Foto: Archivo.
Patrick O’Heffernan (Ajijic).- The former Director General de Actividades of the Secretaría de Cultura of Jalisco, Santiago Baeza has a broad knowledge of art in Mexico and other parts of the world and it’s interplay with government, society and economics. He is a renowned abstract artist whose works are shown in New York, Los Angeles, Mexico City, Guadalajara and other major cities.
His sculptures reflect the urban nature of abstract art-simple, minimalist, honest. They range from small table-top objects to installations large enough to stand in (he encourages it). They interweave empty space with strong shapes and undulating forms, sometimes leading the eye in circles, sometimes deeper into the piece and sometimes out of it to turn around and see it from a different perspective. Walking through his outdoor studio, strewn with his children’s toys as well as with sculptures in various stages of construction for a major show later this year, he tells how his role in the government and politics and culture of Mexico has contributed to his focus on abstract art. “I love abstract art because it liberates me from the politics –I make art for the people to enjoy. When I do art, I give the people the opportunity to get out of this sick society, to leave the political behind”, he says thinking about the role of art in Mexico. While his forms are abstract and flow from a history of abstract art in Mexico that pre-dates the Spanish, he prefers that the viewer has to bring a personal meaning to each piece. ”All art has to tell a story, but my case is different; I have always separated my politics and my art. When I am working on a piece of art, it is mine, but when I finish it, it doesn’t belong to me.” This spirit carries over to his emphasis on art that is for people, not government commissioned. “Artists have to live from the market, and not from the government”, he says. It also contributes to his disdain for titles on his art. “I hate putting titles to my art. It is very difficult – I don’t like to box people in… I want the piece and the people to have that liberty.”
People in Ajijic can follow Santiago Baeza on Facebook, to find out when his new show will go up in Guadalajara and other cities.
Rigoberto can be found on most Sunday mornings in the Ajijic plaza with his sculptures for sale.
Patrick O’Heffernan (Ajijic).- Rigoberto is a young sculptor from Ajijic who works mostly in volcanic stone from local quarries and with the cantera stone from other parts of Latin America. He likes volcanic and cantera stone because it is ideal for the highly detailed carving and cutting that characterizes his work and the fact that it lasts for centuries. It also exhibits different colors which he considers in his work. “Almost all of my rocks are volcanic and the minerals in them can change the color so I am always looking at the color of the rock” he says of his process.
His carvings focus on mythical animals and human-animal forms as well as abstract shapes that often incorporate Aztec and other indigenous designs. “Animals are part of my imagination as are the traditions of Mexico. I think about the history of Mexico when I work, and about the gods of the early people. I am still learning about the many Aztec gods,” he says of his fantasy shapes.
His family is one of the Charro/Charrería leaders in Ajijic, as his grandfather founded the Ajijic Bullring and his sister, Erika Robledo, trains future female riders at the Escaramuza Pedigogica Las Portranquita Ajijic. But he decided to take another path. “ I like art. I like the charro and charrería of my grandfather and father and family but I just liked different things,” he says. But he actually trained as an engineer before turning to sculpture.
He sometimes sees the final sculpture in the rock, but usually it reveals itself as he cleans and examines the stone. He often sketches out what he is planning and explores photographs of animals and gods and designs first. “I draw a picture of what I am going to do to get the proportions right. Unlike clay or painting, you cannot add back in when you do sculpture,” he explains.
Rigoberto can be found on most Sunday mornings in the Ajijic plaza with his sculptures for sale. He will take commissions, but he won’t accept payment in advance – if you like what he does, you can pay for it, if not you don’t have to buy it. He also sells his sculptures in local galleries and as part of art collective shows at La Cocherrá Cultúra in Ajijic, including the Sangre Viva art festival Jan 31, and at events like the Mexican National Chili Cookoff this year at the Tobolandia Water Park. He can be reached through his Facebook page or at rignavrob@gmail.com.
Maria Jose Valdez at La Cocherra Cultura.
Patrick O’Heffernan (Ajijic).- This weekend, the La Cochera Cultural gave the people of Lakeside a magical night of dance, music, and laughter. The event was Flamenco! with dancer María José Valdés, singer Julio de la Isla and guitarist Carlos Iván de León, assembled by producer Emilia Gálvez, who also danced and played the cajón. Valdés was a special treat for the Ajijic audience because, despite being renowned throughout Mexico, it was her first time dancing in Lakeside.
The magic materialized almost immediately as Morelia-based Carlos Iván de León kicked off the first song on his guitar and the tapatio singer Julio de la Isla’s vocals sailed over the guitar riffs and throughout the center. His voice was mournful, although Gálvez said later that the lyrics are not always as sad they sound, but because of the singing style and the differences between Spain’s Spanish and “Mexicano” they can be hard to understand even for Spanish speakers.
Gálvez joined in on the cajón, her hands and fingers weaving a subtle percussion fabric with the vocals and guitar notes. Then the dance began. María José Valdés virtually attacked the dance floor, her body and her feet speaking a powerful language of angular poses, sharp motions and explosive contact with the wood beneath her feet. Known for her performances at the “Bailadores del Mundo” during the Flamenco Summers of Love of God 2019, the Aguascalientes resident displayed a technical perfection and the emotional depth that stunned the crowd. She swung her movements around the anguished vocals and aggressive guitar riffs of Carlos and Julio while Gálvez created a percussion backdrop on the cajón that molded itself to Valdez’s movements.
But there was more magic to come, there were two young dancers visiting from Spain who were there just to watch and enjoy, but Gálvez coaxed them onstage, despite the fact that the male dancer was wearing hiking boots and the young woman street shoes Footwear aside, they wowed the crowd not only with their exuberant and technically superb baile, but with laughter at their situation of clomping on the dance floor in hiking books and loving it.
Then Gálvez and María José Valdés joined them and the four danced together and in pairs in an improvisational round. Afterwards Galvez told us that dancing together with no practice was natural. “Flamenco is all over the world”, she said, “but there are structures within it we all understand and we get to improvise in the spaces in between the structures”. The audience did their own improvisation by alternating between clapping in time and shooting videos on their phones. The night ended with bows, laughter and phones full of once-in-a lifetime images.
Tequila Jalisco.
Patrick O’Heffernan. Ajijic (JAL).- “Tequila Tour” to most Lakeside residents means catching a bus at LCS or the statue at Las Flores and joining a dozen or more people on the drive to Tequila, where you walk through part of a large distiller like Herradura or Sauza. You actually don’t do a lot of touring; no exploration of agave fields and no careful description of each step of the process while weaving through tanks and pipes and barrels. You may have an opportunity to ask a question or two but the tour is not designed for personal attention because, after all, you are with a group.
The highlight of the tour is usually the tasting room where you get sample cups of the distiller’s brands, often from very entertaining bartenders who will give you some of the finer points of each type of tequila you are sampling. You then spend an hour strolling through the tourist center of the town of Tequila, maybe having lunch at one of the large restaurants, and browsing the stores. You might go into the church at the smaller plaza or walk through the Tequila Museum across the street from the Cuervo distillery. By the time most people get back on the bus for the hour and half ride back to Lakeside they are very happy, slightly poorer and somewhat more acquainted with the national drink of Mexico.
Another way of understanding tequila and meeting the people who make it is not as well-known, but it offers a totally different experience – personal tours that work with the smaller distillers who produce a very limited amounts of the most premium quality tequila. These are brands that have been in a family for generations and that never comprise quality for quantity. Their tequilas are not usually available outside of Tequila or known to people who are not mavens of Tequila Matchmaker.com.
Some of the small premium distillery families have longstanding relationships with private tour guides who can bring up to four people at a time to the meet with the distillery owner or family members, tour the agave fields, carefully go through the small distillery, tasting the raw and aging tequila liquids at each step, and then retire to the tasting room for almost unlimited rounds of different tequilas, paired with fruit and chocolate.
On such tour, run by Magnificent tours of Chapala, took place this past Tuesday to the La Alborada distillery in Tequila. It was led by the founder of the touring company, Juan Pablo Chavez, who has conducted tours worldwide. Before offering Tequila tours several years ago, he researched over 50 distilleries to determine which ones he wanted to bring people to; he chose three, one of which was the La Alborada distillery. He built a relationship with the family and worked out times and procedures to bring groups of 2 to 4 people to meet with the with owner’s son at the agave fields and then to the distillery and tasting room.
The tour he developed and conducted Tuesday for two Lakeside residents and their two US-based guests began at 9:30 am and went by private car directly to the La Alborada agave field, after stops for photographs along the way. They were met by Juan Antonio Alvarez Rodriquez, son of the owner, who took them into the agave field. He explained how the each agave was planted and cared for, showing the roots and shoots of young plants. He explained the crop rotation system and the vegetables planted in the empty rows, and how plant material was composted in the tanks at the edgeof the field to create an organic pesticide that repelled the horned beetles can destroy an agave field. Antonio showed the group how the agave is harvested and the end product – the ”pineapple” – the root ball of the agave that is left when the leaves are trimmed off.
Antonio spent about an hour in the field with the two couples and then took them into the town of Tequila to the family’s small distillery where they were joined by another private tour group and taken on a detailed, stop by stop exploration of the distillation process, from the machine that crushed the pineapples, to the tanks containing fermenting liquids, to the aging barrels to the finishing barrels in the Cave. Antonio let everyone smell the fermenting liquids and at one point put drops in peoples hands so they could smell the agave flavors emerging.
After photos, selfies with Antonio and various pieces of equipment, the group walked across a small courtyard to the tasting room. Antonio and the other tour operator chose one of the tour group to work behind the bar with them, pouring and serving virtually unlimited samples of blanco, reposado, and anejo along with various flavored tequila syrups over ice. Glasses were raised between rounds in toasts to tequila, to Antonio, to the guest bartender.
Lunch followed at the Chulala restaurant, serenaded b y marachis, and an hour to explore the plaza, the gift shops and vendors, and the church. Before they left Tequila, JP took the group into the Tequila Mayor’s office to interpret the elaborate mural in the courtyard that depicts the history of Tequila. The ride back to Lakeside included a stop in Chapala where JP distributed small bottles of his own branded tequila.
There are a number of private tour operators who will assemble a custom tour for a small groups, and some of the family-owned premium distillers have relationships with more than one operator. The personal tours are more pricy than the large bus or van tours (but not the train), but guests report they are well worth it both in entertainment and in a deeper understanding of Mexico’s national drink.
Patrick O’Heffernan. Ajijic (Jal).- A recent commenter on a local message board dedicated to housing prices posted that: “I have followed house prices in Ajijic for the last 6 years and in the last 2 years they have gone up 25 to 50 %.” This echoed statements from renters and homeowners who told us in random interviews that home prices and rents are skyrocketing in Ajijic. But the head of a major real estate agency that has been in Ajijic for almost two decades pointed out that home prices have risen about 20% in the past 10 years – less than 2% a year considering compounding.
So, what is the rent and housing situation in Lakeside? Laguna interviewed individuals, real estate brokers and a long-established property manager to find out. What we learned is that there is no question that housing costs are rising in Lakeside but that the reasons are complex . The increases differ in location and price range, they heavily impact the local Mexican population, and they are having some positive effects. Plus, they come after a steep fall in prices in 2008, making the recent increases seem more dramatic.
What we learned: Rentals
In 2015/ 2016 two-bedroom apartments in outer Ajijic that were priced at $500 a month are now $800, while one-and two-bedroom apartments in downtown Ajijic that used to be $700 are now being advertised at $900 to $1200 a month. The reasons for these rent increases go beyond simple supply and demand.
Veronica Martinez, who founded Roma property Management & Rentals in 2006, manages rentals from Jocotepec to Chapala with prices ranging from $200US per week to $2500US per month. She has seen the highs and lows over the years, but two years ago she noticed a sharply increased demand that was putting heavy pressure on rents.
“About two or two and half years ago I noticed many more people were looking for rentals to Ajijic causing rent prices to rise,” she said. “ This was happening because a lot of people did not like the political situation in America and because the boomers have stopped working and are coming to Mexico – a lot of them.” She adds that the mix of people is now much more international – it is not just snowbirds from Canada and retirees from the US; people come from Europe and Asia now.
Martinez and other rental agents point to online rental services like AB&B as a significant force in rising rents. Some agents estimate that 20%-40% of rental bookings are now done through online services, making booking easier for prospective renters and expanding the market beyond the USA, Canada and Guadalajara to the world. They also increase the number of people who are willing to pay higher rents, pushing up rents and prices even more.
The increased demand has impacted rentals through the entire price range, but most heavily in the mid-range. Mid-range homes are in high demand by retired couples with good pensions who are looking for a relaxed life with the money and time for travel. They often opt for nice mid-range homes instead of large high rent homes to have more money for travel. Lower cost homes and apartments often rent out on a weekly or even daily basis through on-line agencies, reducing long term supply for families.
Impacts on local Mexicans
Rent increases heavily affect the native population. “The local Mexicans are most impacted, of course,” says Martinez, “they cannot find good local options in Ajijic and San Antonio, so they have to move to Jocotepec or Chapala or even Ixtlahuacán,” Martinez said sadly, noting that local Mexicans no longer live in a separate friend-and family-based lower cost rental economy. “Local Mexicans who own homes now rent them out to make money from the demand and they prefer to rent to people from the US or Canada more than to locals who may not have the funds,” she says. This means that local Mexicans are competing with Americans, Canadians, Europeans ad Asians as well as the Tapatios who come here for the better schools, less traffic, and the weather.
“I have seen many friends have to move out from Ajijic to Chapala because they can’t afford the rents. Even some cleaning ladies can afford to buy land in Chapala but can’t rent in Ajijic. The new generation who lived with their families – mother, father grandfather, brothers or sisters – have to leave Ajijic to be able to afford a house for their new families,” she adds. Since many of these new generation Mexican families work in Ajijic and Lakeside, this increases commute times and worsens traffic.
Jobs and wages
There is one positive side to the increased demand. All of the agents we talked to agreed that the influx of ex-pats and Tapatios has created jobs in Ajijic and Lakeside and increased income for the locals. Part of the job increase is in construction of new homes and apartments, which is booming in Lakeside. However, while the agents we interviewed agreed that new building creates jobs in construction and then later in services – housekeepers, drivers, plumbers, electricians, gardeners – none thought it would lower rents because there is so much pent-up demand.
What we learned: Home prices
Three years ago you could buy a nice 2-bedroom house for $150 to $200,000; now it will be at least $50,000 over $200,000 and the inventory at that price point has been depleted . Prospective buyers we have talked to say they have seen drastic home price increases in Lakeside, especially in Ajijic, over the past two years, as is evident in the windows of every broker in Lakeside. But in the long term, the price increases have not been dramatic – 20% in the past decade, according to Marvin Golden at Lake Chapala Real Estate, whose agency has been in Ajijic since 2007.
But this relatively moderate long term price increase hides a more dynamic history – in 2008 the recession in the US and worldwide virtually stopped home sales in the US and in Ajijic. People houses were underwater, their investments tanked, and they were not selling homes in the US nor buying homes in Mexico. That led to a steep drop in prices and an explosion of inventory in Lakeside that lasted until 2015. Between 2015 and 2018 the healthy economy and wave of retirements NOB caused demand to skyrocket in lakeside, especially in Ajijic. During this period, home sales in the Ajijic office of Lake Chapala Real Estate quadrupled, inventories shrank and prices rose sharply. Buyers who were relying on depression prices suddenly found themselves in a whole new market with rising prices.
Price increases are uneven and impact locals
Buyers have continued to stream into Lakeside as a result of pent-up demand, political uncertainty in the US, rising costs NOB, and the great weather and views. The demand is not just from NOB – Tapatios from Guadalajara are moving to Lakeside for better schools and weather and a trickle of Europeans and Asians. And high-speed internet like iLok allows people to live in Ajijic and work anywhere in the world.
As with rents, the price increases have been uneven, decreasing as you move away from Ajijic. “ What’s happened is that $150K to $250K used to be the sweet spot for home prices – you could get a two-bedroom house and quality features” said Golden, “ but that has gone up by $50K to $100K which is where the builders are building now.” He added that, “ In the last three years we have had a number of sales in $500K to $800K – before that we seldom saw sales over $500K.” Travis Ashby of Chapala Realtors noted that not only did political anger play a role in the wave of buyers in 2017, but skyrocketing health care costs in the US drove many people to look at Mexico and Ajijic.
Poor Mexicans are impacted because the prices increases now affect everyone, not just Ex-pats. Mexicans who own homes and want to cash out, can do so , but they have to move out of Ajijic to buy a new one, something many don’t want to do.
“There is a long tradition in Mexico of selling privately,” said Travis Ashby of Chapala Realtors. “There is a lot of word of mouth and selling to families. Mexicans have a different relationship to land and homes than in the US – they hold onto it more carefully .” He pointed out, however, that, “Mexican buyers who are higher educated are just as attuned to using the MLS and agents as people from the US.” Ashby noted that while Mexicans can often do private and interfamily sales, people from North of the border absolutely need an agent because laws, pricing, paperwork are much different here.
Chapala Realtors, where Ashby is based, has a somewhat different perspective on the real estate market in Lakeside. Although they have been open only a year, they cover virtually all of the lakeshore, although sales are predominantly in the Chapala Jocotepec corridor. There are many Mexican agents in the firm who deal with Mexican clients from Guadalajara and all over Mexico, giving them a slightly larger buyer population.
Competition from wealthy Guadalajarans and Mexicans from other parts of the country has become a factor in Lakeside, especially when they buy a second home for vacation or to rent out, taking a unit off the market. But according to Ashby, this competition is limited pretty much to the higher end homes and not to low priced homes bought and sold by locals. The result has been a slow movement of local Mexicans to Chapala or Jocotepec, mostly those who sell houses in Ajijic and buy and equal or larger house for less money in other areas.
Golden feels that Mexicans whose homes are worth $100k or less often operate in a friends and family market – they buy and sell homes through personal connections rather than competing in the larger market by listing publicly. Local Mexican homes over $100K, in his opinion have to go to the public listings to find buyers with cash since mortgages are expensive and difficult to obtain even for ex-pats.
Price awareness
People are still arriving in Ajijic who are misinformed about the housing market and are surprised at the rising prices. Golden rejects complaints that the real estate industry is overprices homes. “No, in fact newer houses with better materials and construction are available now at market prices. What is happening is that some agents overprice older homes with smaller rooms and lower ceilings, making them harder to sell, ”he said, adding that exchange rates have not been a significant factor, but can if it changes radically.
The building boom
Anyone who drives or walks around Ajijic and even San Antonio Tlayacapan or Chapala can see there is a building boom going one. While the construction adds to the housing inventory in the short term, mostly at the high end, its impacts are mixed. Construction delays, dirt piles, pressure on prices of materials and labor and overtaxing of infrastructure are current problems. Ashby pointed out that in there is also a long-term danger. “My fear is that when – not if – the economy slows down and the housing market goes upside down again, all the construction will stop and there will be unfinished buildings everywhere,” he said, “but since this is such a great place to live, demand will continue but not as much as the current pace of construction.”
The general consensus is that this won’t happen soon, that the demand will be steady, that the dramatic price and rental increases are moderating, but who knows what the future will bring, except rain, cohetes, and more traffic on the Carretera.
Patrick O’Heffernan Ajijic (JAL) Teya Ryan, the former Executive Vice President and General Manager of CNN, recently visited the offices of Semanario Laguna to see how local news is gathered in Mexico and to talk with Mexican journalists about the state of newspapers. She was impressed not only with the quality of the reporting of newspapers in Lakeside, but with their independence. “Semanario Laguna and other independent newspapers are so important because they keep the ideal of truthful, accurate, unbiased journalism alive at a time when newspapers in the United States are under attack and closing down,” she told the staff. “What you do here,” she said, “is not only excellent reporting but vital to independent journalism everywhere.”
She explained that falling advertising revenues, competition from online news and sales sites, and corporate takeovers have drastically reduced the number of newspapers in the USA. In fact, a study of newspaper coverage in the United States found a national total of 1,810 papers ceased publication in the past 15 years – one fifth of all papers in the country. Ryan stressed the importance of papers like Semanario Laguna that survive on advertising and remain independent.
The Laguna staff explained to her that the basis of reporting in Lakeside for Semanario Laguna and other publication is local area news – Ajijic, Chapala, Jocotepec, and so on. They explained that people want to know what is going on in their town and their neighborhood, so Semanario Laguna and other news sites segment themselves by areas and have reporters who know the local scene and people in each town. This also attracts local business for advertising, the lifeblood of papers here.
Responding to questions about running CNN, she told them she managed a revenue budget of over a billion dollars a year and reporters and crews around the world. She said that her position came with some awesome decisions– especially in wartime when her reporters were imbedded with military units at the battle front and video was streaming live.
“What would you do if your medical reporter, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, who is a pediatric neurosurgeon, is at the battlefront with a military medical team and injured children start coming in, including one with brain damage that only he can operate on – would you tell him he can operate and save lives, and thus become part of the story, or would you tell him no, you have to remain a neutral reporter?” (she told him to operate).
That question, and others like censoring live broadcasts to prevent the enemy from seeing where Coalition troops were, led to a lively discussion. Of course, these are decisions the staff of Semanario Laguna is not likely to face, but they discussed other decisions involving hard-hitting investigations of local government and institutions where similar decisions could be involved.
Ryan was in Ajijic visiting friends including this writer, and was pleased with the opportunity to talk with local journalists. She now is President and CEO of Georgia Public Broadcasting, where she manages multiple TV and radio stations and produces television documentaries and entertainment programs every year. Although she manages a large statewide network, she works to insure strong local coverage, including high school sports, on the part of her stations, much like Semanario Laguna’s hyperlocal coverage.
Arturo Ortega and Patrick O’Heffernan (Ajijic, Jal). – Over 300 people watched as Ajijic hosted its tenth annual Thrill the World dance exhibition on the Malecón last weekend when 50 zombies danced on the boardwalk and then paraded to Seis Esquinas square for a repeat performance amid a sprinkling of snow. While not connected to the Day of the Dead weekend of celebrations, Thrill the World is a popular event that fits well with the other holiday parades, costumes and fiestas.
Thrill the World Ajijic took place on the basketball court of the Malecón in a cordoned off area, as over 300 spectators watched and cheered. The 7- minute dance was based on the choreography of the Michael Jackson video premiered on Music Television Video (MTV) in 1984. Around 5:30 in the afternoon, the dance was performed for the second time in the Seis Esquinas square on the west side of Ajijic. Snow was given to a hundred children and adults who had fun pelting each other amid the dancing of about 30 zombies.
Thrill the World! is an international event, originally launched by Ines Markeljevic in Toronto, Canada, in 2006 in an attempt to set a Guiness world record for the “Largest Thriller Dance”. Sixty-two people showed up, setting the record; over 3 million people watched videos of the dancing giving it global popularity. The following year the Thrill the World Project recruited 1552 people in 52 cities for a new record.
Now the event is organized worldwide through a website, www.thrilltheworld.com, and serves as a fund raiser for the Red Cross. Last year over 3000 people danced in 63 events around the world, raising almost $400,000. Thrill the World took place this year in 45 cities in Austria, Brazil, Canada, England, Indonesia, Mexico, New Zealand, Russia, and the United States. Ajijic has participated since 2010 in the Thrill The World and this year was the only city in Mexico participating.
Thrill the World, which requires weeks of practice and costume-making, is largely supported by the Ex-pat community in Lakeside but enjoys enthusiastic acceptance by the locals, a few of whom take part. This year’s event on the Malecón was accompanied by a fund-raising dinner for 100 people who also got reserved covered seats, but even those without dinner tickets had plenty of room to watch. The proceeds from the Thrill The World lunch and seat sales in Ajijic will help support the Chapala Red Cross.
Patrick O’Heffernan Ajijic (Jal).- The first and apparently not the last Karaoke Gong Show for Charity came off as a great success last week at The Spotlight Club in San Antonio Tlayacapan. The event sold out, raising almost $16,800mx for the Programa pro Niños Incapacitados del Lago A.C, Love in Action and animal rescue organizations. Based on the long-running Emmy-winning goofy talent contest, the Spotlight event featured 15 amateur (but many very talented) singers competing for a grand prize of a table and drinks for 4 at any show at The Spotlight. Mark Rome, owner of The Spotlight donated 100% of the night’s ticket proceeds to the Gong Show’s designated charities and provided the grand prize.
The event filled up early with holders of reservations arriving as the doors opened to claim great seats and a few people appeared at the door asking to compete (they were too late – the lineup had been set weeks earlier). Many of the contestants brought friends and family who occupied “cheering sections” at tables stage left, where the contestants mounted the stag when called by Master of Ceremonies Ed Tasca, columnist for the Guadalajara Reporter. The all-volunteer show was produced by the informal group, the “Lakeside Karaoke Singers”.
The judges, however, were not amateurs. Chief Judge Cindy Paul is a professional singer, Patrick O’Heffernan is a music critic as well as a writer for Laguna, and Wayne Watson is a professional musician. The judges analyzed the contestants on the basis of pitch, key, costume, stage presence, audience connection, song selection, and skill in tracking the lyrics on the screen. Contestants were “gonged” after a discussion among the judges, rather than on the opinion of a single judge.
The level of talent was impressive. Most of the singers were extremely well-prepared and rehearsed and many wore costumes to match the songs, changing costumes as they advanced in the contest. Two finalists remained at the end of the show, Gayla, and Patti Gates. The audience chose the winner by clapping and cheering for their favorite. Gayla was the clear winner and, after congratulating her runner up, entertained the crowd with a final song.
The impressive fund-raising success of the event and the favorable audience feedback (though not necessarily from all the losing singers) have persuaded the organizers to consider a repeat performance early next year with a few tweaks to the program to give the singers more time and the audience more entertainment.
Patrick O’Heffernan Ajijic (JAL).- Dia de Muertos, the Day of the Dead and Mexico’s biggest holiday, is approaching. Day of the Dead is actually a three-day holiday which involves cemetery visits, fireworks, processions, private altars called ofrendas, calaveras, Aztec marigolds, the favorite foods and beverages of the departed, and fiestas. In some parts of Mexico, like Mexico City and Ixtlahuacán de los Membrillos, major gatherings of thousands of people take place with parades, contests, and music. The same is true NOB, especially in Los Angeles where over 40,000 people gather at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery for altars, music and food.
A single Day of the Dead was celebrated in summer by the Aztecs until the Spanish invaders imposed Catholic religion and holidays on them. The Church moved Day of the Dead to coincide with the Catholic Allhallowtide, a 3-day celebration of All Saints’ Eve (now Halloween), All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day. However, despite the proximity to Halloween and the commercial pressures to institute a Mexican Halloween celebration, Day of the Dead has nothing to do with Halloween.
Dia de Muertos was initially celebrated in central and southern Mexico, but the 2015 James Bond film, Spectre, featured an opening sequence of a Day of the Dead Parade in downtown Mexico City (there was no such parade). One year later, the government used the popularity of the film to promote the pre-Hispanic Mexican culture by organizing an actual «Día de Muertos» parade attended by 250,000 people and later declaring it a national holiday.
As anyone who has seen the Disney film Coco knows, Dia de Muertos (the los is an alternative form of the original Dia de Muertos) is a festive day in which people gather to remember friends and family members who have died, and help support their spiritual journey with gifts and prayers. In Mexican culture, death is viewed as a natural part of the human cycle, so it is not a day of sadness but a day of celebration with their deceased loved ones who return from the other side of life to celebrate invisibly with them.
Lakeside takes these celebrations very seriously. Ajijic’s celebration begins on the first day of November, the Day of the Little Angels, El Día de los Inocentes, which is reserved for families who have lost children. The night before, the children make an altar to invite the angelitos (spirits of dead children) to come back for a visit. Families often believe that the spirits of the departed children run ahead of the families to these altars to be there when the families arrive with gifts. By the afternoon of Nov. 2, when the Dia de Muertos celebration has begun in earnest, altaras in the main cemeteries in Ajijic and Chapala are extravagantly decorated and at night lit by hundreds of candles.
Celebrations in Ajijic are mostly at the altars in the cemetery and later in the main plaza with altars and colorful sawdust carpets. A activity unique to Ajijic is the Katrina Ride, a parade of horses and riders dressed as Katrina, the apparition immortalized by the artist Diego Rivera in a 1940’s satirical mural drawn from cartoons of José Guadalupe Posada. A possible inspiration for Katrina was Mictēcacihuātl, the Aztec goddess of death who ruled the underworld Mictlān. The ride will begin at 1 pm at on 16 Septembre in La Floresca and will proceed through Ajijic for an hour or more, looping through Seís Esquinas and returning to La Floresca. Timing will depend on the number of times the horses stop for photos and selfies. The Katrina Ride is not part of any official activities, but s planned communally and any woman or man with a costume and a decorated horse can join. Over a dozen horses and riders are expected this year in homemade costumes.
The official Ajijic “The Night of the Dead” parade will leave from Aldama and Constitución, move west to Seís Esquinas and end up at the Plaza. A highlight of the Ajijic celebration is the illumination of the hundreds of terracotta skulls across from the Parroquia San Andres Aposto, created in 2016 by the artist Efren Gonzalez to honor residents who have passed away. Each skull plaque is lit by a candle, turning Calle Marcus Castellanos into a blazing celebration of Dia de Muertos.
Chapala’s Celebration of Dia de Muertos is spectacular with many altars, sawdust carpets and a nighttime parade that begins after 7:00 near the Malecón at the Church San Francisco. Earlier in the day, the riverbank receives a collection of life-sized Katrinas exhibited by the Jalisco state Secretary of Culture in the towns of the Chapala riverbank. The Chapala regional high school constructs elaborate altars as a 20-year old school tradition, displaying them in the center of town, which is filled with altars, Katrinas, artistic exhibitions and sculptures dedicated to the Dia de Muertos.
The Katrina Ride, the parade and the many Dia de Muertos parties throughout Lakeside have created a demand for costumes and especially makeup. The New Look Beauty Salon on Hidalgo in San Antonio Tlayacapan is one example of a local business thriving by preparing its clients for the celebrations by painting their faces with the perfect Katrina mask, Make-up expert Rous Ruíz reports that Katrina make-up has been popular for the past decade. Predicts that between this Saturday and Nov 2 they will paint at least 20 women a day. The shop is holding a costume and make-up contest for its staff, clients and anyone who wants to attend on Oct 31.
Victor Rochin launches a cohete during the opening procession for the Fiestas of San Andrés in Ajijic, Jalisco, Mexico. The Rochin family are coheteros, one of Mexico’s thousands of families who dedicate themselves to the production of fireworks, including Mexico’s famous fireworks castles. Photo and text: danestrom.com
Patrick O’Heffernan, Ajijic (JAL).- Its five o’clock in the morning and you are awakened by the sound of a skyrockets going off somewhere in town. The explosions also woke your dog who is starting to hyperventilate and look for something to hide under. About 15 minutes later you have calmed the dog, gotten back in bed and started to drift off when more fireworks explode. This goes on until around 6 am when you hear a string of fireworks accompanied by church bells that last for several minutes. What is going on?
What is going on is the Fiesta de San Miguel, a tradition that was abandoned 200 years ago and brought back by the people of Ajijic in 2016. What you are hearing are cohetes, fireworks exploded to celebrate the Fiesta de San Miguel – Saint Michael the Archangel. This fiesta celebrates one of Ajijic’s patrons, the other being the Virgin of the Rosary and Saint Andrew’s – Ajijic’s principal patron-. San Miguel is the patron saint of the neighborhood that bears his name, located at the foot of the mountain above Perry’s Pizza and the Hotel Lindo.
The celebration begins on September 29 late in the afternoon with a procession that starts in the San Miguel neighborhood and winds through Ajijic. Worshippers carry the statue of San Miguel from La Crucita, a hillside cave above the San Miguel neighborhood, through the barrio Seis Esqueinas, around several other neighborhoods and then back to barrio San Miguel where a fiesta begins. Fireworks are part of the fiesta, especially a bull-shaped rack of fireworks that people hold up and run around with like el torro in danza folkloríco (for a map and photos of the celebration see the Lakeside Guide’s free downloadable book of holidays and celebrations in Lakeside).
The early morning fireworks begin the next day about an hour before morning mass. They are set off by neighborhood organizations, often affiliated with workers comunitades, who use them as part of the celebration of the saint. Although they start an hour before mass and lead up to it, the church does not support the cohetes or endorse them as a call to mass.
“We ask the people not to make the cohetes, but they say it is for the fiesta and fire them even though we tell them they are bothering the people – están molestando – and should not do it,” says Padre Everardo of the Parroquia San Andrés Apostol, the Catholic Church on Calle Marcos Castellanos. The bells are rung by the church to accompany worshippers as they enter, but the church opposes the fireworks.
According to the Ajijic Delegado, Juan Ramón Flores organizations must obtain a permit from the Ajijic bomberos to ignite the fireworks from locations like the Plaza or the Malecon. A bomberos permit specifies how many, what kind, and what size cohetes can be, but it is unclear if they cover early morning fireworks in the neighborhoods. But the processions, masses and cohetes are a treasured tradition in Ajijic, which is why the neighborhoods worked hard to revive them after 200 years.
The celebration of San Miguel continues for nine days, so there is mass every morning for nine days and for nine days the neighborhood organizations shoot off cohetes. But the end of the Fiesta de San Miguel is not necessarily the end of the fireworks.
Ajijic also celebrates its other patron, the Virgin of the Rosary, whose 400-year-old image resides in the Capilla Nuestra Señora del Rosario, the small church on the Ajijic Plaza next to the Centro Cultural. It begins with a procession at 5 p.m. carrying the image of the Virgin of the Rosary on September 29th that moves to the Church of Guadalupe in barrio sies esquinas on Calle Ocampo in West Ajijic. The next day, the image is carried in a procession from the Church of Guadalupe to the Parroquia San Andres Apostol. The procession begins around 6:30 pm and may entail fireworks. And the community cohetes may start again the next morning at 5am along with music and singing as the parishioners serenade the image of the Virgin. The cohetes can continue every morning until October 31 when the fiestas for Dia de Los Muertos begin. In addition, the 20 of November begins the party or the Saint Andrew’s – Ajijic’s principal patron-.and goes through the end of the month. Moreover, yes, there is more fireworks.
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