgiving before, we first told them the story of Thanksgiving, and then each of us went around and said what we were thankful for.

We also had a surprise visit from a man from England – a co-worker of one of the Rotaractors. He too was very excited to experience his first Thanksgiving. It’s good to know that after a few hundred years, there can be perfectly friendly relations between Americans and British, especially at a holiday like Thanksgiving! :) Really though, it was such a great experience to have Mexicans, Americans, and British gathered together, all politics aside, to celebrate one of our greatest holidays, which has become simply a recognition of the wonderful family and friends – of every culture and ethnicity – in one’s life.

Thanksgiving #2: For My International and Mexican Friends
On actual Thanksgiving Day, my friend Linda (from California) and I cooked Thanksgiving dinner for our international and Mexican friends here. This time I knew exactly which stores sold which products, and I knew all about preparing the turkey (turkey guts don’t phase me anymore). I have to say, I was pretty proud of the cooking skills I developed, considering that I did not even used to be able to make pasta! (Yes, even after college).

Anyway, everything turned out great for this Thanksgiving too. No one here had ever experienced the holiday either, so again, we loved being able to bring this American tradition to Mexico! Also present were people from Germany, France, Australia, and Canada.

Stay tuned for pictures – will post them soon. Happy belated Thanksgiving to everyone – hope it was wonderful!