Personal Narrative: My Life In California

The sound of the ocean is a form of relaxation but for me, I like to call it home. Ventura is a small county located in the southern part of the California and for the past twenty-two years it has been my sanctuary. The other two years of my life I spent in a smaller town called Irapuato, Guanajuato, Mexico. This was my birthplace and home to my parents until they made the decision of migrating directly to Ventura County. Within Irapuato City, there are small ranchos or ranches, located on the outskirts of town and at our rancho, we would raise pigs, goats, cows and, sheep. Surrounding our rancho there are acres of land, where we plant fruits and vegetables to consume and sell to our little community. Life in Mexico is much more rural than
My mother and father come from large families, each have about ten brothers and sisters, so I would say I have about twenty aunts and uncles combined and a handful of cousins. Unfortunately, not all my relatives live here in the U.S but the ones who do live here, reside within a short distance from us and we always come together for the holidays to celebrate them as a family. However, Thanksgiving in the Montiel household is different; we don’t cook the traditional turkey or ham we feast on tamales and molé and give thanks for all the wonderful things god has blessed us
Sadly, we do not have the luxury of visiting our relatives every year but, we have gone twice during Christmas and New Year, and Christmas was celebrated quite differently. During these trips I learned a lot about my heritage and the importance of tradition. You don’t hear the words Santa Claus, and children don’t receive presents on Christmas Day. Instead, we celebrate Dia de los Reyes, or Three Kings’ Day which is celebrated on January 6th .This special holiday commemorates the three wise men who traveled a distance to bring gifts for the infant baby Jesus. Aside from this holiday, we also participated in las posadas, it is a reenactment of Mary and Joseph’s arrival in Bethlehem, performed just before Christmas. Young adults perform these reenactments as they ride on donkey in the rancho, searching for hospitality. Once they are turned away three times, the entire community gathers together at the local church for warm bowls of pozole and mugs of chocolate (Mexican hot chocolate). This reenactment is crucial to our tradition as it is performed several times leading up to Christmas. During my stay in Mexico and participating in all these holidays I learned that there is much more to life than receiving the most gifts during the holidays. My stay there taught me to be humble and to value the important