Mexikid: A Graphic Memoir

Pedro describes a Pegueros courting tradition called a serenata or “serenade.” People walk in the village plaza and men offer candy to women they are interested in. Pedro believes that being the grandson of someone as impressive as Abuelito will give him an edge with girls. When he spots a pretty girl named Margarita, he ducks into a store to buy some candy, despite his brothers and cousins assuring him that he has no chance with her. He spots a huge puerquito (pig) cookie specially decorated as a Christmas display and insists on buying it, even though the shopkeeper says he is not sure it is even edible. He pays a ridiculous amount of money for it, which his brothers and cousins make fun of, and Simón points out that giving cookies is not traditional anyway. Pedro replies that, as the grandson of a “famous warrior,” he can make his own rules (158). As he carries the cookie outside, several of the numerous flies drawn by the village’s real pigs get stuck in its icing. Simón digs them out with his knife, turning the cookie into a mess of fly parts stuck in icing. Margarita walks by, arm-in-arm with a boy wearing a large hat, and Simón comments that a big hat gets a person big love.