Alamos Sonora Mexico

Windows treatments… cats… sheep… Bishop Reyes Cathedral… summer floods… fiber optics and Mexican mechanics… Estudiantina de Alamos… La Aduana… Pantheon… peeling paint… a tale of two seasons…

20 … Looking at windows from the outside is different than looking outside from within…

This little house caught my eye as it lived and breathed.

This was a wonderful casa in Barrio El Barranco. Going green has been a concept as far back as the planet’s beginning. Most poor people of the earth are off the grid. And the use of plant materials for shelter is common across the continents. This house has it all, a tribute to its surroundings.

A wonderful example of a ruin restored to modern splendor.

I first met this ruin on Calle Las Auroras while heading out to the airport 1983. It was still a ruin when I revisited in 1993. Work seemed to be underway to clean the property. I was told some Hollywood folks were in the process of bringing it back to life. Three years later it was a sparkling gem along a dusty road. Future posts will look at the resurrection of this home.

Another window treatment on Calle Las Auroras.

This window seems to come from an earlier time and a different civilization. Stark triangles in a thick wall of adobe. It seemed there were children playing outside it’s door every time I passed by on my way to the airport and countryside.

Warmth Radiates off of Adobe Walls as Another Winter Day Begins.
Kite flying is popular in Alamos, Sonora, Mexico. Drinking beer outside the pickup with friends is popular. Fun and work go on side by side as we visit a wood shop. Video …

19 … All of Alamos is a little bit country, a little bit old world…

Mid-morning at a Barrio La Compana store. Parrots can be heard.

Minutes from the central Plaza and Alameda life slows. Here, almost everyone is walking or on a bike. Clothes are being hand-washed and hung out to air dry in the Sonoran sun. Smells of wood- fire cooking dance on a light cooling breeze. This is the life rarely seen on Mexican TV. These are the rural suburbs surrounding southern Spain’s Andalusian design influenced downtown.

So you think you can out stare a sheep do you? Give it a try.

All is well on a walk from the Plaza to take in the Mirador’s rewarding 360 degree view. In my mind’s eye the best way to see Alamos is go walking in any direction for an hour. One will always be rewarded. And, one will always find their way back to where they started. Look, or listen, for the Cathedral, it is a compass. Animals wander freely around Alamos. They know where they are. And they know where home is.

The conclusion to a Short History of Alamos, Sonora, Mexico embraces the Sierra Madre.
Here, Bishop Reyes’ Cathedral in the Plaza, a three-tiered belfry, shines gold in morning light. Here, looking east, one’s imagination is stirred by the forbidding beauty of the Sierra Madre Occidentals. Together, they shape the Alamos experience. Video…

18 … It is all in the details, it is all in the material, it is all in the intent…

Welcome to Bishop Reyes Cathedral. Think of the scenes it has witnessed.

Ladies from the wealthy homes of Alamos were asked to contribute one of their fine china to decorate the nearly completed cathedral. These plates once sat on elegant dining tables and then they were volunteered to be hung outdoors and exposed to the elements for now over 200 years. Talk about culture shock. A lucky few remain in place.

Here the law of equal and opposite reactions is clearly evident, etched in time..

Who fired these bullets? Was it Spanish soldiers, Federalists, Centralists, Mexican colonists, Imperialists, Yaquis, Apaches, Centralists, Conservatives, Liberals, French troops, Independents, Mayos, Reformists, Highway Men, Villistas or local teenagers having target practice? The wealth of Alamos was targeted by every political movement to finance their causes. Alamos was the place to plunder. Alamos has seen the best and worst of human nature.

Strong sun highlights fervent beliefs as shadows dance across chiseled features.

Official records indicate that work on the church began in 1786. Alamos elected three town folk to supervise work and manage the budget. The church was finished in 1803. Today, as it always has, a cathedral bell announces the hour and half-hours and masses. Time marches on one bell peel after another, one year after another, one century after another. This is Alamos time.

Let us start with an introduction to a Short History of Alamos, Sonora, Mexico.
“Here is something Special”, Spanish explorer Vasquez de Coronado noted in 1540 as he headed north, passing by tall white rocks on Alamos de Sierra. This is the opening chapter to “A Short History of Alamos” written, filmed and edited by Anders Tomlinson. Narrated by Bruce Miles. Soundtrack by ClaySonics and Estudiantina de Alamos. Video…

17 … And then the rains came and hope springs eternal…

On this day Arroyo La Aduana does not encourage crossing.

Blusters from a hurricane passing over Alamos from the Sea of Cortez flooded the arroyos overnight. The town awoke to three avalanches of rushing water. Folks came to the water’s edge and marveled at the sound and fury of nature. And then some understood there are paradoxes embedded into natural orders of things; water, water everywhere – but not a drop to capture and command. Thankfully, gravity will ensure the surrounding aquifer receives a recharge.

Alamos, for this moment, has become the three rivers city of Sonora.

The view from Mirador looking to the northwest was another side of Alamos rarely seen, the town’s eastern center surrounded on two sides by water. I believe this was the doings of Pacific Tropical Cyclone Fausto headed northeast for Texas. Nature, you have to live with it because you can’t live without it. Why isn’t this Planet Water instead of Planet Earth?

The storm passed, the sun came out and the waters began to recede.

When the arroyos recede they become passable on on foot, bike and vehicle. Children take to the water, it is now fun, a challenge they can conquer. This boy is crossing Arroyo La Aduana and headed towards the Missionaries of Fatima’s monastery.

An occasional summer storm floods three arroyos in Alamos with mountain runoff.
Summer is the rainy season and tropical storms, remnant of hurricanes, can come in from the Sea of Cortez to the west. This is the morning after a storm hit the region hard the previous evening. Video…

16 … Technology is a many splendor thing as are the laws of physics…

The old, cobblestone streets, and the new, fiber optic conduit, meet in Kissing Alley.

Workers prepare to dig up the cobblestone Kissing Alley, Calle de la Paz, to bury fiber optic line headed for the Palacio Municipal. Alamos was way ahead of most American cities and town in this regards laying the bones for high-speed internet. The inclined narrow alley that leads to the Plaza Las Armas protected the the town center from large scale invasion.

And on the other hand there are simple ways to lift a car,

Hey, if it works – it works. This technique is probably not OHSA approved but this is Mexico. At times the least force and energy expended may be the path chosen, especially in a land of siestas and beer. Future Journal entries will feature vehicles of the day such-as “Black Power” and the horn-hooded two- door coupe that I was told Levant Alcorn drove into town. In the next wave of Alamos video editing – mid May, scenes from above will be posted.

15 … Making music a way of life and continuing traditions…

One step into the past is three steps into the future.

I heard of a tour that the Estudiantina de Alamos had made to San Francisco and Los Angeles. It would be wonderful if this organization of young men could retrace de Anza’s steps in California. Just think, Estudiantina de Alamos performing in San Francisco, Monterey, Santa Barbara and Los Angeles. It would make a beautiful poster. Natural sponsors would be these cities’ Historical Societies. Cultural roots are most clearly understood through music. Wherever these young men stroll singing they are Alamos ambassadors.

They play often in many places, they are part of Alamos' heart.

On this evening the Estudiantina de Alamos was playing on the steps of Old Hospital ruins left standing as part of a restoration into a hotel.
A bus load of Copper Canyon tourists were being entertained and dining. And then a murmur swept through the bustling patio, heads turned and whispers followed. Carroll O’Connor, actor and Alamos home owner, had entered the room which rose in a standing ovation.

Estudiantina de Alamos performs before a packed Plaza as a film crew captures the event.
It is a big day in the Plaza. A TV crew has come to town and is filming a music concert. Estudiantina de Alamos, a crowd favorite, is performing. They will also back up several other acts. The bandstand is surrounded by adolescent girls and an scattered smiling mothers. Video…

14 … The landscape of La Aduana has rebounded from the best and worst of man..

Downtown Aduana on a typical weekday morning. Remants of mining dot the hills.

Spanish conquistador Vasquez de Coronado camped here during the winter of 1540-41. He was searching for gold in what turned out to be mountains with veins of silver. The mines closed in 1906 after nearly 400 years of continuous mining. La Aduana was the “custom office”, it was all about taxes and royalties. Life was hard and short with the hazards of the mines and the chemicals used in the extraction process. The curse of quicksilver had a wide footprint.

Today, seven miles west of Alamos, Aduana is what it is.

Here seven miles west of Alamos, at 2,500 feet elevation with surrounding mountains as high as 4,700 feet, Aduana has less than 300 people where once there was 5,000. A church, country store, cemetery, a small restaurant-inn, a plaza with a dry fountain in its center surrounded by the past is Aduana today. And for some this is their home. And these are their hills with their months of desert and long summer of jungle.

The woman come out to show their wares when visitors arrive.

Located near the church is La Aduana Art & Crafts. This is a cooperative of local ladies, seen here, with their products. This photo was taken in 1997. I wonder what Aduana is like today. I know the dust is the same and radios and televisions sing and speak from isolated homes. But has the realities of 2011 arrived? While researching Aduana on the internet I was surprised to see alamos-sonora-mexico.com being quoted, some would say plagiarized, by others sites. Indeed, this is 2011. In the next wave of Alamos video editing – mid May, scenes from Aduana will be posted.

13 … A place where the Living and Dead and Memories converge…

Can you find the black crows spending their morning perched on crosses?

Existence in the Pantheon, Cemetery, is a many layered thing. November 2, the Day of the Dead, is one of these moments as relatives bearing flowers light candles at their departed’s grave sites. Some of the surnames etched and painted are Almada, Urrea, Salido, Salazar, Ortega, Lopez, Zayas, Ibarra, Santoyo, Palomares, Lara, Acosta and…

Touring the Graveyard is an art experience as a variety of religious icons are repeated in many variations and materials.s.

And the names keep coming: Rosas, Parra, Valenzuela, Esquer, Boors, Ramos, Garcia, Robles, Campoy, Zavala… The earliest dated grave I found was for Antonio Alamada – 8 de Octubre, 1786.

This tarnished Jesus stands as a gatekeeper to the eternal blue skies above.

There was the day I listened from across the graveyard to the piercing wails of a woman and sister who had lost their grown son and brother. And there are the sounds of birds and dogs as countryside meets town, past meets present and the future is there for all to see.

A mourning mother’s deep wails, crows cawing – perched on white crosses…
It is a warm spring day as we explore the “Pantheon” – (Cemetery) on the road to the Sierra Madres, minutes east of the Colonial Center. The ages speak here. Be it ancient mountain sounds or human voices, mourning and celebrating since 1794. All is timeless, and all thoughts are a point on our circle of life. Video…

12… History is in the detail, humanness is in the design…

Micro views have as much information as watching a stunning sunset.

This peeling paint is on a west facing wall, built in 1828 at the end of Calle Comercio. It is a scene repeated throughout Alamos, Sonora, Mexico. In recent times Rip Torn and Geraldine Page found sanctuary behind this edifice.

Just think of what this wall has kept in and out over the passing years.

When this was being built: what songs were sung, what hopes were marshaled, what stresses dominated, what news was of the day? Imagine the hands that filled the cracks with little rocks and fragments. Was this the work of one man or many? And this is but a small section of a long wall separating two properties on Calle Galeana.

Fast paced music video that is more than its parts, much like Alamos itself..
This is an experimental clip that weds close-ups textures shot out a moving car’s window and 120 blended stills images of Alamos life. High speed video at its best. Alamos, Sonora, Mexico has never looked like this. Video…

11… A tale of two seasons, a tale of two spirits…

The end of Spring seems like the end of the year.

In the dog days of Spring smoke from burning farm fields on the coast and Navajoa is blown up into the foothills of Alamos. Warm heavy air holds down a layer of dust that covers anything that doesn’t move. It is what it is, life goes on as another yearly cycle completes its course.

And then the land comes alive with color and sounds of rejuvenation.

Everything glistens with a sheen of cleanliness. Spirit returns to the laugh and smile of the Alamos. Color explodes in what not long ago was the plainest of places. Behold a lush cornucopia of jungle greens accented with vibrant wildflower rainbows. Overhead, ever-changing skies take on moments of absolute magnificence. One is embraced by healthy glowing faces proud of their crops coming up around them. Lluvia! In the jubilant glory of rain’s fulfilled expectation, yes!, there’s more life to come. Lluvia!

Summer is the Alamos season of vibrant color, rains and nights of natural magic and wonder.
Lightening on a warm Alamos summer evening is a show to remember. The romantic Plaza is a wonderful vantage point. Rolling thunder punctuates child’s play and lovers’ embraces. Video…