How I ended up in Sonora

I grew up in southern California and now at 27 I am living with my husband and son in Navojoa Sonora. What's that? Quite a change in location you say, well yes. I ended up in Southern Sonora via Queretaro (a state in Central Mexico), hhmmmm odd. Not really. I spent my junior year studying abroad there where I met Jose Enrique Gaxiola Lopez a 25 year old also studying abroad, well not quite, studying out of state. He was getting his Masters degree in Agrarian Law and I was learning Spanish. Let's just say while dating a Mexican that does not speak any English that I learned Spanish very quickly. I still have a thick accent and probably always will but I am now 99.9999% fluent (I still have some trouble at the hardware store, tack and feed store, and with the plumber but I probably would in English as well).

I finished my year in Queretaro (2003-2004) and went home to finish at CSULB where I graduated in 2005 with a Bachelors in Chicano Latino Studies (one of the areas of study that the governor of Arizona wants to get rid of which makes me sad, I really enjoyed my time in that program). In December Jose and I got married and after a fun honeymoon in Cancun where none of the hotel workers would talk to us in Spanish we moved down to Navojoa.

Almost five years later I have a 3 year old son, Enrique, a baby on the way (due in November), a black labrador (Socrates), and a black cat (Stanley) who is due to have kittens any minute :( I am not excited about that. When she was given to us the vet told us that she was a he so his name is Stanley and he will always be a he to me ;) We all live in a big yellow house that is a work in progress but generally very comfortable.

Stick around as I muse about daily life here in Navojoa.