Saturday, February 07, 2009

Me, My spanish and My first latin bar

During my recent trip to Atlanta to see my friend Roland from El Salvador, I got to meet his other friends Carlos (from El Salvador) and Pedro (from Mexico). I have recently been using my spanish at work and have taken additional courses to improve my spanish. I was pretty excited that I will get to practice my language skills with these spanish speakers for this trip. So when they suggested to go to El Chapparal for Friday latin gay nights, I did not hesitate at all. I was looking forward to my first ever latin bar (gay or straight) foray.
Upon entering, I was not at all disappointed by the composition of the crowd. Gay Latin men galore. Call them maricon, pato or the proper homosexual, many were every aggreable to my aesthetics. A splaterring of girls here and there. Everybody was speaking spanish. Spanish flavor dance tunes playing loudly that you could feel the beat down to your core. They danced some rigaton, batchata and other latin dances I don't even know exist. I even tried some batchata with my friend. There I discovered that I am bad at my latin moves. Although I think I did it right, I was not good at sustaining it. It was such a cardio dance, no wonder these men sweat when they dance. Then the drag queen(vestida) show came. They lip synched like they were performing for the grammy's award. Hair bigger than the burning bush of Moses. Most performed to some spanish dance tunes but one performed to Beyonce's Single Ladies. She was befitting and she got the hair, attitude, outfit and moves down to the last detail. I am telling you, latin drag queens are the best. It was all fun and new to me. I was having blast.
Then as the night evolved, I grew more tired and weary. My friends wanted to stay and dance some more. I just wanted to go and get some Zzzz. The novelty wore off. What was once diverting trying to follow a spanish conversation became a doldrum. What was once amusing looking at the drag queen's attitude as they move and speak became an exasperation. What was once an adventure dancing to those spanish dance beat became a chagrin that I was not able to sing along to these songs like I would do when I had one to many libation.
Needless to say, I probably won't be venturing to another latin bar soon. Well not until it my short term memory fails me regarding this recent trip.

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