The Studio

I don't think I've ever shown you a picture of my studio. It is almost 2 years old now but we recently added the ledges you see above the desks so I can put up images that are framed or images that I'm working on and looking at to see if they stand the time test. Our walls are plaster so you can't go moving pictures around. The ledge makes it easy to put up some pictures for a time and then change them out. And when you are working on images you need somewhere to just stick them on the wall and look. Do you still like them the next day? What needs to be changed? And do you like them in a month? Sometimes you just want to see how one image looks beside the other, and another. So my picture ledge was something I was going to do from the beginning but somehow it kept getting delayed.

The big "thing" in the right side of the image, covered with plastic is the printer. I try to protect it as much as possible from dust. On Saturday we cleaned the studio and it is amazing how much dust we have here. I'm surprised that all of the other equipment survives. My plan was that I would only set up the folding table when I needed it from time to time but I seem to need it all of the time. I have to fight myself to keep it cleared off. It is an easy landing spot for stuff but I really need it for changing camera lenses, going through negative binders, sorting through images, etc, etc. This is looking from the desk side of the room. We have space for a couple of chairs, a long cabinet (which you can't see) with bookshelves above it. It is great to have my photography library in the studio except, of course, for the 5 boxes of photography books that I didn't bring down. A good place to read or do research. One of these days we might add a TV up here. You can't see the open 8 foot nook where I have a file cabinet and chrome shelving that stores photo stuff.

I'm really happy with my Mexican Studio

Trial Rescheduled for the San Miguel Rapist

For the second time the trial for the San Miguel rapist has been rescheduled because the defense attorney didn't show up either time. But the good news is that the rapist is still in jail while he waits for trial.

Mexico's legal system differs from the USA legal system of Common law. It is derived from Napoleonic law and MEXonline has a general overview. It says the following about Mexican Criminal Law.

Mexican criminal law has several interesting and distinctive features. In Mexico, one is deemed guilty until proven innocent. No death penalty exists in Mexico, a feature Mexico shares with most Latin American countries for historic reasons. In Mexico, the commission of fraud is a criminal offense, unlike most fraud in the U.S., which is usually considered a civil "tort". In virtually all Mexican prisons, prisoners are allowed regular conjugal visits, and greater freedoms within the confines of the prisons, than in most U.S. penitentiaries. Mexican law never allows parole or bail on personal recognizance. An individual charged with a criminal offense must post a financial bond to be released on bail, which may not be available if the potential sentence in years surpasses a certain limit under a formula set forth in Mexico's Constitution.

(Conjugal visits are one thing I don't think the rapist should be allowed!!!!)

But seriously, as I understand it, under Mexican law the defense attorney can fail to show up for four times and stall the trial but on the fourth time, the judge can dismiss the attorney and levy a fine against him/her. Then the judge will appoint another defense attorney. I don't have any idea if the new attorney has the privilege of not showing up four times and delaying the trial again.

It is very frustrating for the women who were raped. Their lives are on hold because they want to be here when the trial finally takes place. None of us really understands the legal system here like we do in the USA where we see shows like "Law and Order" and we have exposure to what legal terms mean and some idea about strategies. But with the unknown here, we start to wonder if justice will ever be served to the rapist. The USA Embassy in Mexico City and our local consul are also monitoring this trial so we will hope that nothing falls through the cracks.

The next trial date is May 29th and I'll try to post what happens.

To read some of the previous entries about the San Miguel rapist go to: Crime in Paradise, Crime in Paradise II, Crime in Paradise III,The rapist is still in San Miguel, Mary and the Rapist, Another Rape Attempt and The San Miguel Rapist is Jailed.

Dinner for Four

My favorite cooking magazine, Fine Cooking, often runs an article called Cooking Without Recipes. I love those articles. Because once you have the concept together, you can really get creative.

We were having company for dinner last night and my original plan was to have fried chicken, mashed potatoes, cream gravy, a green vegetable and salad. But it was hot and somehow mashed potatoes and cream gravy seemed heavy, heavier and hotter. So I pulled out the binder that held the 2004 Fine Cooking magazines. I flipped through it and noticed a cooking without a recipe article on Creating Fresh Summer Pasta Salads.....mmmmm. I've made pasta salads before but decided to read the article. The formula for a pasta salad that serves eight to ten is 1/2 pound of pasta, 6 cups of vegetables cut into bite sizes, 1 cup vinaigrette and 1 or 2 zesty add-ins, and the addition of cheese is optional. I like formulas rather than "recipes" because I never know what will be available and fresh when I go to the market.

I also picked up some additional tips. You can use both raw and cooked vegetables. The amount of pasta should not be more than 50% of the salad. Use a pasta with come curves or twists to help hold some of the ingredients. Let the pasta cool but it should be at room temperature when you assemble and dress the salad. Try to use some greens such as baby arugula, watercress sprigs or baby spinach. The one or two add-ins should add a punch such as capers, olives, fresh herbs, red onion, scallions or toasted pine nuts. The amount of cheese (if you use cheese) should be 1/2 to 1 cup. Don't dress the salad until 10 to 15 minutes before serving then taste just before serving and if it needs to be perked up, add a squeeze of lemon and some salt and pepper.

I still wanted to serve fried chicken but decided to make the dinner a bit more like a picnic menu. So we had a pasta salad with summer vegetables and a bowl of fresh cut fruit like mango and melon. I also made a Key Lime Pie....again the recipe is from Fine Cooking back in 2004. It is really an easy recipe when you cheat and buy a crumb crust.

We ate in the patio with a cool breeze. Lots of talk about Mexico and places we want to go back to or places we have yet to go. Good friends, good conversation, and even if I do say so myself, good food.

The New Chicken Lady Likes Me

Since I had to find a new place to buy chickens, I've been trying several places around town. But for the last few times I've bought chickens, I've bought them from a lady in the covered stalls just outside of the San Juan de Dios Mercado. Today, when I walked up she was waiting on someone else but she nodded and said, "Buenas Dias."

I have a difficult time understanding any of what some people tell me in Spanish, especially if they are from some of the villages. The Chicken Lady runs her words together and so for the most part we use hand signals on how I want my chicken cut up because I don't get any of what she tells me or asks me. And she doesn't get much of my Spanish either. Today she was telling me something and I wasn't getting it. There was another Mexican woman waiting for her turn so the Chicken Lady told her something to tell me in English.

What she wanted me to know was that her chickens were very fresh each day but it was hot now. She told me to take my chicken home, wash it carefully and immediately put it in the freezer or refrigerator. She did not want me to get sick. I smiled at her and told her I would be very careful and wash the chicken and I thanked her for her advice. I think that now I'm really a regular customer, maybe one of the few gringa customers she has at the San Juan Mercado, and she is taking care of me.

Her advice is well taken because I've heard of several people recently who have had salmonella. It is hot, dry and dusty and you do need to be careful.

HOT

The weather forecast said the temps would get to 98 degrees today.
Believe it! It was hot.

Tomorrow they say it will get to 100 degrees with scattered thunderstorms....we'll hope the scattered thunderstorms materialize.

The forecast says it will get down to 58 degrees at night....doubt it.

From about the middle of April to the middle of June is the hottest time of the year in San Miguel de Allende. Most of the year we sleep under a sheet and either a cotton blanket or in the winter a warming blanket. Right now, the ceiling fan is running and I'm sleeping on top of the sheets and maybe...just maybe....I'll slip under the sheets sometime in the early morning.

It is hot but it is a dry heat. Before the days of air conditioning in Houston, I can remember getting out of bed to sleep on the floor in a puddle of sweat. I remember visiting my Aunt in Dallas and if there was a breeze, it was a hot breeze. Here if there is a breeze it is a cool breeze.

So while I'm complaining about the heat in San Miguel, I've lived through much worse.

Impressions

I'm going to steal a line from today's Houston Chronicle travel section about travel in Mexico City.....

Crime, pollution and way too many people, true. But the former capital of the Aztec empire remains a magnificent city brimming with energy, color and cultural treasures.

Although we didn't feel threatened with crime any more than in any other major city of the world, and we didn't find the pollution too bad, we did find lots of people, energy, color and cultural treasures. I've already written about the museums we saw so now let me give you some other impressions from our visit in the historical center of the city.

The historic center was also the Aztecs' center and at the Zocalo you can see the ruins of Templo Mayor. Now right in the same area is the Catedral Metropolitana and the Palacio Nacional which houses Mexico's White House and Capitol. These buildings sit on the edges of one of the largest municipal plazas in the world. Until the early 20th century that plaza was a maze of vendor stalls. Now those stalls have been pushed out of the plaza or zocalo and they fill the streets for several blocks around it.The afternoon we arrived, it was amazing to me to see vendors of everything from food to boxing gloves selling their wares shoulder to shoulder, back to back...one vendor facing the street the other the sidewalk and a few hours later when we went to dinner, all of the vendors except for just a few around the Catedral were packed up and gone. The street was clean. About 9:30 the next morning the vendors were returning pulling and pushing dollies loaded with boxes, crates and tarps. Within 30 minutes everyone was set up and ready for the days sales. At night where do they store all these tons of stuff? Where do they live? Can they make a living doing this? What do you want? Food? bras? shoes? books? perfume? cosmetics? DVDs? the latest movies? Rayban sunglasses? purses? How about body piercing? and the list goes on and on. I made a photograph or two and one guy came up telling me I couldn't photograph there. I just kept walking. I figured that he was concerned about me photographing the pirated movies but a friend told me that the vendors are very watchful because the police sometimes come in and do a raid so they are always ready to close up shop and hightail it out of there. Street after street of sidewalk vendors....just an amazing jumble of color and energy. Some streets seem to have clusters of a product. In one area we saw numerous shops that sell bridal wear, another where the tailor's windows are full of the finest fabrics for men's suits, another where shop after shop was full of used books and another where cameras were the major product. One of those shops was called B&H Photo. We started to ask if they were connected to B&H from New York but before Ned finished his sentence they laughed and said, no. You will also find international speciality stores. So you could easily come to Mexico City and buy anything that you need. There are a lot of sidewalk cafes and some streets have been closed and trees planted so that sitting at the sidewalk cafe and people watching is very pleasant. In the USA, business attire has become less formal but you still see lots of suits in Mexico City. And some of the fabrics and tailoring in those suits is just exquisite. Remember the Hanes commercial where two women would be watching the men go by and decide if they were wearing Hanes underware or not. Well, I was sitting watching the men go by and deciding if they were wearing a hand tailored suit or not.

A lot has changed since the last time we were in Mexico City's historic center. Alameda Parque has been refreshed, there is a strong police presence, there are fewer beggars, the streets are cleaner, Bellas Artes has a new dome. I don't think it will be too long before we go back to explore some more.

You'll find more photographs from the trip here.

Mexican Food

Food in Mexico City....unfortunately we can only eat so much in two days and the list of places we wanted to try was long. The night after we arrived we went to La Casa de Las Sirenas and ate on the third floor terrace with a magnificent view of the back of the Catedral Metropolitana. As the sky darkened the lights came on the towers and dome of the Catedral. It was a different view and the Catedral was silhouetted against a broad expanse of sky. Very beautiful. Ned had heard that he should try escamoles. So he ordered them. According to John Kessler's article in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution there are a number of ways to prepare escamoles or ant larva. Ned liked it but thought it would make a better appetizer to share at the table than having it for a main course. I had a half of a Rock Cornish hen in a delicate mole sauce with a mango salsa. Add a bottle of wine and we had a lovely relaxing dinner. By the way, after dinner we walked through the Zocalo and back to our hotel and we felt quite safe. The next morning we had breakfast at Cafe Tacuba. I didn't want much so I ordered a biscuit and their famous cafe con leche. The presentation of the coffee is beautiful and the coffee was delicious. The biscuit was good but more like a shortbread than a Texas biscuit. Ned had the huevos de albanil in a green sauce and he said it was one of the best huevos de albanil he has had in a restaurant. While we were sitting there I noticed the tile work which reaches up about four feet on the wall. The tile was very beautiful with tile murals spaced along the edge. It looked so right, so familiar and then it dawned on me it looked like Uriarte tiles. I looked a little closer and sure enough the murals were signed....Uriarte. I've collected Uriarte pottery for maybe 20 years so I always love seeing it in unexpected places. After walking and touring museums until our feet were ready to drop off we decided to have comida at Los Girasoles. We sat at the outside tables and took forever reading the menu. Their recipes are old original recipes from cooks and chefs in Mexico City. We had eaten there once sometime ago and enjoyed going back. Ned had a sabana de res, steak pressed very thin, that was rolled around chicharrones and topped with caramelized onions and two sauces, one a tomatillo sauce and the other a bean sauce. I had medallions of beef on a bed of rice and dressed with a sauce of peanuts, chipoltes and cream. That evening we couldn't face another plate of food so we went to La Opera Bar and had a drink and people watched.

The next morning we tried a restaurant near our hotel and loved it only to find that it is a chain. Nevertheless, Potzollcalli served up an excellent breakfast. I had the eggs divorciados and Ned had the Mexicanos. Good service, lots of good coffee and it was delicious and beautifully plated. While we were eating another table ordered the Parrillia para dos which is served on a chafing dish. Chicken, beef, chirizo, onion and who knows what else was included....it looked great and was definitely enough for two. There is always a next time. Before we left town we had one more chance to eat. This time we sat at an sidewalk cafe on Gante. While we people watched, Ned had soup and I had a baguette with chicken.

There are still places I've read about and we want to try from this New York Times article by Mark Bittman. But they will have to wait for the next trip to the big city.

More Museums

We went to see art and we did a damn good job in the two days we were in DF. Still we didn't see a fourth of the museums there. Although I like the museums around Chapultepec Parque, we decided to concentrate on the historical centro. And even there, we still haven't seen all that I want to see. We did go see two new museums, the Museo de Arte Popular and El Museo del Estanquillo. And then Museo Galeria Nacional de Arte, the fine art museum in the Centro.I guess that my favorite of all the Museums was the Museo de Arte Popular. I really liked seeing the regional costumes and masks and while I don't know a lot about folk art, it was fun to see the work of artisans that I already knew about and learn more about others. I also liked seeing the work from 40 or 50 years ago from some of the villages around Patzcuaro and seeing how the work has changed. A very good job has been done in adapting the building for the museum. The tienda in the museum is well stocked with some nice pieces from some of the artisans. Another small museum that was interesting and it is actually the newest one in the city was El Museo del Estanquillo. Learn more about it from Quade Hermann's article in the Globe and Mail.

Everything in the museum comes from the personal collection of Carlos Monsivais, who, at the age of 69, is something of a local artifact himself. For more than 40 years, the writer has been a sharp and witty observer of Mexican culture and politics. Along the way, he amassed about 10,000 pieces of art and photography, buying according to his interests and pleasure, which range from sombre historical events from the Mexican Revolution to the slapstick theatrics of lucha libre (Mexican professional wrestling).

Actually of the museums that we saw, this one had the most interesting photography....all of it old and some of the most touching ones were the images of babies in their coffins.

While in this museum we talked with a man who was working with a TV crew who were filming in the museum....and I'm sorry that I didn't get his name....but he was asking us what we thought of the museum. I was telling him how much I liked the photography and that I was a photographer. He told me about his friend who had a business just across the street above Sanborns. His friend was the great grandson of Agustin Victor Casasola who is known as the photographer of the Mexican Revolution. Adrian, the great grandson, was a very pleasant young man and we had the opportunity to talk with him. He is currently making high resolution scans of his great grandfather's images and restoring them so that they can be saved and printed. He also sells copies of some of the images in his shop and if you wish, he has studio set-up and costumes so that you can be photographed as a Mexican from the 1920's. This was one of those unexpected treats that happens when you travel with an open agenda. The Museo Nacional de Arte was also on our list. The building was built around 1900 in the style of an Italian Renaissance palace with a grand marble staircase. It too has seen other lives but now is the museum and houses exclusively Mexican art in every style and school through the 20th century. Most of the collection is religious art. About the latest works we saw were paintings from the 1920's to the 1950's. I guess I was wearing down because I was as fascinated with the architecture of the building as the art. Ned just says he has seen enough religious art....at least for a while.

Latin American Art

As the bus pulled out of the Estacion in San Miguel, we flipped the leg rest open and pushed the button to let the seat ease back for a "La-Z-Boy" ride to Mexico City or DF (day ef-fay) as those of us who live here say. We munched on a small sandwich and drink we had been given as we boarded the bus and watched the countryside roll by.....by the outskirts of Queretaro and then East. Three and half hours later we stepped off the bus in DF, collected our luggage and walked into the the North bus terminal. It is huge, probably larger than the original Cancun airport. We bought tickets for a taxi to the Centro and in less than 10 minutes after the bus pulled in, we were on our way to our hotel. Bus travel in Mexico is most civilized...."Executive" style bus travel, that is.

We had come to DF for a special treat. We wanted to see the Revelaciones, Las Artes in America Latina 1492-1820 at the Antiguo Colegio San Idelfonso. To find out more about this traveling exhibition you can read about it from its previous venue at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Or you can buy the 7-1/2 pound book covering the research and the exhibition. I had heard that this was a must see exhibition because there was art from all of Latin America included which we might not ever have the opportunity to see again but also because there was so much information about the history and culture of Mexico and the other Latin American countries.

After checking into our hotel in the historic center of DF, we went off to find the museum and see if we needed to buy tickets ahead of time. Actually Tuesday is a "free" day in museums in Mexico and I don't think we would have had any trouble seeing the exhibition on a Tuesday, certainly not from the looks of the museum at 4:15 PM. Because it was a free day, the ticket office wasn't open but the lady at the information desk told us that we would not have to wait in line if we came back at 10:00 AM the next morning. We arrived at 10:15 AM and had only one person in front of us waiting for tickets.

The museum is a wonderful old colonial building that has seen other lives but is now the museum. It was being prepared for some special event in the patio. Maybe a wedding? Great boxes of white flowers and huge tall crystal vases were being delivered. I'd have loved to see the final setting. But our job was to proceed to the galleries housing this exhibition.

There was an overview of the art in each gallery in both Spanish and English although the individual pieces were only identified in Spanish. What surprised me and certainly demonstrates that I learned a lot from the exhibition was a map of the trade routes to Latin America during the time period covered by the exhibition. Of course I expected Spain and Portugal, and I knew that there were influences from Africa in some parts of Latin America but the Far East was also a strong influence in the history and culture.

As you would expect the art produced for religious use was the major part of the exhibition....paintings, silver and gold religious vessels, candlesticks, sculpture and furniture. It was interesting to see indigenous art combine in things like the use of feathers in religious themes. While I'm no knowledgeable on religious art, I've always felt that the Mexican and Latin American religious art was more bloody than the European religious art.

We were almost to the end of the exhibition before we started to see portraits and anything that wasn't strictly for religious use. From my cultural background, every time I find some of the Mexican writings or paintings naming the offspring of interracial marriages, something in my head recoils. But this was very much the vogue in Mexico in the 1700's to do this. And the paintings do not seem to be critical, just illustrations of the child of a mestizo and a negro, or a mestizo and a Spaniard, or.....there seemed to be a name for the child of any pairing. In a museum in San Christobol I once saw a huge chart with all the designations.

I'm really glad that we took the time and went to DF for this exhibition but while we were there we also took in as much of the historic center as we could so over the next few days, I'll write more about the restaurants and some other museums that we saw. For those of my readers who are in San Miguel de Allende, the exhibition is just a bus ride away.

Archive #8 - Acanceh

Acanceh is another small village outside of Merida in the Yucatan. Yucatan Living recently wrote about Acanceh and their Passion of Christ pageant so that made me go looking for some of my negatives of the village. This church was built on the ruins of a Mayan temple and with the stones from other Mayan structures around it. One Mayan pyramid still remains more or less intact, just almost across the street from this church. This church has a long barrel vault and I don't remember seeing this type of log bracing in the ceiling in many other churches in the Yucatan.

The day I made these pictures I was standing just in front of some scaffolding where men were working at repairing the ceiling of the church. You can see how high the ceiling is and they were hauling buckets of paint up from the floor by rope and guiding the rope between their toes since they didn't have pulley. Hey, the job had to be done so you do what you gotta do.

Sopa del Dia

Cream of carrot soup.......
Ned likes soup so I make soup with some regularity. Seldom ever follow a recipe....and that is what is fun about making soup. You can use most anything. Fortunately I had some chicken stock in the freezer from cooking a chicken earlier. I had some carrots. Chopped up an onion sauteed it, added the chicken stock and carrots, a little seasoning from here and there. Then threw it all in the blender for a cream soup. I have to admit that I forgot to add 1/4 cup of rice which I always do when I'm making a cream soup. It is a technique that really reduces the amount of fat in a cream soup. After going through the blender the rice gives the soup body and smoothness. Then I can add just a tablespoon or two of crema to give the soup a silky finish. But this time I had to add a little more crema. I had some herbed salad croutons to garnish it. Actually I prefer making croutons from rye bread but I didn't have rye bread and the salad croutons were a okay substitute. It was pretty good Sopa del Dia.

This entry ties in with Steve Durbin's entry on Art and Perception about How Artists Cook. Since I read his blog entry, I've been thinking about all the photographers I know who are wonderful and creative cooks. I really think that the active creative part of our brains carries over to many of our activities.

Enough Already!

I've always loved movies but being here in Mexico for several years we had kind of fallen behind in movie viewing. We signed up for Netflix determined to see as many of 2006's award winning movies as we could. We wanted to be current and with it when we went back to the USA and talked with our stateside friends. But my dear readers, I'm throwing in the towel. I no longer want to be current with the award winning movies.

We have recently seen The Departed and Blood Diamond. We also saw Hotel Rowanda because we hadn't seen it when it was up for the academy awards a few years ago. I know that the world is in one hell of a mess. I know that man's capacity to be inhuman seems to be limitless BUT I don't have to see it in my house. I don't care how good the plot or the cinematography is, these movies leave me depressed and drained. I don't want to see atrocities to the point that I am immune to caring, to the point that I say, "It is a good movie." These movies are bad for my health. We are reading more and more about the effects of having a positive outlook on longevity. I can't keep a positive outlook after watching whole villages get mowed down by children trained to be killers.

Maybe I can deal with a movie like Babel but otherwise, my movie list is going to be The Devil Wears Prada and Little Miss Sunshine. Yeah, enough already. I'm sticking my head in the sand. How about you?

Busy Stuff

First thing this morning, Alfredo, the iron worker across the street loaded a huge semi-circle iron bannister on the back of his truck and I expected to see the truck cab tip up in the air from the weight on the back end of it but it didn't. He and his helper tied it down and tied on a hazard triangle to the back five feet or so that was hanging off the back of the truck and they went off down the road.

Ned went to the bakery around the corner to get us some pan dulces still warm from the oven for breakfast.

I kept hearing rocks falling and when I looked out from the second floor window, one of the neighbors had gotten fed up waiting for the city to come repair the big pothole on the corner by our house so he was repairing it. I think he did a better job than the city has done several other times on this reoccurring pothole.

We could hear the chatter of a group of workers across the street waiting for the maestro to come and open the house that is under construction so they could go to work.

Several of the gas trucks had been by the house announcing over loudspeakers that they were on the street.

Neighbors had gone off carrying empty buckets and then come back with buckets full of milk for breakfast.

All of this before 8:30 AM

La Mascota, Taylor, has had an eye infection that we haven't been able to clear up so by 9:30 we were at Dr. Vazquez office. He checked Taylor out and decided that he needed a shot as well as an additional medicine to clear up the infection. The cost for the exam, shot and monthly flea medicine was 430 pesos. I never got out of the vet's office in Houston for less than $100.

Since we had the car out, we brought Taylor home and decided to go look at canterra to see what might be available for the fountain and the pot stands that we'll need for the patio remodel. Somehow, I always think that canterra will be expensive....maybe because it is heavy and it is all hand carved but it isn't. The pond for a fountain that is 36" interior and 15" deep with a carved design on the outside was less than $250. A carved stand for a pot was anywhere from $85 to $150 depending on the size and carving. And these were just the asking prices, we didn't even try to negotiate. Since we'll buy several pieces, I know that the prices will be lower.

Then we stopped at the nursery to look around at the plants that we might think about for the terraces and patio and I bought pots of oregano, thyme and sage. Somehow, I haven't been able to find fresh sage to cook with here but I have a couple of recipes that need it. Now I've got it.

Next a stop at Mega. It was only my third or fourth time in the store since it opened. I was surprised at the condition of the store. Here it has been open less than 1/2 a year and the floors look like a fork lift has been running over them....even up front near the front door. There are already cracks in the tile floors. This is something I just don't understand about Mexican commercial construction. It is like they build it without thought for the wear and tear and/or they do not allow for a proper cleaning and maintenance budget and/or they do not have facility managers to keep everything in tip-top shape. At any rate we picked up the three or four things we needed and headed home.

Right after we arrived back at the house, La Arquitecta stopped by to discuss some business and when she left it was 12:30 PM.

That was the busy stuff this morning. I know it is a hard job, but we'll do the best we can to keep up.

Archive #7 - Don Miguel

Driving out of Merida, we passed by this hacienda and there was a chapel so we stopped. I photographed some around the ruins of the hacienda and then we went into the chapel. It was in fairly good repair and was still being used. A older man was in the back doing some cleaning. We asked permission to photograph. He said "Si." After I photographed some in the Chapel I asked if I might photograph him. He went and found a chair and "posed" for me. This is very typical of older Mexicans. Don Miguel had a dignity and an expectation of how he wanted to appear in a photograph. On our next trip to Merida, we took a photograph to him.

Context

Would you recognize beauty and excellence anywhere? In a busy Metro Station?

The Washington Post recently staged an experiment using the internationally acclaimed virtuoso violinist, Joshua Bell, to see how busy commuters would respond to his playing in a Metro Station. He was set up as any other street performer would be with a place where people could drop money if they liked his music. He played some of the greatest pieces for a violin on one of the most expensive violins around and you know what happened? Almost no one stopped to listen but he did make about $40 for his hour performance.

In the article Mark Leithauser, a senior curator at the National Gallery is quoted as saying:

Let's say I took one of our more abstract masterpieces, say an Ellsworth Kelly, and removed it from its frame, marched it down the 52 steps that people walk up to get to the National Gallery, past the giant columns, and brought it into a restaurant. It's a $5 million painting. And it's one of those restaurants where there are pieces of original art for sale, by some industrious kids from the Corcoran School, and I hang that Kelly on the wall with a price tag of $150. No one is going to notice it. An art curator might look up and say: 'Hey, that looks a little like an Ellsworth Kelly. Please pass the salt.

What he is saying is that Context Matters.

Now let's apply that to our work.

Ansel Adams was a stickler about presentation. Probably a whole industry grew out of his ideas on presenting black and white images dry mounted on archival mat board with over mats, also archival. But Adams feeling was that if you wanted others to recognize and appreciate your work, you first must show that you valued it enough for proper presentation. Call it packaging and the packaging might be different today than Adams view of what was proper. You can say that packaging has nothing to do with the excellence of the images but I've seen a very beautiful, expensive presentation box of small images make a stir at the portfolio reviews at FotoFest in Houston. It was the packaging that got reviewers to stop and really look at the portfolio out of all the 100's of portfolios.

Joshua Bell's morning performance in the Metro Station was "heard" by people who were not ready to "hear." They had other agendas in their heads. Had they been sitting in Carnegie Hall, they would have given their full attention to every note that came from his violin. If we want people to really see our work, we have to find a way to fully engage their attention. That may mean developing relationships over time or making appointments or getting the right gallery show.

We all gotta start somewhere showing our work so maybe the local coffee shop is where it's at. Some of the work in a coffee shop can be absolutely as good as that shown in a gallery but the bottom line is, will people recognize that? Or are the people in the coffee shop knowledgeable enough about photography to recognize the genius in the image. Will they be willing to pay gallery prices for your terrific image? Now take those same images five years later after you have been "found" and put them in an uptown gallery....now you're acclaimed as a great photographer.

As Leithauser said....It is the context.

Electrified

In last Fridays weekly newspaper, Atencion, there was a letter to the editor from a five year ex-pat about outrageous electric bills. After receiving two bills that were double the highest one ever received in the past, this ex-pat was practically living in the dark but the latest bill is the highest yet. 50% higher than the ones already considered outrageous.

This isn't just happening to the ex-pats, or to the high-rent neighborhoods, because we hear these stories from everywhere. CFE always says that the reading is correct and that in the past the usage might have been estimated, so pay up or get your electricity turned off.

I have written before about the cost of electricity in Mexico which is higher than it is in the USA. I know one ex-pat who says that CFE can manipulate the lines to make the meters go faster. Hmmmm..... If I have any electrical engineers who read this blog, is this possible?

There are so many complaints that CFE has opened a desk at the offices on Loreto to resolve disputed bills.

All I know is that Ned, el ingeniero (chemical not electrical but still that engineering mindset), is trying to be prepared. He knows about what day the meter will be read, so he has been reading our meter and keeping records for almost two years. Then he compares his reading to CFE's reading. So far they are within a kilowatt or two apart each time. But he is prepared to dispute the bill.....just in case.

Drops of Blood

You know the old quote by Gene Fowler:

Writing is easy: all you do is sit staring at a blank sheet of paper (computer screen these days) until the drops of blood form on your forehead.

Well that is pretty big exaggeration for my writing of this blog and actually I've found that I usually have something to write about but you may have noticed that my blog entries have been a little sparser in the last couple of weeks. We've been traveling some but even more than that....I've been drawing a blank when I sit down to write. I'm beginning to appreciate those newspaper columnist like Leon Hale, who day after day, week after week and year after year write a column. I mean how many times can you write about Semanta Santa and write something fresh and new. But Leon Hale always kept my interest up year after year as he wrote about things like Driving South to find Spring.

It is one thing to write in my journal and another to write in the blog. Trust me, the blog is censored and you should be thankful that I'm not spilling my guts to you. You really don't want to know! And I do try to make the blog interesting. Where the journal.....I doubt it will ever be read so it doesn't have to have correct grammar or any topic and I don't worry about controversy and I can write something one day and contradict it the next.

In my other life....my working life....one of the things that I did was write personnel policy and procedure manuals. I learned how to do it from a real pro, Bill Yeagin. Bill had worked for a large corporation that had unions. So he taught me that words like "and" "or" and "the" make a difference in the interpretation when it is read later. And that could be a big difference. I was reminded again this week of the weight of these little words when I read on the Personism blog about a wedding announcement in the New York Times where the bride was described as A writer and the groom was described as THE photographer. Oh....now isn't that a powerful demonstration of the power of a little article of speech. You just wonder what she will have to do to become THE writer.

At any rate, dear reader, I am trying to pay attention to my writing....watching those "ands" "ors" and "thes" (wow, that looks strange....one of those things that seems okay when you say it but not okay when it is written) AND I currently have five more ideas for blog entries on the notepad on my desk. So if they don't loose their relevance time-wise, I guess I'm okay for the rest of the week and you don't have to worry about drops of blood on my keyboard.

The Passion of Christ

There are two pageants on Good Friday in the centro of San Miguel de Allende. First is the trial of Christ and later at dusk is the Holy Burial Procession. These religious observances are full of tradition and have been carried out by generations of Sanmiguelenses. I've been before but have decided to stay in my own Colonia for the procession from the San Antonio Church through the neighborhood to Stations of the Cross that are set up at the homes of my neighbors. The more I hear from people who did go to the two events in the Centro the more I'm sure I made the right decision. First of all, as I've mentioned before 20,000 tourist were expected. I'm a short person and I can get pinned in these large crowds where I can't see and I can't move. It is frightening.

And the other thing is I get so aggravated at the behavior of photographers who do not seem to have any respect for these religious events. They act as though the events are staged so that they can go home with "great" photographs. I knew that there were a couple of photography workshops in town and so the competition for the "best of the best" would be fierce. And from what I have heard from my friends who went, sure enough the photographers were standing in front of the Roman Guards until the Guards started using their lances for a few pokes. The photographers think nothing of pushing in front of someone who has been patiently waiting in place at the curb to see the procession and blocking their view when the procession passes by.

At any rate in my Colonia, the procession is small and I can walk along with it and I feel I can photograph it without out being a bother to anyone or detracting from the observance. True I don't get "killer" pictures but I feel as though I have also participated in the religious service. Each year the procession takes a different route. There are no transito to direct the traffic. Some one drives ahead of the procession and motions for cars to go the other way. No one gets upset, they just turn out of the path of the procession or turn around. I love seeing how each Station of the Cross is decorated with the flowers and religious objects from their homes. And as the procession approaches, the men in the homes take hoses to sprinkled down the dust in the street and the women and children spread herbs and flower petals. Balloons and crepe paper decorate the route. I love my Colonia.

If you want to read and see a video of another observance of The Passion of Christ in Acanceh in the Yucatan, click here for Yucatan Living.

A Conundrum about Medical Care

While out to dinner last night with friends, the conversation turned to health care and how we would handle a medical situation here in San Miguel de Allende. Some of us have reached the age of Medicare and supplemental policies. In general, you can not get health insurance in Mexico after the age of 65 and your Medicare and supplemental policies from the USA have varying degrees of coverage which usually only means for emergency treatment and often with fairly low maximums in coverage. Before Medicare kicks in, your coverage will vary depending on your policy.

On Mexico Matters blog, there is a post that includes information about medical costs and he writes that you can get quality medical care for 50 to 70% of what it would cost in the USA. And he further writes that many people are coming to Mexico to get their medical needs met.

We know of two situations where people had medical emergencies that required major surgery. They went to the Los Angeles Hospital in Queretaro which is about 40 minutes away from San Miguel and they were extremely pleased with the care as well as the cost of the treatment....from what we can figure maybe even less than 50% of the cost in the USA. And we know of people who have had colonoscopies in Queretaro for about 25% of the cost in the USA. Extensive dental work seems to be about 25% of the cost in the USA.

I've not heard of anyone who has had cancer treatment in San Miguel or Queretaro. And I'm talking about serious cancer treatment not about the coffee enema "clinics" that exist outside of standard medical practices. In fact I've seen few Mexicans who look like they are in the midst of chemo treatments. I don't know if they stay close to home when they are in treatment or if the incidence of cancer and/or cancer treatments is less in Mexico.

Every time we go back to the United States it seems someone asks us about medical care in Mexico. We had started to feel pretty good about being to to get good medical care if we should have an emergency and even if our insurance didn't cover all of the cost or even any of the cost, we felt we could deal with it until we were stabilized and then if need be, we would go back to the USA to continue treatment under our Medicare insurance.

But today in the NY Times there was an article about the value of immediate treatment when a heart attack occurs. This level of life-saving care that can save the life as well as stop or prevent damage to the heart muscle requires that the care start within one hour of the attack, that the hospital have the skilled team and equipment to do the procedures and that the emergency room personnel is trained to recognize the artery blockage. Even in the USA not every hospital provides this level of care.

This gave me pause. The hospitals that we would go to in the Houston Medical Center, Dr. Debakey or Dr. Cooley's legendary heart clinics in Methodist or St. Lukes hospitals, would provide this kind of care but what is the level of expertise at Los Angeles in Queretaro which at best is 40 minutes away.

I was starting to wonder, what if one of us did have a major arterial blockage? Would we get to Queretaro in time? Would we receive the optimal care? Are we crazy for living here? While both of us have been well screened and tested for heart trouble up until now, who knows what the future holds. And that thought "who knows what the future holds" brought me back to reality. Should we give up our rich and interesting life in Mexico so that we can live near a hospital with optimal heart care when at this point we don't even have heart disease? If that is the case then I guess I would not go see my cousin in a small town in Tennessee or take a trip to Big Bend National Park to photograph with friends.

No, I don't know what the future holds so I think I'll live as full a life as I can now. I'll try to prepare for tomorrow but as Scarlett O'Hara said, I'll worry about it tomorrow.

Palm Sunday in Uruapan

Outside the San Francisco Church in Uruapan palm fronds are quickly being turned into small works of art to be sold to the faithful. And everyone seemed to be buying a "palm" to carry with them through the day.
I was fascinated by the dress, especially the hats worn by the mujeres making these beautiful palm crafts. Everything from a baseball hat to a rebozo made into a headdress.


We did not see any Palm Sunday processions in Uruapan but you can see my earlier photographs of the two processions that are held in San Miguel de Allende.

One of the processions comes down San Francisco with Jesus riding a donkey. One year there was a problem. The donkey needed to come down about four steps from the sidewalk to the plaza in front of the Church but the donkey made up his mind he wasn't going down those steps with Jesus on his back. No way, no how....no matter how the handler coaxed him. Finally Jesus got off the donkey and walked to the Church. The other procession comes from Parque Juarez on Sollano to the Parroquia.

Both of them are difficult to photograph. The first one on San Francisco you are photographing uphill and into the sun. The other one, the sun has moved higher but it is still difficult to meter because one half of the procession is in deep shade and the other in brilliant sun.

Jueves Santo

Thursday afternoon we kept hearing the bells from the Parroquia ring out as if a procession had arrived. And it is likely that the saints were being brought to the Parroquia in preparation for the Good Friday procession. We waited until closer to dusk to head into town for Jueves Santo. Jueves Santo or Holy Thursday commemorates several important events of Holy Week, The Last Supper, the Washing of the feet of the 12 Disciples and The Arrest of Jesus. The seven main churches in San Miguel decorate side altars. It is one of the times that the La Santa Casa de Loreto chapel, which is inside the Oratorio church, is open. A couple of the Churches had beautiful music and the San Francisco was having a huge Mass. Everyone, including the 20,000 Mexican tourist who are expected to visit San Miguel de Allende during Holy Week, was walking from Church to Church. I could not believe how many people were in the Jardin as well as in and around every Church because we have visited the altars before but the crowds have really increased. At some of the churches there were lines waiting to get in especially at the Oratorio church. I decided to pass on seeing the Loreto chapel since I had seen it several times before. But in spite of the crowds, there was a hush as people waited outside. This wasn't a festival but a solemn religious celebration. Just when Ned and I were wondering how all of the visitors were going to find something to eat, we saw that things were under control in the Plazas around the Oratorio and Salud Churches. Vendors had set up their kitchens and they were ready. The food looked delicious but we went to one of our favorite restaurants near the Jardin, La Brasserie, for a quiet dinner. We walked home in a strange silence....the absence of Church bells.

Mudejar Style in Mexico

If I were building a house in San Miguel, we'd have one or more carved canterra interior windows similar to this one. The style is called Mudejar.

The Mudéjar style, a symbiosis of techniques and ways of understanding architecture resulting from Muslim, Christian and Jewish cultures living side by side, emerged as an architectural style in the 12th century on the Iberian peninsula. It is characterised by the use of brick as the main material. Mudéjar did not involve the creation of new shapes or structures (unlike Gothic or Romanesque), but reinterpreting Western cultural styles through Islamic influences. The dominant geometrical character, distinctly Islamic, emerged conspicuously in the accessory crafts using cheap materials elaborately worked—-tilework, brickwork, wood carving, plaster carving, and ornamental metals. To enliven planar surfaces of wall and floor, Mudéjar style developed complicated tiling patterns that have never been surpassed in sophistication.

This style was common in the 12th to 16th century in Spain and of course you see the influence in Mexican architecture as well. But I don't think I've seen as intriguing an example of this architectural influence as this carved window of bold, stylized floral motifs. The window is in La Guatapera or House of the Virgins in the purepecha language. La Guatapera was completed about 1555 and faces the main plaza in Uruapan. It is next door to the San Francisco church but the original church burned down and was rebuilt in the 19th century. Richard D. Perry writes about this window as well as one similar to it in Zacan in his book, Blue Lakes and Silver Cities.

Dexter is Two

This was our angelic Dexter two years ago but I think I'd be hard pressed to find him this still these days. I might get an angelic look but it "could" just be a cover for what he was about to do. He was born on April 1, 2005 and it seems like he is going to be our jokester.

Happy Belated Birthday, Dexter.

Semanta Santa Tiangus in Uruapan I

Our route took us from the dry mountains of San Miguel, through the flatter farm land around Celaya and after going around the city of Morelia, we started climbing up into pine forested mountains around Patzcuaro and then down to our destination of tropical Uruapan for the opening of the annual arts and crafts Tiangus or market. I had heard for years about this exhibition but this was the first time we had gone. I should have gone sooner. There are many small Purepecha villages around Lake Patzcuaro that have specialized for hundreds of years in a variety of metal, wood, textiles and ceramic crafts. The week before Easter is when they all converge on Uruapan in their unique costumes and piles of goods. This is the market for selling their work and for buying supplies to make more goods to sell and to stock up on things they need for their home. But this has also become a market for the lovers and buyers of folk arts and crafts to come and see what is new and to buy inventory for their stores and galleries. Buses pour into the city and the hotels fill up. After we checked into the hotel on Friday we headed to the main plaza to see what was happening. The main plaza is several blocks long and it was mostly covered in tents. The villagers were still setting up their wares. We explored a bit of the area around the plaza and then headed back up the hill to our hotel near the National Parque. We met up with some other people from San Miguel at our hotel on Friday evening and when we went back into town for dinner I made my first purchase. It is a bulbous shape like the green ceramic pineapples that you see from the area but it looks like an Agave plant that has had its lower leaves stripped and it is topped with a lid of Agave leaves. We left it for the artisan to wrap up telling him we would pick it up later. One of the things I wanted to purchase was a pot from the remote village of Cocucho for the new fountain we are going to put in the patio. I was introduced to Juana a tiny woman....shorter than I....with salt and pepper braids, strong hands and feet that looked like they had walked for miles carrying heavy loads. She shook my hand but also embraced me and kissed my cheek. Such a smile and zest for life that woman has. You can feel it all around her. I wasn't ready to purchase my pot yet but promised I would be back to buy from her. Early the next morning Ned and I headed up by the National Parque for breakfast at a restaurant that overlooked one of the waterfalls of the Rio Capatitzio in the Parque. I had eggs in a wonderful avocado sauce. We finished just in time to head to the entrance to the Parque for the start of the parade. Each of the villages has a distinctive costume as well as a special product. This was the time that they showed both off. Colorful braids in the hair or a special rebozo folded and worn on the head. Skirts and aprons of pleats or embroidery and beads. Huipils with beautiful embroidery around the neck and shoulders. I recognized that although similar, there were different patterns from the various villages. The rebozos were used for head dresses, market baskets, backpacks, baby carriers, and of course shawls to ward of the chill of the evening. The parade was really lovely and everyone, both the paraders as well as the watchers, seem to be enjoying the colorful spectacle.