!Aguas!

     

     We were having lunch at a birria restaurant in Guadalajara, where they serve the traditional Jalisco meat stew, along with fresh tortillas. The restaurant - more like a tent with a little kitchen on one side and tables enclosed by a cyclone fence, fronted a dusty, cracked sidewalk. Crowds of people strolled by on the way to the busy flea market across the street.  Occasionally, the young waitress would dip a container into a five gallon water bucket and toss water on the sidewalk to settle the dust and prevent it from blowing into the restaurant.

    "Aguas!", or "Water!" - that's shorthand for "Watch out, or you're going to get wet!"

     I soon learned that Aguas! was one of the most useful expressions for negotiating the sometimes hazardous daily life in Guadalajara. That's because it has been generalized to mean, "Watch out!" regardless of the hazard, water-based or other, that might be looming.  

     Before visiting Mexico, I was a little nervous about the seemingly rampant crime that we hear so much about in the US. We hear the horror stories about drug-related killings, disappearances, and kidnappings. During my visit, though, I never felt this danger. I did, however, have an overwhelming sense that, unlike the US -where there are rules and regulations, warning signs, railings, prohibitions, and safety equipment to protect the citizens - in Mexico, it was often up to the individual to watch out for himself.

     That's where it comes in handy to have a friend shouting, "Aguas!" as a warning.

     This is especially true while driving.  While the driver somehow stays in the lane despite lack of lane markings or negotiates an intersection when the traffic light is broken, the friend in the passenger seat calls out "Aguas! Aguas!" or "Dale! Dale!" to indicate whether to watch and wait or to Go, go, go right now! mixed in with the ever-so-useful "Tope! Tope!" for the ubiquitous, unmarked speed bumps.

     A pickup truck filled with  children standing in the bed bounces down the road coming perilously close the center line. "Aguas! Aguas!" Pedestrians with children in tow walk along the freeway, with no separation from traffic. "Aguas! Aguas!" A drunken man with an oily rag offers to clean our windshield at a stop sign. "Dale! Dale!" Our light is a blinking red while the cross traffic has no light at all and a full head of steam - "Aguas! Aguas! Dale! Dale!"

     Two questions occur to me, the visiting American. First, how do all of these people survive to adulthood? and secondly, "Why is no one honking?" Amid all of this chaos, inconvenience and danger, no one seems to be especially perturbed. Coming from a country where one might hear an angry horn blast for merging too slowly onto a freeway or a receive a nasty message on a windshield for partially blocking a driveway, it's striking to see the stoic attitude that the locals have when dealing with much more pressing concerns.

     I guess you learn to take care of yourself, to keep your eyes wide open, to be aware of your surroundings. But it helps to have a friend in the passenger seat, ready to deliver an Aguas! Aguas! when needed.