Tag Archives: Robert J. Hawkins

photography, San Miguel de Allende

Ride on! Ride on!

Today’s celebrations of San Miguel Arcangel only theoretically started at 3 a.m. They have been running non-stop for the past week here in San Miguel de Allende. All through last night, the sounds of music and fireworks drifted over the moon-kissed night skies from all directions.

At 3 a.m., the Alboradas converged on the plaza in front of the Parroquia San Miguel de Arcangel. These are the colorful giant twirling stars — one of the happiest sights you’ll see as processionaires dance and twirl their way into the square with marching bands and mohigangas in tow.

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photography, San Miguel de Allende

With cohetes ringing in our ears, a taste of things to come

All of San Miguel de Allende knew something was up today, if only because the cohetes exploded us out of our slumber at 5 a.m. and hardly stopped for the next two hours.

That’s way more spiritual pyrotechnics than a minor saint receives, most mornings.

This morning heralded the Festival of Saint Michael the Archangel and the patron saint of San Miguel de Allende. Granted, the festival is not until the weekend of October 3-5, but we are not above having parades to announce future festivals.

Indeed, today’s procession through the community is called La Reseña de la Fiesta Patronal, and it is both an announcement to the community and an invitation to participate in the celebration.

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photography, San Miguel de Allende

A parade breaks out in San Miguel … on a Monday

Yes, those were definitely drums. Not the assertive, muscular, rhythmic pounding that fuels many a procession and parade here in San Miguel de Allende.

These were tentative little thumps, like someone was trying them out for the first time. A test ride. Coming from somewhere near the intersection of Correo and Recreo. Hortus restaurant, on the corner, blocked my view from the Jardin. But you could feel a sort of energy building as the drums grew louder, bolder, more assured, more assertive, rhythmic.

Yes, definitely.

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San Miguel de Allende

Festival of the Arts San Miguel de Allende starts Friday — let the feast begin!

Eduardo Adame’s gigantic sprawling, eclectic, cultural “potluck party” is about to begin. 

A “potluck” is how Adame described the third edition of the two-week-long Festival of the Arts San Miguel de Allende (FASMA) in May, when he was pulling together global and homegrown artists, musicians, singers, actors, poets, photographers, craftsmen, and the like for the showcase.

“Everyone is invited to bring the best that they can do – and invite their friends,” he said back then, expanding on the analogy

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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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San Miguel de Allende, Uncategorized

UPDATE: It was pouring raincoats!

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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fiction, Rants and raves, San Miguel de Allende, Writings

Blogger Joe Grappa has some questions and Jesus sits down for a Q&A

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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San Miguel de Allende

So Others May Stay Dry

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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Colonia San Antonio, photography, San Miguel de Allende

Our Locos dance to a different beat … lots of different beats

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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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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