Posted in Fireworks, Mexican Culture, Travel thoughts on January 8, 2012| 1 Comment »
They came by at 6am this morning, rockets and all. The procession wound through town, past all the other churches for a blessing, then returned to our street about 1pm.
The new church in our neighborhood opened its doors today and this is the formal announcement, followed by the man with the black collection box. If you open your door to watch, you are expected to make a donation.
Posted in Food, Only in Mexico, recipes, Travel thoughts on January 7, 2012| 1 Comment »
Not much I can say that the video doesn’t convey. The Molcajete meal at Ten Ten Pie – the bubbling one pot meal which is as good as it looks!
Molcajete Meal from Suzanne da Rosa on Vimeo.
Posted in Mexican Culture, Novenas, Only in Mexico, Religious Events, Rituals, Singing in Spanish, Travel thoughts, Virgin of Guadalupe on December 9, 2011| 2 Comments »
Last night was the 6th Novena for the Guadalupe in our neighborhood.
Each day more people come and live music arrived on the fourth Novena. (Video below)
Don’t let the peacefulness of it fool you or make you nostalgic for simpler times because once it got started, about 30 boys under 12 showed up.
Half of them went down into the arroyo behind me to play soccer and yell, lighting sparklers that caused a raging bonfire
and causing every rooftop dog to bark like crazy while everyone recited prayers and sang and ignored the cacophony.
2011 6th Novena for the Virgin of Guadalupe from Suzanne da Rosa on Vimeo.
Click on the photo to view the video of this Novena
The rest of the boys stood in front of me pushing and shoving each other around for fun, their mothers slapping at them as they ducked away. By the end of the night, it was almost an old time religious revival with people singing, clapping and dancing, every bit of it heartfelt with love.
These novenas are a crescendo building toward the big party they have at the end, you can feel it coming.
If it’s anything like last year’s party on the 12th, it’s going to be fun, locos and all.
© 2011 Suzanne da Rosa
Posted in Architecture, Art, Day of the Dead, dia de los muertos, Mexican Culture, Museums, Only in Mexico, Palenque, Ruins, Travel thoughts on July 22, 2011| 1 Comment »
Mexico City, the museum of anthropology.
There’s more than I can write pecking a letter at a time on my iPhone so here’s some photos until I can get to my computer
Posted in Festivals, Locos, Mexican Culture, Only in Mexico, Religious Events, Rituals, Travel thoughts on July 5, 2011| Leave a Comment »
Every June in San Miguel de Allende, they celebrate the feast day of San Antonio de Padua with first, Rockets beginning at about 4am, followed by religious processions and masses and a full size carnival with lots of kiddie rides, ending a week later with the Locos blessing and Parade.
Ten years ago this parade lasted about thirty minutes and was a rag tag group of neighborhood youth dresses as indians, pirates, skeletons, nothing so elaborate as you see now. It has grown into a full blown major parade with whole neighborhoods spending a good part of the year creating colorful elaborate costumes around a theme as you’ll see in the video.
They say about 10,000 people participate in it now. They begin about a mile and a half outside of the center of town, ending up in the Jardin (the town plaza) to dance and have some fun. The parade itself takes a good couple of hours or more to loop through the town.
Here’s a video of parts from this year’s parade.
Gallery:
Posted in Festivals, Fireworks, Mexican Culture, Only in Mexico, Rituals, Semana Santa, Sounds of Mexico, Travel thoughts on April 14, 2011| 1 Comment »
Two sunday’s before Easter, Sr. de la Columna, the Virgin of Dolores and San Juan are removed from their places in the santuario,
wrapped in silk scarves, covered, then carried in an all night pilgrimage to San Miguel for the upcoming Semana Santa celebrations and processions.
Last Saturday night, my friend Elvia, her son and daughter Roberto and Karen and I
accompanied the statues from the church courtyard to San Miguel along with about 20,000 other pilgrims.
2011 Pilgrimage from Atotonilco to San Miguel de Allende from Suzanne da Rosa on Vimeo.
Beto and Elvia
We arrived in the plaza at about 11:30 and waited for the ‘Imagenes’ to appear. At midnight, the bells rang, banners and luminarias were brought forth and the three Imagenes, carried on litters, came out of the church.
Atotonilco, the saints lowered while mass is said
A short mass was projected over a loud speaker and the procession began following the route through el Cotijo, to the capilla on the highway for a 3am mass, proceeding to a small pueblo whose people had decorated the entry with a carpet of flowers and sawdust images with arches of palm and large paper flowers.
The participants were varied – elderly men and women, very very old people being held up between two family members, babies carried in arms and strollers, teenagers, adults, groups of men in white hats leading song, women who walked the entire route, 8 hours, all night, in bare feet.
Midnight in the plaza at Atotonilco
Karen and Gisela, 3 am across from the chapel
After the rosay the procession wound it’s way, accompanied by singing to the top of Avenida Independencia where we were greeted with fireworks, and a mile of decorated street. People poured in from everywhere to watch the unveiling and procession to the San Juan de Dios Church at dawn.
Posted in Festivals, Fireworks, Mexican Culture, Music, Only in Mexico, Religious Events, Travel thoughts, Virgin of Guadalupe on February 10, 2011| Leave a Comment »
Slow but sure, I am catching up on my video footage. December 12, the celebration for the Virgen de Guadalupe. The celebrations started a few blocks down from our house where several new altars were built this year and a pilgrimage began on foot and in trucks, making their way to the San Antonio church where they met up with thousands of other pilgrims.
2010 Virgin Guadalupe Day from Suzanne da Rosa on Vimeo.
The scene at the San Antonio church was impressive with the bell ringers going wild, rockets going off and a line up of pilgrims that wrapped around the church plaza, down the street and spilling onto the Ancha de San Antonio, stopping traffic. All along the way, people were singing, praying, arriving on horseback from the ranchos, each individual, family or community carrying a flag, a photo, a statue, even a folding table with the image of the virgin and setting their toddlers, dressed up as Juan Diego in front of the images to be photographed.
Living in San Miguel 
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