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| Santa was fearlessly standing along the route |
So I embellished the title for a hook, but it is a true story none the less. In place of the usual greetings of Merry Christmas, and Happy Holidays, I thought I would share a Christmas memory from the Chivis vault.
Each year for 9 years we [our family foundation] have a large Christmas Posada [Party] in one of the cities in Coahuila, bussing in children from 6 cities to the host city of that year. About 7 years ago I thought it would be incredibly awesome to have Santa arrive on top a camión de bomberos,[fire truck]. We were expecting 1500 disabled children from 7 cities from Saltillo to the north border.
The children were assembled in front waiting in great excitement, some were singing songs, others clapping and saying a little chant, the media was there in full force, teacher, directors, parents and a delegation from Saltillo headed by the Secretary of Education.
Santa was played by Carlos, a director of one of the CAM schools for the profoundly disabled. At the last minute I thought it would be special for the children along the route to the party hall to not only see Santa but that he could throw candy and trinkets to them from his red bag. The driving route through the main street of the city was only 2 miles to destination and a straight course except one turn from a street adjacent to the street in front of the hall. Atop the fire truck is a tiny bench and two side handle bars, this is where Santa sat having a glorious time belting out “HO HO HO FELIZ NAVIDAD” and throwing goodies. Santa decided to take a page out of “Titanic” and stand proudly, albeit dangerously. He was just about to arrive before the waiting crowd….when it happened.
The fire truck turned the corner....and Santa half fell off the top!
The children were screaming and pointing, adults gasped and Santa had one leg dangling both hands gripping “something”. Adults were looking at one another not sure if it was part of an act, especially those knowing Prof Carlos, as he is prone to being silly for a good laugh from the children. But this was no act. Luck was on his side, as the tuck was only a half block after the turn to the hall.
The truck stopped, and the “bomberos” rushed to help Santa. Once upright, he adjusted his tousled wig and hat, grabbed his bell, and children laughed and squealed with delight thinking it was all for a great laugh. I was the first to speak to Santa and said I was so grateful that he is in such excellent physical condition and as he hugged me he said in my ear, Recuerda esto como el dia que la humanidad de los niños casi mata a santa claus" (“Remember this as the day, the humanitarian of children almost killed Santa Claus”).
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| Lesson learned; in the following years he and all other Santas thereafter, gripped the handles and was flanked by firefighters |
Another story, this one of hope, and growing up in a Mexico
Two years ago Ovemex wrote a post about my trip to San Miguel Aleman Benitos Story Planting the Seeds of Hope in a Field of Destruction”. We went in a caravan of vehicles including a twenty foot truck filled with supplies for the Mier Refugees.
At that time not many were taking that dangerous journey, in fact we could not get a trucking company that would go until the last day, and the poor truck driver was clueless as to his destination until we landed in Monterrey. It turns out his buddy, another truck driver, was just “taken” on the Monterrey to Reynosa road. You can read the POST HERE, but this story is about a young teenager named Benito. His mother works in my office in Mexico. I had no clue she was taking him along on the trip to the refugees.
Benito came to a foundation event as a volunteer when he was 12, a shy chubby faced, ever smiling kid you just wanted to help us. From that day forth he has been a steady volunteer and recruiter for the foundation. I met his parents through him and hired his mother.
He went on the long trip to San Miguel, Ovemex helped coordinate the San Miguel end of the trip. Once there we were welcomed warmly by the mayor’s wife and sister. Mayor’s wife had 20 volunteers help with the set up everything was going well, tickets were distributed to the refugees and excitement was thick in the air, the children spotting the toys could barely contain their excitement as we began trading tickets for backpacks with school supplies, toys and goodies for the kids..... after 30 minutes, the nightmare began.
What happened you can read on Ovemex post, but the condensed version is because we would not be satisfied with simply taking a couple of photos and leave the 30k USD of goods to the government to handle we were thrown out. We had 10 min to pack up and leave. Sadly, the mayor and his government had been confiscating the donations and not giving a thing to the refugees.
The Mier people opened up to us when we set up shop in the outside cold. They shared that the Mayor not only took the donations giving them the less desirable donations such as used clothing, but they had been threatened to pay a fee to stay or “bad guys” would come and deal with them.
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| Above happy children with the witch from the north-women moved by my speech of hope |
Little Benito was throwing himself on the donations when some of the mayors people tried to take them. Finally, with the help of the Mier refugees we successfully set up in an adjacent parking lot. The people were very grateful and helpful and were not the thieving lowlifes the mayor’s sister warned us they were. They were good people, honest and hardworking.
Benito truly lost his childhood innocence that day, he wrote about his experience and it is on the Ovemex post. His words. The experience through the eyes of a child.
And here we are two years since. Benito is in High school preparing to go to TEC in Monterrey, he has chosen the medical field, “to help people”. “Ayuda” is his genetic makeup. He is an incredible kid and gives me hope of Mexico’s future.
So this year I get a call. Benito was wondering if he could be Santa at this year’s foundation posada. The chubby face kid no mas, he is very tall, gorgeous and now has a deep voice necessary for those important “ho-ho-ho’s”. I was concerned he was to thin, but he promised to use padding.
And so it went.
Benito was the Santa this year. And I cannot think of a better person to be our Santa, the young man with a heart of gold, and with an innate gift of knowing what we do for the least of our brethren we do for ourselves. Making our world a little better, helping one person at a time.
To my terrific fellow contributors who make BB the success that it is, informing the English speaking world of what exists in Mexico, to Vato, Havana, Malo, Buggs, I am told one day we will have a life apart from decapitations and dead counts, (jaja).
To the forum contributors that work so diligently to give us the best page two in blogosphere, making our job easier by supplementing our research- "DD", "AJ", Siskiyou-kid, Windy City Kid, Athena, Guapo, Bjeff...and on and on and on...
And to our readers, who are the engine in making us strive to do better, dig deeper, in presenting you Mexican Drug War News.....To all of you from Me...
Feliz Navidad que tus sueños se cumplan en el nuevo año 2013
Below are some photos of posadas past, including photos of the 2012 Santa, Benito.
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Santa "Benito"  |
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Happiest kid in the room |
