Take

I don’t usually say anything that might be construed as political on Memoriafoto. I just don’t feel this is the place for it, but…

With that understanding, I have to say that there is a law being considered in the US that I have some specific insight into because I live here and have so many Mexican friends. I know a great number of my readers are in the US and also have friends and family in Mexico. Please take a moment and check out this link on the weblog of my fellow expat friends in Morelia – Livin’ la vida Lopez

While you are at it – check out their weblog too.

In the meantime, I am preparing another entry and will get it up in the next couple of days…

O,

[Enlarge] In the kitchen in my condo in Morelia. A few of the things I have around the house as I get ready to prepare some ravioli for dinner. This was taken the day I bought a coffee maker.

I am typing this in my condo on a Thursday evening, as the smell of artichokes cooking the way my mother taught me wafts through the air. Yes, like a lot of things you might not expect, we have artichokes here in Mexico, all year around. I think my Dad will get the joke in the foto above. The Tom Cherry is a Mexican version of eggnog, called rompope here, and yes, it is used all year around. The joke is the name of this version. Tom Cherry is a play on the special drink my father makes during the holidays, the Tom and Jerry. Salude!

I have been out of touch pretty much since well before Christmas. I have been tied up in a lot of work and quite honestly—I have gotten out of the habit of writing. Keeping up a journal means having the urge to write. It isn’t really something that just pops out at odd moments. It seems to come a lot easier when you get into some sort of routine and you feel you are writing to someone you can visualize. I just need to get back in the swing.

[Enlarge] Librado and Maria and their two girls during the fiestas for La Virgen de Guadalupe. They are always fun kids — and more than a little pleased to have a chance to mug for the camera.

As these two little imps will testify, I have been taking fotos and I have been (slowly) adding the to the gallery. I have done a little reorganization too. My collection of fotos of the fiestas in November and December in Cueramaro continues to grow and has gotten its own space. I love the tradition and happiness that marks this time every year. I look forward to it as much as any time I can think of. The foto below is another one from the same time. This is from one of the parades that inaugurates the fiesta on another street. I still have more to add I believe. I know I have a lot more fotos on my hard disk that need going through so I can put the fun ones up and archive all of them off to my backup disk. Maybe this weekend…

[Enlarge] A little girl in traditional clothes for the parade of the Virgin to her new street for the week.

A couple of weeks ago, I had to go to Mexico City for the first time in maybe three or four years. It was a little unnerving. First, I am used to a much more organized and leisurely city. Morelia is a very approachable place in comparison. Second, almost everything I remembered about Mexico City has changed. Drastically. La Zona Rosa has lost its local charm and become a place where a bunch of national and international chain operations crowd for attention. I was sorry to lose so many little restaurants and stores that had served the colonia well for so many decades. Santa Fe, where I worked for HP, was never an area I liked particularly. I found it too much like a transplanted Silicon Valley. Now it is even more so. To see what I mean, check the fotos of this helicopter pilot in the city. This is not the Mexico I know. It is an odd mix of the international corporate rich and service workers that are pushing out the professionals that make up the small but important tax base of Mexico.

I will leave you today with a picture of a different kind of sophistication. Groupo Mercedes is a family owned interior design and restaurant company that has been in Morelia for around 50 years. They do the design of all the best homes and businesses around the region and have a classic sense of style that would be at home anywhere. That said though, they never forget their roots. In their food, design and service, they always put the best of Mexico alongside the best of the world—not as a comparison—because it belongs there. I wish more people understood that sort of vision. Take a look at the little gallery I put together of some of my visits to their locations and see what you think.

wp:thumb src=”2005-11-27-4.jpg” cap=”A painting of the Seven Sins which graces the wall of 630. A fine restaurant and gallery by Groupo Mercedes in Morelia.”—> ->