Every time I think that I’ve photographed the Parroquia San Miguel de Arcangel from every conceivable angle during the past five years, something new comes along.
It’s like in physics. Scientists were pretty sure that the Standard Model that addresses all “of nature’s known particles and forces” was The Overall Encompassing Answer to Everything.
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She was standing in the middle of Callejon San Antonio around 6:30 this morning as I left the house, a dazed look on her face. And tears. On a closer look, she was crying.
“Are you all right?” I asked. A dumb thing to ask, I know. “Can I help you?”
“No, I’m not. I don’t know.”
She removed her hand from the top of her baseball cap. A large dark smear of blood was seeping through the hat and dripping down the side of her face. In her other hand, she held the leash to the dog she had been walking.
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They did it. The Loco marched, danced, walked, twirled, teased, sweated, tossed candy and rubber balls, waved, smiled, and consumed copious amounts of water and electrolyte drinks on Sunday morning.
And the thousands lining both sides of many downtown San Miguel de Allende streets loved every hot and sticky, broiling, joyous moment of the Contvite de Locos.
What an incredible day.
The city estimates that 130,000 people were in San Miguel for the parade, of whom 5,300 were Locos marching in the parade. Only 43 people required medical attention for heat, falling, tripping, or other maladies. Four individuals were arrested during this very family-oriented festivity.
It is worth noting that the city staffed a number of “hydration stations” along the parade route for marchers and watchers.
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You know that feeling? Like you are being watched by somebody in the park? Somebody you can’t see. But those eyes …
This morning while walking the gentle philosophy dog, Moppit, in Parque Guadiana I couldn’t shake the feeling there there were eyes upon me.
Well, I wasn’t completely wrong.
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And the Creator said, “epiphyllum oxypetalum, you shall be a cactus, though you do not look like one. Once a year and only at night, you shall bear forth beautiful flowers while the world sleeps. Before dawn your flowers shall wither away, but only before being ravaged by bats.”
The epiphyllum oxypetalum did not understand this curious fate but it knew better than to argue with the Creator.
Perhaps the Creator felt a little guilty because later, the epiphyllum oxypetalum was given a lovely and pronounceable name: Queen of the Night.
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Well, this explains so many things: Anthony de Padua is the patron saint of the insane.
Now the Dia de Locos — or Convite de Locos — isn’t so crazy after all.
Well, yes, it is. Crazy, I mean. Very very crazy. In so many delightful ways.
What better way to honor the patron saint of people who have lost their minds than to assemble thousands of people in costumes that suggest they, too, have indeed lost their minds?
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Guitarists walk down Callejon de los Suspiros on a warm San Miguel de Allende morning.
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Happy 254th birthday, Don Ignacio de Allende y Unzaga, Lieutenant Colonel of the Insurgent Army and hero of the revolution.
San Miguel de Allende, named in part after its favorite son, has been celebrating all week with music, cultural dances, and more — and today, the annual parade which is a most interesting merger of military might and marching school children. The parade also celebrates first responders, marching bands, the conservation corps, civic leaders, beauty queens, and equestrians.
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Well, the first day of 2023 ended quite nicely here in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.
We had the pleasure of joining some of our Belize Diaspora pals for Sunday dinner and this was the view from their patio, looking west toward Pressa Ignacio Allende.
At first, I was quite taken with the “God rays” on the horizon, streaming down from the heavens. Mike, who has been admiring sunsets from his patio on the outer fringes of the city for several years now, nodded appreciatively. “Just wait a little bit,” he said. “You haven’t seen anything yet.”
He wasn’t kidding.
My own sunset view is pretty cluttered with tall buildings, church steeples, and gobs of spaghetti cable strung from street poles. Wide open vistas, it ain’t. That’s just life in the city. It has plenty of other benefits, however. I’ll take the tradeoff.
But being out in the unobstructed country was a real treat and the heavens accommodated us.
I’ll just take this sunset as a harbinger of good things to come for all of us in 2023.
I mean, just today I learned that Season 3 of “Ted Lasso” drops in 10 weeks.
Already, the year is looking up!
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This cross sits to the right of my desk, on an empty chair. It is one of many crosses that we have inherited. Our home in San Miguel de Allende comes with crosses, cow skulls, pottery and milagros pegged to doors here and there.
Milagros are those little tin objects you see on the cross that look as though they might be Monopoly board pieces.
While I have always been aware of the cross — lord knows I’ve moved it around often enough — I never really paid close attention to it.
Until this morning.
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