Coyoacanense

Frida in spanish words is "una Coyoacanense", which means she is from Coyoacán, she was born here, in this place of the México Valley and died in the same house where she saw light for the first time.

Coyoacán means place of Coyotes, it was the place where Conquistador Cortez made a palace for himself, it is claimed too, that he erected a house for Malinche, a girl Native-Mexican that help him win over the Aztecs.

As every town in Mexico, Coyoacan has its main plaza, Frida's Casa Azul is just some blocks away from it.


Frida had a simple life in Coyoacán, she strolled the streets when she was a child, she married in the municipality house of town, she used to go to the market, and liked to assist to the plaza's festivities like "16 de septiembre" Independence day, or make appearance in the church, even though she wasn't very religious at all.


In the Blue House she lived, she suffered, she welcomed friends and students, she painted, wrote letters and express her-self on her diary.


But Coyoacán has much more things to offer, just to prove the visitor how this environment nurtured such splendid artist.



Coyoacán with little streets and colorful houses, little plazas and gardens, old train stations now converted in stores or forgotten bridges that at once, deep in the past, it was the only way to go from one place to the other, from Coyoacán to San Angel.

Mas Verano

I don't have many things to say... Just that we are having a very relaxing time these days. Aitana has the mission of making a mural in our backyard, so she started to do it with one of her favorites themes: The Ocean.

Pepe is helping Aitana with guidance about mixing primary colors.

Bidane enjoys herself with the cat and making mud cakes.
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We went to Tijuana to visit long-time friends Oscar & Rocio, is always fun to talk with them. They are very happy with their very beloved son Ivan.

We went to the beach with kindergarden families and friends. As you can see we spotted some surfers (Isabel & Don).
I couldn't get the kids faces because they were trying to have chips from Benj.

Tras los pasos de Frida

Fridomaniacs? Yes we are, and I'm sure there are thousands or more people feeling the same towards Frida Kahlo. So we are visiting Mexico City and be present in the big and fabulous exhibition about Frida Kahlo's life in Palacio de Bellas Artes or the National Palace of Fine Arts (Above), the same place where she was taken when she died.

In Mexico City's downtown or "Centro Histórico" there are buildings from the past, great and majestic buildings, in one of them called "Antiguo Colegio de San Ildefonso" Frida and Diego met. He was in the process of one of his murals, she studying High School.
Of course the famous "Casa Azul"or Blue House, where Frida was born, lived and died too. Now a museum located in her beloved Coyoacan. In Frida's time it was a village, now part of the city.

What is inside of Frida's house? her belongings, like her bed.

La casa de Diego y Frida, this house is a museum too, not far from "La Casa Azul", it was ordered to be constructed by her husband the painter and muralist Diego Rivera, the architect was Juan O'gorman, (famous Mexican architect). As you can see the house has "organic elements" like the cactus fence. The couple lived here for a short period of time, after they came back from the U.S and before their divorce, unless I found out other things in our trip.
Diego and Frida walking around their house. They married again.

Xochimilco, Frida enjoyed the canals and produce of the "Floating Gardens" known as "Chinampas", today Xochimilco has a traditional area and an ecological park created in 1993 as part of an "ecological rescue project".

Summer vacations are here!

Yes they are... Today Bidane had dentist appoinment, she was so brave, it wasn't necessary to put anestesy on her. So I promised to buy her an ice cream as a reward (contradiction uh?, a fixed molar invaded with sugar again), but the dentist office said no sugar cone this time, she felt a little bit of disappointment, but I think the chocolate flavor was enough to make her happy again. This ice-cream place is a landmark of National City.

Yesterday was the girls Dance Studio presentation in Del Mar Fair, or the SD County Fair as they like to call it now. Do not ask for pictures from their dance, because I run out of batteries for the camera and a good Mexican fellow gave me a package, can you imagine, they do not sell batteries in the whole place?.

Any way, the girls had a good time after the stage, they ride here and there, not too much, enough to feel the dizziness and enough for me, the feeling of a good parent came to me. I don't like being in the sun and waiting for them to get down, so it was a sacrifice, isn't that what parents do?

Aprovechando que las chicas tenian presentación en la feria de San Diego, ni Aitana ni Bidane quisieron desaprovechar la oportunidad de subirse a los juegos mecánicos, pasear y asolearse, con tal de divertirse. Hasta decidieron no asistir al último día de clases en la escuela.

Sewing fever.

Aitana has a new skirt with a cool design of animals, all thanks to Amy's skirt party. I went to the party thinking I took the right measurements of Aitana's waist and hip, I cut the fabric, and it was wrong...after all, I had to attach more fabric in order to have a decent result, she was pleased with her new skirt.
Months ago I got the hearts fabric for Bidane, since she is drawing and wondering about hearts all the time, I thought it was good idea to make her a dress, I did it, as you can see. But the result wasn't what I wished for, the stripes were so loose and she was wiggling with them the whole day, I wasn't happy. We came back home and I had to fix it, first thing, I put elastic in the front and back neck, now I can say, it looks much better, you would judge for yourself next time she wears it.

La graduación de Bidane in the last day of school.

Bidane and her teacher Ms. Morgan at graduation day.

Hoy Bidane tuvo su acto de graduación de kinder, lo cual significa que el año que entra estará en primer grado, lo que se traduce en que habrá más tareas y proyectos que hacer y que posiblemente no volverá a jugar con los disfraces (eso todavía no lo sabe).
Todos los graduados mostraron gran felicidad, supongo que están listos para el verano, las vacaciones y lo bien que la pasarán.

Here the "graduates" with their beloved teacher Ms. Morgan. She gave a beautiful speech about their achievement.
Now the children are looking ahead for vacations, sun and fun, fun.

Morgan excited about the gift she recived from the parents of the Superstars group.
Thanks to Kari (orange blouse), to put everything together so Morgan can have her new video camera.

Hasta la vista baby, new things will come with our new facility.

Sunday last minute.

For father's day we headed south to Ensenada, to visit Bodegas Santo Tomás (a winery). Since Pepe enjoys to much the wine culture and being a fan of this Mexican wine, we made our minds just in the morning and one hour later we were in the car.

The place is located almost downtown Ensenada, and what engaged Pepe the most, is the fact of the paintings that are exhibition in that place, he just put a post about it.


In short, those paintings were made by Jesús Helguera, guy famous by his pictures of cotidianity and everyday life, most of the paintings in the tasting room, have a bit of humor and some sort of romance about what could it be a Mission's life and the friars making wine.

Féliz Día del Padre

Felicidades a los papás presentes en nuestras vidas, el abue Chente y el Abuelo Jorge.
- Gracias por no dejarnos sin guía. -

Felicidades Pepe, seguro tus hijitas piensan que eres el mejor de todos. Y si no el mejor, te acercas a serlo...

Te quiero "Apá".


Felicidades a todos los demás... el tío David, mis hermanitos Jorge y Eduardo; Elliott. Por supuesto los cuates y friends... Happy Father's day.

De nuevo Frida

Any plans to visit Mexico city lately? I will consider it very seriously, because the most important and best exhibition of Frida's work will be seen in Mexico City from June 13 to August 19, 2007 in "El Palacio de Bellas Artes", as part of her 100th Birthday!
La Casa Azul is organizig another exhibition too, with documents never seen before, plus lectures and plays.

You can get into the Exhibition, The National Homage to Frida Kahlo, for less than 4 dlls. and find 354 art pieces, among them paintings, pictures, letters.

Paintings and drawings from private collections around the world and those from another museums in Mexico, United States and Japan.

Interested? .... Me too! For more Frida, stay tunned.

Más presentaciones.

Vernetta's Dance Studio had another performance last saturday, not very far from our house. Bidane had for the first time her custome of "The Little Green Man", who happen to come from Mars, that is why she has this shiny thing on her.

BRAVOOOOOOOOOOOO!

YES... The 4th Annual Talent Show of SDCCS (el nombre de la escuela).
Fantástico, Increíble, Wonderful, Beautiful!!!
Great jobs from all the participants.
All the school's community so happy to be in our new facility.
Todo sucedió en el auditorio de las instalaciones que tendrá la escuela, desde el próximo año escolar en adelante. Gran emoción Bidane y Aitana estuvieron presentes en el show.
Aitana made a performance of a jaguar... música de Jorge Reyes, poema escrito por ella misma.
Bidane was a part of the pinguin dance and she danced as a "Fairy" too.
Bidane, doble participación como pinguino y como balerina.
We had as well, good performances from very nice friends.

El escenario, New SDCCS Auditorium

.... little too cute... Así dice la canción de los pinguinos

Aitana, a very hungry cat... mask hand-made by Pepe, producción y dirección de la puesta en escena por Pepe.

Destreza con los vasos.

Indi y sus Macarenas

Proud parents

Good singing Isabel

Mamá con bailarina y jaguar....

Childhood memories.

Summer is just around the corner and I started to think about my childhood summers and these of my daughters, they have long days, beach, pool and sun every day, park concerts, museums and picnics.

Back in my hometown 30 years ago I had fun too. I remember the nice shade of the mango and avocado trees in my aunt's house, the sound of the banana tree leaves moving with the breeze before the rain and the smell of guava, papaya and other fruit placing their sweetness all over the place, the taste of sugar cane and "tuna", the fruit from the cactus (not a fish), and of course the scent of the just wet dirt with the first drops of rain.

Except in the north of Mexico, summer is rainy season, with lighting and thunders. After the late afternoon rain we used to go outside in look for the rainbow, my sister put her little candy sale business in my house's garage, my brothers played with paper boats and I went to my girl-friend neighbor to chat or to the bakery to buy sweet rolls just baked minutes before I got my hands on them.

That bakery was wonderful, dark, full of racks with bread and the big oven and the bakers covered with flour.

We played on the streets and went to the beach when my parents presumed it would be a nice day with little rain, otherwise we could have adventures (and we did) with the bad shape roads. Those stories for another day.

See the picture? those are my hometown surroundings.

Acampando

Nos fuimos de campamento con varias de las familias que componen el grupo de kinder de Bidane, incluyendo la maestra. Todo durante el pasado fin de semana, estuvimos en una localidad cercana a San Diego, llamada Mount Laguna.
Fueron dos noches, desde el viernes por la tarde hasta el domingo por la mañana.
Las niñas se divirtieron mucho, no pararon de jugar, correr, cantar y dejar su espiritu libre sin preocupaciones.