Today was an important one at the Parroquia San Antonio de Padua here in Colonia San Antonio.

Families brought their sons and daughters — boys in white suits, girls in white dresses — for the religious rites of first holy communion and confirmation. I am guessing it was for both, given the range of age and height of the children.

Your heart can not help but swell as you watch the families approach the church. The mothers, fathers, grandparents, and siblings surround the child in white — who is practically floating above the ground. They walk quickly toward the steps of the church where the children gather in white clusters as the parents sit on the walls nearby.

I have come to see these affairs as private family moments and am reluctant to run around taking photos — me the stranger, the gringo, in their midst. I no longer take photos unless I am encouraged or invited.

Today, my friend Jim Gramprie and I were walking up the Ancha toward Mercado Sano and this pickup truck pulled up beside us in slow-moving traffic.

How could you not smile?

I shouted “Felicidades!” and clapped my hands in case my Spanish was more horrible than I imagined it to be. They smiled and waved and shouted “Gracias!”

This happened three more times in the stop-and-go traffic and finally, I couldn’t resist.

“Con permiso, una fotografia?”

They were all for it. especially the two young ladies on their high thrones in the back of the family pick-up truck.

Traffic suddenly picked up and they were on their way — to a beautiful family fiesta, I imagine.