My time is split between looking ahead as we prepare for our trip to Europe and taking care to enjoy today. The last couple of days have even included reminiscence of long ago and reveling in the moment.
We went to hear a conjunto play in El Sereno on Sunday. The drummer and conga player, Roberto Gutierrez, has been inviting us for years to go hear his group, Ostia. We go back a while. I think our families in Tucson knew each other when Roberto and I were in elementary school. For sure, we connected when his family and mine went with a group of families from Tucson’s bilinugal education program to Guadalajara for the summer of 1971. We were put into school to learn Spanish, Mexican Lit and Ballet Folkórico. In the afternoons, we played, went horseback riding, got in trouble and learned to ride the city buses. On weekends the children of the educators went on trips. Fast forward to today and Roberto is a successful band member and donates his time to educating musicians in the San Fernando Valley, including at Luis’s alma mater, San Fernando High School. It is a small world, indeed.
Before Luis and were fully recovered from a hot car ride to listen to Ostia, we jumped back in the car Monday and drove through CRAZY morning traffic to pick up our wonderful godson, Marcos Alvarez Glemkstein in Northridge. Then back in the car for the three of us to go to The Getty Villa in Malibu. It made for a good time to visit and generally spend time together while see the reproduction of an Italian villa. Though Marcos is young, his experiences are vast, having benefited from extensive travel and schooling in Switzerland. Marcos’ wisdom was conveyed in the simple question, “So, are we pretending we are in Italy?” Yup, Marcos you’re right . . . Pretending while see a remarkable collection of Greek and Roman sculpture, ceramics, metal work and funerary artifacts.
Lunch was late in Santa Monica. Where else? An Italian restaurant. Then we drove through more grueling traffic back to Northridge just in time for evening rush hour. Nope, I was not going to brave THAT. So we stayed and had dinner with Luis’s cousin Emmanuel Glemkstein putting us back in the car at 9PM to drive home by 10:30.
It was all worthwhile, from the music and reconnection on Sunday to taking in art while getting to know our godson on his own on Monday. I’m looking forward to another time soon with both Ostia and Marcos.
Rosana
Ordinary Gente 