Ballet Folklórico del Municipio de Ensenada BFME, Calabaceado

"Calabaceando comes from the word cabriola or spin, it also refers to a jump made in the 

air by a horse. The derivation from progressed naturally from calabriando to calabaceando.

In the northeastern part of the country it usually means to fool or cheat on somebody." [source]

My short yet intense trip to Baja left me with a great sense of love and admiration to Mexican entrepreneurs that so far had little if none, support to create through generations of what is now a sustainable livelihood.

I heard stories about presidents donating lands to peasants that started working on the land, then the kids of these brave ones, getting some education about extracting goods and becoming a business. And now, their grandsons and granddaughters pioneering on this vast landscape, a New America, the place where everything is possible even to the disbelief of the Old Continents (specially when it comes to wines).

I also heard stories about pioneers arriving to a desert environment, the hardships of loneliness and the lack of the usual commodities found on big cities. Dark insomniac nights where some thoughts were lost on decision making and some other exploring silence under big starry skies.

The bottom line is still as it has always been, work in what you love and do good, then eventually you'll get even, and finally some margin of profit. Nothing like the great fortunes of the Peñanietismo, ones that will last for ages, like nuclear chemicals of greed feeding from a poor wasteland.

I met people full of class and simplicity. Men and women that export immense amounts of wine, olive oil and great quality of oysters to the US. Implementing new methods in their processes, innovating their markets and giving back to the people around them.

I know... I sometimes get really excited about things and loose some perspective because the spirit just gets lifted after looking at so much blood, devastation, lack of ethics and the slow traffic of bureaucracy and progress of my country.

I'm happy to see we strive, no matter what. That some of us who left, return to nurture this land. That we are making old new and new old. That Mexico is everything their individuals dare to dream of, against all odds.