Alamos #11: Slideshow of Alamos, Mexico

Watch the video by clicking RIGHT HERE, and then click the PLAY button on the viewer.

Have fun!

Alamos #10: Photo Gallery from Alamos, Mexico

Alamos #9: Book on Alamos for Travelers

There are a number of books written by residents of Alamos. A good one to start with for traveler’s is Emily Preece’s Over These Cobblestones: An Alamos Sojourn, published in 2009. It contains a good historical overview and an engaging account of daily life as experienced by a foreign resident. The bibliography will lead you to other titles, depending on your interests. It also contains a brief account of Hurricane Norbert and the destruction of large parts of the town in 2008

Alamos #8: Attending a Rosario

My first night in Alamos gave me a view to the ‘real’ Mexico, and convinced me that the town offered up authentic Mexico as well as any. I was invited to attend a night vigil, a ‘rosario’ on the mountain above town called El Mirador. JL and I drove the cobblestone streets in the descending twilight, the streets silent and abandoned, doorways dark, the sky cobalt with a full moon mounting the Sierra Madre in the east above Copper Canyon. We met C. at the circular brick house he has built near the summit of the mountain along the dirt road. He invited us into a fenced area overlooking the valley and the moon, where we took our seats with the others who were arriving in pickup trucks blaring ranchero music. The women brought tamales and the men wore Stetsons and shook hands firmly, saying mucho gusto softly, almost timidly. The kids played on the lecturn that stood before a modest altar lighted by a single bulb. Three framed images peered out from the altar — Jesus, Mary, and the Virgin de Guadalupe. With the kids I read the “Dialogo de Dios” and then photographed them with the Nikon D3 in the dim light, afraid to trigger a strobe and offend people. The kids giggled at the viewer on the camera’s back, and ran to pose again. The parents warmed up to me and soon we were all relaxed in our seats and C. took to preparing to start his incantation. C. looks like a sturdy American hippie with a ruddy uplifting face, long ponytail, and sinewy and strong posture. But he is Mexican and lives with his father down the hill where they make palapas. Not long ago he was married to an American woman who made jewelry and, as he described it to me, burned down their Alamos house. “I lost everything but the clothes on my back,” he said to me in the yellow light of the altar bulb. He lost her too, I gathered. “American women, they are a problem,” he joked. “I had nothing but the Holy Spirit and this got me through.” C. is much liked and known in the community, sells palapas with his dad, and works as a massuese as well. “He also has visions,” JL told me when I took my seat again. “He can see what will happen. When a man was lost for many days, they asked C where he was, and he thought and thought, and then told them of the man’s location…and they found him there.”

C. emerged from a doorway to the right of the altar with a small rusty frying pan. From a paper bag he produced crystalline gold nuggets of sticky copal resin and placed them in the pan. From the fire pit behind the building he added embers and the blue smoke of the incense rose. It’s aroma relaxed us and I discussed the copal with C. “It cleans the spirit.” “Yes.” Then C. moved to the lectern to address the 25 friends and family who sat respectfully in the dark. He was articulate and sincere, thanking us for coming to pay homage to the Virgin and Jesus during the Dias de los Muertos. The last blue light of the day was giving way to stars as C. turned to address the three images on the altar. I wondered how long it took him to build the circular brick ‘observatory’ that towered behind the altar like the Caracol of Chichen Itza. In the cylindrical structure was a workroom filled with his tools and supplies. C.’s effortless and eloquent words asked for protection and guidance and was extremely moving. I recorded it for translation later.

Afterward, C. and his affable wife prepared atole, a sweet corn drink, for us and passed around a box of cookies. It was then that I learned that C. is also an expert on local medicinal flora in the area, and a highly knowledgeable source on their use. We arranged to get together the following day. “Listo?” We drove the rutted road back to the hacienda in time for a late meal at Luchy’s.

Alamos #7: In the Cementario

The cementario was filling with families and workers when I arrived. The workers carried buckets of paint and mixed cement to repair and dress up the tombs. Families were busy setting up their spaces with chairs and flowers, candle arrangements, and the toys of diseased children. There was an elaborate arrangement of Barbie-like dolls posing in the morning sun on a small yellow tomb. One couldn’t help but think of one’s own kids back home.

Manicured, quiet, and overlooking the valley below, the cementario begged to be photographed in late afternoon light. I planned out some views to shoot later and returned to town. I recalled that the full moon would be rising just after sunset. During the rest of the day I spoke to some local American expats, collected gossip, and heard the legends of Alamos’ movie-star residents (including Carrol O’Conner and Rip Torn).

More to come soon…