A happy Cinqo de Mayo. Tonight tonight tonight los neighboros will crank up la musico whoomp whoomp whoomp whoomp whoomp whoomp and our mouths will salivate from the smells of food cooked by three generations of short women with polka dot dresses and long black braided hair. They bake and barbeque all day long, the scent of corn tortillas, beans, carne asada, chiles, smoky chipotle and sweetly sharp jalepeno sending alluring tendrils of delight to make the tummy rumble.

They'll dance and laugh and smoke in the back yard and maybe set off firecrackers that make my dog hide in the closet. When they moved into the house four years ago they had a huge party that lasted until 3 in the morning and my husband & I exchanged many sidelong glances in our dark bedroom, trying to get sleep, the bass from the stereo in their house 100 feet away rattling our windows. Every party since then has been mild, and over by midnight.

The other big fiesta days are Mother's Day, the Fourth of July, and New Year's Eve. Well into the night people coming and going, babies, beautiful little girls and small boys in crisp white shirts, handsome men in their new-paint-job lowrider cars with big chains around their necks and smiles for everyone.

Our roses and grapes have grown into their yard & our gardens are side by side, separated by a rotted falling-down fence neither of us can afford to fix. Last year we gave them peppers and they gave us onions, and in halting English the father asked me please not to trim my grape vines because he has trained them along his fence.

I like the place we live. Let's all celebrate Independence.