Shit by Whit | Learn to Speak Spanish

Posted in Senior Survival on August 23rd, 2021

My senior survival tip for today is "learn to speak Spanish." Why? Because most of the heathcare workers and senior care attendents today are Mexican and since they are the people that are going to be feeding you, picking you up off the floor when you fall and wiping your ass, you might as well learn to speak their language.

They're also the people that will be on the other end of every telephone call for any kind of service, tech support, reservations, warrany claims, appointments...

I can't even count the times over the years that I wished I knew Spanish. Like the Rotary Club steak feed sitting next to Ophelia, or so I could talk shit with the roofers roofing my house, or the time I got lost in Calenté and got directions in Spanish from a cute Mexican gal.

I like Mexicans. I like their traditional values. Family, respect, work ethic. I've had Mexican or Chicano friends most of my life growing up in New Mexico. The town I live in now in northern Nevada has twice as many Mexican residents as non-Mexican six months of the year, and that's alright with me. They are hard working get-er-done motherfuckers, they're friendly to me and all seem grateful to be here making good money.

Benefits

Think about it. You're a crotchity old white guy or gal in "the home" with a bunch of other crotchity old white folks (because Mexican seniors live with their family) competing for the attention of the caregiver working your wing which is more than likely going to be a Mexican guy or gal. If you spoke Spanish you'd be able to talk to the caregivers in their language and none of the other crotchity old white folks will know what you're talking about. You'll be "in" with the buffet servers and cooks, hooked up with tamales at Christmas, and your caregiver may actually enjoy visiting you.

If nothing else, it may get you an extra scoop of ice cream or bowl of pudding.

Off our rockers, acting crazy, and with the right medication we won't be lazy.

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Who were the Huguenots?

The Huguenots were a religious group of French Protestants who held to the Reformed, or Calvinist, tradition of Protestantism. The term has its origin in early-16th-century France. It was frequently used in reference to those of the Reformed Church of France from the time of the Protestant Reformation. By contrast, the Protestant populations of eastern France, in Alsace, Moselle, and Montbéliard, were mainly German Lutherans.

In his Encyclopedia of Protestantism, Hans Hillerbrand said that, on the eve of the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre in 1572, the Huguenot community made up as much as 10% of the French population. By 1600 it had declined to 7–8%, and was reduced further after the return of severe persecution in 1685 under Louis XIV's Edict of Fontainebleau.

The Huguenots are believed to have been concentrated among the population in the southern and western parts of the Kingdom of France. As Huguenots gained influence and more openly displayed their faith, Catholic hostility grew. A series of religious conflicts followed, known as the French Wars of Religion, fought intermittently from 1562 to 1598. The Huguenots were led by Jeanne d'Albret; her son, the future Henry IV (who would later convert to Catholicism in order to become king); and the princes of Condé. The wars ended with the Edict of Nantes, which granted the Huguenots substantial religious, political and military autonomy.

Huguenot rebellions in the 1620s resulted in the abolition of their political and military privileges. They retained the religious provisions of the Edict of Nantes until the rule of Louis XIV, who gradually increased persecution of Protestantism until he issued the Edict of Fontainebleau (1685). This ended legal recognition of Protestantism in France and the Huguenots were forced to either convert to Catholicism (possibly as Nicodemites) or flee as refugees; they were subject to violent dragonnades. Louis XIV claimed that the French Huguenot population was reduced from about 900,000 or 800,000 adherents to just 1,000 or 1,500. He exaggerated the decline, but the dragonnades were devastating for the French Protestant community.

The remaining Huguenots faced continued persecution under Louis XV. By the time of his death in 1774, Calvinism had been nearly eliminated from France. Persecution of Protestants officially ended with the Edict of Versailles, signed by Louis XVI in 1787. Two years later, with the Revolutionary Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen of 1789, Protestants gained equal rights as citizens.