ESTA ES SU CASA--NOVEMBER 2014
BIG MAC LAND
He came, he saw, he ‘corazon’ed. Mac McAuliffe came to visit Honduras and he gave us his heart. Of course, he got lots of hearts in return! “Macario” to his friends, and everyone became a friend, he instantly made Honduras a second home, and fittingly enough, since he also lives in Las Vegas! (OK, Las Vegas, Nevada, but close enough.) He kept apologizing, but he spoke Spanish plenty well enough to convey his interest, enthusiasm, and concern, and if he halted, folks readily filled in the blanks. After all, there are other languages besides strictly “vocabulario,” and believe me I got a whole new appreciation myself of so many things here that I guess I had taken for granted. To see Mac’s wonder, his delight, his urgency, his practicality! filled me with hope as if I were just new myself.
This would be a tour of highlights, each experience a memory for a lifetime. It began in Tegucigalpa, where our planes landed within minutes of each other at Toncontin airport on October 15. In a couple days, he met Lily, Angelica, Markitos and Yessica--and Elio and Mema. Elio and Mema took us to lunch to celebrate my birthday, but the party atmosphere was restrained by their anxiety about their son Elio Manuel, who had been “detained” by Immigration in Atlanta where he went to visit his children, three kids among those thousands of “refugees” from the violence and dangers of Honduras. Authorities assumed Elio Manuel intended to stay, not just visit. Elio and Mema had heard nothing since his arrest 15 days before. Mema could barely eat for her trembling hands.
That night, Elio and Mema called; Elio Manuel had finally had a “hearing” before a judge; apparently sympathetic to his cause, she suggested he apply for asylum! So they asked me if I would write a letter of support. I had only pen and paper, but I set to work, concentrating my mind to try to tell the story of the robberies, extortions, threats, and terrors that the family had endured. Welcome to Honduras, Mac! Actually, Mac made the crucial suggestion of including a copy of my passport, to “authenticate” the document.
In Las Vegas, one family after another adopted Mac as their own. First, of course, Elvis and Dora, where we ate lunch, but also Santos and Alba, where we ate dinner, and celebrated little Albita’s third birthday. Natalia and her household couldn’t get enough of Macario, not to mention Wil and Brenda, Maricela and Juan Blas, and even Cristina Castro made sure we had a special lunch at her house. Sometimes things moved the other way, when Mac was the initiator. A financial planner by profession, Mac proposed making “investments” from himself and his friends in the “Caja Rural,” a little savings and loan in town, where Juan Blas and Wil and Brenda are on the “board.” This would add a whole new dimension to its ability to help campesinos to get their plantings and reapings to prosper.
And Mac had another idea, a legacy of his former life as composer and musician of liturgical music. I mentioned in last month’s newsletter from St. Louis that we met in the College Church choir 35 years ago when Paige was the director. So Mac started an excited series of texts back and forth with her, suggesting a “benefit” concert for Honduras sometime soon in St. Louis. Watch this space for your pre-orders!
My nose is always so close to the grindstone that I don’t see the big picture, just myself teetering on the edge, so I found such possibilities breathtaking!
His journal already overflowing, we moved on to Morazan, now with Chemo along, for a couple days with Fermin and Maria’s family. First thing we did there was buy donuts from their daughter Esly (whose photo graces the hall by the Parkway North library). About to graduate with a degree in “comercio,” she and her classmates are getting hands-on practice in business production. Speaking of production, Mac was bowled over by Maria’s endless hospitality: “They feed us every 15 minutes here!” Just as amazing was Fermin’s fifth-grade class, who were staging “debates” about public-safety laws. The kids were so poised, so well-informed, so prepared, so attentive that you couldn’t believe they were 10-year-olds! “This isn’t a class, this is a seminar!”
Last stop, El Progreso, where we wondered if recent flooding from heavy rains would impede our progress. But all was well as we gathered for lunch with Santa’s family; we brought a cake to celebrate the 70th birthday of Tina, Santa’s mom. Jorge, “Nangui,” Santa’s son, star soccer player for Honduras-Progreso, the new team taking the League by storm, joined us with his wife Marta and their bouncing baby twins Camila and Ivan. Suddenly, Nangui spotted one, no, two! iguanas high up in the avocado tree. Joel scrambled up the branches to shake them out, and when the first one dropped to the ground, it took off, never to be seen again--or so I thought. But no, Nangui outran it and trapped it with a towel! He outran the second one, too, a classic bright green dinosaur. “You’re gonna be too tired for the game tonight!” I said. “No, sir, I’m just warming up!”
And you should have seen him in the game! If he didn’t already have the nickname Nangui I think “Iguana” would have stuck. A furious affair, there was a goal apiece in the first 5 minutes, a red-card apiece in the next 15, even Nangui got a yellow card, but that’s because he’s in virtually every play! He hasn’t scored a goal yet this season, but he’s his teammates’ ready “assist.” Mac and I thought the score was 4-2 Progreso as the game ended, or we would have been a lot more nervous. (It was actually 3-2.) It was their first victory in 5 games, still undefeated at home. Afterwards, we all gathered at Marta’s street-corner baleadas stand to celebrate. Eventually, Nangui joined us, where he would stay till 11:00 to help clean up, and go home to the babies.
Next day, October 25, Chemo and I accompanied Macario to the San Pedro Sula airport, where he left with promises of return, maybe with his wife, a professional musician herself featured in numerous Las Vegas venues.
Thank you for taking this virtual tour! It was the perfect follow-up to my month in St. Louis, the blessing of being with you there, the blessing of carrying you in my heart back here. ‘Corazon a corazon,’ heart to heart.
Love, Miguel
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