Updated June 1 2010

Editorial Page and Brevits

On this page we invite guest editorials and letters. Go to the Home Page and click on “Archives,” then on “Editorials,” for past discussions of a range of interesting subjects. Under “Brevits,” we cite miscellaneous items of significant interest.

Fear is the Coin of the Realm of Politics ..

As far as physical danger to visitors to this part of Mexico, we who live here report that life is normal except for the economic downturn and a drought of tourism which, incidentally, makes for great buying opportunities in pottery. Yes, violence has reached here, and Nuevo Casas Grandes is specifically named in the current State Department advisory. But there has yet to be an instance of harm to any visitor or tourist, either Mexican or American, anywhere in this region from here up to the border with Texas, New Mexico, or Arizona. Eighteen graduate students in archaeology stayed with us last June and July, excavating a new, small site near Paquimé. They sensed nothing amiss and returned this year, 2010, for another season. More than 30 Friends of Mata Ortiz met last November for their 13^th annual gathering and enjoyed one of the most congenial times ever. That same month, 260 Lions representing 35 Lions Clubs in northern Mexico selected Casas Grandes for their annual event and enjoyed normal attendance. Numerous visitors have hiked or biked through here to the Copper Canyon, including a Dutch couple who passed through in December bicycling from Alaska to South America. We and others frequently drive to Deming or El Paso for shopping or medical appointments, crossing at Palomas and sometimes overnighting there at the Hotel Karina without any apprehension. Family and friends fly into or out of El Paso, connecting between here and there on the Mexican bus which, incidentally, is more comfortable than Greyhound. In short, the media reports, while containing a measure of truth, are overplayed to the point of irresponsibility. For example, Americans are said to be among the victims of violence in Juarez, but nothing is said of the fact that a large percentage of Mexicans living near the border are American citizens because women who are pregnant commonly cross over to give birth so the baby will have dual citizenship. Few if any here believe there is danger to visitors, and some say they feel safer here than traveling, say, to Tucson or Phoenix. The watchword is caution rather than fear. Don’t sport a flashy car, and plan to drive in daylight so as not to risk breaking down in a remote area at night. Go ahead and plan your trip—and don’t hesitate to call us on our El Paso line (915-261-0502, rings in Mexico) for an update on local conditions or any other questions that might arise. Happy traveling!

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The following is an account of an art project in Casas Grandes. We can send photos on request (we haven’t yet learned how to do pictures on this website). If you’ve a favorite magazine that might publish this story, let us know.

The Story of a Church

This is the story of a little church in Casas Grandes, Chihuahua, a small town in northern Mexico cradled in a rare valley in the Sierra Madres. Natural springs and the Casas Grandes River irrigate its fields and orchards. In the 17^th century, Spaniards admired the fertile valley and built the town of Casas Grandes and a Franciscan mission, San Antonio de Padua de Casas Grandes.

But in modern times, beginning in 1992, a prolonged drought struck the region. Unable to make a go of it in the absence of rainfall, people from the surrounding Sierras migrated into the valley in search of work, nearly doubling the population of Casas Grandes. As housing spread west, Padre Antonio Quezada Valdez saw that the old church in the middle of town was no longer adequate. Another was needed, and with it a new church plaza.

Wondering what sort of church to build, Padre Antonio had a dream. Instead of putting up just another modern structure, why not replicate the 350-year-old church of the now ruined Franciscan mission? He would call it El Templo del Señor de la Divina Misericordia (Temple of the Lord of Divine Mercy). Little remained of the original church, built in 1663 and destroyed in the Pueblo Indian revolt of 1680. But its plan was known because a team of archaeologists had once excavated the mission site.

With a limited budget, Padre Antonio realized that he could not replicate the original size of the mission church. But he thought he could accomplish the effect on a slightly smaller scale. Sadly, the budget did not allow even that. Construction began in 1999 and continued to where services could be held, and there the funding ran out. The towers were left truncated, and no work had been done on the plaza. And so the church stood for several years, known only to its parishioners.

Then a miracle began to unfold. In 2004 a local artist, Gricel Ortiz, who had trained in Italy and painted chapels there, came home to care for her aged mother. Finding the little church, she volunteered to cover the entire wall behind the altar with a mural of the Divine Mercy. At the focal end of the long nave, with perfect lighting from a clerestory, the wall offered an ideal space for a major work of art. Gricel was inspired. She filled the chapel with classical music as she painted, high on her scaffolding. Without help, she completed the mural in six days. Her dream, when the padre could afford to buy materials, was to paint the whole interior of the church with a surround mural of clouds, angels, and saints so that visitors on entering the church would feel they had entered heaven.

But for six years more, the church and its mural remained unfinished. Then two Americans who had made Casas Grandes their home, Spencer and Emalie MacCallum, chanced upon the church and were struck by its story and the remarkable mural. They thought the little church and its artwork could become a major attraction for visitors.

The MacCallums had renovated La Casa del Nopal near the plaza, and a guide for Grand Circle Travel, Teresa Zinser, had begun bringing her tour groups to this historic adobe. During one of these visits, Spencer boarded the bus and guided the group to the little church, explaining its story on the way.

He told the tour group they would see a rare example of Chihuahua’s original style of church architecture, like that of the adobe churches of New Mexico to the north with their long, narrow nave, and he explained that the reason for the narrow nave was that the builders were limited by the trees they had to span it. He told about the mural and explained why the church was unfinished. He said this would not be for all, but if some felt inspired by the beauty they were about to see and wanted to feel a part of the project, he knew the padre would welcome it. As they left the church, he said, he would stand near the entrance with his inverted sombrero for those who freely cared to contribute.

Such was the response that within months, as Teresa continued bringing groups and others joined in, construction on the church resumed, bringing employment to the neighborhood. Within the year, not only were the towers complete, Gricel had paints and materials to carry out her over-all vision for the church.

One Sunday morning the following spring, April 11, 2010, First Communion was celebrated in the church with its surround mural of heaven. Following Mass, festive crowds watched Matachines dance in brilliant sunshine outside the church, their lines advancing and retreating in a pageant of color as they must have outside the original mission church more than three centuries earlier, carrying on a tradition combining pagan and Christian elements that still survives from those early times in northern Mexico and the pueblos of New Mexico.

After installing professional lighting that will effectively illuminate the art work, future plans include offering concerts of string quartet and other chamber music in this unique setting.

While Gricel prefers anonymity, her art set in motion a miracle for realizing Padre Antonio’s dream. The little church of Divine Mercy in Casas Grandes is without a doubt one of the most interesting and beautiful religious structures in northern Mexico. Its simplicity and spirituality will inspire many for years to come.

Brevits

• A triumph for Mata Ortiz! Along with 210 studio potters from all over North America, Diego Valles and Manolo Rodríguez each submitted two entries for the Third Biennial Concordia Continental Ceramics Competition, January 28-February 19, 2010. Sponsored by Concordia University in St. Paul, Minnesota, this is a prestigious event in the ceramics world. Both were among the 35 finalists juried into the show. When all was said and done, the panel of judges awarded “Best of Show” to .. Diego! Way to go, Diego! Way to go, Mata Ortiz!

• The newest attraction in the area is the just completed addition to the old train station in Nuevo Casas Grandes, now become a cultural center. Besides giving art classes, La Casa de la Artesanias has opened a store there like the mother store in Chihuahua City, offering regional crafts and products from fine art to home preserved fruits and preserves, salsa, and so forth. There is also an art gallery showing the work of local painters, and we recommend the new, attractive coffee shop upstairs for a light lunch.

• Another addition to this area’s attractions are the mineral hot springs and thermal baths at Madero, eight miles from Casas Grandes. Instead of rounding the curve between Nuevo Casas Grandes and Casas Grandes, cross the tracks and drive south 5.2 miles to a small sign on the right, “Temascal” just one mile short of Madero. Landscaped gardens, cabañas, sauna, clay mud baths, therapeutic massage, swimming and wading pools. State of the art. Open May through early October, and on weekends throughout the winter by arrangement. For reservations call Javier Soto (Cell 636-100-7027), owner, Nuevo Casas Grandes.

• A different sort of gallery, Piedras de Paquimé, opened recently in Nuevo Casas Grandes at 607 Carranza, just east of Avenida Madero. Operating without resources (his wife’s death from cancer a few years ago took all the family had), Raúl Mendoza is ambitious to develop an art tradition in stone inspired by Paquimé, paralleling what has happened with pottery and jewelry. The prehistoric Paquimé people crafted extraordinarily fine utilitarian items like bowls, metates (corn-grinding stones), arrow straighteners and the like, and some jewelry. Raúl wants to develop this into new artistic expressions. Interestingly, he has forsworn steel tools and is learning to work with stone tools as was done at Paquimé. The El Paso Museum of History displayed his work last October through March in an exhibition of contemporary art and craft inspired by Paquimé, and the Museo de las Culturas del Norte held a one-man show of his work, Piedras de Paquimé,  April 30 - May 31, 2010.

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