The Last Party

And We Will Reunite One More Time...

The firs of the line is tied to a tree and the last is being eaten by ants One Hundred Years of Solitude– Gabriel Garcia Marquez

The celebrations and festivities have been a fundamental part of my life. Celebrate important events such as birthdays and weddings is part of my Latino heritage. The holidays are special events for me because gathers all my family members and friends. New Year’s Eve will be the most important celebration this year.

New Year’s Eve this year will be held in the old ranch of Granddad Domingo Valle. This ranch is located in the countryside of El Salvador. It is surrounded by large hills, lush and ancient trees and small streams. When night falls, all the guests will feel the warm breeze gently caressing their skin like the smooth hands of a mother caressing her newborn. The night will start full of peace and serenity.

All of my friends and all family will be invited. However, the most special guests will be all my family members and friends that already left this world. They will come from the afterlife. Death will grant them a special permission for this special night to visit us. My grandparents, great-grandparents, my uncles and cousins who are no longer among the living as well as also my friend Marcela who a couple of years lost her battle against cancer, all of them will be the most special guests of the night in which we all will share with  joy and happiness.

In this party there will be all kinds of traditional dishes like tamales, empanadas, baked chicken, sweet desserts as honey. There will be no alcohol but chicha, the drink of the Mayan gods, in remembrance to our ancestors. In this feast we will have all these delights that my family and friends enjoy or enjoyed when they were alive.

Late that night we all meet around a large bonfire in the main courtyard in front of the house. Our grandparents and great-grandparents will be in the center and everyone else will be around them. Our grandparents will tell stories of past lives such as The Legend of the Squeaky Wagon and Cadejo, The Cipitio and The Siguanaba and many more stories. We will feel joy and pain making chills run down our spine like ice water.

At the end of the night all the guests will meet holding hands praying to heaven in gratitude for all the good times that happened to us this year and the bad things because they were opportunities to learn and get better. All members will melt into a deep hug and when the countdown reaches zero everything will be over. Everything will be over because it never existed; I did never exist nor any of my family and friends because all was a dream in a parallel world.