Mexico

Worlds Within Worlds

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San Miguel attracts all kinds of artists, new age thinkers and practitioners of various forms of Eastern philosophies.  There are circus groups and indigenous dancers.  And even a belly dancing fusion festival, complete with films.

Last night I learned the proper Middle Eastern etiquette for showing approval of dancers gyrations - one doesn’t show one’s clacking tongue.  Well known belly dancers from Mexico City joined local students in a performance that showcased the talents of 20 somethings - 60 somethings….  Most of the audience was post boomers- many of them students of the incredible teacher here in San Miguel. 

Oh yes and that fusion part-  they did a belly dance to the music of French hip hop…

Friday night there will be a performance by the “Boys of Bellydancing” - gifted male belly dancers from all over Mexico. 

Just another day in San Miguel…..

Guanjuato Musings

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You can’t paint any country with just a few brush strokes. In contrast to news stories that paint all of Mexico as a place of narco-trafficking violence, there is a world of civilized services and practices here that are totally missing in the “supposedly” safe USA. 

Safe, clean, affordable bus transportation is one of them.  Twenty years ago, the government abandoned its rail service and put those funds to work to create a bus system that really works.  Imagine, clean well maintained and staffed bus stations, wifi, tv and ipads for rent on buses.  Here you can you can buy your ticket online with a reserved seat.  It is not necessary to arrive an hour early to stand inline hoping for a seat.

Last weekend we took a first class bus from San Miguel to Guanajuato.  It is about the same distance as it from our home in Dartmouth to Boston.  Before we boarded, a uniformed employee of Primera Plus bus company, made sure the arriving bus was clean and placed new antimacassars on each seat. The seats were large and comfortable – unlike airline seats, you can actually recline without giving the person behind you claustrophia or a panic attack.  Wide shouldered guys like David are not hanging over the adjacent seat.  The windows have shades, as well as curtains, and the AC works fine. The round trip cost was less than a one-way ticket from New Bedford to Boston.  Yesterday’s first class buses are retired to become second class buses…

While American health care is supposedly the envy of the world, Mexico does a thriving business in providing health care to foreigners who travel here for procedures that cost 2-10 times more in the US: dental implants, cosmetic and other non urgent surgeries.  In the last few weeks, no fewer than four of my San Miguel acquaintances have told me about the dermatologist they visit here every year.  She gives them a thorough exam and removes all suspicious moles etc for not much more than my co-pay at home.  I have a “pretty good” Blue Cross PPO but between co-pays, co-insurance, and deductibles, the same service in Massachusetts will cost me hundreds of dollars above the premium I have already paid. 

If you look, the picture is always richer, deeper and more finely nuanced–but the 24/7 news cycle won’t slow down enough to see what is really there.

Things Go Better With Coke

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On the first Friday in March is the Feast of the Conquistatdors.  This festival celebrates the acceptance of Catholicism by Mexico's indigenous people with 33 dances, one for each year of the life of Christ, as well as special masses, incense, and the carrying of ancient cornhusk statues of Christ around the Jardin.  The church very successfully co-opted the traditional early March festival that marked the beginning of the planting season.

Around the corner from our house, the street was filled with Dancers getting ready for the day long celebration of dancing in the Jardin.  Little girls walking with pride - their first time as dancers....feathers everywhere...

To see a slideshow of pictures of the day, click on the picture above. Be patient - it takes a second to load...

My Man in Michoacan

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As the sun rises over the canyon walls, the yellow ficus are lit afire, with delicate purple highlights from the nearby jacaranda tree.  Nature’s color wheel on display and a perfect opportunity for the photo club assignment of a single person in an image.

The Mariposa Reserve

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Lonely Planet doesn’t list the Mariposa Reserve in Michoacan Mexico as one of the 100 places to visit before you die, but it should.  Our Audubon trip to the El Rosario Reserve last week has been the highlight of our trip to Mexico. 

We left early on a Thursday morning. By midday we were in a little canyon wonderland of an Inn called Aguablanca located on the banks of a river, lush with towering yellow ficus trees, maidenhair ferns, bananas trees, bamboo.  What a pleasure to be once again in a world of green and to hear the sound of wind through trees accompanied by the song of a fast moving river.  And the elegantly shaped hot spring pools were both restorative and beautiful with their purple jacaranda highlights.

Our education about the incredible life cycle of the monarchs began on the bus ride down with a documentary about a pilot who followed the annual migration from Canada to Mexico in an ultralight, and continued in the evening with a Nova special on the monarchs.  Millions of monarchs from the US and Canada return to the forests of Michoacan’s mountain peaks every fall where they spend the winter huddled in the treetops.  In March, they mate and then die.  Their children begin the trek back north in April.  Along the way, 2 more generations will lay eggs and it will be the third generation that makes it back to the far north.  The 4th and final generation will return to Michoacan in the fall.  Imagine returning to the forest of your great, great grandparents whom you never met.  Monarch butterflies are the only species on the planet with such a multi-generational migration.

 On Friday morning we entered a high mountain reserve where at first it appeared as though there was some kind of rust on the leaves and trunks of the towering trees.  But soon it became clear that what we were seeing was millions, and I do mean millions, of monarchs huddled together to stay warm.  As the sun got warmer they began to flutter about, clouds of golden orange.  If you sat really quietly you could hear the rustle of their wings.

I thought I would come away with incredible pictures, but swarms at a distance are beyond the ability of my camera to capture.  And the distance that I as photographer needed to capture the experience left me missing the very heart of the moment. So after some feeble attempts, I surrendered to one of the most stunning mornings of my life and will remember always the gentle whoosh of a million wings in flight.

Carnaval

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Carnaval came to San Miguel this weekend. The holiday merrymaking before Lent begins is celebrated with gorgeous paper flowers and thousands of confetti filled eggs. Children of all ages run through the Jardin breaking them on each other’s heads, as well as on gringo photographers… The squeals of laughter are punctuated with the sounds of tango music as the old timers dance all around the gazebo.

 

Out to the campo with CASA

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It has been a cool and rainy week here in San Miguel, unusual for this time of year, but delightful nonetheless.  Late-night fiestas on rooftop terraces are on hold as are most of the fireworks which make for better sleeping.  And more importantly, the parched landscape is coming alive before my eyes.  Each visit to the Botanical Garden reveals new baby shoots of greens on the ground and in the nooks and crannies of the many cacti. 

On Wednesday I spent a day with CASA, (http://www.casa.org.mx/) an organization here in San Miguel that provides a wide array of services to folks here in town and all over the state.  Started originally to address issues of reproductive health and domestic violence, it now offers health, nutrition, midwifery, sex education, daycare, and a library and literacy program.  I went with the theater group and folks from the health and education program to a small community about an hour away from here. 

My job was to take photographs that could be used on their website and in their promotional materials.  In many respects, it was like returning to my social service roots at Berkeley Children’s Services, where we provided many of the same services.

As the vans drove down the dusty road, we were greeted by women carrying rakes and machetes.  The activities for the day included cleaning up the children’s playground, weight and blood pressure checks, a theater performance about domestic violence, zumba class, cooking a healthy communal meal of “vegetarian ceviche.”  Mexico has the highest rate in the world for infant obesity and extremely high rates of diabetes and heart disease.  Changing eating habits is a major educational effort.  The day concluded with gifts of hats for the adults and toothbrushes for the kids. 

MEXICAN GOTHIC

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Anado McLaughlin and his partner Richard - in art and in real life.

Anado, left, is the creator of the Chapel of Jimmy Ray-
art from recycled materials, including hundreds of beautiful blue tequila bottles,
not to mention to most colorful two seater outhouse this side of the Rio Grande.