This was a parade on the evening of Palm Sunday 2011 in Guanajuato. The last few weeks of Jesus’ life, minus the first Moses float, of course 🙂
Palm Sunday Parade Guanajuato
Altares de la María de los Dolores
Travelogue Spring Break 2011, Day 2: Guanajuato
We slept in till we woke up this morning, which felt absolutely fantastic on this first day of vacation. Once we all showered and got ready to go out, our first stop was, predictably, for a cappuccino, which was dutifully drunk in the sunshine in the midst of the flower market. The flower market plaza was today filled with woven palms of all sorts, in honor of Palm Sunday today.
We knew there was a mass at 1:00, so our first stop was the Alhondiga, site of the huge massacre of both Mexicans and Spaniards, which El Pípila finally won for the Mexicans, by burning down the huge wooden door with the oil the Spaniards had released so the Mexicans would fall in the streets.
It was gorgeous! To think that this building, which from the outside looks like a fort, and from the inside looks like a palace, was built as a GRANARY! Some lucky cereal! It has had many lifetimes, at one point serving as a prison. We could see holes in the marble where bars had once been, and cutouts in the wooden doors where guards could look in at the prisoners.
After we toured the Alhondiga we walked over to a nearby church to attend Palm Sunday mass. You can see that every other resident of Guanajuato also lined up to attend one of the many masses held today, in one of the churches on nearly every street corner here in this gorgeous city. No shortage of Catholics here today!
The Immaculate Heart of Mary was absolutely gorgeous, and completely overcrowded.
After mass we were starving and happened up a side alley onto a beautiful and very quiet little plaza. There we ate lunch. Greg and I both had “enchiladas mineras,” which we decided are basically pan-fried quesadillas covered with potatoes and carrots, and served with a sauteed chicken breast.
After lunch we walked a couple of blocks to the famous “Callejón del Beso,” where two star-crossed lovers supposedly lived on opposite balconies, just a few centimeters away from each other.
At this point we were getting a bit tired, so we took a cab over to the Mummy Museum, which is beneath the Panteón de la Ciudad, the city cemetary.
We met a lot of very friendly and kind people today, and thoroughly enjoyed our one full day this trip in this UNESCO World Heritage city. We will be back! Tomorrow we hope to visit one of the silver mines, the Valenciana.
Travelogue Spring Break 2011, Day 1: MZT-GDL-Guanajuato
Off we go, onto the cuota highway…
We departed Mazatlán about 7 am Saturday after picking up our beautiful niece Mara. The car was pretty full, with a cooler full of food and drinks, 4 people and all our baggage.
Daniel had the brilliant brainstorm as we were entering Guadalajara about 1 pm that we should have Indian food for lunch. So Little India it was! It seems our friend the chef is gone, and the current owner, Deepak, was his partner and is now the sole owner. It was Mara’s first time ever to eat Indian food and I think she loved it, especially the lamb tikka masala. Deepak’s wife, a Tapatía, has a little shop around the corner from the restaurant, where she sells spices, some clothing, jewelry and incense.
The drive was long, approximately a nine hour ride to Guanajuato. The kids listened to music, played some games, and Danny read a book for a while. Fortunately things were very uneventful.
About 6 pm we were soooo happy to finally arrive in Guanajuato! Not the main purpose of our trip, but a place I’ve been wanting Greg and Danny to see, and I’ve been wanting to visit again, for a long time. We plan to spend two nights here.
We found a charming hotel that has three beds and a terrace, with this view. Not bad, I’d say.
After unpacking and resting a bit, we took a walk. The architecture here, as I remembered from my first visit, is incredible. I had not remembered the candy or snack shops, however!
We walked past the central market (Mercado Hidalgo) and the Plaza Mayor (Jardín) with its gorgeous church.
In the main garden/plaza is the Teatro Juarez, which in any light is absolutely gorgeous, but lit up at night it was truly incredible.
The students dressed in the cervantino garb, ready to take people on a musical “callejoneada” stroll, were gathered in front of the theater.
The kids were hungry, so we stepped into a restaurant a cenar. They make beautiful “sangrias españolas” here, layering the soda or juice with the wine much like a cappuccino.
After dinner we took a long walk through several of Guanajuato’s 18 tunnels, and miraculously came up for air nearly in front of our hotel, exhausted.
Perfume de Gardenia
Who doesn’t love live theater, and last week it was even better because we were able to witness a bit of Mexican history and nostalgia, too. The traveling show “Perfume de Gardenia” was in town at the LoboDome. We (thankfully) went to the early show on Friday night. More about that later!
The show included fantastic costumes, great music, dancing, singing, fireworks, and a who’s who of 1950s-70s movie and telenovela stars. I didn’t know many of the stars, and enjoyed watching the audience almost as much as the show itself. So this blog post has been a good chance to learn a bit.
The musical is based on the song of the same name from the Mexican Tropical big band group, La Sonora Santanera. I recommend you hit the song link above, turn on the music, and listen as you read this post.
The band was terrific: a wonderful blast from the past and at the same time music we all still love to move to (danzón, mambo, bolero, cumbia, rumba, chachacha). They are definitely getting added to my playlists. La Sonora Santanera was of course founded in the 1950s by Tabascan trumpeteer Carlos Colorado Vera, who was killed in a traumatic accident in his band’s bus in 1986, while departing the Feria de San Marcos. These days it seems there are at least four groups similarly named, one including original survivors, one created by Carlos’ widow and daughter, etc.
The predictable Cinderella-like story is primarily a vehicle for the audience to relive the heyday of some of their favorite stars. It takes place in a nightclub called the Mamboo, and involves a poor and humble yet beautiful and good-hearted girl who works in the club selling cigarettes. Her name is Gardenia, and she is played by telenovela favorite Aracely Arámbura. She seems to be most famous for having dated Luis Miguel; at least that’s what most of my Mexican friends mention first.
The real stars of the show were not the younger actors/singers/dancers in their prime, but rather those who remain in the audience’s heart from decades past.
One huge favorite was María Victoria, who played Gardenia’s mother. At 78 years old she still has an incredible voice as well as quite a trim figure! From Guadalajara, she is most famous for having played the maid “Inocencia” in a 1970s television show. When she appeared on stage the audience erupted in joy and applause. It was honestly delightful. María Victoria wore her trademark “mermaid” dresses (my term for her tight-tight-tight dresses with a flared “tail” at the hem).
One of the big older male draws was Michoacan-born movie and telenovela star Julio Aleman, who played Gardenia’s godfather, Don Ferrucho. Don Ferrucho’s best friend, Don Pedrito, was played by Alejandro Suarez.
60s and 70s Dominican-born sex symbol Andrés García was one of my faves. He played Abundio Sandoval, a famous politician and Mamboo Club regular who even in his old age successfully romances the Club’s star dancer, Miranda. It was classic machísmo at its charming best!
Which brings me to my personal favorite of the evening: Niurka Marcos. She played Miranda Mour, the sexy singing-dancing cabaret star of the Mamboo who gives Gardenia her big break. While I don’t usually go for bombshells, she was just so very comfortable dancing her heart out in only pasties and a thong. The Cubana seemed perfectly suited to her role.
Most of the Mazatlecos I spoke with, however, couldn’t stop talking about “la rubia,” Argentine Roxana Martinez.
Safety and Logistics
Okay, enough of my learning curve about the stars of the show. I also want to comment on some of the logistics. We have some terrific events here in Mazatlán. But, it is my sincere hope that organizers will start to place a higher priority on audience safety.
- The most frightening thing for me was the exit: there was one door. It was a double door, but one side of it was blocked shut by cables. So, 1500 people attempted to exit through one very normal sized door. It was not pretty. What would have happened in an emergency? I guess we could have exited through the entrance as well, but there were 1500 more people out that way, waiting to get in.
- As we exited, we were walking over light and sound cables taped all over the gym floor. It was so crowded we could not see the floor. There were a lot of older people in the crowd. Most everyone tripped at least once. It was truly a safety hazard.
- We guess there were about 1500 people in the LoboDome Friday night. There was ONE restroom for women, and another for men. The women’s restroom had, at best, five stalls. The entrance to the women’s restroom was very narrow — maybe two people could pass in its corridor. But, someone had left a floor polishing machine in the middle of the entrance, so all the women going to the restroom had to climb over it to get in and out! The line was unbelievable. To remedy this, the organizers had placed port-a-potties in the lobby! And, mind you, tickets for this show ranged in price from about US$30 to nearly $100.
- The fireworks displays during the show were gorgeous: really, really exciting and beautiful. However, we were in an enclosed space and there was a whooooooole lot of smoke with very little ventilation. My eyes and throat burned for two days afterwards.
I know my community can do better than this! We owe it to the citizens of Mazatlán to raise our safety standards!
And, by the way, why did I say earlier that I was glad we had gone to the early show? The late show was supposed to start at 9:30. We didn’t even leave the first show until maybe 10:15 — 45 minutes past the programmed start of the second show. The venue staff still had to clean up all the trash (vendors walked through the stands as at a sporting event, selling drinks, popcorn and snacks), rearrange the chairs on the floor, and reset the stage. I imagine the earliest that the 9:30 show started was 11:30. I know locals are much more flexible with time than is my German-American mind, but I am so glad I wasn’t standing in line waiting all that time. This is a touring show. Organizers, please include instructions to local venues about how long the show really lasts, and how long it will take to reset the theater for a second show!
Entertainment in Mazatlán
Greg and I were very happy we attended “Perfume de Gardenia.” It was a very enjoyable evening. It also showed us, yet again however, how very fortunate (and spoiled) we are here in Mazatlán. Both of us felt that the quality of the dancing we have here locally, be it Delfosmodern dance or the ballet, is of a higher quality than what we saw in this touring national show. The band was terrific, but no better than the Mambo Café band we danced with live (and free) in the streets of Olas Altas last June. I thank goodness for special events like this, and I also thank my lucky stars that we have outstanding local talent to enjoy all year long.
¡VidaMaz! 