Grocery store shelves harbor even fewer candies from Spain, edged out by German and Polish imports. I ask a small group of Mexicans comparable to my station why there is so little turron. One says “It’s the economy,” to which his wife remarked “But people buy German chocolates, and they’re even more expensive.” The rest said “It’s because no one likes turron anymore.”
Moving on to bacalao, I recalled how huge tables of sides of bacalao announced that the Buen Fin-Reyes marathon was underway. It always smelled like someone died. Then there were no more tables of those giant sides of bacalao, just a couple to decorate the few boxes of bacalao, neatly filleted. What’s with that? One man says “It’s the economy,” to which his wife replies “Bacalao is too much trouble to prepare.” And the rest chime in “It’s because no one likes bacalao anymore.”
What’s this world coming to?
The Guadalupe Reyes Marathon is just not the same without an abundant assortment of turrón imported from Spain. Let me ‘splain. The Christmas season in Mexico officially begins with Día de la Virgen de Guadalupe, the 12th of December, and finishes with Día de los Reyes Magos on January 6. Nothing will get accomplished during this time frame. Actually, the holiday starts even earlier, Costco revealing its Christmas treasures in August, followed by El Buen Fin, which is Mexico’s version of Black Friday and CyberMonday, preceding the country’s non-celebration of Estadounidense Thanksgiving. [Note to self: install a footnote plug-in.]
There are fewer fresh Christmas trees in Morelia this year than in years past. Costco only had a few, and Superama a grand total of five. Walmart at Altozano was live tree-free. My Christmas tree comes in a box, an original silver Evergleam, grown in the forests of Manitowoc…
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Red Shoes are Better than Bacon 
I was reading another blog this morning from a Canadian travelling light in Almeria, Spain. She mentioned discovering “Turron” in a store there and took a photo.
It is the second last photo on this page http://www.raecrothers.ca/blog/a-lovely-saturday-morning-in-almeria/
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Bacalao……..There might be another reason we see (and smell) less. My wife just spent about 2000 pesos on a bag of dried fish packages that she could carry out of the store with one hand. The sooner the tradition dies the better I will like it! (same goes for Santa Clause, Christmas and Halloween, Easter and New Years…..all seem to be an excuse for a party to get drunk and have a wreck or fight here in Mex.) j.
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I hit the stores in the early days of January so that I can pick up bacalao on sale for the coming year. And the same goes for turkey. Both will be plucked from the freezer for the holidays.
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Hey loved this–you made me think back to my first trips to Mex City and the Yucatan in 1971. I was taken that no one knew of Santa much less anything of the traditional American Christmas and I swear today Mexicans may outdo us in celebrating these holidays.–bill
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