There is so much to learn about the Maya people but there are two things that stood out to me.  The first problem that stands out to me is that Maya people have strong ideas of how life should be; they incorporated rituals and a way of life and unfortunately when the government didn't like their way of life, they attacked the Maya people.  Discriminating them by talking down about them and setting up reasons why Maya people should be killed is a way to remove what they probably saw as a threat.  It is very upsetting that we as humans do this to each other but it's even more upsetting that the Maya people continue to suffer this type of discrimination today.  The second thing that stood out to me as a problem for the Maya people today is that through the need to finish the Maya people, those who are against them have attacked their culture.  Said simply, nobody has the right to take anything from another person simply because they feel threatened.  We as individuals have the right to pursue our own happiness in the form that we see fit as long as we are not causing pain to others.

I was born in Mexico and immigrated to the U.S. when I was 7 years old. My mom, dad and younger brother moved to the U.S. in 1972 but the rest of our maternal family remained in Mexico. The town I was born in is named Tlaxco, located in the state of Tlaxcala; it is 3 hours away from Mexico city so it does not have the traffic or smog of Mexico city. 

Three things that I think of when I think of Mexico are farming, sweet bread and cactus (nopalitos). The reason I think of these three things is because our town is a farming town and many of the families from this town live off farming. In fact, between the age of 8 through 18 years old, I would spend every summer with our maternal family in Tlaxco and we would help (try) work the lands owned by our family. Sweet bread comes to mind because there is one bakery in our town and when they begin baking, the smell of the sweet bread reaches, at least a couple of miles. It was a custom for us to walk down to the bakery in the early evenings so that we could buy bread, take it home and enjoy it with the family as we gathered in the kitchen either to talk or sometimes watch a movie on the television. I would say I have a favorite but in reality, any type of sweet bread is my favorite :) The last item that comes to mind when I think of Mexico is cactus (nopalitos); my family like many others grew cactus to separate one partial of land from another. I think this is also down to help with controlling the aisles made for farming. Our maternal family eats cactus in many ways, and I love each and everyone of them! The cactus is first cleaned of the spines and then either grilled or boiled. If grilled, the cactus can be eaten after placing a little bit of salt and into a tortilla with salsa. If boiled, cactus can be added to various different salsas and it is used as a vegetable. I especially like cactus in red or green salsa with pork, mmmmmmmmm. Another favorite of mine is cactus placed in cooked yellow beans. The yellow beans are boiled and then fried with sauteed onions; the already boiled cactus is cut up into small pieces and added to the yellow beans with a touch of chile chilpotle. This dish is a little bit like a thick soup. I'm getting really hungry just thinking of all these foods! When asked several years ago, why it was that I like cactus so much since it really doesn't have much of a taste, I recognized that cactus probably taste better for me because its the memories of so many special meals I shared with my family while cleaning, preparing and eating cactus !