Festival International Cervantino Part 2

  On Thursday afternoon with the help of an acquaintance I retrieve my final two guests from the airport. With the arrival of Anna and Alan we are now seven, and after they unpack I'm ready to make them acquainted with Guanajuato.

The first thing to be accomplished is to get pesos. For the most part withdrawing money with your ATM card is the best way to go, and ATM's are usually where you'll get the best exchange rate. You will pay a fee for this, about one to two dollars, so I withdraw enough to last three or four days. By U.S. standards Mexico is pretty inexpensive. For our first night together I take them to Mestizo, one of the best restaurants in the city, and just a short walk from the house. We are seven. Five of us get steak dinners along with a salad, or soup. There are glasses of wine. Bottled mineral water. Desserts and coffee. When the bill comes it is approximately twenty three U.S. dollars apiece, including tip. Everyone is completely amazed and agree that in the U.S. this would have been a very expensive meal.

Dorantes Trio

After our late dinner we walk through town. The streets are filling up, the atmosphere is fun and inviting. Charlotte and I have tickets to see Dorantes Trio. Just outside the door Anna scores a ticket and gets in with us. The venue is small and intimate, maybe a hundred people. David Pena Dorantes, who the program describes as the patriarch of the modern flamenco piano, does not let us down whatsoever. David's blistering piano is accompanied by a relentless percussionist, and the most athletic base player I've ever seen. The music, once tender, races off at a frantic gallop combining melody with odd or opposing timings, along with notes that challenges the listener. But the music is not obscure, no it is often playful, roiling, and rollicky. But almost always there is an edge or twitch to it.
The trio takes the audience to the tipping point and plays with them over and over again.
After the show the three of us walk back to the house admiring the beauty of Guanajuato at night. It's 12:40 when we pass through Plaza San Fernando, and while many of the restaurants have closed a few are still open with people drinking wine, or having coffee and a dessert.

Street musician

On Friday things start to run together. Anna, Alan, and I take in the Museo de Momias. This is my second trip and it still creeps me out, but Alan is in love with the place and takes half a million pictures. The one sure thing about being dead is that no matter how good looking you are when you are alive, we all look like crap when we're dead.
Later in the afternoon a few people head to the Auditorio del Estado for a dance program. Afterwards we meet up  at the house for wine and to catch-up. Then it's back out for dinner before walking to Los Pastitos for a free show called Stalker Theater, Pixel Mountain.
For many Americans when I mention travel to Mexico they bristle. In fact everyone who joined me on this trip had a story to illustrate what I'm saying. But for me Mexico, the city of Guanajuato, and this event, Cervantino, more truly represents the international nature of this country.
Stalker Theater is an Australian physical theater company founded in 1989. Pixel Mountain is a collaboration with artists from South Korea. This dance performance on both a horizontal, and vertical plain, along with lighting effects, was created to call into question technologys' effect on the fast developing country of South Korea, and its people. I only know this because I read the program, and at this point I have to be honest, modern dance performances like this go over my head. But with that said this was a visually stimulating, and thought provoking performance. The interplay between the dancers and the lighting effects is beautiful. The performers are both beholden to the bonds, and actuate the reality created with light. In the end I feel that I have seen a truly wonderful piece, even if it's meaning is lost on me.

Pixel Mountain

Riding the Funicular

Festival International Cervantino 2014 Part 1

  One year ago I started this blog to write about the city of Guanajuato and the festival called Cervantino. If you read my very first blog post you'll find that I'm impulsive, not much for planing, but have a desire to share this event with others. You'll also read that I was told if I wanted anyone to go that I had to plan early, and that is what I did.
I started sending out invitation along with possible itineraries in January/February and by the end of May I had a group of seven, including myself, on board for a trip south. I had never traveled in a group this size and had never organized anything like this, but I felt that if I could just get them down there, that the charm of Mexico would do the rest, and that is exactly what happened.

I flew south about four days before the first of my guest arrived and caught a couple of shows that weekend. The first show was called Article 13 and was held at night in a large dirt lot.

Article 13

The title of the show Article 13 pertains to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a document adopted by the UN General Assembly on December 10th 1948. Article 13 of that document states that 1) Everyone has the right to freedom of movement within the borders of each state. 2) Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country. The directors of this play/installation piece used small vignettes, along with video and audio to tell the story of migrants. Silent actors go through the motions of washing their dusty clothing, at their feet are cut out photos of children, men, and women, giving a feeling of remote sadness, of loss. In another rectangle seated on a crate sits a young man smoking, waiting, but for what. The chance to cross the border, to start a new life? The unknown factors of his endeavor weigh heavily. He knows that he could be robbed, or killed by gangs that prey on people such as he, but he also has the need to create a better life for himself. As you read this, at this moment around the world, tens of thousands of people are put into this situation. They are frighten and filled with anxiety, and this is exactly what is conveyed by this very emotional piece. Suddenly, after we had been there for a hour or so, flood lights that surround the grounds are switched on, the crowd is frozen in place. In the blaring light all of us are exposed, there is no place to hide, a twinge of fear passes through me, and by the reactions around me I am not alone. The effect is visceral, deliberate and completely effective.

Templo de la Valenciana

On Sunday Anne-Marie and I drive up to Templo de la Valenciana to see a group from the country Azerbaijan. Alim Qasimov and his daughter,  Fargana Qasimov are accompanied by two very talented musician playing instruments that I have never seen before - the Kamanche, and the Taar. Alim and Fargana sing their traditional folk songs in clear, strong voices filled with emotion. As I sit listening I can't help but wonder if they could be singing about the heart ache and loss that was so well depicted in Article 13 from the night before, emotions that are universal, timeless.

By Thursday afternoon my group is assemble and safely ensconced in a beautiful home owned by my friends Ethan and Anne-Marie.

Ethan & Anne-Marie 2009

Since my first visit to Guanajuato 2009 I have watched their home be transferred from a wreck to a palace. And ever since that first trip I have been going on and on to people about Guanajuato and trying to convince folks to take a chance on heading south. Now in 2014 I have a group of six friends, all from different eras in my life, gathered for the last weekend of Cervantino. Coffee in the morning, wine at night - let's have some fun!

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Out for dinner in Guanajuato