As long as there is water, why not catch it?
By Suzanne Ludekens; Photos by Marilyn Petersen

Las Torres is typical of rural communities surrounding the city, accessed by traveling along dirt roads that send up dusty white clouds.

Vegetation is sparse and water scarce. Although it might appear a desolate scene, there is much activity, energy and hope in the campo, the product of innovative programs that unite international sponsors with activist groups and rural San Miguel.

On April 4, more than 100 people gathered at the brightly painted kindergarten at Los Torres to celebrate the installation of the first rainwater-catchment cistern. The 12,000-liter cistern is the result of a model project funded by the Rotary Club of San Miguel de Allende-Midday (with financial assistance from the San Miguel Community Foundation and five international Rotary groups), community training and organization by CEDESA (CEntro de DESarrollo Agropecuario) and the active participation of the residents of Los Torres. 

The concept is simple—teach the communities the skills they need to identify their own issues and seek their own solutions. Over a 12-month period, materials were provided for the community to build their own water-collection system and cistern. During the process, community residents learned how to identify issues, discuss them and seek their own solutions. For all participants, CEDESA, Rotary and Los Torres, the project was a lesson in coordination and collaboration. This pilot project will, ideally, act as a model that can be replicated in other communities, both locally and farther afield. 

As Rotary project leader Laura Stewart said, “Los Torres was identified as an ideal partner for the project for many reasons—a demonstrable extreme need for safe drinking water; some members of the community already had some rudimentary water-collection systems in place; a Los Torres mothers’ group runs weekly health meetings and already had a concept of meeting to resolve issues; and finally, the community members themselves showed willingness to do something to solve this issue.” For Stewart and the Rotary Club, the project at Los Torres reinforces the success of sensitive collaborative joint efforts.

More cause for celebration

Of particular interest and importance to the inauguration festivities was a brief, but powerful, presentation from CEDESA organizers, well known and respected by the community for their regular visits of support and coordination.

When Graciela Martínez Delgado, affectionately known to all as Chela, began a presentation on water, food and farming, the entire community stopped to listen. Part of the CEDESA management team, Chela is pure activism and energy compacted into a tiny five-foot frame. Her voice is strong and clear, her message passionate: “Water belongs to our heart and we must care for our natural resources,” she said. “Here in Las Torres there are pozos (wells), but many other communities do not have even drinking water.” Stretching her fingers downwards, “We must plant trees so that the water will return to the earth,” she reminded her audience.

“Quica”, Francisca Rodríguez, a promotora, then continued with a brief discussion on the necessity to grow and eat healthy foods—not packaged processed foods—but nopal, maiz and other foods that the community can grow easily. “We must stop treating our bodies as wastelands,” she urged.

Benigno Calzonzin ended the presentation with a clear explanation of the dangers and consequences of purchasing GMO seeds. “Such corn contaminates, creates debt, it creates dangerous dependence, but it can be prevented… you must know the history of the seeds you use.” Heads nod in agreement with Benigno’s comments that genetically modified seeds are available in Guanajuato.

After the official ribbon-cutting ceremony for the cistern, the entire group enjoyed a delicious meal of handmade tortillas, and nopales, chicken and rice while enthusiastically discussing the progress of the community. The day drew to an end with a presentation of traditional dancing by costumed children: some eager, some shy about their participation. 

The best results in community development occur when projects are inclusive and collaborative.

Endeavors that bring professional information and experience, shared resources, and collaboration between NGOs and government departments with community leaders achieve the ideal outcome—empowerment of people and improved standards of living. 

A realization of the old adage: Teach a man to catch water…

Background on Los Torres

· Population of 440 people

· Geographically divided into two parts, the lower and the upper 

· Lower community has family wells; the upper community has no wells

· Public well one-hour walk for the upper community; water tested for fluoride above the safe limit 

· Most wells are contaminated with fluoride and a high percentage of inhabitants have stained and damaged teeth

· Water delivered by the municipality pipas (water trucks) every 8 to 15 days.

· Water deliveries average 3,000 liters, which last three days

· Patronato Pro Niño provided two 5,000-liter tinacos for water storage

· Some families have simple rainwater collection drums at their homes


Project participants

Beneficiary: Los Torres rural community 

Organizers: CEDESA (CEntro de DESarrollo Agropecuario), a 40-year-old organization based in northern Guanajuato, has trained more than 120 communities and neighborhood teams on sustainability, in the areas of the environment, food production and lately financial responsibility. Rainwater-harvesting is one of several ecotecnias, as well as dry toilets, recycling of grey water, drip irrigation and wood-saving stoves, promoted in rural areas. Community collaboration and networking to generate support systems is fundamental and encouraged.

Financers: Rotary Club of San Miguel de Allende-Midday provided professional project analysis and development, united funding from the San Miguel Community Foundation and five international Rotary clubs 

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Looking into feelings with theater: Alonso Echánove interview
By Jesús Ibarra

Mexican actor Alonso Echánove belongs to a family of actors (his sister is the renowned singer María del Sol, and his mother the movie and TV actress Josefina Echánove, honored in San Miguel by Expresión en Corto in 2007), and has acted in Mexican movies, theater and television.

He has been awarded the Ariel (Mexican Oscar) twice for Best Actor (1989 and 1992). Due to a drug addiction problem, Echánove suffered several strokes which affected his psychomotor and speaking capacity. After overcoming his health problem, the actor began teaching acting in the University of Guanajuato. In 2005, he acted in a short film shot in San Miguel de Allende, called “El Cochero” (The Carriage Driver), which was shown to the foreign community on April 16 at Teatro Santa Ana.

Now, Echánove has integrated with the San Miguel community, giving acting workshops to Mexican residents and also is planning workshops with expats.

Jesús Ibarra: You were born in Guanajuato?

Alonso Echánove: Yes, on August 28, 1954.

JI: How did you decide to become an actor?

AE: My mother’s family was always in the musical world. My mother encouraged me to get involved in theater and I began acting in 1970 in the play La Ilustre Fregona by Miguel de Cervantes, during the Cervantino Festival. 

JI: Three very important films in your movie career were: Los Motivos de Luz (Luz’s Reasons), Mentiras Piadosas (Merciful Lies) and Modelo Antiguo (Old Model). Which of these movies gave you more satisfaction and which role did you like the most?

AE: The three films were really very important for me and to work with such directors was a delight (Felipe Cazals, Los Motivos de Luz; Arturo Ripstein, Mentiras Piadosas; and Raúl Araiza, Modelo Antiguo). The three roles gave me so much satisfaction as an actor. In Mentiras Piadosas, my character was very similar to Othello, and it was a challenge to live all those emotions and feelings; it was very emotive. I got my first Ariel with this role. Modelo Antiguo gave me another Ariel and another award in New York as the best Latin American actor. 

JI: How do you view the current situation of Mexican cinema?

AE: I think that cinema in Mexico is taking a new breath with young directors; with the new laws, all the creativity of Mexicans is sprouting out. 

JI: Could you say that the theater produced in Mexico has good quality?

AE: Theater in Mexico has always been first level, just with one inconvenience, due to the kind of life there is in Mexico City nowadays: traffic, economy and other factors cause people not go to the theater; the plays open only during the weekend and the ones who are affected are the actors. 

JI: I know that you are giving theater workshops at the University of Guanajuato. What did it mean to you to be back in your city?

AE: I have been giving these workshops for 10 years and to be back in my city has brought me peace and calmness. 

JI: Could you compare the city of Guanajuato with San Miguel, the people and the cities themselves?

AE: In both places there are people who are willing to enrich themselves with theater. I help them to discover the magic in it and to look for other horizons. Theater is like that. With the answer to each question you may have, more questions will appear. In theater, the parameter of searching is infinite. 

JI: Would you say theater could be a therapy?

AE: Of course. Theater, besides providing us with knowledge, gives us the opportunity to think. Our mind is always thinking in how to get to an appropriate ending; it makes us look into our feelings, which are the base of theater. 

JI: Are you currently giving theater workshops in San Miguel?

AE: Yes, I am. I presented this project to Veronica Agundis, head of the Education and Culture Department, and as she knew the emptiness in San Miguel regarding theater, she accepted immediately. At first, I asked the group to be open for 16 students only, but there are actually 22, who have the necessity to learn and they are open to know more about theater. There have been more people who want to participate, but for the moment and for our purpose, 22 is enough. 

JI: Do you have any project that might involve the foreign community?

AE: Yes. On April 16, we screened a film I made in San Miguel called “The Carriage Driver” (El Cochero), which has won awards at four movie festivals in US. On that occasion, we invited the attendants to form an acting group. We need at least eight persons to open the workshop, which would last four months, probably in the mornings in Teatro Santa Ana. José Luis, at the theater, can give more information. 

JI: What has it meant to confront the health situation in your life?

AE: It is the hardest situation in my life. I lived with addictions for years, which I would not wish on anyone. I have been rehabilitated for 11 years, confronting life without any substance, learning to live each day. 

JI: How did you overcome this challenge?

AE: It has not been easy, but respecting my belief, which is God, and with goodwill, I have continued the fight. 


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A career in the making
By Stephanie Hough Lanier

Monserrat Zarate, a native of San Miguel de Allende, is a Jóvenes Adelante scholarship recipient currently studying Dentistry. She has been studying at the University of Michoacán School of Dentistry for almost four years now.

In Mexico, Dentristry (Odontología) is a five-year degree. Her last year at the university will consist of a social service assignment where she will actually be donating her time in rural communities and providing dental care to people who may not otherwise have access to it. After graduation next year, she hopes to continue on to a three-year program to earn her special degree as an orthodontist.

As a child, Monserrat always enjoyed helping others who were sick or hurt. From early on she dreamed of one day working in the field of medicine. She is the second to oldest of seven children, with three sisters and three brothers. Although she comes from a family of modest means (her mother is a domestic worker and her father is a carpenter), she was always encouraged to study hard at school. After graduating from high school, Monserrat chose to major in Dentistry because she saw that the dental health of her community was a widely neglected area, and she hopes to contribute to overall improvement of life there. At first, her parents supported her decision, but on the condition that she find a scholarship for the tuition. Since Monserrat had very good grades in high school, she was selected to receive a scholarship from Jóvenes Adelante (a Mexico-based non-profit organization which provides scholarships to low-income students). Little did anyone suspect that the major that she had chosen would turn out to be 
one of the most expensive of all programs to undertake.

In Mexico, students who study dentistry are required to purchase their own dental tools and materials for learning and practice. For example, a tool called a “pieza de baja velocidad,” used for drilling teeth, costs US$120. Without it, dentistry students cannot complete their second-semester requirements. Students are also responsible for purchasing an ongoing supply of dental cements and resins, used to practice fillings and other cosmetic procedures. These additional expenses can present an overwhelming burden on students and their families, already struggling to cover the minimal costs of a university education.

As Monserrat’s university is in the neighboring state of Michoacán, about a five-hour bus ride from her hometown, she is already spending a disproportionate amount of her monthly beca on bus fare. Unlike most Jóvenes Adelante students, Monserrat must live away from her family in a rented house shared by several students. Now in the most expensive semester of all, her beca of $1200 pesos could not be stretched to cover necessary expenses, and her family simply could not provide the additional funds she needed.

Monserrat’s story was brought to the attention of a retired American dentist, Dr. William Cloud, whose wife I met on a trip to Houston late last year. After chatting non-stop about my Jóvenes Adelante student, Mrs. Cloud offered to pass the word to her husband, who just happened to be a retired Public Health Services executive. Dr. Cloud had recently left Pine Hill-Ramah Navajo, New Mexico, to begin a new position with Tribal and Indian Health Service (IHS) dental facilities near Santa Fe.

After a battery of e-mails describing Monserrat’s situation in detail, Dr. Cloud tapped into his network of dental friends and began to spread the word around. After exploring several possible avenues of assistance, Dr. Cloud decided that a cash donation would be the most expedient solution. In an act of incredible generosity, he wrote Monserrat a check for an amount sufficient to purchase all needed tools and materials for her final semester.

This is why it is so important for all of us to share the struggles and successes of Mexico’s youth, especially those who are bright and ambitious, but without resources to pursue the dream of a university degree. Needless to say that with all of the sacrifices that are being made for her to complete her education, Monserrat feels a deep sense of responsibility for getting good grades and making her family proud. Monserrat’s workload is very demanding (classes from 8am to 9pm, Monday through Friday), and she currently ranks 4th in her class of 45 students. Obviously, she has very little time for additional activities, but she has sought to learn English by taking advantage of the free Jóvenes Adelante tutoring service when she’s home on weekends. She also enjoys jogging and collecting stamps.

So far, Monserrat’s journey has been fulfilling for her because she is trying very hard to enjoy the experience while taking advantage of all the opportunities to develop her skills. She recommends to other students who may want to study this expensive and demanding major that they think carefully about the course workload and try to strike a balance between studies, finances, and family expectations and responsibilities.



Stephanie Hough Lanier is Monserrat’s Jóvenes Adelante mentor. For information on sponsoring one of this year’s hopeful applicants, or on mentoring or volunteering, visit www.jovenesadelante.org or e-mail jovenesadelante@gmail.org.