Letters

Send your letters to the editor to 
atencionedit@bibliotecasma.com  
Atención will not publish offensive or 
defamatory material.

Editor,

Los Amigos de San Patricio wish to thank all the good people who attended the Eleventh Annual Irish Film Festival of San Miguel de Allende. Because of good attendance this year, we were able to donate a total of 11,960 pesos, divided into three equal portions, to Casa Hogar Santa Julia, Casa Hogar Don Bosco, and Santuario Hogar Mexiquito. These are our local homes for children in need of care and protection. As always, our books are available for review.

We want to express our appreciation to the Fenton family and Hotel Villa Jacaranda for providing the venue for the film festival, as they have for so many years. Thanks also go to Atención for its coverage of this charitable event.

For more, please call me at 154-5840.

Leonardo Rosen

Editor,

There has been a lot of attention, with good reason, on the conservation of water here in San Miguel and throughout the world. I have a question that I hope someone can shed light on and, perhaps, clarify my understanding.

Traveling around Mexico, I have seen a plant which is called Lillia, virtually covering riverbeds and lakes including Lake Chapala. It is a very thirsty plant that voraciously sucks up water, choking its host and causing lakes and riverbeds to dry up.

I have been told it has potential to be used in the manufacturing of a natural fertilizer. The way it is presently being harvested is to skim off as much as a machine can reach from the water and take it to the dump.

Can someone out there tell us more about this plant, what it can or is doing and what good, if any, can possibly come from it? I have seen much the same kind of plant in the tributaries of the Nile.

Jane Casa

Editor,

I wish to thank everyone who bought tickets for the benefit for the park in Colonia Olimpo, now I'll be able to finish this fun and gratifying project I've been working on for about 2 1/2 years. I gave some of the guests a tour of the parque on April 1 and explained my final plans. The group enjoyed watching the neighborhood children playing and using the park for its intended purpose-pure joy. It's as though each child has his or her own beautiful personal backyard playground, not to mention that the park is a refreshing sight for everyone living in or passing through the colonia.

After paying expenses for musicians, workers and food and beverages, the benefit earned a net profit of 12,500 pesos, which will be partially matched by an anonymous donor. I also have approximately 16,000 pesos' worth of materials such as cement, sand, gravel, rebar, and so on, approved by former mayor Luis Alberto Villarreal and still to be utilized.

On Monday, April 3, I'll go with my workers to calculate what materials I'll need to order, so they can resume work on the last projects , such as completing the perimeter wall, a flat concrete floor to encircle the kiosk/gazebo, and a covered picnic table and benches.

I am also very gratified to have talked to so many other people in San Miguel whom my work has inspired to create parks/green areas in their neighborhoods. Please call me at 152-4310 if you seek inspiration and I'll gladly give you the tour and spiel. Thank you all, again.

Tom Frazee

Editor,

Regarding the article "Roberto Madrazo: Savior of the Dinosaurs" by John Barham (March 24), in which he states "Further impairing the Madrazo candidacy has been the candidate's inability to adequately account for considerable personal assets," the article also states that Mr. Barham is "eagerly anticipating an imminent retirement in San Miguel." This is a federal and local election year. I am a foreigner who has lived here legally for many years and would like to remind all foreign guests here that Article 33 of the Mexican Consitution states in part:

"The Federal Executive shall have the exclusive power to compel any foreigner whose remaining he may deem inexpedient to abandon the national territory immediately and without the necessity of previous legal action.

"Foreigners may not in any way participate in the political affairs of the country."

Let me make an analogy. My family has a cottage near Bracebridge, Canada, where I, a United States citizen, spend the summer. If I wrote an article in the Bracebridge Herald newspaper commenting on their local politicians and their character or lack of it, would my Canadian relatives like it? I know they wouldn't because I asked them. At the least it would be deemed discourteous.

Paul Temple

Editor's note: 

The greatest courtesy Atención can provide the San Miguel community is to provide well-written and informed articles about the city and country and to prompt expats to seek a deeper understanding and appreciation of their host country. John Barham-with academic credentials and teaching experience in Mexico-provides a succinct overview on Mexican politics as an opinion piece. An expressed opinion is not the same as political participation.