Happy Birthday to Me

Click the picture to hear the birthday song
"Estas Son Las Mañanitas"
"These Are The Mornings"
which is serenaded at one's window.

See the lyrics below.

And at the bottom read the story

These are the mornings
That did sing the King David

Today for being your saint's day 

We sing them to yo

Wake up, my love, wake up 

Look it has already dawned
The little birds are already singing
The moon is already set
How beautiful is the morning
When I come to greet you
We all come with pleasure
A pleasure to congratulate you
The day you were born
All flowers were born
In the christening row
The Nightingales sang
It's already dawning
Daylight already gives us day
Get up in the morning
Look its already dawn
If I could bring you down
The stars and a star
In order to show you
How much I love you
With jasmine and flowers
This day I want to agree
Today for being your saint's day
We come to sing to you

Source: LyricFind

Songwriters: Manuel M. Ponce

Las Mañanitas lyrics © Peermusic Publishing

My 75th birthday is today, March 27, 2020. Besides the usual Happy Birthday songs, I love "Las Mañanitas" sung in Spanish. You may know that I am fluent in Spanish, majored in Spanish in college, taught it to Junior High students for a few years, and have traveled to Mexico often. For some reason, the Mexican culture is part of my blood. I adore speaking the language, dream in Spanish, and especially enjoy being able to tell a joke in Spanish to a native speaker! Not an easy task.

Meanwhile, I am repeating here an essay first written on October 1, 2010, about my early days studying Spanish in High School and an adventure in Mexico, maybe 55 years ago by now although in the essay it says 30 which is when I first visited Mexico!

Pulgas Vestidas or Dressed Fleas

When I was in high school, every year a trip to Mexico was offered by the Spanish Club. Miss Erickson (RIP,) my Spanish teacher and the trip chaperone, would pass out the multi-paged mimeographed itinerary for the trip. I can still see and smell the 8.5x11 rough-grained multi-colored paper on which it was printed. Every year I would take home a copy and memorize it. My family was not able to afford me the experience but I dreamed anyway.

One year Miss Erickson brought to class some souvenirs she purchased in Mexico on the previous year's trip. One item, in particular, caught my attention and my fancy. In a ⅛ x ¼ inch handmade paper box were glued two dressed fleas. One was dressed like a groom and the other like a bride. You could barely tell what was in the tiny box without a magnifying glass. I was astounded. I was amazed. I wanted a dressed flea of my very own.

Flash forward some thirty years. Either for my "running away from home - late" or my "midlife crisis - early" I had quit teaching, was waiting tables at Jerome's Restaurant at Clark and Arlington in Chicago and decided to take off on my dream trip to Mexico.

I took Amtrack to Fort Worth, Texas where I spent a week with my sister and her family. I proceeded to San Miguel de Allende for a stay which lasted for a month and a half and then took the bus to Mexico City where I spent another three weeks. Besides being lonely, by the end of my time in Mexico, I had just enough money to fly home so my adventure ended after two months.

While in Mexico City, eating amazing food and taking in all the cultural sites I could, I was on a quest to find "Pulgas Vestidas." At every little souvenir shop, I saw I asked, "¿Se vende aquí pulgas vestidas?" "Do you sell dressed fleas here?" And at every little shop I received the same quizzical look and the reply, "Never heard of such a thing." Remember this is 30 years after Miss Erickson had purchased hers.

One day, well into my stay in Mexico City, I was walking around on a Sunday afternoon when I passed a gift shop that was closed but had interesting items on display in the window. The shop was dark, the windows dirty, the displays dusty. I was about to turn and continue my walk when I noticed an almost empty shoebox in the corner of the window. The box had seen better days and at the back of it was a stained, curled sign that said "PULGAS VESTIDAS - 50 Pesos." Oh my God (or OMG as the tech-savvy say nowadays) I had found my dressed fleas. There were only two tiny boxes in the bottom of this shoebox and they were a boyfriend and girlfriend, not bride and groom ... but EURECA, success! 

I probably laid awake all night waiting for the Monday morning opening of the shop that housed my treasure. I was waiting in front when the owner unlocked the door, I spent my 100 Pesos and gingerly carried the bag containing my prize back to my hotel room.

Some stories end happily. Perhaps the moral of this story is: Never give up. Or perhaps: If you work hard enough and wait long enough, your dream will come true. Both my Dream Trip to Mexico and my finding Pulgas Vestadas finally had happened and continue to hold an important place in my reminiscences. 

Visit my Pulgas Vestidas at Michael's Museum at Chicago Children's Museum at Navy Pier.