In less time than it takes an evening downpour to pass through San Miguel de Allende, we had nearly 120 raincoats in the hands of the senior citizens who visit So Others May Eat for a hot lunch every Wednesday.
Sometimes good intentions and charitable hearts move that quickly.
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Sometimes you are handed a gift, in this case, a funny and talented writer named Papa Joe Grappa. A mutual friend sent me Joe’s Substack column titled “Questions for Jesus When He Comes Back.” It is really funny, as it should be for a guy who was Jay Leno’s head writer for 20 years.
Here’s the thing, as I was reading Joe’s questions, I was hearing Jesus’s answers.
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Dr. Grace Lim made a startling discovery on Wednesday as she delivered her weekly health talk to the 120 elderly guests at the So Others May Eat hot lunch program.
The day was gray, and the waterlogged clouds promised yet another badly needed downpour. In one of the wettest rainy seasons in memory, the doctor’s topic was staying dry, staying warm, staying healthy.
“How many of you own an umbrella?” asked Dr. Lim.
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Well, all those umbrellas did not go to waste. The ones people carried to the Locos parade and the ones sold by vendors under threatening skies.
The rains stayed away and thousands of gaily costumed — and bizarrely, quaintly, curiously, delightfully, enchantingly, dreamily, whimsically, scarily, creepily, amusingly and shockingly costumed — paraders strutted, danced, boogied, jumped and jived their way down the Ancha, en route to the Jardin Allende in the civic square.
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Such a relief.
It now rains most evenings in San Miguel de Allende, somewhere between 5 and 7 p.m. I could almost set my watch by it, if I had a watch.
We got caught in a downpour last night in Colonia San Antonio as we were leaving a nearby Italian restaurant, Denver’s Los Olivos, with some friends. Juan Miguel (Denver) always delights — a very old-school chef with traditional recipes and a dining-in-the-kitchen feel.
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More than five years ago, we lived in a “penthouse” apartment that overlooked this tree from nearly a block away. You could not miss it. You could not turn away. Its color is otherworldly among the beige and brown stucco buildings.
After the splendid jacaranda trees drop their lavender flowers, this one, and more like it in hidden courtyards behind drab walls, spring to life.
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Read the latest on FASMA 2025 here.
The third edition of the San Miguel de Allende Festival of the Arts (FASMA2025) is coming in August and will offer more than 100 events from scores of local arts and culture organizations. Music, theater, opera, film, dance, literary and plastic arts programs will be presented in many of San Miguel’s finest venues, Aug. 1-17.
Individually, these are the kinds of events for which this city is famous around the world.
Collectively, this is an opportunity for San Miguelians to sample the many lively, beautiful, and inspiring performance programs that make up the fabric of this community.
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It was such a relief last week to learn that my old friend Bob Gannon crashed his 56-year-old Cessna 182 just outside of Las Vegas.
Of course, he walked away from the crash. The plane wasn’t called Lucky Lady Too for nothing.
Let me interject that I am simply relieved to know that Bob is still alive. And flying. I confess that I periodically check the news for recent Bob Gannon and Lady Too exploits — or an obituary. I haven’t found either in years.
Both to my distress and relief.
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The celebration of the Resurrection of Christ on Saturday night at the Parroquia de San Antonio de Padua in Colonia San Antonio was incredibly moving. Worshipers filled the plaza to overflowing. They stood and prayed for hours during the Easter Vigil as the life and death of Jesus Christ was recounted from the altar.
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Update: The wall of masks has been sold to a lovely couple here in San Miguel. He very quickly offered to buy them all to augment his own collection. Thank you to everyone who expressed an interest in the entire collection or in individual masks. You are all appreciated!
In another life, Rose Alcantara traveled the world, settled in The Gambia for a couple of years, and eventually returned to California to raise two beautiful children.
Along the way, between 1978 and 1992, she collected masks, the way other people collect souvenirs.
Well, not really the same way. Souvenirs are mass-produced. She looked mostly for one-of-a-kind creations from the original artists.
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Musings, Magic, San Miguel and More 