Mariachi Festival coming up!

I admit that when I first came to Guadalajara, my taste for mariachi music was on par with my taste for polka. I still can't say I'm a fan, but I do recognize the difference between hearing mariachi on the car radio and witnessing it live.

Mariachi is loud, brassy, impressive and very fun. It proves there are power in numbers. If you ever have a chance to be within a few feet of a mariachi band at a party or wedding, it's hard not to love it.

Guadalajara's international mariachi festival starts in a few days, and if nothing else, it's fun to watch the opening parade. Here's a summary of the festival and it's opening events (in English):

Wednesday, August 25, 8 p.m. Mariachi Tradicional El Carrizo will play at the opening of the “El Mariachi de mi Tierra” art exhibit at the Museo Regional (Liceo 60, city center). No charge.

Thursday, August 26 and Friday, August 27, 5-7 p.m.,  traditional mariachi groups will perform in the Plaza Fundadores behind the Teatro Degollado.  On Saturday, in the same place and at the same time, they will be joined by more modern mariachi bands dressed in their elegant attire. No charge.

Two grand traditional mariachi galas close the festival-within-a-festival on Sunday, August 29, at the Teatro Degollado. They take place at noon and at 6 p.m. Both have free admission.

Guadalajara’s 17th International Mariachi Festival swings into gear Saturday, August 28 with a host of events in different locations (see chart right).

The schedule will be much like last year’s, with nightly galas in the Teatro Degollado and free performances in restaurants, public malls and plazas and local churches.  The colorful parade takes place Sunday, August 29, 10 a.m. in downtown Guadalajara.

Read more in the full Guadalajara Reporter article.

The new Chivas stadium: high expectations, no planning

Wednesday night we braved the drizzling rain and general clusterf*ck of people and traffic to see the finals of the Copa Libertadores in the new Chivas stadium. Short summary: the new stadium was amazing and designed for great views, but zero infrastructure was planned around it.

It took us over two hours to drive less than 10 miles, and once we managed to get to the periferico, the entire highway was collapsed. It was a free-for-all. Chain-link fences on the periferico were pushed down, and the way people were driving should have been filmed for a National Geographic program called "human nature: survival of the fittest."

We made it to our seats by minute 9 of the game. Adolfo Bautista (el Bofo) scored a nice goal at the last minute of the first half, then the Chivas were obliterated by two goals and lost.

A photo recap of the journey:

The collapsed periferico.

Me hanging out of the window, now stopped on the one lane entrance down to the stadium.

The stadium, at last! Thousands of fans dressed in their red and white best.

 

 It would make for a good Where's Waldo setting.

The halftime show had fireworks bursting from the spaceship. Pretty impressive.

A happy Chiva, in the end.

Click here to view the full set on Flickr of my Chivas game night photos.

Last chance to see Orozco exhibition at the Instituto Cultural Cabañas

I just went to see the amazing Jose Clemente Orozco collection at the Instituto Cultural Cabañas, where more than 400 of his works have been exhibited since March. If you haven't been yet, don't miss it!

For anyone like me who only knew Orozco by his murals in the Hospicio Cabañas and the Palacio de Gobierno in Guadalajara, this exhibition shows you Orozco from every angle: from his "House of tears" watercolors of prostituting women to his sketches of the Mexican revolution to the estudios for practically every mural he has painted.

His unique sense of color (dark, bold, reds and grays) and of the human form is what impressed me most. I took some illegal photos (without flash, of course) to catch a few different areas of his work shown. To read about Orozco and the exhibit in Spanish with English translation, click here for a PDF of the catalog.

Here are some illegal and not especially color-accurate takes from the exhibit José Clemente Orozco, Pintura y Verdad (click to enlarge):


Orozco was a political cartoonist for the magazine El Hijo de Ahuizote and La Vanguardia. An example of one of his cartoon spreads.

Los Muertos.










Estudio for El franciscano, a mural in the Escuela Nacional Preparatoria in Mexico City.









This is from the "House of Tears" series of watercolors. Not sure of title.








From a series of portraits in oil.










To read more about Orozco in English, click here for a good article published on Mexconnect.

A night at Mexpat

Mexpat is an international community of foreigners living in Mexico. Every month or so they hold an event at a bar or restaurant in town. I've attended twice: once in May and once this Thursday, and it was a great experience both times.

I'm not much for networking, but after a year of being holed up with a parrot and a long distance telephone line, I figured I need to start getting out more. Making friends abroad can be difficult for a lot of expatriates. Social customs, gender roles, language--there are a lot of differences in the way people interact and form connections. Mexpat is one way people from multicultural backgrounds can come together.

In May, Mexpat was held at a lovely wine bar called Tinto y Blanco. I was surprised to find a real melting pot of nationalities and ages. I met several young women in the translation industry and swapped cards. There were gringos, Canadians, Mexicans, Germans, and others from all over the map.

Thursday's Mexpat event was at Panoramica, a trendy bar set between two Indian restaurants. It got off to a slow start, but 50 or more people showed up by 9:00 and it kept going. I met a Bostonian retiree who just moved here in December, a Canadian member of the philharmonic orchestra (who I unintentionally offended for being Canadian and a musician, respectively--sorry, Chris), and a girl who works for a local organization that gets kids off the streets and into school. I also ran into plenty of people I met the last time around. Overall, a great atmosphere and fun time.

Mexpat has a website and a Facebook group: I'd recommend signing up for both, and coming out the next time around. See you there!

http://www.mexpat.com/
www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=39932404662