Tag Archives: Colonia San Antonio

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

It is Liberation Day in my head

I’m done with “push” content from newspapers, substacks, pods and podcasters, bloggers, social media platforms, conspiracy boosters, angry MAGAs, fundraisers, revolutionists, ah-has and ma-ha’s, political shamans, alarmists, talking heads, Chicken Littles, grim reapers, Beltway pundits, scribblers, cartoonists, and diatribe specialists.

Or as another noted crank once put it, I’ve had it up to here with “Bagism, Shagism, Dragism, Madism, Ragism, Tagism, This-ism, that-ism, is-m, is-m, is-m.”

All I am saying is don’t give push a chance. 

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Colonia San Antonio, photography, San Miguel de Allende

A time for tacos, Locos, and nightly rain in San Miguel de Allende

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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Colonia San Antonio, photography, San Miguel de Allende

A Flamboyant tree grows in Colonia San Antonio

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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Colonia San Antonio, photography, San Miguel de Allende

Sweet heated dreams are made of these … when it hits 99 degrees, we go dancing

How do they do it? How do they put on some of those costumes that look not only like a second and third layer of skin but a whole winter coat for a grizzly bear — and then head down the street dancing and twirling and skipping to the pulsations of Mega the Sound Systems Inc. on the back of a pickup truck?

Crazy, I tell you!

Locos, by name. This year, the Locos are earning their name and reputation for endurance, exuberance, perseverance, and any other “ences” you can think of. It is hot. Every single day. Hot. Come to think of it, I’ve never seen it rain on a Locos parade.

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

Rites of passage in Colonia San Antonio

Today was an important one at the Parroquia San Antonio de Padua here in Colonia San Antonio.

Families brought their sons and daughters — boys in white suits, girls in white dresses — for the religious rites of first holy communion and confirmation. I am guessing it was for both, given the range of age and height of the children.

Your heart can not help but swell as you watch the families approach the church. The mothers, fathers, grandparents, and siblings surround the child in white — who is practically floating above the ground. They walk quickly toward the steps of the church where the children gather in white clusters as the parents sit on the walls nearby.

I have come to see these affairs as private family moments and am reluctant to run around taking photos — me the stranger, the gringo, in their midst. I no longer take photos unless I am encouraged or invited.

Today, my friend Jim Gramprie and I were walking up the Ancha toward Mercado Sano and this pickup truck pulled up beside us in slow-moving traffic.

How could you not smile?

I shouted “Felicidades!” and clapped my hands in case my Spanish was more horrible than I imagined it to be. They smiled and waved and shouted “Gracias!”

This happened three more times in the stop-and-go traffic and finally, I couldn’t resist.

“Con permiso, una fotografia?”

They were all for it. especially the two young ladies on their high thrones in the back of the family pick-up truck.

Traffic suddenly picked up and they were on their way — to a beautiful family fiesta, I imagine.

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Colonia San Antonio, San Miguel de Allende

UPDATE: No reprieve for Silveyra’s: Building’s ‘manager’ pockets cash, so owners boot all Colonia San Antonio building occupants

Latest update: Despite talks on Monday, April 15, owners held firm that all occupants of Callejon San Antonio #2 must vacate the building. All had been paying rent to an unscrupulous “landlord” who pocketed the cash for nearly a year.

Restauranter Keli Silveyra posted this on Facebook Monday afternoon:

“An end of an era 😢 The family that owns the spot has contacted us. They are looking at selling the location, and or renting it out to higher bidders It sounds like they have offers already. We will be getting our restaurant out as soon as possible. They were very very kind considering, money is money.”

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Reviews, San Miguel de Allende

So much to do this week in San Miguel de Allende, my head is about to burst

Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle will be performed this week in San Miguel (See information below.)

Ah, that special time of the year when you ask yourself, “Why can’t I be in two places at once? Or three?” That time is now.

This is the time when people with money from the north pour across the border unchallenged and settle in for one month or several and begin to madly buy up tickets to a vast number of events – all of which we only see a hint of the rest of the year.

But few and far between though they might have been, you could reasonably trust that an empty seat could be claimed moments before a performance would begin.

You know the Season is here because – even though arts and cultural events have multiplied like sex-crazed rabbits – you will frequently hear that dreaded phrase, “Sorry. Completely sold out,” from a voice that actually sounds quite chuffed and hardly sorry at all.

Facebook, in a marvelous act of undercounting, posts a message to me on Monday morning: “Reminder: You have five events coming up this week.” It didn’t even get the right five.

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Colonia San Antonio, photography, San Miguel de Allende

So, what’s passing by your front door today?

This is mine.

The Parroquia San Antonio de Padua is just a block away and you could hear the momentum building all morning — trance-dancing, church services shot out to the courtyard through loudspeakers, cohetes exploding overhead, church bells, primal cheers …

It builds and builds like a head of steam in a boiler until it all bursts out on Callejon San Antonio and dances, trips, oozes, roars, and flips down the street toward the main drag, The Ancha. Like festive lava flowing at a Mardi Gras party.

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Colonia San Antonio, photography, San Miguel de Allende

Howlin’ Wolf

This photo has drawn a lot of attention on Facebook. I took it on January 25, from the upper balcony of the home of our friend Lorna Reutner. Lorna, Cat Silver, Rose Alcantara and I had climbed up to this airy perch in her Colonia San Antonio home for dessert and a little post-dinner wine and conversation.

Needless to say, the full Wolf Moon got our attention pretty quickly. All conversation stopped as we stood agape at the spectacle over San Miguel de Allende. What wasn’t lit artificially was set aglow by this moon.

I pulled my iPhone out and whipped off a few shots before returning to the table — shouldn’t be a rude guest, after all.

A photographer friend from the United States had a kindly suggestion: “Nice moonlight shot. Clean your lens well and you won’t get those streaks.”

Well, yes. Sometimes accidents are the best thing about photography. I don’t think it would have had the same impact if the image were nothing more than another iPhone full moon/pin-prick on the horizon.

I’d say this photo, streaks and all — Solar flares? Random refractions? — creates an emotionally accurate tableau. It is not exactly how it looked, but it is exactly how I felt looking at that moon.

But he’s right. I’ll try harder to keep my lens caps squeaky clean.

Future photographic accidents will be on purpose …

Beam me up, Scotty!

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

Re-birth of the Calla Lily

Late last night as the light drizzle kissed the courtyard foliage, a lone Calla Lily peeked its chaliced bloom through the broad green leaves.

It has been dormant for some time, so this was a delightful surprise as has been this late season rain.

The beaded drops upon the velvety white bloom were irresistible. As dark as the night happened to be, I had to risk taking a shot. It seems to have worked out okay.

I read that the Calla Lily in Mexico is associated with death and funerals and in Greek and Roman times with festivities. How appropriate as we approach Dia de Muertos. The flower’s symbolism serves our times and culture well.

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