Talk
The Butterflies of San Miguel 
de Allende and its Botanical Garden
Wayne Colony
Tue, Jun 9, 3pm
Teatro Santa Ana
Biblioteca Pública
Insurgentes 25
60 pesos, free for Audubon members

Tantalizing butterflies
By Carol Wheeler

Wayne Colony will introduce Audubon’s long-awaited guide to local butterflies with a talk on the beautiful creatures. The Butterflies of San Miguel de Allende and its Botanical Garden includes ravishing pictures of 123 of San Miguel’s 137 butterflies and will be on sale for a one-time debut price of 50 pesos on Tuesday. The regular price for the guide, which was created by Wayne and his wife Susan, is 60 pesos.

Mexico is well known for its rich history—from the ancient pyramids of Teotihuacán and Tenochtitlán to the colonial cities and churches of San Miguel de Allende and Atotonilco. Mexico also is a land with a rich natural history and a biodiversity of flora and fauna matched by few other countries in the world. Of the 17,000 butterfly species worldwide, 1,063 are found in Mexico—most in the hot and humid lowlands of Chiapas, Yucatán and the Pacific and Gulf coasts. Lepidopterists (scientists who specialize in the study of butterflies and moths) have also found a surprising number of species in the cool, dry highlands such as Guanajuato. Although visitors to San Miguel rarely notice them, we have many beautiful and fascinating species right here in our own gardens and parks.

For the past two years Wayne and Susan Colony have recorded and photographed hundreds of species of butterflies (and their “little brothers,” the skippers) in the municipality of San Miguel and especially within the boundaries of the botanical garden, El Charco del Ingenio. Some, like the magnificent Mexican Kite-Swallowtail, were easy to find (once they learned the surprising place to look for them), while others—like the astoundingly patterned Bumblebee Metalmark—were tracked down with a lot of patience and some luck. Wayne’s photographs of these beauties and many more can be enjoyed in comfort at Teatro Santa Ana. His lecture will cover many aspects of the world of butterflies—their life cycle, host plants, migrations and tips on how to find and photograph them. With the field guide in hand at last, you’ll be ready to find and identify your favorites.

Audubon’s very popular guide to the birds of San Miguel also will be available for 50 pesos at the Tuesday presentation, which is free to Audubon members and 60 pesos to other.

Talk
The Huasteca and Xilitla
Tue, Jun 9 at 1:30pm
Teatro Santa Ana
Biblioteca Pública
Insurgentes 25
60 pesos

Surreal exuberance in the jungle
By Arturo Morales Tirado

Among the shadows of enormous tropical trees in the middle of the jungle of the eastern Mexican Sierra Madre Oriental, the Huastecos developed over a period of 3,500 years. As a people, they claim descent from the hero-god Cuextécatl.

The natural exuberance of its rivers, flora and fauna, and the fertility of its soil, earned the name Tonacapan or food place from the Mexicas (the Spanish called them Aztecs). Visitors thus have two powerful reasons to explore the region: a beautiful natural heritage in its jungle and its cultural monuments, thousands of them, spanning eras from the dawn of Mesoamerican civilization to the present.

The Huasteca region is in northeastern Mexico, mainly the states of Tamaulipas, Veracruz and San Luis Potosí, but its area of influence extends to the states of Hidalgo, Guanajuato and Querétaro. Regional music is the son huasteco (Cuban, flamenco and indigenous fusion, notable for virtuoso violinists) and the troubadour tradition of the Topada in the Sierra Gorda of Querétaro and Guanajuato. The region is noteworthy for erotic pre-Hispanic sculptures, cecina (dried beef) with chiles toreados, citrus orchards, trapiches (sugar cane mills) converted into sumptuous hotels, 400-year-old vice-regal chapels and the archaeological sites of Tamtoc and Tamohí. Natural attractions are the Tampaón and Santa Maria rivers, Micos and Tamasopo waterfalls, the Bridge of God, the spring of Laguna de la Media Luna (Lake Crescent), geological holes, bird refuges, the Cave of Swallows and Basement of Clay.

The third major reason for visiting the Huasteca is to experience Sir Edward