Cont, from front page,

Invitation to Atotonilco
Special tour of the Sanctuary
Tue, August 12, 11:30am
Meets in Plaza de Atotonilco

After more than 12 years of restoration, the monument remains at risk from the thousands of pilgrims who visit each year and acts of vandalism. Now that the shrine, along with the city of San Miguel, has been named a UNESCO World Heritage site, the restoration committee is doubling efforts to continue its restoration and preservation.

“The shrine is a great treasure for San Miguel, of great artistic and social value, and now that it has been included on the UNESCO list. If we do not take care of it, it may lose World Heritage status,” said Burillo, who, along with Dotty Vidargas and Ex-Ambassador Cecilio Garza, treasurer and councilor of the committee, will offer a special tour, complete with coffee and refreshments, on Tuesday, August 12, at 11:30am to show the community the restoration that has been done since 1996.

An endangered monument

According to Burillo, the damage to the shrine was caused mainly by weather, throngs of visitors, vandalism and inappropriate restoration. During the rainy season, water seeped through cracks in the walls and ceiling; this natural damage was exacerbated by the fact that the monument sits atop an underground sulfur spring. “Atotonilco, in the Nahuatl language, means ‘place of hot water,’” he said.

Several inappropriate restorations were completed during the 1940s by the parish priest, Father Mercadillo, who instead of improving conditions actually accelerated the damage. “Father Mercadillo’s intentions were good, but the wainscot he installed on the walls to protect them from humidity had the opposite effect, facilitating the influx of underground water by capillary action. He also restored some paintings with the wrong colors and techniques. At the time these misguided restorations were made, the INAH (National Institute of Anthropology and History) was not yet involved with restoring the shrine.”

The faithful who come to Atotonilco also inadvertently cause damage. “They want to touch the images and sculptures as an act of faith, to be in closer contact with God and the saints, but the sweat and oils from their hands and the smoke from candles deteriorate the works of art, altars and walls. This is something that continues, but since it is a living sanctuary, we have to be very careful about how to prevent this, which is a very difficult task,” noted Burillo.

Since its foundation, Atotonilco has been a center of spiritual retreat and a destination for pilgrims. It was this activity that saved the shrine from wholesale looting. However, in the 1920s, during the Cristeros war when priests were persecuted and the churches closed, the shrine was robbed. “We currently have not had found 100 percent of the artworks that originally existed there,” said Burillo.

In 1995, Xavier Barbosa, Dotty Vidargas and Roberto Burillo, along with other San Miguel residents such as Jorge Guajardo, Jaime Fernández and Maruja González, decided to form a committee to begin restoration of the shrine. It was consolidated as a civil association with the name Atotonilco Santuario de la Patria A.C. Later, it was incorporated into the national program “Adopte una Obra de Arte” (Adopt an Art Work) and became the Regional Council “Adopte una Obra de Arte, Atotonilco Santuario de la Patria.” 

“The first funds we received to start the restoration were provided by the World Monument Fund, thanks to a visit from the American ambassador in Mexico at that time, his wife, and Lady Bird Johnson, wife of the former president of the United States, Lyndon B. Johnson,” said Dotty Vidargas. “They suggested we apply for money from the World Monument Fund, and because our proposal was so comprehensive and supported and supervised by an official committee, they included the shrine on the list of 100 important endangered monuments, along with the Taj Mahal in India, the city of Pompeii, the Roman Forum, and the palace in Saint Petersburg, Russia. They granted us US$20,000,” said Burillo.

The restoration 

“In order to save money, we had the idea of bringing students from the school for restoration in Churubusco, Mexico City, but when we contacted INAH before starting we received a visit from INAH’s director, Tere Franco, Luciano Zedillo, director of the Monuments Department of the INAH, and Father Manuel Olimón, president of the National Commission of Sacred Art,” said Burillo. “Zedillo judged the monument to be too artistically important to be restored by students. It had to be restored by professionals with international recognition.”

Carest, Ciencia y Arte de Restauración (Science and Art of Restoration), headed by Agustín Espinosa, who had been the director of the Churubusco Restoration School and a councilor of the Getty Foundation, was chosen to lead the restoration. “We liked Agustín’s restoration philosophy, which is to respect the temporality of the work—the passing of time and its authenticity. He disagrees with restoring a structure by replacing missing pieces of the original. Restoration is not rebuilding. He uses an Italian technique called rigattino, which uses thin lines to demarcate the restored area. From a certain distance, the work seems homogenous, but by getting very close to it, an expert can distinguish the restored area from the original one.”

The shrine’s restoration process has not been easy for the members of the committee. They did get funds from the state government of Guanajuato when Vicente Fox was governor. According to Burillo, “Fox promised to give us one peso for each peso that we got from other sources; when the World Monument Fund gave us the US$20,000, Fox gave us another US$20,000, and he kept his promise even when he became president. But, in Mexico, all churches are not watched over by the Catholic Church, but by the government, represented by the Direction of Sites and Monuments of the Secretaría de Educación Pública, SEP (Federal Public Education Department). This was a law established by Benito Juárez in 1858. When Fox—from the PAN party—was governor of Guanajuato, the federal government was run by the PRI party. Not wanting to lag behind, the SEP also offered us support for restoration, but not in cash. Instead, they sent another restorer, who was assigned to the “Camarín de los Apóstoles,” behind the main altar. We do not know how much they paid him, but he did not achieve the technical level we demanded for the restoration and as a result we had to re-restore the ‘Camarín.’ Since then, we have not used other restorers. All the paintings at Atotonilco were done by Antonio Martínez de Pocasangre, and he at least supervised, if not created, the sculptures, so the whole restoration has to be guided by his vision, and every intervention has to be approved by our chief restorer, Agustín Espinosa.”

Burillo said that it would be difficult to say how much time it would take to finish the restoration, because it depends on the money available. “We need at least US$800,000. The original budget, 12 years ago, was almost US$2 million. We have already spent US$1.5 million, but as the years have passed, the budget has increased,” he said.


A unique artistic style 

According to Burillo, the art of Atotonilco is unique. Stylistically it is based on the European baroque, since Father Luis Felipe Neri de Alfaro, founder of the shrine, knew European art, having been in Rome and the Holy Land. Pocasangre was an indigenous painter with great artistic talent but little knowledge of the world. He painted only what he saw, so he painted the Roman soldiers as Spanish conquerors. Atotonilco is thus a blend of European art and the indigenous culture. The images and sculptures are also very eloquent. In order to evangelize the natives, Father Alfaro wanted to make everything very graphic so the natives could come to an understanding of the Passion of Christ. Burillo said that most of the life-sized sculptures are made of polychromed wood. The eight figures at the scene of Christ’s descending from the cross, in the Calvary Chapel, are made of painted marble, except the figure of Christ, which is white marble. “This is unique in the whole of Mexico, this white, pure figure of Christ,” 
said Burillo.

Global Kids enlarge their world in San Miguel
By Jesús Ibarra

Six students of differing nationalities from New York, along with two trainers, came to San Miguel de Allende from July 21 to 27 to learn about human rights issues in Mexico.

The students belong to the nonprofit organization Global Kids. During their stay, they conducted workshops for Mexican youth and participated in dialogues and cultural activities at CASA (Center for Adolescents of San Miguel A.C.) and in rural communities.

Global Kids was founded by Carole Artigiani in 1991 and became a fully independent nonprofit organization in 1993. Global Kids has worked in public schools and developed and refined several programs that allow young people to develop the skills and experiences needed to succeed in school and participate in the democratic process.

To date, Global Kids has worked with more than 100,000 students and educators in New York City and beyond. It is committed to transforming urban youth into successful students as well as global and community leaders.

The students came to San Miguel as part of a Global Kids international summer travel program called HRAP International, which provides highly motivated New York public high school students with the opportunity to develop the knowledge, skills and international experience needed to take action on critical human rights issues. Before coming, they received intensive training, preparation and human rights research and their goal was to learn more about Mexico, its culture and human rights issues.

Nassim Zerriffi, one of the Global Kids trainers, said that “the United States has an incredible power in the world and it is a democracy, but most of the population is not engaged with their politicians and with their community. So, we go to high schools, we work with young people, acting locally but with a global perspective, so that they know more about their community and connect them at the same time with the rest of the world, with the idea that they can become engaged global leaders.” He explained that each of the students has participated in a school campaign or program involving access to education for undocumented immigrants, to sex education in high schools or to nutritious food for everyone or with the goal of lowering tuitions of public universities in New York so that more people can afford to go.

Wing Mai Sang, the second trainer, said that “with CASA, we went to rural communities like Corral de Piedras, Clavellinas and Tres Palmas, where we gave workshops about nutritious food, and we helped the children in the communities to plant some trees. At CASA we interacted with the young CASA promoters, exchanged experiences and ways of working and also exchanged emails with them.”

The six students were asked their opinions about their experiences in San Miguel. Mirzah Hamza, from Bosnia, said that San Miguel reminded him of his own country. Fahim Fapazi, from Bangladesh, said, “It has been an amazing experience; people here are so nice; they have old values.” Tashawa Joseph, from New York, expressed how different life in San Miguel is from life in New York City. Nathaniel Reel, from New York, said that he appreciates this society’s values and will probably try to live here one day. He also remarked on the differences between the two countries regarding human rights. Kemar Asphall, from Jamaica, said that “San Miguel is friendly for everyone; everyone says hello, buenos días, buenas tardes. The young people at CASA welcomed us warmly.” Norma Herrera, a Mexican-American, said that her father is from Puebla and her mother from Oaxaca, but she was born in New York. “My goal here is to learn about the culture of San Miguel and how the community solves its problems,” she said.

Upon leaving San Miguel the Global Kids traveled to Mexico City for another week.

Gowns and crown: Rotary Club ball marks half-century of service
By Jesús Ibarra

Rotary Club of San Miguel Annual Ball
Crowning of Rotary Queen
Sat, August 9, 9pm
Centro de Convenciones, Plaza Real del Conde (former Gigante)
Salida a Querétaro
Tickets: 200 pesos
Tels. 152-0042 or 120-3607

The Club Rotario de San Miguel (San Miguel Rotary Club) celebrates its 50-year anniversary in September. On August 9, the group will hold its annual ball, where the new Queen of the Rotary Club, Olma Georgina Cervantes, will be crowned.

According to Christian Gutiérrez and Georgina Sautto, secretary and former treasurer of the Rotary Club, the club’s current philanthropic projects include constructing an elevated water tank in the rural community of Jalpa, in collaboration with the Florida Rotary Club and the local government, and installing playground equipment at rural community schools. 

“Another project is the ‘mechanical cow’ at Hogar Guadalupano Mexiquito, which produces soy milk at a very low cost (2 to 3 pesos per liter). The soy milk is also distributed to the other ‘casas hogares,’ Santa Julia and Don Bosco,” said Sautto. Gutiérrez said that although the soy milk tastes different from cow’s milk, it is highly nutritious and the children like it. “We are also working with other US Rotary Clubs to buy more ‘mechanical cows’ for rural communities,” he said.

Another important Rotary project is helping Enrique, a 16-year-old high-school student from the community of Agustín González, who has several tumors on his face. “He has undergone one operation, financed with Rotary funds, to remove seven kilograms of tumorous tissue from his face,” said Sautto. “Enrique is a very clever student with a great love for life.”

The Club Rotario de San Miguel, which currently has 24 members, including two Americans, Owen Thomas and Greg Tillowski (both also members of the Florida Rotary Club), often collaborates on projects with the Rotary Club of San Miguel de Allende– Midday. For instance, the Club Rotario assisted with construction of the rainwater collection system in San Miguel Viejo, a project of the Midday club. “We are in continuous contact with the Midday club; Dr. Salvador Quiroz, our executive secretary, and Ezequiel López Basurto, liaison to the foreign community, also attend the meetings of the Midday club,” said Gutiérrez.

Olma Cervantes, the new Rotary Queen, said that her role is to represent the Rotary Club and to promote altruistic activities. According to club rules, the queen must be a relative of one of the members and must be sponsored by her relative. “I was invited to participate as queen by my aunt Georgina. My great-grandfather, Jesús Agundis, was one of the founders of the club, 50 years ago. One of my first actions as queen will be to support the doctors from the Texas Pediatric Foundation who come each year to perform orthopedic operations on children in San Miguel for free,” said Cervantes.

Gutiérrez said that the Rotary ball is “a quiet event, with a pleasant, happy atmosphere. The famous musical group the Sonora Santanera will play boleros, mambo, cha-cha-cha and cumbia.”

Tickets for the Rotary ball can be purchased from any member or at Hotel Quinta Loreto, located at Loreto 15 next to the CFE office (152-0042), or from Christian Gutiérrez (120-3607).