Cont. from front page,
San Juan de Dios cemetery opens its gates again
The historic San Juan de Dios cemetery, located on calle San Antonio Abad near the San Juan de Dios church, was built in 1782 by Father Joaquín Hidalgo y Costilla, Miguel Hidalgo’s brother, to satisfy the need for graves during the years of epidemics and starvation. The cemetery has been closed for more than 50 years.
“Five years ago, Eva Montes, a DIF employee at Casa Esperanza, had the idea to reopen the cemetery on the Day of Dead and set up an altar for all those buried there,” said Cecilia Arceaga, DIF’s general administrator, who is in charge of coordinating the construction of the altar. She explained that the cemetery had been completely abandoned, taken over by grass and weeds. “We cleaned it up and rescued it with the help of women from the rural communities, who brought shovels and machetes to cut the grass. When we installed the first altar, the cemetery filled with elderly people who had not visited their dead since it was closed. They were so grateful to me for opening it that some even wanted to kiss my hands.”
This will mark the fifth year that DIF staff have placed an altar in San Juan de Dios cemetery. “It is expensive to set up the altar,” said Arceaga. “We spend around 5,000 pesos on it. And usually DIF lacks the necessary resources, so I ask that members of the public who wish to donate flowers, food or candles, or even bring some tortas for the staff who will be working at the cemetery on November 1.”
Arceaga explained that all the departments within DIF participate in creating the altar, each with a different task: cutting tissue paper, painting sawdust to carpet the altar, or making paper flowers, among many other activities. About 50 people collaborate to set up the altar, including some of the women from rural communities and the elderly who benefit from DIF programs. The women begin working on setting up the altar at 8am on November 1, finishing at about 1pm. It is opened the next day, November 2, from 8am to 10pm, starting with a morning mass at 8am.
Rocío Araiza, a social worker at DIF who helps with the altar, said that all the graves in the cemetery are covered with cempasúchil flowers and decorated with papel picado, intricately cut tissue paper. “This year the altar will be dedicated to Don Manuel Zavala, who was loved by everyone.”
Biblioteca Pública honors Kendal Butler and Philip Maher
Every year, the Biblioteca Pública sets up an altar to the dead under the guidance of Eduardo Sánchez Vásquez, who is in charge of the children’s room. “We begin assembling the altar on October 30. On November 1 from 5 to 7pm, we will hold a special event in the library patio,” said Sánchez. He added that the altar is constructed by the children who are regular library users. This year the altar will honor two ex-presidents of the library board, Col. Philip Maher and Kendal Butler (also a volunteer proofreader at Atención); Louise McGann, a volunteer at the Biblioteca; Tirzah Maillcoff; and Woodruff Werner Bryne, a former proofreader at Atención and library benefactor. “For the altar we use traditional elements such as copal, candles, food, and photographs of the honored persons, cempasúchil flowers, and cut tissue paper.”
The altar at Instituto Allende
According to Jaime Fernández Martínez Harris, one of the owners of Instituto Allende, this year’s altar at the Instituto will honor his mother, Nell Harris, founder of the Instituto along with her husband, Enrique Fernández Martínez, Stirling Dickinson, and James Pinto and Felipe Cossío del Pomar. “The altar is placed in the chapel in the back corner of the Institute, where my mother’s ashes are placed,” said Fernández,” who added that a group of concheros will play pre-Hispanic music at the altar on November 2.
The altar at the Jardín
This year the altar at the Jardín will honor Don Manuel Zavala, PPKBZON. Located on the esplanade between the Parroquia and the Jardín, its construction is coordinated by the Department of Education and Culture. Román González, special events coordinator of the department, said that the altar is assembled by students from different schools. “About 40 students between 15 and 22 years of age from CBTIS and the videobachillerato help set up the altar,” said González. “They currently are cutting the tissue paper in Casa de la Cultura in El Chorro. They use around 60 rolls of paper. They are also making sawdust carpets and painting murals on paper that represent the pre-Hispanic gods of death, which will be hung on the gates of the Parroquia. They began working on October 1.”
Some other altars in the city include the one at radio station XESQ, set up by the Asociación Tradicionalista de San Miguel and this year honoring Don Manuel Zavala. The Ignacio Ramírez Market union always places an offering to deceased market members inside the market. The Festival, Customs and Traditions Board organizes an altar in Plaza Zaragoza, located at calles Pepe Llanos and Insurgentes. At 6pm on November 1, a priest will bless the offerings and then Soledad Centeno from Valle del Maíz will conduct a ceremony of the four winds. The altar honors the souls of hortelanos, or orchard workers.
On November 1 and 2 the municipal cemetery located near Hotel Real de Minas will be open from 8am to 8pm, receiving thousands of family members and friends of the deceased, along with tourists.
This year, the traditional altar at Museo Casa de Allende honoring Don Ignacio Allende will not be set up because the museum is closed for restoration.
Elements of a traditional altar
A photo of the deceased being honored to invite a visitation on November 2
A small cross made of ash wood to release the soul from purgatory if it is there
A large cross made of ash wood so the soul can expiate its guilt
Purple flowers and papel picado, which represent mourning
Sugar skulls, representing death, which is always present
Four candles forming a cross represent the four cardinal points, so that the soul can find its way home
Water so the soul can drink after its long journey
Tequila so the soul can remember the happy events of its life
Copal cleanses the site of evil spirits so the soul can return home safely
Food satisfies the soul so that it will return again
Cempasúchil flowers (marigolds) lead the soul to the altar and symbolize the continuity of life
Salt represents the basic elements to which we will all return some day
Candles light the soul’s way home
Blankets protect the soul from the cold
Day of the Dead events
Thursday, November 1
5–7pm Altar at Biblioteca Pública opens; explanation and lecture on traditions and death since pre-Hispanic times by María Luisa Moreno; lecture on death in Mexican poetry since pre-Hispanic times by Victor Sahuatoba; pre-Hispanic music by Collar de Viento group; music (tambora) and dancing featuring typical songs for the Day of the Dead
6pm: Art exhibit, “Day of Dead” by Raúl Gil, Portal Allende
7pm: Documentary film Alfeñiques by Adriana Pérez, Jardín (alfeñiques are the sugar sculptures used to adorn altars)
7:30pm: Altar to Don Manuel Zavala, PPKBZON, Jardín
7:30pm: Altar to musician and composer Francisco Gabilondo Soler “Cri-Cri” on the 100th anniversary of his birthday, created by the children of Francisco Gabilondo Soler Kindergarten, in front of the former Presidencia building on calle Plaza Principal
8pm: Documentary about Don Manuel Zavala, PPKBZON, Jardín
8:30pm: Pre-Hispanic music by Caracol de Fuego, Jardín
Friday, November 2
8am: Mass for the dead and altar to Don Manuel Zavala created by DIF staff, San Juan de Dios cemetery
11am: Opening of the altar in Guadalupe cemetery, next to Hotel Real de Minas
1pm: Mass for the dead, Guadalupe cemetery
7pm: Performance by Ballet Albatros from Guanajuato, Jardín
Saturday, November 3
5pm: Short film, Hasta los huesos (To the Bones), a winner in the 2004 International Short Film Festival, and film Macario, directed by Roberto Gavaldon, based on a story by Bruno Traven, Teatro Ángela Peralta (no charge)
7pm: Music by Los Juglares from Guanajuato, Jardín
Sunday, November 4
7pm: Literary performance and dance “Juegos de Danza y Muerte” (Games of Dance and Death) by Ballet Mazatl of Casa de la Cultura
Guide to the altars
1- Museo Casa de Allende (Not set up this year due to museum restoration)
2- Altar to Don Manuel Zavala, Jardín
3- Altar to Don Manuel Zavala, radio station XESQ, Sollano 4
4- Mercado Ignacio Ramírez, calle Colegio
5- Altar in Plaza Zaragoza, Pepe Llanos and Insurgentes
6- Altar to Kendal Butler, Philip Maher, Tirzah Maillcoff, Woodruff Bryne and Louise McGann, Biblioteca Pública, Insurgentes 25
7- Altar to Don Manuel Zavala, San Juan de Dios cemetery, calle San Antonio Abad
8- Altar to Nell Harris, Instituto Allende, Ancha de San Antonio 20
9- Panteón Guadalupe (local cemetery), Camino viejo al panteón, near Hotel Real de Minas
Make a DIFerence, support a new home
By Atención staff
Cena Mexicana
Benefit for Mi Casa DIFerente (My DIFferent home)
Fri, Oct 26, 6pm
Bellas Artes
Hernández Macías 75
300 pesos
One government agency charged with allaying the suffering of the disenfranchised of San Miguel is the Family Services Department (DIF). By law and by tradition, the First Lady of the city acts as president of the DIF board. For the past year, Patricia Gutiérrez Rebollo, Mayor Jesús Correa’s wife, has held this post, and she says she is “very thankful to her husband for having given her this opportunity.”
On Friday October 26, a benefit dinner will be held to help support the Mi Casa DIFerente program for 2008. At the dinner guests will enjoy a Mexican dinner and view a presentation of the program which for 9,000 pesos provides a family a new home.
Plans for former presidencia still undecided
By Jesús Ibarra
 |
 |
Since the local government offices moved from the old presidencia building on Plaza Principal across from the Jardín in April 2006, the destiny of the historic building has been in question. In August 2006, the tourism council proposed that the building, where the first independent city council convened in 1810, be converted into an art museum that would be administrated by a fideicomiso (trust fund) (see Atención, August 18, 2006). However, some members of the public disagreed with the proposal, and the city council eventually decided against it. |
On May 21, the Commission for Urban Development and Public Works, part of the city council, asked the public to present proposals for possible uses for the building (Atención, June 1, 2007), but a group of citizens, headed by former city councilors, protested the proposal process, arguing that “it did not fulfill the legal requirements for a public bid.” The process was then cancelled.
Finally, on August 9, the city council announced a new proposal procedure, this time to be conducted according to the law; proposals for projects were accepted from August 9 to October 8, 2007 (Atención, August 10, 2007). The winning project was to be selected by the Commission on Urban Development and Public Works, composed of city councilors Gerardo Arteaga, Gustavo Carrillo and Juan Rosario Licea; Assistant Mayor Rodolfo Jurado Maycotte; and an assistant council composed of three local cultural figures: Francisco Vidargas, ex-director of Bellas Artes; Hernán Ferro de la Sota, an architect and expert in building conservation and restoration; and historian and writer Maruja González.
According to Arteaga, president of the Commission on Urban Development and Public Works, four proposals were received during that period. “Two of them were proposals for cultural spaces, but they did no fulfill the requirements for proposals. The other two are museum projects, and they are all right,” said Arteaga. However, the October 8 deadline for submitting proposals was suddenly moved to November 30, by official authorization of the city council.
An Art Museum in the Presidencia?
Jaime Fernández Martínez Harris, a former mayor and one of the owners of Instituto Allende, in addition to the Hotel Association of San Miguel, submitted a proposal similar to the one originally proposed by the tourism council last year. “Our proposal suggests installing a Mexican art museum in the building. The city council meeting room and the mayor’s office would be a small history museum, honoring the first 1810 city council. The city council would continue to meet there,” said Fernández, who added that San Miguel has become an art center due to the existence of several art schools such as Instituto Allende and Bellas Artes. “Instituto Allende has attracted more than 60,000 foreign art students during its almost 60 years,” he noted.
“However,” said Fernández, “San Miguel still does not have an art museum, which would be another attraction for tourism and might encourage visitors to stay more than one night.”
According to Fernández, with this museum San Miguel could become a “window to the world, showing the artistic wealth of Mexico, like Bilbao in Spain, which without any other tourist interest has attracted millions of tourists to the city since the opening of the Guggenheim Museum.”
Fernández announced that donations of important works of art from collectors and the artists themselves have already been promised—works by famous Mexican artists such as Diego Rivera, Rufino Tamayo, Pedro and Rafael Coronel, Carlos Mérida and Vladimir Cora.
Fernández was upset by the city council’s postponement of the deadline for proposals. “I do not understand why they moved the deadline,” said Fernández. “If they let time pass, I will lose all my art donations. A similar project had already been approved by the previous administration, and then it was cancelled. It is very important to San Miguel to have a project like this. There was no strong reason for moving the deadline. I think that people really interested in sending proposals have already sent them.”
Why was the deadline changed?
City councilors Arteaga and Licea said that the assistant council suggested moving the deadline so that more interested people could send in proposals. “The bidding is still open until November 30. The final decision will be announced on December 14. Since the deadline was moved, two more people have come to ask information about it, and a fifth proposal has been submitted,” said Arteaga. “Resident foreigners may also participate. The only requirement is to prove that one has lived in the city for more than 10 years and has experience in developing this kind of cultural site.”
However, Francisco Vidargas, a member of the assistant council, said that the deadline was moved at the request of a city council member, not at the request of the assistant council.