Where cut flowers can blossom
By Kelly Lynn James

I have been captivated by the faces of the girls of Casa Hogar Santa Julia since my first stay in Mexico in 2007.

I’m a photographer and had come for a month to San Miguel, which I was told had warmth in its people and magic in its light. I didn’t expect, however, to find that radiance in the faces and spirits of the children and young women of Santa Julia. They grew in my heart in ways that I couldn’t forget.

Recently, I had the opportunity to return to San Miguel to take pictures during the Easter weeks.

Even with all of the processions and colors, my first thoughts were to visit the girls and their miracle-working Madres—the four nuns who care for these 40 children, with only the support they can muster from the community. Carrying gifts of photographs from the earlier trip, I took the dusty taxi adventure up to see the Madres and they welcomed me back warmly. I enjoyed the privilege of spending the night in their volunteer quarters and photographed a day in the life of these inspiring girls, who for myriad reasons beyond their control cannot live with their families of origin.

At the end of my 24 hours engaged with these girls, the world felt simple and pure. These Madres continue to create and nurture a loving family from the rag-tag leftovers of domestic upheaval. What amazing grace these lost-and-found children have developed and now heap on each other and their visitors.

Their days begin as do most of ours, with ablutions, thanks to donated soap for washing hair, teeth, skin, dishes, clothes and surfaces.

They dress with donated clothes and breakfast with food given graciously by local charities and corporations. Prayers of gratitude are said for the privilege of a meal and for new possibilities.

During Semana Santa, the children’s school routine was suspended in lieu of more playtime, contemplation, spring-cleaning and rest. The younger girls are encouraged to help and take on responsibilities, while the older girls learn life skills such as cooking and managing money, in an effort to guide these cut flowers so that they may take root and blossom into adulthood.

Their days end as most of ours do, in anticipation of sweet dreams, with a little prayer of gratitude for their benefactors for good measure.

What struck me most was that with little supervision and so many children, there isn’t an air of regimen.

An older girl helps one or more younger girls dress for the day, evolving naturally, organically, and without direction. In their time with the Madres, each child is cultivated individually and encouraged to discover her own unique identity. As a result, these children are present, strong and have auras of purity and hope despite their many needs and wants. Even with all odds against them, they flourish.

These women face difficult realities. The Madres are in dire need of clean, dry storage space for donated goods. As a result of the worsening economy, as many as 60 more children over the next three years may need to take refuge at Santa Julia. Will the gifts they need keep coming? Will the spaces be built? Can they reach a place of sustainability? Or, for all of their gains, might they slide back to the days of begging in the streets? These are the concerns I carry, even while embracing the miracle of what they and this community have built.

A master plan has been donated to expand their campus, but it will take many hands and not a few miracles to make this a reality for Santa Julia. The payoff, however, would be more than 40 lives that will survive deeply troubled pasts to become vibrant, contributing members of society.

I present these photographs to San Miguel in gratitude for the help given to the Madres and this critical cause. There is renewal in the air at Santa Julia and the girls sense this strongly. They, too, want only to be part of the fabric of families, friends and community in San Miguel. 

Kelly Lynn James is an emerging documentary photographer working in Austin, Texas. She is currently building bodies of work from Austin, Central Texas and Guanajuato State in Mexico.




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Evaristo’s journey of the heart
By Jan and Jerry Rife

Determination is the hallmark of Evaristo Garcia’s life.

Having worked hard all his life and overcome many obstacles to build a successful business, his heart is now set on helping the youth of San Miguel de Allende so that their journey may not be as long and difficult as his. He recently demonstrated his desire to help when he made a commitment to fund a five-year university scholarship for a deserving Jóvenes Adelante applicant this fall—thus becoming the organization’s first Mexican sponsor.

Evaristo is a well-known and beloved figure among San Miguel’s expat community. “He has a big heart and loves helping other people,” says Elisa Borrego, owner of Buenos Días Cafe. “He is always generous with his time and energy.”

Seeing Evaristo in his tidy real estate office on Cuna de Allende, one would never guess he started out as a barefoot goat herder. The youngest of 11 children, he was raised by a single mother in Rancho Viejo, near Atotonilco.

“I’ve always had this restlessness, this dream of a better life,” he said. Evaristo channeled that restlessness into hard work. At age 13, he landed a job cleaning bathrooms at Mama Mia restaurant. For most of us, going from herding goats to cleaning bathrooms might not seem like a great advance. For Evaristo, however, this was a golden opportunity. “This was a way to earn money and with money I could continue my education. My older sisters and brothers were not so lucky.”

It took dogged determination to pursue his studies while working hard at Mama Mia. But step by step, like climbing a staircase, he worked his way up in the restaurant and at school: from dishwasher to busboy to bartender to waiter to headwaiter; from completing secundaria to graduating from preparatoria.

As a teen, while watching the Seoul Olympics on TV, Evaristo caught a life-changing glimpse of another world. “It excited me,” he said, “to see Asia, this very different part of the world. There was such a sense of organization, such a work ethic. I said to myself, I must go there.” With his imagination on fire, he began planning, calculating costs, searching for ways to earn and save.

The journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step. Evaristo’s step was across the border into the US. “I was 19, and it was difficult and scary. I entered illegally and six times they caught me and sent me back. The seventh time, I made it.”

He worked his way across Texas, Florida and Georgia, laboring as a construction worker and nurseryman. He planned and saved and dreamed. One day, standing in a grocery store line, it dawned on him that he needed to learn English. “We Mexicans were all lined up and this guy in the front of the line had to do all the talking for all of us. I was embarrassed. Suddenly, I knew I had to learn this new language.”

With characteristic determination, Evaristo started devoting his weekends to language study. Finally, at the age of 21, he was ready to embark on the next leg of his life journey. Taking his hard-earned savings, he flew toward his Asian dream.

In Japan, he again struggled as a newcomer, an outsider to a new language and culture.

“It was hard. I could speak some English but no Japanese. I needed help with every little thing, in banks, in restaurants, everywhere. But suddenly I saw my opportunity. Foreigners need a lot of help. I saw I could put this to use.”

Evaristo returned to San Miguel and began reaching out to the expat community, offering them his help with just about everything. He already knew about construction and restaurant work; he learned about property management. He became, in essence, a facilitator. “He does whatever you might need,” says Pat Harding, president of Jóvenes Adelante, “before you even realize that you asked.”

As the owner of Portal Real Estate, Evaristo has risen from a humble beginning to become a pillar of the community. Evaristo’s was a solitary struggle. Today, thanks to Jóvenes Adelante, a local organization dedicated to promoting higher education, promising students who dream of a better future are not alone. In addition to financial support, in the form of US$100 per month for five years, each Jóvenes Adelante student is matched up with a volunteer who provides ongoing mentoring and encouragement. Additionally the organization provides its students with computers whenever possible and the opportunity to study English weekly with member-volunteer teachers in small informal groups organized by skill level. “I would love to have had something like Jóvenes Adelante when I was growing up,” Evaristo says. “It would have meant everything to me.”

Evaristo is making a difference in his community. Through his support of a Jóvenes Adelante student, he is touching the future of San Miguel. His sponsorship means another talented, disadvantaged local youth will attend university and not only achieve a professional degree but also bring pride to his family and community and affect in a small but significant way the economic future of the country. Evaristo is a man who knows that one never stands taller than when stooping to help a child.

With Evaristo’s generous sponsorship, Jóvenes Adelante is launching its spring pledge drive. The organization’s goal is to award scholarships to at least 25 of the more than 70 applicants this year. Receiving a scholarship is a life-changing event for these exceptional students, many of whom are the first in their families to complete preparatoria , much less to dare dream of a university degree. It can be life-changing for sponsors as well. Sponsors realize great satisfaction in their decision to fully fund a young person’s university education. Sponsorship includes the opportunity to know the student and his or her family personally as well, and to participate in the adventure of the next five years of the young person’s evolution from rural teen with limited experience and opportunity to proud and confident young professional.

To his enormous credit, Evaristo did this alone, but thanks to his inspirational contribution, one promising youth will have the funds and a support system to see him or her through university. “I’m grateful for the opportunity to help,” Evaristo says. “If we all work together, it makes a better life for everyone. From my heart, I want to do this.”

To sponsor or co-sponsor a student hoping for a Jóvenes Adelante scholarship this fall, contact jovenesadelante@gmail.com,  or visit www.jovenesadelante.org. 



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Casita Linda changes lives
By Jean Gerber and Holly Wilmeth

After almost 16 years of suffering with seizures and severe, debilitating headaches, Moises Tovar Crisanto is now pain-free.

Moises, 33, was diagnosed with trichinosis, but could not afford the tests to find out how extensive the damage is in his brain. Trichinosis is a parasitic disease, caused by eating undercooked pork which was infected with the larvae of the trichina worm. It is more common in the developing world and where pigs are commonly fed raw garbage.

Moises was recently selected as a recipient for an adobe casita to be built with the help of the volunteers of Casita Linda. Through the loving hearts and generosity of the volunteers, working side-by-side with Moises on the construction of his casita, a collection was taken up to cover the costs of the two specific tests, plus transportation to and from Querétaro when necessary. The doctors working with him were competent and gracious in their diagnosis and treatment, and Moises was prescriped medication to take three times a day. We visited with him two weeks after he started his treatment. He showed us the x-rays and was in tears when describing how his life had changed since the volunteers of Casita Linda entered his life. 

His beautiful young wife, Karla, was sitting next to him and smiling…hardly able to contain herself. “We are now happy together. We almost were going to have to part ways because our situation was so dire. But we have a beautiful home and Moises is not sick anymore.

We couldn’t believe the day we saw them putting stakes into the ground…where our new home would be built. We were literally destroyed just a few months back. Look at us now…we are going for a Sunday walk.”

Moises now has a job and Karla works every day helping a woman sell tacos. Their little daughter, Aremy, has a serious look with her father’s big eyes, but every once in a while she gives a little smile. This family can now slowly start to re-build their lives in the beauty of their home and good health.

Casita Linda is a volunteer organization and all the money raised goes to the construction of houses. The volunteers, working alongside four full-time Mexican workers and the recipient families, create these small adobe homes. To date Casita Linda has constructed 24 homes, putting roofs over the heads of more than 150 people. Volunteers and contributors share the broader purpose: to alter the destiny of poverty.

Many families formerly lived in structures rigged from rocks, wood, sticks and tarps. Their Casita Linda (which means “pretty little house”) gives them protection from the rain and cold, and the ability to face the future with dignity.

Casita Linda’s goal for 2009 is to construct at least 10 more homes for deserving families.

They continue to perfect processes to achieve eco-friendly, energy-efficient, low-cost homes. Alliances with other nonprofit organizations now include Midday Rotary, St. Paul’s Church, ALMA, Amigos de Animales and CASA. Visit www.casitalinda.org  for more information.

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Kickin’ up our heels in Jalpa
By D. Glenn; Photos by Lynn Camera Lady

Photo by Linda Ericksen

On March 28, 300 guests poured into the historic village of Jalpa, 20 kilometers from San Miguel, via bus and car (no direct donkey service…yet) to gather with locals to participate in the Fundación Internaciónal de Niños Olvidados (FINO) one-of-a-kind third annual Burro Festival.

The first event was the amazing Grand Prix Burro races jockeyed by young owners who flew down the field to vie for the Grand Prix Champion. There were no mishaps and sixth-grader Tomas Pacheco riding “Capi” ended as the clear champion.

The next event was the parade of the best-dressed, four-hoofed, high-fashion donkeys in all of Mexico to strut down the field for the Best of Show winner. Elegant burras came adorned with scarves, hats, baskets filled with flowers and were often wearing shoes and stockings and even lipstick and false eyelashes! As burras were led proudly by their student owners, some were a bit shy and had to be pushed and cajoled down the field. In particular, “Chilindrina,” led by 12-year-old Mayra, lost her back skirt as she entered the runway! First place by applause went to “Gofi,” a highly decorated burra led by Guadalupe of the third grade and in a close second came “Zoila,” led by secundaria student José Carlos Olivera.

All kid participants of both the races and the parade received either a new soccer ball or basketball plus a bilingual book donated by Libros El Tecolote of San Miguel. The winner of the Burro Grand Prix received a Trek mountain bike and the top two winners of the parade and individual race winners will be taking a trip to the local water park Xote.

Photo by Jeannie Schnakenberg

Some guests also took a guided tour of the local Jalpa church, built in 1906, and of the vicarage ruins next door that date back to the 1700s. Jalpa was the original link between Querétaro and San Miguel and each year still celebrates the 1810 revolution where the messenger Ignacio Perez passed through on horseback on his way to warn the revolutionaries about the Spanish coming.

The day ended with a delicious, bountiful, authentic homemade comida prepared by the women of Jalpa and served under a large canopy on school grounds as guests enjoyed Martin’s Tuna group and watched the FINO kids perform in English.

FINO’s goal is to empower leadership in rural children. They work with the children in Jalpa in the elementary school teaching leadership and English skills, provide physical resources and have initiated a bilingual library. Every May, FINO coordinates a Career Day by bringing Mexican professionals to the isolated school system to speak about the importance of leadership and education.

Photo by Jeannie Schnakenberg

Visit www.finomex.org  or email finoac@gmail.com  for more information.

This event would not have been possible with out the hard work of the community leaders in Jalpa and FINO’s volunteers. Moreover, we would like to thank all of our sponsors for making the event happen. Our ad lists these special business names.

Don’t forget to submit your Best of Burro photo to Atención at edit@atencionsanmiguel.org  to enter the 2010 calendar contest by April 17. The winning photo will be published in Atención and other photos will be used for the 2010 Burro Bicentennial Calendar. We will see you all next year!


D. Glenn is a San Miguel resident and FINO volunteer.