AROUND TOWN

Meetings & Lectures


Unitarian Universalist Fellowship meeting

Volunteer Ron Stephens discusses the mission and successes of Centro Infantil San Pablo at this Sunday’s Unitarian Universalist Fellowship meeting. Centro Infantil is a nonprofit volunteer organization founded in 2001 by St. Paul’s Church to provide high-quality preschool education to under-privileged Mexican children to prepare them for the first grade. Founded on the model of the US Head Start program, it offers enrichment programs that include an introduction to the English language, a warm, nutritionally balanced meal, medical exams and medication, art classes, and health and nutrition talks for parents. It is one of five outreach programs supported by the San Miguel UU Fellowship, all dedicated to the education of youth.

Ron Stephens retired from the floral and home decor industry two years ago and moved full-time to San Miguel in January 2007. He became a Centro Infantil volunteer based on his belief that early involvement in children’s education is the best hope for their future success.

The UU Fellowship meets every Sunday at 10:30am at La Posada de la Aldea, Ancha de San Antonio 15 and welcomes people of all ages, races, religions, sexual orientation and gender identity. Visitors are invited to attend the service and then join the UUs in the hotel restaurant for brunch.



Midday Rotary Club 

Solar thermal energy applications

On Tuesday, September 2, Rotarian Enrique Orvañanos addresses the Rotary Club of San Miguel-Midday on solar thermal energy applications. 

In this presentation, Orvañanos gives a brief overview of available renewable energy sources. Focusing on why it makes sense to heat water with solar energy, he will review the present world thermal solar energy status and describe solar thermal efficiency and different available technologies. He will speak about the positive and active environmental protection aspects of using solar energy, cover environment statistics and monthly sun position at San Miguel and its unique solar situation and, finally, typical solar thermal applications in today’s modern world.

An electric and electronic systems engineer with a master’s degree in business administration, Enrique studied in Mexico, the US and Europe. A business developer and strategic consultant, his business experience include organizing a rural production company of over 100 beekeepers; system operations in Banamex; computer science in Sigma; real estate advisor in ITV; consultant to Bambu, a clothing chain of 300 ministores; founder and CEO of Gide, a tannery and manufacturer of footwear, leatherwork, clothing and accessories made from fish skin.

Orvañanos started and developed different business areas at IBM; incorporated and managed EGBS, a company dedicated to computer solutions implementation; and represented international brokerage companies and financial services. 

In 2000, Orvañanos created his present business, Desarrolladora El Cielo SA de CV, a company focused on business consulting, real estate development and solar energy solutions for residential, commercial and industrial applications.

The Rotary Club of San Miguel de Allende-Midday meets every Tuesday at Hotel Real de Minas at the intersection of calles Ancha de San Antonio and Stirling Dickinson. Check-in time is 12–12:25pm and the meeting starts promptly at 12:30. For more information, visit www.rotarysma.org. 

Classes & Workshops

Chess: Five days, three locations

Free chess workshops for adults meet Mondays 5–6:30pm in the central patio of the Biblioteca Pública. A dozen players occupy the north portal of the patio each week. The library closes at 7pm, but Café Santa Ana lets players carry on for another hour or two.

Players also gather at Mama Mia, Umarán 8, on Thursdays, 5–7pm.

Chess players meet three times a week at Casa de la Cultura on Chorro: Saturdays, 10am–2pm, Wednesdays and Fridays, 5–8pm.

Rancho los Labradores in September 

The clubhouse is the center of social life at Los Labradores, a multicultural community on the road to Dolores Hidalgo. The facility also develops activities for residents and visitors to build on existing interests and to study new subjects.

Classes in painting, yoga and photography are 450 pesos per month at the clubhouse. The painting class meets with Professor Blass in the gallery at 11am Wednesdays. Yoga students gather with Ximena in the gym Thursdays at 7pm. Aspiring photographers join Cha on Saturdays at 11am in the workshop.

Two weekend workshops meeting in the theater are QuantumTouch (September 6–7, 9am–6pm, 2,000 pesos) and Self-Discovery (September 26–28, 9am–9pm, 2,300 pesos).

For reservations or inquiries about transportation, call Norma Sánchez at (415) 185-2202. 

Patricia Rincon Dance Workshop

Patricia Rincon from the University of California, San Diego returns to San Miguel for the seventh contemporary dance intensive workshop with guest artist Paula Zacharias from Buenos Aires. Rincon and Zacharias will give a two-hour course each day—Contemporary Dance and Contact Improv. They also will work on material to be included in the professional dance company presentation The Myth Project III: American Dreaming (Tres y Quatro and Waiting).The workshop will integrate creative input from students to culminate in a performance.

The workshop is designed to bring together individuals of beginning to intermediate dance levels from various backgrounds to share in the exploration of movement, storytelling, acting and partner-work to create an exciting dance-theater experience. 

The Contemporary Dance Workshop will be held at Salon Mascha Beyo in Bellas Artes, Hernández Macías 75, September 8–12, 11am–2pm. The five-day workshop costs 750 pesos and culminates in a performance on Friday, September 12, at 8:30pm. The performance cost is 100 pesos. For more information, contact Elsanne (415) 109-4982 or Bellas Arts (415) 152-0289, or visit www.rincondance.org.

Artistic director of the Patricia Rincon Dance Collective since 1982, Rincon has toured her company through the US, Mexico and Europe numerous times, where she has performed, directed and choreographed. She has participated in annual workshops and performances as artist-in-residence at numerous academies, universities and festivals for over 20 years. For the past eight years, Rincon has traveled to San Miguel to work with the Bellas Artes contemporary dance community.

Rincon is a senior faculty member in the UCSD Department of Theatre and Dance. She and her company receive significant funding from the San Diego Commission for Arts and Culture, John and Beverly Stauffer Foundation, the UCSD Center for Humanities, the City of Encinitas Community Grant Project (with a matching grant from the Mizel Family Foundation) and the University of California Institute for Research in the Arts.



Tours & Excursions

Saturday Adventure Tours

A very special tour this Saturday, August 30—The Adventurers will become “pilgrims” and go to the famous Santuario de Atotonilco. But first we visit the home of David Areindale on the main street of the tiny village of Atotonilco, originally built about 1750 as a residence for Padre Alfaro. Notice the original stone arches and meter-thick walls, contrasting with the modern kitchen and the collection of famous Oaxacan painted wooden animals. The green lawn is shaded by ancient pepper trees and has a pool with a view—so much to admire here, including an artist’s studio.

A short walk and we enter the Sanctuary of Atotonilco, which was named this year a World Heritage site. Padre Luis Alfaro began it in 1754, as a place for the Otomí Indians to atone for their sins as he had caught them cavorting in the warm springs nearby. To this day, thousands of pilgrims come annually for purification. To aid in this, colorful rope whips are sold at stands in front. The inside walls are covered with murals depicting Biblical history or the mystic poems of Padre Alfaro. Flash photos are not allowed inside the Sanctuary, but are fine at David’s house.

This tour leaves from inside the Jardín, across from the Parroquia, at 10:30am.

Botanical Garden tour

For the next few months, El Charco del Ingenio (Jardin Botanico) offers tours Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays (rather than one tour a week on Tuesdays). The start time is 10am sharp (instead of 9am) and tours last two hours. A hat, water and good walking shoes are recommended. Fees are 50 pesos for members and 80 pesos for nonmembers. Private tours are available for 150 pesos per person (minimum five). 

The easiest way to Jardin Botanico is by taxi. Staff will call for a taxi for the return trip to town.

Reservations are not necessary. If you have any questions, email nzerriffi@yahoo.com.  

Instituto Allende trip to Pozos

Instituto Allende wraps up its summertime field trip season Saturday, September 6, with an insightful field trip to nearby Victoria and Pozos. This outing departs at 8am. Pozos is sometimes referred to as a ghost town. Approximately 45 minutes from San Miguel, Victoria and Pozos are a camera buff’s delight. The scenery is spectacular and views for 360 degrees are stunning.

The Sierra Gorda mountains are famous for rapid changes of vegetation and its ancient river valley. Now dried for eons, it once supported a deep and powerful rush of water. There are varieties of cactus and plants seen nowhere else in this part of the country, including several new species of poisonous succulents. 

Moderate hiking will take place in order to view ancient petroglyphs. It’s widely suspected that the Victoria site was a shamanistic training center of major importance.

Later in the day there will be a stop at Santa Brigida, a facility that housed giant hearths built by the Jesuits in 1597. Nearby, in Pozos, once a bustling silver-mining center, those attending will view first hand the bottomless shafts and the ruins of the old mines. There will be time to browse, shop and to inspect the old musical instruments made in the village. During most trips, a concert is in store for tour-goers. Pets and children are not permitted on this trip due to some dangerous areas. Sunscreen and wide-brimmed hats are suggested.

Cost for this trip is US$65. Trips are all-inclusive; reservations are a must. Bilingual guides lead all tours. Jamie Fernandez, former mayor of San Miguel, leads many tours. A free lecture previews upcoming weekend field trips each Wednesday at 4pm at the Instituto. Call 152-0226, or visit Instituto Allende, Ancha de San Antonio 20.



Performances & Events

Final summer arts and crafts fair

Instituto Allende hosts its final, summer-season arts and crafts fair Saturday and Sunday, August 30–31, 10am–6pm. Some of San Miguel’s finest artists and others from around the nation come to show their items at the fair. There is all-day entertainment, various foods and a free mariachi concert on Saturday at 5pm. 

Patricia Rincon’s San Diego dance collective

The Myth Project III: American Dreaming

Patricia Rincon will return to San Miguel with her professional dance company to present two works that have received high praise in San Diego, California. Conceived and created by Rincon in collaboration with visual artists Terri Hughes and Marcela Villasenor, and composer Don Nichols, it’s a collaborative site-specific, multi-influenced event delving into the myths of the iconic American Dream in two new works. Tres y Quatro and Waiting resulted from the artistic director’s recent time spent in Buenos Aires. Tres y Quatro, Rincon’s newest choreography, attempts to capture the multifaceted energy of Buenos Aires and its people—a community of diversity, strength, passion, tragedy, spirituality, stress and great beauty. Waiting is a video-film created while in Buenos Aires with video artist Paula Zacharias for San Diego’s Blurred Borders Dance Festival.

Patricia Rincon created the documentaries Project Contemporary Dance San Miguel de Allende and The Walls Have Memories, which premiered in San Miguel and San Diego. The Myth Project I toured to San Miguel in November 2006, and was performed at La Carpa. Rincon received a UCSD Research in the Arts grant to develop Landscape of Desire, a new video and dance work which was developed in Buenos Airies in December 2007. 

The American Dreaming performance is September 12, 8:30pm in Auditorio Miguel Malo at Bellas Artes, Hernández Macías 75. Tickets are 100 pesos; visit www.rincondance.org for more information.



Films & Videos

Last Eckhart Tolle video

The Meditation Center of San Miguel, callejón Blanco 4, presents the final installment of a 13-week series of Eckhart Tolle videos, Touching the Eternal, from a 2002 retreat in India. Each video is about an hour and a half long; they show at 5:30pm on consecutive Thursdays, concluding September 4. The presentation is free, although contributions are accepted.



Volunteer Opportunities

For a list of nonprofit organizations in San Miguel, visit the Community Connections section of the Atención website at www.atencionsanmiguel.org. Dozens of organizations in San Miguel assist children and families; promote education and schools; provide food, potable water and medical treatment; and even take care of animals and the environment. This section provides descriptions, contacts and information for donors or volunteers.

Does your nonprofit need some extra help? Send your short requests for volunteers to edit@atencionsanmiguel.org  with “Volunteer Opportunities” in the subject line. Maybe you have an event coming up and some extra support would be appreciated.