Julia, Adios

For a town of 2,500 inhabitants, Temixco, 50 miles from the Mexican capital, has a high incidence of arrests--mainly because the citizens tend to be extra convivial on Saturday nights. Nobody in Temixco really objects to conviviality, not even the members of the town's watchful Committee of Ladies of Morality and Decency. What distressed them, they repeatedly told Mayor Fidel Caspeta, was the demoralizing sight of indiscreet citizens being hauled off to jail by cops on foot, in full view of their scandalized neighbors and kinfolk. Not even a fast-talking politico like the mayor could stall the ladies forever. At last, he bought the police a 1945 Ford truck and had Don Flavio, the town blacksmith, build upon it a discreetly sheltering cage for use as a Julia (known as a Black Maria to U.S. convivialists).

It was an occasion to remember; Temixco had never had an official Julia before. For that matter, neither had such arrogant neighboring communities as Cuautla with 9,000 population or Zacatepec with 6,000. The Ladies of Morality and Decency swelled with pride. Mayor Caspeta ordered a fiesta grande.

Last week all the important citizens of Temixco, notably the Ladies of Morality and Decency, sat in a temporary reviewing stand before the city hall. After a display of fireworks, Mayor Caspeta made a grandiloquent speech, frequently mentioning the name of his brother-in-law, who, by sheer coincidence, happens to be his chosen successor. Carried away, Temixco's convivialists emptied their ceremonial bottles of fiery aguardiente too fast; there was some talk that the Julia might have to be pressed into emergency service.

To distract the populace, Mayor Caspeta announced: "I want you all to know that our Julia can go fast." On that signal, the Julia zipped past the reviewing stand at 50 m.p.h. A little farther on, the right front wheel flew off, and the Julia crashed into a deep ditch in a cloud of dust. Don Flavio the blacksmith rushed up, impatiently brushed past the uninjured driver and examined his handiwork. Tearfully, he reported: "Our Julia is finished!" Then he added practically: "I will buy it as scrap iron." Mayor Caspeta fled, with the Ladies of Morality and Decency in hot pursuit. They cornered him, and from the town hall came shrill female complaints until far into the night.

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