Pablo Casals, a Spanish Cellist and Conductor (1876-1973) said “The child must know that he is a miracle, that since the beginning of the world there hasn’t been, and until the end of the world there will not be, another child like him.”
“Children are the world’s most valuable resource and its best hope for the future.” John Fitzgerald Kennedy (America’s 35th President) (1917 to 1963)
Over the course of the many parades of this last week, David has been taking pictures and, believe it or not, I have taken a very few as well.
Children are such a precious commodity. No matter where I have traveled, no matter how many children I’ve seen, their smiles, laughter, tears, excitement and joy – though expressed in different languages – has brightened the day and given hope to a tired soul.
Ajijic is no different. Its children are very much a part of the fabric of life here. No matter how early or, for that matter, how late the parades may begin – there are always children marching or sitting on the curbs, in doorways and windows cheering. The excitement that shows on their faces and the laughter that accompanies the music is heart warming.
This morning, as with most mornings this past week, the church bells began tolling all over Ajijic before 6:00 a.m. Along with the church bells came the fireworks, the melodious tones of the doggies’ chorus, the drums kicking out a cadence for the marchers who soon followed, again accompanied with the laughter of the children.
Of course, one would wonder: “do they ever sleep?” My guess, after this past week, is no! Believe it or not, it has not been annoying. We have not awakened or, for that matter, tried to sleep saying when will this end? The music, food, beauty, lights, etc have so quickly become comforting. A lullaby for an evenings rest.
Have you ever had the opportunity to fall asleep with a mariachi band playing a tune that you wake up the next morning humming? If you haven’t, try it. No sleep aides needed for the music whisks you away into a gentle slumber from which you awaken refreshed and ready to greet another day. Thank goodness for that, otherwise there would be a bunch of ornery people traipsing through the streets of Ajijic this entire week!
A Neighbors Smile
Neighbors Saying "Hola"
The Best Neighbors
Natural Beauty
Little Friend on the Square
Two Friends
Little Cowboy
Sweet Smile
“Round the centre of the covered market, where there is a basin of water, are the flowers: red, white, pink roses in heaps, many-colored little carnations, poppies, bits of larkspur, lemon and orange marigolds, buds of madonna lilies, pansies, a few forget-me-nots. They don’t bring the tropical flowers. Only the lilies come wild from the hills, and the mauve red orchids.” - – - D. H. Lawrence Mornings in Mexico
I spent quite a bit of time researching Mexican History this morning. It is fascinating. I wanted to follow my last post with more pictures of the parade David captured at the beginning of the week.
The quote above talks of the beauty of a morning in Mexico, yet those very colors it mentions are even more prominent in the clothing the people wear to celebrate their history.
The festival dedicated to the patron saint of Ajijic (St. Andrew) began on November 20th which is also the anniversary of the Revolution of 1910. It started because the Mexican people were not happy with the dictator rule of President Porfino Diaz. It didn’t simply encompass the peasants. The revolution included people of all classes including the upper and middle classes. The poor struggled with inflation, inferior housing and low wages and, basically, no social services. Everyone fought – men, women and children.
Yet, as you look at the pictures below you will see – though there is still much poverty here and life is definitely not anything like living in the States – there are smiles and happiness on the faces of everyone, especially the children, that become contagious.
The week has been filled with bells, bangs, barks and beauty. Almost each morning we are awakened (oddly not ever at any specific time usually beginning at just before sunrise – this is probably why the roosters are so screwed up here!) you will hear fireworks, bells sounding and marching bands. And, of course, there is the doggie chorus ever present in daily life here. They are a part and parcel of the fabric that makes Mexico so interesting.
Yes, folks, you’ve got that right, anywhere from your typical marching band, to drum and bugle corps, mariachi bands, and high-tech loud speakers with current Mexican music resounding through the streets. Thus begins another day of celebration. The Mexican people, in my humble opinion, have perfected the art of celebrating. They excel at it.
(Note: my posts are taking a bit longer to arrive since we finally received our furniture on Monday and are unpacking and luxuriating in the comfort of a real honest to goodness bed).
Please, again, enjoy the beauty of this place captured by the camera that is ever-present in David’s hand and his ability to tell a story without words.
Peasants and Soldiers Alike
The March Continues
Drum and Bugle Corp (Great View of Cobblestones)
Constitution 1917
Dignateries
Crowd Control by Neighborhood Guardian
Father and Son - Faces of Happiness
Next President of Mexico
Splashes of Color and Beauty Everywhere
Beauty Queens
A Job Well Done
“The nicest thing about living in a small town is that when you don’t know what you’re doing someone else does.”
I believe we live in the heart of Ajijic. Even without being told we do, Hidalgo seems to be the starting point for parades, block parties, activities that connect the area and its people. And quite often, dear reader, I have no clue as to what is going on. Thank goodness David does and everyone else does, for that matter.
That being said, we were for-warned about this week. Do you enjoy noise? Do you happen to have any ear plugs? How do you handle continuous excitement, activity, marching bands, sirens going off continuously, drums being pounded at what seems like odd hours, and the list goes on. And, of course, there is the constant chorus of dogs barking and roosters cackling…no matter what time of day it is.
This week is the biggest fiesta of the year for Ajijic celebrating its patron saint, Saint Andrew. These are naturally joyous and friendly people and, give them a fiesta, and the heavens open wide with their celebration. Everyone is welcome. Smiles and laughter are their way of sharing their joy…from November 20th through the 30th…along with great food, great music and much merriment.
These are the first set of pictures, out of so many David has shot, that we both decided to call a story in pictures.
Jose Doroteo Arango Arambula (5 June 1878 – 20 July 1923), better known as Pancho Villa, was one of the first Mexican revolutionary generals along with Ramiro Cervantes and Uriel Carrasco. And then there were the soldaderas (paid soldiers basically females hired by the soldiers to work as servants doing domestic chores while they were in camp) women who fought for the revolutions as well – no domestic chores for them. Names such as Rosa Bobadilla, Carmen Amelia Robles and Petra Ruiz among many others. (If I’ve made any mistakes in the above narrative, please bear with me as I learn about our wonderful Mexican neighbors and their birthright.)
The pictures below are of young school children – everyone marches in the parade – dressed in celebration of their heritage. Most of the “young couples” holding hands as they marched toward the town square. What is interesting about these photos is the progression of the young lady and her various reactions to having her image recorded and her companion, seemingly oblivious to all the various antics of his partner. All of the pictures were taken on the street just outside our door.
Enjoy, for there are more to come.
Peasant Uprising 1
Peasant Uprising 2
Peasant Uprising 3
Peasant Uprising 4
Peasant Uprising 5 - The Smile Says It All
“The master in the art of living makes little distinction between his work and his play, his labor and his leisure, his mind and his body, his information and his recreation, his love and his religion. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence at whatever he does, leaving others to decide whether he is working or playing. To him he’s always doing both.” James A. Michener
David is a commercial photographer. He says I am prejudice, but reality speaks for itself. Most all of the pictures contained in our blog site are David’s. He has an eye for interesting and beautiful things. He can make the mundane seem fascinating. He will barrel right in, when there is a picture to be taken, and take it.
He has the ability to make people smile radiantly. He draws people out with his sense of humor and makes them relax – even the mega stars and public figures he’s photographed become more human and more likable.
Some of the most difficult shots I’ve seen him take – buildings without much merit, roof tops for people who sell roofing – turn out amazingly compelling.
He does not have a sense of how talented he is – others do.
In the next few posts I’m going to take you on a journey letting you get too know our little hamlet. David has joined the crowds who are celebrating the patron Saint of Ajijic – St. Andrew – and taken the most wonderful photographs.
However, before that happens, I wanted to share a little of David’s sense of humor with you. He is, as the quote above says, “the master in the art of making little distinction between work and play” and you will rarely see him without his camera…except in these shots which I took in our backyard.
David Getting Ready to Jump
Mid-Jump
Touch Down
After Jump
“A handful of patience is worth more than a bushel of brains.” Dutch Proverb
Since I’ve never been burdened with a bushel (or any other measurement) of brains, I use my patience often.
As you’ve heard me lament many times already, our furniture and belongings have not yet arrived. However, our patience has supposedly paid off.
They tell us our furniture has made it to Ajijic. They tell us this, though I have no proof except for two phone calls David has had with our movers over the course of the last few hours.
We received a message, after an email inquiry I made yesterday, that our belongings had arrived and we needed to contact the movers for delivery. David called immediately and was asked, when would he like to take delivery? His response, how about now was greeted with, how about Monday.
Okay, we can make it through one more weekend. I’m wondering if it would be possible to go and visit our stuff? You know maybe pull out a few hundred things we are dying to get our hands on? Perhaps, gaze upon a few items that hold special meaning – like, maybe, our toaster. I guess that isn’t going to happen as they are still in their crates.
Life is full of ups and downs, a few steps forward and ten steps back. For now, we march as one into the weekend knowing – though we have sustained yet another slow leak in our air mattress, our time is near its end and we will simply bound joyously into four more days of adventures in sleeping.
Pass the bottle of sleeping pills; I think I’m ready for a quick nap before the bed hits the floor!
(The pictures accompanying this post are a view of our blow up mattress and of Lumpel-Still-Skin – our cat – sequestered within said blow up mattress.)
The Blow UP
Lumpel Still Skin
A Quiet Garden Corner
As you know I like to begin each post with a quote…or something similar. This morning, as I began writing my post I came up with many quotes that seemed to fit the bill and was hard pressed to find just the right one. Weeding out most of them (ha, ha) and sharing one with David I thought was particularly funny, him not so much – these are the two that struck a note:
A Veggie New Age Song: Peas would rule the planets, and love would clear the bars. It was the dawning of the Age of Asparagus, age of asparagus
And a Rodney Dangerfield quote:
My wife’s a water sign. I’m an earth sign. Together we make mud.
David’s family, as I understand it, had a person who did the major yard work while he and his brother Jody did the mowing.
When I was younger I mowed the lawn with a push lawn mower (3/4 of an acre) and later on my brother took over. I do still have some lingering thoughts in regard to that process since once he started mowing my father decided to buy a riding lawn mower. I’ve gotten over that, though I still think it was a bit unfair to pay him more when he actually enjoyed riding that mower!
My point, you are probably wondering is this – we have a gardener – Senor Magay. He is absolutely wonderful! I mean it. He performs magic on our yard. It’s not an easy yard to take care of – large with many different types of plantings, lots of watering, raking, cutting, pruning, fertilizing, etc. He does it all. He smiles the entire time. He receives $100 pesos (about $7.76) for stopping in once a week for this work, and working three to four hours. The amount that was actually agreed upon between the people who set up our house for us was $90 pesos, but David increased it to $100.
I’m not used to having anyone do my lawn, yard work, etc. On top of it – there David and I sat, this lovely Saturday afternoon…he on his laptop and I reading “The Historian” enjoying life on our porch. I felt guilty sitting there. I felt I should be down there lending a helping hand. Yet, Senor Magay, like so many of the Mexican people we have come across, would not hear of it. They are pleasant, smiling, generous, always wanting to practice their English on us and extremely helpful. Working hard seems to be a past time, although I’m still trying to get used to the hours – starting in the morning until lunch – gone for several hours – returning and working, often, until sundown.
They make me tired just watching them. I guess it’s time for lemonade!
I’m thinking of getting a work permit to become a freelance photographer for gringo real-estate agents and developers around here.
http://www.hiredavid.com/architectural-photography-residential.htm
But i dont know anything about the work permit laws. There sure seem to be a lot of Americans working in the real-estate industry around here, so i suppose they’ve gotten permits. Any ideas?
Les and I have both found it all too natural to hold our toothbrushes under the faucet before brushing our teeth. Your stomach, and you, will be a lot happier if you fill a cup with drinkable water and wet your toothbrush in it. I advise getting into this habit before coming down here. Your stomach will thank you for it later.
Fortunately, Les noticed him on the roof before he could make his pitch for liability insurance, presumably by falling off of it.
OK–you don’t need to tell me this isn’t a gecko. I can tell the difference between ordinary lizards and geckos. Geckos wear glasses.
A local insurance agent
We don’t have our TV down here yet, as Les may have mentioned, so I’m really having Cowboys withdrawal. True, I fled the States in 1972 because they were doing so badly and I just couldn’t take it any more. But now in the 21st Century, I really need my weekly fix. Summer is especially unbearable. Baseball? Really now.
NFL games may be on TV here from time to time – I don’t know. Maybe they’re even on weekly, but the chances that each week the ‘pokes will be on seems rather slim. I had hoped we’d get streaming video of the ‘boys games, but we don’t, because of ‘licensing problems.’ (Same problem with Hulu, or USA channel, or any of the other networks that stream video in the states.) But there is a solution!!!!! The NFL – never ones to miss out on a chance to make a buck – offers streaming radio of the games! So, for a small fee, I can listen to any of the games on my computer, just like I used to listen to them on the radio when they hadn’t sold out. Kind of fun and reminiscent of my youth, actually. But still not like watching Tony Romo throw a 60 yard pass and hit Miles Austin in stride.
