Past and Present #2

Sunday was a really interesting day for me. I felt very aware of how my past is intertwined with my present and how strange it is to slip back and forth between the emotions of these worlds.

Sunday am, I woke up at my friend R.'s place in Brooklyn. I always feel amused when I visit her because her place is my mailing address. I write that address down all the time so when I'm actually there and it's not just some numbers and letters on a form, it's kind of funny and a little surreal.

R. made a pot of coffee and I still find that sort of strange because for most of my life I didn't drink coffee. A half cup would make me feel like I'd just snorted a line of coke or something akin to that. But I got hooked by A. and B. and their cafe down in Va11arta and now it's a daily ritual.

I showered and got dressed and headed off to meet a couple who live in Brooklyn who are planning their wedding in Va11arta next spring. I was nervous about the meeting...geez, how can I still be so damned insecure about so many things? Luckily R. said "X!ne, you photographed S. and A.'s wedding in 2002 and you did such an excellent job and even got photos good enough to use for your website. And since then you've shot so many weddings." Umm, yeah, she's right.

Actually the meeting went really well. I've been envious of other photogs who get to meet face to face with their clients way before the wedding. It's how most wedding photogs work, but since my clients usually only come to Va11arta for the wedding itself, I don't get that option. I really liked the couple and I was really happy I could answer their questions about Va11arta and the surrounding area. We left it open that they would think about things more and get back to me.

I met back with R. and we got bikes out of her basement to ride out to Red H00k. She's been caring for Suzy Schwinn, my 1973 Schwinn Breeze purchased by my mom at a yard sale back in the 70s since I moved down to Va11arta. The bike is heavy and rusty and no beauty to most people, but I am so in love with it! It was good to be back riding it again.

Going out to Red H00k with R. felt funny too. My only experiences going out there were going by myself to shoot photos of the opening day of the Mexxican Baseball league and I hadn't been out there since 2005. I've known R. since 1993 (which we both can't believe) so it was interesting to experience these worlds inter-connecting. We went there to sample the Latin American food being offered by the vendors. Specifically pupusas which originate from El Salvador. Once again, an example of my past and present coming together. When I think "pupusa" I think back to my trip to El Salvador in 1991. It was my first trip traveling by myself. I went to visit my friend S. who was living down there with his mom. He was teaching and she worked for the US military. Another interesting connection there is that she's from Mexxico and I currently live with S. on 129th Street. Pupusas also make me think of my first job after college because that was where I was working when I went to El Salvador and it was also coincidentally down the street from a Salvadoran restaurant that served pupusas (which of course I didn't realize until after I got back from my trip there).

Anyway, the pupusas were even better than I remembered or imagined. We ordered them with loroco flower (a Salvadoran green vegetable sort of like squash) and cheese, beans and cheese, and zucchini and cheese. Yum! We walked around the sports fields and I wanted to show R. where the baseball league usually had their games. I also not so secretly hoped I'd run into J., a guy I used to date. We stopped to get another little Mexican snack sort of like a gordita (corn masa fried and filled with beans, lettuce, salsa, crema, and cotija cheese) and continued walking around.

We came across an accordion player and guitarist and some guys standing around them listening and singing along to some northern Mexxican music. I looked at the accordion player and right away thought I knew him. Back in the days of having an actual print portfolio of my photography, I had included a photo of an accordion player and guitarist that I'd taken out at Coney Island with a disposable camera. It's truly one of my favorite photos and I've looked at it a million times. Which means I've also looked at that accordion player a million times. It's funny how that happens because I start to feel like I know the people in my photos and we have a relationship with each other, but then I realize they don't know me at all.

It turned out it was the same guy and as he started to play the catchy riff to one of my favorite banda songs (De Rodillas Te Pido which is actually about a man who cheats on his woman and is begging for her forgiveness...que Mexicano!) I started to sing along and one of the guys asked me to dance. There I was dancing on the field and thinking how strange it was that I now live in Mexxico and know this song, but there I was in eNYC hanging out with R. and a bunch of Mexxican guys on a field where I'd photographed listening to an accordion player who I'd looked at so many times in a photo I'd taken. And as if it couldn't get any more surreal, as I'm dancing, I notice a guy who's walked over and is watching...and yes, it's J. the guy I used to see who I wanted to see that day. I yelled out his name and we ran to each other and hugged. We chatted and caught up and marvelled at how many years have gone by and how his youngest son is now 6.

I introduced J. and R. and it was funny for them to meet after so many years. I've talked with both of them about each other, but they never met. We chatted for awhile and headed back to look for his goddaughter and her mother. J. had said he might be able to hire me to photograph his goddaughter's upcoming quincenera (this didn't actually work out). We met his son and saw his wife from a distance...not too surprising he didn't introduce us. ("De rodillas te pido...."). R. and I headed back to the bikes, stopping for one last pupusa and another to go.