Domingo

Hoy es domingo. To Mexicans, Sunday is a very special day of the week even if they don’t go to church. That is the day reserved to do things that they can’t do the rest of the week. Our family usually began Sunday morning by going to mass at one of the many churches that we frequented: Holy Cross Church, St. Francis Assisi, St. Procopius, Providence of God, or Imaculate Heart of Mary. After mass, we would go to Mercado Internacional on 45th and Ashland for bolillos and carnitas so we could eat while we went on our all-day excursion–or as we say in Spanish, “Nos paseábamos.” We would make the rounds of different relatives and family friends. Some Sundays we would stay home and other Mexicans would visit us. In the summer, we would go to the beach or the zoo. But the thing that I remember most about these Sundays was what Mexicans call el domingo. Literally, it means the Sunday. However, on Sundays, Mexican adults give children money as their domingo. It’s just one of those Mexican customs that no one knows how it began. Normally, all the adults give money to the children. I remember my Uncle Simon giving us a quarter each and a half-dollar to my brother Rick because Uncle Simon was his godfather. And if the adults forget about doling out el domingo, the children are allowed to remind them. When I was in Mexico, I had completely forgotten all about el domingo. As luck would have it, I met many children every Sunday that I was in Mexico. My first Sunday in Celaya, some of my second cousins all of whom were under twelve reminded me. At first, I thought they were being rude, but then I remembered that that was how we acted when we were children when it came to el domingo. So I gave each child twenty pesos each, about two dollars. And they were all happy with that. I actually enjoyed giving them their domingo!