Mayahuel plays for Sancho Panza
July 14, 2006

Sancho Panza de Cabeza (Sancho Panza on His Head), the XESQ radio program that promotes literature in San Miguel, celebates its first anniversary with a concert by Latin American folkloric music group Mayahuel. 

Sancho Panza visits the XESQ radio station to interview the show's hosts 
Sancho Panza: What is Sancho Panza de Cabeza, and why do you use my name for the program?

Isaac Toporek: Sancho Panza de Cabeza is a conversation-started, perhaps, one day in a café or even in a movie theater line-between four local readers who share their passion for literature and books. The San Miguel Authors' Sala, in its pursuit of links to this country's culture, gave us the opportunity to create this radio program. 

About the name of the program: Sancho Panza is the faithful squire of the protagonist of the most important novel in Hispanic literature, but he is also the squire of every reader since his naïve clarity is what saves us from the Quixotic delusions, and we are honoring him for that. About the "on his head" thing: He defends impossible causes. It is difficult for us to imagine him in any other posture, and-as tends to happen on the radio-everything I just said is completely backwards.

SP: What is the show about? Are all the topics only for intellectuals?
Jorge Coro: Sancho Panza de Cabeza represents a game between the written word, the reader and the audience. In the show, we sample books and their authors' stories from the enthusiast's point of view, not from the specialist's. Within the show, we have four main sections: Author biographies, including stories and anecdotes, plot profiles and discussions of the books, music related to the topics and themes of the books to add additional flavor, and, finally, poetry chosen for the occasion. 

SP: Who participates in the show? Are they experts? How do they choose the topics?
Yolanda Lacarieri: Four readers and friends-Carmen Riojas, Isaac Toporek, Jorge Coro and I-host the program. We agree that there is a huge lack of recognition of Mexican culture and the promotion of reading. The hosts choose the topic of the day, such as "Literature and Gastronomy," or they choose a specific author, such as Alessandro Baricco, or they pick a book, such as Pedro Páramo. Sometimes we hosts do not agree on a topic and start a debate, raising questions such as whether the poem "Piedra de Sol" is understandable or not.
We are not experts. We voice opinions to try to spread our enthusiasm for reading. We want literature to become as popular as soccer in the 21st century. 

SP: Why do you promote literature? 
Carmen Riojas: Words make us free. We think literature is fun and releases our imagination-literature is the multiplication of fish. Alfonso Reyes says that we are woven from the substance of books, much more than we can see. When something matters to people, they eternalize it in a book. A book not only pleases us, but also helps us to answer questions: Why are human beings such rare birds? Where do we come from? Where are we going? By knowing the diversity of the world in which we live, we become capable of conducting ourselves within a frame of understanding. That is why we are doing this program for all the possible listeners-and for the impossible.

We also promote readers' rights: the right to read a good book, to jump pages, to finish the book, to not finish the book, to reread the book or to start to read a book on any page. 

If you feel lost, look for yourself in a book. You will find yourself. Gabriel Zaid says this better than I do in his book Los Demasiados Libros (The Too Many Books): "To shake between the lines, to release the phantoms chapter by chapter. To start long trips to find places that we already visited through the ship of novels: to disdain all the corners without literature, not to trust in the ways of life that haven't deserved a poem yet. To escape the anguish by reading; to come back to anguish by the same door we left it. Not to obey illiterate emotions. The ruination of reading consists of things like these. Those who have tasted this know about it."

SP: Where can the audience find the books you recommend?
Carmen Riojas: Most of our recommendations can be found at the Biblioteca Pública de San Miguel de Allende, at Insurgentes 25. The Biblioteca enthusiastically supports the Sancho Panza de Cabeza project. We have also compiled a book selection in the El Viejo Topo café (formerly La Ventana Café in Plaza Pueblito), located at Stirling Dickinson 28, Local 7. There, people can read while drinking coffee. We also promote trading books. People can donate a book from their own collection and take one from the selection, then they can trade that one when they have finished reading it. They can also visit the several bookstores in San Miguel or Querétaro and Celaya. In addition, the show gives away books to people who answer a question during the program.

SP: How long have you been on the air? Who sponsors you?
Isaac Toporek: We were a year old in June of this year. We have an uninterrupted transmission of 52 programs, one per week. This fills our hearts with joy. This is a private project without any institutional support. We are supported only by the Biblioteca Pública, the Authors' Sala and by Don Manuel and Javier Zavala from XESQ.

At the beginning, the Authors' Sala was responsible for all the maintenance of the program. Now we obtain resources for the program's production through friends who are aware of the lack of resources we have in San Miguel to promote culture. They blindly bet on our project. Recently, Alejandra García joined our team as head of advertising sales. In a short time she has been able to add to our list of sponsors, and we eternally thank all these people for their support: La Rosa de los Vientos, Pavimentos y Terracerías Valadez, Microdental San Miguel, Restaurante Café de La Parroquia, 03 Estudio Digital, Instituto Tecnológico SSC, Colegio Atabal, Revista San, Clínica Automotriz, Intercam Casa de Bolsa, Centro Cultural Ignacio Ramírez "El Nigromante," Galería Alquimia 4, Café El Viejo Topo and Foto Bazar.

SP: How are you going to celebrate your first anniversary?
Jorge Coro: We will have a concert with the group Mayahuel, readings in Spanish and English and performances of excerpts from plays. 

SP: Mayahuel?
Yolanda Lacarieri: Mayahuel is the Maguey goddess name in the Aztec tradition. She has 400 breasts that give pulque to 400 bunnies. It is also the name of a Latin American music group. The group's repertoire includes pieces from Argentina to Mexico, including Cuba, Chile and Ecuador, among other countries. They have been playing for more than 13 years. They play native instruments such as zampoñas, kenas and charangos. The group includes Luis Maciel, Jonathan Maciel, Manuel Ramírez, J. Manuel Rodríguez and Ramiro Granados. 
Come to the concert, and listen to Sancho Panza de Cabeza on the radio.

Concert Group Mayahuel 
Friday, July 14, 7pm, Miguel Malo auditorium,, Bellas Artes, Hernández Macías 75
70 pesos
Sancho Panza de Cabeza, Tuesdays, 8pm
XESQ, Radio San Miguel 1280 AM Online radio: www.sqsanmiguel.com 



Young artists' concert: Vivaldi to Mozart
By Elsmarie Norby

The Angela Peralta Theater presents a special concert of voice and instrumental music from the Baroque and classical literature. The amazing soprano voice of Saul Martínez Bautista highlights the recital.

Bautista was born and raised in San Miguel de Allende and is gifted with a natural soprano voice that was nurtured and trained throughout his childhood. Now, at age 25, he is a graduate student at the Conservatory of Music in Mexico City. He has performed all over Mexico as a soloist in recitals and operas and with symphony orchestras, and is widely recognized as a fine talent with a one-of-a-kind voice. This concert is his debut as a professional singer in his hometown.

Enrique Prado, also a native of San Miguel, studied piano with Marta García Renart in Querétaro and showed great promise after only a few years. He has performed in Mexico City, given many concerts and recitals here in San Miguel and played with chamber music groups. He won a scholarship to the University of Texas in Brownsville and spent a year studying and teaching in Cuba. He now lives in San Miguel, continuing to play and teach, and is one of the bright young lights in San Miguel's music scene. 

Raciel Ordonez, bassoonist, was born in Pachuca in 1986 and has already acquired a sparkling résumé of performances with major orchestras and chorales in Mexico, including Aguascalientes Symphony, the university orchestra in the state of Hidalgo and the Bellas Artes Theater Orchestra in Mexico City. He traveled with the National Conservatory of Music chorale to play in a festival in Columbia. He is in his fifth year of study at the conservatory, and in this concert he performs operatic pieces with Bautista and Prado.

Esme West is a cello student from Baltimore, Maryland. She is in San Miguel this summer, having chosen to do community service, as required by her Quaker school, with ANYEL, escuela de música. West is helping to teach classes given by ANYEL in the orphanages and care centers, such as Casa Hogar de Los Angeles, and learning about the program by participating in the training of teachers at CASA, a center providing many important services to families in crisis. ANYEL is proud to include West as a cello soloist in this concert. 

Tickets are on sale at the Angela Peralta box office on Hernández Macías and at Casa de Papel at the corner of Mesones and Reloj. Main floor seats are $100 pesos; balcony, $50 pesos. Students in ANYEL classes are admitted free. This wonderful concert by young artists is a benefit for them and ANYEL.

Concert by young artists
Tuesday, July 18, 7pm, Teatro Ángela Peralta, Mesones & Hernández Macías,100/50 pesos
Elsmarie Norby is the founder/codirector of ANYEL, a music program provided free to hundreds of children in their own classrooms and to the children at C.A.S.A and the orphanages. She is a pianist, choral director and lecturer on many aspects of music, as well as a photographer. She can be reached at elsmarienorby@yahoo.com  or see the ANYEL website at www.anyel.com. 



Pre-Hispanic music at the Biblioteca

Archaeological evidence suggests that the ancient Aztecs maintained a school of music at Tenochtitlan, their capital city. No doubt the young musicians-in-training studied the pre-Hispanic instruments that we find today in the museums of Mexico, instruments such as the teponaztli, a type of wood drum carved from a large tree trunk, and the quiquiztli (conch shell trumpet). These instruments and many others will be played at a recital of pre-Hispanic music at the Teatro Santa Ana of the Biblioteca Pública on Saturday, July 15, at 7pm.

The performing ensemble, called Collar del Viento (Wind's Necklace), consists of six youngsters ranging in age from 11 to 18 years. They perform in costume and face paint using the traditional ritualistic effects of incense, flowers and candles.

Concert of pre-Hispanic music by Collar del Viento
Saturday, July 15, 7pm, Teatro Santa Ana, Reloj 50, 50 pesos



La Catrina in Two Pro Musica concerts

The La Catrina String Quartet presents varied programs at Pro Musica concerts on Saturday and Sunday. Mozart's "String Quartet in C Major, Dissonant" opens the Saturday concert. The second work will be Shostakovich's "String Quartet No. 8 in C Minor." The last piece is Revueltas's "String Quartet No. 4, Musica de Feria."

The Sunday concert starts with "Langsamer Satz," by Anton Webern, and next is a work being played in San Miguel for the first time, "Angelwings" by Thomas Janson. Cuban-born clarinetist Alfredo Valdes-Brito Hoyos accompanies La Catrina in the final work, Mozart's "Quintet in A Major for Clarinet and Strings." 

Both concerts start at 5pm at St. Paul's Church, Cardo 6. Tickets are available at La Conexión, Aldama 3; Sierra Nevada Hotel reception desk, Hospicio 46; Casa de Papel, Mesones 57; and Ann Grace Dress Shop, Gigante Arcade, Local BC31, Plaza Real del Conde. Tickets also will be sold in the Jardín July 14 and 15 between 11am and 2pm; at the St. Paul's church office, weekdays 11am to 2pm and at the door one hour before concert time. To reserve tickets call 152-0387 weekdays between 11am and 2 pm.

Pro Musica Concerts with La Catrina
Saturday and Sunday, July 15 & 16, 5pm, St. Paul's Church, Cardo 6
150/50 pesos