Mi Reunión Familiar

Hey Everyone!  I know it's been quite some time since I told you a story, and this one is AWESOME!  It turns out I'm part MEXICAN!!!  I never woulda guessed it, but my long lost cousin Juan Mario Sanchez contacted me one day and invited me to a family reunion of the Sanchez clan, of which I am a MEMBER!!!!!

Me at Cedars of Lebanon, waitin for the festivities to begin...

I know it seems a little strange that I would be any percentage of Mexican, and I was a little shocked at the news myself, but it turns out that Grandpa Sanchez used to run with General Zapata durin the Mexican Revolution--he was a real Zapatista!!!--and after all that mess was over he decided to come here and settle down with my Grandma O'Hara, who was his true love that he met after crossing over into the United States.  They were truly in love and they had lots of babies, and after a long time, my dad papi was born and then he found my mom (and several other ladies, apparently) and then I was born and made my way over the Mississippi River, etc etc.  And now I am here and tellin you all about all my adventures!  

Grandpa Sanchez and General Zapata--WOW!!

Grandpa Sanchez right before he died of old age several years ago.

Cousin Juan Mario, tellin stories to all us cats...

I had a great time hangin out with all my cousins.  We had lots of food and drinks of course, and let me tell you, Taco Bell ain't got nothin on my Aunt Maria!  She can cook!  

 Aunt Maria went to a lot of trouble to make tacos for all the cousins, and as you can see, she did a wonderful job with the place settins--they even had little sombreros on the plates!  For dessert, we had her special Ole cookies, and they were real, real yummy.

Cousin Juan Mario is the guy with all our family history, so that's why we had the reunion in Lebanon, but my other cousins come from all over the place!  Cousin Jimmy is from California--he's a mechanic and he came out in his low rider car.  Unfortunately, it was no match for a country road, so he broke his axle.  Here I am, repairin it...

I worked for 2 hours on that thing!

For my trouble, Jimmy gave me this awesome sticker!

 This is my cousin Ignacio, and he's from Arizona.  It's a good thing he came to this reunion, because he's gettin pretty old and might not be able to make such a long journey again.  Juan Mario said that before Grandpa Sanchez and Grandma O'Hara met crossin the Rio Grande, Grandpa Sanchez had his needs met somewhere else and Ignacio is that woman's son.  So that makes Ignacio pretty dang old.  I'm glad I got to meet him, he was a nice ol guy.

 This is Stinky.  He brought a dang two legged to the reunion with him, on account he's too young to drive.  I think he said he was from Delaware or some such thing, and he's actually one of the cousins' grandkids or somethin.  He mostly played with the other grandkids while us grown ups talked about our history and drank tequila and ate Aunt Maria's wonderful tacos.

My cousin Pedro is a mess.  He was in Vietnam a long time ago and has a bunch of family over there.  The dang government made him come back to Texas in '75 after the fall of Saigon and so now he just drinks a lot to forget about all of it. I don't even know why he came out to see us, because all he did was drink and pass out.  I guess it was the free tequila that drew him here.


It was a wonderful reunion, all in all.  I hope I get to see Juan Mario a lot, since he lives right here!  And you can bet I'll be visitin Aunt Maria's kitchen from here on out.  I love my moms, but they and Taco Bell are in the same second place spot as far as cookin and Aunt Maria are concerned.  I can't wait to hear more stories about Grandpa Sanchez--Cousin Juan Mario actually met him a few times and said I'm a lot like him. I guess that makes me a real Zapatista!

That's all for now.

Love Simon