Raquel's father was going to keep us from sleeping together (I found out later) until after our Church wedding. The church wedding was in less than a week after I returned to Laredo, but it was too silly to do that considering that we had been married (civil ceremony) for over a YEAR, by then! Even MORE silly when considering we had a 6-month-old son! I think Raquel's mother, Margo, straightened the old man out.
But, there was always a strange protectiveness over her on her father's part -- even after the Church wedding, he never could adjust to the fact that she was my WIFE and not his DAUGHTER anymore. Her family of origin had a terrible amount of interpersonal boundary problems anyway. More on this later, but it seems highly immature and hypocritical of him considering that Raquel later confirmed he had a mistress (actually a whole second family) on the Mexican side of the river. I guess it was like the story of the older crab criticizing the younger crab for walking sideways down the beach. For that matter, Raquel confirmed Margo's having developed a later affair with our son's godfather!
Anyway, the Church wedding was a traditional Mexican wedding Mass in the newer Blessed Sacrament Church in Laredo. Quite a number of people attended. Her father got Raquel to the church noticeably later than was supposed to happen. Raquel was in a pretty wedding dress and I was in my "Class A" blue AF uniform with my combat decorations. Father Ed had us kiss an unusual number of times during the nuptial mass which added the local Mexican custom of exchanging gold coins (arras) and the double-rosary (lasso) tying us together. The reception afterwards was at Raquel's parents' home in their party room and large outdoor patio. I found out later that some of the guests included a couple of Raquel's old boyfriends -- I don't know just how many OTHER old boyfriends were there, but that strikes me now as a thoughtless or insulting stab-in-my-back!
After the reception, we took off to La Posada Resort Motor Hotel for an "overnight honeymoon" right next to the large San Agustin Church plaza on the northern bank of the Rio Grande. Unknown to us, Margo's boss who owned La Posada had given us their most expensive room at the inn for our new wedding night together. We went to La Posada's penthouse nightclub, danced for awhile and had drinks. Then we got the key to our room at the front desk saying we had been told it was "complimentary" from Mrs. Sardinia, the owner. They knew exactly what we were talking about and gave us a key to a room with a number on it. We went looking for that number on a room door. And we looked and looked.
Raquel was acting silly-happy and occasionally losing-balance-inebriated as the booze from the nightclub seemed to hit her. As I think of it now, I wonder if she had been given something extra by some of her friends -- I had never seen her this tipsy before (even in Hawaii where we had all the booze available we might have wanted & no one was around to monitor us). Maybe someone had given her a tranquilizer or something to keep her calm during the wedding. For that matter, I still wonder why her father couldn't get her to the church on time. I had just accepted everything with her and her family at face value back then -- Lord only knows what REALLY had gone on. I later learned that things were often NOT as they seemed in that family and their group of friends.
Anyway, we went up and down the correct halls but couldn't find the room with the number on our key. The corner room was where that number SHOULD have been -- but it had a fancy hand-carved wooden door with an archway ensconced with "Cinco de Mayo." We went back down to the front desk and explained our problem. THEY explained that the Cinco de Mayo Room WAS the room for that key! (On the way back, I'm sure I griped to Raquel about their poor ergonomic design by not having the room number posted on the room door, itself.) ANYWAY, when we got there again and tried the key, it worked! It opened the door to the best 4-room suite in the whole fancy hotel! WOW! We only stayed the one night because we only had one night to spend without our son, but it was certainly fancy! Other than a 2-week road trip to Mexico City a couple of years later, it was the only night we would ever have completely to ourselves again in 20 years of marriage to follow!
posted by Richard A @ 11:42 PM
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