February 01, 2008, Cont. from front page, The Eternal Sun in Sala Quetzal, By Jesús Ibarra, Candelaria tradition, color and fragrance, by Gabriela Blanco, Counterfeit 1000-peso bills seized

El Sindicato was originally the site of the offices of the union of workers from Fábrica la Aurora, the most important union of the local textile industry.

In those days, the fabriqueños (factory workers) held various activities and celebrations in the structure. The building’s auditorium was a popular place for a variety of celebrations and parties, such as the San Miguel Fair Dance and the Holy Week Dance. El Sindicato was the recreational center for the workers and their families until 1995, the year that La Aurora textile factory closed and, with it, the tradition of the dances.

After the factory shut down and the union dissolved, management of the building was granted to the civil association incorporated as El Recreo de San Miguel, formed by a group of people headed by César Arias and Cecilia Loera. As of 1996, the association has had the task of promoting the facility for community service use for cultural, educational, recreational, sporting and social activities, with programming directed mainly toward San Miguel’s youth.

“Since then, El Sindicato has been functioning with ups and downs,” said César Arias, “with some bad times and other very creative and splendid ones. But from now on, the activity needed for this place will be provided by the House of Performing Arts, headed by Doris van Bebber in the artistic area and Olivia Ledón in the administrative area.”

Work on the new school began in October 2007, and last Friday, November 25, the House of Performing Arts officially opened with a concert by soprano Alicia Rappoport, pianist Ann Riley and dancers Frida Rebeca Chacón and Carmen Jiménez, the latter two teachers at El Sindicato.

The courses

“This new project is a performing arts school that in a way is expanding the offerings that El Recreo already had,” said Doris van Bebber, artistic head of the school. She added that previously El Recreo only offered workshops but that the new school offers an academic curriculum with experienced, professional teachers.

According to van Bebber, the courses offered in the new school cover all performing arts such as dance, theater and music, along with complementary courses such as stage design, makeup and costume design. She explained that because these new courses are academic in nature and conform to a curriculum, enrollment of students is very important so that the school might be considered for accreditation. The school is not yet associated with any official educational institution in Mexico. “We are looking to incorporate with the most appropriate institution, either the SEP (federal Public Education Department), INBA (National Institute of Fine Arts) or an international system of performing arts schools. It will take two years to achieve this due to the difficulty of the process and because a certain number of students are required to be enrolled.
Olivia Ledón, administrative head of El Sindicato, said that around 80 students have already registered for courses in the school. “We began in October and we already have 20 different courses, 10 of which are academic and another 10 that are workshops,” explained Ledón. “We have students of all ages; Introduction to Dance is for children from 3 to 8 years old, modern jazz includes children from 10 to 14, and we have jazz for adults. We teach tango and danzón for elderly people, ballet, and Mexican regional dance.” Among the workshops the House of Performing Arts offers are zumba, martial arts, yoga and exercise. Ledón added that a saxophone course has been included in the musical area and an accordion course will begin in February. “We are also planning to open guitar courses and music courses for children.”

Ledón announced that the costs of the courses are lower than the costs of those offered in nearby cities such as Querétaro and Celaya. “A ballet course in Celaya or Querétaro costs around 500 pesos. Our courses cost from 350 to 450 pesos.”

Ledón and van Bebber said that the school has already granted 15 scholarships, some partial and some full. There is also a free program for dancers in the San Miguel Folkloric Ballet from La Casa de la Cultura that helps them improve their dance techniques. “These courses are totally free for them,” said van Bebber.

The teachers

Van Bebber explained that the teachers at the House of Performing Arts have experience as both professional artists and teachers.

Gloria Rodríguez Navarrete, who teaches folkloric dance, studied at the Folkloric Dance Academy of Amalia Hernández in Mexico City, the most important Mexican dance school in the country. Her niece, Gabriela Rodríguez Chagoya, also teaches folkloric dance and manages the San Miguel Folkloric Ballet. Frida Rebeca Chacón has more than 20 years of experience as a dancer and ran a ballet school in Celaya. Theater teacher Davis Yaspik has a long history in university theater in Mexico City.

Van Bebber herself has been a choreographer more than 20 years and has taught dance in Mexico City, Ciudad del Carmen, and Berlin. “I did not graduate from any official dance school, but I began dancing when I was four and I completed the entire curriculum for classical ballet. I have taken courses in Berlin, the US and Mexico City,” said van Bebber.

Ledón explained that besides these courses El Recreo intends to present shows. According to Ledón, in February El Sindicato will present a calendar of artistic events. “We intend to ask the artists that perform in our auditorium to offer a class to our students and teachers, to leave them something from their art,” said van Bebber.

El Sindicato: Casa de las Artes Escénicas
Recreo 4 Col. Centro
Tel. 152-0131
cesenicasmail@gmail.com
recreosm@prodigy.net.mx
Office hours: 9am-1pm and 4-8pm

Mexican muralism is an artistic movement that emerged after the Revolution of 1910 in an attempt to socialize art. Muralists reject the traditional canvas to produce monumental works that depict social struggles and other aspects of Mexican history.

Mexican muralism is one of the most important phenomena in contemporary art, and its main representatives were Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco and David Alfaro Siqueiros. After 1930, the movement expanded to other countries.

Diego Rivera interpreted Mexican history in his own way in the mural on the walls of Mexico City’s National Palace.

Orozco painted the conquest and scenes from the colonial period and the Revolution on the walls of the National Prep School building in Mexico City; he also depicted the story of Quetzacóatl at Dartmouth College in Massachusetts and Miguel Hidalgo and the history of Mexican Independence at the government palace and at Hospicio Cabañas in Guadalajara. Siqueiros painted From Porfirism to Revolution in the National History Museum in Mexico City and an unfinished mural about Ignacio Allende’s life at Bellas Artes in San Miguel de Allende.

The Sala Quetzal within the Biblioteca Pública is home to another of San Miguel’s prominent murals, created by the talented young muralist David Leonardo. In Quetzacóatl, El Sol Eterno (Quetzacóatl, the Eternal Sun) the artist depicts the pre-Hispanic legend of Quetzacóatl, an Aztec and Toltec god and legendary sovereign of Mexico. In an interview, Leonardo explained that “in the pre-Hispanic culture Quetzalcóatl was the god of peace, friendship, love, mathematics, astronomy, and agriculture who reigned as an entity that regulated the most sublime aspirations of humans and was a principle of unification in Mesoamerica. In that sense, the mural transcends the frontiers of time like a re-creation of the “cosmovisión vernacular” that is manifest by the uses and customs of the indigenous cultures that the Mexicans defend and share with the world. Our heritage is the destiny of our nation. Our roots feed the spirit of struggle for a future of peace and harmony.” In Quetzalcoatl, El Sol Eterno, Leonardo also places the different pre-Hispanic cultures within a map of Mexico depicted in the mural.

To prepare for painting the mural, Leonardo studied chronicles by Miguel de León Portilla and Enrique Flores Cano; the texts of the Borgia Codice, a pre-Hispanic document about the life of Quetzacóatl; and translations of Mayan hieroglyphics. The mural was painted with the support of the Biblioteca Pública between 2001 and 2003. “It took me eight months to do the research and to select the appropriate architectural points at which to place the main figures. The painting of the mural spread into two years,” said Leonardo. Now, five years after the mural’s inauguration, the Biblioteca has launched a 28-minute documentary on DVD that explains Leonardo’s mural in the Sala Quetzal in detail. The documentary was filmed by producer Dora Guzmán and includes comments in English, Spanish and French; copies are available for sale at the Biblioteca.

For Leonardo, Mexican muralism is a heritage that is still alive. “We tend to focus on the works of the three great mural artists and a fourth one, Tamayo. But there are other generations of mural artists, like Juan O’Gorman, Raúl Anguiano, Jorge González Camarena, Chávez Morado, Arnold Belkin, and Manuel Felguerez, the latter of whom followed an abstract current in muralism, who have widened the issues depicted in murals. Muralism is no longer what it was in the Mexican School of painting. I, myself, continue with this tradition of depicting history in my work because I am deeply interested in keeping history alive so that people know what happened and what is happening in our country.”

Quetzalcóatl, El Sol Eterno, is one of Leonardo’s most recent works. His first murals are in Mexico City. He also painted a mural in Nicaragua in 1987 and collaborated with his teacher, Arnold Belkin, on other murals. Leonardo has also painted two other murals in San Miguel de Allende, both of them at Instituto Allende, located at Ancha de San Antonio 20. One of them depicts the history of Mexico and the other is about art and philosophy.

This year, Leonardo plans a new mural at the Instituto Allende that will be about the universal history of art ranging from Egyptian, Roman, Greek, and pre-Hispanic cultures to medieval art, the Renaissance and the 20th century.

Candelaria tradition, color and fragrance
by Gabriela Blanco

Candelaria fair of plants and flowers
February 2–12
Parque Juárez
Calle Diezmo Viejo & José Guadalupe Mojica

San Miguel’s festival of plants and flowers that coincides with the religious celebration Candelaria starts this weekend. The fair, simply known as “Candelaria”, brings a plethora of colorful, fragrant and practical flowers and plants to fill the centrally located Parque Juárez.

Now in its 18th year, the annual fair is a blend of religious and local community celebrations completely unique to San Miguel.

This year the fair, coordinated by Eric Morales, includes many cultural events. Live music, classic Mexican movies and dance performances are scheduled to enliven the city park during the afternoon and after dark.

The festival of La Candelaria, on February 2, celebrates both the purification of the Virgin Mary after giving birth and after the presentation of Jesus as “The Light of the World” in the temple, 40 days after his birth. Mary’s purification, in the Catholic faith, is represented as the Virgin of the Candelaria, who cradles Baby Jesus in her left arm and a candle symbolizing the light, in her right hand. The associated religious procession is known as the “Festival of Lights.”

Another aspect of this tradition, one with prehispanic origins, is the Blessing of Seeds. Heads of rural communities bring seeds for the next season’s crops to be blessed at the morning mass. The tradition continues today among campesinos and those who grow flowers for Easter festivities.

The Oratorio church, at the end of calle Insurgentes by the Plaza Cívica, is home to the only statue of the Virgen de la Candelaria.

On February 2, the statue is placed on the church altar to bless the faithful who bring candles, seeds and nativity scene figures of Baby Jesus. This statue of the Virgin is then removed from public viewing until the next year.

Candelaria is also linked to the Three Kings Day, January 6, when the Rosca de Reyes (Kings’ cake) is cut. The one who finds the small plastic doll (representing the Baby Jesus) baked in the cake is considered the godfather and must host a party on February 2.

Parque Juárez’s Events

Fri, Feb 1

6pm, Official inauguration

6:30pm, Violin Concert with “Hermanos Aguascalientes”

8pm, Performance by aerial troupe, Gravity Words.

10pm, Religious ceremony

Sat, Feb 2

10am, Mass for the Blessing of the Seeds

7pm, Madrigal group, “Voces del Viejo Rincón” from Saltillo, Coahuila.

Sun, Feb 3

1pm, Concert, Don Elías Pirú wind band

6pm, Dance performance by Ballet Mazatl

Counterfeit 1000-peso bills seized

City Attorney Cesar Augusto Gasca Toledo reported that on Wednesday, January 23, police caught Alejandro Gonzalez Alcala with 25 fake 1000-peso bills. A pharmacy employee on Canal Street notified police when a man tried to pay with a fake bill, and the officers apprehended Gonzalez Alcala. He admitted he was not working alone, but by that time his alleged partner Jose Luis Rodriguez Ramos had fled. A van with Mexican State plates seized in the operation contained meat, seeds and bird food which police think were bought with the counterfeit bills. The city attorney asks the community to inform police of suspicious acts and provide information which may lead to the early capture of Ramos.