June 06, 2008, AROUND TOWN, Meetings & Lectures, Classes & Workshops, Tours & Excursions, Films & Videos, Volunteer Opportunities

Unitarian Universalist Fellowship meeting

Texan Beth Williamson tells her story of “How I Found the UUs and What I Learned from Them” at this week’s Unitarian Universalist Fellowship meeting.

Williamson relates how she was asked 32 years ago to help with a UU memorial service for a member who had been murdered for his stereo. The experience, which included quotes from Walt Whitman and George Santayana, left her thinking that the service was the kind she would like for herself so she joined on that day. She went on to become president of that local congregation, a member of the district board for 11 years and eventually president of the Southwest district of the UUA. She will discuss her journey from growing up as a Southern Baptist to her present understanding and beliefs as espoused in Unitarian Universalism.

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

On Tuesday, June 10, we are pleased to have Lee Carter as our guest speaker. He is the executive director and a founding member of Hospice San Miguel and has lived here for more than 20 years. Carter will be discussing Hospice San Miguel and its early successes, particularly within the Mexican community.

Hospice San Miguel is a nonprofit agency serving all the community. Hospice helps persons and their families with life-limiting illnesses. Help comes in medical, social, physiological, spiritual and bereavement areas. Hospice San Miguel has served over 20 families since opening in November of 2007. Although most families choose to donate as they are able, Hospice San Miguel is 95 percent dependent upon the community for operating funds. Over 50 percent of hospice personnel roles are filled by volunteers. Rotary International of San Miguel has been most generous in helping obtain necessary equipment and medical supplies for its patients.

Club President Gordon Logan will present Carter with a check for US$4,000 at the meeting, on behalf of the Rotary Club of Walla Walla in Washington State. Those funds will be used for much-needed medical supplies.

The Rotary Club of San Miguel de Allende-Midday meets every Tuesday at their new location, the 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. Visiting Rotarians and others interested in Rotary are invited to attend this meeting. Rotary is an organization of business and professional persons united worldwide who provide humanitarian service, encourage high ethical standards in all vocations and help build goodwill and peace in the world. For more information, please go to the website rotarysma.org.

Classes & Workshops

Chess workshops

Free chess workshops for adults meet Mondays 5–6:30pm in the central patio of the Biblioteca Pública. The Biblioteca has good chess sets, but bring your own if you like. More than a dozen players occupy the north portal of the patio each week.

Players gather at Mama Mia, Umarán 8, on Wednesdays, 5–7pm. The restaurant has spectacular views of churches, mountains and sunsets from the rooftop terraces.

Adults also play chess at Casa de la Cultura on Chorro, 10am–2pm on Saturdays. The view is extraordinary and you’ll know you’ve earned it after you climb the last switchback on the road to the top of the hill.

Writer’s Workshop for prose offered

This workshop is for you if you’ve started that book numerous times, but never been able to finish it; if you think you want to write, but don’t know how to get started; if you have a completed manuscript and are ready to learn how to edit and polish it in preparation for publishing.

Both beginners and advanced writers will benefit from the course. “Style Workshop for Prose,” taught by well-known writer and writing coach Eva Hunter, runs June 16–July 10, 9am–noon, Mondays and Thursdays. Tuition for the course is US$295 or peso equivalent on date of registration. Tuition must be paid in full to reserve a space in the class.

Hunter is a prolific writer, with expertise in fiction, general nonfiction, memoir and literary nonfiction. Her list of publications includes Redbook, The Oregonian, Qui, The Boston Herald, The Sunday New York Times magazine and Solamente en San Miguel. Her most recent book is Lord of the Dolls: Voyage in Xochimilco.

Hunter is a cofounder of Writer’s Workshop: San Miguel, which offers courses in fiction, nonfiction, screenwriting and poetry. She is former creative writing faculty at Portland State University in Oregon, Connexus: The Writer’s School, the Art Museum School of Portland, and has been faculty at numerous writing workshops internationally. For more information, call 152-6378 or email evamhunter@gmail.com.

Tours & Excursions

Saturday Adventure Tours

A “one stop” today at San Gabriel, where Talavera reigns as king. So much to admire, to learn, to buy. We will go to their factory, see the molds made for various plates, vases and pots. If we’re lucky, we will see a vase being formed on the wheel. Other artisans paint designs on cups and plates, which completely change colors after firing in the kiln. We visit homes where we see the everyday use of beautiful sets of dinnerware, vases, or other decorative objects. Then it’s to “Talavera Heaven,” the mammoth showroom where you’ll find all you need for building, from sinks and tiles to the plaque beside your entrance door. You can find tiny salt and pepper shakers to giant urns, or unusual plates to hang on the wall or from which to serve a plate of fruit. Looking for something unusual for your garden? They have the perfect centerpiece, a five-foot, three-tier fountain. They also have a most unusual selection of macetas, of every size, both glazed and unglazed.

The tour leaves from inside the Jardín across from the Parroquia at 10:30am. A camera will be useful today.

Botanical Garden Tour

Every Tuesday morning discover the marvels of cacti and other Mexican plants as well as the history of El Charco with Martin Smith, curator. Entrance fee is 30 pesos (waived for members) and the tour is 50 pesos. All proceeds benefit the garden. The tour is in English and starts at the main entrance at 9am and lasts about 2.5 hours. Bring a hat and water. Space is limited, so reserve by calling 154-8838 or email charcodelingenio@gmail.com.

Instituto Allende leads trip to Querétaro

Instituto Allende Tours hosts a day-long field trip to Querétaro, June 14, at 9am. With the expansion of national tourism, the city has become an important Mexican tourist destination. It also has a reputation for embracing the arts.

Querétaro’s indigenous population has further enhanced the spirit of the region. Querétaro was founded near the site of a good-sized city that originally was an Otomi Indian settlement that the Aztecs conquered and then fitted into their empire. The Spanish converted the settlement to Catholicism, bringing it into the New World. French influence is also apparent with Maximilian having a personal chapel built in Querétaro. One might say the Emperor showed foresight, since it’s the very place where he was executed in 1867.

There will be stops at the famous Aqueduct, considered an ambitious engineering feat in the mid-nineteenth century, the Cementerio de los Hombres Illustres, the Plaza de Armas and Querétaro’s centerpiece, the Villa del Villar del Aquila fountain.

Querétaro’s popular outdoor market is on the itinerary, as is a walking tour through the typical colonial streets to see gardens, churches, fountains and the house of La Marquesa, now a luxury hotel. Lastly, there will be a visit to the Hill of the Bells where stands the Benito Juárez Monument along with the Chapel of Archduke Maximilian.

A free preview of tours, in lecture form, takes place each Wednesday at 4pm at Instituto Allende.

Instituto Allende tours are all-inclusive; including transportation, museum fees and a restaurant-served meal. Native-speaking, bilingual guides lead all tours and offer further insight within a secure environment. Cost is US$65. Reservations are required and fees must be paid in advance. Visa and MasterCard accepted. For more information, visit or call 152-0226.

Films & Videos

Eckhart Tolle videos at Meditation Center

The Meditation Center of San Miguel will present a 13-week series of Eckhart Tolle videos, Touching the Eternal, from a retreat in India in 2002. Each video is about an hour and a half long. They will be shown at the center, callejon Blanco 4, at 5:30pm consecutive Thursdays beginning June 12, 2008.

Through the centuries countless people from around the world have been coming to India, thirsty in their search for truth. Considered to be the birthplace of spirituality, India has produced more great mystics and spiritual teachers than any other country. What more fitting place for Eckhart to speak of the eternal Now? It is here on the banks of the holy Ganges, amidst the snow-capped Himalayas and the tremendous beauty of scarlet sunsets that a group of determined souls from around the globe met to sit together in silence. With Tolle’s guidance, the rigors of living in India served as teachers pointing to the release of attachment to form and to seeing deeper into the inner. Join them in this transformational experience and allow yourself to be guided through words and stillness into the state of presence. This is the surrendered state of consciousness in which the very limitations of form become an opening into the divine. During this seven-day retreat, Tolle speaks with humble authenticity, wisdom and hum
or on a wide range of subjects.

There is no charge for this presentation, but contributions are gratefully accepted.

Volunteer Opportunities

The “Summer” Chamber Music Festival (30th Annual Festival de Música de Cámara) needs volunteers for various assignments in housing and transportation, event planning/support, student program help, “asking” and some office assistance for the festival scheduled July 31–August 17. Contact Gloria G.