Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Catching Up

This post is a week later than planned—I got some kind of intestinal thing that got me off schedule and then was lazy for the rest of last week. It is so easy to be lazy here—it’s hard to maintain discipline in an environment where most of your friends are retired. It was much easier to stay focused in New York where everyone was hustling.

I experienced a facsimile of Girls on the Roof a couple of Saturdays ago, less than a month after I blogged about missing those gatherings. I hosted a soul food potluck at my house for some of the African-American women in San Miguel. We were a smaller group, seven, and didn’t gave the familiarity of years of friendship. But our conversation was as uncensored as it had been with my New York crew and the women equally as independent and interesting.

We talked about the politics of post-Obama America. About Black movies and actors—Denzel’s refusal to do any movies his children can’t see, Whoopie’s career, Oprah and Danny in Beloved, whether Halle’s career was affected by doing Monster’s Ball, a film that included a frank sex scene. We talked about how our lives both as Blacks and women have changed over the last 60 years and how life in Mexico differs from life in the States. And we talked about sex—the question we examined that afternoon was, which was more important, the size of the vessel or the motion of the ocean? It was a great afternoon. As I cleaned the kitchen that evening, I wondered if Women on the Patio was emerging.

Luckily I had some DVDs I could watch while I was stuck in the house four straight days. I watched Frankie and Alice, a film about a woman with multiple personalities that won Halle a Globe nomination, Small Island, a BBC miniseries that examines the lives of two Jamaican men who migrate to England after volunteering to fight for the British in WWII, and Treme, the HBO Series about New Orleans six months after the storm. I had watched the first three episodes months ago but couldn’t finish it because it made me nostalgic for the New Orleans that was. This series is a wonderful tribute to NOLA, showcases all its people and its different musical heritages.

It’s hotter than normal for this time of year—generally our hottest month is May but May temperatures begin at the end of March. Hopefully the rains will come early otherwise the next six weeks will be unbearable.

The Easter pageantry began here last Sunday when the Nuestro Señor de la Columna, a statue of Jesus credited with miraculous powers, made its annual pilgrimage from Atotonilco to San Juan de Dios Church. And tomorrow the city will be decked out in purple and white, honoring Mary with its Our Lady of Sorrows altars, erected on the streets and in homes and churches. The Friday of Sorrows, this prelude to Holy Week, Semana Santa, is my favorite part of the yearly Easter celebration in San Miguel.

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