Yesterday Leo brought home tulips from our garden. Today the flowers are dancing in their vase, remembering the songs of birds and the warmth of the morning sun.
 

The yellow fringe of the witch hazel bush smiles brightly in the chilly afternoon sun of early March.
 

In a crevasse of the rock garden stuffed with last year’s curling oak leaves, blue bells ring announcing the triumph of spring!
 

Mr. Robin, classic harbinger of the coming season beats the rush by never leaving the neighborhood. His yellow beak, like a swelling daffodil bud, will burst into song—claiming the garden as his own.
 

The black twisted branches of a maple tree burst into life with chartreuse blossoms mocking the rows of soldier bricks held in the tight grasp of immutable mortar.
 

What does the maple tree know of Boston restraint? She bursts into bloom but the busy city- people rush on by. Tomorrow seed wings will fly from branches high above the street where car horns blare with impatience at slow-pokes at a traffic light.
 

Mr. Cardinal perches on our garden fence puzzling over the noisy traffic and wondering if humans ever sing.


The forsythia hedge squeezes together tightly, laughing at the tickle.
 

Looming above the blossoming crabapple in our garden, the tower of Babel presumes to insure against misfortune. Soon the spring flower petals will fall, dancing gaily, letting go with joy.


The magnolia wears chilly rain drops on her pink cheeks—jewels of spring turning pink blossoms into green leaves. Can you hear the robin’s song? It is short and oh, so sweet!
 

The red tailed hawk and the pigeon on shelters perch—each looking out for his own interest. Do they know how close they are?
 

Having spent the winter sleeping deeply in the silent earth, the gossiping daffodils are eager to speak.
 

The forsythia bush beneath the mulberry tree cannot speak to the blue sky in July so she must shout loudly when she can. Don’t you find her urgent cry beautiful?
 

The families of Johnny jump-ups are our true friends, always eager to say hello—staying till the end of the party.

“Have you heard? Iory will perform a dramatic reading from his novel
Naughty Astronautess, the second book of his trilogy
 Glamour Galore
 at Calamus Books, 92 – B South Street near South Station,
this Friday, April 25 at 7: PM”

Santa Clara del Cobre is a little under an hour’s drive, 24km, from Pátzcuaro. The pleasant mountain road is well maintained and has sweeping views of the forested countryside. Leo and I took a cab, costing about $20.00 right from the cab stand in front of the Pátzcuaro Library at Plaza Gertudís Bocanegra.
 
The center of Santa Clara has its own pleasant plaza where there are a number of Puesto de Taco stands. Here is an enterprising soul at his “Puesto” set up at one corner of the Plaza with several customers comfortably accommodated on improvised stools under a colorful sun umbrella. Above the clay tiled roofs of the surrounding shops, you can see the forest trees cresting the hills around town. I particularly enjoy the tall pillared “Portales” or covered walk-ways where the merchandise from the shops spills out onto the side walk.
 
Santa Clara is a town famous for its copper production and true to its reputation the shops are jammed with beautiful copper vases, pitchers, plates, candle sticks, etc. The invention of forms with soft patinated finishes carefully applied to the copper is hard to fathom and as you wonder from one showroom gallery to the next. It is a delight to behold.




This is the bell tower of the local church with a cypress companion, each vying for attention and both deserve it! The staining on the antique plastered adobe creates a pleasant contrasting texture highlighting the large bronze bells hanging in the tower.




These neat piles of construction materials were arranged at the base of the bell tower because they are restoring the church. Note the extra long and sturdy wooden beams that are newly milled and hand hewn. Each beam is carved from one tree, felled from the surrounding forest and is about twenty feet long. Note the extra large hexagonal paving tiles of this plaza with small dark stones neatly imbedded between, accentuating the geometric design of the ensemble.




Here is a little green parrot in his blue cage against the pink painted adobe wall. All over Mexico you see pet birds in beautiful cages. This little fella was curious about my camera and like the Tzintzuntzan bull was saying to himself, “Ok Gringo, enough already with photos—how about a slice of orange or a bunch of sunflower seeds, if you don’t mind.”




Leo and I were irresistibly drawn to the workshop of Espiridión Trejo, a mask carver, because of his fantastic creations that were tumbling out of the window and door, lining themselves up neatly on the sidewalk. The ancient adobe building is in a humble state of repair that rather adds to the organic quality of Espiridión’s work.
 



When we arrived on the scene Espiridión was busy at work carving a magical mask of clear avocado wood. His concentration was focused entirely on carving allowing us to browse around his marvelously cluttered space that was full of the manifestations of his fruitful imagination.

After a while he and Leo got to chatting and Espiridión pointed out that he was working on a mask that incorporated four different creatures all merging into one being. When he turned the mask up side down the lizard like creatures at each end merged with two smiling faces sharing a pair of eyes in the center “body” of the carving. There are a great many merging beings, zoomorphic, half man half animal creatures in Mexican folk art. This is generally explained with the idea that the indigenous Mexican artists are expressing the universal nature of all beings. I think it's because they are generally pretty stoned and seeing things as they truly are, which is more or less the same thing as the universal nature idea.

On Espiridión’s work bench you can see three of his creations that we bought. Two “bug people” masks, I think one is a cricket and the other a cicada both with animated human faces magically appearing in the area of their bodies. The third piece we bought was an angel shelf which you can see at the far left of the line up at Espiridión’s knees. The little angel has wings sprouting from his head in the manner of “blessed innocents” or those souls who died before being baptized. These little darlings are flapping about in limbo until the time of reckoning, an event I hope to avoid all together by claiming my Celtic Druidic roots. Nonetheless I do love our “innocent” who balances a handy shelf on his head thereby making himself useful while he awaits the final assessment.




Here we can see a sunny corner of Espiridión’s crowded workshop where the tumbled images seem to be engaged in wordless conversation full of mischievous humor. Espiridión has all the teasing wisdom of Pinocchio’s father, Gepetto. In response to Leo asking for an adjusted price of our three selected items, read this as—haggling, Espiridión replied with self deprecating humor that he must charge the full price because his son who tends shop on occasion is liable to sell a mask or two and pocket the dough, therefore he must maximize his income when he can.




Prominent in the center of Santa Clara del Cobre, is this rather dour bust of Don Vasco de Quiroga. The skills Tata Vasco or Father Vasco, implanted among P'urhépechas of the Pátzcuaro region have been passed down to their descendants, who are today considered among the most skilled craftspersons in Mexico. Tata Vasco trained his pupils in a variety of disciplines. His method of specialization by community continues to this day: Paracho produces guitars, Tzintzuntzán basketry and woven straw goods, Santa Clara copper products and Nurío woven woolens.




Speaking of skills, these two workmen were high on top of a building repairing the wooden structure supporting the tiled roof. They simply disassembled the extra long curved tiles and stacked them to one side. Then they removed rotten beams and spliced in new ones. Then they reroofed the structure simply by laying the curved tiles up and down, fitting into each other and overlapping. There seemed to be quite a lot of restoration work going on in Santa Clara.




Back in Pátzcuaro after our pleasant outing to Santa Clara I was ready to explore the countryside on my own. I asked Don Alfredo at Mesón de San Antonio where I could go for a walk in the open country at the edge of Pátzcuaro. After initial hesitation and some consultation with his daughter, Edaín, they recommended the Estribo Grande. Estribo means stirrup and that is just what the destination on the mountain above town looks like, a step in the steep profile of that peak, where there is a rustic belvedere over-looking the lake. Don Alfredo and Edaín gave me a map and off I went.
 
It turned out that the Estribo has a old road leading to it paved with irregular stones and lined with tall cedar trees that could easily be  50 years old. The road is mostly pedestrian with a few men on burros as it follows the ridge at a fairly steep incline. It is shaded all the way up so it is pleasantly cool, especially with the breezes rising off Lake Patzcuaro.
 
This view begins to open up as I climb the road to the Estribo. Note the ancient stone wall. In my research I came across an early account from the 1500’s, reporting on the ecological and sustaining agronomy practiced by the pre Columbian people of Mexico. One of the reports recorded the use of extensive stone walls to prevent soil erosion, not to corral grazing domesticated cattle as in Europe because they didn’t have that kind of livestock.
 



The road to the Estribo has clear views of Lake Pátzcuaro and environs. This photo taken with my telephoto lens condenses the distances across the lake but it gives a great shot of the village of Huecorio with its pretty church tower and of Janitzio Island crowned by Father Morelos.




I also learned from my reading that the Purépecha people used Maguey cactus as erosion boundaries sometimes in combination with stone walls as in this case. When I came across this handsome example of a living fence bordering the cobblestone paved road climbing towards the Estribo, I saw immediately how effective these barriers could be.




Climbing up the mountain, the road becomes immersed in tall forests and you can peek out between the tree branches at picturesque views of the valley below with placid Lake Pátzcuaro reflecting the peak of Janitzio Island in the smooth water. There are seven or nine islands in the lake depending on who is reporting. I think some of the ambiguity comes from the fact that low marsh lands surround the lake are pierced by meandering channels that form lagoons in some places creating “islands.”




The water step fountain provides architectural formality in the midst of the tangled jungle where immense and ancient trees hold bromeliads and orchids in their lofty branches. Bright yellow butterflies waft about and drink at the fountains edge but they inevitably flit away before I can focus my camera. The water all over the park is pure and fresh, springing from the deep earth at the top of the ravine.




This is the peacock fountain. The stone niche is about 10 feet tall to the top of the arch.




From this view you can see how powerfully the torrent flows over the rocky river. The majority of the park is naturally preserved as it always has been and the system of bridges and paths all have a rustic natural style made from natural indigenous stones and wood blending with nature.




In some places the river comes to a more level stretch and calms its pounding ferocity for a brief while, allowing the call of birds hidden in the orchid draped branches to be heard.


 

But just around the bend from the quiet spot, the land drops precipitously and forms a deep pool graced by a foaming cascade.




At the top of the ravine a large turquoise pool called Rodilla del Diablo or (Devil's Knee) is the source of the Cupatitzio River. This is where a large, lone trout patrols his territory with only a phantom shadow to keep him company.




White bell flowers hang gracefully from the datura plant, contrasting pleasantly against the dark green shades of the jungle underbrush. Leo has a datura plant in our garden at the Fenway and I can report that by the end of summer the little darling grows out of all expected proportion and takes over that whole corner of our space.




St. Francis presides over the flower filled garden of the Hotel Mansión del Cupatitzio that borders the Parque Nacional. From some of the balconied windows of the Hotel you can hear the waterfalls of the Cupatitzio River. The formal dining room has windows looking out onto Rodilla del Diablo, the deep pool that is the source of the river. In the past Leo and I have stayed at this luxurious first class hotel with its delicious swimming pool that is located in the terrace just above and to the left of St. Francis. In the evening when the sun goes down the garden is enveloped in soft shadows, and an enticing scent of night booming jasmine mysteriously drifts on the cooling evening breezes. This year we were only in Uruápan for the day principally for the Parque but we did not want to miss Hotel Mansión del Cupatitzio so we opted for a late lunch on the pretty patio café.




Nestled into a corner of the garden of the Hotel, adjacent to the patio café, is this “Trojes”, a traditional log cabin used by the Purepecha Indians who live in up in the mountain forests. This weathered structure has been reassembled in the garden and used as a handy bar. Note the heavily carved pillars decorated with a diagonal swirling scrolls.




The Hotel Mansión del Cupatitzio has the most incredible flower displays imaginable. Here are a series of arches hung with begonia baskets that threaten to take over the town. While we sat at lunch in the protected regions of the inner patio surrounded by the hotel, a ruby-throated humming bird buzzed in for a sip of nectar from a scarlet hibiscus flower growing by the pool.




No sooner had the humming bird departed than we were joined at lunch by this remarkable fellow who took up a vantage point on the wrought iron railing of the café. His wing span in flight was about eight inches across and his multiple wings made dry paper sounds as he careened about. Once settled down he folded his translucent green wings, like thin slices of jade, beneath his tailored leaf jacket and stared haughtily at us wondering what on earth these humans were eating.




In the middle of the forest seen from an upper balcony of the Hotel I could see the lavender blue blossoms of the beautiful Jacaranda tree that blooms at this time of year.




This pretty yellow darling in her well crafted home sang to us at lunch with a trilling melody embellished by surprising flourishes exciting the other birds, positioned around the patio, to reply with their own musical arias.

Mexico is a country of surpassing beauty and diversity of terrains and populations that combine into a culture of irrepressible creativity. Their long and continuous history is more than four thousand years old and has enormous wealth of experience and knowledge. The world can benefit greatly by listening to the wisdom wrenched from centuries of defeat and glory experienced by the generous and friendly peoples of Mexico.

One of the big attractions of Patzcuaro is Lake Patzcuaro, a large shallow body of fresh water. The Purepecha people, indiginous to the area believe that the lake is the place where the barrier between life and death is the thinnest. The lake is 7,200 feet (2,200 m) above sea level making it Mexico's highest lake. The water is cloudy with silt and surrounded by flat marsh land that suport luxurious growths of reeds and willows. From anywhere on the lake shore one can see distant volcanic mountains slumbering in the distant blue haze. The major attraction on Lake Patzcuaro is the island of Janitzio, a small steep island a short boat ride from the shore near Patzcuraro. Crowning Janitzio is a collosal statue of Generalísimo Don José Maria Morelos y Pavón, Mexico’s reveared Father Morelos who was a martyr in the War of Independence. Morelos’ statue is much like our Statue of Liberty in intent and size. Father Morelos raises his fist in a defiant stance declaring freedom for all the people of Mexico. You can go inside and climb a ramp up to Morelos’ head where you pass outside into the raised arm and climb a tiny spiral staircase to a viewing chamber at the place between his cuff and clenched fist. From there you can see a panoramic view the lake area. The inside of the monument is painted with murals by Ramon Alva de la Canal from 1932 – 35. Canal’s murals are in the 30’s style of Mexican political murals that were official commisions of the government intending to memorialize Morelos and instruct future generations about the hard won War of Independence and the brutal opposition of the Spanish.



 


The trip to Janitzio is aboard one of the many colorful long ferry boats leaving on frequent trips across the lake. On board are mostly Mexican tourists going to pay their respects to Father Morelos. The local Purepecha people who live and work on the island use the ferries as convenient transport back and forth to their island. This being Mexico a five-man band traveled with us and launched into a full repertory of popular and rousing ballads.






The line-up of passengers aboard the ferry is diverse representing the different peoples that compose the Mexican population.






As we approach closer to Janitzio you can begin to see Father Morelos raising his defiant fist, proclaiming freedom for his people.






The views from the top of Morelos’ arm are breathtaking with pleasant villages along the lake shore surrounded by mountains that seem to catch the clouds. At this vantage 7,000 plus feet about sea level I had to walk slowly respecting the effects of altitude.



 
Inside the Morelos statue a walking ramp passes many large murals depicting the life of the hero from birth to his tragic execution. The story is moving and dramatic with many graphic scenes of battles and conflicts that faced the revolutionaries.






There is a pleasant park surrounding the base of the monument at the top of Janitzio Island. The views from this level are good also. Note the fountain at the center of the formal park and two band stands for relief from the intense sun.






This is another view of the inside of the Morelos statue where you can sense the distinctly cubistic or Deco feeling of the design. At the top can be glimpsed the flame from the torch of freedom.






You can get a feel for the size of Lake Patzcuaro from this picture taken at the top of the monument. In the middle distance just past the beige colored fields is a village surrounded by marshy flatlands.






This is a pleasant portrait of our guide, Leticia, who drove us around to a couple of the surrounding towns and archeological sites. We were introduced to Leticia through Michelle Roos at the Eco Hotel,  . Michelle is an engaging member of the hospitable staff of that hotel which enjoys a spectacular location above the lake. The beautiful Eco Hotel forms a complex of traditionally designed adobe buildings that are situated in pleasant gardens. It is also next door to Ignacio Máximo a very talented and licensed massage therapist, phone: (004-434-5328) I had an appointment with Ignacio and enjoyed it so much I took Leo back on another day. I came across Michelle and Ignacio on my walk in the forest, and this is how that came about. I asked Don Alfredo at Meson de San Antonio where I could go for a walk in the open country at the edge of Patzcuaro. After initial hesitation and some consultation with their daughter, Edaín, they recommended the Estribo Grande. Estribo means stirrup and that is just what the destination on the mountain above town looks like, a step in the steep profile of that peak where there is a rustic belvedere over-looking the lake. Don Alfredo and Edain gave me a map and off I went. It turned out that the Estribo has a road leading to it paved with irregular stones and lined with tall cedar trees that could easily been 50 to a 100 years old. The road which is mostly pedestrian with a few men on burrows follows a ridge and is fairly steep but because it is shaded all the way, it is pleasantly cool, especially with the breezes rising off the lake. Almost at the beginning of the trail at the edge of the neighborhood where the town of Pátzcuaro ends is the Eco Hotel. I stopped by to take a look and Michelle, an attractive young woman with the most heavenly green eyes, showed me the beautiful hotel and confirmed that yes, Ignacio was the man to see about a massage. She also runs tours for visitors and she hooked us up with Leticia.






Driving with Leticia we enjoyed a safe comfortable and leisurely ride frequently stopping to view the scenery and for me to take photographs. This is a typical landscape where the rich eluvial soil is carefully tended between ancient stone walls and graceful trees. In the foreground you can see one of the cactus “trees” growing in the hedgerows at the edge of the fields. This specimen was about fifteen feet tall and there are bigger ones too.






It is not every day you come across a tethered bull especially in a sculpture gallery. On both sides of the road going into Tzintzuntzan you pass this seemingly haphazard pile of remarkable sculpture including many mythical beings, fountains, pillars, stone window frames and the like. Amongst the fantastic creatures was this handsome young bull that stood gracefully on the tips of his cloven hooves like a graceful ballet dancer. He had somehow knocked over his feeding trough and was staring at me full of curiosity as if to say, “Now who is this crazy gringo with the camera? Why doesn’t he make himself useful and put my manger upright?” Although I could hear Ferdinand the bull thinking this, I none-the-less gave him a broad breech, not knowing how feisty that critter might be.






Across from Ferdinand the bull was a collection of fantastic beings waiting for somebody to buy them and take them to their home and garden.






While Leo and Leticia and I were examining the roadside sculptures a platoon of kids on their bicycles decorated with colorful balloons whizzed past. They were celebrating the death of Don Vasco de Quiroga (1565) who cared for the welfare of the Purepecha people by introducing them to valuable technologies and industries.






This is the shimmering vista of Lake Pátzcuaro from the archeological site of Tzintzuntzan which was the ancient capital of the Purépecha people.






Here is another one of my questions, what is this tree called? I first saw one of these trees on the road into Pátzcuaro and I was amazed because I thought it was a Poinsettia, when this tree’s blossoms open fully they are a dense cluster of scarlet against the Mexican blue sky and the sight is breathtaking. At the archeological site of Tzintzuntzan I was able to get close and see that this is an entirely different tree. The colors and the shapes of the flower clusters are very beautiful. The tree blooms before it has leaves so you can see the graceful curving shapes of the branches.






Here is another view of the mystery tree. The flowers have a spiky brush formation like elegant tassels decorating the clear sky.






On the right you can see the partially restored temple complex that makes up the archeological site of TzintzuntzanAlthough the stone work looks totally black this is an exaggeration of the camera because the light was so bright. The temples were destroyed by the Spanish and a great deal of the finished stone was taken away to construct the churches and convents on the lower slope of the hill in the modern town of Tzintzuntzan. We toured these churches and the ancient stones can be seen in the masonry there some with glyphs carved into the stones. You can see Lake Patzcuaro in the middle distance of this photo.






This gives you a better idea of the stepped pyramid structures, called yácatas in the Purépecha language, which dominate the archeological site. Some of the platforms are oval or round while some are rectangular or T shaped. When we visited the site we were practically the only people there and I could absorb the quiet and calm of the countryside. The midmorning sun was intense and bright light reflected off the golden grass surrounding the temples.
 





Behind the temple complex facing away from the lake there has not been as much restoration of the yácatas. Broad flat fields divided by stone walls surround the buildings and here and there are a few trees and yucca cactus. There was a peach tree in bloom with delicate pink blossoms contrasting against the polished blue sky.



 


We went down to visit the modern town of Tzintzuntzan and the church complex. The gardens surrounding the church are planted with ancient olive trees, said to be the first olive trees to be planted in the New World. As you can see from this picture of one of these venerable trees, the claim is undoubtedly true. Compare the size of the girl walking on the lower right to the olive tree. The olive orchard is protected by a high wall that encloses a large area and in addition to the olives there are other massive trees making this walled garden an important arboretum and welcomed respite from the bustle of the town.






This is the Franciscan Convent of Santa Ana, a picturesque church surrounded by massive trees and a neat spreading lawn.






The massive wooden gate of the Convent of Santa Ana is supported by a stone and adobe wall and roofed with clay tiles. This side of the church has a pleasant rose garden partially enclosed by ancient buildings of the convent.






This is an isle of the local market. The craft specialties of Tzintzuntzan are woven things of all kinds, made from the reeds and grasses of the region. Each of these booths is draped with long garlands of decorative woven straw. Many have a Christmas theme or colored balls. Note how clean the place is with an immaculate gleaming floor. Mexico in general is well swept and kept remarkably clean. Because a lot of the country is semi-arid and produces a lot of dust there is an imperative for constant maintenance and the most typical sound heard around the entire country is that of a broom sweeping.






The next town around Lake Patzcuaro is Quiroga where we stopped for a pleasant lunch of Carnitas, delicious barbequed pork. In the center of town is a delightful plaza with a very pleasant flower garden. At the center of the plaza, named after Belisario Dominguez, stands a tall column supporting this unusual statue which is a monument to America, symbolizing the struggle of the Quiroga people.



 


This is another view of the Plaza, Belisario Dominguez. In a country rich with beautiful plazas this is one of the most charming. The base of the column miraculously spouts jets of water that splash into a large tiled pool creating the calming sound of falling water. As these arcs of water catch the bright light of the mid-day sun they sparkle, animating the stone fountain. In the foreground is yet another handsome fountain and all the green spaces between the fountains are planted with a variety of colorful blossoming plants. The bandstand in the background has graceful iron pillars and scrolling brackets.
 





A dad suddenly grabs his young daughter and flings her up to his shoulders while both of them laugh with pure delight.





The Parish church of San Diego de Alcalá built in the XVII century near Plaza Belisario Dominguez at the center of Quiroga has been lovingly restored and the entire wooden vaulted ceiling has been recently painted with bright colorful paintings about 6 feet square and there are about fifty paintings so you know the church is large. The choir loft at the end opposite the high altar holds an antique pipe organ and the ceiling there is painted with episodes recounting the miracle of Juan Diego and his vision of the Virgin of Guadalupe. This picture is one of that series of eight wherein the Virgin gives Juan Diego Castilian roses that he eagerly gathers in his poncho.

 

Every day in Patzcuaro, in the early morning, the bread lady sets up shop on this platform formed by the top of the town cistern where water is gathered from a natural spring at that place. The monument shrine behind her marks this spot as important and blesses the abundant waters. It seems to me appropriate that bread and water, two elementary components of human life are coupled together at this spot. The bread lady is tending to business and not thinking of life’s coincidental metaphors. Her location is simply a convenient place for neighborhood commerce, so much so that around mid day when the bread is sold and she goes home, the Paleta man takes over. He sells his delicious Mexican frozen confections on a stick which are flavored with tropical fruits. My favorite is the tamarindo paleta. The building in the background is the former Jesuit College.


 

We were in a fascinating shop where I was buying a diminutive wall shrine made of painted tin that held two skeleton people, called Catrinas, dancing a tango (only in México). Leo pointed out the window at this scene and I snapped a shot.

 

We are looking at the front door of the local high school where an enterprising young man, bending over with a red shirt, is selling paletas and candies from his home made cart that fits to the back of his bicycle. Note how the students, boys and girls are in uniform. Some of the parents are there to meet their children and a couple of the teachers are talking with some of the younger looking boys.

 

One afternoon on our wanderings around town we came across a delightful little B & B called Posada Mandala www.paginasprodigy.com/posadamandala Leo was chatting with the proprietor who is an author from a literary family. He was gracious and chit chatty and while he and Leo were speaking I took a look around at the simple charm of this five room hotel.  Decorating one wall of the small central courtyard was this collection of home made ex-votos which are painted in gratitude for prayers answered, saving the applicant from various tragedies that befall one in this vale of tears.

This is a local paving technique using cattle vertebrae between the flat stones of an entry way. This same technique is employed at the Museum Popular where much attention is paid to this kind of floor.  It struck me as being a bit macabre but nonetheless a thrifty use of readily available materials (again, only in Mexico). 

 

This is another ancient door with a charming woodpecker door knocker. When we were in the waiting room at the bus station in Guadalajara the TV was playing really funny Woody Woodpecker cartoons. I was reading a catalog of the Mexican painter Juan Soriano in which the poet and editor, Octavio G. Barreda, describes Soriano’s distinctive profile and manner as, “skittish in the manner of a strange bird, perhaps, one of Disney’s woodpeckers.” I am beginning to suspect that Mexico has a big love affair with woodpeckers and Woody especially. When we were visiting the ruins of the Purepecha ceremonial site of Tzintzuntzan we heard woodpeckers tapping away at the tall trees that shade the entrance to the site, so I know Woody’s cousins are in evidence there. 

The bell tower of Templo de San Francisco rises above a long row of trees draped with deep violet colored Bougainvillea vines.

On Fridays there is a special market in the Plaza San Francisco that offers both plants and pottery with a sprinkling of other goods. Theses plants are, of course, peppers of several colors and degrees of spiciness. One of the major food stuffs of Mexico for the last several thousand years, peppers are full of vitamins.

 

Every day of the week there is a lot of activity at the central market right off the Plaza Gertrudis Bocanegra, Gertrudis was a local hero and martyr of the independence. Her plaza is also known as Plaza Chica to be distinguished from La Plaza Grande a couple of blocks away. These two open spaces planted with towering old trees and pleasant flower gardens are the two major meeting places and playgrounds for everyone in town. 

 

The Market has any number of areas with like kinds of merchandise neatly arranged in small booths forming a labyrinth of crowded alleyways. Inside the market is another world and all the bustle of life and commerce is active from early morning on into the night. At the booth above floor mats woven from the reeds of Lake Patzcuaro are offered and bags full of dried fish minnows,  called charales, that are highly prized in Patzcuaro. Also on the right is stacked a kind of thin split fire wood that is the resinous heart wood of local trees. These sticks burn hot and fast making perfect kindling or providing a quick fire for fast cooking.

Here is the enormously picturesque Templo del Sagrario begun in the 17^th century and expanded in the 18^th century. The building on the right is the high school I was telling you about and further along is the Templo which used to be known as The Virgin of Health.

This wall is part of the Templo del Sagrario complex and like the rest of those buildings it is constructed of adobe. I like this view because of the rich earthy texture of the natural materials and also because you can see the way the walls and buildings are constructed. First comes the adobe bricks which are muddy clay mixed with straw. When the adobe is exposed like this you can clearly see the golden straw glinting in the bright sun and I was wondering how long ago that grass was green and growing, three or four hundred years ago? The adobe is covered with a plaster mix and then painted. Wooden beams are used for doors and windows and the roof framing which is then covered with unglazed clay tiles. All of Patzcuaro is made in this manner. Sometimes there are stone foundations for the adobe walls and sometimes the adobe is covered and protected with flat stones or glazed tile.

 

This little honey was helping her mother clean the ancient patio at La Casa de los Once Patios which used to be a convent for the nuns serving the Templo del Sagrario pictured above. The Casa de los Once Patios has lost a few of its patios over the centuries but it is still a considerable complex with charming flower filled patios finished with baroque architectural embellishments. It is now an artisan’s collective offering the finest lacquer, weaving, copper and pottery in Patzcuaro. I can’t get over the cute girl and I love her cowgirl boots. 

This is another view of the Casa de los Once Patios and you can see what I mean about the wealth of potted plants. This collection is mostly composed of various kinds of begonias. Here the architecture is quite simple and graceful with roman arches and sturdy small pillars fashioned from the local hard limestone which has an attractive pinkish cast to it.
 

This is one of the indigenous log cabins, called trojes,  used by the Purepecha Indians who live in up in the mountain forests. This one has been placed in a corner garden of the Casa de los Once Patios as a demonstration of local building. Note that even the roof is made of thin split wooden shakes. The old wood takes on rich patinas with lichens contributing to the visual interest.

 

 

A large modernist mural decorates an old stair wall at Casa de los Onze patios. I couldn’t find out the painter or history of the commission except that it is part of the nationally commissioned public art movement that was intended to instill the people with a sense of pride and importance in their shared heritage. On the right is Don Vasco Quiroga again who is holding a spinning wheel as a symbol of his teaching the Indians in the 1530’s more advanced European technologies such as spinning and weaving.

A lady vendor sits surrounded by her product. She is selling woven straw articles from small tables to trunks and baskets. Each item is a masterpiece of quality basketry and they all smell of delicious fresh straw.

Patzcuaro folks have a healthy and sophisticated sense of humor. This is an advertisement on the delivery box attached to a motor scooter for a pizza parlor. Not only is this home-grown custom rig executed with professional graphics but the back ground is the silhouette of the Morelos statue on the Island of Janitzio in Lake Patzcuaro. Isn’t the universal appeal of pizza amazing?

This is a painting of San Pascual the patron saint of kitchens hanging in the front hall of our favorite restaurant in Patzcuaro, Cha Cha Cha. San Pascual is often times depicted floating around his kitchen presumably transported by a particularly potent batch of Mole Poblano or some such concoction. Here Pascual is sedate and benevolent and I love his neat apron.

When last we visited Patzcuaro we met Michael Warshauer a retired baker from the United States who has a delightful and informative blog on Mexican foodof the Patzcuaro region. . Don’t miss his photo blog, recent photos –an extensive essay on the Patzcuaro market. Michael suggested we meet at a Sunday only restaurant at Tzurumútaro, a nearby village and off we went to rendezvous with him and his charming wife Susan. 

When we arrived we immediately recognized Sra. Amparo Cervantes and her daughter, Mireya, from a convention of local Michoacan cooks in Morelia that we attended in November of 2006, called Encuentro de las Cocineras. I had taken photos of many of the cooks at this convention in their booths with the dishes they were preparing and when we returned to Boston I published the best of these portraits on our menu covers at the Casa Romero.

 

We understood that this happy reunion was to be an auspicious occasion as we already knew what a great cook Sra. Cervantes was and also how discerning and perceptive Michael is from reading his bilingually literate and informative Mexican food blog. Our expectations were surpassed with the main treat of that day, traditionally made corundas which Leo proclaimed as “this side of heaven”, the lightest corundas he had ever eaten.

Part of Sra. Cervantes crew of talented cooks, the woman on the left, placing hand made tortillas on her pottery grill was actually making them fly; her touch was so deft and tender. The stone corn masher is absolutely authentic made from an abrasive volcanic stone one can see the same technique being used in the pre-Columbian codices describing cooking. The kitchen here is partially open to the elements and it adjoins a dining pavilion shaded by a ceramic tiled roof protecting the diners from the afternoon sun.

Sra. Amparo Cervantes herself, with one hand she selects a corn leaf wrapped corunda from the steamer and holds the triangular bundle over the plate. With an imperceptible twist of her wrist she unwinds the flavorful corundas releasing a host of fragrant aromas. 

I found this naive mural at the front entrance of the Parque Nacional in Uruapan, a town close by Patzcuaro and I have included it here because it is shows how life imitates art in Mexico, or at least how pervasive is the folk culture.

This is a troop of Purepecha Indians dressed in traditional costume to perform the dance of the little old men. Ironically the dancers are all boys, some of whom look to be about 10, give or take a year. They are all portraying old bent-over men. They place sturdy bamboo matting as a percussive stage on which they perform. The line of “old men” hold to each other’s walking sticks presumably to indicate their frailty and as the music picks up tempi the dancers throw off the weariness of age and perform a kind of frantic tap dancing, slapping thick leather sandals against the wood mats with complex rhythmic syncopation. One thing that strikes me about this dance is how universal tap dancing is in one form or another. Have you seen the Irish River Dancers or the Morris dancers in an English village? I’ll bet they have some form of tap dancing in Tibet. Note the tiny dancer dolls in the foreground that the boys make and sell for pocket money.

I love the bright colors of the boy’s and men’s costumes all embroidered with animals and what I now see are probably letters on the cuffs of their trousers. It looks like they may spell out Michoacan? Does anyone know what the word is?
 

One of the reasons I go to Patzcuaro is to study this enormous wall mural painted by the incomparable master, Juan O’Gorman who was a student of Diego Rivera and also the architect for Diego and Frieda’s famous twin studios in San Angel, Mexico City.
 

O’Gorman was a prolific painter employing the classic fresco technique painting on wet plaster. He manages to include a huge amount of the historic action of the state of Michoacan into his picture and all these details fascinate me. The painting takes up the entire back wall of the local library which is in the Ex-convento de San Augutin begun in 1576. A great number of the Ecclesiastical buildings were secularized during the Juarez Presidency in the mid nineteenth century and reassigned for educational purposes dedicated to the people.

 My photograph of the mural only shows about 3/4s of it, cutting off the bottom because it just wouldn’t fit in my picture frame.  I try to go and enjoy the painting everyday that I am in Patzcuaro and I never tire of examining all the action. It’s like seeing a narrative story unfold. O’Gorman’s visual imagination is prolific and no detail is glossed over. I study the picture with my binoculars and try to follow the mysterious English translation in the guide pamphlet in order to identify the goings on.

 

At the center of this portion of O’Gorman’s mural is a portrait of Don Vasco Quiroga holding a fish net, an innovation that he introduced from Europe that greatly aided the Indian population especially on Lake Patzcuaro where distinctive butterfly nets are still in use today. Don Vasco was a fan of Thomas More’s book, Utopia, and both More and the title Utopia are depicted on either side of the bishop. On the right beyond the broken brick wall are some of the revolutionary heroes including the unfortunate Gertrudis Bocanegra spouting a fountain of blood from her single gunshot wound.

 

 O’gorman’s view of history and especially Mexican history can be rather caustic and frightening. I see an overall balanced portrayal of the swinging polemic that although speaks of man’s psyche without sentimentality. He includes the good with the bad implying the possibility of political evolution and the fulfillment of the human spirit


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Here is Erendira whose name means cheerful. She is an incarnation of Boadicea riding into battle, in this case, against the Spanish. The guide tells us that she was the first indigenous person to understand that horses were separate from their riders so she hopped on and charged into battle in defense of her people. The warrior princess is a strong and enduring reality that travels across time and cultures.

 

In the lower left is a self portrait of O’Gorman and his wife. Juan is holding a manifesto that reads in translation:

 

“Years have passed; the centuries and the natives are not defeated in spite of the conquest putting an end to the best of their population. Exploitation has not knocked them down, nor misery or diseases. They have not died of hunger. They have resisted work in the mines, roads or railways; they have plowed the land with their hands in order to feed us. Their treasures were stolen, they saw their temples fall. They loaded stones on their backs to build churches. But their resistance is a hidden strength that some day, when liberated from the chains of oppression, an art and a culture will continue to exist like a giant volcano erupting.”

 

Greeting all citizens and visitors to Patzcuaro is this handsome bronze statue, larger than life size, memorializing the Purepecha king Tangaxuhan who made a treaty with the conquistador Christobal de Olid, negotiating a peace and converted to Christianity in 1523. Then the brutal thug Nuño de Guzman broke the treaty and viciously tortured and executed Tangaxuhan in 1530. Tangaxuhan is said to have said, “Scatter my ashes across my kingdom so my people will remember who they are.”

 

 

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Our trip to the mountain town of Pátzcuaro in the state of Michoacán was the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow for this trip. We started our annual tour of Mexico in Guadalajara where the Herradura Tequila Company acted as our gracious hosts for a busy weekend of fiestas and informational symposia about their fine quality, traditionally made Tequila. But our intended goal for this trip was to return to the mountain town of Patzcuaro perched above the large mountain lake Patzcuaro.

 

This is the great room at El Mesón de San Antonio in Pátzcuaro www.mesondesanantonio.com  where we stayed for a glorious week and a half.  The proprietor, Don Alfredo Del Río is a warm and welcoming host who is a retired Agronomist. He runs the Mesón with his charming wife Doña Lupita and on occasion one or the other of his five delightful children help out. In the far right-hand corner of this photo a fragrant crackling fire warms the brisk mountain mornings, as Pátzcuaro is almost 7,000 feet above sea level. The inside adobe walls are painted a soft beigey pink and the outside wall facing the street is constructed from the ancient stones from the site. In pre-Columbian times the site was a Purepecha Indian ceremonial platform with temples, a priest’s house and enormous fires for worshiping the sun.  

 

 

Frieda Kahlo is handsomely portrayed in this posthumous portrait hanging in the great room. Looking at the deep window seat you can see how thick the old adobe walls are. The windows at Mesón de San Antonio all have wooden shutters on the inside. Don Alfredo told me when he bought the place 20 years ago the windows had no glass and the hacienda had been abandoned for almost 30 years. There was a forest of weeds choking the patio courtyard and the structure was in jeopardy of general collapse. The collection of papier maché dolls gathered on the window seat is a ubiquitous type found all over Mexico although at this moment I am still researching what to call them and trying to learn their history. Does anyone know more about these little darlings? If so, please elucidate and carry on in the comments section at the end of this article.

 

 

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This is a view of the great room looking towards the all tiled kitchen. The picture just begins to give a hint of the spacious traditional design of the kitchen which is intended as a demonstration kitchen for Doña Lupita’s classes. It also is available to the guests who may want to prepare a meal at the Mesón as an alterative to eating in restaurants all the time. Leo is considering organizing a week of traditional Mexican cooking classes next winter for a small group of his customers from Casa Romero. The idea is that our group would stay at Mesón de San Antonio and take  daily classes starting with shopping at the wonderfully colorful market in Pátzcuaro and then using and preparing a meal that all would share. If you are interested in this idea please get in touch through the comment section at the end of this article. 

 

 

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This is Don Alfredo’s garden courtyard is at the center of his old Hacienda style Mesón. In Vice Regal times the Mesón or inn was host to mule teams and their drivers. Mesón de San Antonio stands beside El Camino Real, the royal road that connected the main cities of Nueva España. The animals would have then been corralled in the courtyard. Some of the surrounding rooms accommodated overnight visitors and others accommodated blacksmiths, carpenters and other skilled craftspeople to help maintain the wagons and equipment. Now the large open court is planted with many unusual specimen plants. The most spectacular of the lot is a tall Monstruo (Brownningia sp) cactus. But my favorites are the deep fuchsia colored Bougainvillea vines hugging the ancient wooden columns that support the arcade surrounding three sides of the court. In this picture you can see one of the balcony style windows that open out from the comfortable rooms onto the central garden. Each room is individually decorated and has a small fireplace which is re-laid with wood every morning. 

   

 

The weighted branches of the Mexican Lima tree are heavy with fruit. Don Alfredo explained to me in a recent email about this special fruit, “there are two kinds of such fruit (Lima), one of them with nipple, and the another one without it. Our Lima tree, as you are able to see in the picture is with nipple and it is the more tasty and odoriferous of the two kinds.”

 The Lima is not as tart as our lemon or lime and it has a heavenly scented fruit that is quite unique in flavor. Leo describes it as a sweet lime. It is in fact a distinctive plant and the aromatic wood is also used to make boxes and chests. Because it is such a  fragrant wood it is  effective as a deterrent to insects as cedar wood is. The juice of the Lima is deliciously refreshing and is often mixed with other green vegetable juices such as parsley and cactus. Yummm! 


 

 

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This is a deceptive photo because the center plant is really a variegated leafy bush that supports a scarlet bougainvillea vine growing throughout its branches. The bright reds and greens are a perfect foil to the adobe walls rubbed with soft tan color.

 

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The elegantly slim wooden pillars supporting the tiled roof of Mesón de San Antonio are shaped with reverse fluting and finished by an attractive capital that in turn supports a scrolled bracket. The ceiling of the arcade has sturdy hand honed beams with thin cedar slats arranged in a herring bone pattern. This is the traditional building form that makes an appealing textural patterning.  

 

 

 

 

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One of the myriad details that Mesón de San Antonio abounds with is this bunch of corn tacked to an ancient ceiling beam that protrudes from the adobe wall. The ears of corn incorporate all the beautiful warm colors of a Persian carpet. A small cast bronze bell crowns the ensemble.
 

 

Here are the handsome del Río Family L to R; Don Alfredo, Doña Lupita, and their beloved daughter Edaín who has just graduated from the University of Morelia with a degree in biology. Edaín’s has four brothers and sisters. The two eldest are General Practitioner MDs in Quretero, an important colonial city nearby in central Mexico.  I added the frame from a picture I took in Uruápan, a nearby town. I think the frame lends them all a proper dignity.

 

 Doña Lupita is a terrific cook and while we were visiting she gave a demonstration to a group of her guests on preparing mole. She used many varieties of roasted and ground chilies, nuts and chocolate to create her own family recipe. Doña Lupita and Edaín started at 2pm and the party sat down to eat at 8:00. She sacrificed one of her own turkeys for the repast (a much discussed event recounted with respect, concern and humor). The turkey mole was enjoyed by all and a grand success. 

 

 

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And here is the little devil himself, Mr. Leo looking rather fetching in one of his new Mexican shirts photographed against my favorite bougainvillea vine in the courtyard.

 

 

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In this photograph we are looking diagonally across the courtyard at the towering cactus. Don Alfredo identified this remarkable specimen which is well known in town. “Our big cactus, dubbed Monstruo (Brownningia sp) originally came from Peru, now it is offered in a lot of nurseries in Mexico because of its big and odd shape and its blue hue.”

 

 

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This is the front door of the Museo de Popular which is right around the corner from our hotel. This absolutely charming museum is dedicated to the local ceramics, textiles, lacquer ware, masks and furniture made in that area. In the back of the museum is an archeological site of the Purépecha Indians. The Purépecha’s built ceremonial platforms where they had huge bonfires to worship the sun. There are also ruins of a native priest’s house. The ruins beneath Mesón de San Antonio are part of the same ceremonial site just one long block away on the same hill above the town of Patzcuaro and the lake.

 

 The Museum building was built by Don Vasco de Quiroga, the first bishop of Michoaćan in 1540 as the Royal College of St Nicholas. Bishop Quiroga taught the indigenous populations the crafts of firing and glazing pottery as well as spinning and weaving cloth and the production of lacquer ware. He is generally credited with teaching the native populations income producing craft professions that are still practiced today.   At the center of the Museum building is an oasis of greenery with a sleepy fountain and some of the most fragrant irises I have ever stuck my nose in.
 

 

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This spoon wrack is of special interest to us because we collect spoons for our kitchen back home in Boston. We struggled with the question of buying one of the enticing ensembles that we saw in several of the better shops in Patzcuaro but our home is already so jammed packed that we are trying not to accumulate anymore stuff. As a compromise we bought four large spoons that were attractively painted and lacquered, rather than the wrack with a whole collection of new spoons.


 

 

 

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The displays at Museo Popular are an act of thoughtful love with an appreciation for the artistry and function of the pieces in the collection. In one corner of the “Kitchen” display is this magnificent wooden arch carved with a decoration of blossoming flowers that displays, to great advantage, a collection of pottery. This type of ware leaves the bisque fired clay body exposed glazing only the interior of the vessels and the serving surfaces of plates. The dripping glaze becomes part of the simple design.
 

 

 

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If you can picture it, this gracefully curved counter at the center of the “Kitchen” display is actually the stove/cooking range. First of all I have to mention that I love the beautiful shape of this structure that allows for four cooking places with ample tile top counter space in the center. At the butt end facing out, the small black square is one of the fire chambers and the cooking pot sits above it with a rounded bottom for even heat distribution. The pot nestles into a round opening at the top of the stove, fitting snugly. They use either charcoal or small evenly split logs of a hot burning core wood from the local trees that are highly resinous. What-ever smoke arises from these fires rises to the high ceilings of the kitchen and is vented out the eaves of the roof.


 

 

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In a corner of the museum an open door leads to the back garden where the archeological excavation is revealed. You can get an idea of the attractive displays throughout the museum arranged on tables and fascinating open shelf cupboards and wooden niches. There are also occasional glassed wall shelves with special collections and in the glass you can see the reflection of the museum’s central patio garden. . This room is dedicated to a distinctive kind of green glazed pottery.

  

 

 

 

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The two matching cupboards on either side of the central wooden niche have an interesting detail where the legged cupboards stand on low benches. The benches are part of the cupboards carefully joined together with mortise and tendon joinery. 

 

 

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This is part of the mask collection at the Museo Popular and nothing could be more of a popular art than masks in Mexico. All over the country the various peoples of different regions make and use masks in their ceremonies. Some of the characters are classic individuals and some are generic types and a lot of them are mixtures of human and beast. These zoomorphic cross species express the universal connectivity between all beings and the transformative aspect of evolving life.  

 

 

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This picture of St. Francis shaking the hand of a wolf is created with feathers. I am a sucker for St. Francis; I mean the guy talked with the animals just like Mary Poppins so how much better can it get? I’ll bet he had some interesting conversations actually listening to what the critters had to say. I am also a sucker for feathers because they are so beautiful. The art of feather embroidery is called Amantecas in the Nahuatl language. It is a decorative technique that has been practiced in Mexico throughout history. This picture is decidedly European and Christian to boot, but the subject is remarkably gentle and intelligent. We all need to converse with our fellow creatures and care for each other. Evolution is cooperation not competition! 

 

 

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This ensemble of pottery is displayed on a fairly simple shelf arrangement. The central unit is inset into the wall in an attractively peeked niche which becomes a finished piece of furniture by the addition of the scalloped wooden border that culminates in a finial that looks to be a cross between a pineapple and a pomegranate. The peaked arches of the little side niches culminate, on the left, with two rabbits kissing and on the right, a quail with her top knot feathers.


    

 

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The style of the pottery on this table is one of my favorites. The designs are created by tiny dots of glaze in harmonious shades of color in subdued tones. I think the proportions of the large covered urn are especially attractive


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Outside in the patio garden, bird of paradise flowers seem to take flight, animated by a shower of silver water beads from a sprinkler hose.
 

 

 

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Sky blue agapanthus flower clusters huddle together with pink azalea blossoms in a corner of the patio garden.
 

 

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Red and white stripped amaryllis trumpets wag long tongues tempting the patrolling bees to take a dip.
 

 

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I am not sure what to call this beautiful Lilly variety with its complex flower structure except “Elegantly Lovely.”

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This is the bell tower of the Basilica of Nuestra Señora de la Salud, which Bishop Vasco de Quiroga started to build around 1543. He had hopes that this would become a great cathedral, but the original plan - an edifice comprised of five naves, capable of holding about 30,000 people at a time was never completed. The Basilica has recently undergone a marvelous restoration. The Virgen de la Salud (Our Lady of Health), made of pasta de caña, graces the main altar. Pasta de caña is corn cane paste bound with hon