Entry #2. Finding my Indigenous Soul

The greatest feeling in the world is when your soul is soaring above the clouds. There are no worries of bills, school, and deadlines. It is the feeling in your stomach when you ride the last fall of Splash Mountain, the joy of celebrating the Eucharist during Mass, or the moment when you are captivated by something that makes you proud of your culture. 

My moment came while watching the Danza Azteca Grupo perform a blessing ceremony for a six month old girl. As they encircled the altar of hand carved drums, candles, a cajeta of smoldering herbs and resins, and flowers, all forty in full indigenous garb with headdresses feet high began to pray. 

The prayer was like no other, with the beat of a drum they began to sing simultaneously. At each chorus and the sound of a conch shell the grupo paid tribute to each navigational direction which was their way of saying everyone there and all the spirits present, it is your responsibility to protect and watch over this little girl. 

Although I have seen many Matechinas dance at the Augusto Festival in El Paso every year, Danza Azteca seemed to be more connected with our indigenous people. Each part and every movement of the ceremony has great meaning to the prayer. 

One of my favorite danzas was the prayer of Viejitas (old woman, grandmother). This prayer celebrates life and death. At first the movement is big which celebrates young life, but as time went on the dancers began to crouch and the movements were limited, however toward the end the of the prayer the grupo exploded into big movements celebrating the release of the soul no longer restricted by the physical ailments of the body. 

I cannot explain in words the joy I felt while watching the prayer. A light of peace struck my heart and I am forever captivated by the beauty of Danza Azteca. 

Entry #1. Learning About Blogs

What do I think about blogs? That is the question...I have always wanted to be a blogger, but had my doubts. What would I write about? Why would people care? As I sat behind my desk at work one morning, I began to explore the world of blogs and found that people blog about absolutely anything. 

I find blogs very artistic, although it doesn't use paint or clay (or really any type of art material), it is an expression of oneself, life, love and sometimes business. Some blogs are really refreshing, in the sense that they can be funny, educational, and all around fun without being transparent like a random Facebook status update. 

I am absolutely in love with PostSecret Blog! This is an amazing blog where people create artistic anonymous postcards that includes a secret about themselves and sends them to the blogger. The postcards are literally made of anything such as newspaper, collage magazine pictures, and some even include items like teabags and keys. Some of them are funny, some are sad, but most of all they are relatable. One of my favorites is this one;

http://postsecret.com/

My least favorite blog that I have come across was Suri's Burn Book. I did not like this blog because the blogger is pretending to be the seven year old daughter of Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise and if you are familiar with the burn book in the film Mean Girls then you pretty much guessed it. Although, it is not as severe as the book in the film, she takes pictures of celebrity's children and comments on what they are wearing and doing. To me, it is a little too juvenile. Here is the link if you are interested in checking it out for yourself, http://surisburnbook.tumblr.com/.