Carnival comes alive
By Arturo Morales 
February 20, 2009 San Miguel de Allende

Lecture
Carnival in San Miguel de Allende and Mexico 
Tue, Feb 24, 1:30pm
Teatro Santa Ana
Biblioteca Pública
Insurgentes 25
50 pesos

Carnival celebrations in San Miguel and the rest of Mexico are clear examples of the syncretism between the two great pillars of Mexican culture: the indigenous Mesoamerican tradition and the Judeo-Christian tradition imposed during the Spanish domination.

In the Catholic tradition, Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of Lent, 40 days of purification prior to Easter Sunday, recalling the 40 days Jesus spent in the desert. Easter Week (Semana Santa) marks the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the supreme symbol of Catholicism. The week before Lent, in medieval Catholic regions of the present Italy, Spain and France, festivals and celebrations were held using masks to hide identities. Participants gave free rein to the pleasures of the flesh (carne), hence the word carnival in Spanish or carnevale in Italian.

In Mexico, these events coincide with indigenous rituals that celebrate the end of winter and the beginning of plants flowering. The use of masks by the Indians in the Carnaval during the colonial era led to ridicule of Europeans and Creoles.

 Participants wear masks with clear or pink-skinned faces, beards and blue or green eyes, and clothes that mix Catholic and Mesoamerican symbols. Their dances mock Spanish and Creole rulers of the past.

Carnivals in cities along the coast, like Veracruz and Mazatlan, mock the authorities by choosing the Rey Feo (Ugliest King) and the popular Carnival Queen.

In Guanajuato, the war of flowers in the main square turned into a ritual battle among young men and women throwing confetti- and flour-stuffed egg shells. This frivolity is prior to Lent and Easter, days of recollection and sobriety in the Catholic tradition.

The celebration will be explained in this talk with the help of many color slides of the traditional Carnival. Information: http://www.tasma.info/P 20conferencias% / P% 20Conferencias.html. 

Sneak a peek behind San Miguel’s doors
By Robert de Gast

Slide Show & Talk
Behind the Doors of San Miguel
Robert de Gast 
Tue, Feb 24, 5pm
Teatro Santa Ana 
Biblioteca Pública
Insurgentes 25
50/60 pesos 

San Miguel-based photographer and writer Robert de Gast again presents the popular slide show and lecture based on one of his books, Behind the Doors of San Miguel.  De Gast photographed hundreds of private scenes—sunstruck, shade-dappled courtyards, seldom-seen roof gardens, little sanctuaries of peace and beauty, in all parts of town.

More than a hundred of these photographs are featured in his book. This time he shows hundreds of other images: not only the gardens and fountains of rich and famous expatriates, but also the delightful patios of our Mexican neighbors, sometimes bizarre, but always interesting and often beautiful. In these photographs, we glimpse the lives and traditions of a unique and magical place.

De Gast, born in the Netherlands and a long-time resident of San Miguel, is the author of nine books, lectures frequently and conducts photography workshops.

The one-hour presentation benefits the many programs of the library. Admission is 60 pesos (50 pesos for library members). Advance purchase tickets are available at the theater entrance in the Café Santa Ana any weekday after 11am. The presentation ends in time to allow attending the PEN lecture at nearby Bellas Artes.

The Arctic before global warming
By Ernesto de la Pena

Lecture & slide presentation
Life with the Eskimos in a Northern Gold Rush Town in the 1950s
Robin Luxmoore
Mon, Feb 23, 6pm 
Auditorio Miguel Malo
Bellas Artes
Hernández Macías 75
50 pesos

Robin Luxmoore spent many years in the Arctic and in the gold boomtown of Yellowknife in the fifties. In one of the thinnest populated and harshest climates in the world, he spent time with the Eskimos, now called Inuit, and became an expert in the handling of dog teams.

Because of the harshness of the environment, the Inuit shared everything, even their wives. That lifestyle he called, “communism without tyrants.”

The Arctic is undergoing immense changes through global warming and the Inuit will never return to the lifestyle of the fifties. Dog teams are no longer the chief means of transportation and igloos are seldom built. The Inuit are finding it harder to live off the land and sea and the polar bear might soon become extinct.

Far removed from the southerner’s vision of cold and dark throughout a dismal winter in the high Arctic, he found warmth and very often more light than in the southern areas. The warmth came from the ever-cheerful natives and he tolerated the cold in a caribou parka or lying naked in an igloo at night covered with furs. Light came from the moon reflecting off an endless spread of snow-covered terrain, the brilliance of the Northern Lights and the radiance and intimacy of the seal oil lamp that lights the igloo.

Luxmoore suggests we imagine a world, like another planet, without familiar features or sound or smell; an endless landscape of grey snow constantly moving over the surface. A world where the sky is the deepest blue and the stars seem to come close to Earth. And that would be the Arctic.

His slide show includes the gold rush town of Yellowknife, then a town of 3,000 people and now the capital of the Northwest Territories. His experiences in that remote area are exceptional. No roads led to the town and supplies were brought in by Caterpillar tractors pulling giant sleds across 200 miles of lake ice in winter. The first two cars brought in collided head-on the next day! Accommodation was so limited police cells were left open to anyone in need, and in spite of the merciless weather and the relentlessly tough life leading to high consumption of alcohol, they were seldom filled with lawbreakers. Hostesses who had running water would throw a coffee and bath party.

Ernesto de la Pena is the director of Bellas Artes.

Colossal heads and were-jaguars

Lecture 
Ancient Cultures of Mexico: Part I
Wed, Feb 25, 3pm
Teatro Santa Ana
Biblioteca Pública
Insurgentes 25
50 pesos

Aztec, Toltec, Mixtec, Zapotec—we know they were some of the great cultures of ancient Mexico, but how can you tell one ‘tec from another? If this question has been on your mind, you may be interested in a lecture this week. Retired professor of humanities Guillermo Méndez examines four major pre-Hispanic Mexican cultures that one Mesoamerican scholar has called the four “unifying forces” in ancient Mexico—Olmec, Teotihuacan, Toltec and Aztec. Méndez illustrates the lecture with 200 digital images of the art, artifacts and architecture of the four cultures.

For each culture a distinguishing concept will be discussed. For example, the concept for the Olmec is the “Mother Culture” in Mesoamerican history. Most of the salient characteristics of later cultures were present in the Olmec several centuries before the year zero in our Gregorian calendar.

The ancient cultures of Mexico shared a unique calendar that combined a 365-day solar calendar and a 260-day ritual calendar. This combination of calendars did not repeat until 52 years had passed. These 52-year “centuries” acquired considerable importance in the cosmic expectations of the Aztecs, demanding vital rituals like the “new fire ceremony.” Every 52 years, all the fires in the Aztec capital city, Tenochtitlan, were extinguished. On a hilltop outside of the city a “new fire” was started on the chest of a soon-to-be-sacrified person. From the new fire all the extinguished fires of the city would be reignited.

Each of the four cultures had its own style in art and architecture. In the case of the Olmecs, the colossal heads carved of basalt will be discussed, and the unique were-jaguar images, many carved from jadeite, will be examined and interpreted.

A second lecture next week using the same format presents the Zapotec, Maya, Classic Veracruz and Mixtec cultures.

Facial Exercise Class

Renee Deveareaux
Sat, Feb 28, 10am–noon
Salon Gloria Grant
Biblioteca Pública
Insurgentes 25 
100 pesos

I am holding a facial exercise class for a totally natural facelift that will help you avoid cosmetic surgery at a very low cost! You know of the benefits of exercising your body, so why not your face? Bring a mirror, preferably one that stands on its own.

Solutions through international law in hard economic times 

Asset management & protection 
David R. Barrow

Fri, Feb 26, 11:30am
Sala Quetzal
Biblioteca Pública
Insurgentes 25

Tough times call for tough and creative solutions when financial situations such as those that currently exist in the US appear. Assets may have diminished or disappeared, and those that remain require creative strategies in aggressive asset management and protection. International attorney David R. Barrow hosts a special presentation to address this, and other, international law issues and their potential solutions

Barrow practiced international law in the US for 25 years before moving his government-sanctioned practice to San Miguel. Although he is a resource for most of the issues in law that members of the US foreign community living here might encounter, his specific areas of expertise are international estate planning and business law.

The primary topic is asset management and protection; however, Barrow will answer questions from the audience on any aspect of international law that might be of concerns to expatriates. For more information about the presentation, or other issues of concern, contact Barrow at 154-8975 or smalawyer@gmail.com.  There is no cost for the presentation; however, donations to the Biblioteca Pública are welcomed.

The Dream of the Turquoise Bee
By Atención staff

Presentation on Tibet
Thu, Feb 26, 1pm
Sala Quetzal
Biblioteca Pública
Insurgentes 25
50 pesos

Dianne Aigaki gives a presentation focusing on the Tibetan landscape, life in the nomad camps and villages, her work in Tibet as a botanical illustrator and the current political situation after the demonstrations in 2008.

Mexico has seen a growing interest in Tibetan Buddhism over the last 15 years, with 100,000 now practicing here. Mexico City has one of six Tibet Houses, centers set up by government in exile to present Tibetan culture to the world. San Miguel has an active Buddhist community, with two meditation centers giving classes and presenting teachings from lamas. The Dalai Lama blessed the botanical garden El Charco del Ingenio as a zone of peace.

Asians followed the land bridge across the Bering Strait south through North America into Mexico and beyond, and artifacts reveal an Asian influence in design and religious symbolism. The office building of the Ministry of Education in Mexico City, built in the first half of the twentieth century, has one of its walls decorated with a carving of the Buddha commissioned by José Vasconcelos, the first post-revolutionary Minister of Education, a theosophist and pro-Buddhist. In the seventies, Tibetan Lama Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche visited Pátzcuaro, Michoacán, where he discovered the mind “terma” which inspired his Shambhala teachings. Terma means “hidden treasure” and refers to texts hidden centuries ago that reveal Buddhist teachings.

Many people have trouble understanding why a super-power like China would bother taking over a country with such a small population as Tibet. The answer is complex, including such geo-political realities as the fact that China, with Tibet within its boundaries, now borders India. Some observers believe that Tibet has been stripped bare of trees and natural resources. Although the situation inside Tibet is grim, with flagrant human rights abuses and disregard for environmental integrity, Aigaki’s presentation focuses on Eastern Tibet, where the water is pure, nomads herd their animals and villagers display photos of the fourteenth Dalai Lama in their homes.

Tibet still enjoys one of the richest expanses of flora in the world. From late May until September, wildflowers carpet the hills, meadows and mountainsides, a river of purple, white, blue, orange and magenta. Many of these plants are rare and endangered or have been used for centuries in traditional medicine to treat asthma, arthritis, cancer, blood pressure, parasites and other ailments.

Aigaki created a flora documentation project including 108 scientific botanical illustrations of these wildflowers growing on the Tibetan Plateau, at altitudes of 11,000–17,000 feet. Her paintings are exhibited worldwide and she speaks at museums, universities and botanic gardens on “Botanical Art as a Vehicle for Cultural Diplomacy,” “Botanical Illustration Field Work in Tibet” and “Women Explorers.”

The project is part of a cultural diplomacy exchange whereby she takes letters, gifts, cassette tapes and paintings of wildflowers between families in Tibet and the Tibetan refugee community in India.

This summer, she will lead two eco-tours to Tibet and three people from San Miguel will accompany with her. “The Dream of the Turquoise Bee” tours are a partnership with Tibetan villagers and nomads, the concept born after an evening conversation about the 2007 drought in eastern Tibet. The Tibetans were facing a financial and environmental crisis—no crops would be harvested, they would have no food for their families or for bartering, and would be unable to earn even the usual pittance from working in neighbors’ fields. The families worked with Aigaki to design an eco-tourism project that would allow them to support teams for the tours, generating income while they trained as guides and medicinal plant experts. John Bellezza, a noted Tibet archaeologist, Tibetan dialect linguist, storyteller and a great cook will accompany both tours. The eco-tours give guests the opportunity to be in the pure, clear air while spending time with the people who make their homes in Tibet.

Buy tickets early; last year sold out. Half the admission fee goes to the Biblioteca scholarship fund and the other half to a medical fund for elderly Tibetans living in Oh Szang village.

Dianne Aigaki is a member of WINGS WorldQuest and she carried their flag into Tibet in 2007. She is also a member of the Society of Women Geographers, the premier international organization of women explorers.

Snowbird Symposium Films & Panel

Center for Global Justice
Films: The End of Suburbia
Mon, Feb 23, 5pm

Who Killed the Electric Car?
Thu, Feb 26, 3pm 

Panel: Why Is the US Addicted to Oil?
Wed, Feb 25, 10:30am 

Teatro Santa Ana
Biblioteca Pública
Insurgentes 25

Oil and us 

This week the Center for Global Justice screens two films on the topic: The End of Suburbia and Who Killed the Electric Car? 

A panel discussion on “Why Is the US Addicted to Oil?” explores the connections between oil dependence, the urban/suburban infrastructure, an automobile-based transportation system, the vested interests of auto and oil corporations, agribusiness, global climate change, trade deficits, oil wars and the arrival of peak oil. Stephan Benediktson, an engineer in the oil business; David Stea, geographer; and activist Georgeann Johnson lead the discussion.

With brutal honesty and a touch of irony, The End of Suburbia explores the American way of life and its prospects as the planet approaches a critical era, as global demand for fossil fuels begins to outstrip supply. 

Ironically, 100 years ago, more electric cars were on the road than gas-powered cars. In the 1990s, there was hope of returning to this cleaner vehicle when GM was forced by California to market an electric car to meet environmental regulations. Successful heavy lobbying from GM and the oil industry enabled GM to recall their electric cars and sent them to the crusher. Who Killed the Electric Car? tells the story of this venture into an alternative to the gas-powered vehicle and the powerful interests that ended it.