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Letters from Lorraine XVI
Hello, everyone, I have fallen in love! I’m in love with an amazing little eighty-seven-year-old Mexican man named Don Nati! A few days ago, my friend and pyramid guide, Lino, and I had the most wonderful time at an unexcavated archeological site on Don Nati’s farm. I’d like to share that day with you, and I’ll try not to make this letter too long in the telling of it. After I finished writing and publishing my book Miles to San Miguel — which has received great reviews, by the way — I thought, okay, now what? I had been very disciplined with my writing time, and suddenly I had lots of free hours to do whatever I wanted. Fortunately, because I prefer structure in my life, a new story popped into my head, and I cannot wait to write it, but first some research is needed. I have always loved the amazing ancient Mexican pyramids ruins. Years ago, I went to the ones in the Yucatan, and now that I live in San Miguel, when given the chance, I go to our local site, La Canada de la Virgen. In a few days, I will go again with my visiting Vineyard friends, Margaret Emerson and her husband, David; this will be my fourth visit and their second. Each time I go, I see something new and find it more fascinating than the last. Because of my recent renewed interest in archeology, my next book’s setting will take place in the Olmec culture — the first known Mesoamerican Indian civilization, (and yes, you can call them Indians). The storyline, if I was pitching it as a movie, would be Carlos Castaneda meets Outlander! If you’ve ever read those series of books, you likely have an idea of what this historical fiction book may be about. To delve into the history of the Olmecs, I’ve bought lots of books on ancient Mesoamerican cultures and enlisted Lino to take me to a few of his favorite secret, unexcavated sites. These definitely are not Olmec sites, but regardless, they are fifteen hundred years old. The particular site we went to a few days ago, owned by Don Nati, sits high on a small mountaintop that his family has owned forever. What was fortuitous for me and all his dogs and cats that day, I had tons of critter food in my car. Driving around with pet food in your vehicle is something many people do here, in case they see hungry dogs and cats along the way to wherever they’re going. And thinking Lino and I would be hiking around all day and probably get hungry; I had also brought along lots of people food. Since Lino has known Don Nati for years and has been allowed to traipse around his property whenever he shows up and I don’t speak much Spanish, I followed his lead regarding Mexican protocols. As I fed the four dogs and seven (last count) cats, Lino talked with Don Nati and got caught up with his news. I then got our food out of the car and offered the kind old man whatever he wanted, but he was shy and took very little. I had never been in a situation like this and had not a clue that arriving with offerings of food was the polite thing to do. Lucky me, because I had a car full of it! However, I wished my Spanish was better because I wanted to know Don Nati’s story and what each word he said meant. Lino told me to just nod my head from time to time and say, “Si.” Which is what I did, but I really wanted to know what the man was saying. I am definitely going to make Don Nati a character in my new book and, one day soon, will hire Lino as a translator for an interview. And I’ll be sure to fill my car with loads of people and critter food before going! After Don Nati had eaten, it was time to hike up the steep hill to the pyramid, which is basically a humongous, gigantic pile of rubble. But if you know a lot about Mexican pyramids, like Lino does, you see more than a massive pile of big rocks. He is teaching me what to look for, but what he didn’t expect is that I know how to find artifacts. I have a dozen or more stone Indian tools I’d found over the years walking the Vineyard’s trails and beaches. While Lino and Don Nati were rooting around ahead of me, I saw an interesting shape with unnatural carvings sticking out of the ground and carefully dug it up. Holy fucking moly, it was a sculpture! Lino nearly fainted when I called him over and proudly showed him my find. He was flabbergasted because, in this area of Mesoamerica, carvings like this are extremely rare. Even Lino’s archeologist friends were excited when he texted them our photos. Yay me! I am sworn to secrecy about where we were and what I found. And I appreciate why. We, of course, left it where it was; it is illegal to remove anything from ancient sites, and I appreciate that too. Among the many things I found fascinating that day was that this charming little man was born and raised right where he lives now and remembers playing among the pyramid ruins as a young boy, when it had more recognizable features. He’s never lived anywhere else and seems to be as happy as a clam with his simple life and what little he has, which, you better believe, does not include a phone, TV, or computer. Some of my favorite moments that day were when I heard Don Nati’s sweet laughter. He talked and talked and laughed and laughed every few minutes about what he was saying, and I found myself laughing along with him, even though I had no idea what was so funny. There’s a purity about this man, and since meeting him, not one hour has gone by that I have not reflected on the beautiful, quiet afternoon I spent poking around the ancient rubble with him and Lino. During the five hours the three of us searched the ground, obsessed with finding buried treasure from the past, the world silently slipped away — completely and utterly slipped away. Whatever was taking place on the planet throughout that time did not matter, and to be honest, the small amount of magic mushrooms Lino and I took didn’t hurt our all-consuming search for ancient artifacts either! I want to thank everyone who bought Miles to San Miguel. I have to admit I had no expectations; I just wanted the reward of writing a book-length story from start to finish and then putting it out into the world for anyone who cared to read it. So I have been thrilled with people’s reaction to it. I really did not know how it might go, but I guess few do when publishing a book. Lorraine, Pearl, Ruby, and our fabulous Mexican street dogs, Mike and Molly. P.S. I hope you enjoy all the photos! |
