Just back from the fabulous San Miguel Writers Conference, unpacking a suitcase full of books--- among them, the deeply weird chronicle of the discovery of what may well be the modern survival of a violent pre-Hispanic cult: Lord of the Dolls: Voyage in Xochimilco by Eva Hunter with photographs by Jo Brenzo. Read Roy Sorrels's review on culturevulture here. Where is Xochimilco? Here's the wiki. More anon.
# 1. Mexico is a land of mystery. I quickly learned how different it was from my former hometown of New York City. There are things in this land that I will never really understand. There is, I believe, no better frame of mind for the writer than a wide-eyed, wide-mind acceptance of the mystery of the world around us.
#2. Mexico is a land of the here and now. My first week in San Miguel I saw two old men and a young boy building a wall of rough concrete blocks. There was a tumbled stack of blocks, and a mess of cement on the cobblestone street with a concave puddle in its center into which they would add one splash of water after another from a leaky bucket. They stirred with an old shovel. One block in place, some wet cement splatted on top of it, and then another block. In the New York City I’d left behind a wall would be pre-fabricated far away, shipped to the site, and clicked into place. But the block by block approach of these workers seemed so much like the word by word work that I faced every day, and I felt right at home.
#3. Mexico, or San Miguel at least, is a magnet for writers. I would run into Clifford Irving on the street, chat with Joe Persico in the Jardin, join in a writing group with Dick and Debbie Stein, Barbara Faith, Jack Slater, Donna Meyer, and Eva Hunter. Beverly Donofrio was often in town, and Pulitzer Prize poet W. D. Snodgrass hung out in my favorite café. New York, of course, has far more writers, but you don’t run into them buying veggies in the open market, or lounging on a Jardin bench in the late afternoon waiting for a black cloud of grackles to sail in over the old church and settle in the trees.
#4. San Miguel is a gentle place, friendly to the elderly and to children, and even friendly to outsiders from the North. While we Americans pontificate about family values, in Mexico the family is in fact valuable. Children are noisy and rambunctious and they make everyone smile. Ancient grandparents look after them with tender solicitude, giving mom and dad the time and energy to work hard and make more babies. This gentle world created a comfortable and nurturing place for me to be creative.
#5. Mexico runs on Mexican time. In a place where mañana doesn’t really mean tomorrow but “some time in the future,” time is a phenomenon not to be explained or understood by multi-tasking gringos. The laws of physics notwithstanding, time does actually slow down. It did for me in my San Miguel years. I got more writing done in an hour than I ever did in New York, and I had my lazy days away from the keyboard when I did nothing much, and it took me all day to get it done.
I’ve lived and written in other faraway places: Amsterdam, a tiny village in rural France (where Chocolát was filmed), Paris, and a tiny island off the west coast of Sicily, but nowhere else did I find the nurturing, magical world that San Miguel gave me. I go back whenever I can, and memories of the cobblestone streets that turn into rivers on a rainy day, the laughter and music of the Jardin, the smell of fresh tortillas and bountiful bougainvillea, are in my heart as I tap these keys right now!
--- Roy Sorrels
Guest-blogging for Madam Mayo today is short story writer and novelist Janice Eidus, who has, by the way, just published a crackerjack novel, The War of the Rosens. Enthusiastically recommended!I've been delighted, over these last few years, to discover how many things the wonderful and ever-productive Madam Mayo and I have in common. Among these things are our love of good writing in a wide range and variety of forms; our love of the art, literature, language, culture, and the day-to-day world of Mexico; our love of laughter; and, our belief in nurturing good friendships. I'm thrilled to be a guest blogger on Madam's extraordinary blog. I've chosen five (mas o menos) sites to recommend that--- either directly, or very indirectly--- relate to Mexico.
#1. Behler Publications, a new publisher based in Southern California (not that far, geographically, from Mexico), is publishing some very interesting and exciting new work. My new novel,The War of the Rosens, about a volatile and eccentric Bronx Jewish family, is just out from them. Behler has also recently published the very original and offbeat coming-of-age novel, Teched, written by my good friend, Thaddeus Rutkowski. The very indirect connection to Mexico here is that Thaddeus and I have both enjoyed good times writing in the Mexican sun.
#2. Casa Karmina is a beautiful, large, sunny, art-filled house in Mexico that's inspired the many writers who've stayed there over the years. It's an absolutely perfect writer's retreat.
#3. Roy Sorrels is a talented and versatile writer and writing coach who lived in Mexico for many years, and who now lives in New York. Sometimes when he and I are in New York at the same time, we meet for coffee at a West Village café and pretend that we're sitting in a café at the Jardin in San Miguel, sipping tequila. (In the interest of "full disclosure," I will mention that Roy just reviewed The War of the Rosens for CultureVulture online.
#4. Sheila Bender's website magazine, Writing It Real, is a treasure for writers--- she teaches, chats, and inspires. She and I have been friends for a long time. We met in Port Townsend, Washington, when I was teaching at the Port Townsend Writers Conference. Sheila and I have had some mighty good schmoozes in the Mexican sun and shade--- and, she and I have both been happily involved with Author's Sala in San Miguel de Allende.
#5. My friends, Jim Johnston and Patrice Wynne, live in Mexico and both divide their time between Mexico City and San Miguel de Allende, and both are creative in many fields. Jim's an artist and writer, and Patrice is a photographer, clothing and textile designer, and fabulous Mexican tour guide, among other things.
--- Janice Eidus.