Celebration of sun and water at El Charco, Artfully fashionable fundraiser for Casa Hogar Don Bosco, Scream of innocence, Common-sense high-desert landscapes, Fundraiser feast for Olimpo park, The luck of the Irish, The 24 Hour Association, Tradition and craftsmanship at Villas Xichú

As is customary every year, El Charco del Ingenio, San Miguel de Allende's botanical garden, celebrates its festival of the sun, offering music to the flourishing Earth. This year the celebration will be dedicated to water-our natural resource, our source of life and our present and future challenge.

A special concert will be performed by Capella Guanajuatensis, a well-known baroque musical ensemble from the city of Guanajuato. They will play compositions by Antonio Vivaldi, Alberto Ginastera and José Pablo Moncayo.

This concert takes place at the canyon's natural amphitheater sculpted by millennia of flowing water.

Prior to the concert, everybody is invited to attend the round table discussion "H2O San Miguel," a forum organized by local nongovernmental organizations. The water issue in our community will be discussed in Spanish. This event coincides with many others taking place in Mexico during the U.N. Water World Forum (16-22 March). The round table takes place at noon at the Dome of the Four Winds Plaza in the garden. Admission is free.

After the round table and just before the concert, at 3 pm, a simple ceremony will take place at the Four Winds Plaza, consisting of offerings for water. This ceremony will be conducted by Thaay Dayaordi, from the Otopame family, who is President of the Mexican Society of Writers in Indigenous Languages.

Tickets for the concert are available at El Charco or at the Jardín beginning Friday, March 17. For more information write charco@unisono.net.mx

Spring Equinox Concert
Monday, March 20, 4:30pm
El Charco del Ingenio
botanical gardens
80 pesos/50 pesos for members

The new line of revitalized clothing by Alma Guerrero will be featured at the fashion show for Casa Hogar Don Bosco, along with the work of other San Miguel artists and designers.

The clothing of Alma Guerrero has recently attracted notice for its unique blend of old and new and the meshing of Mexican and American styles. Complementing the clothing is her popular revivalist jewelry.

The artworks of McLauchlin, Calderoni, Kaplan and Norman have been hailed for their use of mixed media, brought to life with whimsical figures and designs and mosaics of shards, glass and remnants of tableware.

The encaustic media and Greco-Roman symbols used by Dawn Gaskill connote varied historical and cultural backgrounds. Patrice Wynne's clothing and accessories are inspired by the Day of the Dead and the Virgen de Guadalupe. Ingalora Dwyer will exhibit her unique art and photography.

Casa Hogar Don Bosco was founded as an orphanage in 1959 by Monsignor José Mercadillo Mirranda Parroco in response to the many children who were found abandoned on the outskirts of town. Although that still happens, the current residents come mostly from abusive atmospheres or from families too poor to care for them. Casa Hogar clothes, feeds and shelters them in a homey atmosphere where their education and overall growth are based on family values. Special emphasis is placed on self-esteem, responsibility, discipline and gratitude.

Twenty-eight girls from ages 14 to 21 and 2 mothers currently reside in meager, very crowded surroundings. More girls are waiting for a place.

The generously donated house at Sollano 14 is a godsend, and the girls create their own support by making and selling tamales every day, in addition to the time they spend cooking, cleaning, attending school and doing homework. New mattresses have recently been donated for the two bedrooms that house the 28 beds.

In Mexico, where society centers around the family, these girls are already at a disadvantage. Donations may be de delivered to Casa Hogar at Sollano 14. Just ring the bell!

For a tax-deductible donation (within Mexico and the United States) please make checks payable to San Miguel Education Foundation. The mailbox is located at La Conexión, Aldama 3. Please specify "for Sollano 14" to ensure that the funds go to Casa Hogar.

If you would like additional information, would like to tour Casa Hogar, or are interested in joining our volunteer group, please contact me at 152-2419.

Fundraiser fashion and art show for Casa Hogar Don Bosco
Thursday, March 23 6:30-8:30pm
Casa Hogar Don Bosco
Sollano 14

Sunday, March 19, marks the third anniversary of the United States' invasion of Iraq. This is the story of one US soldier of Mexican descent killed last year in Iraq.

"Specialist Rafael A. 'TJ' Carrillo, Jr. … was killed in action by an improvised explosive device (IED) attack in Baghdad, Iraq, June 28, 2005. He served with HHC 1-64 Battalion, 2nd Brigade Team, 3rd Infantry Division, Mortar Platoon, as the gunner on an M1114 armored Humvee, and was conducting an area security mission at a critically important road junction. Specialist Carrillo was 21 years old at the time of his death."

TJ Carrillo was the great-nephew of San Miguel artist Hugo Laborice, whose sister Gloria moved to the United States from Monterrey with her family when TJ's father, also named Rafael Antonio, was seven years old.

"My nephew was called Tony, so when he had a little boy they called him Tony Junior, and that got abbreviated to TJ," Laborice explains.

TJ grew up in Texas and joined the Army right out of high school, planning to go to college later. "Next thing I knew he was in Kuwait and then with the first wave of troops into Iraq," Laborice says. "After a while he returned to the States for more training, and early last year he was sent back to Iraq, to Baghdad, where he was stationed when he died."

TJ was not the family's only casualty of US activity in the Middle East. His father, Laborice's nephew, served as a pilot instructor in the Gulf War. He is now retired, a victim of Gulf War Syndrome, and currently in a VA hospital.

"After the shock of TJ's death, and the way it occurred-un vil asesinato, a vile murder-I needed to vomit up my grief and pain and impotence," Laborice says. "It occurred to me to paint this work, dedicated to all the innocent kids who, like him, gave their lives in a stupid war."

The painting, entitled "Grito de inocencia" ("Scream of Innocence"), shows TJ's helmet upside down in a pool of blood, serving as a nest for three baby birds. Are they shrieking in grief? Or merely hungry? Laborice doesn't say. "I just hope my painting can contribute in some way to stop the killing," he says.

Kendal Dodge Butler is a founding member of the San Miguel Peace Center.

The Fourth World Water Forum takes place in Mexico City the week of March 16-22, so it's especially timely and appropriate to discuss the water situation in San Miguel.

We live in an arid climate at 6,500 feet: high desert. If you look around the countryside you will notice the native and common plants are cactus, including nopales, órganos, garambullos, biznagas and lots of cholla. Most trees are drought-resistant and hardy members of the subfamily Mimosoideae, including mezquite and huizache.

Preconquest natives of the region lived along the rivers, including the Río Laja that fills our Presa Allende. Within a few meters of the river one could dig a shallow well and have plenty of water for family and crops. Only in the 1960s and 1970s did we start digging deep water wells and extracting 25,000- to 35,000-year-old water from our Independence Aquifer. This is, obviously, a limited resource.

We are told by the water experts that, due to excessive pumping, our aquifer is now only half-full, or half-empty, depending on your point of view. I am calling it half-empty because every day I drive through the countryside I see new wells being dug. As more wells are created we decrease the level much more quickly. As we approach the bottom of the aquifer it empties much faster because of the aquifer's V shape.

The higher levels of metals and fluoride that are showing up in water samples from some wells in the northern region of the aquifer are evidence of this depletion. In parts per million, these metals become more concentrated near the bottom.

Are we in danger of running out of water in San Miguel de Allende? Not in my lifetime, I don't think, but I am in my sixth decade. They used to say that Las Vegas, Nevada, did not have enough water to support more growth, but it has been the fastest-growing city in the United States for a decade now, and there is still water. Could it be that enough water is a function of how much people are willing to pay for it? We are already paying more for bottled water than for gasoline.

We know that urban use of the water table in this area is approximately 15 percent; 85 percent is used for agricultural irrigation, including that of alfalfa, which is a very popular and very water-intensive local cash crop. Were it not for the federal subsidy for electricity it would be cost-prohibitive to grow these crops in this area.

So how much water can we save by the use of desert landscaping? If we lived in Tucson, Arizona, we would be required by city ordinance to have only desert landscapes. In San Miguel we have no such ordinance, but in my opinion it would be a good idea. Desert landscapes are fun and low-maintenance. They require little water and can be beautiful. They are also relatively inexpensive to install, and you can do it yourself.

The trick in this area is the availability of plants and the fact that cactus and mesquite are slow-growing. Native trees and shrubs can be found and should be included in your design. I do not want to encourage you to send your gardener out to the campo to dig up every good-sized cactus in sight. This is, in fact, against the law.

The garden in the photo is mostly nopal, with a few yuccas and a couple of órganos interspersed throughout. Nopales grow quite rapidly from a single leaf. Organos grow from cuttings of the mother plant, which will grow back in a few years. Yucca is more difficult to find but I can help you with that.

El Charco botanical garden has a large variety of cactus and succulents for sale at the reception desk, and you can get some ideas for your landscaping from the staff. Look around this beautiful garden for a good idea of how desert landscaping just feels right in this climate. You will be amazed at how quickly your plants will grow to fill in and beautify your natural desert landscape. And you will be doing your part to help conserve water, a precious, nonrenewable resource.

A few weeks ago, Tom Frazee appealed in Atención for assistance in completing the park under construction in Colonia Olimpo. He received little response to his request, but three other colonias requested help with building parks.

Tom has decided to hold a food- and music-filled fundraiser so the parks can be completed.

Frazee will be cooking his mouth-watering alderwood-smoked chickens, accompanied by a hot, sweet berry sauce, delicious side dishes, a bar and his incomparable key-lime pies to raise money to complete the park in Colonia Olimpo. Music will be performed by Tom's wife, María Teresa, and her trio. To sign up call Tom at 152-4310 or 044-415-109-2700.

Fundraiser for Colonia Olimpo park
Saturday, April 1, 3pm
Call for reservations
500 pesos

The luck of the Irish

If Murphy's law meant you missed out on the Irish Film festival last week, then you can still celebrate St Patrick's day today Friday, March 17, and tomorrow.

The St. Patrick's Festival continues with the matinee screening, Friday, March 17, 3:30pm, of "One Man's Hero," a historical drama, which shows us why we celebrate St. Patrick's Day in San Miguel. In 1846, the US Army is about to invade Mexico. Many of its soldiers are Irish immigrants, cruelly mistreated by their mainly southern Anglo-Protestant officers. When they can stand it no longer, they desert to Mexico. Under the command of John Riley, they become the Saint Patrick's Battalion, fighting heroically for the Mexican Republic until the American victory of 1848. Starring Tom Berenger and Daniela Romo (1998).

This is a nonprofit event. After expenses, the proceeds go to aid the Casa Hogar children.

The highlight is surely the concert of Celtic pipes and drums at the Angela Peralta Theater, Friday, March 17, 8pm.

And don't forget the parade/procession Saturday, March 18, at noon from Instituto Allende to the Parroquia. And there is a Mass Saturday, March 18, at 8pm at the Parroquia.

The 24 Hour Association
By Dorothy Johnson

The 24 Hour Association is a nonprofit, legally registered Mexican Asociación Civil. The services it provides include a prepaid plan of cremation, burial or shipment of remains back home. The services fully comply with Mexican law and include obtaining the required Mexican death certificate. The 24 Hour Association also assists with contacting family and friends, as well as arrangements for local funeral and memorial services as desired and specified in the member's application form.

Membership in The 24 Hour Association is open to all full-time and part-time residents of San Miguel de Allende. Fees are fully refundable upon request, at any time, with 30 days' notice. There is a 60-day waiting period after joining before benefits take effect.

To receive further information or an application form, please call The 24 Hour Association at 152-3536 or 044-415-100-3842. The 24 Hour Association also has a local mail box service at Border Crossings, Box 41-B, Mesones 57.

Surrounded by beautiful gardens, local artisans present their handiwork and share their traditions at the third Villas Xichú arts and crafts show. Inheritors of a rich tradition, they create works in glass, wood, wool and stone. If you are decorating your house, looking for something to add as a special touch or need a special piece custom-made, this is your chance!

Noe Fajardo and colleagues from the village of Escolásticas, on the other side of Querétaro, will display their stone-cutting talents. Many of their pieces grace the grounds of Villas Xichú, including window frames, pillars, fountains and garden figures. Artisans from Apaseo el Alto who specialize in woodcarving, such as José Manuel Ulloa Velázquez, R. Dehena and Maestro Camacho, will show their art.

Villas Xichú is located near the church of Valle del Maíz. For more information, call Señora Alejandra at 044-415-103-0225.

Artisans Exhibition at Villas Xichú
Sunday, March 19
10am-6pm
Villas Xichú
Camino Xichú 9, Valle del Maíz