las mananitas

las mananitas

Dobie describes her visit to a school in honor of moms: “At the beginning there were a few short speeches (by a couple of the teachers, all of whom are men) about appreciating our mothers, who gave us life, and fed us and loved us. It was sweet. Then a couple of students recited poems they wrote for their mothers. Then, the first dance was from Chiapas, 3 girls with big skirts and 3 boys with woven bags did their dance, and then the boys knelt down in a circle, the girls shielded them with their skirts, and when the music ended, the boys rose up with a shout and released 3 pigeons, one white, who immediately flew up into the rafters.

Then there were the pre-school and kindergarten kids, so cute in their little white blouses and flowered skirts and red headbands, the boys all in white. There was a lot of shaking and shimmying and spinning around. Everyone like him so much, he did an encore – a bolero, smooth and romantic. His voice hasn’t totally finished changing yet, so every once in a while there was a squeak instead of a full throated sound. I loved it.”