Mexico

San Miguel’s Book Lovers — “All I Want For Christmas Is You”

2023, books, Mexico, , , , , View all 16 comments
Catherine and Hope

Aurora Books in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, is six months old next week, and wow, it’s been delightful in ways I never expected. Some people think I’m pursuing my life’s dream. Actually, I never dreamed of being in retail. But I love books and San Miguel needed a place to buy new English language books (like Tunisia and Vietnam!). I hoped opening a bookstore would be a way of serving my new community.

Well! It turns out the community is serving the bookstore. Here are a few of gifts San Miguel has given Aurora Books (with suggested reading 🙂 ):

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A Fire for Peace

2023, Mexico, San Miguel de Allende, , , , , View all 19 comments

Yesterday brought a little revelation, I think. It was Dia de Los Muertos. Here in San Miguel de Allende, the holiday is celebrated with parades and parties and visits to cemeteries carpeted with marigolds. Colorful ofrendas — altars that connect us to the dead — decorate plazas, churches, streets, and almost every home. 

Usually, I would be out with the crowds for the fun. This year, I wanted to celebrate in a way that would help me deal with the undercurrent of anxiety I am feeling about the world, so I invited friends to create an ofrenda of peace at a dinner gathering. 

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Bookstore People

2023, books, Mexico, , , , View all 28 comments
Aurora Books, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico

One day last week, a woman came into my bookstore and handed me a copy of Shuggie Bain. I recognized her. A few days before, she was in the store with her daughter and bought the award-winning book about poverty in mid-century Scotland. “I enjoyed this, thank you” she said. “You can sell it used.” She was out the door before I could say anything, but I yelled “Thank you!” as she headed north. Her unceremonious delivery lead me to wonder whether maybe she didn’t like the book. Or maybe she was just in a hurry. In any case, she was kind enough to go out of her way to share an expensive book with another reader.

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Thinking Globally, Acting Locally In San Miguel: Tikkun Ecocenter

2021, Mexico, Politics and Current Events, , , , , , View all 16 comments

Tikkun EcoCenter. Photo by Victoria Collier.

San Miguel de Allende, Mexico is a small city with a big heart. More than 100 charitable organizations support San Miguel’s local community, most with a focus on food, education or health. One of the most innovative is protecting and restoring the local environment in ways that support rural Mexican communities.

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We Could Try Radical Humanity

2023, Mexico, Politics and Current Events, United States, Universe, , , , , , , , , View all 13 comments

Last week, the Biden Administration announced immigration policies that would make it virtually impossible for migrants at the southern border to seek asylum in the United States. Among the new — and unlawful — policies is the requirement that asylum-seekers show they have applied for asylum in one of the countries they have traveled through. But, according to international law, applying for asylum in one country disqualifies a refugee from seeking asylum in a second country, such as the United States. Places like Guatemala, El Salvador, and Nicaragua are not safe for refugees, and processing asylum claims can take years. The Administration’s cruel Catch 22 will cost many lives and require Central America and Mexico to assume even more responsibility for problems created by the United States itself.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2021/07/08/root-cause-central-american-migration-united-states/

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Cloud House

2022, Mexico, San Miguel de Allende, View all 22 comments

“Casa Nube” (“Cloud House) by Mexican artist, Beatriz CotaA.

This morning my neighbor, Daisy, came to my gate hoping to get some breakfast, just as she does several times a week. She doesn’t smell very good, and her coat is usually matted on one side. Even though Daisy is a border collie, she was measured as she always is. I opened the gate and she waited quietly while I filled a bowl with kibble. While she ate, I poured bird seed into a couple of bird feeders, and replenished the hummingbird feeder with sugar solution. Well, I thought, I’m becoming one of those grandmother types from my childhood who fed apple slices and vanilla wafers to everyone on the block.

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The Balloons at Calle Torres Landa

2022, Mexico, San Miguel de Allende, , , View all 31 comments

When I left my job in San Francisco 8 years ago to travel the world, I told my colleagues that I felt like the boy in “The Red Balloon,” sailing into the clouds to an unknown destination. I left, and what started as a six month adventure became an 8-year lifestyle. Houseless, I’ve made the world my home, with unfamiliar rooms and unpredictable rhythms. It has been a romantic time in my life, learning things about the world I never imagined, and freeing myself of a few of my acquired illusions. I’ve lived my longing.

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