Sexual diversity fashion extravaganza
By Lulu Torbet August 8, 2008 San Miguel de Allende

Fashion Show
Sexual Diversity Festival
Fri, Aug 8, 7pm
Models walk the Jardín
Sat, Aug 9, 9pm
Cocktails & runway show
Fashions from Barbara Porter Boutique
250/175 pesos

After the sold-out success of Barbara Porter’s fashion show at last year’s Sexual Diversity Festival, she and her partner, store manager and designer Laura Reyes, are all set to outdo themselves this year.

With the theme of elegant limited-edition clothes (a hallmark of the Barbara Porter Boutique tradition) for people of all gender persuasions, a diverse crew of gorgeous models present fashions for gays and lesbians, transsexuals, cross-dressers, transvestites and anyone else who wants to join the party.

Porter and Reyes, who have been working together, make quite a team, having created one of the most established clothing stores in San Miguel. From their wild publicity campaigns to their dazzling shows and exotic collections, they have surprised the San Miguel community at every turn. Somehow they seem to be able to break all the rules without sacrificing the elegance and innovation that distinguish the Barbara Porter brand they have created.

As an artist, Laura Reyes has never been one to follow fashion trends or seasonal colors. She begins with topical issues she wants to express, so there are always elements of social or political or psychological commentary in her designs. In this case, of course, the topic is diversity, sexual diversity at its fullest, and the right of every person to freedom of expression. Each collection is created in the same manner that an artist creates a series.

Many of us here in town know Barbara Porter, a free spirit if there ever was one, who for forty years was a performing arts critic for the San Jose Mercury News in California. Her unique fashion flamboyance and her many fashion creations speak volumes about her own creativity.

Show up at the Jardín on Friday, August 8, at 7pm and you’ll get to see the models circle the square, before walking down to the Market Bistro for the evening’s festivities.

The Porter/Reyes fashion show on Saturday, August 9, at Z Club, will be the highlight of the festival’s major event, hosted by Susan Bloom and Ana. The evening begins with cocktails at 9pm and then, at 9:30pm, the models will start down the runway. You can be sure that Barbara Porter and Laura Reyes will surprise us again.

Following the fashion show there will be a Sexual Diversity Costume Competition, with a first prize of a four-day trip to New Orleans for two. So think about wearing a costume and winning that prize. After the Costume Competition, the evening moves on to music and dancing, with male and female dancers to entertain you.

The Festival runs from August 7–9. Z Club is at Lupita 6, Estación SS CC (behind the immigration office). Telephone is 154-9575. Reservations are recommended. Parking and taxis will be available throughout the night. Tickets for the evening are 250 pesos; 175 pesos for students. Pre-event 30-percent discount tickets are available at Barbara Porter Boutique, Zacateros 47. Complete information, schedule, event prices, and more, can be found at www.bombao.com.

Lulu Torbet is a writer, editor and former New Yorker, currently living in San Miguel.

Professor, reverend, gypsy, chocolatier
By Keith Wall

A Wine & Chocolate Indulgence
Benefit for Jóvenes Adelante
Sat, Aug 9, 5pm
Casa Grau
Zacateros 19
500 pesos

Multi-talented Cynthia Lynch is the chocolate expert for the upcoming Jóvenes Adelante’s fundraiser. You might know Reverend Dr. Cynthia Lynch as an energetic academic, or as co-author of Word of the Light, or as an ordained Interfaith minister.

She was not full of early promise. Born a US citizen (barely) in Kentucky, she and her “illegal immigrant” English mother settled in Montreal after being rousted by the US Immigration Service. 

She had no particular talents, certainly not cooking, nor any particular ambitions. She thought it might be nice to be a recreation worker or a cruise ship hostess. She went to the University of Ottawa for a bachelor’s degree in recreation and worked with kids at a nearby facility. Then the city hired her full time as a youth counselor and soon put her in charge of all staff training for the recreation department. 

Leaping ahead a decade, Cynthia married an artist and lived in Suffolk, England, close to her husband’s family. Two years later they returned to Ottawa and opened a tearoom. Impulsively, Cynthia enrolled in a cake decorating class and found she had an unexpected talent for it. Equally unexpected was a short-notice offer to teach a class in decorating with chocolates when the regular instructor fell ill. She knew nothing at all about chocolate, but winged it, experimenting and learning about the texture, consistency, flavor and molding characteristics of chocolate.

Her shop did not prosper, though, so they relocated to Boston and opened another tearoom. They enjoyed modest success with teas, scones and biscuits, but chocolate items outsold traditional pastries, so she made more chocolates. Soon the tearoom became the “House of Chocolates” and in 1980, was voted “Best of Boston” in Boston magazine, a distinction it held for a decade, the term limit. In the latter years of their phenomenal 12-year run, they had 30 employees in two shops and a third commercial facility.

“The chocolate period” ended in 1992 and a new era began. She divorced, sold the business to an employee (it’s still in operation) and enrolled at the University of Massachusetts Boston. She met Tom Lynch at a professional conference, the two hit it off and soon married. She started her master’s degree at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, where Tom was a professor. A year later, Louisiana State University lured Tom to Baton Rouge, so she finished her MPA at LSU and then a Ph.D. at Southern University. 

From Baton Rouge they made trips into Mexico and discovered San Miguel. In 2003, the University of Texas Pan American in Edinburg hired her as an assistant professor. An UTPA goal has been building a relationship with a Mexican city, so Cynthia arranged for a four-day visit to San Miguel last spring by the provost and deans to talk with charities and schools. 

Probably at a coffee break with Virginia Wheelwright and Jóvenes Adelante’s current president Amanda Ruíz, the topic of chocolate came up, and Cynthia divulged that she actually knew quite a bit.

That was the genesis of “A Wine and Chocolate Indulgence,” with Cynthia agreeing not only to be expert consultant but to make most of the chocolates herself.

Similar inspiration energized 30 volunteers over months of preparation and engaged the enthusiastic cooperation of local wine and chocolate vendors, many of whom will be present. Tastings of 12 wine varietals are paired by Dr. Lynch with two chocolate delicacies. Classical guitarists Jack and Frances will perform. 

Tickets are available at La Conexión, Casa de Papel, Café Monet, in the Jardín, or at the door. All proceeds go for university scholarships for gifted students from poor, mostly rural, families from the San Miguel area. For information, visit the Jóvenes Adelante (Youth Go Forward!) site at http://jovenesadelante.org/. 

Professional midwife is new CASA general director
By Kelsey A. White

Maricruz Coronado’s remarkable journey from student to professional midwife has now taken her to the role of CASA’s general director. Coronado’s relationship with CASA began 11 years ago when she entered the newly founded school of professional midwifery with a scholarship. Her career demonstrates CASA’s commitment to developing leaders from within and its focus on employees and the people it serves.

Coronado’s journey has been long and sometimes difficult. She grew up in humble circumstances in a rural agricultural community of 1,000 in Tamaulipas. One of 14 children, she worked with her parents on their farm. Like many Mexican women, she had a conservative father who didn’t want her to study. However, with the support of her mother, she ultimately got an education. Despite her mother’s lack of formal education, Coronado pointed out that she “always gave us the same opportunities, as much to the women as to the men.”

Before marrying, Coronado studied medicine for three years. She wanted to continue her studies but could not due to economic circumstances and her new role as wife and mother. Asked about her life before CASA, she smiles and says, “It was another life! It was completely the life of a mom, in the home. I was dedicated to my children, to my husband. So when I got the chance to study midwifery, it was hard. I had two different lives—one focused on the home and the other on studying.”

She found out about CASA and the midwifery program by listening to the radio and from her personal experience. She had already used the maternity hospital services during her pregnancies. Instead of choosing midwifery, she believes that “midwifery became interested in me.”

Perhaps her biggest challenge during training was keeping up with her duties as a busy mother of four. After dropping off her children at school each day, she attended her morning classes, returning later in the afternoon to pick them up. Luckily, the library and after-school programs at CASA kept the children occupied while she studied in the afternoons. Working full-time is much easier now that her children are grown, she says. Her oldest is now 21 and the youngest is 15, “but when I was studying, they were very young.”

After graduating from the three-year program as part of its first generation of midwives, she stayed on at CASA where she taught anatomy classes. Then she served as director of the School of Midwifery. She also worked in the maternity hospital located a few blocks from the campus. This year, Coronado became general director of CASA.

Though her professional midwife practice is smaller these days, she has not forsaken her first calling. As general director, she oversees 80 employees and numerous programs, and manages CASA’s financial and material resources. 

She is committed to maintaining the strong team culture of CASA. When staff members have difficulty meeting performance goals, it is up to Coronado to analyze the problem and create strategies to resolve it. “Sometimes I have to make the whole team feel the commitment that we have made to the public. I have to give them a desire to work hard and fulfill commitments.” She says that the best part of her job is the daily opportunity to communicate with people.

However, her most memorable experience at CASA is actually a process that repeats itself every three years: the transformation of each generation of midwifery students from shy young women to confident and capable professionals. “In the beginning, some of them barely want to speak. But after finishing the program, they can think; they can express their opinions. It’s beautiful to see how they change.” 

She adds that a similar change often occurs in the peer counselors, young people trained by CASA to conduct education sessions in ranchos and schools. Many experience significant personal development at CASA and continue their educations through scholarships. Coronado regards this as one of the main benefits of working at CASA—after all, it is the underlying purpose of the organization and a mission in which she strongly believes.

In spite of promising strides made by CASA students and employees, Coronado recognizes major obstacles still remain in the areas of gender relations and public health for many women and families in Mexico. She believes the continued development of the midwifery program and its wider acceptance by the public are both crucial in bringing about needed change, especially in providing health services for the most isolated indigenous communities. 

She sees the current CASA goal of expanding its midwifery model to other parts of Mexico and to other countries as an important step in changing political and social attitudes. Coronado has traveled nationally and internationally to share the CASA model, most recently to Africa. Within Mexico, CASA is working to open schools in the states of Guerrero, Chiapas, San Luís Potosí and Veracruz, and plans an additional school in Guatemala.

“It’s a chain,” she says, explaining that if the experience of women can be improved and their children are planned and wanted, then those children will be born in better conditions and have greater opportunities for health and education throughout life. 

With a capable and optimistic general director at its helm, the future looks promising for CASA. For more information about how you can support CASA’s work, contact Berenice Reyes at 154-6060 or visit www.casa.org.mx.

Kelsey A. White is a summer volunteer intern at CASA and an undergraduate at Maryville College near Knoxville, TN. She is studying Spanish and nonprofit leadership. She plans to pursue a career in international development, public health or nurse midwifery.

Take home your favorite chair
By Donna Quathamer

Grand Opening & Auction
Casa de los Ángeles
Sat, Aug 9, 6pm
Calle Enrique Velazco Ibarra 9
colonia Santa Julia
Auction of decorated chairs by local artists

Please join us at the grand opening of our second center in colonia Santa Julia, Calle Enrique Velazco Ibarra.

As part of the opening of the second family center, which will serve 100 children and their families, Casa hosts a silent and live auction of 30 wooden rocking chairs which have been creatively decorated by 30 of San Miguel’s well-known and aspiring artists.

San Miguel artists have enthusiastically volunteered time and materials to decorate the most creative, functional and artistic rocking chairs ever seen. Media used include painting, ceramics, decoupage, metal, fabric and a variety of other materials that make these chairs one-of-a-kind collectors’ items. The variety of artists ensures a wide range of media and prices at auction. The chairs will be displayed for silent-auction bidding at 7pm at the grand opening. Chairs which do not achieve the estimated “gallery price” established by the artists will then go to live auction beginning at 8pm.

Artists in the community have been enthusiastic about the Rocking Chair Project, including the Eduardo XX coordinator of the Children’s section at the Biblioteca Pública, Joan Elena Goldbert and Lulu Torbet. A well-known San Miguel jeweler said, when asked to participate, “I love this idea and I think other artists will want to participate as well. I don’t think anything quite like this has been done in San Miguel.” Lisa Simms was so enthused about the project that she called artist colleagues Peter Leventhal and Keith Keller to join the project.

Don’t miss it. Join us Saturday and take home your favorite chair.

Donna Quathamer is the founder and director of Casa de los Ángeles.

Big-hearted support for animal welfare an unprecedented success
By Janielle Penner

The benefit concert “Doc Makes a House Call!” on July 22 was a sold out success in support of SPA (Sociedad Protectora de Animales) and Amigos de Animales of San Miguel and Guanajuato. To everyone’s delight, Doc Severinsen and El Ritmo de La Vida put on a magnificent show and had the audience enthralled with their passionate performances.

The success of the night will allow the three animal welfare organizations to increase their outreach and improve the conditions in which they do their work. The auction raised an unprecedented US$10,000 and ticket sales US$25,000.

In addition to the brilliant musical performances, the guests also were treated to a short film about the work of SPA, a fabulous art and jewelry auction, and had the opportunity to meet representatives of each organization to learn more about the work they do. One surprise of the evening had the guests rolling with laughter as the MC, Gregory Diamant, announced that many of the guests were “getting lucky tonight!” He explained that if they looked under their chairs at that moment, many of them would win one of a variety of prizes. 

Thanks to the upbeat nature of both the guests and the performers, many people offered their compliments and encouragement for this cooperative benefit. Crystal Calderoni cheered, “It’s all fabulous, the party, music, crowd, scenario, weather, pups, food and spirits!” Another guest named Bob shared his feeling at the end of the night, “Congrats on the event! Very impressive—and we had a great time.” Resident Naomi Lawler, both donor and attendee, summed it up with her kind words, “I haven’t enjoyed a charitable event as much as I enjoyed House Call in the five years I’ve lived here. We’re incredibly blessed that our unique community of talented musicians, volunteers and donors were able to come together to support the animals and share a magical evening together under the San Miguel sky.” 

SPA Director Natalie Hardy said in response to all the support and kudos that were offered, “The outpouring of donations and support has been heartwarming. The people willing to support animals are beyond our awareness until we do an event of this size.” 

The joint fundraising effort created a new website, www.AnimalWelfareSma.org, with links to each organization’s website and photos from “Doc Makes a House Call!” To watch the SPA’s short film, visit www.spasanmiguel.org and click the film link.

Over 200 people attended the benefit concert and basked in the beautiful San Miguel weather in the backyard of Casa Jazmin (www.CasaJazmin.com), located just one hill north of the Malanquin Club de Golf.

Guests enjoyed panoramic views of San Miguel and the valley beyond in an unforgettable evening for a worthy cause. On behalf of all three organizations, Thank you to everyone—guests, supporters and donors alike for being a part of this magnificent evening. The complete list of all special contributors and the more than 30 artists who donated work for the auction can be seen at the SPA website: www.spasanmiguel.org. 

Taste of San Miguel to offer treats this week

Taste of San Miguel
Mon, Aug 11, 5pm
Benefit for Feed the Hungry
Acuario Salon de Fiestas
Salida a Querétaro
US$65 or 650 pesos

Taking a lead from many popular events in the US, Feed the Hungry (FTH) presents a fun-filled smorgasbord featuring most of San Miguel’s best restaurants, caterers and food preparers, serving samples of some of their famous bestselling dishes starting at 5pm when the cash bar opens. Food service begins at 6pm and entertainment follows throughout the evening.

From cocktails and frozen drinks, to appetizers and soups, to main dishes and desserts, there will be plenty to eat and drink at the event. Taste of San Miguel is being held at the Acuario Salon de Fiestas, located behind the Chrysler dealer on the road to Querétaro. Tickets are available at many places in town and each ticket sold helps FTH feed a hungry child.

Among the drinks, you can enjoy “to die for” frozen margaritas and other delectable alcoholic concoctions, Corona beer, wine and soft drinks. Fabulous A or B-52 Burgers and many more tantalizing foods from San Miguel’s best chefs will be featured, followed by delicious baked goods, chocolates and ice cream. Feed the Hungry cooks will offer tastes of the meals they prepare for 4,000 children every school day. The meal always includes fresh fruits and vegetables, rice, pasta and/or beans, tortillas, cheese, soy and other proteins.

New school to open its doors
By Daniel Seymour

Meeting
Escuela sin Estrés
Fri, Aug 8, 2pm
Rancho La Piedad
Info: 154-4579
www.escuelasinestres.org/sma 

The top education program acclaimed internationally for it’s academic excellence and it’s contribution to the remarkable development of its students, starts classes in San Miguel de Allende this month. The bilingual (English, Spanish) Escuela sin Estrés program launches courses for primary school grades 5 and 6, secondary grades 1 through 3, and bachillerato grades 1 through 3. The project will be hosted on the beautiful property at Rancho La Piedad near la Landeta, Km 9.5.

A great team of teachers are being led by Sylvia van Dijk, reputed San Miguel educator, who also has a Ph.D. in education and is a founding member of Save the Children in Mexico. Continuing teacher’s education will be provided by Rita de Brito, a highly experienced US educator, former 5-year member of the National Teaching Standards Board of the US and an award-winning science teacher. Dr. Cony Sales, a 33-year veteran educator with a specialty in curriculum design from Mexico City is consulting with the team. It has taken longer than anticipated to roll through the administrative details involved in starting a school in Mexico, but the arrangements have been completed for all students to attend courses and be legally enrolled with SEP while the complete accreditation is processed.

Parents and prospective students are invited to attend a meeting Friday, August 8 at 2pm at Rancho La Piedad.

If you are unable to attend the meeting at that time, please call Marina von Anrep at 154-4579 to register for a possible additional meeting at 6pm on the same day.

For more information sma@escuelasinestres.org or daniel.seymour@escuelasinestres.org 

See the website www.escuelasinestres.org/sma.