May 23, 2008, New alliance: Reforestamos México & PEASMA, By Eugenia Velasco, Voces del Interior, By Graciela Cruz López, Festival celebrates birth of San Felipe Neri, Another Jovenes Adelante success story, By Jerry Davis, Community Eulogy for Nancy Dobbs, Remembering Victor Heady, By Tony Cohan

New alliance: Reforestamos México & PEASMA
By Eugenia Velasco May 23, 2008 San Miguel de Allende

Photography Exhibit
Sentinels of Time: Majestic Trees of Mexico
Weekdays, 9am–8pm
Museo del H. Ayuntamiento
Plaza Principal 8

Mexico is a privileged country in terms of natural resources. In fact, it is considered one of the top ten multidiverse countries in the world, which means that it possesses an enormous variety of organisms, forests and jungles that are a refuge for an infinite number of animals, plants, insects, fungi, etc.

At the same time, our territory has great variation in temperatures and water availability, which allows it to support humid or high jungles, temperate forests, fog forests, low jungles and mangroves.

One quarter of our territory is covered by forests. Unfortunately, 300,000 hectares are deforested each year. This loss has a negative impact on our quality of living. Our country needs to replenish its trees. We have lost close to 50 percent of our temperate forests and low jungles, and 90 percent of the fog forests and tropical jungles. We have destroyed more than 12 million hectares of forest in the past 25 years. At this pace, our grandchildren won’t have a chance to see our forest beauty.

Members of Proyecto de Educación Ambiental San Miguel de Allende (PEASMA, Environmental Educational Project San Miguel de Allende), coordinated by Save the Children, Mexico, Guanajuato Region (FAI), are concerned about this situation and this is why we have made a new alliance with Reforestamos México (We Reforest Mexico).

Reforestamos México is the response to the forest fires of 1998 when Grupo Bimbo participated in the restoration of seven protected natural areas and replanted more than a million trees in two years. In 2002, Reforestamos México was formed with the objective of giving continuity to these kinds of projects, thanks to the energy conservation program by Grupo Bimbo and its personal interest in this initiative.

From its inception, Reforestamos México has identified and channeled resources to projects that bring together various sectors of our society such as the government, organized civil societies and individuals who share its values of conservation of planet Earth.

The mission of Reforestamos México is to preserve the forests, restore deforested areas of the country, promote sustainable practices, an environmental culture and the participation of all the sectors of society for the benefit of humankind and the environment that surrounds us.

In order to achieve this, the organization works with projects that include conservation, reforestation, education, communication, alliances and social responsibility.

On April 2, FAI through its environmental education project PEASMA, signed an agreement with Reforestamos México to work in 30 elementary schools in San Miguel de Allende with its Crea Bosques (Create Forests) program.

The combined joint activities of both organizations will set up nurseries or greenhouses in elementary schools for the production of trees that later will be used for reforestation.

This makes San Miguel de Allende the only city in Mexico that has an environmental education program (PEASMA) that works each year with 95 percent of the elementary schools of the city. Of these, 50 percent classify and separate plastics for recycling, make their own compost and soon will produce their own trees for later reforestation.

Due to this recent alliance between Reforestamos México and PEASMA, and to the support of Dirección de Turismo Municipal (municipal tourism office), we have been able to mount a photography exhibit that Reforestamos México has created through the photography contest called “Sentinels of Time: Majestic Trees of Mexico.” The exhibit consists of the top 20 photographs from 2,000 entries from all over the country. The exhibition presently is open at the Museo del H. Ayuntamiento, Plaza Principal 8, across from the Jardín, 9am–8pm.

Eugenia Velasco is co-coordinator with Natalia Ortega of PEASMA.

Voces del Interior
By Graciela Cruz López

Part 1: The founding of the College and Community House of Our Lady of Santa Ana in the Village of San Miguel el Grande

Quando nada puede darte
Se ocupa solo en pedirte
Un colegio que va serbirte
esta pronto de su parte
oy pues yega a suplicarte
le ayude tu debocion
De Anna al Novenario con
Una Misa que se cante
que aplicara el Celebrante
Tan solo por tu intención

(A college that will serve you only asks for your devotion with a novena and a mass.)

(Paraphrase of a verse taken from The Guide of Intentions for the Novena of Our Lady of Santa Ana, Accounts Book of the Community House and College for Girls of Our Lady of Santa Ana of the Village of San Miguel el Grande, 1791)

The Biblioteca Pública is celebrating 50 years at Insurgentes 25 in the building that was the College and Community House of Our Lady of Santa Ana (el Beatrio y el Colegio de Nuestra Señora Santa Ana) between 1740 and 1862.

Later, during the last two decades of the 19th and the early 20th centuries, the structure became the local slaughterhouse.

The idealism and devotion to study, work and the learning of skills that characterized the girls and women who attended the college and community house of Santa Ana live on through the library’s commitment to cultivating knowledge, a sense of culture and creative endeavors.

The founding of the college and community house was closely linked to the Congregation of the Oratorio of San Felipe Neri. In 1754, after more than two decades of bureacratic delays, a Spanish royal decree granted the Filipense priests of the Oratorio the right to run a community house to “shelter all virtuous and honest matrons and maids, who would wish to retire in it.” The priests, who had a great interest in and dedication to guiding the spiritual and intellectual development of the young, had arrived in San Miguel in 1712.

Santa Ana had its beginnings in the 1730s, when a series of petitions explaining the need for and benefits of a community house and college for women were made to the Oratorio priests, prominent residents and the civic and religious authorities in the San Miguel el Grande. Documents addressing these petitions were issued in Mexico City (the capital of New Spain), in Valladolid (headquarters of the Bishopric of Michoacán) and in Spain. In them, the government and church agreed to the creation of the institution, on the condition that the community house be private and have no public church, no bells, and no door to the street. These conditions were revised in documents issued in 1753 and in the royal license issued in 1754.

The priests rented a building adjacent to the church complex to set up the community house and used their own money to establish it, basing the structure and guidelines of the house on those of similar community houses in Mexico City.

See next week’s Atención for Part 2.

Festival celebrates birth of San Felipe Neri

Sun, May 25
Mass, 6:30am
Rosary, 7pm

Mon, May 26
Communion, 11am
Mass, 12:30pm
Kermes, 5pm
Los Locos Parade
Rosary, 7pm
Oratorio of San Felipe Neri

San Felipe Neri, born on May 26, 1515, in Florence, Italy, is the patron saint of educators and comedians. The Oratorio dedicated to St. Felipe Neri in San Miguel de Allende was founded by Reverend Juan Antonio Espinoza Perez on May 2, 1712. There are several stories about the founding of this congregation; the most popular has it that the Oratorio sits on the site of an indigenous religious structure. Spanish priests asked the Indians to surrender the location to build a church dedicated to the saint, but they initially refused, setting their rejection down in writing. The story goes that later, when the priests and Indians unfolded this document, the pages were miraculously blank. Awestruck, the Indians agreed to cede the land to the San Felipe Neri congregation.

The chapel’s original façade is now the side entrance to the Oratorio. A later addition on the south side of the church combines indigenous and baroque architectural. A large shell extends over the main entrance, and the carved wooden doors are original. Above the doors a representation of Nuestra Señora de la Soledad, the Indian Virgin, invites the devoted.

In 1910, amidst the turmoil of the Mexican Revolution, churches were frequently sacked. According to another legend, the Oratorio’s priests thought of a clever way to safeguard their crosses and other gold objects. According to the story, the priests eviscerated a calf and filled its body cavity with the precious objects before interring it beneath the altar. Some believe it is still there, but there is no valid evidence of this.

Another Jovenes Adelante success story
By Jerry Davis

When the roosters begin to crow, just before dawn, Remedios is already up, dressed, breakfasted and hurrying to catch the six o’clock bus. Classes begin at 7am and her home at Rancho La Esperanza is an hour from San Miguel. At 10am, her law classes at the University of León on the Plaza Cívica over, “Reme” rushes off to her job with Licenciado Manuel Rosas at his law office on the Ancha de San Antonio. Finally, at three in the afternoon she can have a few moments to herself before catching another bus home where she will spend the evening studying.

A bright and serious student, Reme—full name Maria Remedios Hernandez Mancilla—has a perfect 10 average. Now in her third year, she will be a lawyer herself in a year and a half. Her father works as a mason and her mother as a domestic; both of them are proud that their daughter will become a professional, that she has made the leap from a rural environment offering little opportunity or stimulus to the city where a whole new life will unfold before her.

Luck and fate have both helped. Remedios’ mother, Lola, learned of a scholarship from her employer, Virginia Wheelwright, one of the founders of the scholarship organization Jovenes Adelante (Youth Forward). A “shoo-in” candidate with a perfect score in preparatory school, Remedios is now one of 42 university scholars sponsored by a Jovenes Adelante grant. She says that the 1800 pesos a month from the scholarship, plus her 300 pesos a week salary, make it possible for her to stay in school. The oldest of five girls, her parents could not educate her themselves without depriving her siblings.

After tuition, books are the biggest expense, but the public library is her survival tool. There Remedios has access to the internet and information she couldn’t afford to acquire on her own. A lover of the law, there is no time or inclination for boyfriends or parties. The little spare time available is often spent in volunteer work. Interested in helping poor people who are often ignorant of the law, she started a student “legal aid society.” She and her classmates, without charge, give guidance to needy people. Remedios also volunteers with Va por San Miguel, where her expertise is useful in their struggle to make San Miguel’s government more responsive and transparent.

There are a few moments in Remedios' busy life for relaxation; one of her favorite pastimes is poetry. Rubén Darío, Gabriel Marquez Espinosa and Armado Nervo are among her favorites. Competitive, she likes to recite in public and has won prizes for her declamations. Once a contestant in a cooking contest at the university, she won first place for her guajalote (turkey) en adobo, arroz and ensalada. On Saturday mornings there is time for English lessons with Ann Riley, her volunteer tutor. Gene Randall is her mentor and is always available for advice and assistance. Always ambitious, Remedios has added another dream to her wish list. She would like to travel and live in an English-speaking country long enough to gain fluency.

Jerry Davis is a former teacher and long-time volunteer with Jóvenes Adelante.

Postscript. At the moment, Remedios is in Canada taking a course in English, thanks to her mentor Gene Randall.

Contact Jovenes Adelante at
Box 49 A 220 N. Zapata Highway
Laredo, TX 78043
Box 49A, Aldama 3
San Miguel de Allende, Gto, 37700
jovenesadelante@gmail.com

Photo caption: The Board of Jóvenes Adelante, Sue Beere, Treasurer, Virginia Wheelwright, Past President, Amanda Ruiz, President, Phyllis Culp, Secretary, and Nancy Dobbs, Vice President.

I write this with a heavy heart. Nancy Dobbs passed away on May 8 after battling ovarian cancer for many months.

Those of you who knew Nancy will remember her as a strong-willed, bright, interesting and energetic woman who played tennis several times each week with her husband Ted, threw wonderful dinner parties full of lively conversation, while starting a truly remarkable and successful school for children of farmers and laborers in Bali. She worked tirelessly as a vice president and president of Jóvenes Adelante here in San Miguel.

Not only did Nancy dedicate an incredible amount of time and energy to helping local university students through her work with Jóvenes Adelante, she and Ted also donated regularly to the jóvenes Adelante scholarship fund. Thanks to Ted and Nancy, Jóvenes Adelante has been able to grant 5-year scholarships to Rosaura Cruz Tovar, who will graduate in 2011 from Instituto Técnico in Celaya with a degree in business administration, and Yarib Torres Martinez, who will graduate in 2012 from the University of Guanajuato with a degree in international relations. The Dobbs family gave another full scholarship just days before Nancy’s death, which will allow another promising student to begin college this fall. And due to their phenomenal generosity in starting an endowment fund, Jóvenes Adelante will proudly continue to name a Dobbs Scholar in perpetuity.

But Nancy’s generous spirit went beyond even this. She was an incredibly supportive and loving person, who gave wise counsel to the students she helped through Jóvenes Adelante. She truly cared about them and wanted to see them succeed. I especially thank her for the support she showed me, and will miss her all the more for the loss of her counsel and encouragement.

Nancy threw herself completely into enjoying life, and she faced this latest challenge with all the grace and charm that exemplified who she was. She found that strength both from within and from the love and support of her family, and told me often that Ted was her angel through these last difficult months. Her strength was admirable during this time, as it was in everything she accomplished during her life. It was her strength and force of will that allowed her to determine even the final days of her life, as she had decided to stay with us long enough to see her children one last time.

For the strength, grace and charm Nancy shared with us all, I thank her. I feel lucky to have known her, and on behalf of Jóvenes Adelante I am honored to have the opportunity to pay a special tribute to this incredible person who made the world a better place by her presence in it.

Sincerely,

Amanda K. Ruiz

Nancy Dobbs died on Thursday, May 8, after a long bout with cancer. She was a very important part of the San Miguel community, especially as an active member of Jóvenes Adelante. She not only helped direct the organization which gives scholarships to university students, but was generous in her financial support.

Nancy and Ted Dobbs moved to San Miguel in 2004 after Ted’s retirement took them first to the British Virgin Islands in 1985, where they both took up carpentry and she painted extensively. Their home on Organos in San Miguel has many pieces of furniture they made, as well as a number of her paintings.

In the 1980’s, they visited Bali, Indonesia, fell in love with a beautiful area outside the community of Ubud and built a home there. Nancy worked with the Bali Hati Foundation and School around ten years ago and both she and Ted worked to improve it.

The school has been so successful that by 2007 the sixth grade class scored the highest grades of all the schools in Bali, including those educating students from Australia and the United States.

Nancy was so pleased with the Bali Hati School, that she and Ted established a Dobbs Family Foundation, which will participate in building a bilingual secondary school.

Ted Dobbs, sons Ted and Bill, daughter Alice and four grandchildren survive Nancy.

A memorial service will be held for her in the Biblioteca in early June.

—Marjorie Zap

The San Miguel community sadly notes the passing on May 7, in Claremont, California, of Victor Heady, artist and beloved friend to many in San Miguel. Victor, or “Vic,” as he was known, was a familiar local presence, often found in his painting studio, first at the Hotel Vista Hermosa and later at Galeria Duo Duo on calle Pila Seca, or walking daily through the jardín to and from his house.

Armed with a wide smile and the best jazz collection in town, Vic Heady always found time to stop and chat with whoever put a claim upon his attention. Numerous exhibitions in San Miguel and Mexico City, including a solo show at San Miguel’s Bellas Artes, displayed Heady’s richly-varnished, exacting oil paintings of figures, landscapes, and Mexican street scenes.

Born in Chicago in 1933, Victor Heady grew up during a time of great creative ferment in the city, marked by live encounters with the likes of Count Basie, Billie Holiday, and Miles Davis, nurturing in him a deep love for music, art, and human expression in all its forms.

He later obtained his degree in Fine Arts at the University of California at Davis. In 1972, a fellowship from the African Studies Center University of Ibadan allowed him to spend six months with a group of artists in Oshgbo, Nigeria. Later he taught esthetics at Merritt College, Oakland, and art at a number of other California educational institutions before relocating to San Miguel. Heady was also a fine photographer, documenting his wide travels through Europe and Asia with camera as well as paint.

He is survived by his wife Marjorie, well known in her own right as a popular San Miguel ceramist, with exhibitions at galleries and the Bellas Artes to her credit; their children Gibran and Salahn Heady, and Gwynne, Neill, Tom and Jane Master; and five grandchildren.

Anyone who spent time with Victor Heady soon realized he was knowledgeable about matters well beyond art, things that cut to the heart of life itself. A warm and vivid presence, creative soul, wise and gentle, Vic was friend and confidant to countless sanmiguelenses. He’ll be remembered fondly, the pleasure of his company missed, even as his spirit continues to circulate among us.