Santa or The Three Wise Men

While we were in Merida, every plaza was decorated with Christmas lights. They were Santas and sleighs and reindeers and snowmen and Christmas trees......and somewhere on the plaza there would be a manger scene but not the elaborate manger scenes we use to see. Mostly just a simple Mary, Joseph, Baby Jesus, a Sheperd or two and maybe a few lambs. I don't remember seeing even one with the Three Wise Men in it. It could have been the USA.

The traditional way in Mexico is for children to get a gift on January 6 and that gift is left by the three wise men NOT Santa. I don't know how much longer that tradition can hold on.

Just a week or so ago we were talking with a Mexican man who told us that his little girl was asking if Santa was going to bring her presents. He told her as he has told her before that Santa is for the gringos and the three wise men bring presents to children in Mexico. But he doesn't think that is going to work this year. He has two brothers who live in Texas and they are coming to San Miguel de Allende for a Christmas visit this year with their families. His brothers children will get presents from Santa on Christmas Day so now he has a problem. He wants to hold on to his Mexican traditions but he wants a happy daughter.

Sometimes we think that it is THE USA pushing their way of doing things into every corner of the globe but sometimes it happens in much more subtle ways that are even harder to avoid.

This picture was made in a front courtyard in Merida. I think the owner of the house had just finished putting it together when we passed by. She was standing by the gate looking it over and when I caught a glimpse of it through the gate I peeked in. "Oh, muy bonita." A few more oohs and ahhs and I asked to photograph it. What could she say but yes!

Lost in the Yucatan

This is a portrait that I made of Don Miguel and his family in 1995. We met Don Miguel on one of our visits to the Yucatan in a tiny village just outside of Merida on the libre road between Merida and Cancun in maybe 1992 or 1993.

On the right-hand side of the road I saw a tiny church so of course we pulled off the road and bounced over the rutted path back to the church. It looked well tended while the hacienda ruins behind it did not. We got out of the car and walked past the dogs and chickens and into the little church which was little more than a chapel and then back out again and over to the ruins of the hacienda. It was a small hacienda with some portals. Most of the roof was missing but you could still see some of the "wall-paper-like" painting on the walls. I took some pictures of the hacienda. When we came back to the front of the hacienda we realized that there was henequen drying on lines strung across a field and then a shed where some men were tying and stacking the henequen.

We went back into the church and there was a man cleaning up in the church. Ned asked him if I could make some pictures in the church and he said yes. My camera was on the tripod and I shot some images and then we asked him if I could make a picture of him.

Over the next few years we stopped several times in this village and visited with Don Miguel and his family. One year they invited us to have comida with them during Day of the Dead. What I'm telling you is that we knew this village but on our recent trip to the Yucatan we could not find it. It was so small that it was not on any map. It was just a few houses on the side of the road where the hacienda was and a few more on the other side of the libre road. I don't think we ever even saw a name for the village. Still we knew it was between Kanasin and another small village that started with Pech??? and we found that village but not Don Miguel's village.

Everywhere we went in the Yucatan there has been so much widening of roads, building new roads, changing access roads that we were disoriented much of the time. In Tizimin, in Ticul, in Valladolid large parts of the town were torn up as new utility lines were being laid and new roads built. The old two narrow lane libre roads were widened and tied in to cuota roads. Overpasses were built to cross over the highways. And somewhere in these civic improvement projects Don Miguel and his village were lost in the Yucatan.

Garment District in the Yucatan.

As we drove into the little village of Kimbila, a village so tiny that it isn't on our Yucatan map, I immediately noticed all the houses that now had plate glass store fronts that were loaded with dresses and shirts. Most of the garments had embroidery on them. This wasn't the way the village looked when we saw it about 12 years ago. So of course we stopped and poked around in a few of them. I don't know where all these garments are made but in one place they were cutting embroidered flowers from machine-made strips and appliqueing them on dresses. There were also some hand embroidered dresses like the women wear in the Yucatan as well as some wedding dresses. There were bundles of dresses and shirts marked with sizes and style and I saw one lady who was buying by the bundle. So these shops were primarily wholesale businesses although you could buy by the ones as well. Ned bought a Guayabera shirt

I remember how I use to buy one of the hand embroidered dresses almost everytime we went to Cancun. When I first started buying them I'd pay about $15 for one. No more....those days are gone. This one was priced at $125 dollars.And this top was $45 dollars.
I do not think that there are any traditional village patterns or if there are I've never been able to figure it out. While the younger women in the villages dress in jeans most of the mothers are still wearing the colorfully embroidered white huipil or dress with a lace petticoat that shows around the bottom. I have never figured out how they keep these dresses spotless but I've never seen one that is dirty or has a stain on it.

These darling girls were in costume for a dance. This gives you some idea of the variety of embroidery types that you might encounter in the Yucatan.While I use to think that these dresses were a cottage industry, now I'm thinking that they have become a business and I bet that the women who make them by hand or by machine don't make much more than they ever did for their labor.

Blogging Connections

We're back from our trip to the Yucatan. What a great time we had and one of the highlights was getting together with some of the bloggers from that part of the world. Debi arranged for dinner at Restaurante Reforma which had great food and just the right casual atmosphere. Right after we arrived I held the camera overhead and snapped the group. So let me introduce you....

From the left, Ned, he looks blurry but he hadn't even had a beer, Jonna, Tom who belongs to Debi wasn't really laying on the table he was just trying to get in the picture, Debi, Mimi, Theresa, Duke and Wayne. Click on the links to check out the blogs.

I wish we would have had more time to visit. I was at the end of the table with Wayne and Jonna and so I didn't get much time with the other end of the table. Still this meeting reminded me of how well you get to know people from their blogs and before that I was part of a photography group that still is together after at least 15 years. The photography group has had a number of meetings and it is always like you just pick up where you left off the day before with a conversation.

I already really, really liked each of their blogs but now reading them will mean even more.

Cherub

Is a cherub with black wings like a black sheep?

This is the cemetery in Hoctun.

Chickens

They grow big chickens in Acanceh.

Actually, I have a lot more to write but I have no time. Still I thought you would like something colorful from the Yucatan.

It Was A Dark Night

We are off on another adventure. I don't know why when we travel, we seem to find the darkside and this time I do mean the darkside.

We knew that the Yucatan is on CST when it really should be on EST but still we thought that we'd have time to hit the cuota road before 5:30 PM when it would be getting dark. We usually don't travel at night but somehow we had talked outselves into thinking that we'd be safe on the cuota road.

We had forgotten how long it takes to rent a car in Mexico. No matter what information you have given over the internet, it is like you have to start over when you reach the car rental office.....which requires using the car rental shuttle and we had to wait for it for 15 minutes. Finally after all the paperwork and going over the car for any scratch or blemish that was already there so we would not have to pay for the damage when we returned, the rental agent mentioned that the gas tank was about 1/4 full. I don't know why the car rental agencies don't give you a full tank of gas in Mexico but they don't. Okay, so in order to get to Valladolid we have to buy gas. Another slowdown.

By this time we realize that we are not going to hit the cuota before dark.They tell us that we will see a gas station on the glorieta where the cuota road intersects the road to Playa del Carmen. We pull out into the traffic around the airport and we are trying to read the signs to Playa del Carmen and we are looking for a Pemex station and the glorieta. Suddenly we see a sign, "Merida cuota." We take it thinking that we were going to a glorieta where the actual Merida cuota comes in. After about 15 minutes we realize that we are REALLY on the cuota road already and there are NO retornos.

The road is well marked and there is a sign to tell us that the next gas station is 145 Km. away. Damn! We don't know what kind of mileage this car gets or even if the gas gauge is correct. What to do? We can't turn around until we get to where you pay for using the cuota road and by that time we will be so far down the road that even if we turn around we'd probably run out of gas going back to Cancun.

We drive on into the night with the jungle and nothing but the jungle rushing past us on both sides. There are very few cars that pass us. We start counting the kilometers and watching the gas gauge. Are we going to make it to Valladolid before we run out of gas? The gauge keeps dropping and then the yellow-out-of-gas tank sign beeps and appears on the dash. We still have about 20 kilometers to go.

Finally we pull off the cuota for Valladolid. The Pemex station was about another 3 kilometers down the road and it was not really a "station." Just an awning with a couple of gas pumps. But they had gas and I could start taking deep breaths again.

Now we think all the problems are over. No, they aren't. The government is rebuilding Valladolid, at least all the roads in the historic centro. There policemen on every corner and every road going to our hotel is torn up. This was not easy information to come by. We had to circle the centro about three times and ask about six policemen how to get to our hotel. Finally in desperation, Ned bounced the car over one of the torn up streets and I went in to the hotel to find out if there was a way to get to their parking lot. No, the parking was not available now although when we made reservations about 5 days ago, the manager had assured that the hotel had parking. By now a policeman was at our side telling nicely that we need to move the car immediately. So we went and found another hotel that did have parking and rooms.

And that is how our vacation in the Yucatan started.

Shy

This little boy was running with the boys around the centro in Hoctun, Yucatan. He was so shy that I think this is the only image I got of him actually looking at me. The look only lasted a fleeting second. This image was made about this time of year in 1994, 14 years ago. I wonder what he is doing now. I wonder if he is still as shy.

Yucatan Yearnings

This is where we are suppose to be today..........well not actually in the cemetery.....but in the Yucatan. But that was before I broke my ankle. This is the cemetery in Hoctun about an hour outside of Merida and the image was made at the end of October, 1997. I think that this was the last time we were in the Yucatan. I've been wanting to go back and see the changes. Some of the Churches have been "restored." From everything I read Merida is still a beautiful, vibrant city with a growing gringo population. I wanted to trace down some of the haciendas that haven't been restored as well as visit some of those that have. I wanted to look for some of the people we met in the villages. This is a good time to be in Yucatan because while it is still hot, it isn't as hot as the summer. Oh, well....the ankle will heal and we will go another time.

By the way, this image is a color slide. I shot a bit of color slide film in the 1990's. While my flatbed scanner works great for medium format film, it doesn't do 35mm film nearly as well. Just not enough resolution of details. Just wonder what my files would look like if this had been shot with the Canon 5D. Well I'll find out when we are able to satisfy my Yucatan Yearnings.

Change

I've been posting images of the Yucatecan churches that I made in 1994. I don't remember how many trips we made to the Yucatan while I was working on this project. We would get a hotel in Merida and a car and everyday we'd go out looking for the 16th century churches. Our guidebook was Richard Perry's book, Maya Missions, Exploring the Spanish Colonial Churches of Yucatan. It is a great book and if you are going to exploring the Yucatan I suggest that you get this book.

This is one of the altars in Mani. Perry writes,

"The collection of fine, early retablos at Mani is unrivaled in Yucatan. Particularly famous is an exceptional pair of late Renaissance side retablos, crafted in the mid 1600s by an unknown provincial artist, dubbed the "Master of Mani." These guilded altarpieces, while simple in form, are fused with a vigor and freshness of the carving that is the equal of any other Mexican work of the period."

Today my friend Deb told me that Perry had just posted a new newsletter about the altars in the church in Mani. They have been restored.

In a way this makes me feel sad but this is very wrong for me to feel this way. They are treasures and they must be preserved. But I guess my fear is that when I go back to Mani, the church will look pristine like a designer house. That it will have lost its homey feeling. The feeling that people come in and bring flowers and move things around and put down home embroidered pieces on the altars and light candles. Like in the image above, who placed the picture of St. Theresa (I think that it is an image of her) at this altar and strung plastic flowers and left an empty vase and lit the candle? And why did they do it? Will they leave the doors open as they did in the past so that anyone can go in and out during the day?

At any rate, Perry's pictures of the restored altars are colorful and beautiful. Maybe when I go back it will be time to switch the camera to color.

Grain or Noise

I've been scanning some Tri-X negatives from the 90's. I'm afraid I'm so spoiled from the smooth looks of digital files that the grain from the Tri-X film is driving me crazy. And here I've been worrying about noise in digital files from my Canon 5D. Ha! That is nothing and with the noise suppression software, like Noise Ninja, you can fix most of it and still not lose the detail in the digital image.

That isn't the case with the Tri-X negatives. Don't know why the grain surprises me though. You used grain focusing aids to focus the enlarger. When the grain was sharp and distinct, then the image would be sharp (if the image was sharp to begin with.) Seems like several years ago that I read somewhere about some techniques to lessen the look of the film grain when processing scans in Photoshop. I'm going to have to do some research especially so I can figure out how to smooth out the skies. I've tried only applying Noise Ninja to a selection of the sky because it will smudge up the detail in the grass if you use it on the whole image but I'm sure that there are better solutions. I've had to print some of them just to see if all those spotty dots I see when I'm working with the file at 100 percent were going to show up. Luckily it wasn't as bad looking printed on the paper as it is on the screen.

I have used Delta ISO 3200 black and white film for another couple of projects but those were with a Holga. The Holga can't make a sharp image anyway and the grain of the Delta 3200, developed for 400 ISO was really quite acceptable for those projects when the film was scanned. In fact, I think it added to the image. But with the Mexican 16th century churches, I need sharp detail.

This is a church in Sacalum, Yucatan built on the mound of a pyramid as all of the 16th century churches are in the Yucatan. Not the most exciting of my 16th century church pictures but it illustrates the problem with the grain. I didn't want the sky looking all dotty and I wanted the detail in the grasses. Thank God I was shooting 120 film. If these had been shot with 35mm film, I don't think I would even try to do anything with them. But I've always had this dream of pulling this long-term project together in a book. Now with being able to self publish, maybe, just maybe, I can make this dream come true.

Archive #10 - Yotholin, Yucatan

I was working on photographing the 16th century churches in Mexico. We had spent the night in Ticul in the Yucatan and our first stop that morning was Yotholin. The early morning light was flooding over this Madonna. I didn't move a thing. It was perfect as it was.