Texas Folklife Festival

I attended the Texas Folklife Festival this past weekend in San Antonio. The event used to be held the first weekend in August, but some years ago it was moved to June because of the August heat. It may get moved again - to January - because of the June heat.

History:

     The event is held on the grounds of the Texas Institute of Texan Cultures. The Institute is adjacent to the "Tower of the Americas," in case you are in town looking for an interesting and cool place to learn about Texas history.       The Institute is part of/ associated with University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA). The Texas Folklife Festival is an offshoot of the folklife festival held in D.C.

The purpose is to bring to light the many cultures that are in Texas and are a part of Texas history. There is plenty of food to taste - fallafel, fajitas, rabbit, chow mein, blot wurst. To wash it all down you will find an assortment of drinks as well. The many peoples are also highlighted by music and dance performances at one of 7 stages. Here are some of the pixs.

The festival is run almost entirely by volunteers and some of them come in costumes.

Around the grounds there are crafters making baskets, carving, cooking, etc. There are many kid-focused activities as well.

I think these women were baking beans and handing out samples to onlookers

The following three pictures came from the wine tent.

The "Texas Hold'em" bottle was in a glass display. It was a red Grand Reserve - whatever that means.

 The American Indians in Texas performed and then introduced as Comanche, Apache, and Cherokee. The individuals names were all Hispanic/ Mexican

This was a group of Filipino performers about to take the stage.

The performances I saw were an odd combination. First there was the Mexican Folkloric dancers. Although they were young and still needed time to get all those steps down, they were colorful. Then there was the German folk dancers. These were quite a contrast to the foot stomping Mexican dancers. The Germans were followed by the American Indian Dancers, again an odd contrast to the Germans.

The group leader stated that the men have two kinds of hats - round tops and square tops. He said that the Catholics wore the square tops and the Protestant the round tops. True?

This was the only clear picture of the American Indian dancers. My camera does not do so well with movement and these folks were kind of hyper.

Once I figure out how to post a video, I will add the three 15 second videos from the festival.

Joe

Remodeling Update

After much delay, I finally finished the kitchen make-over. Two days ago, I put up the back splash.  If I had the money, I would have bought fancier, more expensive glass tile. These glass tiles were half the price of the others. It took most of the day, but in the end I was happy with the result.

If anyone is interested in doing this kind of work, I can offer you some how-to tips that I learned along the way.

Driveway:

I installed a gate opener, but the slope of the driveway kept the gate from working as it should. I needed to take down the old concrete and some of the new. I am thinking that in the future, a new drive way will have to be poured or constructed. This will do for now.

The fence had to be raised to clear the slope. The fence is now back level with the other.

The red is mulch. I needed something to cover the rock and dirt. I did not have the strength to break the right side. Maybe in the near future I will again rent the concrete breaker/ jack hammer thing and break the concrete to even out the look. Maybe Not.

 

Trip to Monterrey Mexico

        Against the warnings from the U.S. State Dept., I went into Mexico on May 1. I dared not take my car, for fear of a hijack. Instead I took the bus. The trip itself is about 3 and a half hours by bus. It is non-stop, except for the miilitary inspections. One never knows how many of those there will be. One also does not know if they are really soldiers or make-beleive ones. There was only one military stop and they did not get on board.
          My trip to Monterrey was two-fold. I wanted to visit with friends and pseudo-relatives and I wanted to gather information about the family. I started working on the geneology and needed hard facts and dates and juicy gossip.

            Monterrey has a bizillion people. It is the industrial capital of Mexico. It is surrounded by mountains. The geography and the traffic makes the city unbearably hot in the summer. The iconic image of the city is Cerro de la Silla (Saddle Mountain).  However, this time there were storms in the area and although it did not rain, the temperaturs was very pleasant, which was a surprise for trhe month of May.

Mexico, Monterrey, and the people I know are divided into two classes, the "have" and the have not."  I needed time with all of them so I will share my views.

HAVE:

The people with money are well known to all by their address or "colonia." These folks have all the conveniences of modern life. Those that I visited are pseudo-relatives because I have not yet determined our connection. Until I see it on the geneological flow chart, I won't really know. In Mexico, your grandmother's aunt is your "aunt." The "grand" or "great" is not mentioned. The lines get blurred.

This is Javier and Rosa, the nicest and most attentive poeple. He is a retired engineer and university professor. She is a retired surgical nurse. They shop at the malls, WalMart, and the modern grocery stores. There is a house helper that comes in 2 times a week, as well as someone to wash the cars and care for the patio garden. The following pictures show their environment.

HAVE-NOT:

The people on the other side of the equation are also known by the "colonia" where they live. These folks are barely getting by. Their houses have the necessary conveniences, fridge, stove, washer. There is no central air or en-suite bathrooms. No one comes by to wash the car because they don't have one. The cleaning lady lives on the property. They are not likely to shop in the fancy store or malls because of price and inconvenience.

Jose Juan is a life-long friend. He is a welder/ wrought iron artist. Although he is officially "retired" he must continue to take on odd jobs to make ends meet. I don't know how much formal education he had, but it was not much. He worked all his life to help his siblings get an education and help his family survive. My aunt's house was right across the street from him.

Ester is Jose Juan's mother. She had 13 children. In the photo she is cleaning a chicken to make my lunch. The woman in the shadows is one of the daughters, Socorro, who lives on the property, in the back with her husband. She is the one who does the daily sweeping and mopping. She has never lived anywhere else.







Their backyard/patio is the work spcae for Jose Juan and Socorro's husband, who tinkers with carpentry jobs. The neighborhood is their life. Their shopping is restricted to what is close by. The abandoned building below used to be a grocery store many years ago.

Another abandoned building (grocery store) on the corner. By the way, when you drive in this colonia remember that the stop signs are across the street from you and the street names are on the buildings infront of you, not on sign-posts. In the picture below the stop sign is covered with flyers and the name of the cross street is barely visible in yellow, "Libertad."

The center of the city was a tourist mecca until the violence, the abductions, and the killings. Oh and the fact that the State Dept. issued those warnings against travel into Mexico. It is still a vibrant city and the downtown is still open for business.

Giant plaza downtown with elaborate fountains and sculptures.

Hotel Ancira caters to tourists and those with gold credit cards. There is a very nice bar and buffet.

I could not resist. This restaurant is right across the street from the Ancira and its name was no doubt intending to bring in the "gringos." If you don't get it, give it a moment.

This old church is in the poor colonia, a few blocks from my friends' house. I was built in 1895. It seemed much larger when I was a kid. Now it is dwarfed by the concrete monster that took its place. You can this newer church in the first picture in the foreground to the Saddle Mountain.

The Monterrey version of the Statue of LIberty celebrates the breaking of the Spanish and dictators' chains. The giant archway used to be a"drive-around" but now it is a drive-through arch. Like many European cities, Monterrey has statues in honor of this or that hero, this battle or that one.

What can I say? I saw this outside an upholstery shop and had to take the picture. If I could have, I would have bought the shoe and had it recovered. Crossing the border would have been interesting though.

Conclusion

 I always enjoy my trips to Monterrey. This time I found some interetsing tidbits about my aunt and other family members. The trip left me wanting to go further into Mexico in search of my family's origins.

I stayed with the "poor folks" 3 nights and 4 nights at the other colonia. I enjoyed my 3-night stay with Jose Juan and his mother better than the other nights. We walked or took the bus around the city. There was no A/C in the house, but I felt more comfortable, at ease. I was able to be myself. I will be back in  mid-June.

Until next time.

Joe

Onions

Onions

This may seem like an odd topic to address, but it is a pressing topic at the moment. I was surprised to learn how varied the onion family was and how pretty their blossoms are. The fried "onion blossom" are especially good, not really a flower. Consider these onion pix.

 However, these pretty pictures are not the focus of my post. It is a greater evil - onion skins.

      My house is directly across from an onion processing plant. These folks receive the crates full of onions, both local and from Mexico. The onions are "cleaned" and sorted, bagged and shipped out.

The onions are of three varieties - white, yellow, and purple.

The problem for me stems from the processing of these.

Noise

Once the plants begins to process, the noise begins. There are 5 giant "fans" on my side of the plant. I am not sure what their purpose is, but the noise from these is unbearable. I cannot shut it out when I am inside the house. Having a conversation outside is a shouting match. This noise is almost 24/7 at the peak of processing. For some strange reason, the plant is closed on Sundays.

Litter

As the onion is being sorted, by hand and as it make its way on conveyor belts, the outer layers of skin are shed. These skins are easily carried by the constant south winds that blow in March and April.

This is the biggest culprit. The conveyor belt takes unwanted onions and other refuse to the bin and fills these trucks for ultimate removal. The wind is blowing in your face as you see this picture. The conveyor belt is not enclosed = littering. The top of the bin is screened, but the screen is detached in several places = littering.

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Onion skins at the bottom of the conveyor belt andf all around the truck. These will find their wings in time.

Eventually the flying onion skins make it across the street and into my yard. The location of the conveyor belt and the trash bin and the location of the giant fans are on the west side of the plant - my side. Here is what I have to deal with when the wind is blowing.

 If I did not clean these on a regular basis, the entire lawn would be covered and ultimately suffocate the grass. This has happened before. Raking is too much work. I use the skills I learned from dealing with falling leaves and the leaf blower. I blow the skins to the back fence - going with the wind. Once there, I wet the skins and ultimately collect them.

 This problem has been ongoing for as long as the plant has been there. Unfortunately there has not been someone here at the house to address it as it should . Calls to the plant about the littering have been responded with "we can't control the wind."

I am hoping to be more forceful. I found a city statute that clearly addresses littering. I will also offer some solutions to the owners - sweep the grounds, fix the screens, spray the litter with water regularly and then pick it up. I will wait until the end of the onion season to confront the culprits. I heard that there are 4 more weeks remaining. It could end earliuer if we get a good soaking rain, that stops the harvest. Time will tell.

This has been a good onion skin week. There was little wind Saturday through Tuesday. Today the wind was strong but it was from the North. I don't know what suckers had onion skins on their property. The end is near.

Joe

Electric gate

The idea

    I see my relatives with electric garage door openers. I see the elegant gates on TV open effortlessly and automatically. Why can't I have one? I have a chain-link fence and a gate that requires my getting out of the car to open it and to close it before  I can drive off and after I drive into the property.

The Gate

What is wrong with this picture? The gate opener was installed following the instructions to the letter. I watched the video that showed me how to install and what it would look like after. The video showed the elegant gates I mentioned.

The problem is not with the gate but with the slope of the drive-way. The problem begins about 3 feet from the fence and mainly on the left side. To have an electric gate opener, the solution was to raise the gate to clear the offending surface. It works but it looks bad.

What this means is that the concrete, which is about 4 inches thick, will have to be removed and the area resurfaced. This will allow the gate to be brought down in line with the rest of the fence.

 My brother-in-law loaned me his sledge hammer. It took only a few minutes to find out that my dainty hands were not made to sledge anything. I quickly realized why people were likely to hire Mexican day laborers for this kind of work. I have not resorted to that. I will investigate the renatal and use of a Jack Hammer.

Kitchen finally and bathroom

I have finished with the Kitchen make-over. I am very grateful for my brother-in-law's (Lauro) help. If it were not for him, I would still be working on it. Since the last batch of pictures, a hole was cut in the wall to the living room and the counter-top was cut and glued into place. The hole in the wall was the easy part. It is about 3.5 ft by 5 ft.  The amount of light has increased and I can see the TV from the kitchen.

The blue that you see through the opening is in the front bedroom, past the living room and the hallway.

The one thing that I dreaded was the the ceiling would cave in when we cut the wall studs. Luckily that did not happen.

The counter top looks like granite but it is faux granite. I bought this at the Habitat store in San Antonio in September. It sat in the driveway until last Saturday when it found its home. It does not sit perfectly because we installed on the original counter, and that was far from level.

Bathroom

Some time back the bathroom had been remodeled to make it ADA accessible for my aunt. So, this room simply needed a paint job. I used the very light yellow from the cabinets for the walls and a contrast color on the wall facing the toilet. I tried to match the color from the frames already in the room. I think it looks great. I also removed the existing and unneeded medicine cabinet. I will start looking for a different faucet set.

Hallway

There is not much to see other than the shiny painted surface of the hall that leads from the bathroom to what was my aunt's room.