It was early afternoon in mid-January when we stepped into the courtyard of a popular lunch spot just a block off the central plaza in Oaxaca, Mexico. Every table was taken but we could see folks contemplating the tab. Space would open up soon. As we waited, we spotted a tourist couple waving to us from a table across the patio. I returned a wave, signaling, I thought, that we were content to wait for a separate space. The wavers persevered. “Dean?” the man called above the n