Tequila and Margaritas

“¿Cuál es su gracia?” asked the elderly, mustachioed Indian at the pulque stand in the little town of Ixtapan de la Sal in Mexico state. In my part of the North, gracia means talent, in the sense of a gift for your chosen work. Thinking he was asking about my profession, I told him I was a restaurateur.

“No—what is your name?”

We can still stymie each other in Mexico with our odd regional usages. Even customs that are spread almost the length and breadth