March 28, 2008, Cont. from front page, Head of city public relations leaves office, By Jesús Ibarra, Starbucks in San Miguel Centro, AC Milan Soccer School here in July, By Gabriela Blanco and Jesús Ibarra, Arredondo family’s rescue of Señor de la Salud tradition, By Atención staff

The library began in a private home in 1954 and moved in 1958 to its current location at Insurgentes 25. This year, the Biblioteca is celebrating its 50th anniversary at this address and will offer a series of special events.

The beginnings of the Biblioteca

In 1954, Helen Wale invited Mexican children to peruse the many magazines she had at her home on calle Hospicio. As the number of young visitors grew, she installed chairs and activity tables for the children. Several other expats began to offer assistance.

The space soon was inadequate, and in 1955, Mrs. Wale and her volunteer collaborators decided to rent a building near her home to house a children’s library, which they then supplemented with educational materials. The first addition to the holdings was a collection of books of fairy tales in English accompanied by Spanish translations. This was such a success that American students began donating more books and translating them into Spanish.

The volunteers were happy to have achieved their objective of creating a public library for children, but their scope soon broadened. In 1957, they asked the state governor, Jesús Rodríguez Gaona, for space to establish a library that would serve the entire community. The following year, the governor offered the building located at Insurgentes 9 (currently 25), which had been the local slaughterhouse and previously a part of the Santa Ana church and public housing for women.

About 20,000 pesos at that time was needed to restore the building, so several fundraising events were organized for that purpose. After four months of restoration, for which the volunteers contributed 20,000 pesos and the state government 161,234 pesos, the Biblioteca Pública was officially inaugurated by Governor Rodríguez Gaona on Sunday, November 21, 1958. In a contract issued by the state government and authorized by the federal government, the legal owner of the building, the property was ceded to the civil association Biblioteca Pública de San Miguel A.C.

According to Juan Manuel Fajardo, the Biblioteca’s current librarian, the first program created by the Biblioteca to offset expenses was the House and Garden Tour. “Another business for the library was the selling of postcards made by the children and by the volunteer artists who helped them,” said Fajardo. “It was the predecessor of La Tiendita” (the little shop).

According to Fajardo, the first volunteer librarians were Gloria Graham, Marny Martín and Toni de Gerez. “Afterward, as the activity of the library increased, a full-time librarian was needed. One of the first was Professor Benjamín García, who taught me to be a librarian,” he said.

In 1975, the Biblioteca launched Atención San Miguel, and in 1982 it started the rural libraries program that has supplied more than 350 rural schools with bookshelves and books.

Fajardo said that in 1993 the area where the Teatro and Café Santa Ana are currently located was ceded to the Biblioteca. “It was previously a part of the Briones family’s home. The building was in ruins and the Biblioteca had tried in vain to reach an agreement with the family. In 1993, the last member of the family died, and the government added the use of the building to the 1958 contract.”

Sala Quetzal, adjacent to the cafe, became the home of the Latin American studies collection. “Toni de Gerez was one of the promotors of this space and she gave it its name,” noted Fajardo.

The Celebration

Miguel Kegel, the Biblioteca’s general manager, said that among the events to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Biblioteca will be several book exhibits and three talks by artist David Leonardo, who will discuss his mural “Quetzacóatl, the Eternal Sun” and pre-Hispanic cultures.

José Luis Mendoza Aubert, manager of Teatro Santa Ana, said that the theater will present special film series as part of the celebration. “We will have a Werner Herzog series from April 7 to April 13, then a week of Asian films, Iranian films and a series of little-known films by Alfred Hitchcock.”

In 1734, a group of priests from the Oratorio, headed by Father José Hipólito de Aguado, founded a community house for poor women who were single, widowed, or abandoned by their husbands.

Called Community House of Our Lady of Santa Ana, it was supported by members of San Miguel’s elite. Ignacio Allende’s great-grandmother, Doña María de Retis, bequeathed 100 pesos to the community house when she died in 1743. Several sanmiguelense women lived peacefully in the house until their deaths; some got married or became nuns.

The community house disappeared in 1862 when the government expropriated the Church’s properties during the War of Reform; the women were outcast and the building was left in ruins. Later it became the local slaughterhouse.

Don Juan Manuel has been the Biblioteca’s chief librarian since 1975. Born in Michoacán, he is linked to San Miguel by his grandparents, who were born here. He began working in the library, checking patrons’ bags and helping check out books.

He learned to be a librarian from Professor Benjamín García. He studied tourist administration at CBTIS and retired from the Biblioteca for about a year and a half, but in 1975 some of the volunteers asked him to return to work at the library, as chief librarian. Since then Don Juan Manuel has worked in the Biblioteca. He is an active member of the Mexican Association of Librarians and has received training in the Biblioteca Benjamín Franklin and the Biblioteca México and has attended several librarianship congresses.

Agreement with UNAM for a study center signed

The local government and the Biblioteca Pública signed the official agreement with UNAM (National Autonomous University of Mexico) to establish a study center in the Biblioteca facilities.

The document was signed by Mayor Jesús Correa and Francisco Peyret, head of the Tourism, Economic Development and International Relations Department, on the part of the local government; Dr. Roberto Escalante, head of the Economy College of UNAM and Francisco Castañeda Miranda, secretary of the college, on the part of UNAM; and Gregory Diamant, current board president of the Biblioteca and Ali Zerriffi, former president and representative of the Biblioteca.

Different courses and workshops open to the community will be offered at this center.

Miriam Alejo, director of city public relations announced her resignation last week. Alejo, who joined the city administration January 2007, spoke to Atención’s Jesus Ibarra about her reasons for leaving.

Jesús Ibarra: Why are you leaving the public relations office?

Miriam Alejo: Mayor Jesús Correa and I have been talking and we concluded that in some respects we have not accomplished what he wanted to achieve. The goals we had set, originally approved by Mayor Correa, changed along the way, and the workings of the local government are quite complex. We did as much as we could. Sometimes it is not possible to accomplish our goals because other people or other factors interfere. I am also leaving for personal reasons and to explore other options after working for seven years in state and local government.

JI: What will you do now?

MA: I want to do new things. Fortunately, my field offers several options. I already have an interesting offer that I am considering.

JI: When are you leaving office?

MA: On March 30.

JI: Who will replace you?

MA: I do not know.

JI How do you feel about the job you have done?

MA: It has been a very enriching and satisfying experience. My relationship with the media and the city councilors has been one of respect, and I am left with great satisfaction because of all that I have learned. I want to thank the media, and also the city secretary, Cristóbal Finkelstein, who has always supported me; I think he is a pillar in local government. I also want to thank Mayor Correa for everything I have learned from him during the year and three months I worked with him. He has an enormous goal; the tenure of his administration is very short, so he has to do things fast and well. I hope he has success in achieving his goal.

JI: What do you count as your greatest successes in your public relations work?

MA: To have achieved a stronger presence and better management of the media and information. I have gained a greater understanding of the necessities of each medium. This is a job that must not be done in an isolated way; one must work hand in hand with the media.

JI: What was your team like to work with?

MA. My team came from previous administrations. I had a very hard time understanding and adapting, which is probably natural at any job. I had a lot of support from Ernesto Herrera, who manages the promotion and image of the local government; he was the person who invited me to work here. I can say that I am leaving a team that is better than when I arrived, one that has a clearer vision of the importance of the public relations office. I hope they have been satisfied with my direction.

JI: Can you tell us something about your background and previous job experience?

MA: I was born in Salamanca and studied at La Salle College in León. I worked on local radio and TV and some local and regional magazines. I headed the public relations department of a trusteeship in León, then I worked at TV Azteca Bajío for five years. I studied for a degree in public relations and politics and worked for the state government, first in social development and then in public relations. I had the opportunity to make several tourism reports and to travel around all the municipalities in the state.

JI: Would you say there is a model municipality in Guanajuato?

MA: Well, for me the best municipalities are San José Iturbide and San Miguel de Allende. I like San José for its cleanliness, its urban image, for the integrity and honesty of its people, and for the national importance of its industry. I like San Miguel for the way its traditions are kept alive and the preservation of its buildings, which makes it a unique city.

Last Tuesday, March 25, the renowned chain of coffee shops, Starbucks Coffee, opened in San Miguel, just opposite the Jardín, on the corner of Hidalgo and Canal.

That same afternoon, about 25 members of the activist group Va por San Miguel—locals and expats—organized a demonstration against Starbucks being in the centro.

Some of the demonstrators said they are not against the company, but against its presence in the centro, with a sign in English, which is not in accord with San Miguel’s traditional essence.

After months of planning Italy’s reknown professional football club AC Milan (Associazione Calcio Milan) is set to launch a football school and summer camp for local children.

According to promoter Nunzio Valente, owner of Las Musas café and ex-professional player, the club aims to promote soccer as a life option, to channel the passion of children and to create ways for them to fulfill their dreams.

In November of 2007, General Director Mario Ayala of the AC Milan Soccer School in Mexico City and General Director Luca Savignani of Latin America Soccer Schools met with Valente in San Miguel to study city conditions and decide if a soccer school was viable. After three days’ evaluation they decided to pursue the project.

The Italian team is trying to spread their game style and mind-set in Mexico.

“The purpose is to do some kind of selection for participants in a summer camp. The one-week camp, the Milan Junior Camp, will be held from July 28 to August 2, for girls and boys from 6 to 17 years old,” Valente explained.

“A permanent soccer school will be opened in late August or early September. It will follow the scholastic calendar of Secretaría de Educación Pública and we will work Monday through Thursday, 4–6:30pm, so children will have plenty of time to have their meals and do their homework before attending the soccer school,” said Valente. This school will be the second in importance in the country. The first one was founded in 2004 in Mexico City at the Universidad Intercontinental UIC (Intercontinental University).

The school intends to be accessible to everyone, with scholarships for low-income children granted by current AC Milan sponsors. The objective is to promote and encourage the sport and inculcate values such as confidence and loyalty, offering children a healthy environment of friendship to instill the integral philosophy of cultural and formative education. “The intention is multipurpose, concentrated in the technical-tactical and physical development in addition to the psychological aspects of motivation and socialization,” Valente commented. He has always promoted the sport to children and young people in San Miguel.

The school is under construction four kilometers from the municipal administrative building on the highway to Querétaro, with facilities provided by Norberto Estrada.

The school courses and the summer camp will be given by Italian instructors and by Valente and other sports-certified specialists such as Mariana Ruiz, Carlos Basurto and Victor Martinez.

AC Milan has schools around the hemisphere in Colombia, Costa Rica, Argentina, Canada and the US, and in Spain and Australia. AC Milan is considering more soccer schools around Mexico.

Arredondo family’s rescue of Señor de la Salud tradition
By Atención staff

The festivity in honor of Señor de la Salud (Lord of Health) was Monday, March 24. Devotees celebrated with the mañanitas, fireworks, dancers, mojigangas, parades, mariachi music and “Los Locos” dances.

The celebration began on Sunday at 9:30pm when the congregation stayed awake in front of the image all night praying. The figure of this saint is in Señor de la Salud Church and its veneration is localized in the Cieneguita community. Two images of Señor de la Salud take part in the pilgrimage; one is small and the other is life-size. The Arredondo family, who is in charge of the commemoration, picks up the figures on the third Friday of Lent and takes them to their house on Guadalupe, where the images stay until Passover Monday.

This celebration has been carried out for more than 200 years by the family, but was on the verge of disappearing through deaths among the organizers over time. “The celebration was suspended for more than 60 years, because my grandparents and their brother and sisters, all my ancestors, passed away. Nobody could continue with the celebration,” said Martina Arredondo about the gap from the turn of the century to about 1960.

When her older brother Rufino Arredondo grew up, he rescued the celebration and the tradition continues thanks to his efforts. He wanted to restart the party and made sacrifices to keep the tradition alive, and has succeeded for the past 50 years.

“First my uncle had to sell flour chips, then ceramic pieces, wood, glass and fabrics to obtain the necessary money to make this party again,” Rufino’s nephew said. Now all the family sells crafts and raises funds all year to cover expenses to keep the tradition alive. Once, four buses of dancers and concheros arrived from Mexico City to honor Señor de la Salud.

People make many different offerings as devoted thanks for favors received for their health. The pageant left Arredondos’ house for the walk to the Cieneguita, now a small town at the north end of Presa Allende. The procession made two stops, the first at the Caporales Ranch where parishioners, musicians and dancers took their first rest at its chapel. There dancers made promises and lit candles. The ranch owners wait for the community and give them water and snacks. The second stop is in the Calvario, where the congregation and dancers, four by four, go into the chapel and each deposits a small branch of roses symbolizing gratitude for favors received.