About 90 tickets were sold for the annual Thanksgiving dinner at the newly remodeled American Society of Jalisco in Guadalajara.
And among the cheerful crowd were a good number of people who said they were not Americans: Mexicans, of course, and at least one person from India, one from Austria and one Alfredo Rey, a business owner who said he was “made in Canada with parts sourced in Mexico and Spain.”
Shammah Anu explained that this was her first Thanksgiving dinner ever. An IT worker from Chennai, India, who has lived in Guadalajara four years, Anu said after dinner that she enjoyed the traditional American fare, although sometimes it was a bit sweet for her palate. She argued that jellied cranberry sauce is not anything like chutney as she knows it and said her favorite dish was the green beans with sliced almonds.
Guadalajara resident Dan Turnquist said he first came to Thanksgiving dinner at AMSOC in 1968 when he was just 26 and working at the U.S. consulate in Guadalajara (although he was later posted at other locations before retiring in Guadalajara). Turnquist boasted that he may have the longest history of anyone who has been attending the dinners, and explained that membership in AMSOC used to be expected of consular staff.
In any case, nobody is sure what year Thanksgiving dinner started at the club, even Cam and Cliff Esser, the couple often associated with the demanding jobs of organization and preparation. As if to underscore these demands, a full hour after dinner was served Cam Esser lamented that “I haven’t had anything to eat yet!”
In contrast to Turnquist, 12-year-old Magnolia Osher was probably the youngest person at the event. Her mother, Eliza Osher, said she has been “dragging Magnolia to Thanksgiving dinner for years.” But Magnolia joked that she doesn’t need to be dragged to the pumpkin pie, her favorite part.