El Ojo del Lago - February 2017 by El Ojo del Lago

Saw you in the Ojo

PUBLISHER

Richard Tingen

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Alejandro Grattan-DomĂnguez Tel: (01376) 765 3676, 765 2877 Fax: (01376) 765 3528 Associate Publisher David Tingen Graphic Design Roberto C. Rojas Sandra Hernandez Special Events Editor Sandy Olson Associate Editor Victoria Schmidt Contributing Editor Mark Sconce Theater Critic Michael Warren Book Review Panel Margaret Van Every Margaret Porter Clare Gearhart Roving Correspondent Dr. Lorin Swinehart Art Critic Rob Mohr Sales Manager Bruce Fraser 2á&#x201A;&#x2C6;FH 6HFUHWDU\ Rocio Madrigal ADVERTISING OFFICE Av. Hidalgo # 223, Chapala Mon. thru Fri. 9am - 5pm Sat. 9am - 1pm Tel. 01 (376) 765 2877, 765 3676 Fax 01 (376) 765 3528 Send all correspondence, subscriptions or advertising to: El Ojo del Lago http://www.chapala.com ojodellago@prodigy.net.mx Ave. Hidalgo 223 (or Apartado 279), 45900 Chapala, Jalisco Tels.: (376) 765 3676, Fax 765 3528

Index...

FEATURE ARTICLES

COVER STORY

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20 NOSTALGIA Judith Dykstra-Brown looks fondly back at a time when life seemed PRUH VLPSOH DQG GLá&#x201A;&#x2C6;FXOW GHFLVLRQV were easier to make.

22 WILDLIFE Dr. Lorin Swinehart, a former US Forest Ranger, loves the great outdoors and all its creatures but seems to have a special place in his heart for owls.

38 LAKESIDE PROFILE Sandy Olson writes about John Fraser, who brought the house down last year at the Lakeside Little Theater with his one-man show, The Joy of Aging Disgracefully. John has been an educator, bridge teacher (and masterful player), model, ship cruise dance LQVWUXFWRU ÂżOP DFWRU GUDPDWLVW published novelist and a professional humorist. Wow!

54 INSTRUCTIONAL A set of guidelines which will help anyone submitting literary material to our magazine to have a better chance of getting published.

PRINTING: El Debate El Ojo del Lago aparece los primeros cinco dĂas de cada mes. (Distributed over WKH ÂżUVW ÂżYH GD\V RI HDFK PRQWK) &HUWLÂżFDGR GH /LFLWXG GH 7tWXOR &HUWLÂżFDGR GH /LFLWXG GH &RQWHQLGR Reserva al TĂtulo de Derechos de Autor 04-2011-103110024300-102 Control 14301. Permisos otorgados por la SecretarĂa de GobernaciĂłn (EXP. 1/432 â&#x20AC;&#x153;88â&#x20AC;?/5651 de 2 de junio de 1993) y SEP (Reserva 171.94 control 14301) del 15 de enero de 1994. DistribuciĂłn: Hidalgo 223 Chapala, Jalisco, MĂŠxico. All contents are fully protected by copyright and may not be reproduced without the written consent of El Ojo del Lago. Opinions expressed E\ WKH DXWKRUV GR QRW QHFHVVDULO\ UHĂ&#x20AC;HFW WKH views of the Publisher or the Editor, nor are we responsible for the claims made by our advertisers. We welcome letters, which should include name, address and telephone number.

COVER STORY

z D I R EC T O R Y z

El Ojo del Lago / February 2017

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Editorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Page

12 Imprints 14 Bridge By Lake 16 Uncommon Sense 18 Child Of Month 24 Anitaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Animal 50 Welcome To Mexico 52 Ramblings From Ranch

LAKESIDE LIVING

VOLUME 33 NUMBER 6

62 Front Row Center 64 Profiling Tepehua 72 Focus On Art 76 LCS Newsletter

Saw you in the Ojo

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Forget the Facts, Print the Legend!

ack in the Old West, there was a shibboleth lovingly espoused by many frontier newspaper editors which went: If the facts get in the way of a legend, print the legend, anyway! So with that disclaimer, the story goes like this. Just after the beginning of World War II, the famed bandleader Artie Shaw married the soon-to-be equally famous movie starlet, Lana Turner, and off they came to Mexico for an extended honeymoon. In Mexico City one night, they happened upon a little out-of-the-way bistro, where a somber-looking man in his early 30’s (whose name was Alberto Dominguez) was quietly playing a piano. After a while, Shaw interrupted Lana Turner’s monologue about her movie career to ask her to listen to the music. Shaw’s finely-attuned ear had picked up an unmistakable signal: When the song was over, he laid out some money on the piano and asked the pianist to play the song again, and then again. Who had written the song? Shaw asked. The pianist sheepishly raised his hand. Had he written anything else? Again: the same bashful response. And again, after hearing the second song, the same signal. By this time, Lana Turner had joined her husband at the piano and concurred that the two songs were among the loveliest she had ever heard. Then, in impeccable Spanish (Shaw was known to have had a genius IQ and was fluent in several languages), the bandleader asked who owned the songs and had they ever been published? Suddenly, the piano player turned wary and said that if Shaw has some business in mind, he would have to come back the next night and talk to the composer’s grandfather, who handled all of the family business. The following night, Shaw made known his interest in buying a

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small percentage of the rights to both songs, and a short-term option giving him the right to see if he could get them published, or at the very least, publicized. The grandfather, after a consultation with the youngish composer, mentioned a figure to Shaw. Shaking his head, the bandleader said he would not pay such a sum. Rather cowed, the old man asked what amount he would pay, to which Shaw replied: “I’ll pay you fifty times what you just asked for, and that’s for each song.” Needless to say, the legalities were readily dispensed with the very next day, and Shaw and Turner returned to Hollywood, where the band leader discovered that he was riding the crest of a wave. His brilliant arrangement and recording of Cole Porter’s Begin the Beguine was selling millions of records. Now, as the movie scripts indicate the passage of time, we DISSOLVE TO: On a hunch, Shaw eventually called a producer friend to tell him about the two songs he had found in Mexico. Could he come over to play them for him? The executive, Hal Wallis, was just finishing up a film and had indicated that he needed a romantic song for one of the movie’s flashback scenes. Hearing both songs, Wallis thought one of them perfect for the film, and promptly bought the onetime film rights, had it orchestrated and put into one of the flashback scenes: a moment in which the two stars of the film are seen dancing in a Parisian nightclub just before the German army marched into the city. The movie was, of course, Cas-

ablanca and the song was Perfidia, and as they say, the rest is history. The other song, Frenesi, was just as popular with audiences, and in time would be recorded by dozens of the most popular bands and singers all over the world, with the American version done by Bing Crosby up near the top of the music charts for many months. Frenesi and Perfidia continue to this day to be among the most popular Latino melodies ever written and easily in the same class as Augustin Lara’s Solamente Una Vez— a song so immensely popular that it has been

called Mexico’s second national anthem. Now as to the veracity of this story: if it isn’t true, it should be! P.S. And I feel the same way as to whether or not my mother’s family might have been related to the great Alberto Dominguez. Almost certainly not, however, as the composer’s family was from Chiapas, my mothAlejandro er’s from the state Grattanof Chihuahua. Dominguez

Lament For A Raindrop on an early morning walk a raindrop the size of a palm, in the drizzle of a morning shower, fell into the loving hands of mi esposa, and was carried home to become part of our hearts delight here in the village cats and dogs own the streets, the lucky ones, on rooftops, behind walls, and doors live in a less dangerous environment, for the cobblestone streets, while having a beauty of their own, are pitted and cratered; a home where only the hardy survive. Herein lies the quandary for when you hold a pet in your heart, as you must because that is who you are, they become vulnerable, less fearful from the love you give them— the human touch has a way of compromising the nature of the beast. My neighbor’s dogs, who are not confined to a loving space, and roam the street, have killed two of our critters, who wandered in curiosity onto the cobblestones. What does one do across the great divide, where life is but a simple “I’m sorry?” Sadness is not just a human touch, for everything today, the poinsettias in the garden— here to celebrate the season, the clouds shrouding the lake; have a pale about them. Everything today, feels a little less joyful raindrops having turned to teardrops.

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Abraham Lincoln And Mexico %\ 'U 0LFKDHO +RJDQ ZZZ GUPLFKDHOKRJDQ FRP) 5HYLHZHG E\ 0DUN 6FRQFH

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t the drop of a hat, most lifetime readers can tell you which books were most important to them, the ones that changed their previously held view, altered their attitude, explained and sorted out the meaning of it all. Books like The Meaning of Culture by John Cowper Powys, Myths and Symbols in Indian Art and Civilization by Heinrich Zimmer and Guns, Germs

%HQLWR -XiUH] and Steel by Jarod Diamond—books that straighten out our wrong-headed views, influence the way we look at life both past and present. How privileged I am then to add another book between my golden book ends: Abraham Lincoln and Mexico by Michael Hogan, nominated for the 2016 William M. LeoGrande Prize for the best book on U.S.-Latin American relations. In a more formal setting,

El Ojo del Lago / February 2017

he would be introduced as Dr. Michael Hogan, Emeritus Humanities Chair at the American Foundation of Guadalajara, author of 24 books and historian extraordinaire. So extraordinaire that his history students proudly wear maroon hoodies that read Hogan’s Heroes! I suspect most readers will draw a blank and cause them to double-take the title, Abraham Lincoln and Mexico. Whatever connection could have existed between them to warrant a full blown book with an Appendix and Bibliography that will make your hat drop? Well-grounded readers have read their high school and college texts—American Civilization 101 and even 202. Do they remember anything more than a paragraph or two about President Polk’s little war of 1846? The one we call the Mexican-American War and Mexicans call The Invasion of Mexico with all its attendant rape and pillage? Slim pickings, frankly. Charles and Mary Beard, for example, nada, or Henry Steele Commager and Eliot Morison, nada. Remember Richard Hofstadter who was roundly criticized for his non-existent research into manuscripts, newspapers, archival, or unpublished sources? This is a criticism that will never be leveled at Michael Hogan. The Bibliography for this book is stunning (manuscripts, documents, accounts by contemporaries, journals and more). It makes the would-be scholar in me rejoice and thank Herodotus for insisting on systematically gathering relevant material and critically analyzing it. The Appendix too is a joy. Personal letters to and from Lincoln, President Polk’s messages to Congress, Lincoln’s speech to the Congress. Be sure to read the Emancipation Proclamation there so that you can slip that accomplishment into casual conversation with hardcore liberal friends. You might mention that the Proclamation made it possible for free men to join the armed services of the United States. Buffalo Soldiers, anyone? My first inkling of a connection between Lincoln and Mexico came when watching Warner Bros. movie Juárez starring Paul Muni as President Benito* Juárez. You may remember that Juárez was the first indigenous Mexican elected to the Presidency of Mexico but that his rightful rule was threatened by a coalition of conservatives both domestic and foreign and the Church. As coalition forces closed in on Juárez’s hideout, his aides hustle the President into a waiting carriage. “Just a minute,” he shouts, jumps out of the carriage and rushes back in to retrieve a picture of Abraham Lincoln hanging on the wall. Dr. Hogan reminds us that these two men were of the same cloth. They spoke out clearly and forcefully for lib-

eral ideas of the time--opposition to slavery, to foreign intervention, to theocracy and war. The two leaders ascendant were in close touch throughout the Civil War aided in part by a 24-year- old Mexican envoy, Matías Romero, who must be seen as a Hogan hero. Dr. Hogan unearthed his personal effects in the vaults of Banco Nacional de México. His papers, letters and diaries lay unread until last year and tell an unusual story, not the least of which how he squired Mrs. Lincoln around town for her shopping forays and how he ingratiated himself with many major political, business and cultural leaders in Washington. Fascinating reading! Most readers are familiar with the barebones history. U.S. President, Tennessean James Polk, believed the United States had a “Manifest Destiny,” a God-approved right to spread across the continent to the Pacific Ocean. But would the new lands be slave or free? That was the over-arching question. U.S. citizens/settlers/soldiers streamed west in search of new lives, and some found themselves treading on Mexican soil. A border skirmish (April 1846) along the Rio Grande began the fighting and was followed by a series of U.S. military victories including the occupation of Mexico City. When the dust cleared, the Mexican Republic had lost nearly half of its territory, including nearly all of present-day California, Utah, Nevada, Arizona and New Mexico. Manifest Destiny had become manifest indeed in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (February 1848), a copy of which is helpfully provided in the Appendix. The language of the agreement reads almost like the bafflegab (disingenuous justification) presented in the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. The language is nearly interchangeable. “Deliberately and repeatedly attacked,” “Protected in the free enjoyment of their liberty and property,” “Defense of freedom,” etc. The so-called MexicanAmerican War was an unprovoked attack on a sovereign country. Such was the considered opinion of a young senator from Illinois, Abraham Lincoln, a vocal and insistent critic of the war (not unlike another senator from Illinois in our century who spoke strenuously against Operation Iraqi Freedom.) Lest we forget the Alamo, let’s remember that the annexation of Texas as the 28th state of the United States in 1845 led directly to the “Mister Polk’s War,” as Lincoln called it. Piece by piece, Lincoln dismantled President Polk’s justifications for invading. Dr. Hogan points out that “Lincoln risked both personally and politically by tak-

ing this bold stance in Congress.” It was a popular war. Yet fifteen years later Lincoln became the 16th U.S. President. One of the traits that makes Lincoln our most respected President around the world was his honesty. Honesty, too, is the hallmark of this fine book. Admission of error is a good place to start. It takes a big man to admit wrong. Michael Hogan’s book is a purposeful step in that direction. Americans were led to war on a pretext. Sound familiar? In a time of “fake news stories” and a willful determination to ignore or even deny the existence of facts, declaring that only perceptions matter, Michael Hogan has demonstrated that “fake news” writ large is “fake history.” The kind of fake history we see so clearly in the American history textbooks approved by the Texas Board of Education. As Lakeside teacher/historian, Fred Mittag, points out, when the Texas Board chooses a book, it means millions of dollars in sales. This forces publishers to pander to Texas, thus imposing many of the Board’s selections and revisionist history on the rest of the United States. For example, “Joseph McCarthy saved America from Communism.” Let’s take Dr. Hogan’s advice: “Back up what you say with reasonable evidence. Listen to other people even though you disagree with them, and when you finish listening to them, ask if they have evidence to support their case.” Congratulations are also due Mikel Miller, Managing Editor, EgretBooks. com, whose marketing plans are ambitious and far-reaching (over 400,000 students worldwide study American history). www.lincolnandmexicoproject.wordpress.com. Amazon already ranks Dr. Hogan’s book among the top three works about Abraham Lincoln. Miller vows to make sure every Congressional office has a copy and that every U.S. history teacher, both high school and university, has a new way to teach the history of that period using original documents, letters, diaries,

etc. to present the facts, not the politics, but the facts that still reverberate in Mexican-American relations today. Be sure to mark your calendar for Sunday, February 12th (Lincoln’s birthday) when Dr. Michael Hogan addresses the assembled at Open Circle, Lake Chapala Society. He has a spell-binding story to tell of “courage, intrigue and unlikely friendships.” This is as good as it gets, fellow readers, and it’s hot off the press in paperback and Kindle. Buy it! Read it. Pass it on to your alma mater’s library so that educators and students will be as well informed as you… *** * Signore Alessandro Mussolini named his son Benito because he so admired Benito Juárez. The cruel irony will not be lost on my readers. Book is available at Diane Pearl’s, La Nueva Posada, and Sandi’s Books in Guadalajara. Also available online at Amazon. Hogan will be the guest speaker at Chapala Writers Conference on March 17, and will also be guest speaker at Open Circle on February 12. Mark Sconce

Saw you in the Ojo

THE T HE G GAME AM A ME THAT THA AT TN NEVER EVER ENDS END DS S $ 1RYHO E\ 'DYLG +DUSHU 5HYLHZHG E\ 0HO *ROGEHUJ

have never played cricket nor have I played rugby, but author David Adamson Harper blends both with heavy doses of love and sex in his latest book, The Game That Never Ends. The story begins in San Francisco in 1962. The main character, Australian Sandy Gosse, thinks back over his life, from the day in Adelaide in 1953 when he first meets Alex. Over the years their love for each other has created many problems but now it has caused him to lose his wife Kate and his job as a stock trader in San Francisco. The author cleverly uses first person for flashbacks and third person for the present time of the book. The book has several sections, each with a title that relates to Sandy’s experiences with life, women, travel, and his time at Oxford University, where he excelled in sport but struggled academically. For example, chapter two, “Adelaide 1953 - Audeamus” starts with a long, perhaps too long, narrative about a cricket game in which he stars. However, it is

because of this game that he meets Alex and they immediately fall in love. It also introduces the reader to the term audeamus, which means let us dare, which becomes an abiding code word throughout the novel for their relationship. Chapter three, “Darlene,” relates how an older woman teaches the eighteen-year-old Sandy about sex and lovemaking.

El Ojo del Lago / February 2017

The following chapter, “Naples 1954 Alex” brings the reader back to their love story. As a result of their night together she becomes pregnant and this sets up the secondary theme of his exasperation with her Catholicism. Her mother takes her to Switzerland for an abortion and she now becomes obsessed by Catholic guilt and a desperate need for absolution of her sin. The novel moves deftly smoothly between Oxford, his games, and the love story. Sandy and Alex meet periodically over the years but never seem to be in the right place at the right time in their lives. When Sandy is free, Alex is married. When Alex finally becomes free, Sandy is married to Kate. The novel is filled with memorable characters, like the flamboyant Mara, Alex’s gay Italian uncle who helps her through her difficulties, and Sir Charles Mills, Sandy’s very proper uncle in London who had been an aide to Winston Churchill. Other characters include Emily, who meets Sandy on a ship to England and who hopes to become a surgeon in London and the delightful Pippa whom Sandy meets at Oxford University and considers marrying until Alex reappears. Then there is Göran Persson, the cricketloving Swedish friend to whom he turns after his debacle in San Francisco. Even though the story takes place many years ago, the reader feels that it

could happen today, in any place where a man and a woman from different backgrounds meet and fall in love. This book is about love and sex, with cricket and rugby in place of rock and roll. The author’s fast paced style keeps the reader engaged right up until the end. But if you want to know what happens to Sandy and Alex and the many other characters that live and breathe in The Game That Never Ends, you’ll have to read the book! Soon available for sale at Dianne Pearl Colecciones for 300 pesos as well as from Amazon both in paperback and Kindle. Ed. Note: For information on Mel Goldberg, Here are his links. Just click on any one. His latest novel Catch a Killer, Save the World here on Amazon https://www. Mel Goldberg amazon.com/ Catch.../dp/B00I8WD5SG/ref=sr_1_1... My web site http://goldmiel.wix.com/authormel My blog http://melgold.blogspot.mx On Facebook https://www.facebook.com/mexmel

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Magical Montserrat

What to do with one day yet in Barcelona before the cruise weighs anchor? Thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s plenty of ground yet unturned in the city, but thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s also an intriguing daytrip site of a completely other flavor that begs to be on a Barcelona short list. The Monastery of Montserrat â&#x20AC;&#x201C; also called the Abbey of Montserrat or Santa Maria de Montserrat â&#x20AC;&#x201C; sits at the edge of the Pyrenees about 30 miles from Barcelona. Founded by the Benedictines in the 11th century, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s tucked into a mountain of the same name that rises to more than 4,000 feet.

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El Ojo del Lago / February 2017

Since tour bus service from Barcelona is non-stop and everything at the other end is very walkable, it makes sense to sidestep car-rental-and-parking-spot-search and grab an uninterrupted chance to enjoy the great scenery. The ascent starts gently, but itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not long before rock formations begin to sprout. These are not the sharp-toothed mountains of Colorado or the Alps, but weathered monoliths on which the angles are all now worn to curves. As the bus approaches, the monastery grows picture 0RQDVWHU\ DW 0RQWVHUUDW 6SDLQ postcard perfect out of the mountain not as much perched upon it as embraced by it. The architecture here is Romanesque, and buildings including a basilica and belltower are arrayed around a classic courtyard. The â&#x20AC;&#x153;Santa Mariaâ&#x20AC;? part of the abbeyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s name comes from a Madonna-andchild statue carved in dark wood thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the centerpiece of the basilica. She is one of only about 500 Black Madonna artworks to survive the Catholic Churchâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s remake of Christian art in a European image, and she is known affectionately among Catalonians as La Morenetaâ&#x20AC;Ś the little darkskinned one. Paradoxically, Ignatius Loyola laid down his arms at the iconâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s feet before founding the Jesuits and in 1881 Pope Leo XIII declared her the patroness saint of Catalonia! Thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s more to Montserrat than worship, though. This monastery was a productive community that provided for itself and was very engaged in the world around it. The Benedictines have been printing books here since 1499, and the monastery houses one of the oldest continuously operating printing presses in Europe. The celebrated Montserrat Boys Choir â&#x20AC;&#x201C; the Escolania de Montserrat â&#x20AC;&#x201C;

sings at least once daily in the basilica and on select dates gives more extended performances. The basilica museum houses sculptures and paintings by artists including works by El Greco, DalĂ, and Picasso. Did I mention that wineâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s been made here for centuries?! Wherever thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s traffic thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a market, and Montserrat is no exception. Here the merchants all looked like mothers and grandmothers. Everything for sale looked to be both homemade and edible; there was not a Montserrat T-shirt or baseball cap in sight! The funicularâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s upward and downward trams share the same mountainside track, and those with an inclination can hike further up to a lookout point from which it is claimed that the

&RXUW\DUG PDUNHW 0RQDVWHU\ DW 0RQWVHUUDW island of Majorca is visible on a clear day. As the tram descends and the monastery grows ever larger, it really sinks in that in medieval Europe there were a lot worse jobs than being a monk! Antonio RamblĂŠs

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BRIDGE BY THE LAKE %\ .HQ 0DVVRQ

ave you heard the rumor that is circulating among American-based bridge players these days? Apparently, with the inauguration of the new President of the United States, only suit contracts will be permitted; No-Trump bids will be illegal! Be that as it may, I could have saved myself some embarrassment if I had been forbidden from bidding the no trump game in this month’s hand which I misplayed at the Lake Chapala Duplicate Bridge Club in Riberas. West dealt and opened the bidding with 1 diamond. Although traditionally at least 13 high card points are required to start the bidding, more and more players are shaving a point or two off their holdings in an effort to get in the first bid and I suspect that most players these days would follow West’s example. Sitting North, Herself had 10 points but no long suit so she passed, as did East. When the auction came around to me I had to find a bid that adequately described my balanced 18 high card points. If I had been in second seat I would have ventured 1 no trump but it is a generally accepted principle that in the passout (or balancing) seat a call of 1

El Ojo del Lago / February 2017

no trump shows about 12 to 15 HCPs, so I was forced to make a takeout double. West passed and Herself now bid 2 spades, showing around 8 to 11 HCPs, leaving me with a simple jump to 3 no trump. West led a low heart and I took time out to count my winners and consider my options. I could see five sure tricks in the form of the ace of spades and the ace and king of both hearts and clubs; to make my contract I would have to establish four more tricks through a combination of finesses and promotions. With a total of 28 high card points between my hand and dummy’s, the task did not appear to be too daunting. I won the first trick in my hand with a high heart and laid down the spade jack on which West played the king (cover an honour with an honour) and dummy the ace. I now turned my attention to the diamond suit by playing the five from the dummy to my queen and West’s ace and that player continued the attack on my heart suit by leading the queen. A quick assessment showed that I was now up to eight tricks and the ninth would have to come from the club suit. As I held a total of eight clubs, with all the top cards except the queen, the correct theoretical play is to finesse against East for her majesty (eight ever, nine never). So I crossed to the spade queen, called for the club jack and let it ride when East played low. To my horror West won the trick and I could no longer make my contract. In the post-mortem, Herself pointed out that West needed the club queen in order to open the bidding and therefore it would have to be a doubleton or singleton if I was to make my contract. Now why didn’t I think of that? Questions or comments: email: masson.ken@gmail. Ken Masson com

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Fuzzy Facts?

“

here’s no such thing, unfortunately, anymore, of facts.” Really? This is what Trump surrogate Scottie Nell Hughes declared recently on The Dine Rehm Show on NPR. I think I know what she was getting at. Facts are often spun and viewed differently depending on one’s point of view. But that’s not to say that facts are not real. This should not be surprising, coming from a supporter of Donald Trump who often loudly and confidently declares as true whatever pops into his head at the moment, regardless of its basis in fact. He makes stuff up. He lies. Very unfortunately, many people do not seem to care about this. When this man, who many admire for his frank, arrogant, in-your-face belligerence, speaks a lie, many believe it because they want to believe it. Well, if it isn’t technically true, it could be true... and so it goes. People these days increasingly believe what they want to believe. So where does that leave us? A little history might be helpful here. The original meaning, in the seventeenth century, of the word “fact” was a legal term synonymous with an assertion. When a lawyer claimed something in court, it was referred to as a fact. Today, that would never be called a fact. A claim or an opinion is distinctive from a fact. With the emergence of science as a basis for knowledge and progress, the idea of a “fact” has become necessary for the advancement of mankind in terms of science and technology, law, international affairs, and education. Children learn the difference between a fact and an opinion in school. Increasingly, educators at all levels are infusing critical thinking skills into curricula. Students are taught to discriminate between an unproven, unsupported idea and a fact which has been supported with incontrovertible evidence. The distinction is not difficult to understand. So what has happened? Why do voters not hold an abject liar accountable for false statements? Why do people re-post patently false fake news stories on social media? Why has the

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fact itself become such a fuzzy concept? Perhaps the media is at least somewhat complicit by trying hard to provide “balanced” coverage, giving both sides equal time in an argument, even when one side’s claims are just false. Perhaps our information environment is just too crowded, with so much information available to consume, much of it contradictory. Unless people are paying close attention and are willing to check out what’s reliable and what isn’t, it is difficult to sort through the blaze of information. The reality is, we have become very tribal, and we can consume the news which conforms to our own tribal biases. As a result, there is little overlap. We’re not often exposed to good, well-reasoned arguments from those with whom we disagree. In fact, many probably doubt that good well-reasoned arguments can even be made on behalf of our opponents. So, we have the perfect environment for people to be misinformed about the “truth,” yet not even be aware of the fact that they are misinformed. The most dangerous example, at the moment, may be climate change. Preventing environmental catastrophe will obviously be difficult, and may not succeed despite our best efforts. But if we do not even accept the fact that climate change is occurring, our hope to avoid a dystopian future is dashed. To not believe an established fact just because it is uncomfortable or inconvenient is dangerous. We cannot wish truth away. Hopefully, we will correct this trend, and soon. I have been heartened to see the strong pushback Scottie Nell Hughes received for her provocative claim. Let’s hope Trump and his ilk get equally strong reaction to their lies, misjudgments, and manipulations of the truth.

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CHILD

of the month

%\ 1LFROH 6HUJHQW &OLQLF 'LUHFWRU Milagros Paulina V.V.

ilagros was born at 6 Â˝ months with underdeveloped lungs and was in Intensive Care for 3 months. She was born in August 2012 and the family came to us in May 2015. Her family called her Milagros which means miracle in Spanish because she survived a very difficult period. As her lungs were not developed properly she needed oxygen from time to time. Doctors believe that as she grows her lungs will become stronger and that she will be able to live a normal life. Presently she uses a puffer once a day and also takes a cortisone med-

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ication. She is the baby of the family having a 12 year-old brother and a 10 year-old sister. We have reimbursed the family a total of 11,726 pesos. Thank you for this opportunity to present one of our kids. I invite you to join us at our monthly meeting at the Real de Chapala, which will be on Thursday, 16th of February 2017 at 10:00am when we will introduce three of our kids and their families. We see families at three locations, Jocotepec, Ajijic and Chapala. Should you want to visit or become a volunteer, please contact Barb Corol for Jocotepec (766-5452) or myself for Ajijic and Chapala (766-4375), I invite you to visit our website at: www.programaninos.com

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THE WORLD IS TOO MUCH WITH US %\ -XG\ '\NVWUD %URZQ

“

eople here are funny. They work so hard at living they forget how

to live.” Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936) How was life when we didn’t know everything? Back when there was no TV and when news got shared once a day on the radio and once on the door stoop in the morning? We were so busy with our own lives that we didn’t spend every minute of every day bound up in the ills of the world. Violence was a neighborhood game of cops and robbers, but nobody really ever identified more with the robbers. It was more a game like kick the can, where you were trying to keep something away from the other side. Violence was not the point and when I look deep, I know that a game of cowboys and Indians was no more an expression of prejudice than listening to a World Series game of the Yankees against the Dodgers was. To rephrase a quote from Mr.

Deeds Goes to Town (1936), I have to say that people of the twenty-first century are funny. They work so hard at living they forget how to live. I include myself in their ranks. I am so tied to my computer that I panicked recently when I spilled a Coke on it and had to go a few days without. My day felt strangely empty even though I had an entire ocean and beach spread out before me and a small town full of people to talk to, a porch full of art materials. But, I’d become so accustomed to my blogging world and even to talking throughout the day via Skype to a very dear friend, that I didn’t know what to do with a day that was just a day in one place with one set of people around me. Existence has become a thing that has no value unless I can write about it and I don’t seem to be able to write anymore unless I am writing into a computer and sending experience out into the world. I am committing, perhaps, even more of a sin than those teenagers glued to their hand devices, texting their friends. They, at least, are connected to some-

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one, whereas I simply talk to my computer and send out copies later. Who is most at fault is not the point. The point is that connection w the world at with l large that keeps s some of us from a simple and p private connect tion to the world immediately a around us. We k know so much a about so many t things we really d don’t have much c control over, that w have become we v voyeurs. The ent tire world has b become grounds f for our gossip. We are fascinated by the gory details, shocked but in a sort of fascinated daze that keeps us many times from realizing that this is more than a movie. This is reality. Someone’s pain. We feel it for those seconds and minutes and hours and days that the horrible action stays in the headlights of this rushing vehicle that is our world, but then we pass on and it is as though one program has ended and the next begins. We think about world events in episodes. Off with the old one, on with the newest slaughter or murder or coup or genocide or monster storm or hostage situation. In the meantime the minor tragedies around us sometimes go unnoticed. We are so fixated on the stories of major tragedies on the other side of the world that we forget the real people and small dramas going on around us. We watch nature shows on television while ignoring what wildlife still exists around us. We suffer the passion and pangs of romance as onlookers. Observing the great chefs of the world takes up time we could have been baking chocolate chip cookies. Watching Honey Boo Boo in horror becomes a punishment

in comparison to sitting in a playground, watching children living the world in real time. Yes, what I write is hyperbole, but I think it is true, to a varying degree, of most of us connected to the technical world. It is like a horrible accident passed on the highway that we are told by our mothers to look away from. Who can resist? No matter how much the gory scene may invade our dreams and turn them into nightmares, we cannot look away. And now with TV and the Internet, we could spend 24 hours a day watching such horrors. And often do. There is such a thing as being too connected to too large a world. This is why I disconnected the dish network and cable years ago. The bad news still leaks through, as does the good news, but in quantities I can take and that leave time for real experience and a perhaps misplaced faith in the world and human goodness and yes, even my own goodness. I am beginning to try to spend more time away from the computer–to simplify, if that is possible in this busy cluttered mess of a life I’ve once more collected around me. I find the valuable elements slipping away and less energy to collect more around me. Friends die or move away both physically and emotionally. This is the process of life. But it is also the process of life to stay engaged in a real way and to fight for meaning and value in our lives. This should not be so hard. There should not be so much to plow through to get to ourselves and what is really important. The Mr. Deeds quote, in modern context, might be altered to read, “We work so hard at observing and being in contact with the world at large Judy Dykstra that we forget Brown how to live in that world.”

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'U /RULQ 6ZLQHKDUW

s was frequently my habit, I had hiked solo deep into the forest late in the afternoon, kindled a crackling campfire, grilled a small rib eye and set a pot of lapsangsouchong tea to boil. With the coming of night, flying squirrels flitted among cedar and hemlock. A friendly brown bat flapped from his lair beneath the roots of a large maple, passing within inches of my head. From woodland puddles and marshes, the tiny spring frogs we call peepers began to serenade the heavens. From time to time, I entered the forest in search of silence and solitude, vital to the health of mind and soul. The forest never failed me. Once one

escapes the noisy two-legged animal, though, he learns that nature can be anything but silent. I tell people that I periodically escape into nature simply in order to listen. Most do not get it. A precious few do. A screech owl keened away with its banshee-like call and was immediately answered by the frenzied gobbling of three flocks of wild turkeys scattered across the forest floor. A great horned owl joined in with his, “Hoo! Hoo! Hoo! Hoo!” Each hoot was answered by another owl far out among the darkened treetops. The turkeys answered both of them with desperate gobbling. Tall clouds formed in the west, drifted my way, an April shower to

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dampen my campfire and dampen me. I was never one to be discouraged by rain. I was in the woods for the duration, and I found the conversation between the owls and the turkeys absorbing. Each rumble of thunder inspired more turkey gobbling. Ornithologists refer to the phenomenon as shock gobbling. Wild turkeys must consider not only owls but thunder and lightening as menaces. Owl talk and turkey talk. I considered myself privileged to be included in their conversation. A piercing shriek pierced the rain soaked night. Mr. Horned Owl was having rabbit for his late meal. I considered that owls might also love flying squirrel, wondered if they ate brown bat. I was not there as a critic or a judge, only as a visitor in the owls’ domain. Owls have prowled the night skies for 67,000,000 years, according to Leigh Calvez’s new book The Hidden Lives of Owls, a Christmas gift from which I have gleaned a wealth of information. The words “howl” and “owl” may stem from the same linguistic origin deep in the pre-history of human language evolution, farther back in the mists of time than Proto-IndoEuropean, even than the hypothetical Nostratic or Proto-World. The Old English word for owl is “ule,” the Latin word is “ulula.” Owls populate our mythologies, were considered bearers of good fortune by some early peoples, harbingers of evil and death by others. The Greeks associated the owl with Athena, goddess of wisdom. The ancient Maya considered the owl to be a sign of good fortune. A Mayan owl amulet was worn upside down, so as to stare upward at the person under its protection. To the Navaho, Owl and Coyote control night and day. Owls are unique in the avian kingdom in many ways. Owl eyes have more black and white connecting rods, providing them with superior night vision. Their eyes are also tubular. As compensation, they are able

to turn their heads 270 degrees, providing them with a wide perimeter of vision. Their facial feathers provide a sort of satellite dish that funnels sound into their ears. Owl ears are asymmetrical, so that they can locate prey in three dimensions. Even the toes of owls stand out among those of all other bird species. Two toes on each foot point backward, one forward, and one can point either way, a huge advantage when grasping prey. There are 225 species of owls globally and 417 subspecies. I seldom see them but often listen in on their conversations. Owls do not have it easy. Many meet their demise when colliding with speeding motor vehicles. Others die from secondary poisoning from rodenticides ingested by their prey. A few fall victims to the guns of farmers who fail to recognize that the numbers of rodents an owl consumes in a year’s time more than compensates for an occasional lost chicken. Long after the rain had ceased and the skies had cleared, I doused my fire with spring water and hiked out in the most magical of ways, by starlight. There had been no moon, and I would not violate the sanctity of the forest or the darkness with a flashlight or lantern. Halfway down a nearby horse trail, I became conscious of a strange rumbling on the ridge to my left. I halted, waited in silence, made out the silhouettes of a herd of white tailed deer treading along parallel to me, curious about this visitor to their forest home. I was to return many times, sometimes accompanied by great spirits, often solo. The forest is a friend, always waiting with open arms, offering surcease to tired spirits. I have long been on friendly terms with the creaDr. Lorin Swinehart tures of the night.

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COLUMNIST

%\ -DFNLH .HOOXP

Good Manners and Good Sense

saw the perfect example of this a short time ago. A young Mexican woman was walking her dog in town. Her dog was on a leash. In addition to the leash and collar, the dog had an ID tag. As she was walking her dog it started to pause to go to the bathroom. She directed her dog off the sidewalk and into the street. After the dog did his business, she picked up the poop in a plastic bag she had with her. And then as she was walking she found and deposited the package into an available garbage receptacle. I stopped to thank her for caring for her dog and its safety, and having courtesy for the community. She wondered why the thank you, saying that is what everyone should do. I wish that everyone who walks their dog anywhere off their own property, would have as much wisdom and politeness as this Mexican woman. On the ‘theme’ of good sense : Why do people let their dogs roam free or walk off leash risking their pet for being hit by a car, injured by a person or another dog, and especially in light of the dog poisoner still at large? Why do ‘responsible’ dog owners not have a collar and ID tags on their dogs? Why do dog owners let their dog ride with their head out the car window so a rock or another object can hit them in the face or eye? Why do people who have pets not make plans in advance for their pet’s care in the event that

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they cannot care for them anymore, or when [ not if ] they die? As much as I have asked others for answers to these questions and thought about it myself, I have not been able to find a reasonable answer. Maybe someone reading this column can help with the answers. Many times this column appears to lean towards dogs. So, trying to show no favoritism, this section is about cats. Cats truly are as unique as dogs, in their appearance, behavior and attitude. These are some basic tips to help raise a healthy cat or kitten. Some believe that the mixed – breed cat, similar to our Mexican-mix dogs, have the longevity advantage over ‘pure breeds.’ Providing an appropriate diet for age and activity is important. Keeping the litter box clean is critical. Cats like to be clean, and may use other places other than their box if it is not cleaned on a regular basis. Some cats can develop renal stones due to diet or their own poor mineral metabolism. If your cats starts to not use the litter box despite it being clean or starts to urinate frequently – see your Vet. Having continual easy access to fresh water is essential. It is important to do a regular exam of your cat. Look for clear eyes, clean nose, and the mouth and teeth without an odor. Check to see if your cat is still grooming itself. Examine the skin area for bumps, lumps, injuries, and of course fleas and parasites. If you discover something unusual, have it checked by your Vet, do not hope it will just go away. Have regular Vet checks and keep vaccinations up to date. Obesity in a cat is not a good thing as it creates multiple health problems. Play with your cat. Cats need exercise like humans, to keep their body fit and their mind stimulated. Obviously keep your cat safe. Look at the environment from your cat’s viewpoint. Your cat will appreciate your caring. www.anitasanaimals.com - PayPal available.

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MUTALAHTI %\ $OH[L &XUULHU

ne of the golden gifts we seniors get to unwrap in our Christmastide quiet is the gift of memories. Allow me a moment to share one. Come away with me to Finland, to a remote village, on the shore of a lake, deep in the endless forests. The other shore of the lake is the border of the Communist Soviet Union. It is the summer of 1990. The weather is warm. There is a gentle breeze. A crowd is gathered on the shore where three long boats are being boarded. Many in the crowd are dressed in colorful Eastern Finnish or Karelian folk costumes. An Orthodox priest is directing the boarding of the boats. In the first boat young men in Church vestments hold high the banners from the Church. Many passengers carry candles or icons. All are filled with emotion. They are going home, back across the lake to where many of them were born, and from where many of them had fled some fifty years ago. Even though the Communists had evacuated the village, the Church still stood. An old woman told me that the Church was seven kilometers and fifty years from here. She could see it in the distance from a hilltop in winter. Now the Soviet Union was melting. Communism was losing control. The bor-

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der was slowly opening. For a year the priest had negotiated his way through the remaining rusty Soviet bureaucracy to gain permission to return with his flock to the abandoned Church and churchyard to sing the service for the departed in the cemetery. Now it was happening. Three long boats skimmed across the waves from Finland to the Soviet Union. Slowly on the approaching shore the figures that came into view were recognized as soldiers. A line of uniformed Soviet Soldiers stood stretched across the hilltop above where the boats landed. The Priest, who spoke Russian, swung out of the boat and sloshed ashore, as a Soviet Officer with a chest full of medals came down the hill toward him. Unintelligible bursts of conversation could be heard between the two. Suddenly the officer turned toward his troops and shouted an order, and the troops came charging down the hill toward the boats. The priest faced his flock speechlessly as the soldiers seized the banners. Others begged with gestures to carry the icons. Quickly the people in the boats realized what was happening and choking with emotion they gave their icons and candles to the young Soviet soldiers who now turned forming the procession and leading the faithful to the Church.

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THE OJO INTERNET MAILBOX (Wherein we publish some comments about our previous issues.)

SWEET MOTHER OF MEXICO—Leona Vicario Linda Perez I Love This Story! ... Very fascinating!... Very well written!.. Thank you! Brigadoon II Herbert W. Piekow Mark, although I heard you read this piece I enjoyed the slow read. You should have been a diplomat. I once knew a Saudi diplomat who was well known and respected for his poetry, you remind me of that revered gentleman. An Old Man’s Musings Teri You brought this wonderful memory to vivid life. Absolutely beautifully done! Thank you for sharing. Editor’s Page - December 2016 Gabrielle Blair I have just read your excellent editorial about McNamara. What a sad, sad episode of history that war was and how well you sum up the after effects of the damage it left behind. And yet, in spite of the lessons that should have been learned from that disaster, the US will not sit still, even to this day. No other country invades and bombs to smithereens the US people, its cities and its countryside, and yet they continue to invade and destroy other sovereign states in the name of freedom, weapons of mass destruction or some other rubbish. Of course, nowadays they are much more cautious about men on the ground doing the dirty work, because they have the fabulous technical advance of drones. What a waste of valuable resources that could be put to such good use on their home soil. Thank you for reminding us of the futility of the Vietnam War and by extension, more

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or less any of the wars that have come after it. Who Is This Jesus? Marcel Woland I love your secular history of Jesus. I am sorry that the Zeitgeist did not allow the slightest mention of the most important aspect of the Ministry and person of Jesus - without which he would have been merely another teacher, like Confucius or Rumi or merely another philosopher, like Spinoza or Sartre - that he was ‘the way’ to eternal life. Had he not been the Saviour and the Son of God, he would have been utterly forgotten by the ‘deplorables and irredeemables’ of his mostly preliterate age and consequently, forgotten to all time. As it is, he not only transformed the world of the Jews of his time, most of which left the old religion and followed him, becoming Christians, but even more completely and radically changed the rest of the cultures and peoples of the planet. Even those, like the people of Mexico and the Americas, whose existence was unknown at the time. It is not so much his teachings that captivated all the above people, as his timeless, mystical answer to the thorniest questions of life and death. “World View 2016” Michael Cook Lois... A very gracious piece. We humans seem to have a total disregard for nature as away of repairing itself. Wake up! Dreams Dale Nothing like a story that leaves you hanging...

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LET’S MAKE AMERICA FUNNY AGAIN! %\ 0LFKDHO 0DF/DXJKOLQ

s a comedy writer I was overjoyed in a very greedy, creative way when Donald Trump was elected President. Actually the American election was a win- win situation. We could have had a woman president. But comedy writers have to work with what the US electorates giveth, and this time the Despicables elected a political satirist’s wet dream. Donald J. Trump has a chance to be the funniest president in the history of the Republic. And as an extra comedy bonus you get the Trump zealots, a wacko suicide squad of wackos. (Wait, I said wacko twice.) But The Donald has a way to go to become the best POTUS for political satire and comedy. The recognized

funniest of all time was Richard M. Nixon. With Tricky Dick, comedy, especially political satire, reached its zenith in modern political times − culminating in the theater of the absurd Watergate scandal of the early 1970’s. What made Nixon so good for humor was he had speech and body mannerism that were easy to parody, great one liners like, “When the President does it, that means that it’s not illegal” and both dark Machiavellian AND Macbeth-ian human foibles to write the best dark humor. Only Ronald Reagan, another conservative Republican, came closest to Nixon in comedy fodder. We all laughed during the Reagan administration of the 1980’s. At least I did.

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Clinton was a one-note samba blow job joke. Crater wasn’t President long enough. George W. Bush deserves honorable mention for humor. “I know that the human being and the fish can coexist peacefully.” But there will never be another Richard Nixon - Sic transit gloria mundi. And now along comes Donald J. Trump, President of the United States. Rejoice writers of comedy, a brave new world unfolds! Like Nixon, Donald Trump rarely smiles and I have never seen our president laugh out loud. He lacks a sense of playfulness and humor. He scowls a lot. This is great for parody. It also seems President Trump comes from the bravado center of the universe called New York, where the people still believe they are the toughest in the land. If you get hit, hit back harder. The Donald’s weapon of choice is Twitter: 140 characters of death. The irony, and there has to be irony with Trump, is he was elected by people with not one dang thing in common with a billionaire whose family has a Rolls Royce. While President Trump lives in a golden tower, his supporters live in small insolated bergs. Trump’s people change their own oil in their trucks. Trump’s people do three loads of laundry, iron for an hour, fix dinner, clean up, and do homework with the kids every night. I bet you Donald has never mowed a lawn in 105 degrees. I have. You have. He hasn’t. The WALL on the Mexican border could be the defining moment for Trump. The jokes generated by the wall could be, just could be, the funniest thing of his administration. Then again how much side-splitting humor would be generated with the cancelation of NAFTA and getting into a trade war with China, Mexico and the EU simultaneously? A punch line would be, “Socks cost $6!” Trump’s supporters are also fair game for satire and mocking. These are red meat, take-no-prisoners con-

servatives. My favorite, and an easy one to mock, are the climate deniers. They know just enough science to be laughably, deniably wrong all the time. Monty Python used this denial type of comedy in their very famous “Dead Parrot” routine. The premise is a guy returns a dead parrot to the pet store. And no matter how much the person says the bird is dead, the owner of the pet shop denies it and claims the bird is alive. “The parrot is not dead. It is resting” When the bird is bashed against the counter to prove it is dead, the owner of the shop says the reason the parrot isn’t moving is because it is “pining.” There are about 24% (last numbers I saw) of conservatives who are blatant racists and should be mocked. These are the people who still want to believe that Obama is a Commie Socialist Muslim, which I might add, is hard to be. These conservatives have cancer of the soul. Maybe their hate will kill them before comedy kills them one laugh at a time. The biggest joke is on those liberals who believe that the truth shall win out over Trump’s supporters. Universal truth, observed and codified truth, truth as in scientific fact, yea, that truth, are all lies to Trump supporters. For wacko conservatives, the government lies, the news lies, college education lies, Jews lie, science lies, intelligence lies and all liberals lie. Conservative people who believe this are the easiest target for humor. They are almost too easy to make fun of. They are children with fake news who will believe anything if it is damning liberals. The truth will not save liberals from conservatism. But humor will. In the next four years humor may be your only weapon against the dark forces of Trumpism. Sure, the United States of America might fall off into the abyss, but we’ll be laughing all the way. Let’s make America laugh again.

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Birds Are Closer To God %\ 'DULD +LOWRQ

hattering amongst themselves, the little birds churned the green sea of thick palm leaves with their relentless diving and cresting. On cue, they launched themselves into the heavens when the church bells announced the morning mass, their brilliant yellow bellies like fireworks against the pale blue sky. The boy and his mother watched the birds as they grew smaller and smaller until they were tiny yellow dots that the sky easily swallowed. “Did you give the birds a message for Javier?” Angelina asked her young son, Jesus. “Yes,” he answered shyly. “I told him about how Beto had to wear the donkey ears yesterday.” “Javier is with God,” his mother answered gently. “He probably already knows about Beto. What he might not know is what is in your heart.” Jesus looked away. He didn’t know what was in his heart. He just knew his friend who got him into trouble all the time was gone. He remembered how they both got the belt that time when Javier had convinced him to pour dirt on his sister’s boyfriend from the roof. “How come the birds can talk to Javier and I can’t?” asked Jesus. His mother took his hand as they walked along the narrow streets to-

ward his school. “Birds are closer to God,” she explained. “You can talk to Javier in your prayers.” Jesus was silent again. He had tried to talk to Javier in his prayers, and also in the back patio where they had played so often, and from the top of the only hill in the neighborhood. He had mastered Javier’s trick of flipping in midair off of the swings, hoping his friend would somehow signal his approval. All of these things just made him sadder. Jesus wondered if Javier was with God at all. In school, Javier had to wear the donkey ears more than anyone except Santos. At home, he was worse. When his grandpa sat outside to smoke, Javier would round up red ants and sneak them onto the old man’s empty hand. He would howl with laughter when the ants started to bite and his grandpa, spewing expletives, tried to swat them, and Javier, with ungainly swings that rarely landed. Angelina worried about her son’s silence but couldn’t find the right way to fill it. She simply kissed him on top of his head and reminded him that she loved him. Jesus’s teacher, Mrs. Diaz, took the construction paper pumpkins and leaves down from the windows that day. While the class was working on

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the snowflakes that would replace them, she passed back the Autumn artwork. She paused when she came to a rather haphazardly cut out red leaf. Jesus knew it was Javier’s. Please don’t throw it away, he thought, though he couldn’t bring himself to ask for it. Without words, Mrs. Diaz placed the leaf on his desk. When he got home that day, Jesus covered a shoe box lid with aluminum foil and glued marbles all around the edges. He only used cat’s eyes because those were Javier’s favorite. He glued the red leaf onto the center of the lid and hung it above his bed. Even his brothers, who usually spared him no mercy, had the compassion to not tease him about his small tribute. On the last day of the novena, Javier’s mom fainted in the church. Parents never talked about these things. Jesus only knew about it because it happened on a Sunday. The novena wasn’t finished right. No one finished the prayers for Javier. Jesus began to worry. Then he began to panic. Javier needed all the help he could get to make it past Saint Peter and into heaven. Jesus said every prayer he knew and made up a few new ones. He wanted to ask the priest for help but he didn’t want anyone officially religious to know how much help Javier would need to get into heaven. He also didn’t want the priest to find out he had been trying to talk to Javier. Talking to the dead was definitely a sin. He tried to find answers in the family bible, but kept falling asleep. “Was he nice to dogs?” His friend Cualli asked when Jesus admitted worrying about Javier’s soul. Jesus didn’t understand the question but answered it anyway. “He loved dogs. Street dogs, pet dogs, little dogs, big dogs, all dogs.” “Then a good dog will carry him across the river to heaven but you have to make a tiny dog statue with a saddle on it and throw it into the lake.” Jesus had never heard about little dog statues before, but Cualli seemed so sure. So he asked Mrs. Diaz for some clay. He made the little dog look like Javier’s Chihuahua, Tequila. He had to do the saddle over again though because Cualli said it should look like a basket not a horse’s saddle. Jesus figured his friend had to be right because you couldn’t sit in a regular saddle if you were dead. Jesus wanted to let Javier know what he was up to so he talked to the bunch of little birds that flitted around the pomegranate tree in his back yard. They didn’t seem to listen. They wouldn’t even fly away. He ran at the tree, shouting and waving his arms. The birds flew up to the tele-

phone wire and just sat there, like beads on a string. “Dumb birds,” he muttered. Sitting on an over-turned bucket on the beach, Cualli’s Uncle Juan had the opposite thought about the chirpy birds busily telling each other their dreams. “Clever birds,” he thought. “No wonder they remember their dreams.” The perfect steamy blend of fresh milk, coffee, chocolate, and cane alcohol of today’s pajarete warmed his body and crept into his stiff limbs. The ring of mist that circled the lake on these cold mornings split the surrounding hills in two halves. The bottom half an even black ribbon, the top half a roller coaster of peaks and valleys above which wispy clouds caught the pinks, oranges and purples tossed from the rising sun. Pelicans flew overhead in small groups. Like the night herons, grackles, egrets and other ugly-voiced birds, they had the courtesy to stay quiet in the dawn hours. Juan noticed two figures emerging from the pastel canvas of the Eastern horizon. It wasn’t until they were much closer that he recognized his nephew. He didn’t know the tall mestizo boy who was with him. “What brings you here so early?” Juan asked his nephew, embarrassing him with a loud kiss on the cheek. “Show him Jesus,” Cualli encouraged his friend. Jesus dug the small dog statue from his pocket and showed it to Cualli’s Uncle Juan. Without further discussion, Juan lifted the two boys into his small boat and began to pull up the anchor. The sawing noise of the anchor chain scraping against the side of the boat broke the tranquility of the morning into uneven pieces. The roar of the outboard motor shattered those pieces altogether. Juan piloted the little boat to a precise point in the lake. Not the center of the lake itself but the center of a larger network of holy places. Juan nodded to Jesus. Jesus made a platform of his hand and carefully placed the dog statue in the center. He leaned out of the boat and lowered his hand until it, and the tiny dog, were submerged. He pointed his fingertips to the bottom of the lake and watched the little statue drift down and disappear. On the way back to shore, a waterspout erupted from the very spot where Jesus had offered the lake the little dog. The two boys stared in wide wonder. Juan, of course, had seen this before. “This is the power of love,” Juan explained, as the waterspout slowly rotated eight times then collapsed

upon itself, becoming part of the lake again. The next morning Jesus woke up to the sound of Javier whistling for him. He jumped out of bed and was outside in his back yard with bare feet before he remembered it could not be Javier. He saw the bird seconds later. He couldn’t miss it really. The bird, standing in a beam of light that was practically a spotlight, whistled again. Jesus walked up and sat next to it. It didn’t fly away. It kept whistling. Finally, Jesus whistled back. The bird flew up to Javier’s window next door and rested on the windowsill for a minute

before flying straight into the sky. Angelina watched her son sit motionless on the ground. She walked slowly outside and sat down next to him, putting her arm around his shoulders. Jesus started to cry. “I miss Javier,” he sobbed. “I know, mijo, but he’s in Heaven now.” “Yes,” Jesus agreed with certainty. “Yes, he is!” Daria Hilton

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h e r e once was was a carefree, ree e, haph pha py, bibliophile who ho lived on n the shores of a beautiful tifful lake. She spent many happy hours sit sitting tting on her deck, enjoying the peaceful, eful, tranquil setting while indulging in one of her favorite pastimes â&#x20AC;&#x201C; reading a good book. All that was about to change. One sunny morning, she set out for a visit with her dear friend, Liz, to enjoy some fresh squeezed juice, pastries and good company. She had been looking forward to this visit and was delighted when the appointed date arrived. Her friend greeted her warmly, and they spent the morning enjoying each otherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s company. They talked of many things, and the conversation, as was usually the case, came around to books. The two friends exchanged information about things they had recently read, all the while petting their two dogs, who had become good friends. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Say, I have a great book I am sure you would enjoy,â&#x20AC;? said Liz, jumping up from her chair to retrieve it. She handed it over, saying with a smile, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Would you like to borrow it?â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x153;Of course,â&#x20AC;? said the woman, â&#x20AC;&#x153;and I promise to take good care of it.â&#x20AC;? And that is when the karma gods took notice. The woman drove home, eagerly anticipating sitting down to a good read. She carefully placed the

El Ojo del Lago / February 2017

book table b ok on the lillittle bo ttlee tab tt able beside her recliner, and read several se eral chapters that evening. She took special care not to eat or drink anything while reading the book, and to place it in a secure location when she finished reading for the night. The next morning the woman had promised to drive her husband to a doctorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s appointment. As she was leaving the house, she grabbed the book, thinking she could read a bit more while she waited for her husband to finish with the doctor. She sat in the car, enjoying the book, and sipping coffee from her travel cup. Her husband suggested they stop for groceries on the way home, and they stocked up for the next few days. After parking the car in front of the house, the woman realized there were lots of bags to be brought in, and so she carefully placed the book in her tote bag, along with her empty travel cup. Ah, yes, my friends, you guessed it. The offending travel cup was not quite empty, as was previously thought. After depositing the grocery bags in the kitchen, the woman sat down and opened her tote bag. There, much to her horror, she saw the formerly pristine book splattered with coffee! She rushed to grab a towel, wiped off most of the drops, but noticed with chagrin that some of the pages bore a brown stain and were slightly damp! She was mortified! She dried the book, and dried her tears, trying to think of a way to tell her friend of the mishap. She decided that all she could do was admit she was an atrocious, neverto-be-trusted-again friend, and offer to buy a new book. Oh, and perhaps, rather than confessing, she could write a story about it and maybe, just maybe, her friend would forgive Kathy Koches her.

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The Man In The Red Rubber Nose %\ 6DQG\ 2OVRQ

ome of you out there remember John Fraser and his one-man show at the Lakeside Little Theatre last season, “The Joy of Aging Disgracefully.” He’s back for the winter and we’re delighted he’s here. Here’s how he became who he is now. John’s professional career got off to an early, indirect start at age 17 when he got expelled from high school, because he wasn’t working hard enough, and there was that little matter of beer in his locker. He went to work in a steel mill at night and took some high school exams, enough to “slip under the wire” and get into a teacher training college, because teachers were in demand at the time. Also, his buddy told him that at the school there were five girls to every guy. Ironically, this high school dropout had a high school named after him in 1990, the John Fraser Second-

John n Fraser Fra rase serr

ary School in Mississauga, Ontario. He started first as a teacher and eventually retired from the position of Director of Education in the Ontario, Canada area, where he supervised 170,000 students in a large school district adjacent to Toronto. John found his way down here through the recommendation—as did so many of us—of others. In the early 90’s a number of his staff members traveled to Ajijic and invited him to come too. He asked about the attractions here. Fine weather

El Ojo del Lago / February 2017

was mentioned first, of course. After he heard more about Lake Chapala he said, “You sit around in a great climate in a town beside a polluted lake?” But in 2005 when he was teaching in a duplicate bridge center, a couple came in to play. Both of them had nice tans and had just come back from Ajijic. The wife couldn’t make the next trip and the husband offered John to be a guest the following November and to be his duplicate bridge partner. He did come down here, and found it to be “charming, first class, friendly, safe, the price is right and there are interesting cultural events. It’s small enough to walk everywhere.” That was then and now he’s wintered here for 12 years straight. In addition to being a retired and highly esteemed educator, duplicate bridge enthusiasts will be interested to know John has 2400 master points. He’s a life master at the Silver Level, approaching Gold. We think this sounds impressive. We should also mention how John has reinvented himself several times. After his career in education, in retirement he became a duplicate bridge instructor. He also worked

for the Holland American Lines as a dance instructor on four world cruises. Part of his job was dancing with and charming the single ladies on board. In his work as a Director of Education he had years of experience in speaking before large groups. He confesses to a low threshold for boredom and is attracted to humor as a remedy, so after retirement in 1988 he went one night to an open mike night at the Laff Resort in Toronto to try out his stand-up comedy skills, and that was the start of his comedic career. John is an active member of ACTRA, the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists. He won membership by competing and auditioning and winning roles that are open to professional actors. His face can be seen on billboards and the backs of buses nowadays, as the face and voice of a large personal injury law firm. There’s a brief moment in the film Good Will Hunting when John—a Marine Corps general this time—is sitting side by side with Matt Damon. We’ll have to check it out. One of John’s last performances was a motivational and inspirational talk before a medical conference of 6500 delegates in Montreal in 2014. He discovered that his best audience is people his own age, so he created his act with the title of “Vegetating with Verve.” That worked for a while until an elderly lady with a hearing problem introduced him to an audience as about to give a talk on “Vegetables and Herbs.” He was therefore led to change the title of his act to “The Joy of Aging Disgracefully,” where he introduces his philosophy of “So What If……. My hips need replacing? My chin needs ironing? I fart after every mouthful of food? I’ll get a dog and blame it on him.” In addition to helping seniors come to terms with the pitfalls and potholes of aging, John has written several novels. The latest one is The Reluctant Gigolo: A Work of Fiction. It’s available on Amazon. Lately a couple of screenwriters have visited him here at Lakeside to work up a screenplay that hopefully will turn into a movie. John has done his show to benefit many organizations and we’re hoping to see him again this season. Look for an announcement! Sandy Olson

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, being a smartt guy, (someetimes), decided get d to to g et ssome et ome om e exercise by climbing the mountain, the he m ounttaiin, ou up the path, to the Chapel. Ch p . When Wh hen passing a yard, where a horse was h standing, I got him to come over to me by pretending I had something in my hand for him to eat. When he saw I had nothing in my hand he tried to bite me. I walked away, but stopped in my tracks when I heard a voice say, “El cheapo.” I remember reading a story where it was said that the Mexican horses are some of the smartest in the world. I turned around and asked the horse, “Were you talking to my wife?” He walked away. Mexico is no place for sissies. Everyone knows that. So after passing a few big white crosses, where dead bodies must be buried, I just kept on going. About halfway to the top, all sweated up and gasping for air, I took a break. I sat down in a shady spot, on a stump at the base of a tree. It wasn’t long before the severe pain I felt on my keester made me aware that I sat on a beehive. I took off, running as fast as I could, screaming, from the depths of my body and soul, that I didn’t even know existed within me. It cleaned me out. (I mean emotionally) much better than Yoga or Meditation. Flailing my arms, strangely I was

El Ojo del Lago / February 2017

thinking, tth hiin nkin k in ki ng g, if anyone one is watching on w this this scene, th sc scen ene en e, I am a sure they e think I am a crazy and I am sure they th y are a laughing i att me. I’I’m now worried i d it may have been sort of a girly scream. That kind of bothers me. But when I made it to the top I met a man who was obviously smarter than I. He didn’t have any injuries. When the conversations turned to the crosses I saw on the way up, he informed me that dead people were not buried there, but that they were the Stations of the Cross that the Priest takes the people along on Good Friday. Well, when I showed him the palm of my hands and told him I knew how it felt to be nailed to the cross, he dropped to his knees and made the sign. “You have the Stigmata!” “This isn’t the Stigmata,” I said. “When I fell climbing up here, I grabbed on to a little green cactus to save myself.” Anyway, I got lucky going down the mountain because I slipped and slid on my beehind (sorry) all the way down. I guess the bee stings kind of numbed the caboose. Now it just looks like the sun was shining where the sun doesn’t shine. Anyone want to go for a hike? I’ll have to think about it.

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Dear Sir: I would like to take issue with two items in your last (Jan.) edition. When the founding fathers wrote the documents on which our nation is founded, they did not anticipate extremists carrying bombs into airports. (At least I don’t think they did.) So when they wrote. “Congress shall not abridge the right of free speech” they were not endorsing someone walking into an airport and exercising his/her right of free speech by screaming “BOMB!” So maybe the idea of free speech needs to be modified ever so slightly. If you still maintain your belief in free speech, I assume I will see this article in next month’s issue. And I would ask that you further show your belief by yelling “BOMB!” next time you’re in Guadalajara airport. Or better yet, wait until you’re airborne. As for the article by Bill Frayer, I found most of what he said accurate except perhaps for some of the observations of media coverage. Mr. Trump, make that President-elect Trump, did get a lot of press coverage, but most of it was negative in tone. “Slanted,” I believe you media people used to call it. Perhaps Fox News and social media were the counter balances for mainstream media. One thing Mr. Frayer failed to mention was “Drain the Swamp.” By all estimations, including the Trump camp, all was lost until this last Slogan came out. Neither “Build a Wall”, “Crooked Hillary” or any of the other slogans gave the President-elect the win. “Drain the Swamp” is a reflection of the attitude of most working class deplorables

El Ojo del Lago / February 2017

who are dissatisfied with career politicians who are supposed to be public servants but are instead self servants. Need I point to anything more than Obamacare which the politicians touted as the greatest thing since sliced bread and then immediately exempted themselves from it? And maybe one more thing. The political rookies outsmarted the career politicians. The Trump campaign played by the rules. The ones that say whichever candidate gets the most ELECTORIAL votes wins the election. So the Trump camp gave up California, where all those people were going to leave the country or kill themselves (still waiting) as well as Clinton’s home state of New York and sought to win by getting the most electoral votes like the rules say. So while Hillary won the two most populous states and the popular vote, she lost the electoral vote which the rules say determine the winner. Other than those two things, I thought it was a fine article. Sincerely, Gene Raymer Our Editor Replies: I will wait for Mr. Frayer to defend, if he cares to, his latest column. As for my own, so-called freedom of the press/ free speech does have its limits, many of which were defined by a famous Supreme Court ruling that set an example for such exemptions when it ruled that the right did not include “Yelling (without cause) FIRE in a crowded theater.” May I suggest that mere common sense should guide our exercise of such free speech.

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Sandy Olson

Phone: 331-283-8529 Email: sandyzihua@hotmail.com

THE PASSION PLAY The 16th annual fundraiser in support of the Easter Passion Play in Ajijic will be held in the garden of La Nueva Posada on February 10, from 3 pm to 6 pm. An art auction will feature fine art works by well known local artists. Efren Gonzalez will be the auctioneer. Traditional Mexican food will be prepared and served in the garden by Passion Play actors. There is a cash bar. Entertainment will be presented by the Ballet Folklorico, directed by Carlos Rayo. Music by the Medeles family will add to the enjoyment of the event.

Tickets can be purchased at the Art Gallery Efren Gonzalez, Diane Pearl Colecciones and Hotel La Nueva Posada. The price is 250 pesos. HERE IT IS AGAIN The 39th Chili Cook Off is on February 10, 11 and 12 at Tobolandia Water Park in Ajijic. There are lots of good things to eat and local artists will sell handcrafts, jewelry, sculpture, and clothing. Look for details in the Guadalajara Reporter or check the website: www.mexicannationalchilicookoff.com. AND HERE’S ANOTHER…. The fabulous Northern Lights Festival de Febrero is back! The program this year runs February 12-25. There are far too many events to mention here, so check January and February’s Ojo del Lago notices, also the Guadalajara Reporter. For online information, email northernlights2009@gmail.com OPEN CIRCLE Sunday morning finds many Lakeside residents at the Lake Chapala Society and Open Circle, a forum on a variety of stimulating topics. A social hour with coffee and snacks at 10:00 a.m. is followed by an interesting lecture and discussion at 10:30. February 12 Abraham Lincoln and Mexico Presented by Dr. Michael Hogan This Sunday we celebrate the birthday of Abraham Lincoln with a presentation by historian/educator Michael Hogan from the American School Foundation of Guadalajara. Dr. Hogan will discuss Lincoln’s support for Mexico during his service as US Congressman and as President. Immediately following Open Circle, attendees are invited to meet Dr. Hogan during a book signing event for Abraham Lincoln and Mexico (2016) in the patio of La Nueva Posada in Ajijic. February 19 Opera as You Like It Presented by Ad Líbitum Compañía de Ópera de Guadalajara Returning to Open Circle by popular demand are María de Jesús Cárdenas (soprano); Teresa Banderas (mezzosoprano); José Luís Villarruel (tenor); and Ricardo Lavín (baritone). Dr. Michael Hogan February 26 Tenth Annual Update on

Global Warming Climate Change and Renewable Energy Presented by Don Aitken, PhD This Power Point talk covers the last two years. It looks at the development of the global temperature statistics, the apparent effect on climate change during that period, and the continued growth of renewable energy worldwide, as well as in the U.S. and Mexico. This talk will take place at Club Exotica on the Ajijic Plaza from 10:30 to noon. The Club Exotica is in the NE corner of the Ajijic Plaza inside El Jardin Restaurant. March 5 Update on the Condition of Lake Chapala and Area Village Infrastructure Presented by Todd Stong Dr. Stong will tell us about the level of the lake, its purity, the fish, and the long-term prognosis of the regional water supply. He will review his ongoing projects in the villages of six counties about the lake, and provide a perspective on area government directions. Todd Stong He is a licensed professional engineer and is in th his 15 season of volunteer service to county governments and villages surrounding Lake Chapala, with a focus on water supply, wastewater treatment, and job creation. Please note that Dr. Stong’s talk will adjourn at noon. FOR YOU FILM BUFFS OUT THERE Every Sunday afternoon in January and February, Lakeside residents look forward to the annual Jewish Film Festival sponsored by the Lake Chapala Jewish Congregation. The festival continues in February at the Cinemas del Lago at the Bugambilias Mall in Ajijic. The films begin at 1 pm. February 12 A Stranger Among Us (1992, USA) A murder mystery! In order to solve a brutal murder and jewel heist, a tough, beautiful New York City police detective (Oscar-nominee Melanie Griffith) moves into the home of a Hassidic Jewish family. As she struggles with the case and the clash in cultures, she finds herself falling in love with a rabbinical student. February 19 Bottle in the Gaza Sea (2011, France/Canada/Israel) A bottle thrown in the sea by a 17-year-old French Jewish immigrant in Jerusalem, and retrieved by a 20-year-old Palestinian youth in Gaza, begins an email correspondence that explores the current conflict. February 26 My Mexican Shivah (2007, Mexico) Set in Mexico, this hilarious comedy, with hints of magical realism, intermingles cultures sometimes in the extreme, when family members gather from near and far for the shivah of their Mexican/Jewish patriarch. COOKING CLASS, WINE, POETIC LICENSE… What could be better? CASA has announced that Celebrity Chef Greg Couillard from Toronto, New York, Ajijic and La Manzanilla will present two cooking classes on February 21 and 22, from 1 pm to 5 pm. The cost will be 700 pesos for one class and two glasses of wine. The food will be from the Indian Subcontinent and flavored by “Chef Greg’s Poetic License.” The same class will be repeated on both days. These classes fill up fast. To register contact Monica Molloy at monicamolloy17@gmail. com Directions will be given upon payment in full. You are not confirmed until paid in full. ON THE BUS TO GUADALAJARA Here’s what’s in store musically in the next couple of months, thanks to Viva la Musica. Jalisco Philharmonic at the Degollado Theater Thursday February 9: Shostakovich: piano concerto #1; Liszt: Hungarian Rhapsody; Dvorak: Slavonic Dance No. 2. (Bus departs 4.30 pm*) Sunday February 19: Ballet de Jalisco: The Piper of Hamelin, with flautist Miguel-Ángel Villanueva, this will be a sell-out ($550/650 pesos) (Bus departs 10.30 am) Sunday February 26: Berlioz: Symphonie Fantastique; Sarasate: Gypsy Melodies; Oscher: Trumpet Concerto. (Bus departs 10.30 am) Thursday March 2: Brahms: Symphony No.1; Álvarez: Metal de Tréboles with the Tambuco Percussion Quartet. (Bus departs 4.30 pm*)

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Sunday March 12: Lalo: Spanish Symphony; Márquez: Danzon No. 2; Debussy: Iberia. (Bus departs 10.30 am) Thursday March 16: Dvorak: New World Symphony; Corigliano: Clarinet Concertó with Jeslán Fernández, clarinet. (Bus departs 4.30 pm*) Sunday March 26: Verdi: Nabucco Overture; Saint Saens: Samson & Delilah - Bacanal; Respighi: The Queen of Sheba. (Bus departs 10.30 am) *Thursday trips stop in a fine restaurant area for dinner before the concert. Bus trip tickets are available at the LCS ticket booth on Thursdays and Fridays, 10 am to noon. The cost for members is 450 pesos and 550 for non-members (ballet tickets are slightly more). MURDER, BETRAYAL IN CHICAGO The next show in the Lakeside Little Theatre’s season is Chicago. It’s directed by Barbara Clippinger. The plot: In roaring twenties Chicago, chorine Roxie Hart murders a faithless lover and convinces her hapless husband Amos to take the rap...until he finds out he’s been duped and turns on Roxie. Convicted and sent to death row, Roxie and another “Merry Murderess” Velma Kelly, vie for the spotlight and the headlines, ultimately joining forces. The show dates are February 17-28. The curtain is at 7:30 pm in the evenings, and 3 pm for the Sunday matinee. Make sure you get your tickets early. LLT Box Office hours are 10 am to noon every Wednesday and Thursday plus 10 am to noon every day during the show, except for Sunday. For phone reservations, call 376-766-0954. Messages are okay. Also email at tickets@lakesidelittletheatre. Barbara Clippinger com. FOR BETTER…AND FOR WORSE Clever Little Lies is the next Naked Stage production. It’s directed by Lila Wells About the play: A mother always knows when something is wrong. When Alice notices her beloved husband Bill has returned home on edge after a tennis match with their son, she grows suspicious and springs into action. Alice digs for the truth, resulting in even more honesty than anyone expected. Clever Little Lies is a story of long-term love and marriage… for better… and for worse. The show runs February 24, 25, 26. The new suggested donation is $100 pesos. Naked Stage is in Riberas del Pilar, at Hidalgo #261, on the mountain side and directly from the The Cast: Fred Koesling, Maryanne Gibbard, Jennifer across Catholic Church. Wiesnewski, Harry McFadden For more information and reservations, email nakedstagereservations@gmail.com. For those who use Facebook, look for The Naked Stage for breaking news and updates. FLOWER CHILDREN BLOOM AND GROW… …and that’s what they do at Villa Infantil Orphanage. Support this very worthy cause by attending the annual fundraising luncheon on Saturday, March 4 at the La Huerta Eventos (Tuesday Market), starting at 12:30 pm. The theme this year is “Flower Children – They Bloom and Grow at Villa Infantil.” The children will be singing, dancing and playing the ukulele. There will also be music, a fashion show, raffle, and both a silent and live auction. There are two ticket prices. General admission is 350 pesos. These tickets will be sold at Diane Pearl Colecciones, Mia’s Boutique, and Yoli’s. Benefactors of the Orphanage, at 1500 pesos, will have special tables and a special luncheon with wine and extra treats. There will be a maximum of 20 Benefactor tickets available. For these tickets, contact Connie Ondola at connieondola@yahoo.com or Michele Lococo at mlococo22@gmail.com. AND THERE’S MORE We hear from Jaltepec Centro Educativo… Their annual March Dinner will be held on Thursday, March 16. It starts with a no host bar at 6 pm. Hors d’oeuvres will be prepared and served by the students, and a three course dinner will follow at 7:30 pm. The cost will be 450 pesos per person, with proceeds going to the Jaltepec General Scholarship Fund.

El Ojo del Lago / February 2017

Please email or call Linda Buckthorp at 766-1631 or email buckthorplm@gmail.com WE LOVE THOSE OLDIES Don’t miss this one. Mac Morison’s upcoming annual show, “Simply Standards,” is a tribute to The Great American Songbook, the most important and influential American popular songs and jazz standards from the early 20thcentury. Appearing with Mac this year are two great vocalists Judy Hendrick and Cindy Paul. A special treat will be Alexis Hoff and Christine Moily performing highlights from the musical “Chicago,” on stage at the Lakeside Little Theatre this month. It’s showing on one night only, March 14. The venue is Club Exotica on the Ajijic Plaza. The door opens at 6 pm and the show is at 7 pm. Tickets are only 350 pesos. They go on sale by February 15 and are available at Diane Pearl Colecciones, Mia’s Boutique and Chica’s at the Laguna Centro Mall. Once again this year the show will benefit “Ajijic Cares”, a program that goes into our local schools educating and providing free testing for AIDS, HIV and STDs. WE LOVE RIBS AND SHRINERS, TOO The Lake Chapala Shrine Club is pleased to announce their Eleventh Annual Ribfest. This event will start at 1 pm on Wednesday, March 15, at the beautiful Cumbres Garden event center located above Chula Vista Norte Colonos. Parking is available and shuttle buses will provide transportation to and from Black Coffee at the corner of the carretera and the libramiento. This year’s Ribfest promises to be bigger and better than ever. Adelita’s will cater the ribs and waiters will provide individual table service. The Ajijic Jamm Band will play popular music sets for your dancing and listening pleasure. There will be door prizes and a 50/50 raffle (Save your tickets for extra bonus prizes this year). All funds raised from the 400 peso Ribfest ticket donation will be used by the Lake Chapala Shrine Club exclusively for the transportation and treatment of Lakeside children. Tickets are available from any Shriner, at Diane Pearl Colecciones, O & A Investments or by emailing davidheccles@hotmail.com or calling David at 331-017-1724 or Perry King at 763-5126, pking1931@gmail.com LAKE CHAPALA WRITERS’ CONFERENCE This 12th annual gathering of writers will happen March 1517 at Hotel Danza del Sol in Ajijic. The conference schedule includes an opening reception, workshops, lectures and panels. The conference finishes with a wrap party and raffle drawings on Friday, March 17. The cost is 2000 pesos for early registration by February 28, and 2500 pesos from March 1 through the conference. Registration includes two lunches and beverages during breaks. For more information, contact Victoria Schmidt at victoriaAschmidt@gmail.com. LET’S WALK ON THE WILD SIDE Niños Incapacitados does it again with an inspired theme. The gala will be held on Thursday, March 16 at the Hotel Real de Chapala, from 5 pm to 10:30 Editor and Presenter pm. Sandi Gelles-Cole For inspiration in what to wear to the Walk on the Wild Side Gala, look to https://es.pinterest.com/elcorazonc/. The ticket cost is 550 pesos per person. Contact Sue Williams at 766.0487 or email her at suwillms28@hotmail.com. Ticket payment and pickup information is TBA.

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I JUST WANT TO WAKE UP! %\ .DWK\ .RFKHV

renched in sweat, shaking in fear, eyes wide I shivered in my bed! I cautiously peered around my darkened bedroom and saw an eerie blue glow. Was it another nightmare? I slowly pulled the covers down below my chin and realized that the light was coming from the television on my dresser. I shook my head in disbelief, as I realized that this “nightmare” just might be real. I had been suffering from Dengue Fever, which includes high temperatures and can induce hallucinations. “Surely,” I thought, “this must be the case.” While my husband is a “political junkie” and watches all of the news shows and listens to all of talking heads he can find, I prefer to tune it all out. Somehow my desire to remain informed is at odds with my desire to remain sane. Of course I could not completely insulate myself from the political drama taking place in my birth country, but I was content to live in my own little bubble. I could not help but see some of the rhetoric on Face Book and we did actually watch all three debates. But this was more than enough for me. We cast our absentee ballots and held firm to the belief that the majority of Americans would not fall for the ridiculous promises made by the racist bigot that was the nominee of the Republican Party. It just was not conceivable to me that so many people could be fooled by a con man.

El Ojo del Lago / February 2017

The night of the election I went to bed early, the fatigue phase of the Dengue still holding me in its grip. I awoke periodically, opened one eye and peered at the TV screen, hearing some unsettling results, but then falling back asleep. This happened several times during the night, but each time I thought, “Oh, I must be dreaming.” and did not truly understand what was actually happening. Somehow, my subconscious mind began processing the information I was hearing in my sleep. Suddenly I awoke, terrified. Was this just a nightmare? Could it be real? I hoped and prayed that I was wrong. When the sun finally rose the next morning, I smiled, stretched and swung my feet over the side of the bed. I was about to stand up, when a flicker of light caught my eye. I turned to the TV and there, to my horror, I saw confirmation of my nightmare. “Nooooo,” I screamed – it cannot be true!” Yet there on the screen I saw the election results, and there was no denying it anymore. My worst nightmare had become a reality! The weeks slowly pass, and just when I think it cannot get any worse, it does. As news of the new Cabinet appointments has been released, and I see the people who will decide the fate of our country for the next four years, my heart breaks. My children, grandchildren and great grandchildren are in danger of losing many of the rights that we fought so hard to gain during my lifetime, rights of women, LGBTQ people, rights to clean water, and environmental protection. I am even in fear that the elderly, including me, will suffer cuts or even the loss of their Social Security and Medicare benefits. Prior to this election, I believed that the worst day in the history of the United States was 9/11. Now I believe that 11/9 will replace it as the day our country destroyed itself. I hope and pray that I am wrong, but for now, I just want to wake up from this nightmare! Kathy Koches

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It Took a Village

ne thing that gives me pleasure during the Holiday season is doing something surprising for someone who really needs it. This past Christmas, my mission was to get a twin sized bed for our maid’s son. They live in Tepehua, one of the poorest barrios in Chapala. While working one day, our maid told me that her son had no bed. He is 11 years old, and sleeps on the floor. When I told that to my husband, he said, “Well that’s something we’ve got to fix.” Not being “rico gringos” we started to look for a second-hand bed. We looked in the classified ads, we looked at bazaars, and we couldn’t find one. There were many beds for sale, in King, Queen and Matrimonial, but nothing in a twin. I mentioned my dilemma at a knitting group I participate in, and they mentioned a face book page that I could look at. But for some unknown reason, I have never been able to access that particular page, so one woman in the group, Martha, said she’d check it out, there was a bed listed there, and she would see if it was still available. She sent me an email telling me it was available and she told me how to contact the woman who was selling the bed. I was able to reach this woman, and she was so excited about my plan, that she even reduced the price of the

bed! Bless her! Thank you! But another problem presented itself. I don’t have a truck. And the bed was located in a small village outside of Chapala. I needed to find help. Another problem was that I didn’t know where in Tepehua our maid lives. I confess that I do not drive well in the barrio. The last time I gave someone a ride up there; it took me almost an hour to find my way out. I ended up going the wrong way on a one-way and exiting a long way from where I entered. I’m sure the streets must have names, but I saw very few signs. The roads are not paved, not even cobblestone, or rocks, but more just dirt roads with lots of ruts and deep cavernous holes. I won’t go back in there unless I have an escort out. And I promise not to complain about the street we live on ever again. How the residents can stand it, I will never know. But I digress. I called my friend Jim, and explained my dilemma. Our maid also works for him. He just happens to be much more fluent in Spanish than I am, and knew someone with a truck. All right! Now I had to coordinate directions to the seller, in Spanish. Then the truck owner and his brother picked up our maid and her son came to our house for the directions, and the cash to pay the seller, and the cash for the use of the truck. This was when our maid’s son learned that he was about to get a bed. The look in his eyes and his hug were priceless. The purchase was completed, the bed was delivered, and it only took nine people, a small village, to accomplish this small Christmas gift. We feel fortunate to be surrounded by people who are always willing to help one another; Martha, Tracey, Jim, Victor and his brother and those who wished to remain anonymous. They all helped make our Christmas more meaningful.

Victoria Schmidt

El Ojo del Lago / February 2017

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RAMBLINGS FROM THE RANCH $V WROG WR /LQGD *ROGPDQ

y name is Lester, but until a few months ago I didn’t have a name. I lived on the streets, eating trash, sleeping in doorways, running through town with a few of my dog pals. Then one day two humans took me home with them. They bathed and fed me. They brought me to the doctor where I got my sore paw treated. They bought me a bed to sleep on and toys to play with. Best of all they pet and kissed me constantly, sometimes right between my eyes, such joy. Occasionally I missed my street buddies, but living a lush life was worth the trade-off. Then they left. I had enough food and water for a few days, but when that ran out I had a bad feeling they weren’t coming back. I was abandoned, locked-in, my only recourse was to bark incessantly. After a few

El Ojo del Lago / February 2017

days, my throat raw from barking and my stomach churning with hunger, a neighbor must have called someone because – at last – humans came to my rescue. They took me to The Ranch where I’ve been ever since, waiting for someone to take me home. The Ranch is the next best thing to having a place of my own. I get fed every day and walked a few times a week. When someone chooses to adopt me I hope they plan to keep me forever. Being left alone after knowing what it’s like to have a place I called home was a lot worse than living on the streets. My heart is still broken and it might take a long time to heal. Please do not rescue a dog as a temporary pet. If you’d like to adopt a dog to provide a forever home or donate time or money contact The Ranch.

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72 2 285 ((67((0(' & &2175,% %87256 &XUUHQW DDQG ))XWXUH

Few circumstanccces warrant punce tuation outside of quotation marks. Hence, “All’s well that ell ll”. ends well.” Not “ends well”. tthis his There are exceptions to th ood d rule, but chances are go good ount ou n er that none of us will encounter uple of them more than a couple times in our lifetime! e afaf2. Always use one space on ns, ter commas, periods, colons, sti tio i n ion semi-colons, and question marks. () 3. Never use hyphen marks (-) when the dash (—) is required. Only use the hyphen mark to hyphenate words, e.g., “writer-director.” 4. Never justify right-hand margins. 5. Always use italics for the names of books, plays, movies, magazines, etc., e.g., The De Vinci Code, On the Waterfront, etc. 6. Always use quotes (“ ”) for names of articles, quotations, characters in plays, etc., e.g., A Streetcar Named Desire has two unforgettable characters, “Stanley Kowalski” and “Blanche DuBois.” (Also “” title of photographs.) 7. Always use single quotation marks (‘) only when bound by double quotation marks (“ ”), e.g., Jack said that “A splitting headache was the cause of the ‘unusual’ thing that happened to him that day.” 8. Always spell out the numbers one through ten, and use numerals (11—) thereafter. 9. Always use semi-colons, not commas, to join independent clauses. 10. Do not use CAPS or underlining within the body of an article. If emphasis is needed, use italics. The title of an article or column, however, should be written in CAPITAL LETTERS. The preferred format is, e.g., A TALE OF TWO CITIES By Charles Dickens (Only the title should be in caps.) 11. Proofread material to eliminate unnecessary words. Everyone should read Getting the Words Right by Theodore Cheney—one of the best books ever written on re-writing. 12. Put statements in positive form. Use active, not passive, voice. 13. Use specific examples. 14. Instead of relying on adjec-

El Ojo del Lago / February 2017

ttiiv ives and and adad dtives verb ve rbss, use vivid vivid verbs, accnouns and acerbs tion verbs. 15. Keep exclamation marks (!) to an absolute minimum. 16. Avoid overusing gerunds (words ending in “ing”) whenever possible. 17. Never begin a declaration with “The truth is . . .” or “The facts are . . .” or “frankly.” This implies that all other declarative sentences not commenced in such a way are not to be trusted. It’s also boring. 18. Avoid qualifiers such as rather, very, little, pretty, etc. Their use is the mark of an inexperienced writer. 19. Use the U.S. spelling instead of the British. Hence, favor rather than favour, etc. 20. Only submit material that has been carefully checked for spelling, punctuation and clarity. 21. When submitting material by e-mail, write in the subject line only the title of the article, such as All Quiet on the Western Front, or if it is a regular column, Name of Column– and month. Never use the subject line for a salutation, or something so vague as “New Column” or “New Article.” Always put your name on the material itself. Articles that arrive without the name of the writer are usually discarded. When submitting hard copy, it should be single-spaced, and with the font Times Roman 14. Page numbers should be marked, with the author’s name always on the material. Also make sure each paragraph contains at least five sentences. Single sentence paragraphs take too much space and seem affected, if not downright silly. Strict adherence to such standards will make our job here at the office much easier, as well as help to get your article published. Thanks! AG

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EL GRINGO %\ 5REHUW %UXFH 'U\QDQ

his is a personal anecdote written through the eyes of Juan Mata, a laborer in the mill where I was assistant manager for two and a half years. He accurately describes the painful lessons I experienced in my earliest years as an expatriate in Cumaná, Venezuela. The story also is of the clash of cultures affecting people helpless in an indifferent world—Robert Bruce Drynan EL GRINGO They sent us another gringo. The gringo jefes in Caracas don’t trust the new jefe Guaicaipuro. Maybe they send this gringo to watch him. Not so stupid after all. The other gringo jefes they sent

before Guaicaipuro were hard to understand. Now they send Guaicaipuro as the jefe and he doesn’t talk to us. This gringo is the segundo, but he speaks Spanish. Sometimes he sounds awkward but we understand him. He doesn’t always understand what we say. He acts as if he likes us, but maybe he’s just stupid. We’ll find out soon, he comes early and stays late. He comes into the mill and talks. He went down into the ship and shoveled wheat in the heat and swirling dust. He learns what our work is like. Guaicaipuro acts like a Gran Criollo Venezolano, doesn’t like to go into the mill. It is hot and dirty. He leaves the mill to the gringo and takes the telephone girl to his apartment to please him. He

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won’t come to the Primero de Mayo Fiesta, but the gringo will be there. *** ¿Que Pasa? Domingo and Orlando are fighting! Too much cerveza, no they brought aguardiente. Pendejos! They act like big machos, but they won’t kill. All show, they don’t have the cojones. There goes the gringo! Señor Roberto, don’t be stupid! He is angry. He steps between them, takes the knife from Lando, then makes Mingo give him the scissors. He tells them they are fired, to come into the office in the morning and he will pay them. This gringo has cojones, but he is stupid. He should look away. Mingo and Lando will lose their jobs over a stupid macho show. Ten live in Mingo’s choza on his wages. Lando has a woman and two niños. What will they do? I will explain to this gringo. *** I walk up behind the gringo. He is urinating behind the bushes. I piss also. “Señor Roberto,” I say, “You should not have interfered with Mingo and Lando. No harm would have come of the show.” He looks at me. “You are Juan Mata,” he says. “They say you have killed in a knife fight.” “Two times,” I say. “But Lando and Mingo are pendejos; all colored feathers and no rooster. They would not kill. Sober, they are friends. They have families; women and children depend on them. We are all poor. Now you have fired them.” The gringo looks at me as he closes his trousers, and I continue to relieve myself, “How should I know this,” he asks. “I cannot allow our workers to stab each other at a company sponsored party. You say you have killed men, yet you tell me they won’t do the same.” I look him in the eye, “Yes, I know. They are not like me.” Then I ask, “What will you do?” He looks back into my eyes, but saying nothing for a moment. Then the gringo says, “They have to go, because the others saw me stop the fight. I can’t let the other workers think that I will tolerate fighting among our employees.” The gringo turned to go, then stopped and told me, “Gracias, Juan Mata,” he shook his head, “I will not fire them. I will allow them to quit and pay them full severance. I may be able to assist Orlando to find employment somewhere else. I have seen he is a good worker, but he can’t stay with us. Domingo shirks hard work and leaves it for others to do. I will not recommend him.” This gringo observes. He sees us. He listens. Maybe he is not so stupid. *** Eulalia works in the office. She sweeps and mops the floors, cleans the bathrooms, empties the trash and many small things. She comes at four o‘clock and leaves when they close the office at

six. But for a while the gringo changed her hours, because her work while the office was busy annoyed him. He changed her hours to come in when the office was closed and work until eight. Here it is always dark by eight o’clock at night. I think Eulalia is pretty. She is young and lives in a barrio outside of the city. No bus goes there. She has a long walk to return to the choza where she lives with her children, her mother, her sisters and a cousin. She talks to me sometimes. I have been with her once; during the Carnival Fiesta two years ago. We met at the parade with all the floats, costumes, music and we danced and drank some aguardiente. No one bothered her while she was with me, because it is known that I have killed two men. She came to my casa with me that night. I have a house, but I am alone. Nobody will live with me, maybe because I have killed, maybe because I am ugly. When the gringo changed her working hours Eulalia became pregnant with her third child. She was with many men, but none of her choosing. They would wait for her to return from work and take her, sometimes more than one. This she told me many months later when she was about to have the third baby. She said she was afraid to complain to the gringo, because her family needed the money from her job. I told her to speak to the gringo, because he would listen. I told her how he had listened to me, how he had learned from the fight between Lando and Mingo. He would not allow such things to happen to her if he knew. She was afraid, so I told her I would speak for her. She said no, but she would think about telling the gringo. After she had the baby, she went back to work and asked the gringo to change her hours back to the way they were. She said his face changed when she told him why and she thought he had become very angry with her. He was angry, but not with her, and he was ashamed. He wanted to do something to those men who had attacked her. She said it was too late for that. The police would do nothing. And those who had assaulted her would make it bad for her and her family, if she brought trouble to them. But, she could not afford to have any more children. I think she likes me. I can fight men with knives. Of them I am not afraid, but . . . I would like to ask Eulalia to bring her family and live with me in my casa. I can make her safe there and maybe . . . she won’t see me as Robert Bruce Drynan ugly.

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Refresher Course On Life 2.0 &RXUWHV\ RI 7HUU\ DQG &DUROH %DNHU

—

eep a healthy life, without great physical effort. Do moderate exercise (like walking every day), eat well and get your sleep. It’s easy to become sick, and it gets harder to remain healthy. That is why you need to keep yourself in good shape and be aware of your medical and physical needs. Keep in touch with your doctor, do tests even when you’re feeling well. Stay informed. — Don’t stress over the little things. You’ve already overcome so much in your life. You have good memories and bad ones, but the important thing is the present. Don’t let the past drag you down and don’t let

the future frighten you. Feel good in the now. Small issues will soon be forgotten. — Regardless of age, always keep love alive. Love your partner, love life, love your family, love your neighbour and remember: “A man is not old as long as he has intelligence and affection.” — Be proud, both inside and out. Don’t stop going to your hair salon or barber, do your nails, go to the dermatologist and the dentist, keep your perfumes and creams well stocked. When you are well-maintained on the outside, it seeps in, making you feel proud and strong. — Don’t lose sight of fashion

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trends for your age, but keep your own sense of style. There’s nothing worse than an older person trying to wear the current fashion among youngsters. You’ve developed your own sense of what looks good on you – keep it and be proud of it. It’s part of who you are. — ALWAYS stay up-to-date. Read newspapers, watch the news. Go online and read what people are saying. Make sure you have an active email account and try to use some of those social networks. You’ll be surprised what old friends you’ll meet. Keeping in touch with what is going on and with the people you know is important at any age. — Respect the younger generation and their opinions. They may not have the same ideals as you, but they are the future, and will take the world in their direction. Give advice, not criticism, and try to remind them that yesterday’s wisdom still applies today. — Never use the phrase: “In my time.” Your time is now. As long as you’re alive, you are part of this time. You may have been younger, but you are still you now, having fun and enjoying life. — Some people embrace their golden years, while others become bitter and surly. Life is too short to waste your days on the latter. Spend your time with positive, cheerful people, it’ll rub off on you and your days will seem that much better. Spending your time with bitter people will make you older and harder to be around. — Do not surrender to the temptation of living with your children or grandchildren (if you have a financial choice, that is). Sure, being surrounded by family sounds great, but we all need our privacy. They need theirs and you need yours. If you’ve lost your partner, then find a person to move in with you and help out. Even then, do so only if you feel you really need the help or do not want to live alone. — Don’t abandon your hobbies. If you don’t have any, make new ones. You can travel, hike, cook, read, and dance. You can adopt a cat or a dog, grow a garden, play cards, checkers, chess, dominoes, golf. You can paint, volunteer at an NGO or just collect certain items. Find something you like and spend some real time having fun with it. — Even if you don’t feel like it, try to accept invitations. Baptisms, graduations, birthdays, weddings, conferences. Try to go. Get out of the house, meet people you haven’t seen in a while, experience something new (or something old). But don’t get upset

when you’re not invited. Some events are limited by resources, and not everyone can be hosted. The important thing is to leave the house from time to time. Go to museums, go walk through a field. Get out there. — Be a conversationalist. Talk less and listen more. Some people go on and on about the past, not caring if their listeners are really interested. That’s a great way of reducing their desire to speak with you. Listen first and answer questions, but don’t go off into long stories unless asked to. Speak in courteous tones and try not to complain or criticize too much unless you really need to. Try to accept situations as they are. Everyone is going through the same things, and people have a low tolerance for hearing complaints. — Pain and discomfort go hand in hand with getting older. Try not to dwell on them but accept them as a part of the cycle of life we’re all going through. Try to minimize them in your mind. They are not who you are, they are something that life added to you. If they become your entire focus, you lose sight of the person you used to be. — If you’ve been offended by someone – forgive them. If you’ve offended someone — apologize. Don’t drag around resentment with you. It only serves to make you sad and bitter. It doesn’t matter who was right. Someone once said: “Holding a grudge is like taking poison and expecting the other person to die.” Don’t take that poison. Forgive, forget and move on with your life. — Don’t waste your time trying to convince others. They will make their own choices no matter what you tell them, and it will only bring you frustration. Live your faith and set an example. Live true to your beliefs and let that memory sway them. — Laugh. Laugh A LOT. Laugh at everything. Remember, you are one of the lucky ones. You managed to have a life, a long one. Many never get to this age, never get to experience a full life. But you did. So what’s not to laugh about? Find the humour in your situation. — Take no notice of what others say about you and even less notice of what they might be thinking. They’ll do it anyway, and you should have pride in yourself and what you’ve achieved. Let them talk and don’t worry. They have no idea about your history, your memories and the life you’ve lived so far. There’s still much to be written, so get busy writing and don’t waste time thinking about what others might think. Now is the time to be at rest, at peace and as happy as you can be!

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The Calling %\ 0DUFXV 8VKHUZRRG I walk slowly forward, softly breathing the frosty morning air. The wall hangs over me like a wave about to crash. The sunlight catches the crystal flecks in the brickwork. Their reflexive light is growing, calling. I reach out to touch the surface and my hand passes through the wall. I pull it back, breath quickening in alarm and confusion. I stare at the starry crystalline light again and the calling is stronger. I steal myself, resolve, focus and move smoothly through the wall. ______ An instant of darkness; then verdant lush foliage, warm dappled sunlight, flowing singing water and . . . moans of anguish. I turn to see the shackled shaggy beast lost in struggle to free itself. I call gently and with thankful recognition the shackles are offered up. One touch and the fetters fall free. Love and possibility lift my heart. We hug and I close my eyes breathing deeply. . . The air is fresh again. I open my eyes to the bright city sounds. My day is calling.

New Neighbors The new neighbors out back, quiet and peaceful, have two kids. From my window I spy on them as they roam the yard, unused. A castor jungle competes with starry flowering lantana, honey to the butterflies, and the dumping ground of trash. They pick around and munch on this and that. Then someone climbed the great tree that blocked the looming distant mountain range. He lopped off its huge limbs, until a flesh-less skeleton remained to mar the view. Piles of firewood lay stacked, the smaller stuff, a tangled mess, left strewn as though a hurricane blew through. I watched the scrambling kids with dainty hoofs climb heaps of sticks and then on cue, at heel to parents, followed to explore a never finished roofless room, brick walls and not much more. Today I saw a tarp, a make-shift roof, thrown atop those walls and peeking through a gap, no longer free, my neighbor stared at me with doleful eyes beneath sharp horns a brown billy goat imprisoned in that brick shack, with tawny nanny goat and their albino kids, shut in. I have heart ache for them.

Â˛%\ *DEULHOOH %ODLUÂ˛ 60

El Ojo del Lago / February 2017

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FRONT ROW CENTER %\ 0LFKDHO :DUUHQ Death and The Maiden %\ $ULHO 'RUIPDQ 'LUHFWHG E\ /% +DPLOWRQ

hilean playwright Ariel Dorfman wrote this play in 1990, shortly after Chile’s return to democracy after the brutal rule of General Augusto Pinochet. As President, Pinochet was in effect a dictator and during his rule it is estimated that about 3,000 people were murdered with up to 80,000 forcibly interned and as many as 30,000 tortured. In this intense and thought-provoking play, Dorfman explores questions of justice and forgiveness in the aftermath of such a national trauma. The time is the present in an unnamed South American country, and it is fifteen years after the overthrow of a fascist regime. “Paulina” was tortured and repeatedly raped by agents of the regime, and is now living quietly in a beach house with her husband “Gerardo” who is a human rights lawyer. She is still recovering from her terrible experiences, and feels betrayed by society and even by her own husband who urges her to “move on.” How can anyone possibly move on without satisfactory revenge or acknowledgment of her suffering? The new government has set up a Commission (of which Gerardo is a member) but it is only authorized to investigate extreme cases resulting in death. Onto this troubled stage comes “Doctor Roberto Miranda,” a stranger who has assisted Gerardo with a flat tire problem, and given him a ride home. Instantly Paulina recognizes his voice as that of the sadistic doctor who played Schubert’s “Death and The Maiden” string quartet while she was being raped and tortured. She traps Roberto and ties him to a chair. The play is concerned with their confrontation, and eventually she insists that Gerardo conduct Roberto’s defense in a mock trial. She has a gun and may shoot the doctor, but what she needs is his confession and remorse so that she can forgive him. The author does not give us a neat happy ending, and we are left un-

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certain as to whether Roberto is innocent or guilty or a victim of Paulina’s paranoia. The actors give us the required pace and intensity, so that the play grips us in a stranglehold of fear and doubt. Jacinta Stringer plays the traumatized Paulina with considerable skill – her hatred and conflicting need for resolution are poles that she swings between throughout the play. Russell Mack interprets the role of Gerardo as peacemaker and the voice of reason. I felt that he lacked empathy with his wife, and just wanted the whole problem to go away so that he could get on with his career. There was a lack of real love for Paulina, but maybe that was the author’s intention. Paul Kloegman (as Doctor Miranda) spends much of the play bound and gagged, so it’s difficult to comment on his acting. He certainly came across well with fear and anger during the mock trial scene. My only quibble is with the ending, with a video of various genocides and atrocities pointing the moral in a heavy-handed way. Not the ending that Dorfman wrote. Overall, a remarkable performance of a remarkable play. I congratulate LLT on having the courage to put on such an intense and risky piece of writing. Well done by all concerned, both back- and onstage. Carolyn Cothran was Stage Manager, Bruce Linnen was her Assistant, and Fotini LaGuardia was Production Assistant. And now for something completely different! “Chicago” the musical opens on February 17 and runs through February 28. Michael Warren

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COLUMNIST

PROFILING TEPEHUA %\ 0RRQ\HHQ .LQJ 3UHVLGHQW RI WKH %RDUG IRU 7HSHKXD

PRRQLH #\DKRR FRP

Women and Recovery

“

ntensified patrol on both sides of the Mexican/USA border make it harder for cartels to get their drugs over, so more narcotics are left on the streets of Mexico, for local consumers.” stated Marcela Lopez Cabrera, Director of Monte Fenix Clinic in Mexico City, where they train drug counselors, most of whom are recovering abusers. Drug addiction in Mexico has quadrupled since 2000, and in 2008 plans were drawn up for 300 more facilities in and around Mexico City to handle the increase. There has been little progress on that. Although most cities have centers,

including Guadalajara, only a few cater to women. Women who abuse sink into a hell of their own making, hard self abuse in prostitution, they resort to everything to feed their habit...leaving their children on the mean streets of the barrios. This writer visited the CRREAD Institute for men in Santa Cruz, Chapala, (Center of Recovery, Recuperation for Alcoholism and Drug Addiction), programs

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are aimed at raising the self esteem, and using the Twelve Steps. It is not “hard time”, they are each other’s support and house approx 100 men. They raise money by asking for funds, and working for food. Sorianos supplies them with produce that will not sell in return for the men cleaning their store rooms. CRREAD’s Director, Gabriel Roman Saldana, himself a recovering addict, who has been clean for eleven years, intends to build a Center in Santa Cruz for women; he recognizes the ever growing need, as more barrio women turn to drugs and alcohol to deaden the misery of poverty, though drug abuse has no socio-economic boundary, two thirds of the women behind local prison bars are generally there for non-violent drug offenses, when they should be in drug rehabilitation where they can get family visits and encouragement, instead of harsh punishment in jail, where they get the same abuse. Director Gabriel’s secretary, Josue Castillo Angeles, who speaks perfect English, also once an addict, came back to the Center to give the support that once saved his life. That second chance everyone deserves. A Center CRREAD for Women, can be built slowly...adding more wings as the need arises. The men of the CRREAD rehabilitation Center will supply the labor and the maintenance

of the women’s center, the Institutes ran separately under the umbrella of CRREAD. There are 25 CRREAD institutes scattered around Mexico but very few catering to women’s needs. Many of the barrio women are addicted, some introduced to drugs by their husband. If they try to get help they have their children to worry about, they go deeper into dependency so they can function for their children. A center can be set up like a spousal abuse safehouse...a place they can bring children and pets. Addiction has many stages, some manage to pair their addiction to a regular life, until that gradually starts to change. Women, in general, when they pass that stage, end up on the streets. Drugs of choice usually marijuana, cocaine, heroin, and alcohol. Until in 1994 crystal meth came into the picture, and since 2000, 75 percent of CRREAD inmates were there because of Crystal Meth. It is cheap and easy to get. The San Diego Reader states ”Rehab Centers in Mexico are in a state of Limbo. While not jails they do keep people in confinement. They are not mental hospitals but they administer drugs. They are not home, but they have home rules and people feel they belong to a large dysfunctional family.” A gentleman called Julio, addicted since he was 19, has been ‘clean’ for many years...but keeps coming back to CRREAD for support and to give encouragement to the other men, who all live in a flurry of activity, everyone has a job to do. They could use another “holding tank” (the place they dry out in when they first arrive)...the young men have to go in with older men...this is not good, (The cost for an additional wing would be approx. 5,000 USD.) but other than that the institute is very impressive. Here at Lakeside we have many AA meetings....support groups. I am asking you to visit CRREAD with me, and help fund raising to start the women’s facility. Why are we leaving women behind? Women are the hub of family, the nurturers and mothers of the next generation; they carry the burden of the whole family group. The Tepehua Community Center is going to reach out and extend community help to this project. All of us know how addiction can touch a life, maybe it has touched your life. We can do this. We have the land, we have the labor. All we need are bricks and mortar, the advice of a contractor on size and cost...and the love. This facility can also provide education and trade training, box gardening.... endless opportunities for a better life. Change the life of one woman, and you change the life of the entire family. And the many that will enter the door to recovery. Contact Moonie if you can help.

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CLEANING HOUSE AND REMINISCING %\ %HYHUO\ 'HQWRQ

In Honor of Letters Written on Paper

know many people who, when moving to a new country in retirement, have garage sales, toss papers into the trash, and plead with family members to please take their valuable vases, china, stemware, and antique chairs. We strip down to the bare essentials to move cheaply and efficiently, taking what fits into an SUV. However, I did just a part of this ridding myself of my collection of memorabilia. One box of memories I decided to keep was a box of letters, mostly written to my mother about my life and travels while in the US Foreign Service, and also some love let-

ters from long ago almost forgotten beaus. What fun to read these detailed stories of travels to Egypt, Greece, Aqaba, Jordan, Kinshasa, the Congo, and the Dominican Republic during an attempted coup d’état where I partied with war correspondents and TV journalists. What really touched me, however, was a love letter from an English teacher lover. As I reread the typewritten letter on that thin, seethrough paper we all used 50 years ago for Air Mail – weight mattered, you may remember. In these days of e-mail, snap chat, twitter and texting, how long do you keep any significant message? Weeks, months,

El Ojo del Lago / February 2017

days, hours??? Unless, of course, you are the Secretary of State. I fear our youth are going to miss out on this joy of rereading a love letter when they are 60, 70 or 80 and look back on their life of pain, sorrow, and happiness and joy. How sad it would be to forego memories of past romances that can bring smiles, laughter, wonderment and tears. Here is my favorite letter: “My darling strumpet, Let me shout with glee – and break in a new ribbon – by answering your letter, which I just got, incidentally. For one ghastly moment (or two or so) I feared that an uncertain acquaintance with English orthography made you hesitate to commit yourself to paper. Actually, you’re a much better speller than I. Not a virtue, maybe, but it does give us snobs something to be smug about. (You see, you don’t even need the skill; you can be smug about your remarkably beautiful legs; your smooth, fair, soft body.) You are not only beautiful, intelligent, and affectionate, but you are a woman of damn good sense. I promise not to analyze a damn single event, statement, relationship, or idea when you get here. I will concentrate on making certain that

you have a fine time, see old friends and (to be slightly indelicate) memorize a ceiling……I fear that your old senile Montague is a miserable romantic; whereas you exhibit a delicately perceptive sense not often found in broads. This morning I was so happy to receive your letter – at last – that I simply tore the envelope away and tossed it into the wastebasket. (Your letter, I am memorizing, of course.) I love you. I love you. May I examine just two sentences in your letter? No more, and I’ll give up the couch treatment of your every statement (No wonder you are often so silent.) Page 1: “I do love you, really.” Page 2: “… but I feel that I just don’t want to have to think of such things until I am more sure of my feelings toward you.” You can see how I, essentially a simple boy, can be confused by your statements. Or have I read too many freshman compositions? Ah, well, my darling, I love you. (You know, until I got your letter, I never realized how distressing was my habit of taking apart your every sentence. I am a slob.) I have so much to tell you, but I need you to help round out the conversation. Unfortunately, I don’t think well on paper. I can’t type worth a damn, and my thoughts seem to race ahead of my pudgy fingers. Now that you’ve relented and written to me (I love you, but I know that you can – and might have – forgotten me as soon as you lost the displeasure of my company… at least, it did seem like displeasure when I left…your letter did much to reassure me) mayhap I will write to you again in the next few days. At any rate, write to me soon and often. Love, George“ Praise be to “snail mail” and days of yore gone by!

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SKROMSOST* %\ 1RUDK 9DOHQWLQH 6NURPQRVW 7KH &]HFK ZRUG HYHQ VRXQGV OLNH ZKDW LW LV 0RGHVW\

hen I saw Plíšková on the screen that was the word that came. My heart gave a little jump of recognition. Diaphanous layers of memory, one after the other, curled upward like smoke from a cigarette. I stopped brushing my teeth for a second and really gave the computer my attention. A dribble of toothpaste slid down my chin. It was Serena Williams who’d stepped out onto the court first. These were the semi-finals of the US Open tennis on a September evening heavy with humidity. Her powerful frame was poured into a sort of Darth Vader outfit, very black with flashes of pink in the pleats as she moved. She preened

before each segment of the crowd. On her extraordinary contoured arms were separate sleeves of more black. What an impression she made, this totem of power, sensual, shards of defiance in her eyes and something like the keenness of a predator. I’m in America, I sighed. The display of power and presence not to be argued with, the touch of menace. I should like this. We worked hard for what I’m seeing, I said to myself, but it depressed me slightly. The old-fashioned thought that came was, the girls are just like the boys now. I didn’t know she would have a Czech opponent until I saw the long, lanky frame, the familiar sloped nose

El Ojo del Lago / February 2017

and light hair. She smiled a half smile and there was that little jump in the center of my chest. She was pretty yes, but it wasn’t that. She didn’t quite lift her eyes to the spectators. That’s what had struck me when I first came to Prague. The shyness. Every single person I met when I arrived was shy. There was no attempt to get over it. It was more like a veiled genuineness that seemed to be allowed to take its time. There was modesty in it and I had forgotten about modesty in a social milieu. I formed my mouth around the word I had learned, skromnost. You could say it differently, you could say it was just fear. People were emerging unsteadily from the darkness - 40 years of totalitarian rule, as if blinking from a cinema into the bright street. There had been good reason not to draw attention to oneself under the old regime since a single misstep could mean that the authorities might deny your daughter entrance to secondary school. The revolution, as it was called, came into its moment and seemed to make all things possible. Suddenly the world was big and beckoning. In the face of its brightness many at first drew back into modesty. How do we do this, was the question that hovered on the lips of a bemused citizenry. People will tell you that Czechs see themselves as inferior. Maybe so, but you will see around you an appreciation of the small, a delicacy of feeling. Say, a small glass of violets on the table. When I went to the shop, my 100 grams of potato salad was wrapped up in the kind of paper we used to paint on as children, folded expertly, and tied with string. I watched rapt as this ritual was performed for the person behind me, and the one behind her. When I got home I undid the string rather carefully because now it seemed to matter. On the train there was a crowd of university students, the smell of wood smoke wafting from them as they con-

gregated in their seats after a weekend of walking in the countryside. Their clothes were faded, comfortable. They pulled guitars out of the overhead rack and played. A few unpacked cheese, brown bread, and oranges they’d brought from home as the yellow hills slid by. They were savoring the last hours of their trip as the sun fell alongside us. Their voices didn’t really carry. I could drift off to sleep with their quiet laughter and harmonies, while like me, the border collie dozed, with his head resting on his owner’s shoe. These were the things, the little things that settled into the shape of modesty day to day. My heart quietly thrilled to them. The morning recycling man wheeled a trolley of neatly stacked cardboard from the shops over the light-covered cobblestones in no particular hurry. He exchanged a greeting with two bushy-haired old men in white caps on their knees gently taptap-tapping loose stones back into the street. The crowds were not out yet. The air was still cool. You see I was an American but hadn’t fully known it. A hulking figure in this new landscape of humility. Like my early compatriots in Prague, my purpose had a way of thrusting itself into the atmosphere, forthrightly curious, so ready for the telling of histories that would prefer to stay muted. I’d never spared a thought for the possibility of heavy tanks arriving in my neighborhood or even once considered that my friend might be talking to the secret police about me. My eyes lifted to broad horizons and clear skies. My handshake was firm, my demeanor was warm. I looked directly, hungrily even, into the eyes I met until their gaze shifted lightly away. The humble, the shy, the oblique, the sometimes frightened. Ordinariness… unvarnished, unpretentious. There were no advertisements anywhere. I looked at a flat one day. Its graceful lines had been altered by makeshift rebuilding with materials that

had been scavenged in leaner days. I thought: no. I peered doubtfully into a small parlor where there was a wooden desk on a deeply faded Persian carpet. The view was to a baroque church. The other three walls were lined with bookshelves, holding titles in Czech, maybe Slovak, Russian, French, German, and English. But what was most striking: they were all dog-eared copies that had rested in so many different palms over time. Placed furtively into small leather satchels and Škoda glove compartments. The look of this library told me they’d been passed discreetly from friend to friend, brother to cousin, priest to musician, butcher to street cleaner, and back inexorably to this flat. The owner had queued for hours on a chilled morning for one or two of these precious books. Sometimes they would be gone by the time he reached the head of the line, or sometimes he would be lucky. Then imperceptibly the books would move through the network of the hungry and passionate to return in the end, barely held together, to these bookshelves. What risk and generosity to share books that had been more or less banned. I counted the chilly mornings, the hours he must have spent in line to have collected so many and thought ruefully of the shiny covers

stacked by my bed, books partly read. I drew breath and dropped into a chair. ***** I came back to my big country many years later and remembered. I searched for modesty and was a little sad. Plíšková, whose first name turned out to be Karolina, won the semifinal that humid night in September at the US Open. She was shining, having held her nerve and as surprised by it as were the commentators. A finger of sun spread languidly across the violets in a glass on the table. It will change now for Plíšková. Her English will become more certain. She’ll look straight at the crowd now in a little dress, made by somebody important, that shows off her genotype. Nevertheless. A moment. Skromnost. (Ed. Note: Ms. Valentine is a psychotherapist. She has re-patriated from 20 years in Prague, working with internationals, artists and activists. Experience with post-Communist transition has led to convening groups in the US on “Restoring Our Democracy, Restoring Ourselves” and “Tribulations & Creativity of Expatriate Life in Provocative Times.”)

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From The Outside Looking In Looking Out From The Inside %\ *DU\ )LVK

A spouse, partner or child is lost to death, The one left behind tries to understand. Time “they” say will heal, Get back to work, Go out and find a companion. Advice, advice, Concern, concern. Who are “they”? “They” are friends. “They” mean well. “They” are the ones, From the outside looking in, “We” are the ones Looking out from the inside. Like a child in the womb, “We” are growing, “We” are finding ourselves again.

Until your death, “We” were one of “them”. Full of good intentions, Yet so ignorant. Ignorant because we have never tried to understand. Understand what death is, What death does to the one left behind? We don’t talk about death, We are afraid to ask the simple question. How are you really feeling? We tend to believe we know What the ones left behind are feeling. We believe we know what is best for them. But the one who is alone, Knows that to feel the way we feel, “They” will have to experience it themselves. Experience the death of a spouse, partner or child. It is then “they” will truly understand That from the outside looking in, Is nothing like those who are Looking out from the inside. It is then “they” will understand, That we can learn from a death If only we are willing to try. Just look, listen and observe. As the ones looking out from the inside Can tell us so much. Let “us” grieve “our” way, Not the way you think we should. Grieving. “We” will get through it, Accept it on “our” terms. We grieve longer than you realize, I think we actually grieve forever. That’s okay. It’s easier for us to put on a facade. We too maybe take the easy way out, As we don’t want you to worry. Now who is the more compassionate? The ones looking in from the outside, Or the ones looking out from the inside. What came first? The chicken or the egg. It doesn’t matter. Who the hell is right? Just give us space, Don’t try to think for us. Just be there if needed.

MID-MONTH BONUS! Sandy Olson, the Editor of our popular column, Lakeside Living, here weighs in with Grandma’s Bedroom, a beautiful piece of nostalgia which remembers another era when things were simpler, and some might argue more beautiful, as well. The article can be found at http://chapala.com/elojo/index.php/ mid-month-articles Each mid-month, we offer superb articles that while a bit too long for our print version are perfect for our digital format. Check it out!

El Ojo del Lago / February 2017

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Focus on Art – The Art of Social Comment %\ 5RE 0RKU

“

dream my painting and I paint my dream.”—Vincent van Gogh Lakeside artist Isidro Xilonzóchitl brings hidden visions, liberated dreams, and myths rooted in human spirituality,

sensual understandings that engender social insight, and open doors into unexpected worlds. “Every day I walk through this fragile world, something significant and unexpected jumps out and surprises me.” Isidro art is telling us something we should not miss. He awakens both the oppressor and the oppressed with subtle, nuanced images and insights intended to change minds and modify actions. He takes a second look, moves under the surface --- sees the hidden forces that shape our lives here at Lakeside. (see - Focus on Art, Feb. 2011) His painting, Malaba, (photo 1) expresses frustration and anger fed by desperation felt as we struggle with

the dilemma artists face. Isidro riding a lake-side bird across the canvas creates drama. This is theatrical space. The pastores (Lakeside residents) unaware of their role in the drama are actors and audience, wise mentors observing the object of their council. This embedded interaction, creates significant tension between Isidro’s desire for approval, and his understanding that his life, his art, are beyond their reach. Isidro’s analytical understanding of social realities is similar to Ryan Mosley’s (1980 -) color filled paintings of emerging cultural changes, and paintings by Richard Prince (1949 -) which elucidate the discrepancies, political realities and social brokenness that expose violent

violent forces and realities that impede, and destroy opportunity, hope, and progressive understanding of life. Isidro’s mature voice, and his aesthetic vision, form the tough fabric of civil revolution that points to a more open future. Art becomes a way to understand and change the world. Isidro’s focus on primacy of colors, with their spiritual and expressive dimensions, is evident in all of his paintings. Each work speaks in an intuitive, honest, and expressive language that lingers in the memory of the viewer. His use of color is explosive. Some colors pull the viewer inside, while others push forward with luminous power. His unique logic, and way of being, encourages local artists, raises critical questions, and suggest innovative directions. His paintings jolt the viewer’s senses, and awaken a vibrant aesthetic consciousness. These visual nudges compel fellow artists, and patrons, to analyze the roles they play in the community. Art history is embellished with similar social critiques --- note examples by Goya, Picasso, and Warhol. Isidro’s painting, Los Pastores, offers keen social comment on his artistic life at Lakeside—an inside glimpse at

truths within North American society. (*See link below.) “I have no desire to paint variation of works that imitate the style of earlier periods or of works done by my contemporaries.” The integrity of Isidro’s vision and voice as an artist is his greatest strength. A core weakness in art worldwide is the large number of otherwise competent artists who embrace understandings from earlier periods, and fail to push their works through the barriers of history into new frontiers only crossed by honest creative effort. Isidro’s refusal to emulate, joined with keen social awareness, and openness to experimentation, enable him to creatively test the limits of socially transformative art. *February exhibitions of Isidro works Constitucion #16, Ajijic & Cultural Center, Ajijic. Rob Mohr

to life through the use of luminous color and dynamic forms that force an opening in the veil that hides humanity’s secrets. This hunger to see beneath the surface of life is catalytic. His secondsight flows into images that awaken

El Ojo del Lago / February 2017

* < h t t p s : / / g e t . g o o g l e. c o m / a l b u marchive/111258927866130698336/album/AF1QipPwYJ-O0BTW0sjZZdafFDQZ5F xHJNdAniqaRec2?source=pwa>

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The Ojo Crossword

ACROSS 1 People from Switzerland 6 Cram 9 Part of doorway 13__ cum laude 14 Self-esteem 15 Roll of tabacco 16 Rankle $ႈUPDWLYH JHVWXUH 18 Z 19 Store 20 Turkish Sea 22 pose 23 That woman 24 Compass point 25 Caps 27 Demonstrations 29 Ironic writer 33 Billion years 34 Central nervous system 2ႇ %URDGZD\ DZDUG 36 Desires 39 August (abbr.) 40 Former capital of Malawi 41 Tyrant 42 Arbiter 43 Movie star Taylor 44 Material girl 46 Inactive 49 Lager 50 December 51 Chop down 53 Abridged (abbr.)

El Ojo del Lago / February 2017

56 Capital of Massachusetts 58 Wild pig 59 Promotion 61 Charged particle 62 South American plain 63 Hold Fast 64 North northeast 65 Superior (Rel.) 66 Regretted 67 “To the right!” 68 Quoth DOWN 1 Destroy 2 Wished for 3 Fail to notice 4 Coke 5 Allege 6 Check out books again 7 Eager 8 Representing 9 Mountain Man Bridger 10 Gets older 11 Christ´s gift bringer 12 Rascal 15 Condominium 20 Association (abbr.) 21 Ventilates 24 Courts 26 Nap 28 Rapid Transits 30 Large computer co. 31 Bro. or sis. 32 British drink 34 8 oz. 36 Long-term memory 37 America 38 Melancholy 39 Gathering 40 Bluish white metal 42 Unclip 43 Legal claim to property 45 Knobby 47 Parallelograms 48 Hot water holder 50 Receiver of a gift 52 Anger 53 Reduce 54 Type of dressing 55 Canon 57 Firm up muscles 58 Baby´s “ball” 60 Radiation dose 62 Old-fashioned Dads

To My Sons My Three Valentines Written long ago and now shared with you. I would make of you Strong fiber So that when life Tests you As surely it will You will hold fast To the truths that Are within you The truths that Make you what You are Different from All others Because of priorities You have set For your lives And your souls Flexibility in the Fabric Of that which Makes you unique So that unique Though you be You can cope In a world of Change And Accept the Similarities and differences Of those around you With joy in the contrasts This world provides And ease in its Duplications With confidence That what you are Is right for you Though it may not Be right for others So that you can Live fully In the many Patterns which Life offers And still be well enough aware Of who you are and What you stand for That your fiber will endure And remain a thing of beauty In the years That are to come. —By Christy Wiseman—

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Over 60 years of “People Helping People”

The

Lൺ඄ൾ Cඁൺඉൺඅൺ Sඈർංൾඍඒ

News

www.lakechapalasociety.com

2017 Annual Giving Appeal The 2016 annual giving drive netted only 50% of our fiscal goal. Please consider the following: Some 74 years ago, Neill James literally fell into the helpful, healing arms of the Ajijic population. An unbreakable bond was formed as caring Mexican hands fed, bathed and nursed her back to health. Neill James expressed her love and gratitude to the community by giving back simple things. She never left Ajijic. She shared knowledge and skills she’d garnered through her travels, experiences and education with the local community. Her efforts set many individuals on paths to success that otherwise may not have existed. Over the years, other expats from around the world arrived to live Lakeside, 62 years ago they formed LCS to be sensitive to their needs, to understand, adapt to and become acclimated to life in Mexico. LCS is a place of respite where one can meet and learn from other expats while communicating in a common language. Most important perhaps is that LCS is an umbrella under which open-minded members learn, appreciate and benefit from their individual differences. You see, once we crossed that border, we became one. Each of us is now a member of a unique community within this welcoming foreign country. *** The current global economy is having a significant negative impact on costs to improve and maintain LCS, including such basic services as electricity, water, telephone and Internet, basic supplies, taxes which are increasing, and salaries plus related costs for the small number of staff we employ. Speaking of employees, while we manage to provide most services through volunteer power, there are skills, talent and time required that cannot come from volunteers. A close look at employee salaries will reveal that LCS reaps great value for what it receives. The truth is, we need and want to hire additional professional staff to improve the quality of our programs and services. LCS membership dues cover day-to-day operation and maintenance costs. We strive to keep membership dues as low as possible. Current membership dues are quite low when looked at against current exchange rates. In terms of value received, LCS membership is a huge bargain. Since most expat members receive incomes from other currencies that are significantly more valuable than the today’s peso, we are optimistic that our community can add a small contribution to their annual list of “to do’s.” *** Though registered as a non-profit organization in Mexico, we do not have charitable tax status. Though not recognized as such by Mexico, LCS does see itself as a charity organization. We are limited in terms of what we can do to raise money. Non-profits north of the border employ multiple strate-

El Ojo del Lago / February 2017

)HEUXDU\

gies to gain revenue beyond annual membership dues. The government is a key source. LCS does not receive funds from Mexican taxpayers. Granting agencies and private foundations are another. LCS, as it is today, is not eligible for these monies. Proudly, we are self-supporting, though we are mainly dependent on our members we know our service transcends to the entire community. *** Once each of us crossed the border to live in Mexico, we joined a community of “one” within this foreign country. We’re different people from different cultures, different beliefs, different needs and abilities for adapting to life here with varying wealth and expectations. The Lake Chapala Society responds to every one with the best services and information we can provide. Therefore, in an attempt to offset our increase in operations costs, we are launching our first 2017 Annual Giving push. We are asking members and non-members alike to make a donation to LCS to help us cover our basic costs. An additional donation as small as 200 pesos can make a big difference. In US dollars that $200 peso donation is a mere $9.37 or $8.71 Canadian at current exchange rates. So please take a moment to consider all that LCS offers not only our members but gives back to the expat and Mexican community that affords us a comfortable lifestyle whether full time or a snowbird. There is no organization like the Lake Chapala Society anywhere in the world with a sizable English-speaking expat population. The broad array of programs and services offered to its members, non-members and native community continues as the manifestation of all what the founders, and perhaps Neill James, believed in; that we give back in kind that which we receive in the spirit of humanity. Your generosity will be deeply and sincerely appreciated. You can donate on-line or ask for the annual giving envelope in the office.

PEP One Week Courses Begin Feb. 27

Thursday Film Aficionados

Dr. Daniel Grippo’s highly acclaimed “Memorable Moments in Mexican History, A Sweeping Overview of Mexico’s Dramatic Story”, has space for one more participant Daily 1:30 to 3 p.m. “A Century of Law and (Dis)Order, Mexico’s Constitution Turns 100,” has room for 6 more participants. Daily 12 to 1 p.m. - Members can enroll online or in the service office.

Open to LCS members only. Bring your card. All films shown in the Sala from 2-4 p.m. No food. No pets.

Bus Trips February Please note: the increase in cost for the LCS bus trips reflect the steep rise in the price of gasoline in Mexico . Thursday, February 2 Guadalajara Zoo This excursion to the acclaimed Guadalajara Zoo includes bus transportation, a train ride, a safari park and an aquatic show. The cable car ride is extra. Although food and drink will be available for purchase at the zoo, we suggest you bring your own bottled water and a light bag lunch. Cost is $440 pesos for members and $540 pesos for non-members. Tickets are on sale at LCS service desk. Bus leaves from the sculpture in La Floresta at 9 a.m. Thursday, February 16 Centro Self-Guided Walking Tour Visit historic 17th, 18th and 19th century architecture and their stunning murals and artwork. The Instituto Cultural Cabanas is a must. People watch in the beautiful plazas, have luncheon in the Plaza de los Laureles or dine in the elegant Hotel Mendoza or other fine eateries in the area. A detailed map will be provided. Cost $450 pesos for members and $550 pesos for nonmembers. Bus will leave promptly at 10 a.m. from the sculpture in La Floresta. Wednesday, February 22 Tlaquepaque Find for upscale retailers and fine dining in an historic, architecturally significant, pedestrian-only zone in Tlaquepaque. Cost $350 pesos for members and $450 pesos for non-members. Bus will depart at 10 a.m. from La Floresta. Wednesday, March 1 Costco/Mega and The Home Depot on Lopez Mateos Cost $350 pesos for members and $450 pesos for nonmembers. Meet at the sculpture in La Floresta; bus departs promptly at 9:30 a.m.

LCS and ASA to Showcase Children’s Art Program Saturday and Sunday, February 25 and 26 from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. , The Lake Chapala Society and the Ajijic Society of the Arts (ASA) will be hosting the Children’s Art Program and seven ASA member artists who will be exhibiting and selling their work on the LCS campus. A shuttle bus will be available. Tickets can be purchased prior to the tour at the LCS ticket sales for $50 pesos starting Wednesday, February 1 through Friday, February 24, from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon or during the tour at any of the participating studios. Half the proceeds generated from the Open Studios Tour will help fund the Children’s Art Program.

February 2 Hell or High Water 2016 USA A divorced father and his ex-con brother-in-law resort to a desperate scheme to save their family ranch in West Texas. Strong Academy Award candidate for Best Picture and Best Actor. A modern day western. (99 minutes) February 9 Toni Erdmann 2016 Germany A maturely crafted and emotionally wrought psychological comedy that is a treatise on the enduring theme of child-parent relationships. ‘Toni Erdmann’ is a tale about an obsessive jester desperately trying to reconnect with his dead-serious daughter. This film has been sweeping prizes in film festivals around the world and is considered one of the favorites for an Academy Award as Best Picture and/or Best Foreign Language Film. (151 minutes) February 16 Hidden Figures 2016 USA A team of African-American women provides NASA with invaluable mathematical calculations in the quest to put America ahead of Russia in the race to the moon. Strong Academy Award candidate for Best Picture. (120 minutes) February 23 To be announced This presentation will be announced via e-mail.

Introduction to Spanish Classes This is a casual class offered for the beginner that covers the Spanish alphabet, simple vocabulary and phrases to use about town for shopping, and other useful information about our area and Mexican culture. February classes will start on Tuesday February 7 and will be held at the LCS campus from 12:00 until 1:30 PM. Learning materials are provided; tuition is $175 pesos. Sign up at the LCS office during regular office hours, Monday through Saturday from 10-2 p.m., or signup easy and quick on the LCS website www.lakechapalasociety.com Introduction to Spanish language classes for LCS members will be held each month starting the first Tuesday of the month and continue for three weeks. You must be a member of LCS and your membership must be current through the duration of the classes.

Out of the Box for iPad Beginners The second round of free iPad for Beginners classes will be held on Wednesdays, February 15 and February 22 in the Sala from 11:30 to 1 p.m. This is hands-on instruction for users of iPad devices- including iPhones - that covers everything from opening the new iPad box, to setting it up for your particular needs, and navigating it for everyday use. The course is free to 20 LCS members only. Email: ipadcourselcs@ gmail.com to sign up. Remember to include your LCS member number when you apply.

In the Service Office The Warren Hardy Spanish textbooks for registered class members are available in the Service Office. Make much-needed donations to the kitty fund here too.

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Video Library Additions February

)HEUXDU\ Activities *Open to the Public ** US Citizens (S) Sign in required (C) Membership card required MSS & Immigration Services Mon+Tues 10-1 Lakeside Insurance Broker Tues+Thur 11-2 San Javier Hospital Services Last Fri 10-12 Health and Legal Services * Becerra & Galindo Services Thur 10:30-12:30 Sat 10-12:30 Blood Pressure Mon+Fri 10-12 Hearing Aid Services (S) Mon+2nd+4th, Sat 11-4 Ministerio Publico Wed Feb 8+22 10-2 My Guardian Angel Tues 10:30-12:30 Optometrist Claravision (S) Thur 9-4 Skin Cancer Screening (S) 2nd + 4th Wed 10-12:30 US Consulate** Wed Feb 1 10:30-12:30 Sign in 10-11:30 Lessons(C) Bridge Class Mon 1-4 (S) class filled Chair Yoga Fri 2-3 Children’s Art Sat 10-12* Children’s Chess Sat 12-1 Clases de Bordado Artistico Mon 3-6, Wed 4-6 Fri 4-6 Exercise Mon+Wed+Fri 9-10 Fitness Thru Yoga Mon+Fri 2-3:30 Intermediate Hatha Yoga Tues+Thurs 2-3:30 iPad Beginners Wed 15-22 11:30-1 Sign up+cost Introduction To Spanish Tues 12-1:30 (S)+ cost Line Dancing Tues+Thurs 10-11:15 PEP Grippo Mon-Fri 12-1+1:30-3 See article at left or website Photography Club 1st Mon 12-2 Scottish Country Dancing Thurs 11:30-1:30 Strength and Balance Exercise Tues+Thurs 8:45--9:45 Warren Hardy Spanish Classes Mon-Sat (S) + cost Libraries Audio Thur 10-12 Book & Video Mon-Sat 10-2 Library of Congress Books*/ Talking Books Thurs 10-12 Wilkes Mon-Fri 9:30-7, Sat 9:30-1* Social Activities (C) All Things Tech Fri 9:30-11:30 Baby Boomers Wed 2-3 Bridge Class Mon Jan 23 (S) Bridge 4 Fun Tue + Thurs 1-5 Conversaciones en Espanol Mon 10-12 Creativelymindful Art Wed 11-12:30 Discussion Group Wed 12-1:30 Everyday Mindfulness Mon 10 -12 Film Aficionados Thurs 2-4:30 Game Group Mon 1-4 iPad Beginners Wed Jan 25 11:30-1 (S) Learning TED Seminars Tues 12-1:15 Needle Pushers Tues 10-12 Neill James Lectures Tues 2- 3:30 Scrabble Mon+Fri 11:30-1:30 Spanish/English Conversation Sat 11-12:30 Tournament Scrabble Tues 12-1:50 Service and Support Groups * Information Desk Mon-Sat 10-2 Lakeside AA Mon +Thurs 4:30-5:30 Open Circle Sun 10-12:30 Toastmasters Mon 7-8:30 p.m. Ticket Sales Monday-Friday 10-12 a.m.*

El Ojo del Lago / February 2017

Wow! February already. Hope your new year is going well. Some new stuff for you. Sully #7497 Tom Hanks as a very believable pilot landing a commercial airliner in the Hudson river with 150 passengers on board. I wouldn’t have wanted to be there. Seems Like Old Times #7504 Goldie Hawn and Chevy Chase in an entertaining frolic about how a loser dude needs his ex to help him out of a jam. The End of the Affair #7500 This is an engrossing tale of love, passion and betrayal involving star-crossed lovers. Ralph Fiennes and Julianne Moore. Howard’s End #7499 Three social classes of England, whose only god is money, at the beginning of the century. Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson Midnight Run #7496 Bounty hunter Jack Walsh (Robert De Niro) is sent to find and return bail jumper and former Mafia accountant, Jonathan “The Duke” Mardukas (Charles Grodin). Fun to watch and easy to cheer for De Niro. Murder on the Orient Express #7507 An Agatha Christie classic with Albert Finney as a finicky detective and a whole bunch of people who could’ve done it. Lauren Bacall is one of ‘em. Labyrinth of Lies #7505 Definitely one of the more powerful holocaust films. It doesn’t have any visual images of the holocaust. It’s about the aftermath, bringing the perpetrators to trial and the effects on a Germany in total denial. As always happens at this time of the year, we are in need of couriers during the spring and summer months. If you are going north soon and returning shortly thereafter, or, if you have someone coming to visit, we would be most appreciative if you or your visitors could bring back a couple of DVDs to help keep the Video Library current. We buy them and prepay them online and have them delivered to an address of your choice.

February Movies at Wilkes As part of LCS’ continuing free Spanish language films available to the community, this month’s offerings feature favorite Mexican stars, Robert Redford, and a tiny mouse in the lead roles. On February 3, Pedro Infante stars in “A Todo Maquina”. On February 10, an animated family favorite, “Stuart Little”, stars a heroic mouse. “Ni Chana, Ni Juana”, starring India Maria, will be shown on February 17. Our final film for February, “Grandes Amigos”, starring Robert Redford, will close out this month’s film fest. All films are in Spanish and open to the public. Bring the family. Wilkes Biblioteca is located on Galeana near the LCS campus.

TED Talks February

Neill James Lectures February

TED Talks are held in the Sala Tuesdays from 12 noon to 1:15 p.m. Open to members only. February 7Â Host Pete Soderman. Laura Vanderkam:Â â&#x20AC;&#x153;How to Gain Control of Your Free Timeâ&#x20AC;? There are 168 hours in each week. How do we find time for what matters most? Time management expert Laura Vanderkam studies how busy people spend their lives, and sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s discovered that many of us drastically overestimate our commitments each week, while underestimating the time we have to ourselves. She offers a few practical strategies to help find more time for what matters to us so we can â&#x20AC;&#x153;build the lives we want in the time weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve got.â&#x20AC;? Â February 14Â Hosted byÂ Gary Thompson: â&#x20AC;&#x153;We Need To Rethink Capitalismâ&#x20AC;? According toÂ hedge fund manager and philanthropist Paul Tudor Jones corporate Americaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s focus on profits is â&#x20AC;&#x153;threatening the very underpinnings of society.â&#x20AC;?Â He knows what we need to do. Â February 21Â seminarÂ Hosted by Fred Harland, features science writer Ed Yong: â&#x20AC;&#x153;Zombie Roaches and Other Parasite Talesâ&#x20AC;?.Â Ed Yong blogs with a mission: to ignite excitement for science in everyone, regardless of their education or background. In this fascinating, hilarious and ever-so-slightly creepy talk, Ed Yong tells the story of his favorite parasites-animals and organisms that live on the bodies (and brains!) of other organisms, causing them to do their bidding. Do humans have them too? Maybe ... Â February 21,Â due to traffic problems on ShroveÂ Tuesday, there will be no TED seminar.

Tuesdays in the Sala at 2 p.m. Feb 7:Â Charles Coleman: 9/11: the Improbable Official Narrative - from Engineering and Aeronautical Perspectives: A critical look at the official explanation of the 9/11 event: principals of steel frame construction, fuel sources, and the limitations and characteristics of transport aircraft. Charles Coleman is a retired American Airlines 767 captain and a registered civil engineer in California and Washington. He earned a BS Civil Engineering, San Diego State University, MS Civil Engineering, Uppsala University, Sweden. His experience includes work on the Trans Alaska Oil Pipeline, projects in Saudi Arabia, and design and construction of various harbor projects for the Alaska State DOT. He has been a consulting engineering since 1977 in California and Washington.Â A former flight instructor and charter pilot, he was a also a bush pilot in Alaska and spent 22 years as a pilot with American Airlines. Feb 14:Â Phil Rylett: Think Again - Because Once Might Not Be Enough We suffer from biases in thinking, none potentially more disastrous than the Survivorship Bias.Â We tend to focus on success, routinely overlooking the lessons of failures.Â We will examine some consequences of this bias. Before retirement, Phil Rylett developed a state and federal breast cancer screening program for under-insured women in California.Â After hearing (and complaining about) a presentation on breast cancer where this bias was dangerously evident, he developed this presentation. Note: This talk is being repeated by popular demand. Feb 21: Robert Croog: Big Lies and Tiny Truths: Finding Reality in a Post-Fact World Examines the habitual use of social media and punditry as a replacement for truth-seeking and the influence of fake news on public opinion. There are many historical examples of problems posed when objectivity and subjectivity collide, but the 2016 presidential election is a watershed event in the erosion of belief in the importance of truth. This talk will cover the history of attacks on objective truth, the erosion of authoritative sources of knowledge, the challenges of living in a post-fact world and suggestions of how to meet them. Robert Croog, a graduate of Harvard and Columbia Law School teaches Communication and Writing at Trinity University.Â He was Associate Professor of Advertising, Media Law and Business Ethics at Rochester Institute of Technology, following a 35-year career in intellectual property law.

Bridge Classes Offered In addition to the Level One bridge class currently running, there will be two other bridge classes offered depending on the level of interest expressed by our members. Classes are free and user-friendly; one is designed for those who know little but want to learn the game and the other for those who want to expand their skills at partnership play. The Level Zero class is primarily for those who have never played contract bridge before. (If you feel a bit rusty, Level One is appropriate for you.) Level Two is primarily for people who play together often, may play some Duplicate Bridge and want to improve your competitiveness. Contact Karen Schirack at kslcs@live.com with your name, member number, expiration date, telephone number, and class preference.

THE LAKE CHAPALA SOCIETY, A.C. 16 de Septiembre #16-A, Ajijic, Jalisco LCS Main Office: (376) 766-1140 Office, information and other services - Monday-Saturday, 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Grounds open until 5:00 p.m. LCS BOARD OF DIRECTORS. President - Ben White (2016); Vice-President - Cate Howell (2017); Treasurer - Michael Searles (2017); Secretary - Carole Wolff (2016); Directors: Matthew Butler (2016); Lois Cugini (2017); Ernest Gabbard (2016); Fred Harland (2017); Barbara Hildt (2017); Yoli Martinez (2017); Garry Musgrave (2017); Pete Soderman (2016); Joan Ward (2016); Immediate Past President: Howard Feldstein. Executive Director - Terry Vidal

The LCS Newsletter is published monthly. Deadline for submissions is the 17th of the month preceding publication. Submit all news items to newsletter@lakechapalasociety.com 1RWH 7KH HGLWRULDO VWDŕ§ź UHVHUYHV WKH ULJKW WR HGLW DOO VXEPLVVLRQV DFFRUGLQJ WR WLPH VSDFH DYDLODELOLW\ DQG HGLWRULDO GHFLVLRQ

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The Ojo Crossword

Saw you in the Ojo 83

CARS FOR SALE: Nissan MARCH ADVANCE TA 2012, Automatic , Air Conditioning, 30,000km, 1.6l , 4 cylinders. Price: $120,000pesos. Contact Cel: 331-671-7611. FOR SALE: 93 BMW 325I. Canadian plated, needs engine work (no compression) otherwise in good shape. Would be of interest to mechanically inclined who wants a project. If interested email at blackslakz@hotmail.com. FOR SALE: Mexican. Car Chrysler. Drives. Great. 6 cylinder, a/c, 1998 nice. Mexican. Car. Reliable. Cell: 322-146-5496 No emails. Price: $2900. Canadians dollars. FOR SALE: 1983 Mercedez 300d turbo disel for parts only. Needs glow plug replacement. Price: $22,000 pesos. Call: 331-252-1613. FOR SALE: Mexican plated, 1998 Ford 150 XLT, Extender Cab Pickup. V6 engine with 5 speed transmission. A/C, Cruise control. Price: $3,900 USD (firm) To view the vehicle write to richard.barbi@gmail.com or call Richard at Cell: 331-116-6081. We are located in Chapala. FOR SALE: 1998 Chrysler Sebring Convertible - 6 cylinder, automatic, good looking car, fun to drive and runs great. Mexican plated and paperwork in order. Price: $2200 usd. Telephone: 333 -142-0012. WANTED: A friend of mine is moving to the states and would like an economical US plated car. Call if you are willing to sell and get your car out of the country. Mike 331-3301050. PS She may be willing to trade her Jalisco plated, 2012 Nissan March in exchange. It has 63,000 kilometers on it. FOR SALE: Selling Honda Civic excellent condition. 80,000 miles, 2002 automatic. up to date payments, Jalisco plates, If you are interested please call at (045) 332-312-3380. FOR SALE: 2004 jeep grand cherokee ltd suv. Gray exterior black leather interior automatic transmission 4x4. Power seats.10 disc changer, Quadra-drive tire pressure monitoring system, towing package. v8 engine. Jalisco plate. Asking 125,000 mxn. Please Call: 331431-7368. mikenan@prodigy.net.mx. FOR SALE: Volkswagen Thing (Safari). 1978, very good condition. Hard and soft top. One of a kind. Asking 4,000 US $ or best offer. Please call cell. 331-545-8331. FOR SALE: 2008 Kawasaki Versys 33000 miles, Jalisco plates. Top and side luggage racks, engine guard. LED M-09 Headlights with double Rigid LED Spots. Yamaha R-1 Shock. New tires and brake pads. 70,000 MXN, OBO Cash only. Email: don.tiemann@gmail.com. FOR SALE: I have a Sears cartop carrier for sale in Chapala. Key/lock/instalation hardware all intact. Price: $1,500 pesos. Call: 331-5408947. WANTED: Car speakers. Any suggestions on where, in the Lakeside area, to take a car for speaker repair? Email: pwkoughan@shaw.ca. WANTED: If you have an enclosed trailer, please call Ralph at 766-1404.

COMPUTERS FOR SALE: MX2 G box for sale. Ideal for downloading and viewing TV and movies from the internet. Asking 50usd or peso equivalent, Call: 333-390-3933. FOR SALE: Desktop Computer. ASUS CM5571-BR003 Desktop Tower Unit. Intel Pentium Dual-Core E5400 2.7GHz 6GB (upgradable to 16GB) RAM 1TB Hard Drive. Windows 7 Home Premium with 8 USB 2.0 ports, Fast Ethernet 10/100/1000 mps. US$375 or peso equiv. Call Brian at 766-4836. FOR SALE: HP cartridges. 61 XL color and 61XL Black. $250.00 each or $450 for both. Pick up in Chapala Haciendas. 376-765-6348. FOR SALE: Xerox Model 510 High Speed Scanner. Flatbed or ADF. Works fine. Needs

updated drivers for W10, only works on XP now. Pick up in Chapala Haciendas. Call: 376765-6348. FOR SALE: All In One Dell Computer. Purchased one year ago. Has Windows 8.1 in Spanish, and it is in great condition in all ways. It is a Dell 7X3270 (that’s an AMD A4--5000 quad core CPU with 4 Gigs of RAM. Cost was $8,290p. I would say the lady will let it go for $6,500p. Email: mike@ajijiccomputing.com.

PETS & SUPPLIES Cats need sitter: We have a pair of rescued kitties about 5 months old which are completely indoor cats (for now). All shots are up to date and we just had them spayed. We are going back to the states for about 5 months and unfortunately. Please reply and let me know if you or someone you know would be available for this gig. Email: chapala.10.efaferal@spamgourmet.com. FOR SALE: Need soft sided pet carrier. Dimensions no more than 11 inches high, 8 inches wide, 11 inches long. Call: 850-5191190 - 766-2853. FREE: I was rescued from the roadside heading out near Mezcala. I had not been fed and was near death. With help, I visited a vet and have been receiving treatment and I’ve responded fabulously. I’m waiting to become your life-long mate. Please message those taking care of me, and/or call 376-763-5049. Email: 1soulprovider@gmail.com FOUND: American Bull Dog. This dog was found last Friday in Lower Chula Vista, he was taken to the Vet as I could not bring him home, I have 3 dogs and a cat. He is 7 years old, white male, castrated, tattooed. He is very mellow and loving. He is presently at Pepe Magana’s Vet in Riberas. Email: desertcalm@gmail.com. FOR SALE: Petco Adjustable Mesh Harness for Dogs in Green & Gray. Fully adjustable for a snug & custom fit. Breathable, lightly padded mesh for the utmost in comfort. Nylon strap has two metal D-rings to attach a leash & extra tab for attaching an ID tag or charm. Email: richardfiscella@prodigy.net.mx. FREE: Dogs need homes. Mexican rescue 4 years old about 30 lbs male. Buchone mixed 5 years old about 20 lbs male. Mexican rescue black lab mix 7 years old about 70 lbs. female. Boxer 10 years old about 50 lbs. male. All are spayed or neutered. Contact at jksmex2@ gmail.com. Cell: 331-425-7787. FOUND: FEMALE BASSET HOUND. Found in West Ajijic, close to Villa Nova. 28 lb Female Basset Hound, good condition, very well behaved. Contact Carol 331-512-6432.

GENERAL MERCHANDISE FOR SALE: Blu Dash JR 4.0k smart phone loaded with new number and 3 chips but never used cost new $230 used will accept 2000pesos. Vizio hd tv 24” great for a bedroom or just as an extra tv. Cost new $100 will accept $2000pesos. Will accept $500 pesos. Please call 376-766-4456 or cell 333-104-7455. FOR SALE: Rexton digital, 2 channel hearing aids. I will take US$750 for the pair (or pesos at the current rate). Email: 1988jeopardychampion@gmail.com. FREE: Philips Norelco SensoTouch Duel Precision Heads. Email: egweiss@outlook. com. FOR SALE: Contents of house for sale, Ajijic. Items include contemporary living room set, contemporary queen bedroom set, brass canopy double bed, king size bedroom set, computer desk, glass dining table and chairs, crystal glassware. Erin cell 850-519-1190 or house 766-2853. FOR SALE: Patio Furniture. Bar Cabinet $2,500p. Wicker love seat cushion & pillows $6,000p. Wicker chair cushion & pillow

El Ojo del Lago / February 2017

$3,000p. Rattan coffee table $2,000p. Area rug 6’-4” x 10’-4” $300p. Potted palm $800p. Call: 331-252-1613. FOR SALE: Wine Making Supplies all for $3000p. The equipment and supplies were about $500 US. It consists of equipment (barrel, siphons, bottle-filling and cleaning gear) and supplies (tannin, yeast nutrient, disinfectant, etc.). CALL JEANNE 766-3552. FOR SALE: SINGER INGENUITY 7436 SEWING MACHINE. The SINGER® 7436 is a fully electronic sewing machine with a full range of utility, decorative, quilting, heirloom and stretch stitch stitches. The SINGER® 7436 also threads quickly and easily with its 6- Second Threading System. Email: louis.solo@live.com. Price: $3000 Pesos. FOR SALE: 15G Nearly New Washing Machine. This large washing machine is in excellent condition, cold water, brand name is EASY. We expected to stay longer in Mexico but sadly had to return to Canada so need to sell soon. Price: $3900 pesos. Email: eblu1929@ uniserve.com. FOR SALE: Two, Solar World 245 Watt solar panels purchased new from eSun in December. Can’t use them so they are for sale at $250 usd each or best offer. Email: hitechservices1@yahoo.com. FOR SALE: Men’s Left Hand Golf Club Set. Steel shaft Cleveland regular shaft irons 5 to P Cleveland XL Driver stiff shaft 10.5 degree. Big Bertha Diablo 3 & 5 wood stiff shaft. 19 degree Taylor Made R7 rescue club. 22 degree Taylor Made R7 rescue club. Total 13 clubs. Price: $3,000 pesos. Call: 376-106-1193. FOR SALE: 2008 Kawasaki Versys. 2008 Versys 33000 miles, Jalisco plates. Top and side luggage racks, engine guard. LED M-09 Headlights with double Rigid LED Spots. Yamaha R-1 Shock. Price: $70,000 MXN, OBO Cash only. Email: don.tiemann@gmail.com. FOR SALE: Round 48” granite table top with bull nosed edge. Can be used inside or outside. Light neutral colors. Table top only and in excellent condition. Price: $6,500. Email: smwschoon@outlook.com. FOR SALE: Black wrought iron bar stools (2). Counter/island height with brown cushions and swivel seat. One year old in excellent condition. Price: $2,000 for both stools. Email: smwschoon@outlook.com. FOR SALE: Queen Sized Bedroom Set. Queen Metal Four Poster Bed. Matress, Box Spring, Bed Linens, Skirt. Pillows & Blanket Cover $30,000P. Triple Dresser, Mirror & Matching Bedside Table. Plus LAmp $35,000P. Bed Bench $2,500P. Framed Paintings $6,000P $2,000P. Email: heinzstapff@hotmail.com. FOR SALE: Shaw Satellite Receiver & Dish. Three Foot Circular Dish With Two Dual Lnbs. One DSR-405 Analogue Receiver and Remote. Price: $1,500 PESOS. Call: 331-252-1613. FOR SALE: Motion Detector Light. Voltech Two Bulb Motion Detector Light. Black Standard Security Lighting Fixture. Never Left Box. Was $248 Pesos $150 Pesos. Call 331-2521613. FOR SALE: Wax Buffing Vibrator. 6 Inch Random Orbit Waxer & Polisher. Price: $400 Pesos. Call 331-252-1613. FOR SALE: Heavy Duty Electric Motor. Originally bought for restaurant ventilator or planned workshop band driver. Never used. Original price. $6,000pesos plus. asking $1,500pesos or best offer. Call 331-252-1613. FOR SALE: CPAP AirSense™ 10 AutoSet™. Therefore, the CPAP is on sale: mxn$20,000.00. Contact: Maga Cuellar, 044 333-130-1931. Rancho San Jorge, Carretera Jocotepec-Chapala. Mail: maga.cuellar@hp.com. FOR SALE: Winemaking equipment and supplies. Includes floor corker, corks, foodgrade barrel, bottle filler, bottle rinser, disin-

fectant, carboy dryers, pH tester, siphon, airlocks, stoppers, acid blend. Original cost over $500 US, asking 3000 pesos. Call: 376-7663552, Jeanne. FOR SALE: Computer Desk. Excellent condition. sturdy. 1200. ajijic 766-2853 or 850 510-1190. Email: esolo@yourvillage.com. FOR SALE: Suede couch in excellent condition for sale $2500 Pesos. 87 inches long. 36 inches deep. excluding pillows. EMAI: lessegel@gmail.com. FOR SALE: 2 Shaw Direct Receivers (Later Model-Very Small). Almost new, Asking $100 USD for each or best offer. Call: 331-545-8333. FOR SALE: Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-W120, Carl Zeiss lens, case, charger & connections included. Only $1,300 Pesos – Call: 331-3443341. FOR SALE: I have a closet full of beautifully made men’s suits, jackets, pants, shirts made of silk, linen, wool, cotton, leather. Some are hand made. Most are Italian designers. Pants sizes 32-34 x 32-34. Shirts size 151/2 16. Jackets in the 40 size range. Contact Erin 766-2853 or 850-519-1190. FOR SALE: Baby Grand Piano. Pramburger Platinum Series Special Edition Grand Piano made with Babinga Mahogany wood. Mint condition. Price: $12,500USD. Call: (376) 7662304. FOR SALE: Equipal table. 47” round, painted shiny black.....really solid...good condition. $500 MX. Call: 766-4480. Lloyd or Willie. FOR SALE: Commercial Grade Meat Grinder. $13,600 pesos or best offer. Email: jausten09@yahoo.com. FOR SALE: Stove industrial. Only 3 months used, like new. Price $30,000.00 Email: raul_gc_1989@yahoo.com.mx. FOR SALE: Two very sturdy, off-white lacquered side tables for sale. Measure 2 feet square (66 cm) x 1’9 feet high (52 cm). Provide lots of storage. Good condition. Some peeling on top of the tables but not terribly noticeable. $2000 pesos obo. Erin U.S. 850 519-1190 (preferred). Local 766-2853. FOR SALE: Wood and glass sofa table and coffee table set. Coffee table measures 3’1 feet (94cm) square X 1’5 feet tall (43cm). Sofa table measures 4’4 feet long (1 metro, 30 cm) x 1’5 feet deep (43cm) x 2’4 feet high (70 cm). Local 766-2853. FOR SALE: Sturdy brass double bed with comfortable mattress, some bedding and mosquito net included. $5000 pesos OBO. Erin U.S. 850 519-1190 (preferred). Local 766-2853. FOR SALE: Black pedestal glass dining table for sale. Measures 6’2 feet long (1 metro 88cm) x 4’ feet wide (1 metro 21 cm). Chairs not included. $2500 pesos. Erin U.S. 850 5191190 (preferred). Local 766-2853. FOR SALE: Stainless steel portable Barbecue, with gas tank, very nice. Asking $2000 pesos or best offer. Call 331-545-8333. FOR SALE: Geonics EM 16. VLF unit with new crystals from Geonics Toronto. manual and padded carrier. Many uses in mineral exploration and hydrology. Email: patrickholden2@gmail.com. FOR SALE: Pale blue distressed look storage cabinet with display areas. Moving to smaller house or wouldn’t sell. $2k pesos. Send me a number to view or PM. Email: imburnen@outlook.com FOR SALE: Black metal scrolled chaise without cushion which can be easily obtained at the patio furniture store by Super Lake. Back is fully adjustable. Sell $1200 pesos firm. PM for phone number or send me your number to view. Email: imburnen@outlook.com. FOR SALE: Panosol II. It is in excellent condition. $2000p. Email: julieywayne@yahoo. com. FOR SALE: Cisterna 1200 ltr. Price: $2000.

Email: chapalaweb1@gmail.com. WANTED: Looking for a corner sofa to make a statement in the center of a room, or fit perfectly into a corner? Selling gently used, contemporary style cream leather sectional sofa. 3 sections, one with headrest. Total length 545 cm. $19,000 pesos. Call Michael 331- 319-1163. FOR SALE: I have a Sears brand cartop carrier. It has key/lock and installation hardware all intact. $1,500 pesos. Call: 33-1540-8947. FOR SALE: Loveseat in good condition and comfortable for sale $2200 Pesos. Dimensions: Length: 67 inches. Width. 36 inches. 331-039-5150. FOR SALE: Suede chair for sale to match suede couch also advertised in other advertisement on blog. Dimensions of chair: Wide: 43 inches. Deep: 35 inches. Excellent condition: $1500 Pesos: 331-039-5150. FOR SALE: WANTED POWER WASHER. Email: jausten09@yahoo.com. FOR SALE: Perfect condition vinyl Levellors 2 sets Can be re-sized to suit your measurements. Soft grey colour Approx size per set: 8’6” long and 10 ft 6” wide. Make an offer. Email: poptarte.227@gmail.com. WANTED: Does anyone know where I can buy a machine to purify the air in my house-remove pollen and dust, specifically, and if possible, add humidity? I have recently had a severe asthma attack and am also undergoing construction with much dust. Email: jubob2@ hotmail.com. WANTED: Recumbent bicycle new or nearly new in good condition for indoor exer-

cise. Email: anigeran@hotmail.com. FOR SALE: ECCO - Irving Fisherman Sandal. Direct-injected Polyurethane Outsole. Leather-covered Inlay Sole. Textile Lining. ECFS™ Technology. Made in SLOVAQUIA. Size: USA 9-9.5 EU 43 MEX 27.5 Wide M (regular). Color: COGNAC. Price: US$90.00 (original USS 139.95). Email: nunez.chavez.jorge@ gmail.com. FOR SALE: Two chaise lounges. They are heavy duty. Do not need cushions. Cell: 331125-8877. FOR SALE: Life-like artificial Christmas tree, ornaments, lights and many extras, including the tree topper/angel and tree skirt. The tree measures 6’ 2” (1.88m) tall x 3’ 4” (1.2m) wide at its base. A steal at $125 USD or Peso equivalent. Contact by email at scrubs1946@ msn.com. FOR SALE: Rose colored recliner chair for sale near new condition. Material not leather or vinyl phone 108-1748 or write sanbt69@ live.com. FOR SALE: 4 new glass bricks/blocks with wave pattern 12” X 12” $1200p. Email: silkfleurs@outlook.com. WANTED: Need electric weed wacker in good/new condition. Please PM me if you are interested in selling one. Email: jausten09@ yahoo.com. FOR SALE: Toastmaster food slicer, household. $1000 pesos. Please PM me if interested. Email: jausten09@yahoo.com. FOR SALE: Four older door knobs and associated hardware. $100 pesos OBO. Email: pwkoughan@shaw.ca.

FOR SALE: Satellite Receiver DSR SHAW 209. SHAW DIRECT DSR RSN209. Paid $1200 pesos asking $1000pesos. Please call Susanne at 376-766-4456 - Cell 333-104-7455. FOR SALE: DVD player hardly used great for DVD’s from Oscar Wednesday market Ajijic phone 108-1748 or write sanbt69@live.com. FOR SALE: Older TV 19in color phone 108-1748 or write sanbt69@live.com. FOR SALE: I have a one and a half horse power motor and attached pump in excellent condition for sale. Price is negotiable. Email: pwkoughan@shaw.ca. FOR SALE: Living Room Set. A three piece chesterfield set. Neutral color (cream) only one year old. Must sell $7500 pesos. Call 387761-0021 or email rennicint@yahoo.com. WANTED: Does anyone live in the Racquet Club and use ATT cellular for your smart phone provider? or know someone? I am moving to RC next week and Telmex has NO lines available for RC, so I must use a smart phone to get internet. Reply here or call (333) 8417228. Patricia. FOR SALE: Dog sweaters for small to medium dogs. Very reasonable. Call 376-7656348. WANTED: I’d like to buy a copy of Living in Lake Chapala book. Diane Pearl no longer carries them. Ron. Email: elasupa@gmail.com. WANTED: Does anyone know anyplace that sells used motor scooter parts in the Lakeside area? Ron. Email: elasupa@gmail. com. FOR SALE: Men’s left-handed golf clubs (Tour Edge woods, Mizuno irons, bag, and

balls). $3000 pesos. 331-944-2955. FOR SALE: Bed Canopy mosquito netting, fits up to king size bed. $500 pesos. Email: patrickholden2@gmail.com. FOR SALE: Large traditional black iron Mexican chandelier for foyer or living/dining area, approx. 1 meter wide and high, $2000 pesos, send inquiry to tucantalk@ gmail.com. FOR SALE: Whirlpool dishwasher in excellent working condition. Bargain at $130 USD or Peso equivalent. Call 766-1177. FOR SALE: Bosch Gas Cooktop. 28 inch x 20 inch 5 burner cook top, excellent condition. Similar to $900 USD model at Lowes, $1,800 MXP. Will deliver. 333-199-7453. WANTED: Looking for a good condition 2 line telephone. This is a telephone that you can connect two telephone number to Sterens had them on sale (model tel-250) and they sold out. Reply here or email: ken.zakreski@gmail.com or call my one line telephone at 766-1087. FOR SALE: Naturalizer Sandals. Color is “spring denim lea,” which is a pretty denimshirt gray-blue. Style is Cyrus. Sz 7.5 M women’s, sling back, rounded, covered toe, leather upper. Wedge with heel height of 1 to 1.25 inches. $800 pesos, paid $64. Email: is4916@email.ph. WANTED: One outdoor chaise cushion. PM me if you have one with details/price etc. Email: lassalvias2005@yahoo.com

Saw you in the Ojo 85

El Ojo del Lago / February 2017