Quatro de Mayo

Today was the Cinco de Mayo Fiesta in Mesilla, New Mexico.  We were warned to get there early to get a parking place, so we got there by 11 am, even as the vendors were still setting up their tents and before the music started.  The temperature was mild, with no wind, so the whole afternoon was very pleasant.

We took advantage of our early arrival to scope out the vendors, the food tents, the restaurants and shops and try to decide what we would eat for lunch.  This was a difficult decision, given all the Mexican food tents.  However, it was easy to decide to avoid the restaurants and focus on the vendor tents.

This entertained us for nearly an hour, and, as the festivities started around noon, Kathy picked her first dish:  a roasted green chile quesadilla that was absolutely yummy.  (We agreed to share each other's dishes to reduce the food intake.)  This gave us a powerful thirst, so we retired over to Emilia's on the Plaza, a cute little restaurant with outdoor seating right on the Plaza, where we could hear the mariachi music:

There we had a Monk's Ale, brewed by Abbey Beverage Company, which is controlled by the Benedictine monks of the Monastery of Christ in the Desert.  The beer is brewed on the grounds of the monastery in Abiquiu, New Mexico.  We also had a GREAT home-made guacamole and chips to wash the beer down with.

Back it was out to the Plaza for the festivities, which were getting into high gear.  There were a couple of dance troupes, and then what we considered the highlight of the day:  the Mariachi Rosas del Desierto, who are all young women from 14 to 16 years who have only been playing their instruments for 2 months or less.  They had clearly practiced well.  Here's a photo of them, with their voice instructor singing the solo on one of the pieces:

To get a sense of them, you can watch and listen to this YouTube performance.

The next, and certainly most adorable, performers, were young dancers from a local Catholic elementary school, from first through third grades.  They were absolutely too cute.  The girls' moves amounted to step-dancing in no particular pattern and swishing their skirts.  The boys excelled at stomping their feet and waving and clapping their batons.  Synchronization was not a requirement:

Finally, the Mariachis Real de Chihuahua, a mariachi band from nearby Las Cruces, New Mexico, serenaded the crowd.  For a few songs, they invited a young 12-year old singer to belt out the solos.  He was very good, particularly with the way he walked around and engaged the crowd, and waved his sombrero for dramatic effect as he sang:

We finished by stopping at a local tortilliera to pick up a dozen flour tortillas and a dozen corn tortillas for future use, and drove back to the RV down a very scenic, rural, 30-mile stretch of New Mexico Highway 28, past the wineries we visited yesterday, and through miles of orchards of pecan trees.