Meli

There is a man named Luis who has a taco cart that he parks a few blocks from our house, and he calls me Meli. I introduced myself some time ago as Melissa, but he has remembered me as Meli and I have not corrected him. Throughout my life I have had a number of nicknames, many of them christened by my parents: Missy, M, Minerva, Mistletoe, Toe, Minnie, Mel, Mis, M'er. And now it's Meli. And today when I went to go and purchase a flower pot from a shop right next to his taco cart, the woman overheard Luis talking to me and when she gave me my change she said, "Gracias Meli." And so, on the corner of Nicolas Romero and Plan de San Luis in Mezquitan Country, Guadalajara, México, people know me as Meli.