Rainy season style

BY MARIA GALLUCCI
The News
Wednesday, May 27, 2009

It's started again in Mexico: the random torrential downpours that strike without warning, the lightly sprinkling drops that spatter almost constantly, the cool breeze blowing as an oppressively hot sun watches from above.

The rainy season is back.

Many Mexico residents are beginning to adjust their daily attire, stashing umbrellas in purses and lugging coats to keep from sloshing around in the unpredictable, on-and-off again rains that pour well into October.

But style doesn't have to suffer as we hide beneath layers to keep ourselves dry.

Boutiques in Mexico City have started stocking their shelves with the latest designs in waterproof hats, boots, trench coats and zip-up jackets complete with bold colors and eccentric patterns that make an otherwise gloomy season shine.

While department and chain stores are sure to carry seasonal necessities, smaller shops can offer exclusive alternatives in rain gear, ones fetching enough to wear come rain or shine.

Sergio Tapia was hanging up new lines of rain-friendly coats last week at Pier 39 in the city's Condesa neighborhood.

"It's kind of a joke to try and maintain your personality during the rainy season, but you have to balance your style," he said.

Tapia suggests pairing dull or plain-looking coats with colorful or uniquely cut pants - like his tight, purple jeans - or to top off an unremarkable rainy season ensemble with an eye-catching hat, preferably made from the more rain-adaptable cotton.

The store's collection for women includes, among others, white and puffy, calf-length jackets for 1,980 pesos and slim, glossy black trench coats that fall just below the waist for 2,950 pesos.

For men, the boutique offers gleaming green-and-blue plaid zip-up hooded jackets for 1,540 pesos, a cropped motorcycle jacket (whose glossy black exterior resembles a garbage bag) for 700 pesos, along with heavy navy blue blazers.

A BRIGHT SELECTION

Along the Insurgentes Sur thoroughfare, the Madjestic surf-skate shop sells rain-resistant baseball caps, hats and jackets from big name brands like O'Neill, Quicksilver and Element.

Head-toppers come in polyester-cotton blends with various patterns, like pale gray plaid accented with a turquoise band, a black paper straw number or thick brown, white and camel plaid. Weightless windbreakers come in wild patterns like black-and-white houndstooth and 1980's-inspired neon in geometric shapes, and they sell on average for 600 pesos.

At Ocho, a Condesa boutique near Parque España, store worker Juan Alvaro Torre said he was glad to see rain gear in recent years turn away from drab and cumbersome to a brighter, less bulky selection.

The shop carries its own line of men's windbreakers with cotton interiors in shades of black, light gray and dark blue for 900 pesos. Over on the footwear stand, men's high-top sneakers come in glossy red, black or white with purple soles, the perforated leather exterior coated with a layer of a blend of Teflon. Shoes sell for 1,390 pesos.

Women's shoes include waterproof ballet flats in shiny white with an ankle strap or neon green jellies with weaving strips of plastic. Even a pair of tall high-heels comes in impermeable purple.

The Madjestic boutique also offers waterproof footwear for women. Vans and DVS brand rain boots come in bright red or yellow with triangle Velcro patches, or in pink-and-purple plaid with the base like a slip-on sneaker, all selling for about 1,100 pesos.

Window displays at the Motivos boutiques in the Condesa and Roma neighborhoods are packed full of women's patterned rain boots; last year's line is now half-off as the stores usher in new boots for this season.

The galoshes include cuts that reach the mid- or upper-calf, and styles range from more subdued designs like polka dots or solid colors, to zebra print, skull-and-crossbones, cherries or prints of fluffy white marshmallows. New boots should cost around 550 pesos.

Much like the striking windbreaker, standout rain boots or eye-catching hat, umbrellas provide a quick fix to any drab rainy season outfit. But more than fashion, they're a necessity in the short showers and heavy downpours that come and go during rainy season.

The Motivos branch in Condesa has just begun to peel the packaging off a new shipment of umbrellas, offering classic blacks and blues in addition to modern styles with more flair. These rain covers will cost around 150 pesos at the shop.

Compact styles can fit easily into any purse, backpack or grasping hand, and umbrellas today have traded their unremarkable past of dark, solid shades in for plaids, floral prints and more polka dots in bright, cheery colors.

To make an eccentric umbrella pop out even more, try matching the rain cover with a top or scarf of the same color or pattern, even if the polka dots, for example, are different. For shoppers looking for a more office-appropriate or inconspicuous umbrella, pick subdued shades like black, but with subtle patterns or unique designs.

The best places for fashionable rain gear [info removed because you, my reader, probably don't live here].

Graffiti gallery brings aerosol indoors

BY MARIA GALLUCCI
The News
Wednesday, May 27, 2009

"Fanzye" Zúñiga Chávez stands beside her hand-sprayed graffiti mural of a green-bodied butterfly fairy with wispy purple hair. Intricate circles compose the figure´s wings as it drifts up toward the metallic gold paint in the top left corner.

But Fanzye´s graffiti isn´t tagged on the side of a brick wall, and it´s not outside in the streets.

The aerosol artwork is suspended from the ceiling by thick cable wires. Her piece is one of 20 canvases hanging in the Mexico City graffiti gallery Cavemen Did It First.

The Centro Histórico art center hosted its public inauguration last week, although it first opened its paint-splattered doors in February.

Mariana Todd, general director, said the gallery aims to promote Mexican artists nationally and around the world, all while changing the notion that graffiti is vandalism and not legitimate art.

"We want people to enjoy and appreciate this type of art from another perspective, without the prejudice that [graffiti] is damaging the city or the streets," she said, standing inside the one-room exhibition.

Fanzye said she thought galleries played an important role for the free form, open-style graffiti and its artists.

"Graffiti should be seen as an [artistic] discipline...and it can be presented in the same spaces as these other disciplines," she said. "I believe that´s why we´re doing this, and that what we´re doing is a revolution."

José Manuel Rihbany, the gallery´s creative director, agreed.

He said graffiti is greatly disadvantaged compared with other forms of art because of its background - destructive tagging often done illegally - and the sense of protest that many artists express through their graphics and letters.

The idea for the Cavemen gallery came after Rihbany and Todd walked through a graffiti exhibition in New York City over a year ago; they decided that Mexico both needed and lacked a similar place.

So the duo found a small space in the Centro Histórico to start a project all their own.

The entrance to the carpeted gallery is inconspicuous, tucked deep behind the makeshift racks of a clothing vendor. The stairwell leading up to the third-floor gallery is sprayed and speckled with aerosol and acrylic paint; the elevator is like an ascending graffiti mural.

Alongside the maze of hanging murals are pieces of spray painted furniture and small plush figurines colored with aerosol and acrylic. The pieces represent the gallery´s "whole concept" approach that street and urban art can adapt to any kind of canvas of cultural expression.

SANCTIONED SPACES

The Cavemen team last year began searching for artists to exhibit, initially finding contacts through the Unidad Graffiti, a division of the city´s Public Safety Secretariat that commissions young artists to paint murals.

Though the private and public graffiti groups don´t work together, they often share insights as they strive to achieve the same goal - providing a platform for Mexican street art and furthering Mexico´s urban talent, according to Cavemen.

The gallery now features pieces from 15 young artists such as Paulina "Tiza" Lázaro, a 20-year-old "grafitero" from Colonia Peralvillo in the Cuauhtémoc borough.

Tiza began honing her spray paint craft four years ago on unsanctioned public spaces at a time when she felt like an outsider to all the "tribus urbanas," or predominant urban youth cultures.

"When I found aerosol...it was explosive for me," she said at the gallery. "I paint to express myself in my own space; it´s the only thing I have that´s for me and by me."

At the gallery, her mural "Hip Hop," painted on wood, expresses her affinity for the urban groups surrounding the music genre. The mural combines electric green, pink, orange and yellow aerosol with glossy black strokes of acrylic paint, the variations adding textures and layers.

Her graffiti features a girl´s face and her fists, with letters spelling "hip hop" on the knuckles. The word "flow" is spelled in bubble block letters at the bottom. "Flow" is an inspirational vibe that puts things into motion, Tiza explained as she paced around her art piece.

The self-taught artist said she belongs to two graffiti "crews," one in Mexico City and the other in Guadalajara.

"Your crew members are the ones who teach you, the ones you grow up with," she said. "There are no books to teach you how to paint, no schools. The teachers we have, it´s more like constructive criticism from other people with more experience."

Juan "Yoste" Gonzalo Lugo said he still prefers to paint out on the streets, a bottle in hand as he sprays his art onto walls and buildings. He said there was considerable graffiti vandalism growing up in Colonia Ajusco, a neighborhood in Coyoacán.

"I did the same, but with drawings and paintings," said the grafitero, who has three untitled pieces on display at the Cavemen gallery.

The 26-year-old artist has been making graffiti for a decade. In 2003, he began to take part in commissioned exhibitions throughout various boroughs in the capital, including a mural on the side of a political science library at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. This year, he took home second place at the city´s Mega Graffiti Exhibition outside the Estadio Azteca in February.

One of Yoste´s works features a disturbing monkey-like creature with three eyes bulging from his contorted face and Japanese characters scrolling across his stomach. Sitting on a cloud of putrid green puffs, the figure represents the apocalypse, a common theme in Yoste´s images, many inspired by his impressions of the Catholic Church.

Aross the exhibition room, Fanzye´s butterfly fairy floats across her piece "Dos de febrero: Aliento y vida" ("February 2: Breath and Life").

The self-portrait marks a moment in the 20-year-old´s life when she began to develop her Christian faith.

The pale green butterfly floating upward represents "the power to fly, to awaken to dream and to have faith in life," Fanzye said.

She reflects her religious faith in her two other pieces at the gallery, "El poder de tus manos" ("The Power of Your Hands") and "Alaphante," an elephant with wings for ears. The grafitero has also painted murals at churches in Buenos Aires and Havana, and in 2008 she earned first place in mural art at the International Youth Day in the State of Mexico.

Cavemen Did It First has a long list of projects underway, including plans for an exhibition at the city´s Centro Libanés and a graffiti workshop in the Cien Metros Cúbicos gallery.

Fall and winter fashions

[Ria's note: I patched this story together from various wire news reports - that's why my name isn't on it, because there's no original reporting. In fact, I had very little clue what I was writing about. I didn't even see pictures until after I wrote the piece (with a few exceptions of the dresses described in the story. Basically this piece is mildly shameful and that's why I'm posting it].

THE NEWS

Fashion in Mexico for the fall and winter seasons is likely to be a contradicting mix of playful trims, flashy fabrics and somber tones, with black, gray and deep blues dominating sleek, smooth silhouettes and short-length dresses.

More than 25 designers brought their latest collections to Mexico City for five days last week as part of this year's Mercedes-Benz Fashion show, which took place from under tents outside a Polanco shopping center.

Expect to see cool palettes and feminine cuts in stores later this year. Designers filled the runways with subdued tones accented with shimmering and hand-stitched details or asymmetrical trims and folds. A delicate, youthful elegance was also a common trend among designers.

Mexican designer Mauro Babún's collection "Alma deGOYAdO presented varying shades of gray with fabrics like cashmere and gabardine, inspired by the dark, expressionist works of Spanish painter Francisco de Goya.

The collection also included pieces in denim and leather, complete with artisan touches such as stain and wash treatments, as Babún played with the garments' geometric and symmetric forms.

Draping added a smooth blend of elegance with comfort to the collection. écessories provided the final touch to Babún's pieces. There were leather gloves, baguette wallets and giant purses, which have dominated the Mexican fashion scene since last season.

Designers Jesús Ibarra and Bertholdo brought an abundance of black to the runway, opening their "Claroscuro" ("Chiaroscuro") collection with a black bridal gown made of tulle and bordered with irregularly shaped crystals. The gown proved a pretext for the designer duo's wedding announcement.

The dark collection included wool and velvet jackets, circling skirts and Capri and cigarette pants. Necklines ranged from strapless, halter and imperial cut from fabrics such as silk chiffon, leather and silk with acetate rayon.

Carlo Demichelis returned to darker tones in his fall-winter collection, characterized by blacks and grays.

The designer's line included jackets, tight-fitting Lycra, short skirts and cigarette pants. He showed blouses with high necks made from transparent lace or knit fabrics; a series of dresses with unique waistlines brought youthful, feminine and elegant touches.

The collection dared to deviate slightly from the predominately dark color scheme, choosing khaki and marine blue for coats and gabardines, or long, loose-fitting outerwear.

PLAYFUL TOUCHES

Colombian designer Pepa Pombo brought lightness and playfulness to the runway, alternating between ebonies and grays with colors like sand, turquoise, warm chocolate and lilac.

His "érobatique" collection of bolero jackets and dresses were cropped, and short-length and distinguished with Pombo's bows, pleats and folds.

A Pombo dress shown Thursday fell just above the knees with shimmering gold silk layered in gold lace, the bodice fitted tightly with the bottom flowing naturally.

A steel gray number gathered ruffled pink petals at the scooped neckline, the bottom trimmed in pink as well.

Mexican designer Alana Savoir kept a youthful, casual look with short dresses and leggings.

Savoir, who recently created a special design for the 50th anniversary of Barbie dolls, offered a line based on a "bohemian, artistic" life from the world's biggest cities that she defined as "chic-artistic, but uncomplicated."

Macario JimAcnez said his flirty, sophisticated collection was "very small" but yet "very representative." Garments included short dresses with rounded edges. The designer created a dress for Mexico's first lady Margari-ta Zavala for a recent visit to the United Kingdom.

One piece in the JimAcnez's collection included a short, strapless dress in shiny black with fabric gathered at the waist. An equally elegant floor-length dress tiered layers of sheer beige fabric, the neckline open and the shoulders lightly covered with a translucent square of fabric.

Mexican designer Pedro Loredo continued this season's common thread of adding personal, unique touches to his collection of menswear, formal gowns and winter coats. His line incorporated sequins and intricate hand-stitched embroideries along with chaquiras - indigenous craftwork using jade, turquoise and slate.

Loredo in the 1960's elevated Mexican fashion to the international style scene with collections influenced by pre-Hispanic handiwork and patterns.

Other designers who presented at the Mercedes-Benz Fashion show included Gustavo Matto, Alberto Rodríguez, Macario JimAcnez, HAcctor Terrones, Armando Mafud, Malafacha, Gustavo Helguera and Grypho, among others.

Arcángel Constantini brings 'net-art' to the capital

BY MARIA GALLUCCI
The News

Monday, May 25, 2009

When most of us peer inside electronics and survey the tangles of tubing, wires and plates, we shudder with fear of the unknown. Some kick broken appliances to the curb when jammed buttons or sudden stoppages leave us unsatisfied.

Arcángel Constantini, however, sees a different potential in the circuits, an aura patiently waiting to escape.

The Mexican Web artist, who lives in Mexico City's Colonia Roma, has helped pioneer "net-art" in Latin America, a genre that combines animation, sound, graphic design and video clips via live installations or online databases.

He's also the curator for the Transitio_MX International Video and Electronic Arts Festival, which will take place in October in the city's Centro Nacional de las Artes. The event will present creative designs in media such as radio frequency, GPS, computer hardware and software, and Bluetooth technology.

Constantini's prominence in the net-art scene first began without Internet, when he spent his formative years in Cuautitlán, State of Mexico, tinkering with "chácharas," a local term for castaway used electronics and yard sale trinkets.

His broken Atari video game console, though, first sparked his idea that abandoned objects could take on new meanings.

During the 39-year-old artist's youth, his mother brought home an Atari after visiting the United States. While switching video games, he ripped out the cartridge before turning off the console, filling his television screen with the ominous colors of vertical bars.

"I left it like this in my room, I liked the aesthetics," he recounted last week after giving a guest lecture at the Universidad del Claustro de Sor Juana in the city's Centro Histórico.

"Many of my projects try to understand the aura of objects .it gives them a significance beyond a simple object, and the artistic value protects it from obsolescence," he said. "I try to see them as living and communicative beings that have the possibility to transform our perception of our surroundings."

ONLINE ART

Constantini channeled the retro game console again in 2000 when he opened up its insides to create varying stripes and color patterns projected onto six flat-paneled TVs. The "Atari Noise" exhibit is displayed online and has shown in France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Argentina and, in 2006, in Guadalajara.

Another online project, "Unos, unos y unos ceros" ("Ones, ones and some zeros") also revisits the cháchara as a gallery of 16 individual works. The site's name refers to the construction of reality as a series of ones and zeros, like those in a binary matrix.

"BasurO ("Garbage"), for example, displays a series of videos from his live installations created around the world. In New York City, he took photographs as he placed small strips of paper reading "garbage" next to plastic containers, near an upturned umbrella and under a rice cooker. In Bilbao, Spain, he applied the same paper to translucent glass mosaics in the tiles of a lobby floor.

The online element is a collection of still images blinking back and forth between trash items in a nonlinear sequence.

"Garbage is constantly accumulated in public space[s], waiting to be recovered by the cleaning services, generating fortuitous installations, which I appropriate by placing a garbage strip that transforms this garbage to a new context," he explained on the project's Web site.

The "123456789px" piece opens up to a black screen with rows of dots.

Clicking on the row of six dots opens up a second screen with a dizzying ticker streaming and blinking rapidly from right to left, repeating images of the numeral 6 and "seis" as a monotone beat thumps in the background.

The project in 1999 earned Constantini the bronze at Machida City Museum of Graphic Arts competition in Japan. The same year, he earned the Vid@arte prize in multimedia at the Video and Electronic Arts festival in Mexico.

Installations from "Unos, unos y unos, ceros" have exhibited throughout Mexico and in Spain, Greece, Portugal, England, Holland, Canada, Japan, Brazil and Argentina.

Constantini's "Spark-un-Plug" installation creates physical and conceptual feedback, consisting of 300 independently controlled spark plugs that emit high-voltage energy when a block of ice is placed near the plugs. The electrical reaction creates sequences of visual and sound patterns, and the project's aim is to encourage conscious awareness of energy use. The project first exhibited in La Constancia, Pue-bla, in 2006, and was also shown in el Laboratorio Arte Alameda in Mexico City in 2007.

His most recent effort, "Nanodrizas," combines multimedia with the environment, a concept he calls "tactical eco-technology." The project involves Web artists, biologists, engineers and architects to design 13 floating robotic devices that analyze and communicate information in real time, such as contaminating agents and chemicals, and acoustics of their surroundings. They also clear out bacteria and enzymes as they float along the water.

In the works since 2006, Nanodrizas received a grant to develop Web designs and architectural drafts and is now seeking patron support to further develop and implement the project. The robots would be placed in the Xochimilco canals, Chapultepec Lake, Texcoco Lake, Valle de Bravo and near a textile factory in Puebla.

DIGITAL GENERATION

Constantini said he considers himself among the "lost generation" of artists who came of age before everything analogue became everything digital. He said most artists in the net-art genre, including himself, are self-taught in Web design and computer programming, although more courses and workshops are opening up at universities and museums around Mexico City.

"We definitely have a history here, our own trajectory," he said of the local digital art scene. "But it's still establishing itself, it's still growing."

As he continues developing his own net-art, Constantini remains involved in bringing others' fresh creations into the artistic spotlight. In addition to curating the Transitio exhibit in June, he also runs the Cyber-lounge gallery in the Rufino Museo Tamayo Arte Contemporáneo in Chapultepec Park, as well as Galería Cuarto, an exposition room inside his Colonia Roma home.

MORE INFO

To explore Constantini's works online, visit:
-www.arc-data.net
-www.unosunosyunosceros.com
-www.bakteria.org
-www.nanodrizas.org
· For more info on the 2009 Transitio_MX International Video and Electronic Arts Festival, visit www.transitiomx.net.
· To learn about "Spark-un-plug," watch Constantini's YouTube video about it at
www.youtube.com/watch?v=USlUKzIvWMo.

Searching for the perfect Panama hat

BY MARIA GALLUCCI
The News
Thursday, May 21, 2009

The century-old Panama hat is back in fashion blogs and on runways around the world, its beige-colored palm fronds adding a classic touch to hipsters, artists and fashionistas alike. But the hats in Mexico City are still a bit under the radar, and finding an original make or a fresh design might require a dedicated search.

Sombreros Tardan is a great place to start. Nestled between jewelry shops around the Zócalo, the Centro Histórico hat shop off the "Panama Brisa" line retains all the defining characteristics of the original "sombrero panameño" : jipijapa palm fibers woven intricately into a double-crested headpiece with a low, sloping brim and embellished with a smooth black or brown ribbon.

And, like the earliest models, the palm fronds come from Ecuador, an often-unknown detail of the misnamed hats.

The head-toppers began their legacy in the town of Jipijapa, Ecuador, where the palm species was first discovered and where it continues to be hand crafted in humid caves, a space necessary to keep fibers malleable. The town of Montecristi is also an Ecuadorian production powerhouse for the hats.

The hats first gained fame in the early 1900's on the heads of Panama Canal workers - hence the moniker.

ORIGINAL MAKES

Marco Antonio Guerrero, a salesman at Tardan, says while the store imports the raw materials, the fibers are entwined and molded into hats in the back of the Mexico City shop.

To prepare the fibers for hat making, the palm fronds in Ecuador are stripped into threads and exposed to the sun for a day or so; they're then immersed in boiling water and left to dangle in the shade to bleach.

Tardan offers two grades of Panama hats in the shop. The G3 is thicker and more rigid and sells for around 575 pesos. The G8 is a finer weave, so flexible that it can be folded or rolled up and retain its original shape, and it costs nearly 2,000 pesos. Both grades come in shades of natural beige, the grayish "putty" and the brown "café."

Guerrero recommends splashing the hats lightly with water twice a month to restore their moisture and to keep them pliable.

Panama hats can also be found in several smaller Centro Histórico shops, down the narrow, crowded Tabaqueros side street just off Ave. Venustiano Carranza.

Jandette, for example, is a hole-in-the-wall shop whose entrance is covered by dangling straw sombreros and cowboy hats. The store also imports Ecuadorian palm fronds for its Panama hats, which sell for 300 pesos when rigid and 1,000 pesos with a finer weave. Floppy, wide-brimmed hats for women with rounded headpieces and thick red ribbons sell for 280 pesos.

In a shop across the alley, demarcated only by its No. 18 address, shop worker David Diaz Macedo said that many people come in looking for Panama hats but that most customers are foreigners.

The store sells Panama hats with a thick, plaster-like shell for 150 pesos and floppy-brimmed pieces for 300 pesos. Materials for the hats come from Ecuador and are weaved and pressed in San Francisco del Rincón in Guanajuato.

MODERN SUBSTITUTES

Mexico's Yucatán region is also a leading Panama hat producer; the town of Bécal in the Campeche state turns out thousands of the jipijapa hats each year. But while workers once worked fervently to meet thriving international demand, the town has lost its competitive edge to cheaper imports and material substitutes.

These trendy new additions, however, have only a limited hold in Mexico City.

Lemur, a fashion boutique in the city's Roma Norte neigboorhood, holds exclusive retailer rights for Panama hats by the California-based clothing company Modern Amusement and British-made Brixton Ltd.

The Modern Amusement hats mimic the traditional Panama weave, but with paper straw. The Fedora-style headpieces come in black, gray and beige and sell for around 790 pesos. The Brixton Ltd. hats are also paper straw and go for 600 pesos.

Other shops neighboring Lemur were stocked full of scarves, logo T-shirts and designer sneakers, but none carried more than a single Panama hat made in China, selling for around 250 pesos.

Plants to spruce up your home

BY MARIA GALLUCCI
The News
Thursday, May 21, 2009

Fresh air is often hard to reach for Mexico City residents, especially for those living in cramped apartment complexes with hazy gray views and trash-scented breezes.

Leafy potted plants can offer city-dwellers a convenient antidote, pumping oxygen into the stale air of nature-less homes and adding smart touches to any terrace or windowsill.

The city is virtually bursting with houseplants; any street-side entrepreneur can become a botanist with a truck full of bonsai trees. Tianguis and indoor markets such as Medellín and Jamaica offer some plant selection, but they're mostly dedicated to flowers.

The biggest and best offerings, however, can be found in the Viveros de Coyoacán plant market and in Xochimilco markets like the Mercado de Plantas y Flores Cuemanco inside the Parque Ecológico and the Madreselva stalls inside the Nativitas Park.

Viveros and Xochimilco both provide an overwhelming variety of houseplants tall and small that require minimal maintenance, and market vendors are generally helpful in doling out tips to keep leaves lush and green.

Botanist and plant fanatic Víctor Corona says the Xochimilco markets are larger and offer more plant diversity than Viveros, and plants, pots, soil and accessories typically cost less. On the other hand, he says Viveros vendors generally provide better customer service and have greater plant knowledge.

Corona has worked for nearly 45 years at the Jardín Botánico in Mexico City, run by the biology institute at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. He is also in charge of the Faustino Miranda campus greenhouse, a white-domed edifice of classrooms packed with plants in pots, baskets or growing from soil patches fastened to the walls.

MAKING A LIST

Walking down damp steps inside the greenhouse's "jungle" room, Corona perused the verdant tangle to compile a list of great plants to grow in the home.

Plants on the list require indirect sunlight; for example, light through a window or on a shady balcony. Watering is only necessary once or twice per week and fertilization only once a month, although a vendor should be able to help with the specific needs of each piece of greenery.

Corona suggests packing plants into the more porous clay or terra cotta pots; for plastic pots, a dish of water should be placed underneath to help retain moisture.

Raúl Torres, who works at the Viveros market, provided a general price assessment of how much each plant could cost. He says prices are greatly influenced by a plant's height, foliage development and presentation.

Bags of soil at his Local 5 booth run between 15 pesos for small packets and 40 pesos for larger loads. Enormous terra cotta pots cost 170 pesos, while 4-inch pots and plastic varieties will cost 15 pesos or less.

HIGH-RISES

Tall indoor plants will vary in size depending on amounts of light and humidity. Some grow very slowly while others shoot up fast and require leaf maintenance.

The Aralia Cheflera (Schefflera actinophylla), for example, can grow between 2-3 meters indoors and up to 5 meters outside. Its flat, glossy leaves form groups of green ovals that bow from the stem. Torres says the plant at 2 meters goes for 450 pesos, while a mid-sized plant costs around 110 pesos.

The Piña Anona (Monstera deliciosa) can reach up to 2 meters inside, with thin, tall stems standing upright and connecting to broad, lobed leaves. Plants in 6-inch diameter pots sell for 60 pesos.

Dracaena (Dracaena fragrans) plants offer a splash of color with stripes of white and green running along its long, thin and pointed leaves, whose layering gives them the nickname Corn Plant, or "maizera" locally. Small plants can sell at Viveros for 60 pesos, while mid-sized growths cost around 165 pesos.

Philodendrons have many varieties, some growing tall and others, like the Philodendron selum, spreading wide as they develop their spade-shaped leaves with slits down the sides. Medium-sized plants cost between 40-70 pesos.

Palm trees, or "palmas," are a regional classic with immense diversity. For varieties that won't sprout coconuts, Torres suggests the Palma Areca (Chysalidocarpus lutescens), or the Palma Camedor (Chamaedorea spp.); both are slow growing and lush with yellow-green fronds. The Areca sells for 70 pesos at 1 meter tall, and the Camedor for 30 pesos in a 4-inch pot.

LAYING LOW

Small and compact indoor plants are great ways to spruce up desks, windowsills and even ceilings. For wide-spreading types, trimming top leaves can help the bottom from browning or drying out.

Ferns, or "helechos," are great plants for hanging pots or open spaces on the floor.

The Boston Fern (Nephrolepis exaltata) is one of the most resilient houseplants with frilly leaves and long fronds spilling over their containers. The Adiantum, or Maidenhair Fern (Adiantum capillus-veneris), is a clover-like sprawl of soft, thin bunches. Torres says both plants in hanging pots sell for 70 pesos.

The Aralia Arbólica (Schefflera Arboricola) can brighten any room with clusters of broad white leaves trimmed with pale green, or with leaves covered in splotches of white and green. A 50 cm plant goes for 50 pesos at Viveros.

The "Dwarf" Monstera Obliqua, the more demure cousin of the Piña Anona, boasts thin stems and spade-shaped leaves with holes reminiscent of paper snowflake cutouts. The plant can grow like ivy, or "teléfonos," if left untrimmed, and might cost around 50 pesos.

Peperonia plants have small, round and glossy leaves that smell faintly of cilantro; they cost about 40 pesos for each 6-inch diameter pot.

Bromelias also vary drastically in size and color. A small plant in Corona's greenhouse had burgundy blade-like leaves that arced downward. Torres carried a bromelia with thick, drooping leaves resembling an agave plant and with a spiky pink flower blossoming from the center, costing around 150 pesos.

The Cuna de Moises (Spathiphyllum) is small and squat with wide green fronds and makes a great windowsill companion. A plant in a 6-inch pot and measuring 40 cm tall costs 70 pesos, Torres says.

D.F.'s karaoke bars draw diehards and dilettantes

BY MARIA GALLUCCI
The News

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

[Ria's note: What first began as a reluctant story turned out to be a lot of fun. Though I'd pitched the story, I was still nervous about ruining people's Friday nights by badgering them with questions. And who would ever want to go with me on assignment? Fortunately, Paul, Aram and Roberto went along willingly with me to a nice-but-dive karaoke bar...maybe they assumed my company would pay for our fun. HA! That'd be nice. We enjoyed a beer and a round up on stage singing to the Backstreet Boys; as we stepped off the stage after a presumably amazing performace, a table at the front erupted in cheers for Paul, chanting "El Güerito! El Güerito!" which to me means "Go, white boy, go!" And that is the story of how my Pulitzer Prize-winning piece came to be.]
Alan Marino steps up on the stage in a dimly lit bar in Mexico City, a microphone and "michelada" in hand. A fuzzy monitor displays Marino and his pack of friends anxiously awaiting their cue.

"Neeeena, luna sereeeena," they begin to croon on a Friday night, passionately singing along with Miguel Bosé's "Nena" as the soft sounds of synthesized music keep the beat.

The packed bar erupts with applause and laughter as the team returns to their seats at a small square table near the stage. Brow sweaty and face flushed, Marino picks up a white plastic binder to search for his next serenade, scribbling his song and table number onto a small slip of paper.

Marino, 25, is a regular at Cantabar Collage, a simple but comfortable karaoke joint in the city's Zona Rosa district. He says he comes every weekend to belt his heart out before a crowd of 20- to 40-year-olds.

"It is a space where you can express all the feelings you keep trapped inside," he said of the bar as his tablemates nodded in agreement.

Cristian Cabrera, another Collage regular, said he loves singing karaoke because "it helps you throw away your fears."

The 26-year-old theater actor treated the audience that night to a soulful rendition of Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli's "Por ti volaré," hitting each note flawlessly - in stark contrast to the next group's unharmonious cover of the Backstreet Boys.

Cabrera said in addition to Collage, his regular karaoke circuit includes El Palomazo in Colonia Del Valle and Il Canto in Polanco.

`CANTABAR' VERSUS KARAOKE

The Mexico City nightlife scene is widely diverse; any late-night mingler might stumble across a dark, dingy cantina serving frothy "pulque," a faux Irish pub or a high-class "antro" with well-dressed club-goers sitting on sleek leather couches.

Karaoke joints can be cathartic for some, a chance to channel post-breakup anger or to sing a heartfelt homage to newfound love. Others enjoy the opportunity to soak in the crowd's affection, while some are shepherded to the stage by liquid courage.

Sing-along bars themselves offer a varying range of options: some merely pass a microphone to any drunk soul at the bar who wants it, others provide top-notch sound equipment like voice processors that take the edge of any horribly tone-deaf ballad.

Agustín Rodríguez, event coordinator for Club My Way Karaoke in Polanco, described bars in the first category as "cantabares," while karaoke clubs fill the second, appeasing the fantasies of countless songbirds across the city.

"People come here because they want to sing, they don't just casually stop in," he said of his club, whose clientele typically come dressed in ties and dress shirts or pretty blouses.

The bar features murals of New York City's Statue of Liberty and the Empire State building, a tribute to "My Way" singer Frank Sinatra. Barstools with red leather cushions and smooth beige lounges fill the interior of the stylish but unpretentious club.

"All of us like to sing, it's just that some of us never dare to," Rodríguez said.

While Sinatra plays every night at the bar, he said customer favorites include songs by Elvis, Luis Miguel and Alejandro Fernández, and the bar has 7,000 songs to chose from.

Other karaoke bars retain a more cantina-like vibe.

Cantabar Collage, for example, boasts carpeted floors, metal-framed chairs and bowls of orange-dusted wheat flour crisps; the lyrics scroll along monitors displaying inexplicable and mildly raunchy video clips of women in bikinis. The bar's cleanliness, friendliness and eager-to-please staff, however, keep it out of cantina territory.

On the opposite end of the karaoke spectrum, clubs like Cotton Club in San Angel offer vocalists a more refined, high-end experience in their sing-along endeavors.

Singers mostly troll to Mexican pop and ranchera music, although the club offers tunes in nearly every genre and in English and French as well.

The well-furbished song bar is also a dance club, depending on customers' requests. Round leather ottomans circle low, glossy tables accented by candlelight. Exposed brick walls painted with flashy gold provide the backdrop for on-stage starlets.

Back at the Collage karaoke bar, Cristina Resendiz, 28, bounds off the stage giggling after singing along with her fellow preschool teachers to Mexican pop group Flans' "Las mil y una noches."

She said she'd never been to a karaoke bar before but that her group decided to try something new. She struggled to describe the draw of the stage and the kitschy music, so with cheeks rosy and short of breath, she simply explained, "Well, I just like it."

Café aims to be hot spot for cultural exchange

BY MARIA GALLUCCI
The News

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Kino Café has a mission to serve Mexico City more than its daily cup of coffee. Equipped with a cinema, art gallery and library, it aims to dish out a healthy dose of culture as well.

The café opened its newly polished doors for business in late April, a sort of novelty amid the chain restaurants and convenience stores that dot the city's Colonia Napoles, near the World Trade Center.

Kino's exterior is inconspicuous among such businesses, itself the former home of decades' old café chain Coffee Station until recently.

The inside, however, forms a long, narrow alley filled with small tables and metal-framed chairs, the walls lined with artwork and a giant filmstrip marquee reading "KINO" hanging above the entryway.

Michael Krebs Schoebel, 41, a Mexico City resident originally from Germany, said opening a café like Kino had been a dream of his for years. "Kino" means "cinema" in German.

"Kino Café is a place of interaction, it's a local place for those who live and work around here to have their coffee, share ideas and participate in cultural exchange," he said, perched on a green and maroon vinyl-covered chair left over from the café's predecessor.

Still in its early stages, Kino is working towards developing a schedule of artistic events, all of which will be posted online. The café in the near future will begin showing about two films per week, each pertaining to a designated genre and all an opportunity to view movies from outside the mainstream.

The illustrated portraits of local artist Gerardo Cotera form Kino's first art exhibition; around ten pieces combining watercolors, graphics and digital techniques are already hanging up. The café plans to feature local artwork regularly and anticipates a photography exhibit to follow Cotera.

The café will also host a free public library and book exchange, consisting of donated texts from Kino's clientele. Groups are also welcome to hold round-table discussions, debates or even simple chats.

Julieta Bueno Valeno, 30, the café's co-owner, said the idea of a café as an art house and cinema is not a new concept in the city, but neither is it common.

"Places like [Kino] already exist in Mexico City, but in very specific zones like University City or Condesa. The city is still lacking overall," she said.

The café's location in a more business-oriented district presents bigger obstacles when it comes to the menu, though Bueno said it's a challenge she's happy to meet.

"The majority of people who eat around here are 'oficinistas,' people who for a long time have eaten greasy food...who are looking for lots of meat, sugar and typical Mexican plates," she said.

She said Kino struggled at first to maintain a balance between the owners' vegetarian preferences and what the "oficinistas" would actually buy. The café does serve meat and traditional Mexican food, but strives to avoid any resemblance to their greasy street food counterparts.

The breakfast menu includes national favorites like chilaquiles and huevos rancheros, between 38 and 54 pesos per plate. The menu of the day costs 54 pesos and includes a sandwich or mollete with a drink.

Sixteen types of sandwiches range from 32 to 48 pesos, while ten styles of pasta dishes can cost between 52 and 78 pesos. Nine offerings of salad run from 52 to 72 pesos.

And, like any good café, the coffee is plentiful and includes several varieties of espresso drinks, chilled coffee, frappés and coffee with milk. Smoothies, teas and juices are also on the menu. Alcoholic beverages including wine and beer are not currently available, but will be amended to the menu in about a month.

Krebs said the Kino Café project is an open concept, one that will constantly evolve to fit the cultural and creative needs of both the clientele and artists who pass through its doors.

· Kino Café is located in Mexico City's Col. Napoles on Insurgentes Sur 623-G at the corner of Yosemite.

· The café is open Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 9 p.m., and Saturdays 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

· For more information on the menu or cultural programming, visit www.kino-cafe.net or call 5682-5711.

Lowering stress through yoga breathing

BY MARIA GALLUCCI
The News

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Breathe in. Breathe out. Sound easy enough?

In a bustling, crowded metropolis like Mexico City, it's often hard to relax, especially with recent headlines. Controlled breathing exercises can be some of the simplest ways to reduce high levels of stress and anxiety - and, best of all, they're quick, painless and free.

Javier Soto, a yoga instructor who teaches at the Centro Budista de la Ciudad de México in the city's Roma Norte neighborhood, explained that the way we breath directly affects tension in the muscles and nerves. Short, shallow breathing can make us compulsive and unable to focus; deep, elongated breaths can leave us calm, tranquil and more attentive.

Soto suggests seven variations of Pranayama, one of five yoga principles that is dedicated to breathing techniques. "Prana" in Sanskrit means a vital energy, while "ayama" means to suspend or restrain.

GETTING STARTED

Soto recommends practicing the exercises in the early morning or on an empty stomach; when the body is lighter, breathing is less restrained. The moment you feel light-headed or tension in the chest or muscles, stop the practice. Anyone with respiratory complications or high blood pressure should consult with a doctor or physician first.

To start, find a quiet place and sit on a flat pillow or the floor, whichever is most comfortable.

For the yoga novice, Soto suggests the "easy pose" position: cross the legs and let the knees fall lightly on the feet. Rest your hands on the knees or upper thigh with the palms facing up. With a straight spine, drop the shoulders down the back and lift the chest out toward the front of the room.

UJJAYI

Start by tucking the chin in lightly toward the chest. Inhale slowly and deeply through the nose, expanding your chest and lungs. Hold the air in the palette of the mouth.

To exhale, bring the air up from the stomach to the back of the throat, as if preparing to fog a mirror with your breath. Release the breath fully and contract the chest. The breath should be loud and strong. Repeat for one to three minutes.

SURYA BHEDANA

Before beginning, grab a tissue and use as needed. Hold the right hand in front and bend the index and middle fingers in toward the palm, tucking the pinky finger over the ring finger.

Bring the hand to the face and cover the left nostril with the pinky and ring fingers. Inhale deeply through the right nostril and hold the air inside for five seconds.

Cover the right nostril with the thumb and exhale slowly through the left nostril. Rest for five seconds without inhaling and reverse the cycle, inhaling through the left nostril. Continue alternating patterns for one to three minutes.

NADI SODHANA

Repeat the steps to Surya Bhedana, but without retaining the breath. Cover the left nostril and inhale deeply, then immediately cover the right nostril and exhale profoundly. Alternate sides for one to three minutes.

KAPALABHATI

The Kapalabhati exercise is a bit more challenging than the previous practices, and Soto recommends starting lightly and building up lung capacity over time.

Sitting straight with upturned palms on the knees, inhale slowly and exhale all the air from the lungs and stomach. Take a series of quick, sharp inhalations (without exhaling) and contract the diaphragm for as long as you feel capable of doing so. The breath should be loud and make a wheezing-like noise. Repeat for ten cycles, increasing the number of inhalations each time.

SITALI

Soto says yoga practitioners over time have used Sitali to find refreshment and relief in hot climates, perfect for the sweltering end to Mexico's dry season.

Double the tongue into a "u" shape and stick it out slightly past the lips. Inhale slowly and hold your breath for five seconds, then exhale slowly. The practice can also be done without air retention. Repeat the exercise for one to three minutes.

VILOMA

The following two practices require a stack of blankets and firm support for the head, such as a wooden block.

Fold the blankets length-wise and create a thick column to support the spine and open up the chest. Cross another stack to form a "T" and place the block in the top stack's center.

Lay down so that the blankets run along the spine and the head support guides the chin toward the chest. Either cross your legs or stick them straight out; relax the arms at your side.

To prepare, inhale through the nose and exhale slowly through the mouth, creating an "s"-like whistle through the shield of your teeth. Repeat around five times.

To start Viloma, inhale slightly through the nose and pause for five to ten seconds. Hold the air inside and do not exhale. Inhale slightly again, pausing and holding. Inhale slightly a third time, holding the air then exhaling slowly. Repeat for three cycles.

ANULOMA

Begin Anuloma the same as Viloma with an "s"-like exhalation.

Next, inhale fully and pause, holding your breath for five to ten seconds. Exhale slightly and pause, retaining the air. Exhale again and pause, then exhale your remaining air very slowly. Rest for ten seconds without inhaling.

Azul Enzué Durán on her art and getting established in the D.F.

[Ria's Note: still conflicting interests...objectivity what?]

BY MARIA GALLUCCI
The News

Monday, May 11, 2009

Azul Enzué Durán is a woman wearing a patchwork quilt, grasping balloon strings as she soars toward the sky. She is a little girl with downcast eyes and a swirling siren in a turquoise sea.

She is, at least according to Durán.

A Mexico City native with a decade on the local art scene, Durán uses documentary photography and digital illustration to put into images how she sees herself and the world she lives in.

"Constant growth and expansion . it's something that's very imprinted in me, very internalized," said the 30-year-old artist, whose ebony hair is fittingly marked with a streak of bright blue.

Her latest artistic project, "Estética de la tristeza" ("Aesthetics of Sadness") will revisit such themes in a compilation of personal photographs that chronicle what she calls 13 years of her family's tragedy and heartache.

The display is set to exhibit this summer, but she said she is still in talks with galleries to determine where it will be shown.

"It's a catharsis . to find beauty in my family's pain," she said about the compilation, breaking her nearly constant smile.

Her illustrations touch on the tragic and triumphant as well. They often mix traditional acrylic and water-based paints with typography, graphic design and digital modifications, favoring vibrant colors and images in motion, like swimming fish or streaming tears.

"Sutura privada" ("Private Suture") shows a white-haired woman drifting toward the page's edge, her multipatterned skirt fluttering against a smoky blue background. As her hands weave stitches through her broken heart, a trail of letters reading "bleed" and "heal" trail behind her.

"Al vuelo" ("In Flight") mirrors Durán's proclivity to freedom, with a feather-haired, blue-skinned girl descending from above, arms spread wide as she floats through twisting wisps of purples, blues and greens.

Durán uses more haunting shades in "Se me va la niña que llevaba dentro" ("The Girl I Kept Inside Me Has Gone"). She paints a sea of curling brown and beige waves as a small girl's ghost clings to a balloon bouquet and floats up into the black above.

MOVING UP

Durán said at first it was difficult to enter Mexico City's art world - not for lack of opportunities, but because of the struggle to simultaneously create art and sustain herself financially, she explained, sitting in the studio of her Colonia Roma apartment.

The walls in her home are covered in ardent orange and bright pink paint, embellished with a stark white tree or shimmering gold branches. A dented metal taxi door and a giant wooden wheel sit off to the side, pieces she'll use when inspiration strikes.

"I believe you do it for the love of the art," she said about the challenge. "I dream of living off my art, but it's really hard to do so."

Durán began studying visual arts in 1998 at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, but left after a year to become an activist with civil resistance communities in Chiapas.

Always snapping pictures, she turned her photographs of local indigenous communities into her first exhibit at the Centro Cultural Juan Rulfo in Mexico City's Colonia Mixcoac in 2001.

She continued exhibiting around the city with collectives and groups of other young artists, a support network she still maintains. Meanwhile, she began pooling together resources by working odd jobs and occasionally selling pieces, such as the photographic postcards she sold last year in the Bellas Artes, San Ildefonso and Tem-plo Mayor museums in the Centro Histórico.

In 2004, Durán completed undergraduate studies in graphic design at the city's Autonomous Metropolitan Unviersity, or UAM, and is now searching for graduate programs in Spain or Italy.

"If you want to grow and mature as an artist, it is important to leave Mexico," she insisted.

"To know other cultures and countries and to be in other places is fundamental."

Her second favorite photography exhibit reinforces that concept. "Una mirada por Egipto" ("A Look Through Egypt"), showed in 2007 at the UAM and was partly funded by the Egyptian Embassy in Mexico.

The images capture her journey across the country - travel, she repeated, is essential for her art.

But the Mexican artist isn't scrambling to leave home either; rather, she hopes to travel, return and repeat in a constant search for artistic inspiration.

You can follow Durán's career and find out where her next exhibition will be on her art blog at azulenzue.blogspot.com.

Schools scrub away as little ones head back

BY MARIA GALLUCCI
The News

Sunday, May 10, 2009

[Ria's Note: Conflict of interest much?]

Alejandra Luna Cerillo, who teaches a class of one- and two-year-olds at Montessori's World, a private preschool in the Roma Norte neighborhood in Mexico City, spent part of Thursday wiping plastic elephants and dinosaurs individually with a damp cloth dipped in soapy water and bleach. Even their wood wicker basket home couldn't be spared a swipe.

With kids heading back to class on Monday, the entire Montessori staff had met for three consecutive days to disinfect the campus - inch by inch. They're not alone: This past week, teachers nationwide have been hastily scrubbing floors, wiping tables and hosing down playground equipment in a race to sanitize schools before students from a two-week hiatus meant to quell the spread of the H1N1 flu virus.

The Health Secretariat has also ordered both public and private schools to put into place screening techniques to prevent influenza from reaching students. At the Montessori school, students will be evaluated every morning at the entrance for signs of illness; teachers will greet them wearing surgical masks. Bottles of anti-bacterial hand gel will be everywhere, as will be the stark scent of bleach used to disinfect classrooms and hallways.

The Health Secretariat has ordered the new sanitation regime for at least the first week back to school, but many expect it to continue through the end of the school year in early July.

Some teachers don't think the measures will be tough to implement. Luna Cerillo, for instance, said her students are accustomed to washing their hands before and after using the bathroom, eating lunch and using playground equipment - guidelines the Health Secretariat strictly requires.

"We're just going to have to reinforce these things more often," she said as she polished off another plastic figurine. "And now they're going to have to apply anti-bacterial gel before entering the classroom or taking off their shoes."

In the Montessori's basement classroom on Thursday, teachers wiped stacks of flashcards and puzzle pieces one-by-one and hosed down colored pencils and crayons with cans of disinfectant spray. They took rags to everything from textbook jackets to chalkboards and laminated posters of the solar system. Teachers on the second floor, meanwhile, drowned each plastic cup and fork in tubs of foam and left no piece of faux fruit unturned. Floors, walls, tables and chairs received the soapy water treatment as well.

TAKING NO CHANCES

Principal Cristina Vélez said that while she doesn't have any particular reason to fear anyone at the school would contract the virus, the preschool would exceed the government requirements anyway.

A nurse will monitor each child's body temperature every morning before they enter the compound - anyone with figures above 37.8 degrees Celsius, or 100.03 Fahrenheit, will be sent home. A team of five teachers will take turns twice a day, every day, inspecting the cleanliness of classrooms and bathrooms.

Seema Iyer, a high-school English teacher at the international Greengates School in the State of Mexico, said the next few weeks would be a period of adjustment for everyone.

"Everything is a bit a chaotic at the moment. Our hope is that we can maintain a bit of normality so the kids can come back and work through the end of the year," she said.

Iyer said rescheduling final exams would likely be a nightmare and that school days might be extended to compensate for lost time.

She also said that after-school activities would be canceled for the next week and that all public displays of affection would be strictly prohibited - which she expects will be difficult among her adolescent students.

At Montessori's World, teachers have an altogether different problem: worried parents. Many have called to verify that the school is truly safe for their children's return, Luna Cerillo said.

Virgilio de Mier, whose toddler Mateo attends the preschool, said that at first, he was deeply troubled by news of the influenza epidemic.

The closing of schools and businesses, however, turned out to be a positive experience for his family. They spent an entire week at his parents' house in Querétaro, reading in the garden, flying kites and stargazing.

Still, after two weeks, it's time for normalcy. "We think Mateo can and should go back to school," de Mier said.

D.F.'s residents plan for Mother's Day amid flu fears

BY MARIA GALLUCCI
The News

Saturday, May 9, 2009

Many would-be restaurant-goers in Mexico City will opt to celebrate Mother's Day at home this year, as health concerns surrounding the influenza outbreak have left some residents wary of public spaces.

Yet others will celebrate Sunday as always by dining out or gathering in a family member's home.

Verónica Martínez Vázquez said her family would normally go out to eat for the holiday, but now she is worried about restaurant sanitation.

"I have a small child, so we're just going to celebrate at home with a family dinner," she said while taking her dog for a stroll around Parque España in Colonia Condesa on Friday morning.

Martha Laura Segobiano said health anxieties would also drive several of her close friends to commemorate the holiday at home. She herself will spend Sunday as in past years, selling knickknacks at her booth in the Colonia Doctores tianguis.

"The situation now has scared a lot of us," she explained, pausing to take a breath after a brisk walk around Parque México with her young daughter.

It's not just health concerns that may keep families out of restaurants on Mother's Day - it's also confusion over government regulations regarding eating establishments.

Martínez said she thought the "five-person only" rule - meaning that only five patrons could be in a restaurant at any given time - still applied to all eateries.

Segobiano was unsure if restaurants would offer reservations equivalent to their full capacities.

Mexico's government lifted most restrictions Wednesday after forcing restaurants, bars and cafAcs to either shut down or limit the number of in-house patrons.

The Health Secretariat said Thursday that social establishments should reduce capacity by 50 percent, although some restaurants around Parque México assured they would be operating fully for Mother's Day.

CELEBRATING AT HOME

Not that everyone's plans are being foiled by worries about influenza and confusion about restaurants.

Marisa Lorenzo said she would travel this weekend to her daughter's house in Querétaro and share a family dinner with her three grandchildren.

"We never leave the house that day," she said with certainty.

"Our plans won't change at all because our festivities always take place at home."

Fernando Fonseca agreed that his family celebration would carry on despite the city's recent anti-epidemic frenzy.

While perusing the clustered stalls in the city's Mercado Medellín, Fonseca said his relatives would still travel across the city to join together for Mother's Day; his mother and around 50 aunts, uncles, cousins and grandchildren are set to gather at his house for dinner.

Isabel Cestellos Bulnes agreed that health anxieties wouldn't alter her plans at all.

Meandering through the market's row of florists, she said she would host a meal in her house and probably hire mariachis or ask a relative to play the guitar throughout the festivities, which typically run late into the night.

She said she plans to give her mother perfume, various trinkets and a brilliant bouquet of flowers.

Centro's bookstores offer bargains and curiosities

[Author's note: First non-freelance story for The News...Ay guey!]

BY MARIA GALLUCCI
The News

Thursday, May 7, 2009

Filled with stacks of aging books and overflowing with volumes of centuries-old texts, Mexico City's antique bookshops provide a perfect distraction from the empty, eerie atmosphere of a city recovering from an anti-epidemic lockdown.

As the city's shops and restaurants slowly begin to roll up their shutters following government-mandated closures, the bookstores' doors remain open wide in the Centro Histórico, tempting passersby with good bargains and strange curiosities.

Nearly ten stores stand side-by-side on Calle Donceles, a short stretch near the Zócalo between streets Palma Norte and República de Brasil.

Some offer new copies of books along with the used, while others offer exclusively well-worn texts and antique collector editions. All welcome any bibliophile to spend an afternoon sifting through the cracked leather bindings and yellowing pages.

In Bibliofilia, on Donceles 78, a cluster of small, open rooms filled with more than 20,000 titles lead deep into the back of the store.

Mercurio López Casillas, who works at Bibliofilia, proudly shows the curious customer his pricey antiques. Removing from its glass case a fragile copy of a 1701 drama worth 70,000 pesos, he said successful collectors have donated most of the store's overall stock.

For the more realistic client, the store boasts a scattered array of more than 30 subjects and the works of hundreds of novelists. Books and magazines sell as low as 30 pesos, though most cost around 200 pesos.

El Laberinto, next door at Donceles 74, offers a wider range of older and recent publications, all used. Tall ceilings and ascending floor levels hold mostly novels and social science books in the 50 to 120 peso price range; a multitude of other subjects are also available.

The shop's selection mirrors the quirky and sporadic collections of its Donceles counterparts: small stacks of dulled purple pocket biographies on Mexican revolutionaries; thick volumes of 800-peso encyclopedias; and nearly 200-year-old books on Mexico's penal system.

Store employee Arturo Meneses Román said most customers request authors like Carlos Fuentes, Gabriel García Márquez and Octavio Paz, but that the shop holds many foreign authors, such as Jane Austen, Charles Dickens and Ernest Hemingway.

El Gran Remate, across the street on Donceles 81-1, sells new, used and bargain books.

Tables in the back marked "barata," or "cheap," offer a hodgepodge of titles for 10 pesos or less, including small copies of dramas and poetry and how-to pamphlets for learning karate or paper airplane construction.

Novelists span the alphabet from authors Héctor Aguilar Camín to José Zorrilla and cost 100 pesos or more. Glass cases contain 5,000-peso texts from the 1800's and feature titles such as the third edition of Miguel de Cervantes' "Don Quixote de la Mancha."

Bibliofilia, El Laberinto and El Gran Remate are open Monday to Friday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., though Saturday and Sunday hours vary by store.

OMR Gallery opens one new space, two new exhibits

BY MARIA GALLUCCI

Special to The News

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

The OMR art group in Mexico City is presenting its artists to the public in a two-month, two-gallery celebration of the artists' most recent works. The exhibitions, "5 solos" and "This is not an invitation, it's a presentation," both kicked off last week and will run through late June.

"5 solos" is exhibiting at the OMR gallery, situated along the Plaza Río de Janeiro in the city's Roma Norte neighborhood.

"This is not an invitation" will be held in the 1940s-era house next door, which after two years of renovations opened last week as the Plaza Río de Janeiro 52 gallery, an independent showroom run by OMR owners Patricia Ortiz Monasterio and Jaime Riestra.

"These artists are quite well known internationally, but this is to show everybody their work," Miranda Ibáñez Quijano, coordinator for OMR, said of the two exhibitions.

She said while the Plaza gallery will play host to new concepts and artists, the OMR gallery will continue representing and exhibiting the works of a select group of 20 or so artists, as it has done for the past quarter of a century.

Both art presentations invite the curious and the "coleccionista" alike to stroll from room to room in the early-20th-century homes and sample the latest in conceptual art and design.

`5 SOLOS'

The "5 solos" exhibition represents the latest projects by artists Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Rubén Ortiz-Torres, Pablo Vargas Lugo, Melanie Smith and Raúl Cárdenas Torolab.

Lozano-Hemmer's piece is a documentary projected onto a blank wall.

The film follows the inauguration of his "Voz-Alta, Arquitectura relacional 15," an audio piece presented last year in Tlatelolco to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the 1968 student massacre that took place there.

The video features aerial shots of the city at night as megaphones project the voices of witnesses and survivors, while flashing strobe lights slice into the darkness. Fuzzy black-and-white film clips from 1968 are interspersed with still photographs showing the carnage from the massacre.

Ortiz-Torres' latest work explores Chicano identity and aesthetics in Los Angeles, experimenting with the airbrush paint used to embellish low-rider cars. Four pieces glimmer with the tiny specks of pigment; one piece, a nearly 6-foot rectangle, boasts brilliant shades of orange that descend into fiery reds, deep maroons and then into black. A second rectangle appears simply silver until bright lights transform the board into a shimmering spectrum of colors.

Vargas Lugo brings to the gallery three cardboard collages from his series "Sombras para estrellas" ("Shadows for Stars") and "Algunos eclipses" ("Some Eclipses"). Constellations are created from discarded objects, including ripped box pieces adorned with bits of torn, coarse black paper and drastically straight rays of silver and white.

Smith's exhibit includes a collection of various paintings that highlight her use of encaustic (pigments mixed with wax), airbrush and acrylic techniques. Torolab's display includes framed photographs of the group's "Mesa de Conversación" ("Conversation table"), a piece constructed from international trade materials, including wood shipping containers and recycled rubber from car tires, meant to facilitate the exchange of ideas.

`THIS IS NOT AN INVITATION'

"This is not an invitation, it's a presentation" combines conceptual artwork with pieces related to the Plaza gallery's renovation. Featured artists include Aldo Chaparro, José Dávila, Pía Camil, Julieta Aranda, Stefan Bruggemann and José Arnaud Bello.

Enormously tall windows on the gallery's first floor open up to the park's tree-filled oasis. Stacks of square posters designed by Chaparro line the intricately patterned wood floor. The posters boast bold colors and thick block letters detailing famous movie quotations, bits of conversations and song lyrics.

Dávila's piece makes art from the plastic sheeting used to protect the floor during renovations. The large rectangular shield is speckled with splotches and drops of paint, with crinkles and tears throughout.

Up the winding staircase to the second floor, Camil's "Más o menos" piece takes wood floor pieces extracted from the remodeling and forms a zigzag with the glossy black slats.

Camil, who heads the project, conceived the gallery's presentation with Bruggemann as both discussed ideas for a show that could question the legacy of conceptual art and "abandon individualistic practices in favor of collective ones," according to a gallery press release.

Down the hall, Aranda's "Untitled (Coloring Book II)" fills the wall with 48 squares and instructions to "Fill in the squares with the indicated color." Beneath each square read phrases such as "champagne toast," "rain drop" and "fond farewell."

Bruggemann's piece, vinyl block letters painted up in the third-floor loft, read "Looks Conceptual." Dávila's second piece covers the wall across the room and outlines the borders with hot pink spray paint. A bucket, jug and trash bag from the gallery's remodeling sit in the middle, the pink tracing their shapes.

Arnaud Bello's "Un montón de carbón cribado" ("A pile of sifted coal") presents three piles of charcoal dust, the first spelling the title with clearly defined letters as the last two progress with increasingly high stacks of the powder.

His piece on the walls of the first floor reads "La Mitad de La Luz Reflejada Por un Muro" ("Half of the Light Reflected By a Wall") in humongous black acrylic letters.

Students set for spelling face-off

BY MARIA GALLUCCI
Special to The News
Friday, April 24, 2009

Nearly 40 Mexican students will take to the stage this Saturday in Mexico City as part of a national spelling bee competition.

The only catch: it's in English.

The event kicks off at 11 a.m. at the Auditorio de la Escuela Bancaria y Comercial in the Colonia Júarez. The three-round competition will run until eight of the 36 competitors remain; those eight competitors will then be ranked by a points system and the first- and second-place winners announced.

The top two spellers will win all-expenses paid trips to New York City to compete in the global round this August with students from Argentina, Chile, Germany, Italy, Turkey and South Korea.

Young scholars across Mexico have been dueling with words for months to earn a spot in the national round. The Mexican English Teachers association, or MEXTESOL, conducted the earlier in-school competitions, selecting champions from the states of Morelos, Oaxaca, Querétaro, the State of Mexico and the Distrito Federal to compete in the tournament.

This weekend's competitors are 12 to 15 years old and studying English as a second language. Students of bilingual schools, however, were not allowed to compete as to level the playing field.

Franklin Electronic Publishers de México will also host this Saturday's spelling bee. Its U.S. parent company, a global textbook giant, has run more than 70 televised spelling bees in the United States and will sponsor the upcoming bee in New York.

Raúl Quijas, director of Franklin Electronic's Mexico arm, said the competition encourages students in Mexico and across the globe to learn a second language.

He said in an earlier press release the best way to learn another language is through the spelling bee model: identifying the letters, learning words' significance and using them in complete sentences.

"It's culturally enriching to learn another language, and English is obviously one of the most-spoken languages in the world," he said.

"Knowing another language will enrich students' careers and their future studies as well."

Winners of the international competition in New York will earn scholarship money for higher education. First-place will leave with $10,000, second with $8,000 and third with $5,000.

MORE INFO

The spelling bee starts at 11 a.m. on Saturday and will end no later than 5:00 p.m. Limited seating is available to the public. It will be held on the first-floor at the Auditorio de la Escuela Bancaria y Comercial, located on Dinamarca 32, near the corner of Liverpool in Colonia Júarez.

'Birds, Rabbits and Palms': Mixtec beliefs for the 21st century

BY MARIA GALLUCCI
Special to The News
Thursday, April 9, 2009

Artists from an indigenous Mixtec community in Oaxaca have filled Mexico City’s Museo Nacional de Antropología with their generations-old stories, legends and myths. “Aves, Conejos y Palmas: Saber Mixteco Actual,” or “Birds, Rabbits and Palms: Mixtec Knowledge Today,” is on display in the museum’s Oaxaca Culture exhibition room through May 31.

Hosted by the National Anthropology and History Institute, the exhibition represents artistic traditions from the 6,000-member Pinotepa de Don Luis village.

For centuries the community has recorded its fantastic tales on earthenware jugs, bowls and embroidered cloths. Its dedication to agriculture, farming and textiles is reflected in the artwork: stalks of corn, flowers and leaves, rabbits and snakes are etched into the artisan history.

Today, the artists from Oaxaca’s southern coast are using a new canvas to pass stories down to younger generations: Converse sneakers.

“We weave legends that are written into the Mixtec memory: from mouths to ears, from ears to hands, and from hands to the eyes of the world,” artist Ildefonso López said in a press release.

The exhibition room displays Mixtec pottery, garments and black-and-white lithographs, some pieces dating back nearly 80 years. Leading up to the room is a long, wide hallway lined with a row of 10 painted Chuck Taylor high-top sneakers, each displayed behind individual glass casings.

PAINTING FOOTSTEPS

The Converse exhibit-within-an-exhibit aims to highlight the continuity, relevance and transformation of Mixtec storytelling in the 21st century. Mixtec legends depicted on the sneakers include: Kernels of corn; Rabbit in the moon; Legend of the wolf; The bull; Snake and the iguana; Legend of the birds; The Lion; and Sirens of the sea.

López’s pair of Chucks on display tells the story of how the ocelot, through vanity and arrogance, acquired his spots. His piece “Las Manchas del Ocelote,” or “Ocelot’s Spots,” presents an abstract mosaic of purple, blue and red flowers. Slinking ocelots creep around the heels and along the sides of the shoes, with spotted fur on one pair and without spots on the next.

Several pedestals down, Santiago Sarmiento’s shoes detail the “Leyenda del Cometa,” or “Legend of the Comet.” Standing heel-to-heel, the shoes show split rocks atop a green hill surrounded by lapping ocean waves. A shoe tongue reveals the body of the long, green lizard-like being, called NDOSO in Mixtec. Another scene depicts a community elder recounting the story to two boys.

Sarmiento said the chance to present his work in Mexico’s anthropology museum was a dream come true. “This signifies the chance to bring recognition to the world of Mixtec culture, to rescue the Mixtec culture through sneakers,” he said at the exhibit’s April 2 inauguration. “There hasn’t been much interest on the part of our youth, and there are people in our community who don’t care to rescue our culture.”

López, 27, and Sarmiento, 30, are members of the Grabadores Mixtecos Unidos, or the United Association of Mixtec Engravers, a nearly 10-year-old civil group bringing opportunities to artists in Pinotepa de Don Luis.

Together with Converse of Mexico, the group in late 2004 launched its philanthropic artistic endeavor, Pintando Pasos, or “Painting Footsteps.” Under the guidance of renowned Oaxacan artist Juan Alcázar, local artists have tailored their traditional skills to fit the high-top canvases for exhibition and commercial distribution.

“The Converse sneakers have become a blank canvas, where artists draw and express all the ideas that have been passed down generation after generation,” Converse spokeswoman Carina de los Santos said at the inauguration.

“This is a way to remember that Mexico exists.”

Converse of Mexico maintains logistics and financial support for exhibitions like that at Mexico’s anthropology museum. The company’s initial investment of $400,000 has covered costs of shoes, paint and income for artists and their families.

According to Converse of Mexico, the Pintando Pasos project aims to create sustainable development and employment for the Mixtec people, rescuing their cultural traditions and incorporating them through art into the contemporary world.

The shoes in recent years have been sold and exhibited in countries like Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, the United States, Spain and Japan, in addition to Mexico. In Mexico City, they’ve sold for as much as $300 in Palacio de Hierro department stores and the Converse shop in Polanco.

The Pintando Pasos project in 2005 was recognized as the best social assistance project in the region at the 2nd Exhibition of Latin American Design, hosted in Amsterdam.

López said the Pintando Pasos project is more than just a source of employment for all the artists involved – it’s a chance to keep their cultural roots alive.

“We’re presenting more than just out creativity; we’re demonstrating the knowledge we’ve acquired from our ancestors,” he said at the event.

López said the Mixtec Engravers’ pilot project is a community cultural center, bringing artists, artisans and musicians together to share the lessons and teachings of Mixtec culture with the village’s youth.

For more information on Pintando Pasos, visit www.grabadoresmixtecos.org.mx/index.shtml

Los de Abajo blends ska, punk, salsa

Monday, April 13, 2009

Mexico City rock group Los de Abajo is set to perform at Ollin Kan on April 30 at the Parque Fuentes Brotantes in Tlalpan. The nine-member band will also help close the festival with a May 9 concert in the Zócalo.Drummer Yocu Arellano talked with The News via telephone about the group's music, movement and the Ollin Kan festival.

What does the name "Los de Abajo" mean?

The name is based on a novel. (Mariano Azuela wrote the novel "Los de Abajo" in 1916, about the Mexican Revolution and the fight to remove Porfirio Díaz from power.)For us, the name means that we're part of an alternative resistance movement. We're trying to protect our own culture and create music that you've never heard before in this country.

How do you define your group's sound?

We're promoting our most recent album as contemporary Mexican music; we call it a "Mexican explosion." The European music scene has called us punk; Americans have called us "salsa ska." But our music can't be easily defined as hip-hop, ska, punk or salsa - it's a mix, with strong Mexican influences.

What are some of the biggest challenges for musicians in Mexico?

In the first place, the youth are very influenced by British and American music, and they have little access to culture here. One of the challenges [for musicians] is to retake the Mexican culture and renovate it as our own.We've always been the spokespeople of Mexican culture, musically speaking. In our latest album, we want to show to the world just what our culture is about, and it's important for us to spread this culture through our music to the youth.

What does it mean for your group to play in the Ollin Kan festival?

It's really important to us to participate in the festival, because Ollin Kan is a scene rarely seen in Mexico. It's the only festival in Mexico that truly brings the "world beat" culture, which had never come to Mexico before the Ollin Kan festival brought it here.

Why does the Ollin Kan festival support alternative music movements?

Because it's very important to support musical resistance movements; they're autonomous movements that require support like Ollin Kan to continue. Who is going to listen to Mexican music if not Mexicans themselves? The majority of people who come to the Ollin Kan festival are young, so it's great that they have access to these types of music, music that you'd never heard on the radio or television. I think it's important for the youth to see that there are types of music other than the groups that are in style now. They realize that other cultures and music exist in the world.

What can we expect from your performances at Ollin Kan?

It will be an interesting month for us, because we're not going to play how we usually play at concerts in Mexico, which is more rock, punk and ska. We'll be playing music off our fourth and latest album, though it won't be the official presentation, so there will be lots of surprises.We'll be playing alongside groups from cities across the country, like Oaxaca, San Luis Potosí and Culiacán, Sinaloa. There will be a great showing of Mexican artists within the festival.-

SPECIAL TO THE NEWS/MARIA GALLUCCI

Ollin Kan highlights world music

BY MARIA GALLUCCI
Special to The News
Monday, April 13, 2009

Mexico City will once again host hundreds of alternative and counterculture musicians from around the globe during the Sixth Ollin Kan International Festival, a concert series running from April 13 to May 10.

This year's festival promotes the music of ethnic minorities living in large European urban centers, highlighting the fusion of cultural traditions with mixed music movements throughout the world.

"Ollin Kan," which means "the place of movement" in Náhuatl, gives voice to global musicians outside the mainstream, commercial music industry, said José Luis Cruz, the festival's general director. He said the concert's concept is similar to the Náhuatl philosophy of cosmic movements creating constant renovation.

"All our [festival] themes are about creation, the open exchanges between groups from all around the world with Mexican musicians," he said.

Organizers of Ollin Kan, which drew around a million concertgoers in 2008, anticipate even more will come this year to see the festival's bigger lineup and wider circulation.The festival will feature 80 Mexican music groups and 115 international groups; the 43 different stages encompass 16 boroughs throughout Mexico City.

Most of the 468 concerts will take place in the city's southern Tlalpan borough. The festival's concept began in Tlalpan and is largely funded by the municipal government there. Larger concert venues include Tlalpan's Centro Histórico, the Conciertódromo, Multiforo Ollin Kan, the Zócalo, Ecatepec, the Olympic Village and the Parque Ecológico Loreto y Peña Pobre.Shows will also play in 19 other cities, including Puebla, Cuernavaca, Morelia, Michoa-cán, and Tapachula, Chiapas. The festival will head south at the end of May to Bogotá and Cartagena, Colombia. It traveled to Portugal and Mali during previous festivals.

"They're fighting to not disappear, to not be marginalized," Cruz said of Ollin Kan's featured musicians. "We represent other views, ones that aren't the views of the commercial market. We're proposing that people understand why these expressions exist and who they're from, what are the contexts, complexities, philosophies and cultural processes."

FOUR WEEKS OF FUSIONS

The 28-day festival is divided into four themes, each one lasting a week. Admission is free across the board - Cruz says it is a citizen's right to freely access new ideas and innovative sounds.The festival features noted and well-traveled musicians from nearly every continent, but Cruz said he views every performance as equally essential to the Ollin Kan philosophy.

"Each concert is a celebration. We're promoting alternative musicians with never-before-seen ideas and audacity," he said. "This distinguishes our festival from the others, because we're not selling anything; everything is an exchange."

The first week, which kicks off April 13, is dedicated to the Netherlands' multicultural community and its varying artistic expressions, including the Amsterdam Klezmer Band; Drums United; Neco Novellas, a Dutch-Mozambique fusion; Mesechinka, a Dutch-Balkan blend; and Beatriz Aguiar, a singer from Uruguay who is living in Amsterdam.

April 20 to 26 will offer a tribute to India, a country the festival says has an enormous wealth of traditions and expressions, both modern and traditional. Artists include Sangeeta; Musafir; Bee 2, an Indian-British mix; and Indialucía, a blend of Indian and Polish sounds.

The third week, starting April 27, features bands representing ethnic minority populations living in London, including contemporary sound movements such as electronic, gypsy, various Latin styles and klezmer, a musical genre that parallels the musical legacies of Hasidic and Ashkenazic Judaism.

May 3 kicks off the festival's final week and biggest celebration. The segment will offer a fusion between African rhythms and their Mexican Caribbean counterparts, including genres like mandenga, jazz and son jarocho, a sound native to Veracruz that combines Spanish, indigenous and African musical traditions.

Featured African artists include, among others, Malians Toumani Diabate, Bassekou Kouyate and Cheick Tidiane Seck. Diabate is known by his performance on the kora, a 21-string harp-lute. Kouyate will play his Ngoni, a West African string instrument made of wood and stretched, dried goatskin. In 2008 the artist received the African Artist of the Year award from the BBC's Awards for World Music.

The fourth week also brings together worldwide cultural resistance movements. Highlighted artists and groups include Marcelo D2, from Brazil; Pibo Márquez, from Venezuela; Rassegna and Annie Ebrel, from France; X Alfonso, from Cuba; and Xosé Manuel Bou-diño, from Spain.

HOMEGROWN ARTISTS

The Ollin Kan festival, albeit an international music forum, also gives ample play to Mexico's own musical movements.The fourth week features tropical music traditions from Mexico's Caribbean side, as well as indigenous Huichol and Chichimeca dance ceremonies, Náhuatl narrations and Huave music.

Mexican artists include Aguas Aguas, Grupo Chéjere and Los Parientes de Playa Vicente, all from Veracruz; Los Arpisteros de Pajapan; Asalto Diario; Barro Rojo; Contempodanza; Los Rayitos del Cerro, from Chihuahua; Fandangueros, from Mexico City; and Leones Negros and Atletas Campesinos, both from Querétaro.

Ollin Kan will also feature Mexican rock groups including La Barranca and Nine Rain. The Aztec-reggae group Rastrillos and electronic-pop group Los Licuadoras will also perform.

This year's festival will close out with a performance by Los de Abajo, converting the concert into a dance hall blasting ska and punk music. Los de Abajo will also touch on sounds including jazz, electronic, reggae, merengue, rap and Balkan polka.

For more information on performance schedules and venue locations, visit www.ollinkan.tlalpan.gob.mx.