By now I am in San Miguel Allende- fourth straight year in a row: my “coming-home” spot in Mexico. This grande dame is a well-known town(west of north of Mexico City) and filled with beautiful light, old buildings, my favorite photo ops-ancient door knockers, windows, churches. Warm smiles from those who serve– and so much more-usually! This time around, however, there are unusual rains here, lots of clouds like my Pacific Northwest, so warm sun is the only thing missing. Mexico is glad though:
My first return visit is to the Biblioteca, the sharing library here with so much going on: music, lectures, and movies.
“ For more than half a century the Biblioteca Pública, considered one of the best bilingual libraries in Latin America, has served the community of San Miguel de Allende. Aside from its holdings of more than 60,000 volumes in Spanish, English, German and French and its many lecture, film and theater events, the library grants scholarships to young students and offers cultural activities.
The Biblioteca is a non-profit organization that relies on the public’s generous donations and revenue from the businesses it has established over the years: the weekly newspaper Atención San Miguel, the House and Garden Tour, the Café Santa Ana, the Teatro Santa Ana, La Tiendita, a and the Bodega de Sorpresas”
Today I browsed through incredible coffee-table size books, every page a true page-turner with art work, interior design, indigenous native information. A young man plays his own compositions at the piano, excellent coffee at the cafe, and many line up for the annual writing workshop, which due to the budget I can’t attend. We buy tickets for a wonderful lecture tonight from the photographer and writer I hired a couple of years ago. ” The title of the talk is “Church vs State in Mexico: The Cristero Wars.”where the church couldn’t even bury or hold masses,(1926-1929) De Gast, a photographer and writer, is a long-time San Miguel resident and the author of, most recently, The World of San Miguel de Allende: An Uncommon Guide, and nine other books. The talk will explore the origins of the Wars and present details of the savage fighting and political squabbling that ensued.
Another blog I read (below)
http://worldtravelwithanne.blogspot.com/2011/01/weavings-in-of-bulmaro-mendoza-in.html )
fleshes out the info on my past blog about the village of hand-woven rugs(near Oaxaca)
“Bulmaro Perez Mendoza, a master weaver heads a community of rug weavers in the village of Teotitlan del Valle. Traditionally, Mendoza and his family use only natural dyes, mohair and pure wool for their beautiful rugs and wall hangings. No chemical dyes or acrylic blends here.
The raw wool is purchased in local markets, washed in the river to remove impurities, then carded and spun by family members including Mendoza’s wife, mother, grandmother and great grandmother.
Each year a grand family outing sees all 25 family members of the Mendoza clan take to the mountains where they harvest the plants used for making their natural dyes. Using “cochineal” for the color red, alfalfa for green, marigolds for orange, and for gold they harvest pomegranate shells from plants growing alongside the path leading to their pueblo. Nut shells produce a rich brown and the huisache plant, black.
Hand woven rugs made on family built looms using wool purchased from local farmers and dyed with their own plant dyes, are absolutely stunning. I left having acquired not one, but two treasured heirloom rugs”.
Misc. pictures for you to enjoy from Oaxaca. Please also look for the set of Oaxaca photos on my Tango of Photography portion of the blog.
Ruth Dorsey Blog 
Leave a comment