The Women Instrument Makers of Paracho

The Museo de Artes e Industrias Populares de Pátzcuaro (across from the ex-Colego Jesuita and Lupita's Restaurante) will open an exhibit to recognize women stringed instrument makers of Paracho.

The opening will be this Friday, 15-April, at 4 pm.  Please attend and show your support for these craftswomen whose work is generally not known to the public.

MONARCH BUTTERFLY SANCTUARIES ARE NOW OPEN

23 / Nov / 2015 (LF) The Monarch butterfly sanctuaries, located in the states of Mexico and Michoacan, opened its doors to tourism from November 21 to 31 March next year, Alejandro Del Mazo Maza, Commissioner National Protected Natural Areas.

While the Monarch butterflies delayed their arrival some days due to the effects of Hurricane Patricia and front number 8 was not an obstacle for this species continue its journey of more than four thousand kilometers across the states of Coahuila, Tamaulipas, Nuevo Leon, San Luis Potosi, Queretaro, Guanajuato, Morelos, Puebla, Hidalgo, Michoacan and Mexico State.

These days, the monarch still coming fir forests in the Reserve of the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere and are conducting reconnaissance flight to decide the place where they will hibernate. The next week will be crucial for the establishment and form colonies.

The tourist stops are open to the public:
In the state of Michoacan:
· El Rosario and El Asoleadero, Municipality of Ocampo.
· Senguio, Senguio Municipality.
· Sierra Chincua, Municipality of Angangueo.

YA ESTÁN ABIERTOS LOS SANTUARIOS DE LA MARIPOSA MONARCA EN MÉXICO Y MICHOACÁN

Patamban Pottery

Beautiful hand painted

Alfareros de Patamban S. de S.S., in the town of Patamban, in the state of Michoacán, is a co-op representing several indigenous porcelain and ceramic Purépechan artists. Cecilia and Fidel, a married couple who make much of the pottery, have traveled to Maestros del Arte in Chapala since its inception delighting shoppers with their beautifully crafted and painted ceramics. This tiny pueblo has been known for its pottery since pre-Hispanic times. Pottery styles and quality have been enriched over the years by techniques introduced by Vasco de Quiroga.

National Guitar Festival in Paracho 2015

The XLI National Guitar Festival will be held in Paracho, August 2nd through 9th, 2014. Among other activities, this year´s festival will hold the National Contest of Guitar Builders and the State Contest of Michoacan Popular Toys.

There will be a Classical Guitar Contest with more than 60 participant in 3 categories: children, youth, intermediate and masters.

Talleres Verano 2015

Summer Workshops at your Museum
Guitar Workshop - July 14 - August 7
Workshop on History Full of Colors - July 14 - August 7
Workshop on Pre-Hispanic Jewelry - July 21 - August 7
Workshops limited to 15 participants; sign-up NOW!

Museo de Artes e Industrias Populares
(Folk Art Museum)
Corner of Ensenanza and Alcantarilla Streets
Patzcuaro

(It's for kids .... not everyone)

Noche de Danzon

Come and Dance next Friday at El Verbo Café

The teachers asked to have this posted, and I think it will be lots of fun. Come and dance this Friday the 3rd from 8 to 10 pm at Café el Verbo (in front of Lupita´s)

Escape to the Coast of Michoacan

Maruata, turisto alternativo en zona indigena
Maruata, a tourism alternative in the Zone of the Natives

"Where there are precious things" it is the meaning of the word Maruata. And truly precious things can be enjoyed in its three beaches and environment. The native area is ideal for fishing and camping, while visiting the amazing "Finger of God". The tranquility of fate, the silence interrupted by waves, filled experience in this part of the coastal Michoacan.

Highway 200 blocked in Michoacan

Inhabitants of the indigenous community of Ostula blocked the federal highway 200 which crosses the coast of Michoacan due to government actions.

Motorists are advised to take alternate routes on the way Tecoman-Lázaro Cárdenas.

On March 13, as a means of pressure against the disarmament of self-defense movement in the region of Los Reyes,  the Regional prosecutor's based in Zamora ordered the Mexican Army to carry out this action. Members of the movement and the Rural referred Force (FR), blocked for more than two hours highways in different parts of the region, mainly access to Lázaro Cárdenas, until they achieved the return of weapons, which were they had collected.

International house renovation project

International project renovates homes

143 traditional houses have been repaired in the Route of Don Vasco region of Michoacán

Nineteen low-income families in Michoacán got their houses back today after they were renovated through a joint project between Mexico and Spain.

“It’s a miracle — my house was in the worst condition and they left it like new,” Felipe Cornelio told the news agency EFE. “ It makes you happy to be alive.”

Cornelio was one of 148 beneficiaries of the most recent phase of a renovation program that began in 2007 with several objectives: improve the urban image of the town of Tzintzuntzan, renew traditional local architecture, create jobs, boost tourism and improve the quality of life for marginalized families.

The 19 homes were renovated at a cost of 5.1 million pesos, or US $339,000, in a project that has completed 143 renovations in Santa Fe de la Laguna and Erongaricuaro as well as Tzintzuntzan since its inception.

International project renovates homes

Avocado Orchards In Mexico Compete With Forest Land

Demand for avocados in the United States has quadrupled in the last 20 years. America's growing love for the fruit may be harming the fragile habitat of the monarch butterfly, whose winter home is in the forests of central Mexico. Those forests are not far from Mexico's avocado orchards, where the majority of the avocados Americans consume are grown.  

While  high demand has created economic opportunity for farmers, it has also put a strain the region’s natural resources.

Reynaldo Garduño was just 8 years old when he would climb the mountain near his village in central Mexican state of Michoacan and chop down trees. Then he'd take his burro loaded with wood to sell in town.

"They'd buy that wood and make toothpicks, popsicle sticks, ceiling beams and furniture," he said. "We made our living off the forest. It was our means of survival."

A simple corn harvest was not enough to pay the bills. But 50 years later, things have changed. Garduño lives in the village of Carpinteros about 2.5 hours northwest of Mexico City. Carpinteros is an ejido, a self-governed agricultural community where land is communally held. Today farmers there have a new source of income.

Fronteras - Avocado Orchards In Mexico Compete With Forest Land

More monarch butterflies in Mexico

More monarch butterflies in Mexico, but numbers still low

MEXICO CITY—For the first time in 4 years, scientists have seen an uptick in the number of monarch butterflies migrating from the United States to Mexico. As of mid-December, the butterflies covered 1.13 hectares of forest in Michoacán and Mexico states, up from an all-time low of 0.67 hectares last year. But despite a nearly 70% increase in forest coverage—the established proxy for butterfly numbers—the 2014 to 2015 number is still the second lowest since recording began in the winter of 1993 to 1994.

The increase is “good news, but the numbers still remain very low,” said Omar Vidal, director general of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Mexico, in a press conference here today. WWF Mexico administers the winter colony count, surveying the sites where monarchs are known to gather to wait out the winter before returning to the United States to breed.

This year’s population increase was probably largely due to “good monarch breeding weather” last summer in the upper Midwest, says Karen Oberhauser, a conservation biologist at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. The region saw relatively mild temperatures and regular rain to nourish milkweed, on which monarchs lay their eggs. That allowed more caterpillars to survive to adulthood and boosted the number of butterflies attempting the journey to Mexico, Vidal explained.

More monarch butterflies in Mexico, but numbers still low

More Monarch butterflies return to Mexico

A monarch butterfly perches on a branch in the Piedra Herrada sanctuary near Valle de Bravo, Mexico, last week. CHRISTIAN PALMA AP

PIEDRA HERRADA, MEXICO

More Monarch butterflies appear to have made the long flight from the U.S. and Canada to their winter nesting ground in western Mexico, raising hopes after their number dropped to a record low last year. But experts still fear that unusual cold temperatures will threaten the orange and black insects.

While an official census won’t be ready until mid-January, observers are seeing healthy populations of butterflies bunched together on fir and pine trees in protected sanctuaries, said Gloria Talavera, director of the official monarch butterfly reserve.

“We’re encouraged, because we’ve seen more,” Talavera said Monday.

But cold forecast for this winter, she said, “could put at risk the whole migratory phenomenon. … We will be saying a prayer each day until mid-February.”

More Monarch butterflies return to Mexico

La Ticla

LA TICLA

Text and photos: Pedro Silva Glass / CANAL235.COM

The hills of the Sierra de Coalcoman and Rio Ostula line the beach of La Ticla, where "surfers" and tourists arrive from around the world to enjoy the waves and the setting of this famous tourist eco hostel. 

La Ticla is located between the ports of Manzanillo, Colima and Lazaro Cardenas, Michoacan, in the coastal zone of Aquila, a few minutes from La Placita and Duin, traveling from the state of Colima. 

You can get a bus leaving from Manzanillo and Tecoman, or private car. Going down highway 200, a battered dirt road leads to the lodge located at the end of the village, inhabited by just a couple of hundred Nahua Indians, mestizos and a minority of foreigners, who are accustomed to the presence of "tourist".

On the beach some huts have been built, and excellent "palapas" that become perfect camping areas for the hundreds of visitors who come each season to participate or enjoy the spectacular surfing tournaments and other activities related to the sea and scenery. 

Nice palapas on the beach

Usually pretty good surf

A river mouth but not always open

La Ticla or the Ostula lagoon

My 2007 visit to La Ticla

Original article in Spanish

Festival del Dia del Payaso

Festival del Dia del Payaso

Festival del Dia del Payaso

Patzcuaro

December 9, 2014

11am - Parade of Clowns in Centro Historic of Patzcuaro

12pm - Teatro Emperador - Presentación de los payasos

Ballet Folklórico at Plaza Valladolid

Ballet Folklórico at Plaza Valladolid

Todos invitados!!

Ballet Folklórico de México " Amalia Hernandez".. 

12 de diciembre Plaza Valladolid en Morelia 19:00 Hrs .

No se lo pierdan!

Textiles and embroidery of Michoacan

This doily, purchased in the market of Patzcuaro , shows a traditional embroidery Mazahua from Michoacan.

In indigenous communities in Mexico, she is responsible for developing the clothing and other textiles necessary in everyday life of the community. Almost always is responsible for the entire process. The materials used are wool and cotton and the process starts with harvest, through the spinning, dyeing and warping, up to the development of the garment on a backstrap loom, loom pedal Hispanic origin.

Traditional embroideries are not accidental. The Mazahua woman is typing in their tissues history of its people, their ancestors and their environment using scenes of everyday life, deer, flowers, birds and other animals. The knowledge passed from mother to daughter through observation and practice. This women become repositories of wisdom that is centuries old.

Unfortunately, globalization and loss of identity and customs which it originates, has had negative consequences in these ancient embroidery. Celia Carmona Roma says in his book "Traditional Embroidery Mazahua from Michoacan " : "As a child I saw Mazahua and Otomi women with their colorful costumes, a full head of hair combs and barrettes, braids adorned with colored ribbons and her bare feet; is unfortunate that young people who come to study or work in Zitacuaro not wear their traditional clothes, maybe not to feel slighted, because they think that using other clothes take on a different status or unfortunately rather be like everyone else ".

Textiles y bordados de Michoacán

National Guitar Festival in Paracho - 2014

The Paracho Guitar Festival is actually a national music festival held once a year. Dates for 2014 are August 2nd through August 10th, starting on Saturday.

Dozens of guitar shops line the main plaza and side streets of Paracho, where you can buy a guitar from the person who made it. Every August Paracho comes alive as it hosts the Mexican National Guitar Festival. The festival features classical guitar concerts, parades, mariachi and Purepecha folk performances and competitions for guitarists and guitar makers. But ultimately, it is the town that emerges as the main character in a spirited display of tradition and community pride.

Seminar of Herbal Medicine

INICIATIVA “LAS CANOAS ALTAS” A.C -- Erongarícuaro

SEMINARIO DE MEDICINA HERBOLARIA PARA ADULTOS
TALLERES PARA NIÑOS MAYORES DE 5 AÑOS
Sábado 23 y Domingo 24 de Agosto 2014

A Grande Dame Branches Out

The day of reckoning came on a recent Tuesday for the tacos, enchiladas verdes, cactus salad and pork posole served at Tortilleria Nixtamal in Corona, Queens.

Diana Kennedy, the 91-year-old author of 11 groundbreaking cookbooks on Mexico’s many regional cuisines, had just ordered those items for lunch.

Nixtamal is highly regarded as the first New York City outfit to make true masa, what Mexicans call dough made of ground corn, and use it to make tortillas, tamales and many other things. For Ms. Kennedy, never one to mince words, that is not enough to earn the place a free pass.

“Don’t forget that American corn is never as tasty,” said Ms. Kennedy, who grows her own at the three-acre almost-off-the-grid “ecological” homestead called Quinta Diana she maintains in Michoacán in Mexico.

NYT - A Grande Dame Branches Out

Templarios luxury at a cost to Michoacan

When you take and take till there's very little left ... it's bound to catch up with you. That is what has happened to the Caballeros Templarios in most of the Western part of Michoacan State. The Federal Government finally took over the port of Lazaro Cardenas to better control the flow of drugs into the country and the flow of illegal materials leaving.

The latest move to take back control of businesses , homes and their lives has come from the people. Civilian vigilantes groups known as the "autodefensas" – or self defense squads have taken back many of the towns of Western Michoacan. Led by farmers, shopkeepers, doctors and taxi-drivers, vigilante militias have turned the tables on one of Mexico’s most ruthless cartels, the Knights Templar, a gang that names itself after medieval crusaders to appear brave and righteous even as it traffics crystal meth. The offensive has changed the face of the country’s drug war inspiring optimism that cartels who rule by terror can be defeated when the people rise up against them.

Vigilante fighter "El Love" occupying a cartel house in Nueva Italia

Need a closet

Or a bathroom

Knights Templar leader's indoor pool