Monterrey, México

In the 16th century era in Spain, Jews were found to be heretics by the Inquisition sent there by the pope.  They were given the choice of being burned at the stake, escape to Northern Africa across the Strait of Gibraltar or convert to Catholicism.  Many converted in order retain their properties and their lives, although they never intended to practice their new religion nor give up their old one. With the discovery of new lands to the west, many decided to take their chances in the New World.  Once in México they looked for a place to live in peace and found it in the present day location of Monterrey.  The Spanish were not interested in this place. Several different small migrations of Jewish families made their way to the area and caught the attention of the Viceroy in México City. The history is a bit fuzzy after this. Apparently a large group of Jewish men were captured and taken to the city to face the Mexican Inquisition for reneging on their "conversion". They didn't make it back.  Jewish culture is noted in the city today.  Goat meat can be consumed under Jewish law and cabrito is the local specialty. I tried it on our recent trip to this beautiful city and found it a bit greasy and full of bones, but a good flavor amenable to dressing it with local sauces.

We made the trip at the invitation of the two Mission Presidents that reside there to present our new Manual de Salud Misional to their missionaries.  Meeting and getting to know the Mission Presidents has been our greatest pleasure. The Maucotels from Seattle picked us up at the airport, fed us, gave us a beautiful place to stay for the four days we were there and entertained us. They have a son living with them who is a HS Senior and a very accomplished violinist in the midst of applying to music programs across the US. He gave us a private concert one evening that was astounding.  His name is Christian Maucotel; watch for it!  The McArthurs are in their 2nd year.  He is the ex- mayor of Saint George, Utah and quite a character.  He has dozens of poems memorized and has one for every occasion and is not shy to recite them.  They took a day off and escorted us around the city.  Except that it was the first dreary day we have faced in México, the McArthurs made it shine. 

The presentations were our first and we discovered several technical glitches and poor parts of the presentation that I'm working on to improve.  A clip-on microphone is a must with my tremor, so I'm ordering one of those. I'm also getting a remote that lets me change the slides without using a mouse. I also discovered that I needed a bluetooth speaker for my laptop (got a Bose yesterday that will work great) and lastly I need an HDMI / VGA converter.  By what I discovered that I needed, you can probably tell that there were some technical challenges in my presentations.   Regardless, we have had feedback that the missionaries are using their Manuals, calling the Mission Presidents and their wives less often and they are drinking their "Ocho Vasos de Agua".  Hopefully they also got the message not to eat food from the streets (or be more particular about what they do eat) and "No Haga Tonterias" - "Don't Do Stupid Things!".  Helen also had a chance to lecture them and show them that they can eat healthfully on their limited budgets. Missionaries that don't eat well, don't teach well!

A big city nestled between mountains.

This is called the Obispado where the Monterrey Catholic Bishop lived and is now a museum where we visited.  It is right on the hill that we were standing on overlooking the city.

The city has created a waterway in the downtown area like San Antonios's Riverwalk.  After getting a drink, we took a boat ride through the town.

This is their City Hall down by the river.

Our boat ride through town at dusk.