October 24, 2016

Hello, Monarch Friends!

All around now is mostly bright sunny, and mostly beautiful dark, medium and soft green. This contrasts with our color-flowered canopy, and rather warm weather — around 18-20°C, with gentle wind blowing. It makes it feel that monarchs should be indeed approaching our mountains any moment now!

Rocinante and I have been patrolling the four cardinal points of the surroundings of town, in order to interview children and families from these areas, knowing they are usually the first ones to see monarchs approaching our mountains every season.

On reaching the west side of town, right where El Cerrito Forest is located — usually the obliged halting-passing by point for monarchs before they reach their final destination to El Rosario Sanctuary — I ran into Camila, Jael and Christian, kindergarten students, who together with their grandma, assured that they had not seen one single monarch yet. They recognized me from the first moment I approached them in Rocinante:

"Not yet, Estelita, not yet," they shouted. "They should be arriving perhaps next weekend, according to the way the weather feels and the way the wind blows gentle!"

Some steps ahead, their aunts told me:

"No, Estela, we haven't seen any monarchs yet, and are warning our families to be careful not to confuse them with Viceroy butterflies. We can assure you, not a single one monarca."

So, the map for Camila, Jael and Christian registered zero up to this moment. Off I drove, promising we should keep very attentive the next days of the week for the great news.

By reaching the northern part of our town, I ran into Martín (age 10), and Brenda (age 9), elementary students who, coming back from school every day, assured me that they had also not seen any monarchs overflying their area around their home:

"No, Estela, as soon as our moms or dads see one before us, we immediately comment on it in our families and with our neighbours! Sometimes, when monarchs arrive, they even fly around the flowered pots of our homes most likely looking for nectar, and no monarch has come to the flowers of our homes either," they said, pointing to their beautiful homes typically decorated with our traditional natural ornamental home plants in our region.

Now to the East
Francisco, age 10, who attends elementary school in Angangueo, but living with his family in La Salud community, surroundings of El Rosario sanctuary, is glad to register monitoring on the map for Journey North and for the children in North America and Canada awaiting the big news. While coming home from school, Francisco reported:

"Oh, no, Estela, we in La Salud are also impatient to see monarchs arrive. Most of our parents and grandparents are now starting to comment that the moment the first monarchs appear will be the signal that the souls of our dead relatives approach our homes for our great Day of the Dead, and you know, they are mostly very precise. This coming weekend will be the time, we are all excited and starting to prepare ourselves to set our Ofrendas at home with our families! This coming weekend will be the one, Estelita!"

From the South
Finally, Carla (age 10), Mariana (age 10), and Javier (age 8), elementary students from Angangueo, living at the southern entrance of the town, assured me:

"No, we are sure we have not seen any monarchs yet. We would have heard our classmates if any monarchs had been seen already."

Waiting...
This is how we people in town wait impatiently for the day, the first monarchs — The Brides of the Sun — as many people also call them, and for which our parents and grandparents will be the first souls of our Dead Ones approaching our homes, as it was for our ancestors, while most families rejoice and prepare themselves for our great celebration of the Day of the Dead in Angangueo.

Now, we can say...we can start the countdown!

Estela Romero
Angangueo, Michoacán, México
October 24, 2016