For anyone suffering from winter drabness and a steady diet of brown & gray, this is for you. A gift of of Mexican vibrance from the paper flower vendors and creators of egg people who surrounded the Jardin of San Miguel de Allende on this Carnaval morning.
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.
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.
Twenty six years ago, Superbowl Sunday was on the last Sunday of January and the Patriots were playing. Although I am hardly a football fan, I know because it was the day of our daughter’s naming ceremony.
We were out on the deck after the ceremony enjoying a sunny Oakland winter afternoon- clear skies and 72 degrees- when I noticed that my darling infant daughter was looking red. I had her all swaddled in blankets like my mother taught me and my poor baby was roasting. New England child rearing practices needed a bit of an adjustment for Pacific breezes.
Now a quarter century later - Amelia is on her way to watch the game with friends in downtown Boston and I am in the central highlands of Mexico. In a few minutes I will take my apple cobbler around the corner and watch the game with former Bostonians…
Dramatic rain clouds waltz across the February sky - a rare event in San Miguel de Allende.
It is unusual for it to rain in February in San Miguel. But the moisture is welcome.. and makes for a new view of agaves.
Agave Abstractions
The gazebo in the Jardin is seldom empty. The creche from Christmas was replaced by a statue of Ignacio Allende, but now that his birthday has passed, the statue has gone to where ever it lives the other 50 weeks a year, and the youthful breakdancer of San Miguel have made it their stage.
I think we saw this guy hurt his wrist the night before, but it obviously has no deterrent value.
This afternoon, when the sun was well to the west, and I was heading out of Mexicito, Santuario Hogar Guadalupano, the boys orphanage where David and I have helping out, my eye was drawn to the blue glass panes over the door of the chapel.
My previous visits had never taken me there so I decided to investigate. What a delightful surprise. A simple world of stone, was bathed in a stunning blue light from three domed windows in the ceiling. The back wall was lit with a celestial blue I never seen on stone before.
The celebration of Candelaria begins this weekend with Parque Juarez filled with flower vendors from all over Mexico. Early this morning many were still setting up. But more than a few took a long break to enjoy the zumba class taking place in what is normally the basketball court. For this two week celebration the area becomes a stage surrounded by the “maceta” or flower pot vendors.
Zumba is very popular in Mexico. Over 100 people, young and old, male and female, Mexican & gringo were up and dancing at this 8:00am Sunday morning class.
I don’t know why, but the Spanish word for firefighter –Bombero -always makes me smile. And this weekend los Bomberos were out in style for the parade celebrating Ignacio Allende’s birthday. There were all the usual fire trucks and rescue vehicles you would see in any American parade. But the brilliantly painted Bombero volkswagen with its firedog beagle was uniquely San Miguel.
Every morning, Señor Silva rolls his newspaper cart towards to the Jardin. He is a fixture there, selling papers with his booming voice providing a steady baritone in Jardin soundscape.