Every year, for as long as I can remember, the routine was the same. Celebrate Christmas home with my family and then New Years with my wife’s family.
Likewise, being Hispanic, the obligatory Lechón para la despedida del año, the annual pig roast to bring in the new year. That was a routine that I had the honor of doing with my brother in law, Miguel. While there were others that participated, including my son’s Dan and Nick, or Miguel’s son in law Mike and others, the privilege of arguing with Miguel about not burning the pig, watch the flames, you let the fire die,... fell entirely on my shoulders and was something he and I shared. And I looked forward to every year.
Every year it was the same routine but with something different. First we used whole garlic cloves that we spent at least 20-30 minutes peeling until after several years later, we discovered pre-pealed cloves!
Also, sometimes we would mix things up, especially at Miguel’s whim, when he wanted to use bitter orange this year or Spanish mojo next year.
Even where we would get the pig, would change multiple times over the course of our annual tradition with the hopes of getting the right one. We would take trips to Miami from Cape Coral, roughly 1.5 hours, to stand in line, tell stories about various things, talk about work, and listen to the new tracks we both discovered with the hopes of showing one up over each other.
Over the past several years, Miguel even discovered minced garlic. Which I would strongly disagree with but he swore it was the same and pure, like fresh squeezed orange juice. To me it was more concentrated juice watered down with something that reflected garlic at one time.
Every year it was the same. We would prepare the pig the night before, and next morning, on the 31st, would start the charcoal and set up La Caja China. Even that would evolve over time as Miguel got a new one, that was “better”.
Once the pig was on the charcoal, we would start the dominoes game with some new beer Miguel got just for the event. Have you ever tried mats labatt's beer? Overrated. However, his Rum and Coke (Cuba Libre) was something else.
We would play nonstop until it was time to check the pig. There were times that Miguel would disappear to the store for an ice run or something and come back hours later asking if if I ruined his pig. Ok, that occured every year.
“Did you let it burn? How’s the pig Ralphie?” He would say. “Did you let the fire die?”
Over time it was as though he was instigating me on purpose by wanting to start the pig face down instead of the skin down which is how we ALWAYS did it! That was the one disagreement with me that led me to get forceful just to make sure he would not ruin it!
We would start that way and after the pig was done, we would take it out of the box, take our pictures and then begin to cut it up for the dinner. We would always say it turned out great and that it was the best pig we had made to date. I do thing it got better every year but then it was just the fantastic memories we created doing this routine.
This year it is different once again. This year, I will not have anyone to argue with. I will not ask an hour into it, when is Miguel coming back? I will not have the opportunity to play dominoes with someone who cheated every time and created new rules in his favor. Though sometimes those rules were in my favor as well as we partnered up against Mike and Spencer.
This year the pig will be done to relive the memories that we have made, year after year, to remember all of those wonderful trips to the supermarket to get the last minute items and make sure the pig was delicious and very well prepared for the family to enjoy.
This year will be different and not the same. It will never be the same. This year we will try to do our best not to cry over the pig as we remember the priceless moments we had every year.
For the past several months I have wondered if we would do this. If we would want to do this. If we could do this.
Years ago, on one of Miguel’s birthday, I posted a picture of he and I along with the masterpiece of the lechón.
Along with the words:
“God gives awesome brothers-in-law to people who don’t have real brothers. And God did that with me too. You are an inspiration to everyone that meets you and bring out the best in people. It’s awesome that you learn from people as well.”
Miguel - I hope you took everything you learned down here, year after year, and are up in heaven teaching them how to prepare the best pig roast they’ve ever had.
Just don’t burn it and we will try to do the same without you.
I love you my brother and will forever miss our thing we did every year. That was just between us.
