Peasant Gang

Reinventing yourself is hard work. So many of the choices are obvious and don’t create a very interesting reinvention.  People get bored with the artist, medical specialist, writer, film maker reinvention.  So residents of San Miguel are forced to Google themselves into something unique and unexpected.

The Rural Peasant

It often starts with a picture such as this – The Peasant.

The D&G, Chanel or Versace scarf can be a starting point for a whole new look.

The woven rug coat with leather highlights adds to the charm and uniqueness to the Modern Peasant look.

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Peasant Inspiration

Once the inspiration is found, more googling comes up extra touches to complete the total look.

The belt, the overblouse, the Combat Cocktail Sandal can be used with success to create a uniquely San Miguel Urban Peasant Look.

More research is done to help with the Living as a Peasant Theme.  Clothes are not enough.  There has to be a lifestyle.  They must convince others that the daily life of an  Urban Peasants is generally pretty hard.

They talk about getting up each morning at dawn, eating a quick breakfast of homemade bread and ale.

Dieting reduces the amount of food available for them and adds to the theme of living the hard life.

Then they go off to Jardin.  But the call it the Fields, where their day consists of a full day of work. They have to shop, buy clothes, eat comida and meet at least two friends.  Days are so full and so busy.

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The Urban Peasant

Here Barbara and Corinne are beginning their hard day in the Fields as part of the Peasants of San Miguel

The Aimless of Ajijic

There is no Vortex in Ajijic, just Lake Chapala.  Without the Vortex, there will be no clowns.  Without the Vortex there will be few artists. Without the Vortex there will be a Void.

There is a sense of aimlessness in Ajijic.  People wander about without purpose with no Vortex to direct their actions.  This is a recipe for disaster.  Aimlessness is only a short step from homelessness. And homelessness is something Real Estate Agents fear.  So the Angels of Bienes Raices in Ajijic try very hard to keep residents and Tourists busy in Ajijic with all manner of Real Estate Day Care.

The Helping Angels of the Bienes Raices

Red Cross also helps to direct the aimless with a Volunteer Service -  Walking With Purpose.   The Aimless are ushered around Ajijic as if they have a purpose.

Walking the Aimless

But Aimlessness is hard to cure so the ultimate solution is called The Ark of Ajijic.  The water, the sense of doom, the lure of something to do calls couples, two by two, to this famous corner in the Zocalo almost like lemmings.

Call of the Piper

And when they arrive the Pied Piper and Piperess are waiting take them away and keep Real Estate Prices high..

The Piper and Piperess of Ajijic

The Murals of Ajijic

There are Communists in Ajijic. 

Spend a few minutes in Ajijic and you notice all the murals.  A quick Google search resulted in an explanation of Mexican Muralism.

Mexican muralism is an artistic movement that spans the first half of the twentieth century. It is characterized by the decoration of the walls of public buildings with figurative and realist paintings that have a social and ideological content and marked didactic intentions. According to the principle that art would act as an educational medium to teach the “people” and thus strengthen national identity whilst complying with the ideals of the revolution, the movement began during the post-revolutionary period and successfully constructed the nationalist image with which Mexico embraced modernity. Thus, with art sponsored by the state, at the time considered revolutionary, the movement exalted the nation’s indigenous origins and illustrated the epic events of national history while proclaiming the continuation of the ideals of the Mexican Revolution under Marxist ideology, an ideology which nevertheless formed no part of the revolution, or the resulting state.

In the mural below, a muralist educates us about one of the Revolutionary  Struggles between the dead proletariat, the well dressed Bourgeois and a priest representing the cooperation of the Catholic Church with the Bourgeois.

Mural

These communist murals were totally unexpected, after listening to all the Liberals in San Miguel talk about the conservatism  of Ajijic. Here was a very public display of the Struggle of the Proletariat of Ajijic.

And the Struggle of the Indigenous are not ignored either.

There a few murals in San Miguel because Mexican Muralism never came to San Miguel. And if it did they have long been painted over with the color palette of San Miguel (available in Lowe’s in the World Heritage Color Section).

A World Heritage Site can’t be about Struggle nor display public, vulgar pictures of any Struggle. San Miguel keeps any Struggle inside homes between the Expats and their maids and gardeners and house sitters. This is a true story found on the Civil List of San Miguel

Meet the WORST housesitter in all of San Miguel

I put a request on Civil List for someone to housesit and take care of my dogs when I had to go up to the states. A very nice young lady answered, showed up and seemed to be the perfect person.

If you get the name (left out for legal reasons) on your computer shut it down and lock your door. Once she was in my house, all of a sudden emails were ignored and not answered along with phone calls. It was only when I was told there was blood on the upstairs and when I threatened to phone the police to come by that an email was answered.

Her story: She cut herself deeply and would have to get some stitches.
True Story: According to her friend she smashed a nice $125 lamp of mine into her boyfriend whom she has supported for a long time and he ended up having 22 stitches.

When a friend who has walked my dogs on occasion tried to pet one of them once she was gone the dog tried to bite him…so I do not know what kind but there was a definite abuse she and Jeff the boyfriend did to my dog.

I ran into a lady on the street and was telling her about the problem and before I could mention her name she told me the name. Seems when she stayed at her house she rented all the rooms out to druggies for crack and pot usage. Not to mention she lost one of her dogs for 3 days.

These are the Struggles of San Miguel and there are no murals to display this Struggle.

But back to Ajijic and their Struggles.

Expats and Merchants in Ajijic take their Struggle to the Street.  Stores celebrate the Struggle of Shopping with Murals.  Look at the range of Murals one just one street corner and how each muralist has a different view of the Shopping Struggle.

Struggle of the Shoppers

Tourist hearts are warmed in Ajijic as their Struggle as a Tourist to find the best souvenir is validated by the murals on every corner.

This mural shows this Struggle and the resolution of that Struggle

Tequila and T Shirts

Mojiganga Makeover

Mojiganga - The Puppets

Mojigangas are an interesting part of San Miguel. Deb Hall has written about the history of  it here .

Artists look for inspiration in the very place they live.  San Miguel is an artists colony because of its location, and the light and colors.  To the local artists, these fantastical creatures called Expats soon became the inspiration for some of the Mojijangas.

And as always happens Life soon begins to imitate Art.

Expats looking for that unique look begin to look at the Mojigangas as a source of inspiration for their look.

But they need help creating that unique look.

Enter the Mojiganga Makeover Artist.

Mojiganga Makeover

These Makeover Artists can take that Ohio school marm and make her into a San Miguel resident

Goblin Gang

The Jardin San Miguel de Allende

Goblin in the Jardin

The jardin in San Miguel is full of trees.

These trees were the inspiration for an interesting and not too popular Gang, similar but different from the Troll Gang.

The Goblin Gang was formed by the tree huggers of San Miguel.

These Urban environmentalists knew that simply asking people to support a Greener Earth would fall on deaf ears unless the public’s imagination could be captured.

This Gang is Green, of course and hides among or near the trees of San Miguel hoping either for a donation or to startle someone into thinking about the environment.

Here Oakanna one of the head Goblins is spying on some tourists  and considering her next move -donation or startle.  Startle seems to happen a lot more than donation.

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Stalked by a Goblin

Many Goblins simply stalk people from afar. They hide in or near the trees and watch for the chance to ask for a donation.
Tourists think they are street people but after a few days in San Miguel know who they are, harmless yet persistant  lovers of the environment.
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Extroverted Goblin in the Jardin

Some Goblins are not afraid of the open spaces outside the trees. Their cause of saving the earth has made them very brave. They strut into the open spaces and demand that you respect the earth.

American Child Labor

Walmart labor practices have come to San Miguel. Artists in their desperation to clear inventory, have resorted to using Child Shills to bring in the old people and make a sale.

Who can resist Oliver Twist and Shirley Temple selling Mom’s jewelry?

Actually anyone in San Miguel under the age of fifty seven is considered a child.

Child Shills

The Sport of Gangs

There are Golf Courses in San Miguel but Golf is so Republican and so Ajijic.

Democratic Gangs in San Miguel, wanted sport that was uniquely San Miguel.  There had to be an element of  physical fitness without being too Republican nor indicative of conspicuous consumption.  It had to involve outdoors,  a clothing requirement, straw hats, physical fitness, puns, drinking and an audience.

The Solution – Croquet

The Pitch

Croquet is so San Miguel and is now the ultimate Gang Sport- and such fun. It is sort of like Tennis but with a big stick.

It is played on Pitch not in a field nor the front lawn.

There is a dress requirement – Whites.

There is a chance to yell “Good Shot”.

It is a perfect game for Seniors as the Croquet Mallet can be used as a support when not being swung.

And it is an Old Sport.

There has been a Croquet Pitch in San Miguel for a long time.

The newest pitch is the Rancho Pancho.
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The Mallet

But with all things in San Miguel it has come with controversy.  There appears to be some rivalry with Croquet in San Miguel and Croquet Wars can be dangerous as professional croquet mallets, unlike the childhood Sunday sets,  are large and could be used as a weapon.  Mrs. Smith on the Croquet Pitch with a Mallet.
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The Whites

The downside to Croquet is the politically incorrect dress code called Whites.

A dress code is a key requirements to join a gang but the word Whites is problematic for the Liberals of San Miguel.

So members are told to wear Ghost-Like colors – strange choice as Ghost (Gweilo) is the Chinese slang to describe White People. But San Miguel is so White.
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Croquet players are not often seen in town as the Pitch is up the hill.

Croquet Players are often mistaken for chimney sweeps but the  croquet mallet sticking out of the pack is a clue to identify this Gang along with the Ghost-Like colors dress code.

Notice the dark hair.

This is a Croquet Pup, who is new to the game and doesn’t really know he shouldn’t wear his Whites in town but Pups need to be trained.

Gang Influence Grows

Hear No Evil

Will She Shut Up!

Honey what do you think about this?

Are you listening to me?

After a long marriage many men simply stop listening. Well actually, men never do listen well unless it is a sports game or a dirty joke or another guy. These men have had enough and have resorted to a visual representation of their lack of listening.
This is evidence that men don’t listen

The Pony Tail Gang

The Ultimate Queue

Somehow the world doesn’t look right if the husband’s hair is longer than his wife’s.  Something is out of kilter.

But that has not always been the case. Most men in the second half of the 18th century wore their hair long and often in a pony tail or gathered in a silk bag. The term used to describe the pony tail was queue (the French word for “tail“).

For many European soldiers it was mandatory to wear a Pony Tail.

But during much of the 19th century and much of the 20th, Western men decided to wear hair much shorter than women, making male ponytails impossible and subject to ridicule.

In the 1960s, long hair returned as a fashion trend for young men, some of whom wore it in ponytails instead of in the loose, flowing style favored by most hippies.

Time passed, hippies cut their hair, sold out, birthed, retired and the moved to San Miguel.  But like the vestige of the tail we used to have, the memory of the pony tail that once hung on their backs grew stronger until some of  the men of San Miguel began to grow their tails again.

Tree Rings

Pony Tails are the Tree Rings of San Miguel.

The length of the Pony Tail gives you a pretty good indication of how long the Tail Grower has lived in San Miguel.

Here is a group of  recent arrivals in San Miguel in the early stages of Pony Tail Growth.  Their Pony Tails are short and held together with elastics. Not one of these men knows what a Scrunchy is. Not one of these men has found out about Native Jewelry to hold the Tail.

Early Stage Ponytail Growth

These men have been in San Miguel a long time. They are the Docents of Pony Tails. These are the men who like the Tree Rings, know much about San Miguel.

Longtime Residents of San Miguel

And then there is the Unisex Ponytail couple. They have fully embraced the Women’s and Men’s movement in San Miguel.