A Gringo in Mexico

Father's Day Watch the video This is a video of our Father's Day trip to El Chiflon waterfalls in Chiapas, near Comitan. We spent the day swimming (actually trying to not get knocked over by the current), picnicking and hiking up to the larger falls above the swimming area. We saw lots of lizards, butterflies and even a small bird that had fallen from it's nest. The falls are spectacular. We went up to the last lookout, just below the falls, although I had to leave my camera with someone below because the spray from the falls would have ruined it. At the last lookout you are just below the falls on a smal rock outcrop. The spray from the waterfalls comes up at you from below. The wind from the falls was strong (this is the highest I've seen the water level there) and standing on top of this rock below the falls with the sun directly above we had a rainbow below us in a perfect 360 circle. Next time I'm bringing a protective cover for my camera so I can film that. It was a great Father's day.

Guadalupe Rockets Redux Watch the video Back in January I posted a short video of the amazing rockets (cuetes) shot off during the Guadalupe fiesta (http://blip.tv/file/8548). Here's a video shot by my friend Bruce Ferguson of the same celebration. If you look closely about 19 seconds into the video, just slightly above center you can see me kneeking down, with my eye glued to the viewfinder, getting a closeup view of the rocket launches. The thumbnail for this video has a red circle superimposed so that you can see me. Bruce got a nice overall long shot of the celebration, but I was following the advice of war photographer Robert Capa: "If your pictures aren`t good enough, you aren't close enough." (http://www.time.com/time/europe/magazine/article/0,13005,901020708-267730,00.html)

Dolphins in the Bow Wake Watch the video Well, my big project is over and I'll be able to spend more time on video. Here's some video I shot back in April when my son Norm was here visiting. We went down to Puerta Arista and did some fishing. We launched the boat through the surf and went out a few kilometers into the Pacific. We saw quite a few dolphins out there, doing the same thing we were: fishing. In fact the best fishing was when we were running with the dolphins. This footage is of a group of dolphins following us and playing in the bow wake of our small boat. I was hanging out over the bow and got some great footage. The fish my son catches at the end of this clip is a bonito, a type of small tuna.

Carnaval Watch the video We went down to see the Carnaval celebration in Ocozocoatla last Sunday. It's a spectacular parade with lots of very colorful costumes, music and pandamonium. A local custom is that the onlookers and the parade participants throw flour and talc powder at each other and spray foam at everone. You can see the foam and flour in the air in a lot of this video. It's a pretty wild time; very festive and just this side of chaos. Very Mexican. Hope you enjoy.

Spraying Foam Watch the video We went to the Carnaval celebration in Ocozocoatla, Chiapas Mexico last Sunday. There's a huge parade with great costumes and the crowd and the people in the parade throw flour and talcum powder at each other and spray foam at each other. At first Angie, my youngest daughter (6 yr. old) was a little freaked out by the throwing and spraying. Then my wife Rocio bought her a can of foam to spray. She soon got over her anxieties. This footage is of my family. Angie sprays Rocio and then sprays me. Then I spray Angie and my oldest daughter Helena and Rocio.

Feliz Navidad Watch the video Yeah, I know, it's almost February. WEll I was going through footage I took just after Christmas and I couldn't resist uploading this Dancing Singing Santa doll. Let me be the first to say Feliz Navidad, Merry Christmas!

Bull Riding, Equipulas Fiesta, Chilil, Chiapas Watch the video Last Sunday was the feast day of Esquipulas and we went to Chilil to see their fiesta. I've known a family of albaniles (masons) from Chilil for about 8 years now, but have never visited their village. It's a small village about half an hour from San Cristobal. I figured it was a small village and the festival probably wasn't that interesting   Well, I was wrong. It's a religious feast and there was a wonderful procession where the village elders got in a pickup truck with the Esquipulas cross (Esquipulas is a town in Guatemala where a burning cross miraculuosly fell from the sky in colonial times) and they drove slowly around the village as a large crowd followed them.   After the procession the elders sat at a table outside of the church and drank pox, a cane liquor used in the highlands. There was traditional flute and drum  music (pre-hispanic in origin), a German style brass band and a modern rock band, all playing at the same time. A very intense basketball tournament and a soccer tournament were also going on.   But we came to see the bull riding. There's a big corral in town and they brought in one bull at a time to be riden. They tied him to the rail fence and then a large group of men pulled his tail so he couldn't kick and move. The rider mounted him and then they turned him loose. After the ride they would lasso him and them tie him to the fence again so the rider, who was pretty much tied to the bull, could get off.   I met my friends and as it turned out a cousin of theirs was the first rider. Andres has been doing this for a few years and he did a good job. You'll also see Carmen, one of the brothers that I know, sitting on the fence and then entering the ring with a cape to get the bull to move. He's the one with the white shirt.    We'll definately be going back to this fiesta again.    The music is by the brass band that was at the fiesta. Sorry, I didn't get their name. 

Guadalupe Fiesta: Rockets Watch the video As part of the Guadalupe Fiesta in San Cristobal there is a Grand Quemada de Cuetes y Bombas (the great Burning of Rockets and Bombs). Once the 1000+ bombs have exploded (see previous post) the cueteros (rocket makers) gather on top of the hill beside the church of Guadalupe. About 15 men start launching home made rockets. Another 15 or so boys feed them the rockets. They fill the air with noise and smoke for over 15 minutes as the 1000+ rockets explode. I got some pretty close up views of this; so close that my lens was covered in soot and dust by the end   Enjoy 

Bombs Watch the video As part of the Guadalupe Fisesta in San Cristobal there is a Grand Quemada de Cuetes y Bombas (Greta Burning of Rockets and Bombs). The same family has been putting on this exhibition for over 45 years.

Click here to see the video This is my second post for Halloween Vlogfest 2005. This is from about 4 years ago. I did a Day of the Dead tour for seven years; five years in Oaxaca and two years here in Chiapas. This footage was shot in the cemetary in Xoxocotlan which is a Zapotec Indian neighborhood on the edge of Oaxaca City. It has a 16th century ruined church right in the middle of the cemetary, in fact there are people buried inside the ruins of the church. It is one of the most beautiful places to see Dia de los Muertos in Mexico. It's a very peaceful setting, people are busy cleaning and decorating the graves. It has a very hushed, sort of reverant feeling about it. One of the things I love about Dia de los Muertos is that it is different in every single graveyard or home that it is celebrated in. It can be peaceful, sad, joyous, drunken, whatever; the whole range of emotions. By the way, Dia de los Muertos is celebrated in Xoxocotlan on October 31. Music is by Lila Downs: Yunu Yucu Ninu from the album Yuta Tata, Arbol de la Vida halloweenvlogfest2005

Click here to see the video Here's the finished version of the movie I was the the DP of in NYC. This is the finished version (I posted an animation clip from it earlier) This is a promotional film for the publishing services company that I work for. It will be shown to potential customers to show them what we can do. We shot this over a ten day period in June, with another very short piece shot in Mexico this month. It's seven and a half minutes long; kind of long for a videoblog, but I'm very happy with it so I wanted to share it. It was written by Steve Zimmerman and Gerard Damiano, directed and edited by Gerard Damiano. Animation is by Ruth Schwartz. Photography Jack Nelson, Art Direction Mark Goodkin,lighting Chris Dixon, sound Steve Kashuck, sound engineering by Ken Takeuchi. Starring: PDQ boardroom: Joel Farrel, Michael Cyril Creighton, Liz Forst, Susan Horowitz, Damion Dacosta, Leslie Cloninger Everyworker: Steve Cuttler As Herself: Belen Cookinham The jefes: June Schwartz, Liz Villela, Steve Zimmerman Booklinks staff: Angie Castro, Janeth Patarroyo, Steven Vasquez, Tassiana Larouchelle, Alejandra Gritsipis, Marty Fluger, Sean Riley, Elena Lee, Mark Shoffner, Humberto Schettino, Zeke Zimmerman Quality Control: Jennifer Novak, Noah Zimmerman Booklinks Mexico Office: Jack Nelson, Mariachi Azteca "Mordisquitos!": Lyrics by Belen Cookinham, music by Matt Kaplowitz "By Now": written and performed by Steve Cuttler

Click here to see the video Xochimilco is home to the last of the chinampas or "floating gardens". The Axtecs used the chinampas to raise the food that was needed for their capital city of Tenochtitlan. They were originaly artificial islands that were anchored to the lake bottom and didn't really float. The canals that weve amoung them are all that's left of the large lake that once filled the Valley of Mexico. The chinampas are still used for agriculture, mostly the growing of flowers (Xochimilco is Aztec for "place of the flowers"). It's a very popular site for families on weekends. You rent a boat and travel through the canals where you can buy a meal, drinks, jewelry, etc. Meanwhile mariachis, marimbas and other bands travel up and down the canals and for a fee they will tie up to your boat and play for you. There are greenhouses to visit and a large market to visit, or you can just float along on the canals and soak up the sun.

Click here to see the video Another short clip from our vacation. The Torre Latinoamericano is the tallest building in Mexico City, much higher than any other building, so you get a great view of the valley from the observation deck on the 42nd floor. Music is Al Jolson singing "I'm Sitting On Top of the World"

Click here to see the video This is another outake from the promotional film I worked on for the publishing services company I work for called Booklinks. They needed some comic relief and I was elected (thanks Cory). In this scene they are featuring the Mexican office which I manage. A document has been sent to us and I am translating it into Spanish. Behind me all sorts of wierd things go on, one of which is a visit by a mariachi band. Here the Mariachi Azteca plays Cielito Lindo while I (almost) ignore them. Hang in there until the second chorus. Sing along if you like. Enjoy Here are the words: Aye, aye, aye, aye Cantar no llores Porque? Cantando se alegra, Cielito lindo, Los corazones Translation: Aye, aye, aye, aye, Sing, don't cry Why? Because singing makes the heart happy, Pretty sky

Click here to see the video UNAM is the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico. It's the oldest university in the Americas (founded 1551) and the largest in Latin America (290,000 students if you include all of it's campuses). The main campus is the Ciudad Universitaria (University City) which is in the southern part of Mexico City, and it is enormous. It was built in the 1950's and has some spectacular buildings. My daughter Helena wants to go there, so as part of our trip we visited the campus. The first building you see is the ten story high central library. It's covered in a mural designed by Juan O'Gorman. The other large building with huge sculptures is the administration building. The long sculpture that you see attached to the administration building (the one in the thumbnail) is by David Siquieros. There are also shots of the sculpture garden in front of the MUCA (Museo de Ciencias y Artes).

Click here to see the video We pretty much did our vacation on the cheap: we took the overnight bus to Mexico City, stayed in a fairly cheap hotel and ate mostly in economical places. I wanted to take the family to one special place to eat, so we went to Cafe Tacuba, a very nice, very pretty restaurant on Tacuba a few blocks west of the zocalo. There was an estudiantina playing there the day we went. Estudiantinas are string bands, with guitars, bass, mandolins and only a tamborine for rhythym and they are a Spanish tradition. They would pay their way through university by playing music. In this clip they are playing a very romantic Mexican song called "Besame Mucho" (Kiss Me a Lot). That's my family at the table (in order of appearance, my daughters Angie and Helena and my wife Rocio. Note the colonial architecture and the colonial style paintings. Oh yeah, the food is great too.

Click here to see the video I didn't have enough footage to make a story, but I'm posting it anyway. The zocalo is the central square of Mexico City. It stands where the center of Tenochtitlan, the Aztec city stood. The Spaniards tore down the Aztec temples and put up the cathedral and government buildings. The first clip is a pan of the zocalo in the early evening. In the background you can hear drums beating. These are the Aztec dancers that are there day and night, every day. The second clip is of a troupe of Aztec dancers.

Click here to see the video While we were in Mexico City we went to a few markets. Tenochtitlan was the biggest market in the new world before the Spaniards conquered it and created Mexico City. It is still a huge marketplace. There are illegal street vendors everywhere and then more legal markets like the one in this video which starts directly behind the Palacio National and goes on for blocks. We also went to Tepito, famous for cheap goods, knockoffs, stolen merchandise, pickpockets and the occasional mugging. We spent a few hours there and had no problems with pickpockets or muggings. What I say in the video is mostly true: Mexicans come to Mexico City to shop, whether at the high end toney stores like Liverpool or at Tepito. If you can't get it here, you can't get it in Mexico.

Click here to see the video So we just got back from a short vacation trip to Mexico City (we live in San Cristobal de Las Casas, Chiapas). Here's the first of three short video blog pieces about looking for the real Mexico.

Click here to see the video Angie's taking swimming lessons this summer. Here is her second class. At the end of the class she tried over and over to dive to the bottom of the shallow end of the pool to pick up canicas (marbles). She couldn't quite do it. Of course the very next day when I wasn't there with the video camera she did it.

Click here to see the video We went to Tuxtla this weekend and I bought Angie a CD from one of those awful Mexican children's telenovelas. She loved the music, played it for hours, and then dragged me in to dance with her in front of her mirror. I look like a fool, but it was fun and I'm glad Rocio taped us. We'll laugh over this one for years.

Click here to see the video More footage from my documentary-in-the-making about the Corpus Cristi fiesta in Suchiapa Mexico. Here is a couple of minutes from an interview I did with my friend Mariano who is a maskmaker in Suchiapa and makes many of the masks used in the dances and celebrations. It is subtitled in English. Here he talks about the tiger mask. It's really a jaguar, but it's always called a "tigre" or tiger here. There are dozens of tigers in each of the many processions. They are usually teenaged boys and their job is to be at the front of the procession, reserving intersections so that the procession moves through town smoothly. They also are a kind of announcement of the procession as their shouts can be heard many blocks away. The celebration of Corpus Cristi is very typically Mexican as it has pre-Hispanic elements (such as the tiger, deer, and serpent characters) as well as Catholic elements such as the Eucharist, and David and Goliath. I will be posting clips from other interviews and the processions as soon as I can.

Click here to see the video This is a clip from a project I'm working on, a documentary about the Corpus Cristi fiesta in Suchiapa Mexico. I have hours of tape of the fiesta, the dances and processions. This year I started interviewing people: participants, maskmakers, dancers, musicians, etc. I'm going to intercut the interviews with the fiesta footage to give it more context, explain the meaning of the symbolism, etc. I was at my friend Mariano's house interviewing him. He's a maskmaker that makes many of the masks used in the fiesta. While I was there his two sons (also maskmakers) asked if I wanted to shoot them playing the traditional music. I have about an hour's worth of them playing. This is traditional music played on pre-Hispanic instruments (just a flute and a drum, both homemade). It is meant to be processional music and so it's a little out of context here, but I thought I'd post it anyway to let viewers see something different. I'll probably be using this mostly as a soundtrack over other footage. I'll be posting something from Mariano's interview as soon as I finish the subtitles. I'll also be posting clips of the dances and processions.

Click here to see the video Well, it's been a big week. Angie and Helena both finished up their school and my wife Rocio and her sister Aurora both received their Masters Degree in Education. Rocio teaches English at a prepa and Aurora teaches history at a private school. The ceremony was at the auditorium of the local law school. The auditorium was originally a Jesuit church, built in the 1600's.

Click here to see the video Murder, incest, self-abuse, amateur theater.... Hey, at least there are no bunnies. My other daughter Helena is finishing the first year of prepa (Mexican equivalent of high school). The final project for her English class was to put on the play Oedipus Rex. Helena is going to a brand new private high school and there are only 8 students in her class, only one of which is a guy. So Helena got to play Oedipus (the one boy in the class played the king). Remember that this is not a theater group; the play took place in a classroom with one hand-held spotlight. All of the students are of course Spanish speakers doing their first play in English.

Click here to see the video My five year old daughter Angie just finished prescolar 2 here in San Cristobal de Las Casas (the Mexican equivaleny of kindergarten). As part of the celebration her class put on a short show. It had to do with all the animals in the forest being invited to a party. At the end she calls me "Daddo". That's her Spanglish word for "Daddy". This is the second video in a row to feature bunnies. I promiss the next entry will have more of an edge.