Thursday, February 3, 2011

MENONITAS EN QUERETARO

When we take taxis outside of the centro there are always people selling things at red lights on the main streets.  Candy, newspapers, incense, etc.  Sometimes there are young boys doing cartwheels in the middle of the highway and I have to avert my eyes.  Yesterday we were on our way to Home Depot and there was a girl of 14 or 15, blond and pink-cheeked, in an old fashioned dress, with a straw hat, selling cookies, car door to car door.  After we politely declined and moved on, the cab driver told us she was a Mennonite and that there was a community of them living in Huimilpan.

When we finished at Home Depot we went next door to Soriana.  There were two boys of about 10 and 12 inside the entrance, selling cookies.  They were dressed in bib overalls and they were very blond and fair-skinned.  We bought a bag.  Six for 25 pesos, pretty expensive.  I felt like asking them why they weren't in school, but I didn't.  The cookies taste to me like gingersnaps, but el sr J does not agree.  He thinks they have a molasses taste.  Here they are:


I don't think the Mennonites should be sending their young girls out on the streets.  This would not happen in Lancaster County, PA.

Day 3 on the andador


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2 comments:

  1. Michael McDonnellJuly 7, 2012 at 11:34 AM

    Hi, my name is Michael. I am an American from New York, married to a woman from Queretaro. She lives there with our young son. I just returned from a visit with them and saw the Mennonite girl selling cheese near the Corregidora road. I've been to Qro many times since '03, (such expansion!)but I never saw that. I thought I would look them up and found your blog. I was even in the Home Depot and Soriana. How is it you live in Qro?

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  2. RichardSeptember 13, 2014 at 1:44 PM

    I'm always ambivalent about such cases of "penny capitalism." On the one hand, I feel sorry for the people who resort to it as a means of meeting their needs, and if they're kids I worry about their well being. On the other hand, it seems far better than the dehumanizing, alienating effects of corporate capitalism.

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