How to Date Like a Mexican

Only a short week after Santiago and I started dating, he began to receive all sorts of congratulatory messages on his Facebook page, twitter account from his friends and they also sent him text messages that read, "I'm so happy for you!" I had to investigate. I mean, why were they so happy he was dating? Why so many messages? And why were my friends only saying things like, "Oh, that's nice, do you know if this place has kosher meats?" or "Really, good for you. By the way, have you seen that porn with the two Asian twins and the Donkey?"

Santiago's messages of joy were a mystery that needed solving. So I put on my detective hat--actually, it was more like shampooed and conditioned my hair so I could feel like Kelly Garrett from Charlie's Angel because if anyone could crack the case of "The Congratulations Dating Messages," she could, via me, of course. The first thing I did was stalk his friends; I look at their Facebook pages to learn more about them. They were all single, appeared normal and they had one thing in common, they were all Mexican. Hmmm? Things got more fishy. What would Kelly do? She'd pretend to be a reporter from the South, Texas, maybe, and randomly meet these friends and dig up the dirt. I didn't want to do that--not because I couldn't portray a Southern reporter, but because I was too lazy. Who has the time? Plus, I had already spent three hours shampooing and conditioning my hair.

But the more I poked around his friends’ accounts, the more I learned, for example, they were all hopeless romantics. Sure, by American standards, their romantic and passionate ways could be mistaken for codependent elements, but in the Mexican community, "finding the one" is a goal ranked high on the priority list. And once you find him or her, you do all the things that you've been taught to do--in the Spanish Novelas; like woo them, make them feel special, buy them presents, get in a car crash then fake your death and return 15 years later...you get my point, 

Mexican's make their loved-one priority #1. (It's similar to the Indian culture due to all the romantic Bollywood movies; big-time romantics!)

So the more I thought about it, Santiago (from the moment he asked me to be his boyfriend), made me priority #1 in his life. He asks about my days and really wants to know; he gets a little gleam in his eye when I recount my endless stories of blogger drama, when I complain about a food order, or when I make a sale on my new eBook. He wants to know if I've eaten, what I ate, am I hungry? Do I want to shower? That last one took a long time to get used to--I thought he was unwittingly implying that I stank, but after discussing it with my friend Cris, who's also Mexican, she explained that it's really a Mexican "comfort thing" that she also does to her husband.

And in his eyes...it's always in his eyes that I can tell where he's coming from--a place of sincere interest and concern. And if you've never had that before; never, another individual, so interested in you that he just wants to connect because he's been gone all day--well, it can be a bit overwhelming at first. Yes, I'm also Mexican, born in Mexico, but I was given up for adoption at birth (yes, I'm Gay, Mexican and Adopted) and raised in Texas were I adapted to American values which isn't all that bad, I mean, I want a successful career, I want to build the NANDOISM empire, but when Santiago rings my doorbell and I open the door to find him there with a smile and that sparkle in his eyes, I'm truly happy he's teaching me how to date like a Mexican. I understood his friend's messages, they were happy for him and weren't afraid to show it; mystery solved.