Letters

Editor,

As a member of the foreign community here in San Miguel, for seven years as of the beginning of November, I’m thinking of the celebration of the Day of the Dead and how we foreigners participate in this meaningful and most Mexican of holidays. It seems to me there are three levels of celebration.

The most public celebration takes place in the Jardín. Altars are erected to humble and prominent sanmiguelenses, some who made a major contribution to the town and have passed away in this last year. The Jardín is festooned with decorations above and below, including lovely carpets of flowers and colored sand or other materials. Everyone strolls there in the evenings to pay respects to those who have passed and to share in this time of honoring them. It seems perfectly natural and appropriate for us to be a part of this event, and some foreigners are inevitably honored alongside the Mexicans.

The totally private part of the fiesta consists of altars being erected in the homes to honor loved ones that the family has lost, not necessarily recently, but whose absence they still feel strongly—their muertitos (little dead ones). A number of people give lectures and even lessons in making altars of this kind, using small mementos, flowers, photos and food and drink beloved of the one that has passed, so we foreigners might understand and participate in this private and personal way of honoring our own loved ones.

The third, sort of semi-public celebration takes place on both November 1 and 2 in the local Panteón, and this is the one I would like to focus on. Families stream into the cemetery all day long on these days, bearing other mementos of their loved ones, as well as armloads of flowers and plants, buckets and water. Here they decorate profusely the gravesites of their muertitos and gather together as a family, eat, pray, play music or reminisce. There is a wide range of beliefs about the practice and meaning of all this. Not all actually expect their dead loved one to join them in this celebratory feast. Some do.

It seems to me a much more appropriate and fulfilling way for foreigners to participate in this part of the fiesta, rather than just coming to the Panteón with our cameras and intruding—some more sensitively than others, where these families are playing out their annual ritual—would be to participate. We too could bring armloads of flowers and other decorations or mementos to decorate the gravesites in the large section of the Panteón, which is reserved for foreigners. On these days of November 1 and 2, this section has been the saddest of places. It holds the gravesites of many foreigners, some who lived in San Miguel for many years and made outstanding contributions to the community, but whose families and contemporaries are no longer here to celebrate them. Why not change that and make our section of the Panteón glow with remembrance on those days too. That way, we would be participants in a totally appropriate and inclusive way, and not just observers of the annual fiesta.

Muriel Bevilacqua Logan



Editor,

I recently resigned as President of the Red Cross of San Miguel de Allende to pursue other endeavors affecting the public health of our community.

I want to thank all of the members of the Mexican and foreign communities who have worked with me in recent years in building the Red Cross into an organization that better serves all members of our city.

As you know, the Red Cross has entered into an ambitious project to build a new complex to meet the health and safety needs of San Miguel, which have not previously been addressed but which are vital to the future of our city. These include a much needed public blood bank, a non critical care emergency facility, a confidential HIV/AIDS testing and referral center, a training center for San Miguel's restaurant and hotel workers, and the educational needs of other Red Cross delegations from throughout Central Mexico.

While I will no longer be President of the Red Cross, I support the next President of the Red Cross of San Miguel, who is well aware of this vital project and its great importance to all of us and to those who will follow us.

I look forward to working with you in the years ahead in building a safer and healthier San Miguel for all of us and for future generations of San Miguel residents.

Dr. José Luis Gallegos

This is a copy of a letter sent by Luis Alberto Villarreal García to Lic. Fernando Gómez Mont Urueta, Mexico’s Secretary of the Interior.




Esteemed Secretary,

By this letter, I would like to request your valuable intervention so the delegation of the Instituto Nacional de Migración in Guanajuato, with a seat in San Miguel de Allende, does not move to another city, as has insistently been mentioned in the state.

On September 24, 2008, after a telephone conference with committee member Cecilia Romero Castillo, I sent her a letter (attached to this letter) in which I explained the economical and social reasons for which the INM should stay in San Miguel de Allende and not move to Celaya, as intended. In that same letter, I attached copies of the agreements of January 11, 2005, and January 31, 2006, through which the City Council granted INM 2,000 square meters of land for the construction of offices and a migratory station.

As you know, San Miguel de Allende is a destination favored by expats, particularly retirees and baby boomers, who have found in this city the ideal place to spend a momentous part of their life. Over the past years, and in an increasing way, many of them have settled in San Miguel de Allende, and currently there are about 12,000 expats. Most of them have greatly supported the enrichment and development of the community, not only through social work but also in investments, development and generation of employment.

I’m addressing you because, as of now, we don’t have an answer that could confirm that the delegation will stay in San Miguel de Allende. With this comes uncertainty and fear, causing a great part of the population, national and foreign, to feel ignored and think the federal government does not have the slightest interest in assisting them and facilitating the procedures to those who, in good faith, have come to our country, bringing development, jobs and benefits for the community.

My best regards,
Luis Alberto Villarreal García