Mujeres en Cambio, founded in 1995, sprang from an idea of Georgeanne Johnson, who wanted to help impoverished women in the country surrounding San Miguel. The concept was to afford rural women more lifetime opportunities through education and self-sufficiency projects.

At first, the members of Mujeres en Cambio met in members' homes for potluck lunches, and they would brainstorm ideas. Georgeanne met with Pakina Fernandez, who was then head of Family Services Agency (DIF), to discuss ideas. At that time, the Mexican peso had just been devalued and Pakina told Georgeanne that DIF was so short of funds that it could not even pay the meager salaries of kindergarten teachers. The first grant from Mujeres en Cambio allowed DIF to keep the kindergartens open until the budget situation improved.

Later, Mujeres en Cambio launched a scholarship program, and a rug-hooking project was started up. As the need for more funds increased, the potluck lunches for members evolved into fundraising lunches. Funds that are raised are expended almost entirely for the charitable purposes of the organization. Administrative expenditures are limited to required accountancy costs and to some direct expenses of fundraising events. 

Our basic aim is to help young rural women continue their education past the compulsory grade 6. We visit schools and speak with principals about our program and ask for recommendations of likely candidates. We then interview the girls, candidates complete a questionnaire that provides information about their family situation: number of siblings, physical aspects of their home, their aspirations, and so forth. We award scholarships based on need, capability and perceived determination to succeed. To continue to receive a scholarship, our students must maintain a grade average of 8 or higher (most achieve an average around 9.5).

Presently, we help 135 girls, from seven rural communities around SMA, to attend high school by giving each 250 dollars per year. Many of our students have graduated and now are in universities or technical colleges.

We have such students studying computer science, education, law, nursing, medicine, business administration, marketing and English. 

One of our success stories is 75-year-old Doña Julia Lopez. Her granddaughter was awarded one of our scholarships but then found she could not continue. The young girl asked if we would transfer her scholarship to her grandmother. Doña Julia is graduating from high school and will study English. On International Women's Day in 2004, on the nomination of Mujeres en Cambio, she was named Woman of the Year in San Miguel de Allende. Some of her many children and grandchildren are in our program.

Our objective is to expand the number of high school and college students that we assist as our fundraising grows.

The regular venue for member lunches is Hacienda de las Flores, Hospicio 16. This delightful location is generously provided without cost by owner Alicia. Our October event is hosted by Heidi Le Vasseur at Cuesta de San José, while our February event is held at the country home of Jaime and Pakina Fernandez. Apart from the main course at our regular lunches, all food is donated by core group members. On occasion, our guest chef also donates the chef's 1000 peso payment, as did Patsy Dubois. Thank you, Patsy! The San Miguel Educational Fund thinks we do a good job too, and so broke its normal practice and has given us US$5,000 three years in a row.

There are a number of ways to help support our girls. We have gift cards available: Send us a donation and request that we send a card to someone indicating your donation was made in his or her name.

Our treasurer, Marge Zap, asked people to make a donation to Mujeres en Cambio in lieu of gifts for her recent 80th birthday. We have church and other community groups that send us regular contributions. We also have a group of six women from Marin County, California, who as a group support five of our girls with regular donations.

We are always very happy to have new core members join us in this great cause. For more information on how Mujeres en Cambio provides scholarships and fosters self-sufficiency for rural women, contact Roger Hind at 154-6552 or check out www.mujeresencambio.com . Thanks to our member Manja for creating and paying for this web site. Contributions may be made directly to Mujeres en Cambio. If you require a tax-deductible receipt, make your contribution to the San Miguel Education Foundation, writing "Mujeres en Cambio" on the memo line.

Rustic Rancho Lunch 
& Atotonilco Sanctuary Tour
Benefit for Mujeres en Cambio 
Thursday, February 16, 2pm
Fernandez Ranch in Atotonilco
Buses depart 1pm from calle Cardo
opposite St Paul's Church
Advance purchase tickets only
250 pesos

To Walk the Walk
By Beverly Donofrio (Feb 10, 2006)

On January 24, twenty-three San Miguel Walkers gathered in front of the Parroquia before dawn to walk 55 miles on the first leg of the centuries-old pilgrimage to San Juan de los Lagos. We Walkers were making the third annual San Miguel Walk Against Domestic Violence, which raises money to fund CASA's (Centro Para los Adolescentes de San Miguel de Allende) domestic violence program. Those of you who have been patient or curious enough to read the stack of articles I've already written, know that organizing this pilgrimage-fundraiser-walk was a big deal for me. I'm praying that next year someone more organized than I will take it on; however, I just have to tell you, immodestly, I didn't do too shabbily. On the final accounting, we will have raised a little over $27,000 for CASA, ensuring that abused women and children will continue to have a place to turn for help and counsel, and hope. 

I am grateful to many people for donating money and time, especially the organizers of the fabulous, blow-out Holly Hop, most especially Francisco Vázquez Fresan. For the third year in a row, Paco not only managed the website and did all the accounting but was the brains behind the logistics of the walking and camping, this year also pitching tents in the mud in pouring rain. 

For the first time, we handed out water to the pilgrims from a truckbed. Four stalwart women including Alejandra Saucillo, a psychologist from CASA, passed out 1,000 bottles of water, most of which had been purchased with Walk funds, but some were generously donated by Coca Cola, the distributor of Ciel, and by Agua Mariner, a local distributor. Along with the water, the women handed out business-type cards. On one side was printed the CASA logo accompanied by the words, in Spanish, "If you or anyone you know needs help, call: 154-6060." On the opposite side was: "Violencia en la Familia" under which was the word "NO" circled in red with a slash through it. Saucillo offered a free first session to anyone who called for an appointment. Since the Walk, she has seen four women and made appointments for five more, and that was before the pilgrims even returned from San Juan de los Lagos to San Miguel, on February 2, known as Candelaria. While the San Miguel Walkers only walked for three days, the rest of the pilgrims continued on heroically for nine more.

The most essential people to the success of the Walk, however, were the Walkers themselves, most of whom asked virtually everyone they knew to support them with donations, and ended up not only challenging their bodies by walking 50 miles in two days, but walking 25 of them in the pouring rain. I think most of us would say that the rain and the cold, the mud, and the pig at our campsite, too, only added to an already rich and almost other-worldly experience. The countryside was lit up in the wet. Golden grasses up to our knees, oak forests covering the hillsides, blood red rocks under our feet. Little clutches of pilgrims wending their way over paths, looking impossibly like jelly beans, in brightly colored plastic sheeting clutched at their throats to cover their shoulders. 

Once we reached camp sixteen of us stayed while seven hightailed it back home to San Miguel on a bus passing through Sauceda. Those of us who stayed were probably the ones who had followed instructions and brought rain gear, or had the foresight to pay that 40 pesos in San Martín and wrap ourselves in a plastic sheet. Finally at camp, we dried ourselves over big cauldrons filled with hot coals, steam billowing off our clothes as we dried ourselves and cheered for each new, soaked-to-the-skin arrival to walk into the dining tent. We sat around the four cauldrons, eating hot soup, drinking tea, and telling stories until 7, when we went to sleep in almost dry tents and slept till 7 the next morning. Shortly after dawn, we were pleasantly surprised to see four of our errant walkers returning to make the last leg of the journey with us. 

This was our third and last day. We rode a bus and debarked a few hours outside of San Juan de los Lagos, where we carried our newly made San Miguel Walk Virgin banner into town. The priest blessed us and our banner outside of the church, then we walked up the center aisle to present the banner and our cause to the revered little Virgin of San Juan de los Lagos, who is made of corn and resides in a golden dress above the altar. Some of us walked to the Virgin on our knees, which as Mary Brenneman commented, hurt less at that point than walking on our feet. 

Pilgrims are invited to make a request of the Virgin. It's not easy walking so far and she appreciates your suffering. I figured that since I'd basically devoted my life for the past four months to organizing this pilgrimage-walk-fundraiser, I probably had a lot of good will in the Virgin bank to draw on. But in the end, walking on my knees-an act I never ever expected to perform in this lifetime-I was moved to simply give thanks for my first grandchild, a happy, loving son and daughter-in-law, my very good life in San Miguel, great friends, and all the opportunities and new people who continue to come my way-and not least for the amazing experience of being on the Walk. I was not the only one to decide at the last minute to simply say, Thanks.

Our trip ended with a good soak in the hot springs at Escondido. In the thermal waters, people massaged each other's feet, showed each other relieving calf and hip stretches, splashed and laughed, and generally felt that peaceful, glowy feeling you experience when you have been out of doors for several days in the company of five or six or seven thousand people, their bodies aching, to fill their hearts with hope and thanks. I can't wait to walk again next year.

Dine and dance for global justice
By the Center for Global Justice (Feb 10, 2006)

Amigos! Are you ready to kick up your heels, dance the night away, enjoy a great Mexican buffet dinner and terrific conversations with friends? Then join us for The First Annual Global Justice Dinner-Dance FUNdraiser on Saturday, February 18, 7-11pm at Casa de Los Milagros. Not only will you eat well but you can learn Salsa and Danzón from several well-known San Miguel dance teachers who will give demonstrations and lessons! You have enriched our Snowbird Symposium with good discussion-now let's party. 

We at the Center for Global Justice are building a cooperative educational community of learners, and we need your intellectual and financial support. If you believe "another world is possible," help us imagine that world and bring it into focus and closer to reality. 

Currently, and through the end of March, our popular Snowbird Symposium is running at the Biblioteca with a full schedule of informative films and talks addressing major political and economic issues of war and peace, migrant rights, economic alternatives, the environment and human rights and social justice issues. Our two ongoing study groups, one on Mexican history and culture and the other on globalization, conduct seminar-like discussions addressing the complex issues of the dramatic social and economic processes reshaping our world today. We invite you to join these exciting discussions and help us search for solutions. For example, our Mexican study group has launched a comprehensive examination of the causes and consequences of northward Mexican migration and related humanitarian and social justice concerns. 

Last year, the Center sponsored a major international conference in San Miguel. The Women and Globalization Conference brought nearly two hundred conferees to live and study together for more than a week. This summer, we are sponsoring our 3rd international conference on the theme "Another World Is Possible," which we anticipate will attract even more participants. 

An exciting new project of the Center brings major issue-oriented films in Spanish, with moderated discussions with people in the nearby rural communities of the campo-films that will touch their lives and spark lively exchanges.

Our ongoing projects range from our Cooperative Loan Fund and Internship Programs to our long-term dream of creating a Mini University Research Center here in San Miguel. Recently we lent 50,000 pesos at below-market rates to a group of agricultural cooperatives in the State of Hidalgo. One of our goals is to raise more funds to support the survival of democratically run cooperatives that will enrich the lives of people in the Mexican communities. Imagine, another world is possible.

We need both your financial support and your skills to keep our doors open, support our ongoing projects and help create new ones. So, come, eat, dance, meet interesting people and join the Center. (Note: Members are entitled to join our comprehensive group health insurance plan.) See you at the dinner-dance!

Advance sale tickets 350 pesos at La Conexión, Border Crossings and Snowbird Symposium events at the Biblioteca. At the door, 400 pesos. For more information, please check our website at www.globaljusticecenter.org  or contact us at 150-0025 and info@globaljusticecenter.org .

FUNdraiser Dinner-Dance
Saturday, February 18, 7-11pm
Casa de Los Milagros, Reloj 17
Advance purchase 350/at the door $400 pesos
Information: 150-0025

The greening of colonia Olimpo
By Atención staff (Feb 10, 2006)

Creating a green space in urban colonias is a challenge for all developing neighborhoods in San Miguel de Allende; and more so when created by the neighbors themselves.

Tom Frazee and friends and neighbors have been hard at work transforming a small area in the working-class colonia Olimpo into a green area with a children's playground. Over the past 12 months they have installed playground equipment and planted trees and the progress is remarkable.

It is, however, just a short distance from completion and Frazee hopes the community will support their effort (and role model!) by contributing to the finishing touches of the park.

"I have the materials and a pledge of 10,000 pesos if I can raise the 20,000 pesos necessary for labor," said Tom. "The park lacks one small stretch of its perimeter wall, concrete paving around the kiosk for parking, games and gatherings, a picnic table with benches and a few park benches."

Frazee is well known to long term residents for his generosity to community causes and hands-on approach to getting things done. He invites people interested in contributing to the park to call him for a personal guided tour at 152-4310.

From the United States Embassy Mexico
(Feb 10, 2006)

Consular Agency in San Miguel de Allende

The Embassy would like to extend its gratitude to Colonel Phil Maher who has provided the US Consular Agency in San Miguel de Allende with excellent and selfless service for over twenty years. Col. Maher retired on January 15, 2006, and he will be missed by all of us. We wish the Colonel all of the best. We appreciate his many years of dedication to the people in San Miguel. The Colonel leaves very large shoes to fill! Until a new consular agent is announced, a consular officer from the Citizens' Consular Services staff in the Embassy will visit each Friday to handle the most urgent cases by appointment only. For all other services, please visit or contact the Embassy in Mexico City. 

Passport and Citizenship unit 

US passport and notarial services are available Mondays to Fridays (except administrative days and US and Mexican official holidays) in Room 106 at the US Embassy located near the Independence Plaza (Statue of the Angel) in the center of Mexico City. Office hours are 8:30 to 10:30am. Visitors arriving at the Embassy's front entrance no later than 10:30am will be seen the same day. No appointment is necessary except for Consular Reports of Birth Abroad of US Citizens. 

The Embassy's Passport and Citizenship Office will be closed to the public on the last business day of every month for administrative reasons. The next such day is Tuesday, February 28, 2006.

Additional closings February-April, 2006

The US Embassy, Consulates and Consular Agencies throughout Mexico will be closed for business in recognition of the following US and Mexican holidays: 

Tuesday, February 28, Embassy Passport Administrative Day (Closed to the Public) Tuesday, March 21, Benito Juárez's Birthday 

Thursday, April 13, Holy Thursday 

Friday, April 14, Good Friday

Tax season is here! 

An IRS representative will visit Mexico City February 27 thru March 2. This will be the only opportunity to meet with an IRS agent in Mexico during Tax Season 2006. To schedule an individual appointment or attend one of the seminars that will be offered, please call (0155) 5080 2000 ext. 4780. The seminars will be useful to US Citizens who file 1040 tax returns and will also include important information on foreign issues such as foreign tax credit and foreign earned income exclusion.

Big cat at Parque Juárez 
(Feb 10, 2006)

This gato grande sits guard at the entrance of the new children's playground in Parque Juárez. He's seldom alone. The children interact with him as though he were one of them.

This bronze cat was donated by sculptor Sharon Milligan, in memory of her mother, Erylene Adams. "My mother loved her grandchildren, and was very protective of all children," says Milligan.

The cat joins Tom Knapp's giant tortoise, also in bronze, and a big concrete alligator already in the children's play area. It isn't unusual to see children riding the alligator bareback, or having their picture taken in front of the friendly tortoise.

Happy New Year to the trees
(Feb 10, 2006)

Tu B'Shevat, the 15th of the month Shevat on the Jewish calendar, which falls in 2006 on Monday, February 13, is the day that marks the beginning of a "New Year for Trees." The holiday is a celebration of trees, rejoicing in the fruit of the tree and the fruit of the vine, celebrating the splendid, abundant gifts of the natural world that give our senses delight and our bodies life.

This is the season in which the earliest-blooming trees in the Land of Israel emerge from their winter sleep and begin a new fruit-bearing cycle. Sustaining rains are at the peak of their power and the world responds, brimming with buds of fragrant life. To mark this moment, school children plant trees. Often these trees have been provided by the contributions of Jewish students abroad through the good offices of the Jewish National Fund.

For Jews outside of Israel, Tu B'Shevat is a celebration of the renewal of vision and awareness, a celebration of connections and connectedness-to our own inner-selves, to the social world of human beings, and to the natural world and its Source.

Tu B'Shevat is marked by eating fruit, particularly from the "Seven Kinds" singled out by the Torah (first five books of the Bible) in its praise of the bounty of the Holy Land: wheat, barley, grapes, figs, pomegranates, olives and dates. On this day we remember that "Man is a tree of the field" (Deuteronomy 20:19) and reflect on the lessons we can derive from our botanical analogue.

Shalom San Miguel invites you to celebrate Tu B'Shevat with food, music/dance and friendship. Please bring vegetarian or dairy food to share. So that we know how many guests to expect, please make your reservation by emailing Pat at mexicanpat@yahoo.com  or leaving a message at 154-9478.

Tu B'Shevat
Monday, February 13, 3pm
Refugio Sur 20, Colonia San Antonio
Reservations 154-9478