Mexico Does Not Wait for Life to Become Easy Before Celebrating

"No hay que llorar, que la vida es un carnaval."

This could sound like denial.

Do not cry. Life is a carnival.

But I do not think that is what it means.

A carnival is not a life without grief. It is music played in the same world where grief exists.

It is dancing after loss. It is gathering despite hardship. It is choosing colour even when life has given you reasons to become grey.

This may be the clearest answer I have found to the question at the centre of my book.

Why does Mexico smile?

Not because Mexico has escaped pain. Its history, its songs and its families know pain intimately.

Mexico smiles because joy is not treated as a reward granted only after suffering has ended.

Joy is resistance. Joy is memory. Joy is community. Joy is something people create together while the wound is still healing.

Mexico does not smile because life is always a carnival.

It smiles because sometimes you have to make one.