Zen Drawing, a moment of freedom 
By Alejandro Devesa 

Mural by prisoners

Draawing made by Kerlegand, portraying one of the prisoners. It was the model fort he mural

Artistic expression is one of the defining characteristics of life in San Miguel, as evidenced by the city’s many art galleries and temporary and permanent exhibits. Creative expression has also found a place at the community’s Social Rehabilitation Center (Centro de Rehabilitación Social CERESO), where time spent with a drawing pad and pencil can be a moment of freedom for those who have none. 

Edgardo Kerlegand, a native of Chiapas who has taught for 16 years, leads the Zen Drawing workshop at the jail. Through techniques of meditation and conscious awareness, the workshop has already helped some of the inmates at CERESO. This group includes about 15 people who are separated from the rest of the population of the rehabilitation center because they are the most violent prisoners. Their participation is voluntary. The directors of the center developed the idea for a workshop, thinking that through art and sports it would be easier to rehabilitate them. 

The workshop, which is also offered at the Casa de la Cultura, aims to generate awareness among students by examining the philosophies of various historical figures such as the Dalai Lama and even such mythical figures as the Aztec god Tezcatlipoca. Then, through meditation, the teacher guides the students toward reaching a relaxed state, finding s the meaning of the exercise for themselves. Kerlegand’s objective is not to teach them drawing techniques, but rather to show them how to express themselves through drawing. 

The project at CERESO has progressed step by step. Barely four months since its inception the students are working on a mural, based on a portrait Kerlegand made of one of them. Some of them write and some of them draw, trying to express their feelings about being in such a place and thus to be heard. Kerlegand hopes that the finished mural can be placed in a public space so that people can see it and see who made it. By publicly displaying the mural, it is also hoped someone will become interested in it, and pay for it, not with money, but with items such as coffee, sugar or toilet paper to help make the lives of the artists a little easier. 

Kerlegand said that “this workshop is part of my artistic process; it is something mutual that I could not find in any other way and helps me to form ideas as I am working.” He is not seeking financial reward for this workshop; his purpose is to undertake a personal inner journey to discover what is within himself. He said that “at first I did not know what to expect—whether I would be mocked, ignored, or disrespected—but I have given the workshop for a long time and the results have been good.” 

Some of the inmates said, “We want to work; we really need this to be a rehabilitation center. We need them to give us the tools to go back and be part of society. We need them to teach us how to fix cars or do masonry work, and in this way, when we go back to society, we won’t have to relapse into crime again.” 

Regarding the workshop, they said, “It is something that helps distract us from being here, locked up all day, every day, seeing the same faces over and over as we walk from one side to the other.” 

This is the only workshop that is given to these 15 prisoners; the rest of the population at CERESO receives other training. Kerlegand plans to invite other guests such as musicians and hopes to set up a yoga workshop, noting that “people who are detained are like us, and even if they made a mistake, it is necessary to help them to achieve their rehabilitation.” 

Edgardo Kerlegand was born in 1964 in Chiapas and took an interest in painting at the age of 12. The human figure is predominant in his work, which echoes his spiritual concerns and introversion. His main influence comes from Eastern paintings, orthodox iconography, German Expressionist paintings and the work of Mexican muralists. 

He worked with his teacher, Sainz Zorrilla, painting murals in the markets of Cuernavaca. In 1993 he traveled to Argentina to teach courses in design and drawing. Later, in Croatia, he gave lessons in Spanish, Mexican painting and drawing. In 2000 he was invited by the embassy in Yugoslavia to work with a group of artists giving painting lessons to Serbian, Bulgarian, Greek and Russian artists, the only Latin American invited to participate. Since 2005 he has given his course “Dibujo Zen” to many groups of artists in the United States and Mexico. He also teaches drawing to young people, encouraging them to choose artistic creation as a way of life.

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Neighborhoods of San Miguel: Colonia Jardines 
By Alejandro Devesa 

San Miguel de Allende is composed of several distinct neighborhoods, called colonias in Spanish. Each has a distinct personality, and their differences stem from the residents and their ways of life, types of housing, conditions of streets and the problems specific to each.

In this issue Atención presents the first in a series of articles describing the characteristics of the different neighborhoods.

Although relatively far from the historical center, Colonia Jardines is home to a great number of sanmiguelenses, who, day after day, in a way or another, are part of the life in the city. 

The neighborhood and its houses Colonia Jardines is located in the upper part of the city near the Salida a Querétaro. Once located on the outskirts of town, it has continued to grow during its 15 years of existence.

The houses in this neighborhood were built by the Instituto del Fondo Nacional de Vivienda para los Trabajadores (Housing Fund Institute for Workers), INFONAVIT, a housing program available to all employees on a payroll (nomina.) It started with the first section, Fraccionamiento Jardines. Prompted by a need to expand housing, a second section was built about 10 years ago, called Jardines II. Later, a subsequent section, Jardines del Bosque, was constructed. The three colonias seem to blend together as one, without any apparent delineations. The original floor plans consisted of two bedrooms and a bath, a dining room, kitchen, a small backyard and a front yard; the number of floors and the lot size varied by complex. The houses have expanded as families have added on extra rooms and made improvements.

The residents The inhabitants of this part of town are mostly employed in the areas of tourism, media and education or have their own family businesses such as grocery stores or stationery shops.

 The families in this neighborhood have an average of four to five members. In most cases, residents are Mexican, both parents live at home, are between 45 and 55 years of age and have one or two children with an average age of 13. Incomes vary widely, but the average wage is from 4,000 pesos to 8,000 pesos per month. Most of the families in this colonia have a car or a motorcycle. 

Utilities and transportation

This colonia has necessary services such as water, electricity and paved streets. Water service is restricted from 3pm to 6pm in order to control the flow of this vital resource. 

Although the Public Security Department periodically is called at night to maintain peace in the area, there seems to be little need for police intervention. Crimes are few and it rarely appears in the Atención San Miguel police blotter.

Regarding transportation services, there are two bus routes that reach the neighborhood, Route 9, which runs from this colonia to downtown and then returns, and Route 13, which passes through Los Jardines, Centro and Salida a Celaya and travels all the way to colonia Allende. Bus service begins at 6:30am, and the last bus goes to the colonia at 10pm. 

Jardines also has a basketball court, where adults and children play until the evening. Most of the grocery stores are open until 10:30pm. As for education services, the Secundaria Técnica is located in the neighboring Fraccionamiento Insurgentes, so high school students do not need to take a bus to go to school. A church is also located in Fraccionamiento Insurgentes. 

The problems

According to locals, one of the recurring problems has been the access roads to the colonia. One road, which also leads to Alcocer, is a narrow, poorly paved road. It has been repaired several times, but within weeks it falls into disrepair again. This damages vehicles over time. Residents said that another problem is trash in the streets arising from the lack of public trash receptacles and a culture of throwing trash in the streets rather than disposing of it at home. 

Neighbors trust the new administration will help them to solve their problems. 

Profile of Fraccionamiento Jardines

Family 5-6 members
Total Population 2000 persons
Adult ages 45 to 55 years old
Children’s ages 6 to 14 years old
Monthly income $4000-8000 pesos 
Fraccionamiento Jardines 15 years 
Section 2 Fraccionamiento Jardines 10 years 
Fraccionamiento Jardines del Bosque 6 years 
Total Homes 400 houses 

Design of home 2 Bedrooms, 1 bathroom, dining room, front & backyard 
Value $ 450, 000 pesos

Celestial Lights
By Phyllis Burton Pitluga

By Jupiter Europa, a moon of Jupiter, appears as a thick crescent in this enhanced color image from NASA’s Galileo spacecraft that has been orbiting Jupiter since 1995. (NASA/JPL/University of Arizona)

In this International Year of Astronomy, celebrated because of the telescopic discoveries of Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei 400 years ago, it is appropriate to focus upon Jupiter. Jupiter, the largest planet in the solar system, is the planet dominating our evening skies this autumn. Locate it halfway up in the south at about 7:30pm.

Jupiter is the planet where Galileo made one of his significant discoveries. Galileo observed four little satellites orbiting around the mighty planet. No one had ever recognized them before. This led him to vocally support the idea that Earth and the other visible planets orbit around the Sun.

We call these four natural satellites the “Galilean moons.” Since Galileo’s discovery, 62 moons have been discovered in orbit around Jupiter. Some people with excellent eyesight see the Galilean moons without any optical aid. Binoculars or a small telescope are what most people need to see them. Even in one evening, you can watch these four moons change position as they orbit Jupiter.

Of these four, Io (eye-oh) is the closest and orbits in 1.7 days. Europa orbits Jupiter in 3.5 days, Ganymede in 7 days and Callisto in 16.7 days. Ganymede is the largest and brightest of the four.

Each is uniquely different. Io is the most active world in the Solar System. Its volcanoes are constantly spewing forth because of the squeezing and relaxing caused by the varying gravity as Io orbits Jupiter in a non-circular orbit.

Europa has a mist of water vapor orbiting with it. This indicates it harbors a vast liquid ocean beneath its icy surface. A space mission is being planned to Europa in search for life in its watery depths.

The view in the photograph combines images taken in violet, green and near infrared filters. Reddish linear features are cracks and ridges, thousands of miles long, caused by tides raised by the gravitational pull of Jupiter. Mottled reddish “chaotic terrain” exists where blocks of ice have drifted.

So, grab binoculars or a telescope and, just like Galileo, explore other worlds and learn more about them on the Internet.

Sky Calendar, November 2009 

By following the Moon as the biggest and brightest “pointer” in the sky, during the month you can identify different planets and bright stars. On following nights you can relocate them but without the Moon—the Moon moves about 25 times its own diameter from one night to the next. The Moon is much closer than the planets of our solar system and the stars are even farther. So, when the Moon appears close to a celestial light they are truly separated by millions, billions or trillions of miles.

November 1, Sunday: Mars slipped in front of the stars of the Beehive Cluster at about 2am in the east, always a beautiful sight in binoculars.

November 2, Monday: Full Moon this month is the Hunter’s Moon, following last month’s Harvest Moon. Traditionally, the evening light of the Full Moon illuminated forests and fields for hunters. The Full Moon rises at sunset then. For the next two weeks, the waning Moon rises about 50 minutes later each night.

November 9, Monday: The Last Quarter Moon rises about midnight, having just passed below Mars.

November 16, Monday: New Moon (= no Moon because dark side faces Earth). The illuminated part of the Moon grows wider each evening (waxing) for the next two weeks.

November 18, Wednesday: Leonid Meteor Shower rises in the east by 1:30am. The “shooting stars” are grains from Comet Tempel-Tuttle.

Last year, Earth began passing through a thicker swarm of these particles. This swarm was an ejection of comet particles that occurred in the year 1466. Possibly this year, the shower will be especially spectacular as Earth passes through an even denser section of this swarm.

November 23, Monday: The Moon passes above Jupiter early this evening.

November 24, Tuesday: First Quarter Moon (half way across the sky at sunset).