Viva Mexico!

So my guest essay on Rebecca Walker´s blog on the Huffington Post is up! 
Find it here: http://huff.to/bJfd2j
It´s about my psychic teenaged daughter, Carla, whom I´ve written about here. 

Our recent drama with Carla is that she took a giant government test to get a certificate saying she has finished secundaria, or, through ninth grade.  This was necessary because for seventh, eighth and ninth grades she was in private schools that were not part of the Secretaria de Educacion Publica umbrella.  Well, she failed one of the math sections, and as a result, can´t go to high school this year, as technically she is still in middle school.  So she is doing government math tutorials until she takes the test again, and getting used to not going to school. 

While this sounds like a shocking idea to Americans, it is not uncommon here.  I´m not alarmed.  Carla is not a gal to be idle.  She has many jobs riding horses, and then, she has her own horse to take care of.  Plus, this year off gives her time to realize a dream, that of going to high school in the United States of America.  A dream fueled by lots of shows on the Disney channel of kids in US high schools.

My brother Dennis and his lovely wife Margaret in Frederick, Maryland have offered to host Carla for a semester.  So now I have to figure out what kind of red tape I need to cut through to get here registered as a student in the US. 
You know, the ol´ silver lining thing...

Hey, ít´s not only the day that the Mexican Independence celebration starts with the mayor making El Grito at 11 pm in the town´s central square - "Viva Mexico!" it is also the 200th anniversary of Mexico as a free country.  The town of San Miguel de Allende, as well as my fingernails, is awash in red, white and green!