Twenty-two Years Ago

This week I had a panic attack. I was looking on my hard drive for a series of work I did in Pozas, the Surreal Garden. I didn't always keyword back sometime in 2000's and that was when the work was shot with a Holga camera and medium format film. So using keywords wasn't helping. Running through folder names wasn't working either. Oh, I have backup hard drives but the panic starts to set in. Could this hard drive be dying? What else could be missing? What will it cost to have it restored if it isn't on the other backup drives? That is, if it can be restored. Finally I noticed a folder name, FotoFest 2006. It was inside the folder for the year 2006. My file plan is to put images in yearly folders and then in sub-folders chronologically by date made. These images were not made in 2006 but I opened it and there were all of the images I had been searching for. I melted back into my chair.

I guess at the time when I named the folder, FotoFest 2006 and put it inside the year 2006 it seemed like a reasonable thing to do because these images made up my Goldesberry Gallery FotoFest show in 2006. But it wasn't logical in 2016. It gave me quite a scare. And it caused me to look back at old images just to be sure they were still there.

This particular scanned negative was made at a festival in Ocotlan in the State of Oaxaca in 1994. Twenty-two years ago and yet when I look at these young men running through the crowd with the fireworks exploding from the structures over them, I can still remember everything about that night.

I've been a photographer for a long time.

Twenty-two years ago. Isn't that something!

A Different Halloween

I innocently went into town last night with my camera and a bag of candy. It was Halloween and I was remembering all of the Halloweens when Ned and I made reservations for dinner and after dinner went to the San Francisco Hotel and sat in the bar where we could see out the door. The first few years there would be a few children who painted their faces or wore a costume that they probably also wore in the Locos parade. They were out looking for candy from the gringos. Sometimes it would be three or four boys about seven to eleven years old running in a pack. Or it might be an older sister shepherding her siblings and that might include a wide-eyed three year old on her first Halloween adventure. So cute. A few of the groups would notice us sitting inside the bar having a margarita and they would rush in holding out their plastic grocery bags for candy afraid that the management would rush them back out before they got their treat. We wanted to talk to them but all they wanted to say was 'hola' and 'gracias' and run back out to collect more goodies.

Then we started to see a few adults who were on their way to a party dressed in Victorian costumes with painted skeleton faces. But basically the Jardin was maybe a bit more crowded than most nights but not much.

Well, friends, things have changed and changed more than I realized. Now there are any number of Calaca events. Calaca is a colloquial Mexican Spanish name for skeleton or skull and you see it used mostly during events for the Mexican Day of the Dead festivals. Here in San Miguel it has turned into a three day holiday of events that are mostly initiated by the gringos. That is not to say that the Mexicans don't participate as well because I saw a lot of school children and young people wearing the calaca makeup but the gringos do seem to having a great time with the costumes and parties.

As I said, I innocently went into town about 5 PM expecting last night to be about the kids and candy. The Jardin was already very crowded. I can't imagine what it was like by 7 PM. I didn't stay. I walked on out to Fabrica Aurora for their art event. Surely if the Jardin was that full of people the Fabrica would not be so crowded. I was wrong again. It, too, was packed with people and Calacas. I had a great time wandering from studio to studio, looking at the art and stopping along the way to talk with friends.

Just about the time I decided that I better try to get a cab and head back across town I met my foto friend, Sally. She was ready to leave as well and invited me to join her for dinner at Don Lupe Grill with some other people that I knew. It was a fun Halloween but very different than what I expected.

In some ways I'm sad about the changes that are happening around Day of the Dead. As I thought about it after I got home last night I also remembered that I had gone to the cemetery yesterday morning and the traditional things were starting to happen. Trucks were coming in loaded with flowers, food and flower venders were setting up their tents. Families were starting to clean graves and repaint the names on the tombstones. Families were greeting friends and walking with each other to their family gravesites. The vendors of the sugar skulls and little animals are set up in town, the bakeries are baking the traditional bread and families are getting ready to make their home altars to honor and remember their loved ones.

So, in a sense, the Calaca festivals are like another layer on the traditional celebration of Day of the Dead. And I think I like the Calacas better than the connotation that Halloween has of haunted houses, malevolent ghosts and goblins who are sinister. The Calacas who walk among us in San Miguel, although they do remind us of death, are not evil spirits who are out to do us harm. Well, no harm unless we have one to many drinks with them at the festival.

I'm working on an altar for Ned. Yes, I have the tequila bottle sitting on it. I still need to buy some Snickers. I can't have him dropping by and not have Snickers for him. Snickers and tequila. That was my Ned.

Locos in Colonia San Antonio

We have had some very strange people on the loose in Colonia San Antonio today. Some seem harmless but I'm not so sure about others.

My plan was to use my 70-200 mm zoom lens so I could get more blur in the background. Didn't work. Ok I could get the blur but that put me too far away from the subject and it was crowded so I was losing shots when people walked between us. So I put on the 24-70 zoom and used it wide open at 2.8 and most of the time at 24 mm. That way I was in close. For those of you who are wondering what the heck I'm talking about, don't worry about it. That is just the technical stuff you think about before you and the camera start having fun.

The Locos Parade has become gigantic. Now the staging area goes almost all the way to the Glorieta by the Mega the grocery store. But it is fun because everyone comes out dressed outrageously and ready to have fun. The people who come to watch are out early to get a good place, hopefully in the shade and most people bring coolers of drinks and umbrellas for shade and for catching the candy that the paraders throw. I even saw a few families who snagged a place to park a car and they were tailgating with tables, chairs and food. Also so saw lots of selfies being made. It is great family fun.

The Virgin of Guadalupe

 

Every year on December 12, the San Antonio Church in my Colonia is the destination of a procession in honor of the Virgin of Guadalupe. I have not been here for it for several years but I'm here this year and headed over to the church. The procession comes up Salida a Celaya and the line stretched back as far as I could see. They are carrying their pictures and statutes of the Virgin to be blessed. There is also a big contingent of people on horseback with banners honoring the Virgin.

 

One thing I didn't see this year were people who came long distances on their knees. The one exception to that was while I was sitting in the church before the procession, one woman came up the aisle of the church on her knees, prayed for a few minutes and then left.

 

With the celebration of the Virgin of Guadalupe it is like the Christmas Season has officially begun. Next it will be the posadas. It is a good time for me and my camera. 

 

 

Dancing in the Jardin

This past weekend was the San Miguel Festival. If you read other SMA blogs or if you are on FaceBook and know anyone in SMA, I'm sure you have seen some incredible photographs of the fireworks, the procession and the Indian dancers. I have made pictures before of the Indian dancers but this time I'm going to show you something else that went on....some different dancers. There was a band in the Jardin and in front of the band were people dancing and having so much fun.



Every time the band would stop, the dancers would clap and call for more.

I love the Festival but I also like to go sit somewhere in the Jardin and look for what is happening that isn't part of the planned festivities.

Weatherproof

The end of the rainy season should be arriving but so far it isn't here. That is okay. We are high desert and we can always use the rain. Especially the rain we have been getting. Mostly a good steady rain for a few hours not monsoon rains that sometimes come. I'm sure the farmers are happy with it.

It is just that it has been so unpredictable. You can look out the window and see sunshine and shadows and by the time you have finished the dishes, dressed and opened the front door, you see rolling clouds and rain to the North in the mountains. Or it could be just the opposite. Rain. So you decide to start a project instead of going out to photograph. Once you are in the middle of the project you look out again and the weather is beautiful…..but you are in the middle of a project and can't stop.

That is the way it has been this weekend with the San Miguel Festival going on. I went into town on Saturday to photography the first communion kids in front of the Parroquia and to wait around for the horses to come in to be blessed although I didn't know exactly what time that would be. When I left the house the weather looked fine. I didn't even take an umbrella with me but the clouds quickly rolled in and it started to rain. I bought an ice cream and waited under cover for quite a while. Finally I decided that I might as well go home because it looked like it had set in for the afternoon. I took this photography while walking home.

When I started walking in the rain I made the attempt to keep the camera covered then I remembered that Olympus claims the OMD and the lens I had on it are weatherproof. Yesterday was the first time I've given my Olympus camera the water test. The camera is still working today so I guess Olympus is right. It is at least rain proof.

Locos Parade....A Week Late

The Locos Parade was last Sunday. I'm running a little behind but I wanted to share the fun. The first time we went to the parade was in the late 1990's. It was a small event at that time. I can remember we were renting a house by the San Antonio church and we had been to the parade in the morning. Later that afternoon we heard music at the plaza in front of the church so we walked over. There were the costumed people from the parade that  morning, dancing. The Mexicans have amazing stamina when it comes to parades and dancing. There were some people watching but we had no trouble finding a place to sit on the steps of the church and watch.

Every year the parade has grown and grown. This year the staging for the parade extended from Cardo to the Glorieta on Salida a Celaya. And the viewers extended from the staging area through town to the Parroquia. I think 90% of the population was either watching or participating.

This was the first time I've seen the Balloon heads in the parade. Very colorful. And if you would like to see some more of what I saw click HERE.

San Miguel's Police Force

Last week at the Locos Parade these policemen were stationed on Ancha de San Antonio near the start of the parade. Seeing their uniforms with pockets for equipment, bullet-proof vests, boots and communication gear reminded me of 2006 when we helped a friend after she had been assaulted. The police guys at that time were skinny young men who looked to be about 18 years old. They had pants and a shirt that said "Police." One of them had the stub of a pencil and one tiny piece of paper to write on but that was okay because his ability to spell and write were very elementary.

A lot has changed in eight years. Today, the policemen and women are men and women who look like they can handle themselves in confrontation. This was the first time I had seen them with dogs and these are some serious dogs. Shortly after I took this picture I saw them take the dogs over to a hotel and get a bucket of water for them. The next time I saw them, they had a man with his hands on the wall and his feet spread. Oh my God, I thought, what has he done. They frisked him and two of them were talking to him sternly. Then they stepped away, turned him away from the parade area and motioned for him to go. He staggered away. Oh, so somehow in the crowd they had seen him, figured he had been partying for too long so they sent him on his way and away from the families at the parade.

There are so many things in Mexico that are different from the US justice system and I'm not going to try to explain my understanding of those differences. However if I need the police, I am glad that they look like they have training, the ability to handle themselves and equipment. And I'm hopeful that the improvements will extend into all areas of the justice system.

The Lord of the Conquest

Today is the Celebration of the Lord of the Conquest. It seems like a strange thing to celebrate and celebrating it with Indian dancers in Indian costumes is also strange to me. That does not stop me from enjoying the festival. This morning as I was walking home from my session with my trainer, the dances had started. I didn't have my camera but that was alright because I wanted to come back at night when I thought I'd get some better images.

It is not easy to get good images at night around the Jardin. The lighting is so difficult. There is a mix of lighting and it is almost impossible to correct it....not to natural....but to something that looks interesting. Added to that the lighting is very low. Out of all the images that I shot there are only three or four where the color and blur work.

The Jardin was packed with people. Mexican families with children. They watched the dances, bought little pull toys for their toddlers and ice cream or corn swathed in mayonnaise for the rest of the family. The couples sat at the stools in front of the vendors selling hamburgers and hot dogs. The teenagers gathered in clumps in the Jardin more interested in each other than the dancers. And the American and Canadian tourists watched from the sidewalks taking it all in. What a great story they will have to tell when they get back home.

Sugar High

Don't let your kids see this. They could get a sugar high just from looking at it. We are still in the Christmas Season here in San Miguel. January 6 is the Three King's Day which is the traditional day for giving gifts and family dinners. Today the markets were filled with toys, clothes and treats. I fell in love with the candy colors.

A Sleeping Pill

I think I'm doing good. Everyone else seems to think I'm doing good but sometimes, I'm not. I think from now to July I'm going to have some hard days.

The memories of the last times we did something together are so vivid. It is like it is double etched in my brain. The memory is beautiful but it reinforces the loss of never having another day like it with Ned.

The first Friday in March is the day of El Señor of the Conquest. Last year as many other years, Ned and I went into town. We had dinner at Brasserie and I wrote about it here. I can remember the exact table we sat at in Brasserie. The flowers in the fountain. The concheros walking toward us on the street as we came out of the restaurant. The bench we sat on eating ice cream. This year that video was playing in my head, over and over in a loop. When I went to bed, I couldn't read a book. All I could do was toss and turn. Finally at 12:30 I got up and took a sleeping pill. I don't take one very often but ocassionally they are a blessing.