Calendars: All : February
Calendars: All : February I went to see some of the ruins two years ago, in January and February.
Right about now I was coming home after three weeks. I want to go back, but next time, with Maria. Yes.
"Ay, Miguel, that makes me feel wonderful when you talk about traveling with me," she says.
But like always there's the problem of money. The 1500 I won is practically gone. Maybe if I sell some more stories, we can go as a honeymoon trip in next January and February. Her work -- as a customs broker -- is slow after Christmas and New Year's holidays, and she could get away for several weeks.
Tonight we go to an opening of an exhibit by José Hugo Sanchez at the Centro Cultural. He has made a series of huge banners that hang from the high ceiling. He'll perform a little opening ceremony, blowing a conch toward the four quarters of the universe, and the fifth, internal. Then read a couple poems in Spanish and English. Then everyone wanders around the space, drinking wine and chatting.
I will see Cindy Zimmerman and John -- it's been a couple years now since we last spoke. I used to know her at UCSD and later at the City of San Diego commission for arts and culture. She's teaching at Southwestern College where Hugo (tonight's artist) is studying.
Before Hugo's conch-blowing poetry, they will have had the typical opening speeches, but because the crowd is heavily binational, the words are translated into English by a woman who will later introduce me to one of Tijuana's finest poets, a man I have wanted to meet for almost two years now. Francisco Morales.
There is a moment when the translator slips up and starts speaking one man's Spanish words all over again in Spanish -- much to the delight of the crowd.
Afterwards a bunch of us retire to the cantina on Plaza Santa Cecilia. I go with three women! Maria, of course, and another Maria, and Neta. Eventually one, then the other, must leave, and I shall walk each of them to their taxis. I really should tell you about the route-taxi system here in Tijuana. Taxis de ruta. If you ever come to visit and want to get around without spending tons of money of Special Taxis, then take the rutas. Of course, it helps if you speak Spanish...!