Family Pool Party

Walking around San Juan Cosalá, one doesn’t think of luxury, at least not in the way I used to think of luxury. Standards get lowered, what can I say? And yet, behind many of the stone and brick walls, some covered in the graffiti of the local gangs, there are hidden oases of luxury: lawn, swimming pools, lakefront vistas. I never suspected.

These are the “country homes” of wealthy Guadalajara residents. As I understand it, most of these houses have been owned a long time by wealthy city people: doctors, lawyers, drug dealers. The new-wave moneyed people, mostly Americans and Canadians, eschew town-living and instead own the modern homes up the hill in the gated community, the Racquet Club.

I stumbled into one of these casas del campo yesterday. Hernan’s aunt and uncle are long-time caretakers of two such houses in town. Yesterday we had a family pool party in the backyard of one of them. Pretty sweet. Cousins, kids, babies… not all relatives showed up (would that be half the town??), but we were a sizable group.

San Juan has no parks, but it felt like that’s where we were yesterday. The large lawn slopes down to the lake (which I like to pretend is the ocean), and there are plants and flowers everywhere. We made carne asada, with fixings: tortillas, pinto beans, nopales, guacamole, and some tiny, spicy chiles. (Robin, I’m sorry I didn’t have my camera with me.)

The pool was filled by pumping thermal waters from one of the three property wells, which means the water was really hot and no one wanted to get in until about eight o’clock at night.

I actually really enjoy these large family get-togethers, especially when they take place outside (and with a pool!), instead of in front of the tv, as per usual. One-on-one conversations are still pretty hard for me to maintain, but in a large group the pressure is off. Also, being one of a group allows me to mimic the reactions of the other participants, so I know when to laugh or when to look scandalized. People don’t really like it when you mix those two up and give them the wrong reaction to their story.

Hernan and his kid brother wrestled in the lawn. Babies, women, and teenagers hung out by the pool. Older relatives relaxed in the shade. Three cheers for family fun time.

Final mystery question: how was it possible that we were all able to show up at 4:00 on a Wednesday? I don’t know. Maybe everyone else is unemployed, too. I’m not sure. Mysterious.