A Cornucopia of News

Mexican Revolution, The Fiesta de San Andres, Thanksgiving, many visits of family and friends... ah! where to begin.  Well, it's 6:30 AM and I am typing as: 1) a fusillade of 25 bottle rockets explodes over the village; 2) a Mariachi Band cranks up to lead the procession; and 3) church bells of amazing volume  sing the praises of San Andres.  OK, we'll start there.

The Festival of San Andres

When the Spanish first sauntered into the Lake Chapala area they noticed, to their great distress, that the indigenous people observed some religious practices -- like human sacrifice-- that were "no goes" even by their standards.  The Franciscans aimed to modify their behavior in a number of ways.  One was to rename all the villages around the Lake for various Saints.  Ajijic got San Andres.  So now, for nine full days, the Village celebrates its patron saint.  What does this entail?  The Kick Off is a parade featuring various Biblical scenes on flatbed or pickup trucks led by the ever present Mariachi Band (Mariachi music originated in the state of Jalisco).  There are seven families each sponsoring a fiesta to celebrate each night of the holiday.  They each get a float in the parade.  Today is Day One and I have chronicled the noise level accompanying the morning procession to the church.  It is alleged that this only intensifies each day leading up to the grand finale on Nov. 30th during which, I can only imagine, they incinerate the entire village while a cacophony of bells, rockets and Mariachi music serenade its destruction.  I will report on this in the next blog. For now,  photos of the parade.

The Construction Trade Union sponsored this float

This float depicts the martyrdom of San Sebastian

Realism of the martyr's wounds is a must in the depiction (no gore is too much)

Children praying to Mary & the baby Jesus

The Mexican flag is proudly carried by an angel

St. Michael slays the devil

Since Christmas is close we need a wise man following the star to Jesus

A real burro would be too challenging

Celebration of the Mexican Revolution

This is not to be confused with Mexican Independence which involved chucking out the Spaniards in the early 1800s (see previous blog).  The Mexican Revolution also involved chucking out folks but this time it was the descendants of the Spanish (as opposed to mestizo or indigenous folk) who had stepped right in to refine the methods of oppression practiced by the Spanish.  There was a tremendous disparity in wealth (hmmm... where have I heard that before?) and the peasants were held in a state of near slavery by the wealthy landowners.  So, on November 20, 1910  the Mexican Revolution began.  As with so much in Mexico, it was complicated... and protracted.  There were various Revolutionary Factions that were fighting each other as well as the Established Order of Porfirio Diaz making things confusing and messy. The fighting went on for 10 years and everybody got very tired and/or killed.  Names you might remember include:  Emiliano Zapata, Pancho Villa, Alvaro Obregon and a bunch you wouldn't remember.  Over the years, the various armies would need to resupply and would raid villages and farms to get food and water and probably tequila.  Each revolutionary band would have a flag identifying it. So, in our area, the clever villagers or farmers would construct a flag for each faction.  They would post a young, nimble lookout in a tree or on a hill to look for revolutionaries. Once they spotted them, and their flag, they would run back and the appropriate flag would be hoisted.  This insured that, while they may have to pony up supplies, but they wouldn't have the whole village or farm ripped apart.  A typical, practical Mexican solution to a messy problem.

To celebrate this holiday, Ajijic has (of course) a parade and a big fiesta in the Plaza.  You will notice that this is two parades in two days.  This could be our favorite parade so far.  It's almost all kids and they are pretty adorable.  All the little boys are dressed as Pancho Villa complete with mustaches and guns.  No one is horrified that all the little boys have guns.  The little girls are dressed as Adelitas -- the women of the Mexican Revolution.  Like in the song.  "Adelita, it's time to remember.  Only one hour more and I must go.  To the hills of Sierra (something I forget).  For the glory of Old Mexico."  Nobody seems to mind that the girls all have babies (not real) strapped to their bodies.

Kneeling on cobblestones to make a human pyramid (ouch!)

To be the top of the pyramid you better be good --- cobblestones don't make for a soft landing!

All of the schools are represented in the parade

The Mexican boys & girls reach puberty at a very young age

The creativity of the costumes is astounding

A band of young revolutionaries --- with their weapons

The revolutionaries with their Adelitas

Even some of the Adelitas carry weapons in the revolution

The creativity of some of the floats is amazing

Even the youngest can participate in the parade

Is he a young boy looking like an old man or an old man looking like a young boy?

No parade is complete without at least one band --- if not more

The name on the float says it all --- Sweet Love!

Onwards to Thanksgiving

Today is Thanksgiving -- well, at least in the U.S.  We thought it would be a good idea to fix a traditional Thanksgiving Dinner and invite displaced Americans to share our table.  Most of the restaurants here offer a Thanksgiving Dinner at a set, and reasonable price.  We dismissed that out of hand as being unauthentic and for lazy folk.  Ha! Little did we know!  Teaming with Wes and Ron, we set out to acquire the necessary items for the meal.  Suffice it to say we could have gone to the most upscale, rip off restaurant in town and dined at far less expense.  Turkey is 54 pesos a pound (about $4), Applesauce (Motts - $4.50) Cranberries -- well, you get the idea.  If Mexicans don't eat it, Americanos pay big time.  Worth it?  Absolutely.  But the day is young.  Check back with me later.


Nightlife in Ajijic

It is a strange little village.  I mean it really is a retirement kind of place but definitely no Sun City.  The range of events/clubs here is unusual.  There is a Mens Choir that is phenomenal and tours widely.  They have the Northern Lights Classical Music Festival in the winter that runs for a week or so and features professional talent.  There is ballet and community theatre.  And there are the more unusual groups and venues.  One of our favorites is The TallBoys Band.  These are four guys who ended up here and formed a band, really quite good, after very different careers.  One was a cowboy, one was an IT guy who created the first MLS in Mexico, one was a professional drummer and the last was a professor who taught demographics in New England.  We went to a lecture he did on the cartels and drug trafficking trends in our area that was really interesting and well done.

Then, last night, Michael was reading about a new club that just opened in Ajijic called El Piano Rojo.  Just a few quotes from the article:

"The headliner this week is Joanna (aka Joe Schmitz) a wildly popular entertainer in New York, Maine, Cape Cod and Puerto Vallarta.  Her signature vocal impressions include Patsy Cline, Judy Garland, Barbara Streisand..." OK, you get it.

"Co-owner Francine Peters is a proud transgender Canadian from Vancouver.  Being a part of El Piano Rojo adds an exciting new element to her diverse resume which includes work as a heavy equipment construction operator, logger, chef, long haul trucker, ice road trucker and artist."

"Coming soon.  The Kinsey Sicks.  For over 16 years America's Favorite Dragapella Beautyshop Quartet."  They had competition?

Nope.  No Sun City. Can't wait to go.

We Get By With a Little Help from our Friends...And Family

Well, it's Thanksgiving and we'd be remiss if we didn't extend our best wishes to all of you for another year to be Thankful for.  We've been very lucky to be able to see as many of you as we have -- both with your visits to us and our trip through Boston.  Last week, my brother Steve and our sister in law Lee were in and it was great to see them.  I'll report on our exploits hopefully in the next blog.  Justin just arrived for Thanksgiving.  Alex is hard at work in Vieques.  He has managed to get a job at an upscale restaurant and a second job (poor thing) crewing on a charter sailboat.  He loves it and though we will miss him mightily at Thanksgiving and Christmas, we are happy to know that he is doing well.  When Justin leaves, Michael's brother Brian and his wife Dian arrive for a few days.  More fun to be had.  Have a great Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving Table set for our guests

Thanksgiving Table with food (view 1)

Thanksgiving Table with food (view 2)

Thanksgiving Table with guests

Dios Mio! Dias de los Muertos y Mas!

How many celebrations, events, parades, masses, vigils and dance events can be compressed into a single week?  Well, the full complement of fingers and toes failed me so I'm guessing about 23.  Roughly.  Maybe a few more.  Along with fingers and toes, words may fail me on this one because this week was VISUAL.  So, there will be lots of pictures.  To begin...

We put Alex on the plane to Vieques at 6AM last Saturday (he's fine, got apartment, looking for work) and picked up our friends Ginny and Gary at the airport at 7:30 that same night.  In the interim, we attended the Thriller Zombie Dance held on the Plaza at 2PM that was a fund raiser for Cruz Roja.  In Mexico, the Cruz Roja (Red Cross) is entirely supported by donations.  The difference between the US and Mexico is that, in Mexico, Cruz Roja runs the ambulances (hospitals/fire depts. don't) and will also stitch you up, administer anti-venom for scorpions -- don't worry your little heads about THAT potential visitors--and generally provide basic emergency room care.  So it's a real good idea to make sure these folks have money.  About 100 semi-gereatric people learned the Thriller Dance, dressed as Zombies and pranced their little hearts out for Cruz Roja raising about USD$10K.

Zombies show they have rhythm...

as they invade Ajijic Plaza...

and dance...

and dance...

and dance to Thriller.

Note the Zombie dancing with the baby. 

A zombie up close and personal.

We scurried back home and then to the airport to pick up Ginny and Gary.  Excitement ran high as we began our whirlwind celebration of not JUST Dias de los Muertos but also the conclusion of the celebration of the Virgin of the Rosary.  G & G were able to get into the swing of celebration at about 5:30AM the next morning when the cacaphony of bottle rockets and church bells threw them from their bed (well metaphorically).  They were strangely unenthusiastic when I offered that the early morning celebrations would only become more raucous and persistent until the Virgin assumed her rightful place in the Church North of the Plaza on Wednesday night.

While all our guests are special, Ginny's arrival at the peak of Virgin season was kismet.  Ginny is British and, one would have assumed, all secular and blasé about Virgins and their celebrations.  Secular, yes.  Blasé, not very.  It turns out that Ginny is into religious art and particularly Virgins. Mexico is the proverbial candy shop of Virgins and Ginny was the kid in it.  It is truly daunting to discover how many ways the Virgin can be depicted and in how many different materials.  Suffice it to say that Ginny was most pleased.

I am nattering on here.  I believe a quick replay of the various festivities interspersed with photos is the way to go.

Return of the Virgin

On Wednesday night, they held the parade for the Virgin of the Rosary.  I'm still working out how the Aztec dancers are reconciled with the Virgin's quest to return to her home church.   Those outfits are something (note Wild Boars head provided to you as an attachment on your email alert) and, if I were the clerical staff in charge, I might be a tad afraid that the Virgin would be upstaged.  But that's just me.

After the parade, the Virgin returned to the St. Andres Church for a mass and then returned (at last!) to her home church North of the Plaza.  The Plaza was jammed with celebrants, food vendors, dance bands and a giant iron scaffoldy thing strung with vast amounts of fireworks.  We didn't make it all the way to the 11PM fireworks at the Plaza but could hear them loud and clear from our casa which is 6 blocks away.

Even the Native Americans join the parade for the Virgin of the Rosary

More Native Americans in the Parade

Even more Native Americans

Floats are part of the parade as well

Each neighborhood contributes a float with a religious theme

These themes generally depict some portion of Christ's life

This theme shows the Virgin with the baby Jesus

Dia de los Muertos

This is not to be confused with Halloween. However we, in America, are already tainting the minds and outfits of young Mexicans who are increasingly traipsing around on the 31st (when they should be worried about the Virgin of the Rosary) demanding sweets.  But I digress.

Dia de los Muertos lasts for two days -- November 1st and 2nd.  It is the time when the Mexicans remember and communicate with their Dead.  It is believed that the veil between the two worlds is thinnest at this point in time and that the spirits of the passed can return and visit with those they loved.  It is not scary to them.  It is, in fact, a happy event for them.  November 1st is dedicated to the young (infants and children) who have died while the 2nd is for adults.

There are two principal ways that the holiday is observed.  First, most people decorate the graves of deceased family members.  They first clean the site and paint anything that is worn.  Then, they purchase or create ornate floral arrangements that decorate the grave.  Added to this may be items that were of particular interest or particularly dear to the dead person.  Then, in many cases, the favorite food of the person is put on the grave -- usually including bread, salt and water as the basics of life.  Families will stay at the cemetery for hours, sometimes over night, and visit with the deceased and trade stories about them with other family members.  We saw a man playing a guitar for one grave.  The children are involved in this -- as they are in every family activity-- and no one worries about trauma.

Grave decorations for Dia de los Muertos

Decorations on a child's grave

The graves are decorated with items personal to the individual

The Mexicans have a very different attitude toward death than most Americans have.  Death is just regarded as another phase of life -- like childhood or middle age.  They joke about death -- a lot.  They grieve for those they lose but it isn't regarded as a permanent state in quite the way NorteAmericanos think of it.  I attribute their attitude to their very personal connection with their religion (many really perceive the Virgin as an almost corporal, living being with whom they can directly communicate) and the fact that death is so much more common and familiar to them.  When you walk the cemetery you see how high the infant and child mortality rates were until quite recently.  Our gardener lost two children as did my Spanish teacher.  In America it is unusual, fortunately, to know anyone who has lost a child.

The second form of celebration is the creation of altars in front of houses or on Plazas.  In many ways they are similar to the gravesite decorations but frequently even more elaborate.  An altar is created out of plywood and then draped with cloth.  Usually right in front of your house on the sidewalk and street.   Flower petals are strewn in intricate designs to create a background upon which are placed items significant to the person being honored.

Altars are even created for famous dead personages...

or dead revolutionaries...

or dead revolutionaries and their children.

Another aspect of Dia de los Muertos are the Catrina figures.  You see these all over Mexico during this period of the year.  They vary in size from very small to larger than life size figures.  The basic model is a skeleton.  From there, they are dressed in all types of outfits -- bride and groom, musicians, participants in various occupations etc.  Honestly, I'm not sure what purpose or symbolism is involved with them.  I need to get on that by next year.

Our friends Gary & Ginny with one La Catrina

Another La Catrina (one of many we saw)

Kuddos to Gary and Ginny for their stamina in celebration.  It has taken us months of rigorous fiesta training to be able to stick with a schedule as arduous as Day of the Dead.  Through a program of careful pacing and consistent margarita infusion we all managed to survive the day.  We kicked off Day 2 of Day of the Dead by witnessing a rather vague ceremony at the San Juan Cosala Malecon.  It involved sending messages to the indigenous Mermaid Goddess of the Lake.  The messages were enclosed in small clay 500 year old pots that had been culled from the lake bottom and were returned, via panga, to their original watery resting places.  Under a blazing sun, we tried to make sense of how this fit in with the Day of the Dead while constantly checking our watches to see when we could first imbibe a margarita without being considered hopeless drunks.

The children of San Juan Cosala with faces decorated for Day of the Dead

From there, we moved on to the Viva Mexico Restaurant (finally margaritas!) for an excellent meal of Chicken Mole, tamales and various other treats.  Next, back to the casa to change.  We all had to wear totally white outfits to the Mermaid ceremony and felt it important to reassemble ourselves before we were mistaken at later events for a roaming band of Good Humor men.  Then off to Chapala to visit with Ron and Wes and have one or two of Wes' world renowned margaritas.  Stumbling ever so slightly, we then wended our way to Cinco de Mayo, a street in Chapala that is closed down for the day and in which altars are created.  There are also street food vendors and live music.  People also dress up as real life Catrinas.  Very diverting.

From there, to Ramon and Ed's new house for a party.  They just moved from Guadalajara and bought this house that is amazing.  Well, will be amazing after they get done with it.  Hacienda style with the rooms all opening onto a central courtyard.  We'll do an architecture post some day when things quiet down. Post party, back to Ajijic where there was yet another parade, culminating in yet another fiesta in the Plaza. This week there are no fiestas.  Thank God.

So, there you have it.  Hopefully Michael can cram a lot of pictures in here to give you a better feel for what has been going on.  Alex is settling in Vieques, Gary and Ginny are safely home, Siam continues to enjoy her retirement.  My brother Stephen and wife Lee are due in next week,  Justin here for Thanksgiving and Michael's brother Brian and wife Dian the week after.  Hope you are all doing well and that our Northeastern friends and family are pulling back to normal after Sandy.  Let us know what you are up to.  Take care.  

A living La Catrina

Friends with faces decorated for Dia de los Muertos

Can you pick out the live person in this tableau?

Only when she removes her veil

If your already dead, what's a cigar among friends