Goodbye Sally 1998-2009
Many of you have gotten to know Sally, our black labrador-German shepard friend of 12+ years. Perhaps she has licked you in your face when you came into our home or you have seen her at our side on hundreds of runs and bike rides up Mill Mountain in Roanoke.
Today, Missy and I made the very difficult decision to have her put to sleep as her physical condition has taken a turn for the worse over the past few months. While we’ve been away here in Mexico since August we have been so lucky to have her in the caring hands of our friends Donny and Katie who nursed her along with weekly baths, trips to the vet and much love.
It was impossible to imagine that when we said our good-byes in August it would be the last time we saw her. I was lucky to have seen her a couple of times over January while I was home, but it was obvious she had changed greatly. There was nothing more we could do for her from afar, and her condition required care beyond what we were willing to ask any of our friends to give her.
For a large dog we were lucky to have had her for so long but that kind of luck certainly doesn’t diminish our sadness over the past few weeks while we’ve tried to figure out what to do. It has been an especially difficult week for us as Missy lost her Grandpa George Warp earlier in the week.
When we return to Roanoke, we’ll spread her ashes along the paths that she loved to run. She will be forever missed.
World Music Festival
Just a few pictures from Fiesta de la Musica which took up four plazas downtown Guadalajara on Saturday night. The last concert, La Mala Rodriguez, was supposed to start at midnight, but didn’t get off (in true Mexican fashion) until nearly 2 a.m. but was worth the wait. Very impressive opening by local band Radaid.
While waiting for the set to get some audio fixed, Danielle, Gustavo and Manzano went into a nearby bar which was about to close, except that Gustavo knew the owner. We walked into a closing bar only to be followed by half a dozen drunk people who cranked up the Karaoke machine and danced away for another hour. A crazy series of events….
Fronton (Handball)
Fronton from Evelio Contreras on Vimeo.
My good friend Evelio Contreras, whom I worked with in Roanoke (now he’s at Las Vegas Sun), is visiting for the week, and we’re working hard. Sunday afternoon we went to Parque Agua Azul, a city park, looking for a group of guys I photographed back in September who play Fronton (handball). I told him that day there was a man with only one arm, and somehow, he was there Sunday too, so we made a little video story about him and the game in the park. Afterwards he challenged us to a game, which we oblidged. It wasn’t as hard as I first thought, but my hand was sore the next day.
Yesterday, before shooting some interviews for my projects, we spent about an hour at the Lucha Libre office begging for press passes to today’s matches. I think we’re 85% there…still have to write a formal letter of request and drop it off later today before the fight. Should be fun if we can work it out. Stay tuned.
Giving Back
One of my favorite things about my work here is when I bring 4×6 prints to the subjects that I’ve been working with. Since January, I’ve been documenting a community of migrants from Zacatecas, who work on the outskirts of Guadalajara making and baking bricks for construction. It is a community of about 140 families, where many kids work, and everyone lives in extreme poverty.
Yesterday, I spent most of the afternoon with the students who attend a special school provided by an NGO, and as evening arrived, I stopped by the home of a large extended family to drop off about 60 prints from my last few visits, some from a baptism that I attended a few weeks ago. Rosa started calling out for other neighbors who were in some of the prints to see, and about a half dozen other people literally came running towards our small group.
Juana, a 17-year-old whom I met the first day I visited the community with two social workers, and who at the time was nearly 9-months pregnant, ran over too, asking me if I had her prints. She was shy that first day, scared out of her mind, having never seen a doctor, and on the doorstep of her first birth. Now, she has a healthy child, and was exhilerated to see the pictures, the first she’d had of her baby. I left, as they sorted out who would own which pictures, and then as I was walking away, I heard that once shy girl yell, “Josue! Josue!”
She wondered if I could make a portrait of her, her husband and the baby all together, since he wasn’t in the initial photos. I happily obliged, made a quick photo and promised to return on Wednesday with the print for them. “And if you can’t find me,” Juana said, “You can leave the picture with my grandmother, OK?”
It takes time to build trust in the communities in which I’m working. My spanish isn’t all that good, and I’m the tall gringo with the cameras, and no one seems to understand exactly what I keep returning for. But, I’ve found that when I give back to the community something like pictures, which none of them have, it seems to open many doors to friendship, warmth and trust. It is these moments so far on this adventure that I enjoy most.
Xochimilco
Sadly, it’s already mid-year through the Fulbright, and for that the Becarios (grantees) gathered in Mexico City this past week for a mid-term reunion, to make short presentations of what we’ve been up to all these months. The work and range of projects is simply amazing, from the creative to the science and everything in between.
It was also a chance to see some friends we’d made in September when we first arrived, and to make new friends. On Saturday, 22 of us traveled the 1.5 hour ride in 5 cabs to Xochimilco, a series of canals just south of this huge city, once the flower-growing area of the District. Now it’s a place for Chilangos and guests to relax for an afternoon on the lanchas, cruising slowly in the crowded canals with a few micheladas, corn, and coconut ice cream.
James Breiner, a Knight Fellow working in Guadalajara, it seems was there the same day as us, and has some good history on his blog on Xochimilco. Missy also has some good info and anecdotes.