Music stage at the Terrafest at Terranova High School

Editor.- Terranova High School in Ajijic celebrated the Terrafest 2022 edition with rock music samples with the participation of the students of the school who dedicated the presentation to the parents.

During the opening of Terrafest, the general director of the school, José Andrés Blum highlighted family time as one of the greatest treasures in the formation of students and children in general.

«Let’s take advantage of the privilege of being moms and dads to be with our children. Let’s not let ourselves be distracted by work, by our profession, by the Atlas game, by so many distractions…» said Mr. Blum.

The Teranova Institute has been celebrating Terrafest for 15 years with the idea of celebrating fathers and mothers. «Mother’s Day is celebrated in style everywhere… but we decided in the middle of Mother’s Day and Father’s Day to have the celebration for mom and dad,» explained the General Director during an interview. 

This year the choreographies and musical numbers focused on rock songs of all times in which the students participated through their different workshops and groups to give a show that took place in a family atmosphere.

Translated by Kerry Watson

Ceremony in the Sanctuary of the Martyrs of Christ the King. 

After 15 years of studies and missions that included Jocotepec, Angel Gabriel Hernandez Beas was ordained as a priest in a ceremony held at the Shrine of the Martyrs of Christ the King in Tlaquepaque on June 5.

Father Hernandez shared his pleasure about his stay in Jocotepec. In 2015 he was in the town along with other companions in the neighborhood of El Carrizal, located in the northern part of town. This was where he gave service with talks and support to the community. The home of the Palmeros Suarez family served as a meeting center. 

Father Angel commented that he began his clerical studies at a very young age, and said that it was with time that he discovered that being a priest was his passion. He attended a boarding school in high school, and it was almost at the end of high school when he realized that serving God and the community was his calling. 

At the age of 26, Hernandez Beas, a native of Guadalajara, was ordained as a priest. The newly ordained priest commented that on the day of his ordination he felt very nervous, but when he left the subway part of the religious precinct, he noticed that the place was full and that brought down his nervousness, and he was suddenly joyful. 

In the 15 years he spent in preparation, Father Angel recalls an experience he says he will never forget. During a mission, he was visiting a marginalized neighborhood in order to distribute food to help the most vulnerable population. This caught the attention of a woman who began to record this good deed with her phone. After a few days, one of the people who gave assistance received the video, showing it with astonishment to Angel. On the video screams and moans were heard, which did not occur at the time of the incident. This caused his good deed to be turned into a complaint against the volunteers although the sounds may have been edited in later. 

Father Angel was assigned to the parish Jesus Christ King of the Universe, located in the Miramar neighborhood in Zapopan, and in less than a month he will be officiating religious ceremonies.   

«Never stop having hope and trust in priests. Come closer, get to know us, so that we realize that you are not extra-normal, bitter or distant people, but that you can find a good friend,» concluded the priest during the interview.

Translated by Christalle Dalsted

Goretti Chavira, photographed outside. Credit: Courtesy of the artist

Alma Serrano (San Juan Cosalá).- Goretti Chavira is a 29-year-old artist born in Guadalajara, currently living in San Juan Cosalá. Despite many difficulties, she taught herself how to paint, and practiced whenever she could. She improved her skills quickly, moving around Lake Chapala. Her motivation has always been to try new things, new methods, new materials, to get closer to her goal of becoming her best as an artist.

She started making art when she was five by doing portraits of her relatives. Between the ages of six and seven, she made and  sold her first work. This experience at such a young age activated her passion for what she has been doing for the past 22 years. Although Goretti has worked in different jobs throughout her life, she never gave up her dream of making a living from her art.

Chavira’s works, exhibited at the cultural space «Voz al Viento» in San Juan Cosalá. Credit: Courtesy of the artist.

She experiments with techniques and styles, from different periods. In most of her works she includes herself symbolically. When asked about where she gets her inspiration, Goretti says she gets most of her ideas from dreams. Her paintings and clay sculptures all contain an air of magical realism.

In 2020, she decided to dedicate her life fully to her art. These days Goretti regularly exhibits her work in art exhibitions around Lake Chapala. She works in various media including oil and acrylic paintings, watercolors, pencil drawings, clay sculptures and tattoos.

In addition to painting, she also works with children at the Voz al Viento Gallery in San Juan Cosalá. She says her work with children is very important to her, because she wants to give them opportunities she never had when she was their age. It’s important to her that they have a strong role model as a person, and an artist, «as an artist I feel a responsibility to show that we are all capable of expressing ourselves and creating more sensitive minds. Whether it’s seeing a work in which we see ourselves, or seeing someone else summon the courage to take the first step, we never know how far our dreams can go.»

Translated by Amy Esperanto

The symbolic cross fell after a strong storm, now only the base can be seen. Photo: Gilberto Padilla. 

Jazmín Stengel (Chapala).- A strong storm on June 9 knocked down the legendary Cross of San Miguel Hill in Chapala. Legend says if this happens, there will be no protection to keep the dragon asleep.

For hundreds of years, the locals considered San Miguel hill, across from the municipal capital’s main plaza, a place where evil hides. Rubén Pulido Hernández, author of the book “Chapala entre las Fábulas y Leyendas” (Chapala’s  Fables and Legends), says that’s why there are traces of ancient civilization only at the foot of the hill itself, not at the top.

According to Pulido, the ancient natives and the first Franciscan missionaries who arrived in the Chapala area around 1524, sometimes saw flames on the hill. That prompted numerous legends. 

Hundreds of years later, Pulido said, a geologist discovered minerals and gasses on the hill that are flammable when in contact with oxygen. That’s what caused the fires to be visible at night. 

According to the legend, the greatest friar of the Franciscan order decided to go up the hill and fight this fire-breathing demon. Upon reaching the top of the hill, which is not very high, the missionary built a hermitage just above where gasses or minerals came out. This somehow managed to prevent the fire from “appearing” out of nowhere. To honor this father who “defeated the devil” and lived to tell the tale, the first cross was placed on the hill of San Miguel, probably made of wood.

The date of its construction has not yet been determined. Local inhabitants estimate that it was between 1920 and 1930, made of stone and cement. It fell before it was a hundred years old.

Over time that belief became the legend of the sleeping dragon. Some believe that the hill is hollow, and a river of thermal water flows at the bottom of its entrails. Others think it is a volcano that never erupted. But what they all share is that the cross symbolizes protection.

The shape of the Dragon

Sailors on Lake Chapala used the hills as a reference and began to say that it has the shape of a dragon. The tip of San Miguel Hill is the head and the body continues between what is now the area of Riberas del Pilar and the Ajijic Highway. 

The cross symbolized a sword stuck in the head of the beast, which kept it still so that it could not harm the people. “The interesting thing is to know what is going to happen now,” asked Rubén Pulido.

Translated by Mike Rogers

Integrantes del Coro del Estado de Jalisco. Foto: Cultura Jalisco.

Redacción.- El templo del Señor del Monte, en Jocotepec, será el escenario en el que se realizará un gran concierto, pues el Coro del Estado de Jalisco se presentará la noche del 6 de julio con grandes éxitos de la música clásica.

El evento será gratuito y para toda la familia, iniciando a las 8:00 de la noche, aunque se recomienda a los asistentes el llegar temprano para poder acceder a los lugares. La presentación, ideal para toda la familia, promete una noche grata con grandes clásicos de la música universal.

El Coro del Estado de Jalisco nació en 1981 con una triple vocación: ser el coro sinfónico del Estado junto a la entonces Orquesta Sinfónica de Guadalajara hoy Orquesta Filarmónica de Jalisco; la promoción y difusión del patrimonio coral mexicano y universal; y coadyuvar a garantizar los derechos culturales de los jaliscienses, en especial aquellos que pertenecen a grupos vulnerables o socialmente marginados.

En sus inicios contaba con 60 integrantes, dos pianistas y un director titular. Actualmente está formado por 25 cantantes, entre los cuales ha emanado un director interino; además de tener un pianista titular, un bibliotecario, un administrador y una auxiliar administrativa.

Los cantantes se dividen de la manera tradicional en que lo hace un coro, es decir en sopranos, altos, tenores y bajos, esto es de voces más agudas a las más graves, comenzando con las voces blancas que en este caso las cantan mujeres, siguiendo con las voces negras que son cantadas por hombres.

Recientemente, la parroquia del Señor del Monte ya fue sede de un concierto de gran magnitud con la presentación de la Orquesta Filarmónica de Jalisco.

Cast of the Bare Stage production of “Scenes from an “American Life”. Photo: Bare Stage

By: Patrick O’Heffernan

A.R. Gurney was one of America’s prolific playwrights. Over his career he wrote over 50 plays, many winning multiple awards.  He was also a challenging playwright – challenging to actors, directors, and audiences in their complexity and layers. His play “The Dining Room”,  set in a single room, requires 18 set changes – a stage manager’s nightmare. But it pales in comparison to the challenge presented by  Scenes From American Life which introduces100 characters in 40 scenes that randomly appear over 5 decades, all played by a handful of actors.

The Bare Stage and director Rosann Balbontin took on this challenge  and they succeeded, producing a striking display of extraordinary acting, subtle but on-target directing, and logistical brilliance that delivers 90 minutes of entertaining and fascinating – if not always easily understandable  –  theater.

“Scenes from American Life,” which opens Friday June 24 at the Bare Stage Theater in Riberas del Pilar,  was written as dramatic comedy by A.R. Gurney uses a series of random vignettes that span 50 years but focused on one family to hilariously skewer the upper classes in Buffalo, New York, and by extension, everywhere. But despite the many witty  barbs and cultural references  Gurney  loads the work with, it was actually written to show off the talents of the actors,  and Balbontin took full advantage of it.

The play was originally written for 8 actors who must portray a wide assortment of characters  and situations in time periods,  ranging from  1930 to 1990s.  Each actor has to go from tragic to comic, from oblivious to angry, from youth to old age, from one character to another in the blink of an eye.  And they do it flawlessly for the most part.

Just to make it a little more challenging, Bare Stage is presenting the play with 6 actors (probably all they could fit on the stage) , not the 8 called for by Gurney, meaning each actor has a few extra characters to  portray. On stage were Mark Donaldson, Sharon Jarvis, Kathleen Morris, Roxanne Rosenblatt, Tony Wilshere, and Ken Yakiwchuk , all of whom not only moved  from character to character like shapeshifters in Star Trek, but also were in the right place with the right lines for the right character through all 40 scenes. I don’t know how they did it – kudos to Director Rosann Balbontin for putting this puzzle together.

There is no plot; there are a couple of common elements in  most of the scenes, but they are hard to follow, so I don’t recommend it. Otherwise you would have to sit in the audience with a scorecard or spreadsheet to figure where each scene fits into the play’s trajectory; just go with the flow.

A few scenes are likely to be  jarring to a modern audience because they foreshadow situations in the US that never materialized. Just accept that the play debuted in 1970 when there were anti-Vietnam War activists and Nixon was spying on them. Watergate was still 2 years away. However, there are some scenes that resonate today, although in ways the playwright could not imagine.

This is a complex play but it really invites you to not overthink it. Just take each bit as it comes and laugh along the way. Watching the acting is pure joy; you can think about what it all means  later.

Cast of “Match”. From left: Mark Nichols, Linda Goman, Shawn Sherwood, Donna Burroughs. Photo: Patrick O’Heffernan

Laguna Reviewers. The Lakeside Little Theater kicked off its 2022 ART  (Ajijic Readers Theater ) series of live read plays with a riveting tale that blends humor, heart-wrenching pain and emotional release in a splendid reading of the Stephen Belber script  “Match, directed by Lynn Gutstadt.

Shawn Sherwood shines as Tobi, the talkative, story-telling, aging choreographer-teacher who inside is deeply sad and lonely. He is interviewed at his home by Lisa, played by Linda Goman, and her husband Mike, played by Mark Nichols, under the pretense of interviewing him for Lisa’s thesis. In reality they are trying to glean information that would establish that Tobi is Mike’s father from a brief affair 43 years earlier.

The interview goes off the rails – and the play explodes with passion – when Mike veers into the dance community’s sex life in 1959, ultimately accusing Tobi of impregnating his mother and desertion and forcibly extracting a DNA sample from him. The scene brings forth Mike’s anger and angst in a precisely calibrated performance by Nichols that changes what had been a humorous scene into an exciting physical drama.

In the second act while Mike is offstage, Goman, who has been playing Lisa with quiet intelligence masking a deep vulnerability, brings her character’s vulnerability to the surface, pouring her heart out in a deeply moving conversation with Tobi that veers from her loneliness, her husband’s pain, to the mutual joy of cunnilingus. The chemistry between the two, and the contrast between Tobi’s extroverted raw emotion and her quiet cry for attention is palpable and  wrenching.  

Donna Burroughs as Narrator expertly sets the scenes, visualizing the action and providing the audience a physical and emotional context that gives life to the stark stage furnished only with the chairs and the music stands of the actors.

Gutstadt injected a higher level of energy into the production by directing the actors to leave their chairs and engage in critical scenes, a welcome departure from the usual custom of actors staying in their chairs during a live read, regardless of the scene’s physicality.

This is a thumbs-up play that is at once funny and sad, with spot-on acting and deft direction  that blends and highlights both emotions. The language is explicit, the emotions are raw, the laughs are real, and the characters are ones you won’t forget soon.  A well-chosen and powerful beginning to the ART series. “Match” runs June 17,18, 18. Tickets at lakesidelittletheatre.com

Note: some  of the emotional scenes in Act 2 are delivered with quiet, emotion-constrained voices that may be hard to discern, especially in the back rows. Audience members with restricted hearing may want to use the free hearing assistance  headphones available in the lobby.

Reunión de personas de la comunidad LGBTI+ del Distrito 17 en Jocotepec. Foto: Cortesía. 

Redacción.- Bajo el lema #YoTambiénSoyFamilia, convocan a la primera marcha por la visibilidad y el Orgullo de la comunidad LGBTTTIQ+ en Jocotepec este domingo 26 de junio a las 12:00 del mediodía. 

El contingente, que incluirá carros alegóricos, agrupaciones musicales y artísticas, así como la participación de actores políticos, atravesará la cabecera municipal; el punto de partida será Los Camichines, en el cruce de las calles Vicente Guerrero y Niños Héroes. 

Luego avanzará por la calle Vicente Guerrero hasta Hidalgo, para posteriormente tomar Miguel Árana, pasando por la plaza principal, para seguir hasta el malecón. 

La coordinadora de la marcha, Vianey Ornelas, espera una asistencia de más de 300 personas debido a la buena respuesta de agrupaciones de la diversidad sexual de localidades como San Juan Cosalá, Zapotitán y San Cristóbal Zapotitlán.

La necesidad de la manifestación pública consiste en contribuir a la visibilización de personas de la diversidad sexual del municipio, explicó Vianey Ornelas en entrevista. 

“Es importante principalmente porque durante muchos años no se ha visto una visibilidad en nuestro municipio y pues ya en pleno siglo XXI ya nos tenemos que hacer visibles y que nos empiecen a dar el lugar que nos merecemos y, sobre todo, después de la marcha, nos sintamos más confiados y seguros”. 

Debido a que este año la convocatoria recibió el respaldo de diversos actores políticos se contempla la participación tanto del presidente municipal de Jocotepec, José Miguel Gómez López, así como de las diputadas locales, María Dolores López Jara y Susana de la Rosa Hernández, entre otros regidores y funcionarios, para el corte inaugural del listón. 

Luego de recorrido por las calles de Jocotepec, los asistentes podrán disfrutar de la presentación del Ballet Folklórico Lgbttti Jalisco es Diverso, el conjunto de danza contemporánea Vuelo Libre y la música de “DJ” en el malecón. 

También se está invitando a las personas heterosexuales a sumarse como aliados del movimientos, a quienes se les sugirió vestir de color blanco. 

Finalmente, Vianey Ornelas compartió que la marcha por el Orgullo representa un primer esfuerzo por lograr la visibilidad y que próximamente también realizarán actividades deportivas y culturales, así como una Feria de la Salud.

Participantes en el proyecto que busca rescatar las tradiciones. Foto: Cortesía.

Redacción.- El viernes 10 de junio la primera generación de la Escuela de Telar en Jocotepec concluyó con éxito sus aprendizajes luego de ocho meses de prácticas, por lo que ahora esperan a los nuevos alumnos para arrancar el 4 de julio.

Los alumnos que concluyeron sus aprendizajes pedían poder estar más tiempo, según lo comentado por Pedro Mendoza Navarro, maestro de la escuela, quien dijo había sugerido dos meses más para dar más conocimiento a la primera generación, pero ante la solicitud de más personas que buscan tomar las clases, no quedó de otra más que prepararse para recibir a los nuevos alumnos.

La primera generación trabajó haciendo tapetes para piso en un inicio, después pasaron a realizar tapetes decorativos; por último, realizaron gabanes para arropar niños. “Los cuatro salieron bien preparados”, dijo el maestro en entrevista.

Será el próximo 4 de julio cuando los nuevos alumnos comiencen con la experiencia que los acercará a las tradiciones y a la mexicanidad.

Pedro Mendoza está enamorado de su hacer y de transmitirlo a nuevas generaciones; cuenta con 76 años y comenzó a involucrarse con el arte y la artesanía desde que tenía ocho años, lo que se traduce en 68 años de experiencia en la materia. “La artesanía ayuda mentalmente, te ayuda mucho, yo disfruto mi trabajo”, comentó el señor Mendoza.

Actualmente la Escuela de Telar cuenta con cinco telares, mismos que su adquisición fue gestionada por la dirección de Turismo y Fomento Artesanal ante la Asociación Intermunicipal para la Protección del Medio Ambiente y Desarrollo Sustentable del Lago de Chapala (AIPROMADES), así como con los recursos obtenidos por la venta de artesanías.

Para la siguiente generación, al igual que la primera, los horarios para las clases serán los días lunes, miércoles y viernes de 05:00 de la tarde a las 08:00 de la noche.

The image of San Antonio de Padua that a mysterious woman left more than a hundred years ago in the hands of Feliciana Carrillo. Photo: María del Refugio Reynozo.

By María del Refugio Reynozo Medina

 They say that Saint Anthony of Padua helps you find what was lost and remember what was forgotten. Benita Lomelí Hernández grew up wrapped in the fervor of a 15-centimeter tall sharp-faced figure, which has belonged to her family since before she was born.

The origin of this small sculpture dates back more than a hundred years. In the town of El Sauz in the municipality of Jocotepec, Benita’s grandmother, Doña Feliciana Carrillo was in the courtyard taking the afternoon’s last sun, with a view of the road that crossed the town. In the distance, she could see the silhouette of a woman approaching.

The woman, after greeting Doña Feliciana, asked her if she would hold the package she was carrying. The woman told Doña Feliciana that she was on her way to San Luis Soyatlán, but that she would soon return for the package. Doña Feliciana could not see the woman’s face clearly as she wore a shawl covering her head and walked slowly. When Doña Feliciana’s daughter came out, she told her daughter what had happened. No one else could see the mysterious lady.

The small package fit in both hands and was wrapped in worn, time-stained scraps of cloth. “Take it up to the roof,» she asked her daughter, with a tone of respect for other people’s things. A few months passed, the woman did not return, and everyone forgot about the package.

Doña Feliciana’s house was the meeting point for personalities who sporadically passed through the village. It was a very remarkable house because it no longer had a dirt floor inside: it had cobblestones, tiles and a fireplace. On one occasion when a priest arrived to do evangelization work, Doña Feliciana remembered the package that the woman had given her to keep and that she had never dared to open. With the priest as a witness, they took the package down from the attic.

The parish priest was removing the layers of battered cloth one by one until a fine figure was revealed. “It is St. Anthony of Padua,» he told them. “What was lost and forgotten will return when they implore him to do so.”

Doña Feliciana was impressed, for her the image was alien. “Take care of it, it is yours,» the father told her. He also asked Doña Feliciana to celebrate it every June 13. “That woman will not come back,» he told them with certainty.

Benita Lomelí Hernández talks about how the image of San Antonio de Padua, now venerated by her entire family, came to her. Photo: María del Refugio Reynozo.

Some said that the person who gave the precious image to Doña Feliciana was not from this world. She never appeared again, and no one else besides Feliciana could ever see her. Her presence was a mirage, but the fine figure of St. Anthony of Padua was real. From the moment he was discovered among the cloth rags, Benita’s grandmother entrusted the image to her youngest son, who was then three years old.

When that three-year-old boy came of age and got married, his brothers came to give him the oxen, goats and corn cribs after the three days of the wedding. “You will know if you take care of your capital,» they said. Along with this, they also gave Benita’s father the sculpture of San Antonio, as was his mother’s wish.

That is how Benita grew up, with the veneration of the saint professed by her parents who guarded the image that came from who knows where. That faith spread to the neighbors who began to visit Benita’s house to pray for their lost causes and then to carry candles in gratitude for all that was found.

Benita remembers a prayer said by her mother:

Antonio, Antonio, in Padua you were born, in Padua you were raised, you went to school, your prayer book was thrown away, your father found it for you. Antonio, Antonio, the lost is found and the past is remembered. Antonio, Antonio forever. AMEN. 

The image of Saint Anthony that Benita now keeps is made of a single piece of wood, carved by unknown hands. The statue’s facial features are fine, at the waist of his Franciscan habit he wears a tight cord, and in his arms he carries a child of barely four centimeters in length.

This particular little boy was bought by Benita’s mother, who has lost count of the number of children replaced because the original was stolen. “They stole my child again,» she would say to the sales clerks at the religious articles store when she went to replace the small statue. “They think he will bring them a boyfriend, but St. Anthony does not give boyfriends,» she said. “[For] good husbands one must ask St. Joseph.”

Every June 13, in Benita’s house, candles are lit and fresh flowers are placed in honor of the little image full of history that brings back what was lost and reminds us of what was forgotten. And Benita along with those of the faithful neighbors invoke the Saint of Padua:

Antonio, Antonio, Antonio…

Translated by MaryAnne Marble