About 8 months ago, I was asked to be the godmother by a
humble family that I have been very close with for the past year in Huallanca
and who treats me like a part of their family. I had been asked by several
families to be the godmother of their child but politely declined until I was
asked by one of my favorite families and I accepted with honor.
What does it mean to be a godmother or godfather in Latin
America?
Being a godparent is a very catholic tradition and Latin
America, being a very catholic part of the world, is very big on having godparents; not only for the emotional support of the child but for the
financial support as well. Being a godparent generally means being the
financial supporter for an important event in a child’s life such as a baptism,
school graduation, or wedding. Supposedly they are also supposed to be like a
second parent to the child but if you ask me, it’s a purely financial
commitment. I was asked to be the godmother of a 5 year old girl named Beranic
(pronounced Bear-uh-nees) for her kindergarten graduation partywho named.
Thankfully, a good guy friend of mine in Huallanca named Leonardo agreed to be
a “compadre” with me or a co-godparent-Beranic’s Godfather- so that the entire
financial burden wasn’t on me. Graduation ceremonies in Peru are very fancy-
even a kindergarten graduation as you will see from the photos below. For her
graduation ceremony my co-Godparent and I bought her dress, pea coat, dress
shoes, purse, stockings, present, and hair style. Because of tradition and
culture and also economic reasons, kids who do not have Godparents cannot
participate in the important event that is due to take place. Less than half of
the students Beranic’s kindergarten class were able to participate in the
graduation party because they did not have godparents.
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| I painted here nails while we waited at the salon to get her hair done. They don't make appointments so you just have to show up and wait a long time sometimes! |
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| Mid hair styling :) |
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| She just warms my heart :) |
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| Make up time :) |
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| Beranic, her Godfather, and I ready to walk into the promocion |
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| Dancing with her Godfather |
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| The students dancing |
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| Playing games with the clown |
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| Playing games with the clown |
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| My precious little goddaughter! |
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| Piñata time! |
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| Me and my princess |
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| With Beranic's mom, now my "comadre" (my co-mother) |
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| Opening the gift we gave her |
Something I have found very obvious in Peru is that parties
for kids are in fact not actually for the kids at all but rather for the
adults. The kids will hang out and have fun for a little bit and then will get
tired or bored and the parents will literally drink and dance until the sun
comes up. Beranic’s graduation was set to start at 7:00 pm “on the dot” but of
course in true Peruvian style it started around 8:30pm. The party was started with
a clown show for the kids in which they played and danced around and broke open
several piñatas. At around 10:00 pm the
kids were totally exhausted and began to fall asleep in the parents laps and in
the chairs which is when the parents were just getting started with the
partying and literally didn’t stop partying until 6:00am. I have said this
several times throughout this blog but it’s so true that I feel like I can never
say it too many times: PERUVIANS LIKE TO PARTY!
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| I wasn't joking when I said the kids fell asleep in their parents lap while the parents started to drink! |
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| Dancing to huayno music |
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| While the adults partied my goddaughter sat in her chair and played with her new baby doll that I gave her |
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| She loved her new doll :) |
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| More of kids sleeping while parents drink |
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| These are called "cajas de cerveca" (boxes of beer) and when drinking Peruvians always buy "cajas" to pass around. |
So now even though Beranic’s graduation party is over, I
still have the title as her Godmother which means I will help to buy her school
supplies every year and I will financially support her in her graduation from
primary school and from secondary school in the far future. I better start
saving up now because those events aren’t cheap! Even though it’s a bit of a
financial commitment, being Beranic’s Godmother has been a great cultural
experience and an honor for me and I am thankful to have this opportunity that
I would never have in the US.
Good morning, how are you?
ReplyDeleteMy name is Emilio, I am a Spanish boy and I live in a town near to Madrid. I am a very interested person in knowing things so different as the culture, the way of life of the inhabitants of our planet, the fauna, the flora, and the landscapes of all the countries of the world etc. in summary, I am a person that enjoys traveling, learning and respecting people's diversity from all over the world.
I would love to travel and meet in person all the aspects above mentioned, but unfortunately as this is very expensive and my purchasing power is quite small, so I devised a way to travel with the imagination in every corner of our planet. A few years ago I started a collection of used stamps because trough them, you can see pictures about fauna, flora, monuments, landscapes etc. from all the countries. As every day is more and more difficult to get stamps, some years ago I started a new collection in order to get traditional letters addressed to me in which my goal was to get at least 1 letter from each country in the world. This modest goal is feasible to reach in the most part of countries, but unfortunately, it is impossible to achieve in other various territories for several reasons, either because they are very small countries with very few population, either because they are countries at war, either because they are countries with extreme poverty or because for whatever reason the postal system is not functioning properly.
For all this, I would ask you one small favor:
Would you be so kind as to send me a letter by traditional mail from Peru? I understand perfectly that you think that your blog is not the appropriate place to ask this, and even, is very probably that you ignore my letter, but I would call your attention to the difficulty involved in getting a letter from that country, and also I don’t know anyone neither where to write in Peru in order to increase my collection. a letter for me is like a little souvenir, like if I have had visited that territory with my imagination and at same time, the arrival of the letters from a country is a sign of peace and normality and an original way to promote a country in the world. My postal address is the following one:
Emilio Fernandez Esteban
Avenida Juan de la Cierva, 44
28902 Getafe (Madrid)
Spain
If you wish, you can visit my blog www.cartasenmibuzon.blogspot.com where you can see the pictures of all the letters that I have received from whole World.
Finally, I would like to thank the attention given to this letter, and whether you can help me or not, I send my best wishes for peace, health and happiness for you, your family and all your dear beings.
Yours Sincerely
Emilio Fernandez