This column originated from Sol del Valle and has been translated for our English readers.
Early in the morning, on Jan. 6, the “Three Wise Men” arrive in Mexico with presents for the children. Then, at night, people cut what I’m calling “Kings’ Wreath Pastry,” a decorated ring bread — Rosca de Reyes — containing a tiny porcelain or plastic baby doll. My grandmother’s oldest cookbook says you must hide the tiny “baby doll, the thimble, the ring, and other surprise trinkets” in the dough. I do not know the meaning of each, but nowadays we know that whoever finds the baby doll must make tamales on Feb. 2. Children love to get the baby doll, but of course they don’t make tamales.
On the same date, in Spain, there’s a “Roscón de Reyes,” a big ring pastry containing a fava bean and a tiny doll also. The one who finds the doll is the king of the night, and the one who gets the fava bean pays for the bread. The “Galette des rois,” meaning a king’s pancake or cookie in France, is a big round sweet bread with a hidden fava bean. The one who finds the bean is the king of the night, is crowned, and he chooses his queen. In Italy, there’s a ring sweet bread, “focaccia de la befana,” and in Portugal there’s a similar party.
The Three Wise Men, or “Three Kings,” come from the religious celebration based on the traditional narrative about the Wise Men from the East, following the star, who went to see baby Jesus.
The traditional tiny baby doll, or the fava, reminds me of a course for teachers where we were asked to train students to follow sequences, because, apparently, many people lack this skill. As we can imagine, this weakness is serious, because such a person cannot see there are consequences for actions, or realize what cause-and-effect is. Finding the baby doll creates the effect of making a plan in the future. Many of us make New Year’s resolutions also, meaning more plans for the future.
One of my New Year’s resolutions is not to believe news if there’s no proof of what is being said, or if it comes from someone who is accustomed to telling lies. It is a good idea to look into Snopes to verify statements. It is going to be more difficult now that Meta has announced that it will be allowing false people on Facebook made by artificial intelligence, or AI, with the capacity to make comments, friendships, posts, images, etc.
During his first term, President Donald Trump added $8.4 trillion to the national debt, while President Joe Biden added $4.3 trillion during this last term, according to The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget and other sources. This year, 2025, Trump might use the excuse of inflation to spend a lot more, especially now when Congress, through its Republican majority, and the Supreme Court justices he chose, are likely to support him. That is, the three branches of government — Executive, Legislative and Judicial — will all have a Republican majority this term.
This year we will see many more consequences from our election. Many people have not considered that it is corporations and companies who establish prices, and not the government. While many were blaming Biden for inflation, corporations were laughing and raising their prices. The reason for that was they wanted to fatten their coffers even more. Corporations pleased Trump, who in his first administration lowered their taxes significantly. They took advantage of the fact that many people think the price of gas and diesel is the president’s choice, and if that idea damaged Biden, it benefited Trump, but we paid for that.
We could not tell the oil companies to lower the price of gas, or the stores to lower groceries and food prices, and their profit grew like never before. Inflation was created by large corporations, not by Biden. He instead wanted to charge them the taxes they are not paying.
We will see what corporations offer Trump and all his followers. For now, we must think about the consequences of having chosen someone who is more on the erroneous side of justice and honor.
These problems aside, La Cultura al Sol wishes you and yours the best for this 2025.
