Jerry Brown: Lake Chapala's Video Man

Jerry and Lori Brown

Moving to a new country, or even contemplating such a move, is somewhat like being hit with a tsunami of doubt and questions. Everything is different, and sometimes seems overwhelming. There’s a saying here at Lakeside that everything you want is here, it’s just a matter of finding it. That “finding” can be fun … or completely frustrating.

There’s a micro industry here built around helping people answer the many questions involved with this adventure ... Focus on Mexico brings groups of people here to give them an immersion into the area and a carefully crafted examination of the most pressing questions of where to live and how to deal with the unfamiliar rules and regulations of Mexico.

Several Facebook groups provide forums for people to ask questions about where to find things, how to deal with the immigration regulations, and what’s happening locally. (Ajijic Newbies also brings people together for periodic luncheons to help newcomers make friends and ask questions in person.)

And, there’s Jerry Brown’s videos, a visual encyclopedia of what’s going on in the Lake Chapala area.

Every week, Jerry, and his wife Lori, produce a video about life in the Lake Chapala area. Every week! A project that takes about 25 hours of his time. So far, they have produced almost 300 videos and have about 25,000 subscribers and over 3 million views.

My main question as we talked was “Why?” Part of their answer is presented in their YouTube Channel introduction … to help people know if moving to Mexico is right for them and to provide answers for the many questions involved.

However, as we talked, it became clear that there was more going on. There is an air of generosity that seems to hang over Lake Chapala. So many of the people I’ve met here have started or are avidly involved with projects that help people and animals here. Once a year, at the weekly lecture series called Open Circle Ajijic an engineer presents his almost twenty years of research and work to improve the water quality of the area (made a bit more dramatic when he drinks some of the water directly from the lake). A Canadian woman started and matches individual donors here and in the US and Canada with over 100 university students here. A Mexican folk art fan started the Feria Maestros del Arte 17 years ago and it has become the premier folk art fair here in Mexico.

The list of immigrant contributions to the area is long and impressive. From teaching English, rescuing street dogs, working in orphanages, building cleaner water systems in villages, organizing food donations for the poor, creating a summer art camp for kids, or bringing in cultural events for the local people, many people I've talked with here have reinvented their lives. 

People reinventing themselves.  

Jerry Brown had never done a video before he and Lori came to Ajijic. They have traveled extensively throughout their lives and wanted to help people better understand everything involved with moving to a new culture. When his son suggested making a video, the idea clicked. Now Jerry calls it “our Peace Corps” as they dedicate their time to answering questions and providing a constantly updated source of information for people contemplating moving here as well as all of us who have already made the move.

Jerry Brown’s travel videos are popular because they give a quick overview about the area and everything involved with immigrating here ... also because they are fun to watch. One of their videos shows them as lumps in bed, slowly coming out from under the covers ... fully dressed, of course. Their interaction in the videos is always fun to watch.

Lori is a delightful, energetic woman who escaped from Cambodia as a young mother and has an unsinkable enthusiasm for life. One of my favorite stories they told was about the time when Jerry was training for a marathon in Hawaii and … at the last minute … without any training ... Lori decided to do it also. And, she did. Her time was 8+ hours, but she finished and went on to do 14 marathons and 3 triathlons.

Here are a couple of examples of the videos they produce:

Click here to view.

Click here to view.

 And, the big question, of course, since we all see the ads that come with YouTube videos:

Does he make any money with these videos?

Jerry says he does ... and it works out to about $1.33 per hour ... USD.

Belva and Enrique Veláquez: 26 years of calendars, continuity, and community

1994 Calendar

Artists Belva and Enrique Velázquez moved here from Guadalajara in 1989. While Enrique studied art in Guadalajara, Belva studied art in Colorado. She loves calendars, remarking that, because the weather here is so consistent, “They remind me of what month we’re in." When she went looking for a calendar, she couldn’t find one, so she rounded up some of Enrique’s pen and ink drawings and designed a calendar for 1994.

That first calendar had its issues. It was delivered as a stack of individual sheets, uncollated, unbound.  Belva collated, stapled and drilled the hanging holes in each of the 1,000 calendars she had ordered.  She even did all the caligraphy.

 

After listening to their many customers requests, in 2000 she designed a color calendar and began to do half of the images herself. The calendars capture the quiet beauty and every day life of the Lake Chapala area. They also list Mexico, US, and Canadian holidays, Jewish holidays and the new and full-moon.

2019 Calendar: Cajititlan

Flipping through my newly-purchased calendar for 2019, I was struck by the fact that it is a 13-month calendar. Belva’s explanation was even more striking and shows the depth of care for their customers. “From the beginning, we printed on good paper and designed the calendar with the idea that some people might want to frame the images. We always put the most popular image on the front of the calendar, but that’s always where all the words about the calendar are, so it can’t really be framed. So, we added the thirteen month and repeated the cover image so it can be framed.”

Enrique and Belva are busy, productive artists, who raised three children here and also survived the 1995 Peso Crisis, when the government suddenly devalued the peso resulting in a period of hyperinflation that reached 52%. (1) 

The continuity of producing a calendar every year for 26 years is an event to be celebrated … and they will do that with an open studio on October 5-6 from 4 to 8. In addition to food, fun and live music, they will be displaying all 26 years of the calendar. Come browse through the history of Ajijic.

It’s fascinating to talk with people who have been here  for many years. They remember things such as … when there were no stop lights … when there was only one artist studio in the village. When I asked Belva what change in their almost 30 years here has been most important to her, she said it was the art community that has developed here. “When we first arrived, there was one place to eat, one place to spend the night, one art gallery.” 

 

Now, we often take for granted the abundance of art, restaurants, and cultural opportunities that joins with the great beauty here to make this such a wonderful place to live.

Open Gallery

October 5 and 6, 4 pm to 8 pm.

16 de Septiembre, #7, Ajijic 

 

The Veláquez gallery

1. Wikipedia: Mexican Peso Crisis

The most dangerous thing you can do in Mexico

Little girl in Ajijic

 

Other than buying drugs from a cartel, of course, the most dangerous thing you can do in Mexico is drive a car. Not because of the roads, the other drivers, or the possibility of getting involved with an incomprehensible (for immigrants) legal system. Simply because driving a car means you aren’t walking. 

Our bodies are made for walking, not riding around in cars. Walking pumps blood and lymph fluids through our systems, strengthens our bones and muscles, and lifts our mood. Our western world has done it’s best to make our legs redundant … cars, trains, buses, airplanes, motorcycles, scooters, golf carts, electric bicycles, Segways, escalators and people movers. When did our legs stop being our people movers?

 

Bringing a car to Mexico ... or not 

Many people, when they move to Mexico, opt to leave their cars behind them and become walkers, others bring their mobility devices (cars) with them. It’s a decision that dramatically affects their choices about where to live and shop. One of the reasons I chose Ajijic was because I wanted a walking lifestyle and this compact village and my apartment near the plaza was perfect for that.

Of course, here where cobblestone streets are the norm, there are walking hazards. I have fallen two or three times, fortunately with nothing worse than skinned hands and knees, and embarrassment as people pull me upright, faces filled with worry about the broken bones of a senior gringa. And, many of my friends have fallen, some with more serious injuries. In San Miguel de Allende, one of the prevailing jokes is about the “fallen women of San Miguel.”

Boys in Oaxaca

Two theories about walking

Jokes aside, I have two theories about walking and walkers … neither based on science. First, I believe that walking on cobblestones and the continually changing sidewalk elevations strengthens the micro muscles in our feet and legs and gradually improves balance. It also sharpens our awareness of our bodies and the conditions of the sidewalks and streets. (Avoiding dog feces is a secondary benefit.) 

 

Second, people who walk more than ride, build their strength and balance, and, eventually, fall less.

Also not inconsequential is the report of several of my women friends here on the changes in the appearance of their legs … less cellulite and more defined muscles. They’ve also reported that they feel stronger and have more stamina … even at our mile-high elevation. One of my friends regularly logs 12,000 steps per day … not as exercise but as her regular exploration of the ever-changing sites and events offered in our small village, and the daily errands and visits with friends that make up her routine here. 

Morning in Ajijic

A challenging decision

At the end of last year, I bought myself a Fitbit and find that I regularly walk about 60,000 steps per week. A challenge came when a friend who moved back to the US offered to sell me her golf cart. I was tempted; I had moved to a new place a bit farther from the central plaza. It would be handy for shopping and it had been fun running around in her cart, plus I now had a parking spot available. Finally, I came to grips with reality: if I bought the cart, I would use it … and walk less. 

Finally, I opted for the benefits of walking. 

 

Walking is more than a physical activity, it engages my mind and spirit as I continuously see parades that I didn’t know about, friends out and about, sunlight playing across puddles in the street, and dogs sleeping in doorways. In our almost-perfect weather here, the air is almost always, as they say in Spanish “rico” … fresh, rich and invigorating. Walking takes me away from my beloved computer and into the tangible world of sights and sounds, smells and sensations that make me glad to be alive.

You probably know I’m not a doctor. I don’t even play one on television, but I do know that most people understand that walking is a healthy activity. However, I’m not sure that everyone knows how unhealthy NOT walking can be … not only here in Mexico, but everywhere.

In case you want the science:

Mayo Clinic: Walking: Trim your waistline, improve your health

• Maintain a healthy weight
• Prevent or manage various conditions, including heart disease, high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes
• Strengthen your bones and muscles
• Improve your mood
• Improve your balance and coordination
• 
  

Harvard Health: 5 surprising benefits of walking

    1. It counteracts the effects of weight-promoting genes.

    2. It helps tame a sweet tooth.

    3. It reduces the risk of developing breast cancer.

    4. It eases joint pain

    5. It boosts immune function.

What Happens to Your Body When You Sit All Day?

• According to biological anthropologists, the fossil record suggests that when early man traded their nomadic hunter-gatherer lifestyles for a more settled one, it resulted in a less dense bone structure
• Prolonged sitting promotes dozens of chronic diseases, including overweight and type 2 diabetes, even if you’re very fit
• At bare minimum, avoid sitting for more than 50 minutes out of every hour. Ideally, limit sitting as much as possible, and incorporate weight-bearing, gravity-driven exercises into your fitness routine

It takes a village: the difficult journey of learning a new language

Phil Rylett arresting hardened criminal

 On a quiet Saturday morning in the small Mexican village of Ajijic (ah hee heek), Mexico, a young woman was arrested for wearing orange shoes, another for her inappropriate earrings. Justice was swift, they were led off to a lawyer who advised them of their rights before they had to appear before a judge to be fined.

Criminal justice system 
gone awry? 

No. Actually a 
graduation exercise 

for students learning English.

Phil Rylett was the policeman arresting those young women and also the organizer of “The Difficult Journey” exercise which gave the graduating students an opportunity to explore, in English only, please, the many aspects of traveling. 

Going to Court

Their destination was New York City and involved talking to a travel agent, rounding up their passports, making their way through customs, ordering food in a restaurant, going to a bank for money … and paying some of that money to the judge if they got caught on the wrong side of the law. Those orange shoes again. 

Phil's and all the other roles required in the exercise, were played by volunteers who coached the students on their activities and their English. (For another look at the Difficult Journey, see Carol Kaufman's article in The Guadalajara Reporter.)

Talking to the Bankers

 The Wilkes Education Center, the scene of "The Difficult Journey,” is also where, each August, over 300 students (adults and anyone 15 and up) register for places in 31 free English classes, all taught by native-English-speaking volunteers. 

During an interview with Inez Dayer and Maria Huerta, the long-term leadership team for Wilkes, they talked about how the program has impacted the lives of so many people in the community. It is widely recognized that being able to speak English opens doors to better jobs. Inez tells the story of one former English student who was a maid at a local hotel. After completing the program, she was promoted to taking phone reservations. Inez laughs and says, “By now I am sure she is managing the enterprise. There are so many of those stories. This is just part of our commitment to serving the local community.”

Graduation Ceremony for English students and proud families

Flowers for the teachers; Joy for the students

The Spirt of Lakeside

Inez Dayer, Director of ESL program

The Wilkes Education Center is just one example of the spirit that hovers along the shore of Lake Chapala, Mexico, emanating from the small village of Ajijic (ah hee heek) and touching all the villages and pueblos around the lake. Some call it the spirit of Neill James, a travel writer from Mississippi who came to Ajijic in the mid 1940s to recover from an accident while climbing the volcano Popocateptl.

During her recuperation time, a love affair was born that changed Neill, the residents of the lakeside area, and everyone who comes here even today. Tracing Neill’s actions is like trying to capture a whirlwind. She was into everything: art, business, music, libraries, horticulture, and uncounted acts of philanthropy. Upon her death in 1994, she donated her house and gardens to the Lake Chapala Society (LCS), with the dual intention of serving the growing international community and providing educational opportunities to the Mexican locals.

The local combination of culture, beauty and an almost perfect climate creates an appealing environment for retirees (known as jubilados here in Mexico) ready for a change of pace, with time to spend in new ways, and in a stage of life that often prompts a yearning to give back to others some of what was given to them. It’s at this point they hear the whispering spirit of Neill James and begin to create amazing things.

One person who was touched by this spirit of generosity was Ed Wilkes, retired from the U.S. Navy and committed to education, who donated his house to the Lake Chapala Society. After the death of his wife, he had spent much of his time cataloging books in the LCS library so it was decided to turn his central Ajijic home into an educational center focused around a Spanish library for the local community.

Neill James touched Ed Wilkes, whose center touched Inez Dare, volunteer director of the Wilkes Center for the past ten years, who touched hundreds of volunteer teachers, who touched thousands of students of English, including the son of Maria Huerta who recently received his doctorate in psychology. 

And, who knows how many people all those students have touched? 

As they say: you can count all the apples on a tree ... but you can never count all the trees in an apple.

And, who knows how many ideas there are in a cup of coffee? Sign compliments of LA133 restaurant in San Antonio Tlayacapan.

Wonder Woman: Xill Fessenden, Photographer, Artist, Activist

Alcatraz by Xill Fessenden

I expected little from the art auction in the plaza, perhaps a piece by a local artist for my new apartment. I definitely didn’t expect to see a large, luminous image of an alcatraz (cala lilly) that left me breathless. Who was this artist? …  a digital artist here in this small village in Mexico? Could I possibly afford this incredible piece?

I did manage to bring that piece home and the more I looked at it, the more I wanted to meet Xill (Jill) Fessenden and know about her work and her story. Finally, we connected in her studio/home and I discovered far more than an amazing photographer and artist. I found someone who set the standards for a Wonder Woman.

The Mexico part of Xill's story began after a serious accident when she decided to reinvent her life. She knew it meant a move but she wasn’t sure where to go. Deciding to sleep on it and wait for an omen, she slipped notes with the names Santa Fe, Los Angeles, and Mexico under her pillow. And omens did appear … one sublime and one ridiculous. 

The first omen came during a visit to the high desert, spring poppy fields in California. In the distance, hovering over the poppies, she saw a dark smudge. As she approached, she saw that it was a flock of birds with a bigger bird in the center. And when she got closer, she recognized the bigger bird as a golden eagle. And, in it’s beak was a snake … the national symbol of Mexico. The second omen, the seemingly ridiculous one, appeared when she spilled chili on her shirt and recognized the shape of Mexico. 

Mixed media piece by Xill Fessenden

It was enough to point her toward Mexico and by June of 1985 she was living on the shores of Lake Chapala, the largest lake in Mexico, intending to devote herself to photography. Her intentions expanded when she began to explore the villages of Mexico and experienced the generous nature of the people and their culture. 

A November, 2017, interview with El Ojo del Lago, (page 32) reported, "... the most important things she learned while traveling to indigenous villages was how a community functions as a whole: where the land, the community, the family and the individual have the same identity, and they all work together as a unit. They build each others’ houses, share the harvest, and help each others’ children—the way it should be. It moved her, and formed a desire for her to help preserve that culture."

Book featuring Xill Fessenden's work

Recognized as a serious and successful photographer and digital artist, Xill told writer Rob Mohr, “My works are not manipulation of a photo, rather an intervention creating a statement of feeling. I don’t feel like I take a picture, but am given a picture.”

Xill is also widely recognized as an activist who makes things happen. She opened the Centro Ajijic de Bellas Artes (CABA) art center with sculptor Estela Hidalgo to help teach art to local children. 

In 1998, she started the local Purépecha Festival to honor the food, culture and art of what was once the second largest empire in Mexico. She wants her photography to engage people outside the world of art galleries, and created Galeria al Aire Libre Axixic (GALA) so everyone could enjoy open air exhibits focused on local families, animals, children’s art and, currently, on the history of Ajijic.

Peregrinos Wixárikas from Banamex book

In 2000, she prompted a Hands Across the Lake event to hug the lake and increase awareness of the importance of protecting it. This photo taken by John Frost shows how low the water level was at that point when you could actually walk to Scorpion Island (Isla Alacranes), so named because of its shape not its inhabitants. 

Poster outside Xill's door

Today, in addition to making art, working with the Purépecha people to bring their culture to Ajijic, and her other environmental interests, now as a Mexican citizen, she is turning her attention to the political situation in Mexico, especially with the indigenous movements such as the example in Cherán in Michoacán, which the Los Angeles Times calls, "a bastion of tranquillity within one of Mexico’s most violent regions." 

In an area where illegal timber trucks belonging to criminal syndicates raided the community's communal forests, the authorities refused to help.  The community revolted.

On April 15, 2011, before dawn, the people of Cheran sounded the bells at the Roman Catholic Chapel of the Calvary and set off homemade fireworks to summon help. Few had firearms, so they brought picks, shovels and rocks.

Then they struck, seizing the first timber truck of the day, dragging its two crew members from the cab and taking them hostage. Lacking rope, they tied up their prisoners with rebozos, or shawls. -- Los Angeles Times

The community went on to throw out all the political parties, all the police, the entire system. The Times article reports, "In 2014 Cheran’s provisional system of self-government was declared legal. The town remains part of Mexico but runs its own show."

Historically, artists have always been involved in political movements. Xill Fessenden follows in that long tradition and continues to earn her designation as a Wonder Woman.

Wonder Women of Mexico

Goddess of the Lake

Ajijic startled me. 

Rather, the goddess who walks through the small villages on the shores of the largest lake in Mexico, the stunningly beautiful one with almost perfect weather, surprised and shocked me. I can hear you groan, but the longer I’m here, the more I’m convinced that something amazing happens here (and, admittedly, in other places in Mexico).

Families and horses

I’ve never seen the goddess, nor do I know her name, although the goddess-fish princess of Pre-Columbian Mexico is named Teomichicihualli. For obvious reasons, we will simply refer to her as the goddess and ponder her touch which transforms ordinary folks from foreign lands into Wonder Women, brimming with compassion, creativity, confidence, and a contributing spirit. I’ve met some of the Wonder Women here, glowing with the touch of the goddess and spreading hope and new possibilities like floating milkweed seeds across the land.

Meeting them has made me wonder what happens here that frees their spirits and gives them the golden touch of compassionate creativity. In a short conversation with Judith Faith Stanley, who has created an art center here, I mentioned this curiosity about what people do when they come to Mexico and she said, “Whatever they want to do.”

Shore dogs reveling in freedom

Simple, but brilliant. This lakeside village, and many other places in Mexico, are perfect convergences of needs, wants and talents, known and unknown. Wherever a Wonder Women looks, there are opportunities: art to be made from the vibrant colors and culture, street dogs that need care, music to be sung to shut-ins and people making their final transitions, children who need homes, health care, and education; indigenous artisans whose traditional arts needs to be shared and supported; villages that need clean water; lakes and mountains to be protected; injured birds and animals to be rescued.

Iglesia de San Antonia de Padua

In Canada and the US, people who have sufficient means tend to choose neighborhoods that are pretty: tree-lined streets, flowered yards, easy access to supermarkets offering a endless choice of everything. We carefully choose an environment of prosperity, security and well-being.

When we move to Mexico, we are often living in the midst of the nitty-gritty for the first time. Even if we choose to live in a gated community, our lives inevitably wind through the plazas and tiendas of real life. Suddenly, we see tiny children selling green beans, mothers carrying small mountains of embroidered purses and painted bookmarks through coffee shops and plazas in an unending effort to feed their children, skinny street dogs scouting for food, cars held together with spit and ingenuity, and families of four on a motorcycle.

Young girl in parade

Life in Mexico is close to the bone and what happens next
can be surprising, sometimes even shocking. Living in the midst of visible needs changes the way we see the world … with the help of the goddess, of course. And, while everyone responds to their changed conditions in their own ways, some find themselves drawn into new challenges, responding to the needs closest to their hearts with creativity and ingenuity. Under the touch of the goddess, they grow and become Wonder Women (and Wonder Men).

Dancer at Water Ceremony

The first several months of living in Mexico is often a sensory feast, gorging on the sunshine and color, the friendliness and slower pace, the kaleidoscope of culture, the freedom from former expectations and responsibilities. However, at some point, there is a turning, a realization that we’re here, actually living in a new world, a world with incredible beauty and heartbreaking needs. Everywhere we look, laced through the color and charm, there are problems … big ones we’ll never be able to fix, and small ones that perhaps we could do something about. So, we begin and the stories unfold.

Friends here were having work done on their house. One of the workers started telling them about his family and his son who attended a nearby school. The goddess winked as the conversation unfolded, and my friends heard about a school with problems: not enough supplies, a lack of books, broken toilets. Since coming to Mexico, they have rescued three health-challenged dogs. Now, they have adopted a school.

Crested caracara

At a fund raiser for the Tepehua Community Center in Chapala, I met a couple who rescue animals which, because of injuries or other reasons, will never be able to be released back into the wild. They introduced me to a crested caracara, a raptor sacred to the Aztecs.

Looking into the eyes of that incredible bird, I saw a fierceness of spirit which made me think that's part of the goddess's touch, a fierce determination to make a difference and generously give back to this country that touches us every day with it's open friendliness and beauty.

This blog is dedicated to sharing some of the Mexico stories I find as I explore the country, including the stories of fierce compassion of Wonder Women and their contributions.