All quiet on the San Miguel front

The swine flu has got everyone talking and taking action in San Miguel de Allende. I'm beginning to see quite a few people wearing masks - in fact everyone working in the Mega supermarket had them on. The barman at the diner where we had lunch today put plastic gloves on before taking our plates away, and the cook offered us hand gel before we ate. 

Fortunately we have had no cases of swine flu in San Miguel. Nevertheless everyone is being cautious - no handshaking or kissing. And the normal chaos of dozens of kids playing in the park across from our house is eerily absent - in fact the park is vacant! The streets are pretty empty too. Schools are closed and all of my dance classes have been cancelled for the week.

There isn't any sense of panic here though - mainly just everyone erring on the side of caution, and enjoying an excuse to lay around the house and stay out of the heat. 

I'm really impressed with the way this is being handled here. I do hope it ends soon though (supposedly everything will reopen on May 6th). I miss my dance classes already!

Respect your mother

Today is Earth Day, but you wouldn't know it from reading the New York Times online or CNN or any of the other news services my Google home page crawls. I don't know about you but I find that not only a little sad, but worrisome as well. I realize that everyday we're hit with some news that's tied to the toll humanity is taking on the planet (the most recent being the severe water shortages in Mexico and the US), but shouldn't we still make an effort to make mention of the one day set aside to honor our Mother Earth?

I'm making a wild guess here, but I'll bet that come Mother's Day, the NYT will have some little ditty about Moms - some fact or at least a picture of Michelle Obama with her girls. But today, not even one little mention of someone planting a tree. Maybe we're just holding back until the 40th anniversary of Earth Day next year. I'll hang onto that hope.

I have to say not much in the way of commemoration is happening in San Miguel either, but happily we do have a nascent sustainability campaign. And by default, there are a lot of habits that would qualify as "green" in a thriving first world community, but for us it's just a way of life and a way to save money. Here a just a few examples (please feel free to try these at home... ;-)

• Line drying in the sun
  
• Reusable shopping bags (like my kitsch Frida bag)
  
• CFLs (in fact most of the chandeliers in the gothic Parroquia now have them - kind of funny looking but hey, it saves a bundle!)
  
• Walking or taking the bus
  
• Recycling plastic bags (the local Episcopalian church stuffs mattresses with them)
  
• Natural ventilation (hand-held fans are quite the fashion accessory among some circles)

Of course, lord knows Mexico is not the poster child for healthy, sustainable living. But hopefully it will improve. And if the media can make an effort to remind us of what we owe to our Mother Earth, even if just for one day, I think it can make a difference.

The sounds of San Miguel continued

I think this will be an ongoing series - the sounds of San Miguel - which may warrant earplugs at times.

This morning at 5am, after a night of playing hide and seek with a mosquito, the explosions started. Your first thought is not panic, but rather, "oh geez, what now." After about an hour of a series of explosions every 5 minutes or so, I figured it was either another religious celebration or they were trying to blow the snowy egrets out of the trees in the parque (which I'd read they'd tried earlier, to no avail).

The explosions continued throughout the morning, so on my way to work I decided to investigate. Fortunately, the snowy egrets were safe (though probably as bleary-eyed as the rest of us). And I was right on my second theory - bundles of rockets still waiting to be shot off were piled in the small courtyard of the little chapel on Callejon del Chorro. I asked what the fuss was about but my still limited Spanish got me as far as some sort of religious commemoration and if I liked I could join mass which was stating shortly.

Note in the photo above the man on the upper left swinging an incense holder - he's also the gardener that waters the church plants there every morning. The guy on the right is loading up another series of rockets - they even have their own custom rocket launcher.

(Oh great.... as I write this, 12 hours from the start of the first explosions this morning, they are starting again!!!)

Aside - another sound heard on my morning walk yesterday - a mocking bird imitating the little whistle the knife sharpening guy makes as he announces his presence on the streets.

My new favorite pastime

Did you ever wonder what happens to all those last season clothes that end up on the sales racks at the super discount stores like Nordstrom Rack and Marshall's, and then still never sell?

I have my theory - they all end up at Mexican flea markets, piled three feet high.

Even though I can comb through four floors of the SF Loehmann's with the patience of Job to find a designer bargain, I was never tempted to dig through heaps of wrinkled clothes at a flea market... until I met Sheila. Sheila is an attractive refined woman of a certain age with perfect posture and wonderful style. The other day she told me the pants she was wearing, which looked tailor fit, cost her 22 pesos at the Tuesday market. I was astounded.

So this morning I got on the bus thinking if Sheila can do it, so can I. Fifteen minutes of digging and flinging brands like Ann Taylor and Banana Republic (oh, my!) along with some pretty tacky rags, and 35 pesos later (that's about $2.50 US), I'm the owner of a classic fully-lined black linen sheath and a fit-like-a-glove pair of stretch khakis. This could get addictive.

Next Tuesday I'm going for Donna Karan.

My Babies

Mondays, Wednesday and Fridays I'm in heaven. I help take care of little babies - seven of them. Yes, all at one time.

Casa de los Angeles was founded in 2000 by Donna Quathamer (who is an angel herself) as a safe haven for the children of the streets and those whose mothers come from the outskirts of town to work or to sell their wares at the local mercado. It serves more than 100 children from 73 families at two seperate daycare centers and in addition to daycare, the centers provide a place for mothers to find the support and the help they need to make a good life for themselves and their children.

Casa de los Angeles and Donna are quite well known in San Miguel and when I mention that I volunteer there, people tell me what a generous thing I'm doing. Really though it feels quite selfish - how can holding, feeding, playing with, and drying the tears of little angels be considered a sacrifice. I think it's heavenly.

Casa de los Angeles is always in need of donations - they accept credit cards and Paypal, as well as having a US address if you'd prefer to send a check. I encourage anyone reading this to consider a donation... or come down to Mexico and join me!

It's just not a holiday without gunpowder

After Easter mass, I joined the crowd in the Jardin to watch the "Querna de Judas" (Burning of Judas). About a dozen paper m
ache effigies are strung across the street and blown up one by one. Each is sponsored by a local business and carries a crudely hand lettered sign.

After the last is blown to smithereens, the masses converge on the carnage to carry away "souvenirs." Nothing says Easter more than shredded body parts.

If you're not Catholic, get over it

I do most of my grocery shopping at Bonanza, a small store that's got just about anything you need. I needed plain white candles, so I took off to the back of the store where I knew there was half an aisle full of them. My choices for plain white tapers - the Sacred Heart of Jesus or the Virgin of Guadalupe. While the bleeding heart candles were 10 pesos more, it felt like they were better quality. Go figure.

The Good Friday Processions

This weekend (beginning on Holy Thursday) has been like living in a Mexican/Catholic Disneyland. Throughout all of Latin America, schools and work shut down and people take time to travel. San Miguel is extremely popular this time of year for its natural beauty and its Semana Santa pageantry so thousands of mexican and foreign tourists flock here.

The streets are bedecked in purple and white crepe paper and banners symbolizing purity and mourning. Street vendors are out en masse taking advantage of tourists' pesos - selling the usual balloons, baskets, ribboned dolls and plastic toys, along with a plethora of religious tokens. Instead of hearing lively "fiesta" music, you're more likely to hear church bells or in my case right now, they're playing Gregorian chants in the parque (I'm seriously not kidding).

Thousands of people came yesterday to witness not one, but TWO incredible Good Friday processions - Santo Encuentro (the Holy Encounter) and Santo Entierro (the Holy Burial).

Santo Encuentro re-enacts four steps of Jesus's walk to Calvary from his judgement by Pontius Pilate to his encounter with his mother Mary (I hear they used to do the 12 stations but that was way before my time). It's an extremely moving spectacle and no matter what religion you ascribe to, you can't help but feel a mother's pain and anguish as as the statue of Mary faces the statue of Jesus before he's led away. See my pics on Facebook.

The second procession at sunset is the very solemn Santo Entierro where an elaborate glass coffin bearing a statue of the crucified Christ is led through the streets, preceded by roman soldiers, little girls carrying cherubim, women in black with lace mantillas carrying archangels, all flanked by men and women in black holding candle lanterns. More Facebook pics.

I feel very lucky to be here to witness this amazing season. No events scheduled for today, but it looks like lots happening tomorrow. Better get my Easter bonnet ready!

Semana Santa

While on Saturday, San Miguel was full of uniforms and metal detectors, Sunday was quite the opposite - Holy week (Semana Santa) has begun.

Last Friday was Viernes de Dolores, a day dedicated to the seven sorrows of the Virgin Mary. Colorful alters to the Virgin suddenly appeared on street corners, public buildings and living rooms. The alters contain all kinds of symbolic references, the strangest of which are bitter oranges symbolizing the Virgin's sorrow with little gold flags sticking out of them symbolic of her joy knowing Jesus will be resurrected.

On Palm Sunday, a huge procession of people wielding beautifully woven (and whole) palm fronds paraded from the parque next to our house to the Parroquia, led by a cadre of acolytes with incense of course and a statue of Jesus on a donkey. Compared to the display of firearms on Saturday, the only danger on Sunday was the possibility of getting poked in the eye with a palm branch.

There are still many celebrations to come this week, and I'm especially anticipating the "Firing of the Judases" on Easter Sunday when paper maché effigies are blown up in the center of town (no celebration is complete in Mexico without gunpowder).

However, I think what I look forward to most is a good night's sleep... church bells at 4am are charming, but not for seven nights in a row.

For more info on Semana Santa in San Miguel, here's a great article.

Happy Easter everyone. Party on, San Miguel.

So safe in Mexico

Many of my family and friends (yes, you) have expressed worry about my sojourn in Mexico based on media accounts of the horrible violence in many Mexican cities. I've asserted (and continue to believe) that it's more dangerous to walk through Oakland than it is to live in most parts of Mexico.

Well, now I've got the proof... Felipe Calderon, the president of Mexico is here today to rededicate the San Miguel de Allende Museum and the town is armed to the teeth with rifle and machine gun toting Federales and Mexican army. I'm telling you, nothing feels safer than seeing dozens of kids that look no more than 17 wielding automatic weapons. I had to go through a metal detector to walk through the central square this morning. Of course today was the day I decided to sport some silver bling, so all my bracelets set off the alarm... and they still just waved me through. Damn, I could have tucked my pistol in my belt and really felt safe.

Seriously though - I hate guns. And I'm not especially fond of large crowds. And the two together scare the hell out of me. So tonight we're staying home and enjoying a nice barbecue and bottle of wine. Now I feel safe.