el dia de la madre

I know it’s been forever since I’ve posted something. But rather than going back and trying to explain all those amazing experiences we’ve had in the last two months (including two trips to Cochabamba and a visit from my mom and aunt!), I’m going to write about something that’s currently taking up a good chunk of my time.
Mother’s Day is uniquely celebrated on May 27th in Bolivia. It commemorates a date back in colonial times when the men of Cochabamba went off to war, leaving the city vulnerable to attack. When the Spanish came to take over, they met a front of angry women who somewhat successfully fended them off. I can tell you that the furvor of this holiday still exists, though not through armed weapons and a war with the Spanish so much as dances, poems, bright decorations, flashy adornments and many other things that have the power to carry deep sentiment. At a youth group retreat this weekend, one girl shared that we should be conscious of this date and the deep strength of a mother’s love being perhaps the strongest force on earth (a fifteen year old girl said this), and that even if we as youth don’t show it, we should at least come to recognize it and have a quiet reverence for our mothers. This particular girl’s mother has a drinking problem (or so I’ve been told), and so she spends a lot of time at her aunts’ house.
What’s slightly peculiar to outsiders (ie the sisters and I), is that every woman is celebrated during this months’ activities. When I am put into a mothers’ raffle or invited to sit at a mothers’ table I try to say, “but I’m not a mother,” it seems to be a mute point…”well you’re a mother-to-be” they tell me. So I suppose I might call it instead of mothers’ day, it’s kind of like womanliness day, in a very positive sense…a celebration of the inner strength and determination of every woman to work hard to keep those around her alive, with full bellies, and thriving.
The other interesting this about this date is that I look around and the people orchestrating all of this almost all women. Teachers organize school events, women in offices remind the men of the date and make helpful suggestions of how the program should work, mothers work overtime in the month of May to pay for children’s’ costumes and for dried goods to make gift baskets. Men, especially men who work out in the country side, rarely leave enough money with their wives for extra things such as these. In one of the women’s’ groups where I participate, we often tell stories about our friends (don’t tell anyone, but I kind of suspect that sometimes we’re telling stories about ourselves but use friends as pseudonyms). Anyway, one of the worst dia de la madre stories I’ve heard about a friend is that a few of her children sent her money from Spain for Mothers’ Day and she dreamt up what she would spend it on. On Mothers’ Day night, her youngest son came home (drunk as the story goes) with a grand mariachi show to serenade her for mothers’ day…. After the show the son came to her and asked, could you lend me some money to pay the mariachis so they can go home? My friend Lynn posed the question yesterday, Is Mothers’ Day here just a bandaid for machista culture that every other day treats women like crap? It’s definitely a point worth considering. Though for what it’s worth, I’m also in agreement with my young buddy, a mothers’ love is a force so powerful, it’s something I certainly feel like celebrating.