When I stayed in a small town in Coahuila as a young teenager, this was the
highlight of pre-determined evenings. We would all dress up, head towards
the plaza with the elders and begin walking (in one direction), while the guys
walked in another direction. The elders sat in the peripherals of the plaza,
catching up on gossip, politics, while keeping a watchful eye on all of us.
The funny part of this tradition was I remember a really cute guy had
"ojitos" for me, and when we returned back home, I was excited, like every 15 year
old would be. But then, my aunts promptly told that he was a 2nd cousin -
and therefore it was totally unacceptable to give "ojitos" back. In reality,
everyone was related to me - so this tradition was not very productive for my
cousins....
I guess that is why there were "fiestas", to encourage other towns to visit
your town and to participate in these rituals and get the blood lines
somewhat mixed.....that is how many of my cousins all met their spouses.
When I was in Aguascalientes in 1963. I remember
cousins taking us down to the plaza. We sat and watch
the girls going one way and boys walking around the
other way. I had forgotten all about that. Thank you
for bring back that memory for me.
Yolanda
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Walking the Jardin in Jerez was a bright spot for my father in 1936 when he was 16 years old. Just like the other towns the girls walked in one direction, the boys in the other with the elders seated around the edges.. My father said a very attractive girl handed him a piece of candy but his grandmother, Nicolasa Reveles dob 1858, saw it happen.. She got up took the candy away and said this girl had a habit of taking the candy to the local bruja and having a spell cast on it. She told my father if he ate it he'd end up marrying her and having to take her back to California.. Needless to say my father did not eat the candy.
Another way of courtship was leaving notes at specified places on the river bank or under a loose adobe brick in the wall around their house. In El Durazno almost everyone had an adobe wall around their home in 1936 and still today. My grandfathers sister, Paula Castanon born in 1896 said when she turned 12 years old her father added extra rows to the adobe wall
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Courtship..walking around the plaza ( the jardin )