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AROUND TOWN
Meetings & Lectures
Unitarian Universalist Fellowship
“The Voices of Protest” is the topic at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, led by Sandy Brooks, this Sunday, February 3.
Drawing on the writings of historian, playwright, and social activist Howard Zinn, Ms. Brooks reviews the history of protest, using the statements of Americans, known and unknown, as they react to the lives they lead at key points in American history. Included are recorded responses by Mark Twain, Mother Jones and Helen Keller among others. Most are voices of dissent responding to incidents that have called for a comment and often an action.
Ms. Brooks is a longtime San Miguel winter resident from New York City, where she has been an active member of the Community Church of New York UU for 15 years. Since her retirement as a Children’s Librarian, she has been teaching ESL (English as a Second Language) at the International Center in New York.
The UU Fellowship meets every Sunday at 10:30am at La Posada de la Aldea, Ancha de San Antonio 15. Visitors are invited to attend the service and then join the UUs in the hotel restaurant for brunch.
Midday Rotary Club
Midday Rotary is pleased to have two special occasions at their February 12 meeting. First is the formal presentation of Midday Rotary’s first annual “Citizen of the Year” award to Saul and Linda Whynman. This award will be presented annually to the San Miguel resident who best exemplifies the ideals of service to our community in the past year. Individually, and as a couple, Saul and Linda devote an incredible amount of time and resources to help improve this community.
Next comes the chorus group, Madrigals and More, directed by Liz Stone, performing songs of American rivers, and spirituals as they honor Black History month. The director has many years of experience teaching in the US, and since coming to San Miguel has accompanied several musicals and reviews.
The Rotary Club of San Miguel de Allende-Midday meets every Tuesday at the Hotel Real de Minas at the intersection of Ancha de San Antonio and Stirling Dickinson. Check-in time is 12:00–12:25 and the meeting starts promptly at 12:30. Visiting Rotarians and others interested in Rotary are welcome. For more information, please go to the website:
www.rotarysma.org.
Slide Show: “The Romance of Ruins: A Visit to Pozos.”
Mineral de Pozos, the abandoned mining center northeast of San Miguel, is less than an hour’s drive from town, but for residents and visitors to San Miguel without a car (or a guide) it is a 3- or 4-hour bus expedition, a difficult and demanding enterprise. Experience Pozos vicariously with a slide show called “The Romance of Ruins: A Visit to Pozos” with longtime San Miguel resident Robert de Gast.
The area around Pozos was mined for more than 300 years before being abandoned shortly after the start of the Revolution in 1910. Three original smelting ovens, dating from 1597, survive in the Santa Brigida area. It was declared a National Historic Monument in 1982.
Today fewer than 2,000 people live in Pozos. In the last couple of years, however, a number of foreigners have begun new businesses, still, the overall sense of the place is one of utter abandonment.
Robert de Gast, a photographer and teacher, is the author of nine books, including, most recently, Behind the Doors of San Miguel. The talk ends in sufficient time for those planning to attend the PEN lecture at nearby Bellas Artes. The Teatro Santa Ana is located inside the Biblioteca Pública, Insurgentes 25. The admission charge is 50 pesos and benefits the library’s many programs.
Classes & Workshops
Chess workshops
Free chess workshops meet Mondays—children 8 to 12 years old at 4-5pm in the Sala Infantil, and adults at 5-6:30pm in the central patio of the Biblioteca Pública. The Biblioteca has chess sets, but bring your own if you’re fond of it. Local chess master Francisco de Santiago provides a few minutes of tactics and then you have over an hour to practice. Some players gather in the patio informally at 5pm on other days of the week. Play has started at Mama Mia, Umaran 8, Wednesdays, 5–7pm. They have tournament-class sets and a strong player in assistant manager Martín, who is committed to offering real benefits with a chess ID card at the restaurant.
The Art of Being Human
Shambhala Training is a secular meditation training suitable for both beginning and experienced meditators. By looking directly at our own experience, we discover a continuity of awareness underlying the changing conditions that make up our lives.
A free talk will be held Friday, February 8 at 7pm at Casa Shambhala, Terraplan 34. A weekend workshop on “The Art of Being Human” February 9 and 10 follows.
This first level focuses on the basic technique of mindfulness meditation. By settling our minds, we begin to see the magic of the world beyond our habitual filters, and experience the quality of basic goodness which can neither be created nor destroyed.
The workshop will be taught by Acharya Allyn Lyon, a senior teacher appointed by Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche, and acts as his personal representative in teaching Shambhala Buddhism.
Teacher Donation: 1000 pesos No one will be turned away for lack of funds. Call Margaretta at 120-0767 for questions and more information.
Iyengar yoga workshops
To achieve a contented life, our physical need is health, our psychological need is knowledge, and our spiritual need is inner calmness. When all three are present, there is self-awareness and harmony. This is the way and purpose of yoga.
The Iyengar tradition of yoga offers a precise approach to asanas (yoga postures) and pranayama (breathing practice), that are solidly grounded in anatomy and physiology.
Yoga Nova Director and Certified Iyengar Yoga Instructor, Margaretta Sander, offers free classes for all ages and abilities on Monday, February 11, 7–8:15pm. On Saturday, February 16, 9–11:15am there will be a practice workshop. Workshop Pre-registration will ensure that your question gets “to the mat.”
All classes are held at Recreo 4, “El Recreo.” For more information call Margaretta at 120-0767 or email
msander@ca.inter.net.
Third gathering of facilitators for healing
Participants speak on the gatherings of healers: “In these gathering at Alicia’s and Larry’s, we’ve dipped into the healing stream (of consciousness).”
“I’ve seen true beauty; a feeling of oneness and come away with a peaceful, easy feeling and a little ‘spaced out.’”
One never knows what will happen. The next Gathering of Facilitators for Healing, an “energy exchange,” takes place at 12pm on Thursday, February 14 at Privada de Pila Seca 5 (turn into cul de sac opposite Pila Seca 45). The meeting is free and open to the public. Facilitators are invited to participate. For questions call 152-0376.
Trips & Tours
Saturday Adventurers
On one of the most beautiful streets in San Miguel lies a hidden treasure, the home and workshop of Eunice O’Hanna, an artist specializing in one-of-a-kind necklaces. Although the house is decorated throughout with her colorful and humorous murals, the main attractions are her necklaces—hundreds of wearable works of art.
We head through the flower-filled scenery to Rancho Morera, a real horse farm where thoroughbreds and quarter horses are bred to race. For all lovers of “horseflesh,” this is your tour. You will be told how the horses are cared for and pampered, until they are ready to be sent to the Hippodrome in Mexico City, where the real training begins. We will visit the tastefully decorated home of the owners, where you might pick up some original ideas. The tour supports the Centro de Crecimiento (School for disabled children). Departure is 10:30am from inside the Jardín, across from the Parroquia.
Instituto Allende trip
Instituto Allende field trips next week take in the best of Mexico sights, with an overnight stay in Mexico City. In the capital city also known as DF (Distrito Federal) the tour visits the historic downtown, home to Bellas Artes, el Caballito Monument, the Zocalo, the Cathedral and the National Palace. The famed Anthropological Museum is undoubtedly one of the highlights. Artifacts and representations of the diverse cultural groups of Mexico and the distinct historical periods are on display. Visitors will enjoy a Saturday night in the largest city in Mexico and then the next day visit the ancient pyramids of Teotihuacan.
The all-inclusive trip is led by bilingual guides within a secure environment. Reservations are required, and fees must be paid in advance. For more information, visit Instituto Allende at Ancha de San Antonio 20 or call 152-0226.
Cactus Strategies walk in El Charco
Strategies are clusters of characteristics that uniquely fit a plant for its favored habitat. Cactus plants thrive where the emblem of the Canadian nation, a maple tree leaf, would wither. In El Charco, the cactus family (Cactaceae) is represented by 21 species growing where the land is dry and shallow, where there is hardship; happily they grow wild and planted near the lecture hall at El Charco where a talk and walk will be given starting at 9:30am on Valentine’s Day, February 14.
We will see the flowers of cactus plants in a slide presentation, and we will take a short walk to see the cactus plants themselves. The over-riding strategy of the lives of cacti is to reduce the need for and waste of water. Learn more about these remarkable plants, prevalent in our semi-arid environment. Cost is 70 pesos for El Charco members and 100 pesos for non-members. Space is limited so please reserve at
nzerriffi@yahoo.com.
Performances & Events
Fundraiser for Tibetan orphans
A special garden party fundraiser is being planned in San Miguel for February 16 from 3–6pm in support of Tibetan orphans. Almost 500 orphans live and are educated at the Menri Bon Tibetan Monastery in Dolanji, Himachal Pradesh, India. Dolanji is a Tibetan Refugee Settlement Camp. They have the same needs as all children—food, clothing, shelter, education and love.
This is the first event of its kind anywhere in Mexico. It is made possible by www.bonfoundation.org and Dr. Denise Gelpi Aughtman DOM, resident of San Miguel de Allende. Donations made through this organization are tax-deductible, although cash and checks are accepted.
The garden party includes a door prize for everyone, a raffle, an art show with music, refreshments and a short slide lecture at 4 and 5pm. The location is in Colonia la Canada at Puente de Sta. Teresa 10. Please enter Los Frailes and make your first right, then first left, finally first right to 10 on the right. Contact: Denise, 044-415-113-1043.
Film & Video
Zen Video Series
The Meditation Center of San Miguel continues a weekly series of eight videos with a Zen theme Thursday, February 14 with Alan Watts’ talks on nothingness and meditation. The video is blurry but the ideas and presentation are very clear. Watts’ books, talks and radio shows were an important influence bringing many people to Buddhism and Zen.
eating is limited; early arrival is recommended. A 20-peso contribution is requested.
The video will be shown Thursday February 14 at 5:30pm at the Meditation Center, Callejon Blanco 4, off Quebrada.
Snowbird Series continues
War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death is this week’s offering in the Center for Global Justice Snowbird Symposium Film Series.
Based on Norman Solomon's revealing book, the film reaches into the Orwellian memory hole to expose a 50-year pattern of government deception and media spin that has dragged the United States into one war after another from Vietnam to Iraq.
Narrated by actor and activist Sean Penn, War Made Easy exhumes remarkable archival footage of official distortion and exaggeration from LBJ to George W. Bush, revealing in stunning detail how the American news media have uncritically disseminated the pro-war messages of successive presidential administrations.
The film will be screened at 3pm on Thursday, February 14, at the Teatro Santa Ana in the Biblioteca. Admission is 50 pesos.
Bioneers Film Series
On Tuesday, February 12, the Bioneers films focus on green design with the ecologically sound designs of inventor-builders, Jay Harmon and John Abrams.
Harmon’s boyhood years of ocean immersion and marine life observation gave birth to his adult preoccupation with design.
In Thinking like Cathedral Builders, Abrams addresses the melding of ancient building traditions with cutting-edge design. CEO of an employee-owned design/building company on Martha’s Vineyard, he focuses on re-localizing the economy, and solving the local affordable housing crisis.
Author of The Company We Keep: Reinventing Small Business for People, Community, and Place, Abrams travels widely to speak and teach on combining outrageous behaviour with long-term thinking.
This method fosters the out-of-the-box thinking needed to build a sustainable community.
The films will be shown from 3–4pm at the Teatro Santa Ana. The cost is 50 pesos. The films are followed by an optional discussion.
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