Tag Archives: blogging

San Miguel de Allende, The Week in SMA

SMA Events July 14 — 20: Futboll! Baseball! Opera! Theater! Photos ops! A tea party! A coffee mixer! Cows! Get out there!

OK, there’s nothing going on with cows this week. At least, I don’t think so. But, in case nothing else on this blog appeals to you, you can download this photo and stare at the cows out in the Compo. I took this photo Saturday morning while hiking near the railroad tracks, just below Los Frailes.

Sunday, July 14


8 a.m — 4 p.m. Bomberos Flea Market
After 40 years of protecting San Miguel de Allende, the local fire department still counts on this monthly flea market to make ends meet. Crazy, huh? But this is our life! You will find new and second-hand clothes, glasses, perfumes, lingerie, toys and collectibles, and much more.
Where? At the firehouse on Salida a Queretaro, next to Real de Conde plaza.

10 a.m. — Play ball!
Baseball game between the San Miguel Paric and the San Miguel Pirates this Sunday at the Stirling Dickinson Stadium. The Pirates will try to break the undefeated record of the green-feathered Pericos De San Miguel De Allende. This is quality baseball, up-close, on the region’s finest baseball field. Located at Avenida Las Américas #113.

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Memoirs -- fact and fiction, San Miguel de Allende, Writings

How I flunked driving exams in two countries in one month but — spoiler alert — aced them in the end

Within a month’s time, I have taken two driver’s license tests in two countries and passed both. But not exactly “with flying colors.”

My California driver’s license expired on April 10 and I tried unsuccessfully to line up an appointment to renew it in person. I just turned 74 and needed to take a new photo and the written test (and I incorrectly assumed that I’d need the driving one, too).

The problem was two-fold: My phone number is from Mexico and the DMV will not allow foreign numbers when you try to sign into the system. After repeated attempts and working with a human (I think) who promised to send me an access form to fill out and send back – he/it didn’t — I lost interest.

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San Miguel de Allende, The Week in SMA

SMA events, June 2-9: Parades of locos, a parade of planets

Quincenario en honor a San Antonio de Padua, the two-weeklong celebration of Saint Anthony began with a locos parade on Saturday, June 1, that ended up at the Parroquia San Antonio de Padua in Colonia San Antonio, as they will each night.

For two weeks, pilgrimages by groups of Locos will leave each evening from a different place in San Miguel and parade toward the Parish of San Antonio de Padua.

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Colonia San Antonio, San Miguel de Allende, The Week in SMA

SMA Events May 19-25: Who doesn’t love a parade … or three?

This week starts off with not one but three locos parades. Each leaves from a different location at staggard times but they will emerge and find their way back to Parroquia San Antonio de Padua where a towering soundsystem is set up.

There will be dancing food and music into the night. Don’t miss it.

At the other end of the week, the long-awaited memoir and photography of Ojala Ninos founder Elsmarie Norby, “It Is To Wonder,” is published and she will talk about her journey on Friday. Take my word for it: It is too wonderful.

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Colonia San Antonio, photography, San Miguel de Allende, Writings

… and suddenly a parade breaks out on Sunday in San Miguel de Allende

How can you tell if a parade is about to break out in San Miguel de Allende?

Sadly, if you are a gringo, you’re probably the last to know. Parades and processions, for the most part, are cultural. You may not be connected to the network that announces such things. So, pay attention. Follow these tips and you may end up on the sidewalk watching one of the most unique and exciting things to happen in this city.

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photography, San Miguel de Allende, Writings

Clean sweep

That must have been some party.

Early this morning, the limpia crew was all over the square in front of the Parroquia de San Miguel de Arcangel with brooms, buckets, and tanks of water. The bucketers would scoop and splash water on the stones and the sweepers descend on the water like hungry birds, sloshing it left and right, until only clean damp stone remains.

Splash and repeat. In the early morning breeze. The first in what feels like months.

While this is cleaning writ large, all over San Miguel de Allende in the morning, women (mostly) wash the sidewalks and streets in front of their homes. Same routine — water, bucket, and broom — as they have been doing for centuries.

Why the public square on a Sunday morning? I can’t say.

A messy party? Too much spilled and melted ice cream? Too much dust? In anticipation of the arrival of a wedding princess or social media queen? Simple hygiene?

You just never know, do you?

Unless you ask.

But why spoil the fun?

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Memoirs -- fact and fiction, San Miguel de Allende, Writings

When the chips are down, ‘Listen to your body,’ they said.

A few days ago, I watched a documentary on the human digestive system. One thing these scientists and nutritionists kept repeating when asked about food choices: “Listen to your body.”

OK, what does that even mean?

Since puberty, “listen to your body” has been the siren’s call leading me down a path to only one place, a place filled with regret, remorse, shame — and maybe a little “wowzer!”

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San Miguel de Allende, The Week in SMA

SMA Events, April 14-20: Let’s get this brunch going!

Let me start the week by saying, dawg, I’m tired. It may be the hyper-awareness of a birthday of a certain age that came and went last week but really drove home the point: I have had way too many birthdays in my life.

And that realization leads to another realization: I’m tired.

All of this is to say that as I was putting this calendar together Saturday night, I reached a point where finishing this thing wasn’t going to happen on deadline. So, on Sunday, I updated this page with a half-dozen more fun things for you to consider.

And as always, send your ideas and events to robertj.hawkins2012@gmail.com. Thanks for playing along!

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Memoirs -- fact and fiction, photography, Reviews, San Miguel de Allende

Blows my mind, every year.

I tried my idea for global peace on a few people in the crowd today as we waited for the Exploding Judases to commence.

“What if all across the United States people had a day like this where you could hang effigies of your enemies and other bad people — and watch as they were blown to bits?”

“Just think of the catharsis!”

How to begin to describe the strange looks that I got. …

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San Miguel de Allende, The Week in SMA

Events for March 31 – April 6: Last hurrah for Easter and High Season and then …

If you haven’t been, you owe it to yourself to go see the Exploding Judases, today, Sunday, at noon. Go sooner and get a close-up look at the lifesize papier mache figures that will be blown to smithereens. You may even recognize one or two! You may even want to project a name or two of your own onto the more anonymous ones.

Frankly, the pyrotechnics signal the end of High Season, that semi-sad time of year when the season begins to change, to heat up and get really really dry, and all that money changes course and begins to flow back north to the United States and Canada.

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