AROUND TOWN
Meetings & Lectures
Unitarian Universalist Fellowship
Reverend Jake Morrill explains “What Church is For” at this week’s meeting. Rev. Morrill is the Minister of the Oak Ridge (Tennessee) Unitarian Universalist Church visiting San Miguel on a two-month sabbatical. He completed his Master of Divinity degree from Harvard in 2003, and focuses on promoting vitality, clarity and purpose in the lives of each member and the church as a whole.
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.
Green community meeting
Join San Miguel’s blossoming “Green Community” at its weekly meeting Wednesday, January 28, 7pm at Chai Café, Salida a Celaya 24. This week’s discussion focuses on “Building a Green and Sustainable Community in San Miguel.” Relevant topics are recycling, water conservation, organic agriculture, renewable energy and green development.
Midday Rotary Club
The Rotary Club of San Miguel de Allende-Midday meets at Hotel Real de Minas at the intersection of Calles Ancha de San Antonio and Stirling Dickinson. For this week only, we are trying a new format: lunch (probably a buffet) will be served at noon and the meeting will begin promptly at 12:30 in the same room. Visit www.rotarysma.org for more information.
Don’t forget to purchase your tickets for Rotary’s Super Bowl Party Fundraiser on February 1, at Longhorn Smokehouse (Salida de Celaya 6). Tickets (150 pesos) are available from John Doherty (415) 115-8239 or Larry Castriotta 154-5749.
Social and newcomers club
The social and newcomers club meets every Tuesday night either at a local restaurant or a house. For more information about the weekly dinner, call Jean Schikel at 152-4299 or Paula Nesti, 152-4299.
Third Gathering of Facilitators for Healing
Facilitators for Healing gather Thursday, January 29, noon, at Privada de Pila Seca 5 (turn into cul-de-sac opposite Pila Seca 45). This group promotes openness about alternative medicine, provides hands-on demonstrations of healing techniques and encourages others to participate. The meeting is free and open to the public. Facilitators are invited to participate. Call 152-0376 if you have questions; or just come. The next meeting is Thursday, February 5.
Adiós Is Not Good-bye
Robert de Gast, a long-time resident of San Miguel, presents a not-so-serious talk and slide show he calls “Adiós Is Not Good-bye and Mañana Is Not Tomorrow: (Mis)adventures in Language and Culture” at 5pm on Tuesday, January 27 in Teatro Santa Ana at the Biblioteca Pública, Insurgentes 25.
De Gast, author of Behind the Doors of San Miguel and several other books about our fair city, relates some of his adventures (and misadventures) in becoming acquainted with the culture of Mexico and the Spanish language.
“I’ll be telling tales on myself,” he explains, “and I’m sure many people will identify with the pitfalls and perils I encounter in my daily experiences with the very exotic life in Mexico.”
This is de Gast’s second time in a very different culture. He was born in the Netherlands and emigrated to the US where he enjoyed a decades-long career as a magazine photographer and writer.
“No two contiguous countries in the world are as different as Mexico and the US,” he says. “Even Holland, 3,000 miles from the nearest American shore, and a half-century ago, was culturally closer to the US than Mexico is today. But I still find myself making the same linguistic (and cultural) errors I was making then, except now it’s in Spanish!”
A recent issue of Independent Traveler advised: “Don’t miss Robert de Gast if he’s giving a lecture!” Admission is 60 pesos (50 pesos for Biblioteca members) and benefits the library’s many programs. The talk lasts about an hour and ends in time to attend the PEN lecture at nearby Bellas Artes.
Classes & Workshops
Chess: patio and terrace
Chess players meet Mondays 5–6:30pm in the north portal of the Biblioteca Pública’s central patio. Players also meet three times a week at Casa de la Cultura on Chorro: Saturdays, 10am–2pm, Wednesdays and Fridays, 4:30–7pm.
Gallery Wednesdays with Magenta
Magenta Gallery collective presents demonstrations, presentations and talks on art every Wednesday during January and February. The gallery is at Mesones 57, interior B, corner with Relox. Call 154-5366 for more information.
Yoga in El Charco Bóveda
Join yoga teacher Ximena Velasco for weekly yoga classes in the town’s most beautiful classroom—the bóveda at El Charco. Classes are Monday and Wednesday, 10–11:15am and cost 85 pesos. Contact Olivia Ledón, 154-4715, and
olicharco@gmail.com for reservations and for the monthly package of eight classes for 560 pesos.
Tours & Excursions
Saturday Adventure Tours
The Saturday Adventurers weekly tour, a benefit for the Centro de Crecimiento, is postponed until next week due to the major fun and fund-raising event of the Annual Chili Cook off. Join Thomas Michael Riley, Mike Blakely & John Arthur Martinez for great music all day and more than 30 chili cooks competing for the title of “The Best”. It’s Sat, Jan 24, noon–6pm, Real de Minas Hotel, Ancha de San Antonio & Stirling Dickinson, 80 pesos; children under 8 free.
Instituto Allende Guanajuato and Morelia trips
On January 24, Instituto Allende sponsors two trips.
Trip 1, leaving at 9am, heads for Dolores Hidalgo and the city of Guanajuato. The sanctuary at Atotonilco is famous for its unusual murals. Next stop is Dolores Hidalgo, a center for talavera, the local ceramic pottery and tilework. Then on to Guanajuato, deemed a World Heritage site by the United Nations, and its unique architecture.
The cost for this trip is US$65.
Trip 2, a two-day adventure, departs at 8am heading to the city of Morelia via Yuriria, the famous monastery. Instituto travelers stay the night in Pátzcuaro. We also visit Tzintzuntzan, pre-Hispanic capital of the Tarascan Empire. This field trip affords time to browse some of Mexico’s finest markets in three different towns. Cost for the all-inclusive trip is US$235 (transportation, museum fees, hotel, four restaurant meals and snacks).
Instituto Allende field trip to Bernal and Querétaro
On Saturday, January 31, 9am, Instituto’s weekly field trip heads to the quaint village of Bernal and then to Querétaro. Bernal boasts a towering landmark boulder that looms over the village. Local weavers produce good quality wool blankets, sweaters, wall hangings, shawls, vests, rugs and pillowcases. The town is also renowned for semiprecious stones.
Then it’s off to nearby Querétaro, with stops at the famous Aqueduct, 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 schedule, as is a walking tour through typical colonial streets with preserved gardens, churches and fountains, and the house of La Marquesa, now a luxury hotel. Lastly, we visit the Hill of the Bells, the Benito Juárez Monument and the Chapel of Archduke Maximilian.
Cost for this all-inclusive trip is US$65. Reservations are a must and fees must be paid in advance. Native-speaking, bilingual guides lead all tours in a safe environment.
Each Wednesday at 4pm Instituto offers a free preview lecture on the upcoming weekend’s field trip. For more information, call 152-0226 or visit Ancha de San Antonio 20.
Botanical Garden Tour on Tuesdays and Thursdays
Discover the marvels of cacti and other Mexican plants as well as the history of El Charco del Ingenio through a guided tour in English each Tuesday and Thursday, 10am–noon. Discover one of San Miguel’s best treasures in a fun and informative activity for people of all ages. The entrance fee is 30 pesos (waived for members) and the tour is 50 pesos. All proceeds benefit the garden. We suggest you wear a hat and closed shoes. Water and other refreshments may be purchased at our juice bar next to the gift shop. The easiest way to the Jardín Botanico is by taxi. Staff will call a taxi for the return trip to town. Reservations are not necessary. Information:
www.elcharco.org or email nzerriffi@yahoo.com.
Films & Videos
Shalom San Miguel
Shalom Forum inaugurates a new historical series: Civilization and the Jews: Part One, narrated by Abba Eban. This Monday we show the 60-minute episode first aired in 1985, followed by refreshments and discussion. The first segment, “A People is Born,” concerns the Exodus from Egypt, and shows January 26, 5pm at the Hotel Quinta Loreto TV Salon. Your donation of 50 pesos supports outreach programs.
Center for Global Justice
This week’s Center for Global Justice film focuses on challenges from Latin America facing the new Obama administration.
Letters from the Other Side, on Monday, January 26, 5pm, was filmed in and around San Miguel, a documentary based on an exchange of video letters between husbands and sons working in the US and the families they left behind. Directed by Heather Courtney, Letters interweaves the stories of four women whose families have been fundamentally disrupted by NAFTA. It reveals the human side of the immigration debate seldom seen in US media.
In The War on Democracy, Thursday, January 29, 5pm, British journalist John Pilger looks into several Latin American efforts to build popular democracies over the last half century—and US efforts to overthrow them—in Guatemala in 1954, Chilean president Salvador Allende in a 1973 coup, up to recent US-sponsored campaigns to overthrow Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez. Discussions follow the films, shown at Teatro Santa Ana. Tickets are 50 pesos. For further information, call the Center for Global Justice at 150-0025.
Bioneers Winter Film Series
Some like it hot—and many don’t. Dr. David Orr is one of the leading lights of the ecological design and sustainability movements. Professor and chair of the Environmental Studies Program at Oberlin College, Orr is one of the members of the Presidential Climate Action Project for the Obama administration. Orr’s books include The Earth in Mind, The Nature of Design, Ecological Literacy and The Last Refuge: Patriotism, Policy, and the Environment.
The second film features Kavita Ramdas, president and CEO of the Global Fund for Women. A new Bioneers voice, Ramdas addresses “Power, Peace and the Politics of Change.” She explains how listening to, and learning from, women community leaders is the key to building sustainable and effective movements for social justice, equality and peace. Join us Tuesday, January 27, 3–4pm at Teatro Santa Ana. Tickets are 50 pesos.
Lamed Vovniks
| Seeking the 36, a film by Nico Lanson, Stephen Billias and Dennis Lanson, is the quixotic semi-documentary quest of teenager Nico Lanson to find the “Lamed Vovniks,” the 36 Just Souls of Jewish folklore, here in the world today. |  |
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According to myth, these anonymous avatars among us keep the planet from collapsing into a terminal state of chaos. Seeking the 36 is the compelling story of a young person’s search to find solutions for the troubling state of the world today, a world in desperate need of some spiritual shift. This film premieres Wednesday, January 28, 1:30pm in Teatro Santa Ana. Tickets are 50 pesos.
Nico Lanson is a freshman at Stanford studying ecology and anthropology. Stephen Billias wrote the fantasy novel Quest for the 36, and is co-author, with Dennis Lanson, of The 36 screenplay. Lanson is a documentary filmmaker (Phans of Jersey City, Booming) and professor currently on sabbatical leave in San Miguel.
Meditation Center
On Thursday, January 29, at 5:30pm, the Meditation Center of San Miguel presents a filmed teaching by Eckhart Tolle, “Dissolving the Pain Body.” The pain-body is trapped life energy created by the ego and based upon illusion. Tolle shows how to transmute old emotional pain into unobstructed life energy. The film is the fourth of a six-part series, The Art of Presence.
The Meditation Center, Callejon Blanco 4, near Quebrada, is Buddhist oriented and open to all forms of silent, still meditation. Like most events at the Center, the films are free, although donations are always welcome to maintain the Center. Seating is limited, and arrivals after 5:30pm disturb others.
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