Lowrey’s body of work encompasses vibrantly colorful paintings and collages that lift the spirits of the viewer. Many incorporate lyrics, poetry, puns and elements of graphic design. They offer a provocative dose of irony or punchy humor, often with a Southern U.S. lilt. Some are abstractions featuring tactile explorations with paint, while others are explosions of geometry and still others are illustrative. At age 91, Lowrey paints for approximately four hours per day.

Building a dream home in Mexico

How did this couple, originally from Alabama and Tennessee, whose careers led them over the decades to various universities and artistic communities in the U.S. South, and who ultimately established themselves in Los Angeles, suddenly decide to move to Mexico?

“Lida had a friend who talked incessantly about a special Mexican town,” explains Lowrey. “We decided we had to see San Miguel de Allende. We came down in 2010 and immediately fell in love with the people, the architecture, the quality of the art scene and the sophistication of the design ethos here that we saw epitomized at YAM Gallery and Skot Foreman Fine Art. Within days, we bought a colonial-era house on Canal Street.”

“We named the house Casa de los Tíos in honor of the inheritance we had each received from beloved uncles, which enabled us to buy it.” The couple worked with Barboza Arquitectos to create a multiple-story, light-filled interior.

Then they set about building their dream home in the countryside on the outskirts of San Miguel. Working with another Mexican architect, Luis Sánchez Renero, they designed a truly spectacular house that would provide each of them with a gorgeous studio. The house consists of three glass pavilions connected by glass corridors. The stunning home has been featured in various international magazines, from Italy to Brazil.

“My parents were ahead of their time in the way they moved between the disciplines of art and design. They both had a profound, intuitive curiosity about the connections, overlap and points of mutual inspiration in the art and design worlds,” noted their daughter, artist Sheridan Lowrey, who has added numerous dramatic, intriguing art installations to the landscape surrounding the home. She uses locally-made tiles and displays Mexican vernacular pottery.

Making artistic connections in San Miguel de Allende

“I love L.A. and miss many things about the South — the waterfalls and mountains, the places I danced in my youth — but I have found fresh inspiration and beauty here in Mexico,” noted Lowrey. 

In San Miguel, the Lowreys discovered a thriving community of art- and design-oriented expats and found that noted L.A. artists such as Lari Pittman and Roy Dowell had homes here. San Miguel’s art scene has certainly evolved over the years. For decades, art students have come to study at the Instituto Allende and Bellas Artes. Now those storied institutions are somewhat less central to the scene, with many established artists working out of Fabrica la Aurora and creating their own studio spaces throughout the city and its environs.

Pilgrimages to San Miguel by Lowrey’s former art and design students

Lowrey received his undergraduate and graduate degrees at Auburn University in graphic design and fine art. He was a career professor of graphic design at the University of Georgia, Indiana State University and last and longest at North Carolina State School of Design.

In each place Austin and Lida lived, they established architecturally interesting live-work spaces for themselves. They did this in the university towns of Raleigh, North Carolina; Athens, Georgia; and Terre Haute, Indiana. In Terre Haute, for example, Lida bought an old church in a blue-collar neighborhood and turned it into a gallery and antiques store named Revival.

Eventually, they moved to San Pedro, the port of Los Angeles, where they became well-established in the local artist community. They had conjoined 3,000-square-foot spaces; Austin’s space was decorated with early American art pottery, flea market objects and outsider art and design, while Lida’s was a white cube gallery.

Lowrey’s students keep in touch with him, and a number have journeyed to San Miguel to visit him, including, most recently, the previous design director at Appalachian State University.

Lowrey even taught his daughter Sheridan at North Carolina State University. “My parents have always been my best friends,” she said, “because we share a love for art and design.”

Lowrey’s other daughter, Elizabeth, is an architect recently named one of Boston Magazine’s 50 Most Influential Bostonians of 2024.

Lida, who passed away in 2020, described herself as “a prolific artist, working in various paint and print media exploring both abstract and representational imagery with conceptual and technical vigor.” Her work, she wrote “is also knowingly referential and witty in subject matter and form.”

Debra Broussard, Lowrey’s current gallerist, noted that “Both the artist and his art are not only deeply sophisticated and moving but also approachable and welcoming.” Lowrey’s work may be viewed at the San Miguel Art Loft.

To learn more, visit sanmiguelartloft.com. To schedule a private viewing of Austin Lowrey’s work, contact Debra Broussard at info@sanmiguelartloft.com. 

Based in San Miguel de Allende, Ann Marie Jackson is a writer and NGO leader who previously worked for the U.S. Department of State. Her award-winning novel “The Broken Hummingbird,” which is set in San Miguel de Allende, came out in October 2023. Ann Marie can be reached through her website, annmariejacksonauthor.com.

The post Austin Lowrey: Still creating provocative art at 91 appeared first on Mexico News Daily

This remarkable initiative is led by an American expat who recently returned from San Miguel de Allende to New York City. For six years, from 2016 to 2022, New Yorker and anti-trust lawyer Tracey Kitzman lived with her young son and daughter in San Miguel de Allende, where the kids became bilingual and the whole family regularly volunteered in the community. Kitzman was the president of women’s microlending organization Mano Amiga and the volunteer coordinator for Casita Linda, which builds homes for families living in extreme poverty. Kitzman and her family continue to work with Casita Linda by leading service trips for groups of students and volunteers who have raised money to fund a Casita Linda home.  

In 2018, migrant caravans traveled through central Mexico, and Kitzman joined volunteers who donated food and other critical supplies. She was particularly inspired by a friend, fellow San Miguel expat and attorney Rebecca Eichler, who traveled to join the caravan to provide pro bono legal assistance, an effort chronicled in the award-winning documentary film Las Abogadas.

The family returned to New York City in fall 2022 for Kitzman’s son to attend high school. At that time, Governor Greg Abbott of Texas had started sending busloads of migrants to New York, so Kitzman and her children immediately volunteered with a nonprofit organization called Team TLC NYC. Their role was to greet and assist people coming off the buses at the Port Authority terminal, putting their Spanish skills to good use. At that point, the Port Authority allowed Team TLC to work out of an old American Greetings card store in the terminal. “It was chaotic but wonderful,” said Kitzman. “I was proud to see New Yorkers stepping up to help people in need.”

Kitzman quickly offered to organize volunteer lawyers to assist the asylum seekers. She teamed up with Jethro Eisenstein and Michael Barkow, retired attorneys with pro bono experience in immigration law. They started running a triage table at the Port Authority and soon realized that what people needed most was assistance in filing for asylum applications and work authorization. Given the huge influx of migrants, particularly from Central and South America and West Africa, the capacity of other pro bono providers was maxed out.  

So they offered their first legal clinic in June 2023 at Plymouth Church in Brooklyn Heights, where Kitzman is a member of the congregation, and they have been running them weekly since September 2023.

“The people we work with are anxious about the future, eager to comply with the rules of a system that they don’t understand, and grateful for our assistance. It is a pleasure to work with them,” said attorney Jethro Eisenstein.

“It’s rewarding to give people hope when they are facing an intimidating, somewhat arbitrary system,” Kitzman continued. “I have to say it’s challenging for anyone to navigate a bureaucracy in a new country while learning a new language. I am a lawyer myself, but when I lived in Mexico I found myself needing to hire a local advocate to assist me in applying for residency visas for my family. Even basic biographical information is difficult to provide when you have to do it in another language.”

The legal clinics offer only pro se (self-representation) assistance because of the volume of applicants. The advocates focus on the critical step of getting the asylum seekers’ applications correctly submitted, but they unfortunately do not have the resources to then support each applicant throughout what is often a multi-year adjudication process.

One key form of assistance that Team TLC NYC volunteers provide is helping individuals apply for work authorization. Being able to work legally in the United States is a primary goal of many of the migrants that attend the clinics, according to Kitzman. “I receive so many wonderful photos from people when they get their work authorization cards. There is such joy in the photos.”

Team TLC NYC volunteers also assist migrants with filing for changes of venue and updating their address with the court and immigration service.  Because many migrants are initially housed in city shelters that require people to reapply for spaces every 30-60 days, address updates are all too frequently needed. The group also provides monthly training sessions on the asylum process and work authorization for their own volunteer advocates and for volunteers from other organizations.

“The triage operation spearheaded by Tracey Kitzman has helped scores of people to navigate the immigration system,” noted Eisenstein.

Team TLC NYC, founded in 2019 by Ilze Thielmann, also runs the Little Shop of Kindness, a boutique where migrants can shop for free. The store offers clothing, toys, toiletries, and other necessities. 

Based in San Miguel de Allende, Ann Marie Jackson is a writer and NGO leader who previously worked for the U.S. Department of State. Her award-winning novel “The Broken Hummingbird,” which is set in San Miguel de Allende, came out in October 2023. Ann Marie can be reached through her website, annmariejacksonauthor.com.

The post Former San Miguel expat starts migrant legal aid clinic in New York City appeared first on Mexico News Daily

Animalitos SMA (or YoAnimalitos SMA), was founded by Crystal Calderoni in 2022 and is currently run by Hannah Hoch and Michellene Kandert.

Teams of volunteers work three-hour shifts four days per week at Control Canino, providing food, medications and supplies for all the animals, bathing and exercising them, and seeking private veterinary care when needed. They also undertake vigorous outreach efforts to place as many of the animals as possible in loving homes before they must be put down 10 days after their arrival at the pound.

These volunteers’ efforts are especially significant because there has historically been a fraught relationship between San Miguel’s Control Canino and previous volunteers, with some volunteers finding themselves banned from the facility for questioning the welfare of the animals. The municipal government and YoAnimalitos SMA are working to improve that relationship for the good of the dogs — and the few cats — in their care.

YoAnimalitos SMA continues to lobby for a higher standard of care, including the regular provision of food, veterinary care and exercise on the days volunteers are not at the facility and for humane euthanasia methods for those animals who sadly are not adopted before the 10-day limit is up. A liaison officer, Yanis Romero, from the office of the Director of Public Services, Laura Flores, now regularly joins the volunteers at the facility to troubleshoot problems.

“We’re moving in the right direction, due to the strength, passion and heroic efforts of our volunteers,” noted organizer Michellene Kandert.

To the best of the nonprofit’s knowledge, 514 dogs landed at Control Canino from January through October 2024. Of those, the group managed to rescue 212. The majority of the rescued dogs have been adopted, while some are now living in foster care awaiting permanent adoption. Also, 17 dogs (4% of the total) were returned to their owners. 

YoAnimalitos SMA has achieved this huge increase in adoptions through a concerted social media campaign on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube, and through other outreach efforts. To learn more about the animals currently available for adoption, visit the group’s Facebook page, YoAnimalitos SMA SMA – Los Voluntarios de Control Canino. 

YoAnimalitos SMA has invested approximately US $17,000 in improving the facilities at Control Canino on land generously donated by Arno K. Naumann, an expat who also founded the nonprofit organization Amigos de Animales de San Miguel de Allende to address the overpopulation of dogs and cats in the area through spay and neuter campaigns. Naumann was a tireless advocate of animal welfare until his death in 2021. Amigos de Animales recently began providing partial reimbursement to YoAnimalitos SMA to defray the expense of sterilizing each animal adopted from Control Canino.

“We hope that someday the government will utilize the building on this land that was intended to become a spay and neuter clinic,” noted YoAnimalitos SMA founder Crystal Calderoni, “because making sterilization a municipal priority is the only effective way to mitigate the need for a kill shelter.”

YoAnimalitos SMA also works with various local groups and individuals such as Lucky Dog and Jessica Princess Pea. By combining their efforts, they find more homes for more dogs.

The organization has developed strong adoption protocols, accompanying new owners on initial required veterinary visits — and paying for the veterinary services if the adopter is of limited means.

Another important improvement that YoAnimalitos SMA is currently pushing the government to adopt is the use of red biohazard bags for euthanized dogs (since they are not cremated due to lack of a cremation facility). The corpses are currently disposed of in standard black garbage bags which creates a potential biohazard for trash pickers at the municipal dump who scavenge for valuables in the garbage.

How readers can help

YoAnimalitos SMA eagerly welcomes volunteers, who can be helpful in a variety of ways, from directly caring for the animals at Control Canino to hosting fundraisers for the organization. The annual budget required is a minimum of US $25,000 for food, veterinary care, equipment, and some of the transport costs for dogs who are adopted by people living in the U.S. and Canada.

Readers can also support the organization’s efforts with in-kind donations of dog and cat food, collars, leashes, blankets, treats, sweaters for the winter, flea + tick shampoo, and cleaning supplies, and through PayPal donations. Two of the volunteers also host a monthly yoga class in San Miguel de Allende as a fundraiser. To donate, volunteer, and attend or host a fundraiser, contact the organizers through YoAnimalitos SMA SMA – Los Voluntarios de Control Canino.

Based in San Miguel de Allende, Ann Marie Jackson is a writer and NGO leader who previously worked for the U.S. Department of State. Her award-winning novel “The Broken Hummingbird,” which is set in San Miguel de Allende, came out in October 2023. Ann Marie can be reached through her website, annmariejacksonauthor.com.

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Conference headliners include such diverse talents as Edoardo Ballerini, the actor, writer, and celebrated narrator of audiobooks who was called “the Voice of God” in a New York Times profile, and Ivy Pochoda, a former professional athlete and award-winning author who will discuss the role sports have played in her creative life — and how a collaboration with Kobe Bryant helped her understand the symbiotic link between her two passions. There will also be an appearance by Harrison Ball, a former NYC Ballet principal dancer, who will discuss the psychology and history of ballet and its relevance to culture today.

Special events with limited audience participation include the world premiere of a Live Audio Drama, Invasion Earthship, with Nathan Feuerberg and the Deadly Dinn Party: Writing a Murder Mystery, with Andrew Buckley. Each day of the festival will close out at Smokey Joe’s Café, a pop-up bar with live entertainment.

Festival director Tina Bueche shared the inspiration behind Art of the Story. “We invented this festival because we identified something that wasn’t happening here in this amazingly artistic town. It was not that there was anything wrong with what was happening, but we found a gap, a void,” she explained. “We’re filling that void by offering new perspectives, new conversations, and celebrating the beautiful fact that San Miguel is incredibly rich in artistic talent. We are giving artists of all kinds — writers, painters, actors, photographers, podcasters, and much more — a way to experiment, blur some edges, and try new things outside their comfort zones. Pushing those limits can be transformative.”

Diego Guerrero, another festival organizer, agreed. “We’re proud of San Miguel’s wealth of local talent, by which I mean both Mexicans and foreigners who have been living here for some time and have truly integrated into the community. At our festival,” he continued, “participants will use many different artforms to tell their stories—and we know everyone has something to say. It is important to us to welcome new voices and build community among artists of all kinds.”

Nathan Feuerberg, another member of the festival’s leadership team, explained that proceeds from Art of the Story underwrite Spark: Imagine Your Story, a free three-day event in Spanish for children and teens filled with interactive experiences and activities designed to stimulate creativity and self-expression. Developed in conjunction with beloved local nonprofit Vivos y Muertos, the first annual edition of Spark was held in August 2024 at the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes’ Centro Cultural El Nigromante in San Miguel de Allende. More than 200 children attended.

Festival tickets are still available. Visit https://artofthestorysanmiguel.org/ to learn more and purchase your tickets. Individual sessions cost USD$20-40 and a complete Festival Pass is available for US $350. Art of the Story is a 501(c)(3) organization.

Based in San Miguel de Allende, Ann Marie Jackson is a writer and NGO leader who previously worked for the U.S. Department of State. Her award-winning novel “The Broken Hummingbird,” which is set in San Miguel de Allende, came out in October 2023. Ann Marie can be reached through her website, annmariejacksonauthor.com.

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But one small community with a big claim to fame adds a particularly poignant commemoration to the mix. The community of la Erre, home to the once-powerful Hacienda de la Asunción de la Erre, lies four kilometers from that famous church in Dolores Hidalgo, and it was the first stop for Padre Hidalgo and his ragtag band of soldiers on their march to war.

The actual Grito de Dolores happened around 2:30 a.m. on September 16, 1810, when Hidalgo rang the church bells to call his congregation from their beds. With Ignacio Allende and Juan Aldama at his side, the priest urged his people to revolt. While Allende and Aldama then rode off to garner reinforcements, Hidalgo led a band of men to the Hacienda de la Erre, where they arrived around dawn. Allende and Aldama joined them there, and over a meal with the owners of the hacienda, Miguel, Luis and Manuel María Malo, they reflected on what they had just done and considered how best to move forward. They established the first cabildo, or leadership structure, for their fledgling revolutionary army. Moreover, Father Hidalgo said a mass for the assembled rebels—who represented a wide variety of social classes—under a mesquite tree at 11 a.m. that morning, providing a powerful religious imprimatur to the cause of justice and independence. So fortified, the fledgling fighters then marched on to Atotonilco and San Miguel de Allende.

A commemorative mass is now said every year on that exact spot, by the sacred mesquite tree. According to a plaque at the site, the mesquite has survived floods, fires, logging and even a lightning bolt that cracked it, causing many of its branches to lie at ground level, from which new branches have taken root. The tree is fenced off for protection, but at this year’s commemorative mass, no one complained when a young child climbed onto the inviting branches. As one bystander commented, “It is for her, our future, isn’t it, that we preserve the past?”

The Hacienda de la Erre was one of the oldest in Mexico founded by the sixth Mariscal de Castilla, Tristán de Luna y Arellano, soon after his arrival in México in 1535. Construction of the current buildings began in 1635.

At this year’s commemorative mass, subdelegada (local government representative) Erika Morales shared her passion for her community and its place in history. “My family has lived here for generations. I feel a profound connection to this earth and the powerful moment in history that occurred right here. Here, the values of independence, brotherhood, justice, and faith were put forth as the goals of our nation.”

The current condition of the hacienda makes the annual commemorative event all the more poignant. While the 389-year-old exterior walls of the enormous main house still stand, the interior is crumbling into ruin due to severe floods that have caused the foundation to sink by several meters. This and other difficulties such as Conagua expropriation, pillaging, and the economic challenges of maintaining such a property have resulted in it becoming unlivable.

“I feel such nostalgia for my childhood here in this beautiful place,” said Angelina Torres Aguilar, who co-owns the property with other family members. She grew up at the ex-hacienda when it was still a working cattle ranch with turkeys and over a hundred peacocks. The villagers would gather peacock feathers and take them into Dolores to sell. “We dream of one day being able to restore it to a condition worthy of its history.”

Her daughter, Laura Rodríguez Torres, shared more of that history: “The Ruta de la Plata, the main road of Camino Real Tierra Adentro, connecting mines, haciendas and towns from Guanajuato to Mexico City and Veracruz among many more cities, ran right through here, by the hacienda. All major trade routes, such as the Silk Road, bring together people from all over the world with different belief systems, spices, plants, and animals, and that’s exactly what happened here: there was a great mestizaje, a tumultuous mixing of the Spanish, the local Chichimecas, Otomís, free mulatos as well as indigenous cultures brought in from other parts of Mexico, too, plus quite a few Africans. At that time, this region was Nuevo España’s northern frontier. The diverse contributions of so many different cultures forged this country.”

She continued, “There has certainly been suffering in the course of that history. As the priest said in his sermon today, our society still must strive toward justice in order to create peace. We still have work to do — and remembering our history is an important part of it.”

Based in San Miguel de Allende, Ann Marie Jackson is a writer and NGO leader who previously worked for the U.S. Department of State. Her award-winning novel “The Broken Hummingbird,” which is set in San Miguel de Allende, came out in October 2023. Ann Marie can be reached through her website, annmariejacksonauthor.com.

The post How a revolutionary sermon under a mesquite tree shaped modern Mexico appeared first on Mexico News Daily

Escaping from the Soviet Union after Stalin took over Estonia

In 1940, the Soviet Union annexed Estonia, along with Latvia and Lithuania, and in the process, murdered many members of the intelligentsia and anyone else who stood in the way. When the Nazis invaded in 1941, the situation only worsened. The Soviet Union reclaimed control over Estonia in 1944, after the fall of the Third Reich. Onno fled her homeland for Germany, living as a displaced person in a camp where she received her early education. During this time, Onno’s family splintered and her education was repeatedly disrupted, but she survived. Finally at age 14, with the help of two aunts she hardly knew, Onno was able to leave in 1948 “on the last boat left in the harbor,” as she describes it. She never saw most of her family members again.

Onno found refuge in Canada, where she discovered her passion and talent for art at the H.B. Beal Technical School in London, Ontario. In 1957, she earned a one-year scholarship to study under noted muralist James Pinto at the Instituto Allende in San Miguel de Allende. Although Onno could not have guessed at the time, this decision would lead to her spending most of the next seven decades in Mexico.

A life in the heyday of San Miguel de Allende’s international art scene

Recognizing Onno’s talent, the head of the Instituto Allende extended her scholarship for a second year, and then a third. There Onno met renowned German sculptor Lothar Kestenbaum. The two eventually married, and with the exception of two years in Rome on a fellowship and several years when Kestenbaum taught in Santa Barbara, California, and at the University of Wisconsin, they lived in San Miguel.

At the time of Onno’s arrival in 1957, San Miguel de Allende was a town of only 15,000 people. Yet it already had a thriving international art scene, thanks to the efforts of visionaries such as the Peruvian Felipe Cossío del Pomar, who founded the Escuela Universitaria de Bellas Artes in 1938, and American Stirling Dickinson, the first director of the school, who promoted it to expatriate artists, including American WWII veterans who studied for free under the GI Bill. Famed Mexican muralist David Alfaro Siqueiros was one of the generational talents who lectured at Bellas Artes, which produced some of the finest artists of the era.

Both Onno and Kestenbaum taught at Bellas Artes for many years themselves, before shifting to teaching private lessons out of their home studios. The couple, and later their son, David Kestenbaum, were influential in the San Miguel art scene for decades.

As Onno explained to M.B. Paul, author of “Conversations with Artists,” she has in some ways always felt displaced, ever since the initial ruptures of her childhood. “I have been displaced in so many ways, through the Second World War, losing my country, being shoveled into a detention camp in Germany, with great difficulty being allowed to immigrate into Canada, and then coming to Mexico where you can live a lifetime but still be a foreigner. I belong here and yet deep down I don’t belong here.”

But a powerful connection grew. “Over these many years,” she continued, “I have absorbed the influences of nature, the explosion of light as it hits the trees and flowers, the glow. What Mexico brought to me was the tremendous natural world, the sunlight, the plants, the landscapes, the enormous contrast between light and dark, the sun and shadow, the intense color; these have been my inspiration and my life here. I have absorbed it. It has become a part of me completely. So in this way, I belong.”

Onno credits San Miguel’s creative atmosphere and lower cost of living — at least in previous decades — with enabling her family to live their desired artistic life. “It made it possible for us both to pursue the creative life. We could live comfortably on a small income, the climate is good, and there were fellow artists close by, people of like minds with whom we could exchange ideas. Especially in the ‘60s and ‘70s, there was a nucleus of foreign artists who in turn attracted eccentrics, odd but brilliant people, so it was a wonderful milieu.”

Triumph and tragedy marked Onno’s seven-decade career in San Miguel de Allende

Onno emphasizes that she, her husband and eventually their talented son, who both sculpted like his father and painted like his mother, inspired each other and often exhibited their work together. “It was always the three of us, as equals. Oh, of course sometimes one or another was creating stronger work, but we didn’t let that bother us. We loved to exhibit together and let the pieces live in conversation with each other. We inevitably played off each other.”

Her husband was a larger-than-life figure whose work often garnered intense attention. “Mai reminds me of Leonora Carrington in the sense that she is a European artist who spent a lifetime in Mexico after World War II and despite producing work of incredible depth and quality found herself somewhat overshadowed by the men in her life,” noted Debra Broussard, Onno’s current gallery representative and friend. “Women’s art was often undervalued at that time.”

Onno’s work first earned public attention in the 1960s after one of her paintings won a competition judged by famed Mexican painter Rufino Tamayo.

Onno is best known for her abstract landscapes that emphasize distance and space, featuring organic forms and strong brushstrokes. As she explained, “Decades ago, as I started on my creative path, I had to find a world that belonged to me. I found it in nature, in the biomorphic forms, an inspired field of awesome beauty, power and intelligence. [While] my paintings have been labeled lyrical abstractions, they really are nature in all its diversity.”

Lothar Kestenbaum developed Parkinson’s disease in the 1980s and passed away in 1995. Sadly, their son, David Kestenbaum, known in particular for the iconic metal bull that stands at the entrance to the Instituto de Bellas Artes today, also died in 2013 at just 48 years old. When asked how she survived these losses and continued to celebrate beauty in her art, Onno replied simply that she had no choice. “You take in the pain,” she said, “you absorb it, and then you force yourself to keep going. There is no other option.”

Still exhibiting her work and that of her remarkable family

To learn more about the work of Mai Onno, Lothar Kestenbaum and David Kestenbaum, visit the website of the San Miguel Art Loft. To schedule a private viewing, contact Debra Broussard at info@sanmiguelartloft.com.

Moreover, Onno encourages readers to dive in and explore the rich art scene that is currently thriving, just like Mai Onno herself, in San Miguel de Allende.

Based in San Miguel de Allende, Ann Marie Jackson is a writer and NGO leader who previously worked for the U.S. Department of State. Her award-winning novel “The Broken Hummingbird,” which is set in San Miguel de Allende, came out in October 2023. Ann Marie can be reached through her website, annmariejacksonauthor.com.

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The situation in the state of Guanajuato is particularly dire. The only state with a higher water stress index is Baja California Sur. In Guanajuato, 65% of the state’s aquifers are overexploited, with water table levels dropping by 1-3 meters per year. In the Upper Rio Laja Watershed, for example, which serves 740,000 people, when residents drilled wells in the 1960s, they only had to go down 5-50 meters. By the 1980s, the population of the watershed was already over-extracting groundwater. Since then, the water table has dropped hundreds of meters, so current wells must be dug up to 500 meters deep.

Moreover, in Guanajuato, according to the State Water Commission, 84% of the groundwater extracted goes to agriculture, especially alfalfa, a water-intensive crop used to feed cattle.

Water scarcity leads to an even bigger problem: arsenic and fluoride contamination

Because wells must now be dug to such an extreme depth, we are accessing “fossil water” that has been held deep in the ground for tens of thousands of years, taking up minerals and metals from volcanic rock. Some, such as calcium and magnesium, are beneficial, but some absolutely are not: arsenic and fluoride. 61% of all wells tested by Caminos de Agua in the Upper Rio Laja Watershed demonstrated excessive levels of arsenic and/or fluoride. Arsenic levels of up to 23 times the allowable limit were discovered.

Across Mexico, 21 million people are exposed to excessive levels of arsenic and/or fluoride in their drinking water, as are 200-300 million people globally. The health impacts of excessive fluoride include irreversible dental fluorosis, whereby teeth turn brown and eventually crumble; crippling skeletal fluorosis, which is the weakening and deformation of bones; and cognitive developmental impairments and learning disabilities in children.

Arsenic causes skin cancer, gallbladder cancer, and possibly other cancers, as well as skin lesions, cognitive developmental delays, and kidney disease. Mexico has a higher rate of kidney disease than almost anywhere else in the world.

How to remove arsenic and fluoride from drinking water?

Removing arsenic and fluoride, along with other chemicals such as pesticides and nitrates from livestock farm runoff, is very difficult to do. Boiling water only concentrates the chemicals, and none of the usual water filters, which are effective on pathogens, remove these chemicals.

Therefore, Caminos de Agua, a small but impressively impactful nonprofit organization in San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, has brought to bear a wide range of resources to address the problem of arsenic and fluoride contamination. The team began by monitoring water quality at 600 sites throughout the Upper Rio Laja Watershed. Finding widespread contamination, they turned to installing rainwater catchment systems on the roofs of homes and schools to capture and store water that is inherently free of harmful chemicals, coupled with inexpensive ceramic filters to remove pathogens. By partnering with other water organizations throughout Mexico, they have impacted 45,000 people in this way.

Then they spent six years developing a community-scale groundwater treatment system specifically designed to remove arsenic and fluoride that is also adaptable for many other contaminants. Now, for the same cost as two rainwater catchment systems that serve two families, they can install a groundwater treatment system to serve 50 families. The design can be scaled for thousands of people. The systems are made from locally available materials, designed for easy maintenance, and proven in real-world conditions. In 2021, they installed their pilot system in the rural village of Los Ricos.  

“The most important aspect of the system isn’t technical; it’s human,” noted Dylan Terrell, Executive Director and Founder of Caminos de Agua. “This system is owned and now completely operated by a group of local women who initially came together because they were concerned about the health of their children. Today they are in charge of their entire community’s first source of clean drinking water.”

The women learned to independently monitor the system, fix leaks, and troubleshoot. They monitor water quality and take payments, making the system operationally and economically sustainable over time. Each family in the community pays a nominal fee of 50 pesos per month.

“The system took time to build, and we built it together with community members, which is good, because technology alone is not a solution,” said Terrell. “If we’re going to solve these increasingly complex problems around water and other environmental challenges, we need to create this type of marriage between technology and humanity. We do that by designing technologies with the active involvement of the people most affected by the problems. That is how we create lasting solutions.”

“The two principles that drive our work in local communities are co-responsibility and respect,” emphasized Casilda Barajas, Director of Social Outreach. “Truly collaborative community partnerships may take longer to build, but they create the best path to sustainability.”

Caminos de Agua recently brought a second, larger groundwater treatment system online in March 2024 in the community of Alonso Yáñez, serving 270 families or approximately 1,500 people. They also launched a pioneering public health study in Alonso Yáñez in collaboration with researchers from Mexico’s National Institute of Public Health, Columbia University, and the University of Colorado. The researchers measure biomarkers for kidney damage in children who were exposed to fluoride levels more than five times higher than the allowable limit. They will subsequently assess changes in the children’s health after drinking clean water with the contamination removed.

“Our vision is to have 10 groundwater treatment units operational within the next 5 years, each one community-owned and operated, thereby demonstrating a scalable, autonomous solution to a critical global water quality challenge, creating both a technical and social blueprint for addressing these challenges in underserved communities throughout Mexico and beyond,” explained Terrell.

This year, Caminos de Agua will also continue to scale up their installation of rainwater catchment systems. “We are planning to construct a staggering 350 large-scale rainwater harvesting systems in 2024, complete with accompanying filtration.”

Terrell stresses that although the organization is having an impressive impact, much more work is needed by many actors to address the issue of contamination and overall water scarcity. Many people have urged the national government to pass laws to defragment water management in the country and better regulate water concessions in order to fulfill the human right to water enshrined in the Mexican constitution. Further, Terrell and other activists argue that agricultural producers must finally begin to pay for the water they use, which will incentivize them to pursue less water-intensive methods, leaving more water for direct human consumption.

In addition, massive investment in water infrastructure is needed throughout Mexico. Currently, a frustrating 40 percent of public water is lost to leaks. Due to underinvestment in water infrastructure over the last half-century, 57% of Mexico’s population still does not have access to safely managed drinking water, a shameful fact in a country with an economy as large as Mexico’s. That percentage is on par with some of the least developed countries in the world. As a result, Mexico is the world’s biggest consumer per capita of bottled water.

Water schools: finding a way forward

Educational efforts, including technical workshops and community-building initiatives, are an important part of Caminos de Agua’s work. This year, the organization is launching a three-year “Water School” initiative. Twenty instructors will train 30 young community organizers from throughout the Upper Rio Laja Watershed on watershed management, rainwater harvesting and filtration technologies, reforestation, composting toilets, community-scale retention ponds, and more.

“Through these efforts, we aim to foster a new cohort of community leaders committed to safeguarding our local resources into the future,” said Barajas.

To learn more about the water crisis and the innovative programs of Caminos de Agua, visit www.caminosdeagua.org. 

Based in San Miguel de Allende, Ann Marie Jackson is a writer and NGO leader who previously worked for the U.S. Department of State. Her award-winning novel “The Broken Hummingbird,” which is set in San Miguel de Allende, came out in October 2023. Ann Marie can be reached through her website, annmariejacksonauthor.com.

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“For over three decades,” Riojas-Nolasco explained, “I worked as a pianist, vocal coach, and assistant conductor in some of the most important opera houses around the world, mostly in Europe. In those elite venues, I played 30 to 35 operas a year, often with daily performances.”

Riojas-Nolasco’s international experience in the preparation and perfection of artists in the operatic field is certainly extensive. He has performed in nearly 30 countries, including at such venues as the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Russia and the Kennedy Center and Carnegie Hall in the United States, and collaborated with many of the greatest singers and conductors in the world, such as Plácido Domingo, Javier Camarena, Rolando Villazón, Roberto Alagna, José Carreras, Neil Schikof, Francisco Araiza, Ramón Vargas, Edita Gruberova, Elina Garança, Cecilia Bartoli, Mirella Freni, and Renata Scotto.

In 2014, Ramón Vargas, the famed Mexican tenor, was named director of the Opera de Bellas Artes in Mexico City. Vargas invited Riojas-Nolasco to come home to Mexico to develop the Fine Arts Opera Studio there.

“Of course I said yes,” explained Riojas-Nolasco. “For five years, I was the director and primary coach. It was a very successful program: my students won 14 international prizes.”

In 2022, Riojas-Nolasco felt inspired to move to San Miguel de Allende to launch his own studio. “Some of my students came with me,” he noted. “Olymar Salinas, for example, an incredible young tenor, has been studying with me for almost seven years now, since he was 18 years old, and he’s doing very well.”

Salinas himself explained: “Many young singers are looking for a place like Operísima México to train in voice, movement, languages, and more, to build our repertoires and gain experience. In my case, performing in Europe and the United States has been invaluable.”

The Covid-19 pandemic interrupted the careers of many young singers. “In the moment when they should have started to do something important, their careers were blocked by the pandemic,” said Riojas-Nolasco. “I want to help these talented young people succeed now, to make up for lost time.”

When Riojas-Nolasco arrived in San Miguel de Allende, “The first institution to throw open their doors to us was Casa Europa. We performed five complete operas there, and I used a rotating cast to give all my students a chance to perform. They rotated between soloist and choir positions. It is important to me that young singers gain experience performing complete operas in order to be hired at leading opera houses. The directors need to see proof of the stamina and vocal maturity to finish a three-hour opera.”

Two of the maestro’s students, Salinas and Karla Pineda, went to the finals for the Vienna Opera last year, a huge honor for any young singer in the world. Salinas also made it to the semifinals for the Metropolitan Opera in New York, an impressive accomplishment.

“For me, as a Costa Rican singer, joining Operísima México has been an incredible experience,” Pineda explained. “I have learned so much from our amazing maestro and gained access to important competitions and auditions in Europe as well as here in the Americas. I am so thankful.”

The next phase for Operísima México is one of institutional development. The organization is in the process of obtaining official nonprofit status, at which point donations will become tax-deductible. Riojas-Nolasco credits Jack Kelly, executive director, for his exhaustive fundraising efforts. For example, Kelly organized a private event at beautiful Casa Proserpina in San Miguel de Allende to raise funds for Salinas and Pineda’s travel to Vienna and New York.

Riojas-Nolasco acknowledges that fundraising goals will remain significant for the foreseeable future. “As our studio grows, I hope to hire a variety of specialists. Right now, I am the director, pianist, acting coach, and language teacher. I speak German, French, Italian, Spanish, and English.”

“Eventually,” he continued, “we intend to have our own physical space, our own performing arts center. We have been welcomed at venues throughout San Miguel de Allende, such as Casa Europa, Villa Puccini MusikHaus, and now Foro Obraje, but it will be wonderful to have our own permanent venue, as well as dedicated housing and living stipends for the students — the kind of benefits my students in Mexico City received. We want them to be able to focus entirely on their music and not have to work other jobs to survive. Currently, kind donors are paying the rent for a house for five of the girls. We are so grateful for every bit of support we receive along the way.”

Operísima México is proud to offer residents of San Miguel the opportunity to enjoy opera throughout the year. Not only will the group perform a number of complete operas every year, but they also plan to offer an evening of opera highlights every other Thursday, beginning in July. Riojas-Nolasco hopes “Thursday night at the Opera” will become a regular part of many Sanmigelenses’ routines.

Further, he noted, “We are delighted by the growing opera community in San Miguel de Allende and proud to be part of it. For example, some of our students have participated, quite successfully, in competitions sponsored by Opera de San Miguel and the San Miguel MetOpera Trust.”

Operísima México will next present “Opera Scenes, Program 2” featuring works by Verdi, Puccini, Bizet, Strauss, Gounod, Mozart, and Donizetti at Arthur Murray San Miguel on May 31 and June 1 at 7:00. Tickets are available online for MXN$500 and at the El Petit Four café. 

Currently, the best way to connect with Maestro Rogelio Riojas-Nolasco to support this exciting new opera studio in San Miguel de Allende is through the group’s Facebook page.

Based in San Miguel de Allende, Ann Marie Jackson is a writer and NGO leader who previously worked for the U.S. Department of State. Her award-winning novel “The Broken Hummingbird,” which is set in San Miguel de Allende, came out in October 2023. Ann Marie can be reached through her website, annmariejacksonauthor.com.

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In the state of Guanajuato, faced with deforested land and an escalating water crisis, several innovators in regenerative agriculture are utilizing the amazing properties of the agave plant, to capture moisture from the nighttime air. These plants survive on a single liter of water per year and generate impressive results. They have also been used to improve environmental conditions enough to see pumas return to the wilds.

Such was the experience of the Trapp family of Hacienda Cañada de la Virgen, whose innovative reforestation system, centered around the agave plant, has enabled the return of the puma to their five-thousand-hectare organic, grass-fed cattle ranch and nature preserve near San Miguel de Allende. One great cat was recently photographed by a livestock camera after not having been seen in the area for decades.

Deforestation in Mexico began with the Spaniards’ arrival five hundred years ago and has never stopped. Huge swaths of deforested land have been further degraded by overgrazing, harmful industrial farming practices such as the overuse of pesticides and fertilizers, and climate change. Mexico’s arid and semi-arid regions are fragile ecosystems, and the result in many areas has been desertification. While certain parts of the country have always been natural deserts, other regions have only become so over time. Sixty percent of Mexico’s land is now considered desert or semi-desert, as well as 35 percent of all land in the United States.

Sophia Trapp, an expert in sustainable development and ecosystem restoration, credits Jose Flores of Hacienda Zamarripa in San Luis de la Paz as the “godfather” of the agave fermentation method used in her regenerative agriculture system. Flores densely planted fast-growing species of agaves among nitrogen-fixing tree species such as mezquite. His revolutionary innovation was a machine that could shred the fibrous agave leaves into bite-sized pieces, allowing for the creation of a water and nutrient rich animal feed. Each local agave plant produces up to one ton of biomass over its 10-year lifespan. The leaves, pruned annually, are chopped in the machine and fermented in closed containers, resulting in high-quality, inexpensive animal fodder for sheep, goats, pigs, and chickens.

Ronnie Cummins, with the support of Regeneration International, built on the Zamarripa model at the organic farm outside of San Miguel de Allende. The goal of Regeneration International’s Billion Agave Project campaign is to plant one billion of the plants globally. This is designed to draw down and store one billion tons of climate-destabilizing CO2.

Also inspired by the Zamarripa model, Trapp added important innovations at Cañada de la Virgen, developing the first system to produce agave silage suitable for cattle and scalable for large herds. Her system is commercially viable and available to the public. A “How To Make Agave Silage” video is accessible at canadadelavirgen.mx.

Cañada de la Virgen is one of Guanajuato’s most significant nature reserves, with an archaeological site that dates back to pre-Hispanic times when the Otomi people built pyramids there for rituals and star-gazing. Today it is the second most visited tourist site in the region, drawing tens of thousands of visitors each year, but when the Trapp family purchased the property 25 years ago, both the ruins and the land were sorely overgrazed and neglected. They reduced the number of cattle by half to stop overgrazing and certified the ranch as organic. In 2011, Alex and Sophia’s mother also registered the property as a federal nature reserve with the Mexican government, and the National Institute of Anthropology and History opened the archaeological site to the public.

The ranch is now run by Sophia Trapp, her husband Paul Escott, brother Alexander Trapp, and his partner, Laura Rodríguez. The Trapps have established 70 acres of reforestation test plots, where they plant agave on contoured berms to harvest rainwater. The berms act as natural sponges, reducing evaporation and redirecting precious rainwater into the bedrock, where it runs downhill underground rather than evaporating, thereby naturally irrigating the land downhill.

Trapp has also developed microbial preparations to jumpstart soil health. Her team is restoring the micro life forms in the earth by applying compost teas, fungal teas, and biochar. Since they began restoring the soil, digging berms, and planting agaves five years ago, the arid farmland has come back to life exponentially. A diverse variety of plants have naturally begun to take root around the agave, including mezquite, nopal, ocotillo, and grasses. Oak saplings are also growing quickly in areas where they did not thrive before. While oak trees flourished in the region when the Spaniards arrived overharvesting soon drove them to the brink of extinction in the area.

Agaves are the ideal crop to spur this ecosystem rehabilitation as they have a 98 percent survival rate without any human intervention. Trapp dubbed this innovative reforestation system “Agavesse.”  “We must shift from extractive economic paradigms to regenerative, circular economies,” said Trapp, “and agave is the key to ecosystem regeneration in an arid or semi-arid climate.”

Some neighboring ranches are already implementing similar systems on their overgrazed land, creating new streams of valuable revenue for farmers and their communities. Since introducing agave silage into their cattle’s diet in 2020, the Trapps have seen improvements in meat quality, birth rates, and overall health.

In addition to being highly economical to produce, agave silage is extremely attractive because the agave plants require no irrigation, unlike other nutrient-rich animal feed such as alfalfa. An astounding 60 percent of Guanajuato’s current water usage is going to alfalfa production. Not only is the state currently experiencing a severe drought, but as the nation’s water crisis grows, conservationists argue that even in non-drought years, we will need to reserve our supplies of fresh water for human use: drinking, bathing, and growing human food. We have to utilize much less water-intensive crops to feed animals, as well as urgently develop other water conservation strategies.

An additional benefit to growing agave, of course, is the opportunity to make agave spirits, an opportunity that Hacienda Cañada de la Virgen has embraced. Their Casa Agave produces two spirits: the Mata de Monte, with its distinctive red label featuring the puma who have returned to the land, and the premium Atzin, winner of “Best of Class, International Agave” at the prestigious ADI 2024 International Spirits Competition Awards. Both are featured at Casa Agave’s own Bar Atzintli in San Miguel de Allende.

Cañada de la Virgen caters for special private and gourmet events with views of the pyramid and gorgeous nature. To book a visit or learn more about these innovative ecosystem regeneration methods, visit www.canadadelavirgen.mx and www.casagave.mx. 

Based in San Miguel de Allende, Ann Marie Jackson is a writer and NGO leader who previously worked for the U.S. Department of State. Her award-winning novel “The Broken Hummingbird,” which is set in San Miguel de Allende, came out in October 2023. Ann Marie can be reached through her website, annmariejacksonauthor.com.

The post How the agave is helping wild pumas return to Guanajuato appeared first on Mexico News Daily

For the last eight years, Mitigare Cuidados Paliativos A.C. has provided palliative care to patients facing terminal diagnoses in the comfort of their own homes and offered support to their families. As Les Matthews, president of Mitigare’s board, explained, “Mitigare will still provide services in people’s homes, but now, when a patient’s caretaker needs a break, or when someone lives too far out in the campo (countryside) to receive regular care, they can come to our facility for dignified, specialized end-of-life care.”

“We will continue to demonstrate that hospice is more humane and cost-effective than dying in a hospital. Most doctors at hospitals, whose goal is to cure, do not have the right mindset to treat someone who has accepted the fact that they are dying.” In Matthews’s view, they tend to keep ordering invasive tests and expensive, ineffective procedures. The facility will enhance Mitigare’s capacity to train doctors, nurses, and social workers in end-of-life care, a medical specialty that is practically nonexistent in Mexico.

Matthews has extensive experience with hospice care in the U.S. He was a partner in a company that operated five hospices and is also a founding board member of the Foundation for Hospice Care, an organization based in Kansas City. The foundation has provided US $100,000 to the Mitigare patient care fund as well as US $225,000 toward construction expenses, a grant which was conditioned upon the city of San Miguel de Allende donating the land for the facility.

The municipal government donated 1,480 square meters — nearly 16,000 square feet — of land. “We’re proud that this is a public-private partnership,” said Mitigare co-founder and board member Lee Carter. “The city’s generous donation of land is a wonderful endorsement of the project. We received the use of the land for 100 years, with taxes and permit fees included… this is the first property the city has donated for any purpose in 10 or 15 years.”

The location at Prolongación Cuesta de San José 92 near the turn-off for the Charco del Ingenio Botanical Garden is ideal, as it is both near Centro (on a road easily accessible by ambulance) and is located within a five-minute drive of both the General Hospital and MAC Hospital.

Mitigare Cuidados Paliativos A.C. was founded in 2016, growing out of an earlier version of the organization, Hospice San Miguel, which was founded in 2009. The founders include Dr. Luis Vazquez, Martha Hamill Meléndez, Vicki Stein, Dra. María de Lourdes Tejeida Bautista, a Mexican palliative care physician and Lee Carter, an American with a passionate belief in the value of hospice care. Carter’s brother, who had pancreatic cancer, died with dignity in hospice, as did both of his parents. After moving to Mexico, Carter witnessed a friend die a difficult death without pain relief and became determined to provide hospice care in Mexico.

Of Dr. Tejeida, the organization’s medical director, Carter said, “She is amazing,” adding that she is board-certified in oncology and palliative care — one of the few physicians in all of Mexico to have both of those certifications, plus a master’s degree in public health.

Mitigare’s medical team consists of four doctors, a nurse and two thanatologists, social workers with extra training in the area of grief and death. Thanatos is the Greek word for death, and therefore thanatology is the study of death. 

The team of thanatologists, led by Mtra. Martha Hamill Meléndez, help family members come together to create a familial environment in which the patient can have a peaceful, dignified death. They are also trained to help family members cope with anticipatory grief. After the patient dies, the team of thanatologists continues to provide counseling to family members for an additional six months or more. “This organization provides care equivalent in quality to that of any hospice in the U.S.,” affirms Matthews.

Carter reported that 90% of patients currently using Mitigare’s hospice services are Mexicans. “We charge according to a family’s ability to pay. Approximately 80% of our families receive financial assistance from our patient care fund, for which we are constantly fundraising. Currently, the average monthly payment is 2,000 pesos, although the average cost of services is 20,000 pesos. That’s a 90% discount. We’re happy to raise the money because we believe it is so important that anyone who needs hospice care can access it.”

A primary reason that hospice care is not widespread in Mexico is that, unlike in the United States, Canada and Europe, there are currently no government reimbursements for it. In the U.S., hospice became a Medicare benefit in the mid-1980s when the government saw that it was cost-effective. There are now 5,500 hospice programs in the U.S. — one for every 65,000 people — while for Mexico’s 130 million people, there is only one. The Mitigare team is confident that as more families begin to use hospice care and they experience how helpful it is to both the patient and family, it will become more commonplace in Mexico.

“It will also be of interest to the many expats living in San Miguel de Allende,” said Matthews, “that we have obtained Medicare approval. Qualified Medicare recipients can use their benefits to receive in-patient hospice care at our new facility.”

In addition to providing high-quality hospice care, Mitigare’s mission includes training doctors, nurses and other caregivers so that hospice becomes part of the fabric of Mexico’s end-of-life care. In 2019, the organization held a major conference, training 490 medical professionals from Mexico, the U.S., the Canary Islands and Costa Rica. “The typical medical school programs in Mexico and the U.S. really don’t train medical personnel in end-of-life care,” said Matthews. “So we will. We’ll be the epicenter for that critical training in Mexico.”

Board member Laura Rodríguez recommends that readers in the San Miguel de Allende area attend one of Mitigare’s upcoming seminars on preparing legally and emotionally to reach a dignified, “good” death. Rodríguez also invites readers to view a powerful film on the topic, titled Mai Morire (Nunca Morir), which will be shown on Thursday, April 4, at 5 p.m. at the Santa Ana Theatre in San Miguel’s Biblioteca Publica. 

After the screening, the film’s producer, Paola Herrera, and representatives of Mitigare will discuss hospice care. More information about these events as well as ways to make a tax-deductible contribution in support of the organization’s mission are available at mitigare.org.

Based in San Miguel de Allende, Ann Marie Jackson is a writer and NGO leader who previously worked for the U.S. Department of State. Her award-winning novel “The Broken Hummingbird,” which is set in San Miguel de Allende, came out in October 2023. Ann Marie can be reached through her website, annmariejacksonauthor.com.

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