my Tarahumara heritage

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I now have a chance to write this little story. I am approaching middle age and have returned to school so that I can change careers. Since I'm taking anatomy and physiology as well as chemistry I have to wear shoes into the lab. Well since I found out I can get away with my huaraches in my A&P lab I wear them there.

People in my A&P class talk more than in chemistry so I had been asked a few times if my feet were cold when wearing huaraches. They were slightly but I lied anyhow and told everyone no.

The week of thanksgiving we got some snow on Monday night. There was barely anything on the ground, mostly on the grass and sides of the road so I wore my huaraches the next day. No body talked to me on this day but I noticed pointing and laughing. I ignored it even when I could plainly hear people talking about me. If they weren't going to bother to ask then I thought why waste my energy.

Come thanksgiving I wear them to my grandma's. I wear them as much as possible even though my teenage daughter gets embarrassed because people point and laugh. So my family is from México and they were freaking out that I was still wearing huaraches because it was quite cold outside. My grandma saw me and got excited. She told me when she was a little girl she would wear them to school and everywhere with nothing more than a dress on in snow that was over her knees.

She grew up in the mountains of Durango. My uncle started telling me that she is likely descended from the Tarahumaras, as they are the only Indians in those mountains. He then proceeded to tell me the story in BTR but of course I already knew it. I couldn't interrupt him because he likes to talk and it's difficult to get in a word.

As a child in America I didn't want to learn about the old ways. Now my grandparents are old and can't do too much. I have a hard time talking with them as I have only recently relearned Spanish. They can't understand me very well either as my accent is horrible and they are losing their hearing. Every time I visit them they are sleeping. I missed out on learning so much but am happy to learn little tidbits like this.

I myself wasn't blessed with natural running or exceptional athletic ability. Most of my mom's family is quite talented and are fast runners. My brother is fast himself and even my daughter. She has made fun of me for being slow. It skipped me somehow. I'm only ok athletically and only now becoming a good runner thanks to finding out about bf I'm getting back to my roots.

Thanks for taking the time to read this.

Mike

Comments

Thanks for sharing Mike. That's very cool. Now Stomper and I can brag that we run with a Tarahumara. :)
 
People ask me the same question just about everyday (I've worn my huaraches to school every day for like 2 months now.) Except I'm not lying about my feet not being cold, what I've figured out is that if you have something under your feet, its about the same as your hands. If its cold enough to be wearing gloves, then you should probably put some socks or something out, unless you're running and keeping your feet warm. Actually my feet are usually a little too warm, they've been sweating like mad recently, making my huaraches stink like heck. You shouldn't have sweaty feet from a 4mm peice of rubber tied to your feet in december, but heck, who says the world has to make sense?

Also, cool about possibly being part tarahumara.
 
Danjo, put them and your feet in a bucket of water with a few tablespoons of vinegar. It'll knock back the stinky fungus.
 
they tend to run hot and only the surface will be cold. since i'm not standing around outside my feet don't have time to get cold. it is funny that my hands do get cold as well as most of my body yet my arm pits will be dripping with sweat.



i don't worry too much about what people think or say. i laugh at them the same way they laugh at me. i'm sure they think i'm laughing with them which isn't true. you just can't tell people how they're wrong otherwise they won't listen so i don't say anything more than i have to.



Mike
 
I too missed out on so much learning from my grand parents, all of them, for various reasons, and when I had the ability to learn from my one remaining grand parent, my grandmother, I was too immature at 17 years old to understand what I would be lacking from her knowledge.
 
During the first year of chiropractic school, we were not allowed to wear open-toes shoes in the cadaver lab, so I couldn't wear my sandals, but they let me wear the vibram fivevingers. I kept getting junk a goop on them.

It sure is amazing to look inside the human body and see how complex it seems. We gotta just let it does what does natrually and things will work out. That's why I love barefoot running!
 

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