Benjamin and Jonathan Schaechtele story behind the Mexico 2012 Reunion

The picture above is of Benjamin, Heiner, Susanne, and Jonathan Schaechtele high atop the pyramid of Teotihuacan in Mexico (2012).

Olá, dear cousins!

 On the 4th of August parts of our family, by names Susanne, Heiner, Jonathan and Benjamin, started for our great adventure in Mexico. We had already heard a few things about this country. Good things, like the food and the tequila, but also scary stories which, by the way, were totally unfounded.

After a long exhausting flight, we finally arrived in Mexico City. Still on the airplane, we got a first impression of the city while landing. What enormous dimensions! We have never seen a city this big before. Houses from one horizon to the other built in a, on the first impression, chaotic manner, where your eyes just get lost.

Having arrived on the ground we drove to the hotel by taxi, not talking very much because we were staring out of the windows of the car, soaking in all the new impressions. We could see that there were parts of the city with high modern buildings, but also very poor parts and people. Our hotel was one of these modern high buildings on the main avenue Paseo de la Reforma. Friendly Mexicans welcomed us and showed us our rooms. After a welcome beer and about 40 hours of being awake, we went straight to bed since the family reunion was going to start the next day.

The next morning we met Beth, Jim and James Tafel Shuster and Marcia and Jack Easterling at the breakfast buffet. We were very happy to meet again after all these years and Marcia and Jack invited us all to explore the city with them before the official beginning of the reunion.

What we realized first was that on the big roads there were not thousands of cars, but instead the road was full of cyclists, skaters and runners. This was because it was Sunday and the roads were closed for traffic. After a couple of hours visiting the older Spanish part of the city and above all the palace of the president and some Aztec ruins in the middle of the city, finally the official part of the family reunion began. Hands were being shaken, people introduced themselves to each other and the first conversations started. Then, our Mexican hosts welcomed us in a room in the top part of the hotel, where we had a wonderful view on almost the entire city. In addition to that, the sunset created a wonderful mystic lightshow in the cloudy sky. Beth said some words on behalf of the American branch of the family association and our parents did so for the European one. All the talking and handshaking made us hungry, so in the end, after having enjoyed some delicious hors d’oeuvres and still suffering from jetlag, we went to bed early. 

The next day we got up early and were (nearly) the first to be at breakfast. Only Moonyeen, the unresting main organizer of the family reunion, was already there and so we sat down with her, ate and let her inform us about the plans for today’s excursion. This, by the way, became some kind of ritual as we always were the first at breakfast. For breakfast there was a huge variety and especially warm cooked food with a lot of meat, which was unfamiliar to us, but we liked it.

The Mexican committee had organized some fabulous trips to the city of Mexico and to various Aztec sites and museums. The most astonishing expressions we had at the pyramids of Teotihuacán. The Pyramid of the Sun is the third biggest in the world and most of us took the opportunity to climb up to the top and enjoyed the view on the site. We were also given an interesting introduction to the production of Tequila (with tasting, of course) and several Aztec handcrafts. Our guide also showed us the center of Mexico City and the church at the pilgrimage site of the Virgin of Guadelupe, which is very important for the Mexican people. She explained to us that this site, like most of Mexico City, is located on a former lake that had been dried by the Spanish in the 16th century. All buildings that were not standing on former pyramids, which had been destroyed throughout or after the conquest, were sinking bit by bit into the unstable ground of the former lake. So was the old church at the pilgrimage site. For this reason, a new one has been built, made of light materials and with a strong fundament, while the old one, which still can be visited, is incessantly cracking and torn apart. On another trip to Puebla the other day, we had the very rare luck of having full sight on the volcanos Popocatépetl and Iztaccíhuatl through a clear and cloudless sky. In the evenings after our trips, the hotel pool on the rooftop was the perfect place to relax. 

The highlight of the family reunion was a dinner in a restaurant located in an ancient hacienda in the district of San Ángel, where Tafel ancestors once lived. The location, with its old house and the beautifully arranged gardens, spread the charm of the Spanish Colonial era. After tasting the best Tequila we have ever had, an excellent Mariachi band entertained us while the delicious dinner was served. Between the courses, Tobias Friedrich Tafel, who had his 400th birthday this year, and all our cousins in Europe, in the Americas and all over the world were toasted. Beth announced that the next reunion will take place in Europe, where, hopefully, we all will meet again. 

The reunion in Mexico was for us one of the most exciting ones so far, as it provided not only a chance to see many of our relatives we did not know before, but also to get an insight into a culture that was in many ways new for us. And it was the beginning of an amazing holiday adventure. But that's another story...

Benjamin and Jonathan Schächtele (J)

Lauf an der Pegnitz, Germany