Thanks Jesus

Los Angeles. The name itself instills a myriad of images from palm trees to party girls, but rarely does anyone initially descend upon the city’s Spanish origin without a little guidance. Despite 3.5 years of LA living under my belt, I too am often times surprised when a facet of Spanish culture appears in my day-to-day. I was reminded of this fact upon viewing a Subway restaurant receipt and noticing the man who rang up my order went by the name of ‘Jesus.’ Now I’m not going to make the obvious ‘joke’ by claiming that Jesus of Nazareth exchanged money with me; not really my style. I grew up in the Bible belt, I know the ‘good book,’ and though I have some questions I don’t believe mocking Christ is appropriate. Say what you will.

That being said, it was still strange to see Jesus’ name on my submarine sandwich receipt. For whatever reason, I find it odd that the Hispanic culture tends to use the name of Christ (and his mother) frequently when naming children. I believe having a biblical, non-savior name (Matthew) is difficult enough but I can’t imagine the pressure of living up to a name like Jesus. Those are large sandals to fill (sorry).
In any event, this situation made me stop in my tracks for a moment. I know I’m just supposed to shrug it off and say, “it’s just the culture, man” but seeing ‘Jesus’ on my receipt got me to chuckle on amidst a rough day. For that I say, “Thanks Jesus.”