This Year’s Buying Trip to the Village and Mucho Mas

by Susan­na Starr

Hav­ing just returned from a vis­it to the weav­ing vil­lage, the images are strong in my mind. For some time my fam­i­ly of three grown chil­dren have been talk­ing about get­ting togeth­er in Oax­a­ca when we did our next buy­ing trip. Although they’ve come down to the weav­ing vil­lage indi­vid­u­al­ly as chil­dren and young adults for many decades, this was the first time they came down togeth­er. At this point in their lives, work and time are dif­fi­cult to come by, so we start­ed mak­ing arrange­ments, sched­ul­ing the vis­it and not­ing it into their cal­en­dars, many months pri­or to the antic­i­pat­ed trip.

Amy, Roy and Mirabai in front of Tlamanalli Restaurant
Amy, Roy and Mirabai in front of Tla­manal­li Restaurant

Our Interwoven Lives with the Zapotec Weavers: An Odyssey of Love

The Zapotec Indi­an cul­ture is a rich one, with many thou­sands of years of endur­ing tra­di­tions. Of all the tra­di­tions, fam­i­ly is prob­a­bly the most impor­tant of the under­ly­ing struc­ture of this ancient cul­ture. My part­ner, John Lamkin, and I had recent­ly pub­lished a beau­ti­ful book called Our Inter­wo­ven Lives with the Zapotec Weavers: An Odyssey of Love (sales@Starr-Interiors.com) which tells the sto­ry of my more than forty years of work­ing with the same fam­i­lies in the vil­lage. John’s beau­ti­ful pho­tographs accom­pa­ny that jour­ney. In it, I trace three gen­er­a­tions of fam­i­lies that I’ve been so close to, as well as pho­tographs of oth­er weavers I’ve been work­ing with, espe­cial­ly on the Line of the Spir­it™, a spe­cial design­er col­lec­tion that has been an impor­tant part of what we do for more than twen­ty-five years.

Roy enjoying tortilla fresh from the comal Rosario, husband Faustino, Amy, Roy and Mirabai.
Roy enjoy­ing tor­tilla fresh from the comal
Rosario, hus­band Fausti­no, Amy, Roy and Mirabai.

Hav­ing Mirabai, Amy and Roy accom­pa­ny­ing us to vis­it each of the weav­ing fam­i­lies was not only impor­tant to the fam­i­lies, but to our fam­i­ly as well. When Roy and Rosario Men­doza met again,  thir­ty years had passed since they both were liv­ing in the Men­doza house in Oax­a­ca. but there was no prob­lem in rec­og­niz­ing each oth­er. Mirabai and Amy were down more recent­ly, some­times with their own chil­dren, but now there were not just two gen­er­a­tions, but three. As close as I am to the orig­i­nal fam­i­lies and their grown chil­dren, it’s this third gen­er­a­tion, the same age as my own grand­chil­dren, that are mov­ing beyond the life they were born into, while still hon­or­ing and prac­tic­ing the cul­tur­al val­ues that have con­tin­ued for so many gen­er­a­tions before them.

Armando in front of special "Tree of Life" which we purchased
Arman­do in front of spe­cial “Tree of Life” which we purchased

Now, through the hard work of their grand­par­ents and par­ents, they have been afford­ed edu­ca­tion­al oppor­tu­ni­ties nev­er before avail­able to pre­ced­ing gen­er­a­tions. Although many of the young peo­ple of this age are still weav­ing, those who have been giv­en the oppor­tu­ni­ties to study at uni­ver­si­ties are con­tin­u­ing on to become doc­tors, den­tists, and study­ing for oth­er professions.

I feel as proud of their accom­plish­ments as I do those of my own grand­chil­dren. The ties we have are strong ones and hav­ing our fam­i­lies togeth­er dur­ing this time was evi­dence of the warmth and friend­ship that goes far beyond just a work­ing rela­tion­ship. Liv­ing in the vil­lage, wak­ing up to the sounds, vis­it­ing the mar­ket to buy our flow­ers and fresh pro­duce, vis­it­ing the fam­i­lies we work with, hav­ing lunch at El Des­can­so and at Tier­ra Antigua with the Montaño fam­i­lies was joyful…and memorable.

The Montaños at El Descanso
The Mon­taños at El Descanso

Also mem­o­rable, was the evening we spent at the home of our good friends, Flo­renti­no and Eloisa Gutier­rez. Their son, Juan Cristo­bal, who stud­ied audio engi­neer­ing in Cal­i­for­nia, has put togeth­er a band and at Mirabai’s urg­ing, decid­ed to per­form a con­cert for us. It was held in their spa­cious court­yard, with lux­u­ri­ant flow­ers and plants pro­vid­ing the per­fect back­drop for the con­cert. And, the younger Fidel Mon­taño was the lead singer. Writ­ing their own music and lyrics and accom­pa­nied by a few oth­er mem­bers of the band, the con­cert was outstanding.

Juan Cristobal, Fidel and their band, Km 1
Juan Cristo­bal, Fidel and their band, Km 1
Roy holding Alta's grandson Pablito
Roy hold­ing Alta’s grand­son Pablito

We spent impor­tant time with Alta Gra­cia, the dye­mak­er for Line of the Spir­it™ since its incep­tion and with her son Jaci and his wife Soledad. We vis­it­ed with the wife of Felipe Lazaro who passed away recent­ly and bought some of her spe­cial­ties of roast­ed pump­kin seed bars, ama­ranth bars and light wafers and exchanged warm embraces. We vis­it­ed with Maria and Eloisa Bautista whose recent­ly mar­ried son, Jacobo now is fol­low­ing in the foot­steps of his par­ents who have been part of the Line of the Spir­it™ team since it began, more than twen­ty-five years ago when he was just a baby. Our fam­i­ly meet­ing with Jovi­ta and her broth­er, Valenti­no and his wife, was affir­ma­tion of the ongo­ing rela­tion­ship of our fam­i­lies, as it was with all the Line of the Spir­it™ weavers.

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Maria & Eliseo Bautista with Susanna and Jazi
Maria & Eliseo Bautista with Susan­na and Jacinto

Hav­ing lunch at Tla­manal­li, the acclaimed restau­rant of world-famous chef, Abi­gail Men­doza, and her sis­ters, was anoth­er spe­cial event. In the kitchen, we cried togeth­er with their moth­er, Dona Clara, who lost her son Arnul­fo, one of the most tal­ent­ed artists the vil­lage has ever known and one of our close friends. In the beau­ti­ful patio, we enjoyed some of their famous dish­es at the tra­di­tion­al­ly dec­o­rat­ed tables. The embraces we exchanged were heartfelt.

Our family with wife of recently deceased weaver Felipe Lazaro
Our fam­i­ly with wife of recent­ly deceased weaver Felipe Lazaro
Our family looks on as art director, Jacinto Morales, discusses technical aspect with Juan Luis and his wife Paula
Our fam­i­ly looks on as art direc­tor, Jac­in­to Morales, dis­cuss­es tech­ni­cal aspect with Juan Luis and his wife Paula

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yes, this was a mem­o­rable vis­it, a tes­ti­mo­ny to what busi­ness can real­ly bring as its reward. We have all pros­pered and its always a joy to see how the entire vil­lage has also pros­pered over these decades. But, always, its the per­son­al rela­tion­ships, the warmth and gen­uine car­ing, the being part of an extend­ed fam­i­ly that is the real bonus. This is as much a part of our con­nec­tion as any­thing else that we con­tin­ue to be involved in togeth­er. The weav­ings they pro­duce and that we sell to our clients who pro­vide a home for them where they will be enjoyed and appre­ci­at­ed com­pletes the cir­cle. But the heart con­nec­tion is what can­not be seen, just felt, and what endures.

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The year’s activities at Starr Interiors

by Susan­na Starr

Begin­ning a new year always gives us the chance to look at the past one. Ours at Starr Inte­ri­ors was a spe­cial one. We cel­e­brat­ed, all year long, our 40th anniver­sary. Where did the time go? Rather than try­ing to recon­struct the decades, our book com­mem­o­rat­ing the jour­ney was pub­lished and is now being dis­trib­uted. Reviews are still com­ing in and you’ll find the lat­est one below. I think it says it all.

There were a num­ber of events includ­ing the book sign­ing that took place in May at Starr Inte­ri­ors, in June at Moby Dick­ens in Taos and in Novem­ber at Barnes & Noble in Albu­querque NM. There were also mag­a­zine arti­cles and news­pa­per fea­ture sto­ries. All in all it was def­i­nite­ly a cel­e­bra­to­ry year.

Book signing and photo show room
Book sign­ing and pho­to show room

Many thanks are due to Leah Sobol for her job as gallery direc­tor. If every­one were to feel about their work as she does the world would be a bet­ter place. In addi­tion to her strong sense of respon­si­bil­i­ty and com­mit­ment, she main­tains the high­est stan­dard of keep­ing the gallery main­tained to pro­vide the kind of ele­gant pre­sen­ta­tion the rugs deserve. Not only is her abil­i­ty as a man­ag­er always in evi­dence, but her heart involve­ment is as well. She is there to make sure every­thing runs smooth­ly, helps clients with their needs and pro­vides indi­vid­ual con­sul­ta­tions to ensure that client’s unique needs are specif­i­cal­ly met. We are for­tu­nate indeed that our team includes her impor­tant and ongo­ing con­tri­bu­tion and concern.

Front cover
Front cov­er

Thanks to Susan Mont­gomery for the won­der­ful review of our new book, Our Inter­wo­ven Lives with the Zapotec Weavers: an Odyssey of the Heart . The review is pub­lished in entire­ty below. Susan’s web­site can be seen here.

 

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Two Cultures, One Spirit:  A Book Review

by Susan Montgomery

Our Inter­wo­ven Lives with the Zapotec Weavers is beau­ti­ful mem­oir of lives and fam­i­lies from com­plete­ly dif­fer­ent cul­tures that have inter­twined and enriched each oth­er for sev­er­al decades. The dif­fer­ences and par­al­lels are elo­quent­ly expressed by author, Susan­na Starr, and pho­tog­ra­ph­er, John Lamkin.

Susan­na writes about her life as an artist and gallery own­er in Taos, New Mex­i­co, but she pri­mar­i­ly focus­es on her deep con­nec­tions with Zapotec weavers in the small vil­lage of Teoti­t­lan del Valle locat­ed about 20 miles from the city of Oax­a­ca in the foothills of the Sier­ra Juarez moun­tains in Mex­i­co. The Zapotec peo­ple are the descen­dants of an ancient civ­i­liza­tion that is indige­nous to the Oax­a­ca region. In this remote vil­lage, many gen­er­a­tions of fam­i­lies have been pro­duc­ing intri­cate­ly designed, hand-woven rugs that are unique to their cre­ators and their locale. Their mate­ri­als come from the world they live in with wool pro­duced by local sheep and yarn made local­ly with dyed, vivid pig­ments. Each rug is a work of art, reflect­ing both tra­di­tion­al and more mod­ern, inno­v­a­tive designs.

After nav­i­gat­ing moun­tain­ous dirt roads to find this vil­lage in the 1970s, Susan­na Starr was so entranced with the weav­ing com­mu­ni­ty she found that she kept going back and even estab­lished her own sec­ond home in the area. She devel­oped a mutu­al­ly ben­e­fi­cial busi­ness rela­tion­ship with the Zapotec weavers, pur­chas­ing their rugs and tak­ing them back to Taos to sell in her shop. But her rela­tion­ship with the weavers became much more than business.

Susan­na shared in their lives as their fam­i­lies grew and adapt­ed to chang­ing times. The book is rough­ly divid­ed into her rela­tion­ships with three gen­er­a­tions of weavers—the par­ents (now grand­par­ents) who are about Susanna’s age, their chil­dren who grad­u­al­ly took over the weav­ing busi­ness from their par­ents, and now the grand­chil­dren, some of whom are becom­ing tal­ent­ed weavers them­selves and oth­ers who are spread­ing their wings as they pur­sue edu­ca­tion and careers.  But the beau­ty of this sto­ry is the close­ness of these fam­i­lies, because wher­ev­er these chil­dren go they retain the cul­tur­al val­ues and tra­di­tions of their com­mu­ni­ty. In spir­it and soul, they will always be part of their Zapotec vil­lage.  Through­out the book, Susan­na dis­cuss­es her own fam­i­ly and the dif­fer­ences and sim­i­lar­i­ties she sees as her chil­dren, like the Zapotec chil­dren, grow and move into adulthood. 

In many ways, this is a trav­el book because the read­er is trans­port­ed to a small Mex­i­can vil­lage and soon feels immersed in this warm and col­or­ful com­mu­ni­ty. It is a book about place, fam­i­ly, cul­ture, tra­di­tions, and hope for the future. We are intro­duced to mul­ti­ple gen­er­a­tions in sev­er­al fam­i­lies and we fin­ish the book feel­ing as if we know them and would love to meet them too.

John Lamkin’s col­or­ful, per­cep­tive pho­tos bring Susanna’s sto­ries visu­al­ly alive. We are able to not only see the beau­ti­ful rugs but to study the fas­ci­nat­ing faces of the weavers and their fam­i­lies as they grow up and grow old­er, cel­e­brat­ing both dai­ly life and the many tra­di­tion­al fes­ti­vals that are so much a part of their culture.

This is a book you will want to read and think about over time. It is a book that will be at home on your cof­fee table or on your bed­side night stand.  I know I would like to share this book with my fam­i­ly and friends, not only because of its unique sto­ry about cre­at­ing art through gen­er­a­tions but because it tells a sto­ry of how we are all more alike than we are dif­fer­ent, about how the spir­it in peo­ple can tran­scend cul­tures and gen­er­a­tions, and about how our cul­tur­al val­ues make us who we are.  It is so appro­pri­ate that the sub­ti­tle of this book is “An Odyssey of the Heart.”

This book can be pur­chased for approx­i­mate­ly $20 in paper­back or $30 hard­bound from Ama­zon or ordered from Cyn­thia at Palo­ma Blan­ca Press (PalomaBlanca.Cynthia@gmail.com). It is also avail­able through your local book­stores or any oth­er online bookstores.

Susan­na Starr is an entre­pre­neur, pho­tog­ra­ph­er, speak­er, artist, and own­er of Starr Inte­ri­ors in Taos.  She is also own­er, design­er and direc­tor of the acclaimed design­er weav­ing col­lec­tion, “Line of the Spir­it,” whose found­ing and devel­op­ment is described in her book.  Susanna’s arti­cles have appeared in many pub­li­ca­tions and she is a mem­ber of the Inter­na­tion­al Food, Wine & Trav­el Writ­ers Asso­ci­a­tion. Her web­site is www.SusannaStarr.com.

John Lamkin is an award-win­ning jour­nal­ist and pho­tog­ra­ph­er who is also based in Taos. He is a con­tribut­ing writer and pho­tog­ra­ph­er for many pub­li­ca­tions and a board mem­ber of the Inter­na­tion­al Food, Wine & Trav­el Writ­ers Asso­ci­a­tion. His web­site is www.TravelWritingAndPhotography.com.

Pho­tographs by John Lamkin.

Book signing & photo show a great success

 

Book signing and photo show room
Book sign­ing and pho­to show room

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The pho­to show and book sign­ing were a great suc­cess. Many peo­ple attend­ed and many bought books. More infor­ma­tion about the book, “Our Inter­wo­ven Lives with the Zapotec Weavers: an Odyssey of the Heart” can be found on pre­vi­ous posts. If you’re in Taos, the book is for sale at the gallery.

Book launch and photography show at Starr Interiors

Book Front Cover
Book signing and photography show at Starr Interiors

June 21, 2014

5 – 7 PM

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Starr Inte­ri­ors

117 Paseo del Pueblo Norte

(2 doors south of the Taos Inn)

Starr Inte­ri­ors is joy­ful­ly cel­e­brat­ing its 40th year anniver­sary with a book launch of a new book writ­ten by Susan­na Starr with pho­tographs by John Lamkin. A book sign­ing will be held in the his­toric build­ing that hous­es Starr Inte­ri­ors. The book, Our Inter­wo­ven Lives with the Zapotec Weavers: An Odyssey of the Heart, chron­i­cles three gen­er­a­tions of deep con­nec­tion and par­al­lels the lives of Starr and spe­cif­ic weav­ing fam­i­lies of the small Zapotec vil­lage out­side of Oax­a­ca, Mex­i­co through text and stun­ning pho­tos. It has already received acclaim for its cul­tur­al impor­tance in var­i­ous coun­tries as well as the U.S.

Forty Years! And a visit to the weaving village

Starr's 40th

 

by Susan­na Starr

As I sit here in our home over­look­ing the Hon­do Val­ley  out­side of Taos, New Mex­i­co, with the back­drop of the San­gre de Cristos moun­tains alter­nate­ly shroud­ed in cloud cov­er, I real­ize that I’ve only been home from our annu­al three and a half month stay in Mex­i­co for a cou­ple of weeks.

Just lit­tle more than two weeks ago we were walk­ing the streets of the weav­ing vil­lage where I’ve been work­ing with the same weav­ing fam­i­lies for so many years. As always, it was won­der­ful being there, vis­it­ing with our old friends, who are real­ly the clos­est I have to extend­ed fam­i­ly, and see­ing all the changes in the year since our last visit.

This time John and I arrived with copies of our recent­ly pub­lished book “Our Inter­wo­ven Lives with the Zapotec Weavers: An Odyssey of the Heart” the beau­ti­ful mini-cof­fee table book that my part­ner, John Lamkin, and I col­lab­o­rat­ed on, with my sto­ry and his beau­ti­ful pho­to­graph­ic accompaniment.

 

Susanna shows the book to Eliseo & Maria Bautista
Susan­na shows the book to Eliseo & Maria Bautista

In this day of imme­di­ate elec­tron­ic com­mu­ni­ca­tion, it wasn’t quite the sur­prise we thought it would be since it had already made it’s advance announce­ment on Face­book. But not every­one had heard about it, espe­cial­ly not the Line of the Spir­it weavers. But every­one seemed to be delight­ed with it. Many of the pho­tos brought hap­py smiles of recog­ni­tion but most impor­tant­ly, it was that spe­cial shared feel­ing of know­ing each oth­er, our fam­i­lies and the vil­lage itself over these many years that was so meaningful.

Juan Luis & family
Juan Luis & family

This new book of ours tells the sto­ry not only of my forty years of work­ing with the Zapotec weavers in this vil­lage, but par­al­lels their lives with my own, of the three gen­er­a­tions I’ve been involved with, my own being the first gen­er­a­tion, the chil­dren who are now adults and run­ning the estab­lished busi­ness­es begun by their par­ents, as the sec­ond gen­er­a­tion. All of these fam­i­lies have been and always will be a sig­nif­i­cant part of my life.
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But it’s the third gen­er­a­tion that real­ly excites me, the gen­er­a­tion of my own grand­chil­dren. These younger peo­ple who have already start­ed in on careers of their own such as med­i­cine, or are now at uni­ver­si­ties study­ing engi­neer­ing and inter­na­tion­al com­merce or attend­ing high schools in Oax­a­ca prepar­ing them for unknown pur­suits, are astound­ing. Their grand­par­ents, my old­est friends, were the tran­si­tion­al age, the one that rep­re­sent­ed the shift from the tra­di­tion­al ways of their par­ents and grand­par­ents to being immersed in the con­tem­po­rary world that includ­ed me and a num­ber of oth­er “com­pradores” (buy­ers) like me.

Weavers and Compradores
Weavers and Compradores

They passed the torch to the next gen­er­a­tion who con­tin­ued to build their busi­ness­es and their homes and pro­vide new oppor­tu­ni­ties for advanced edu­ca­tion to their own chil­dren, often shut­tling them back and forth to spe­cial­ized schools in Oax­a­ca on a dai­ly basis, for years, to pro­vide them with the foun­da­tion for cre­at­ing an alter­na­tive to the weav­ing tra­di­tion they had grown up in, to give them oppor­tu­ni­ties to forge their own way and often bring back new skills to the community.

Although these “kids” look like teenagers any­where in the same kind of jeans, tee shirts and sneak­ers with the same cell phones, there is some­thing spe­cial about them. Although very much a part of the 21st cen­tu­ry, they are still deeply steeped in more than 5,000 years of Zapotec cul­ture and tra­di­tion. They have nev­er suf­fered the west­ern “angst” won­der­ing who they are or what their place is. They have always known what their place was and con­tin­ues to be. From the time of their arrival they have been embraced by the strong ties of fam­i­ly and com­mu­ni­ty. They prob­a­bly go through many of the same thoughts and feel­ings of con­tem­po­raries any­where, but they are not lost. They step out into the world joy­ful­ly. And……every one of them that I know is beau­ti­ful, male or female. Every one of them is infused with lov­ing­ness. I know I must be get­ting old when I look at them and feel the tears in my eyes!

Diego Montaño and one of his rugs
Diego Mon­taño and one of his rugs

But not all of these young peo­ple are going on to pur­sue new careers. Many of them have opt­ed to con­tin­ue in the weav­ing tra­di­tion, already being fine weavers in their own right. And many more look for­ward to work­ing at home on the looms that have defined the life of their vil­lage, enjoy­ing the famil­iar tra­di­tion they choose to con­tin­ue, adding new ideas and visions to those they’ve already been exposed to.

Over these past forty years, we’ve spent so much time in the excit­ing city of Oax­a­ca, rich in its cul­ture, vibrant in its col­ors and rich in its cook­ing tra­di­tion (Oax­a­can chefs are some of the most famous in Mex­i­co as well as some from the vil­lage who have received inter­na­tion­al recog­ni­tion) and excit­ing in its atmos­phere. It’s still the excit­ing city it’s always been. But, this time John and I stayed out in the vil­lage with our friends and I still bask in the glow of being there.

Rather than shut­tling back and forth from the city, we enjoyed the qui­et and inti­ma­cy of being in the vil­lage, of walk­ing out at night and say­ing hel­lo to the neigh­bors, of strolling down the main street and not­ing all the new con­struc­tion and remod­el­ing and upgrad­ing that seems to be tak­ing place on every oth­er cor­ner. Many of the old dirt roads have been paved, street lamps light the way and won­der­ful slo­gans urg­ing peo­ple toward think­ing about recy­cling, mutu­al respect for gen­der, women’s rights and oth­er social issues, are writ­ten with artis­tic accom­pa­ni­ments on the walls. The sense of com­mu­ni­ty is pervasive.

There’s so much more to tell about, but I’ll save it for the next install­ment. Right now I can only cel­e­brate still again the rich­ness that has been part of my life through my con­nec­tion with the weav­ing fam­i­lies of this vil­lage. The time has come for me to close this chap­ter of my life, at least the gallery part of it, Starr Inte­ri­ors. I’ve been pro­cess­ing this time for the past few years and now that it has become clear in my mind that the next step for me is to pass the torch to some­one else that will build upon my rela­tion­ship with the weavers, I feel con­tent­ed. I’m quite sure that the right per­son will appear who will weave their own rela­tion­ships into a mean­ing­ful part of their life, find­ing the coun­ter­part of run­ning the gallery in the equal­ly beau­ti­ful moun­tain town of Taos, New Mexico.

 

Arnulfo Mendoza

March 9, 2014

Arnulfo Mendoza
Arnul­fo Mendoza

Today is the day they are bury­ing Arnul­fo Men­doza in the ceme­tery in Teoti­t­lan del Valle, Oax­a­ca, Mex­i­co. I won’t be there, but I know many peo­ple will be there to pay their last respects to one of the most well- known and loved sons of the Zapotec vil­lage known for its many tal­ent­ed weavers. If he had been one of the old­er weavers, it would be sad, but Arnul­fo wasn’t one of them. He was only in his fifties and his prime of life. A tal­ent­ed weaver who brought the art of fine weav­ing up to a com­plete­ly new lev­el and a painter who cre­at­ed his own unique form of art, Arnul­fo was known way beyond the bound­aries of Oax­a­ca, Mex­i­co. It was shock­ing to hear of his pass­ing and he’ll be great­ly mourned by his fam­i­ly, his son, his moth­er, his many sis­ters and broth­ers and their fam­i­lies as well as his many friends. His pass­ing also will be a loss to the impor­tant Mex­i­can art com­mu­ni­ty as well as to all of us who knew and loved him.

I first met Arnul­fo almost four decades ago when we were vis­it­ing with his father, mas­ter weaver don Emil­iano Men­doza. We vis­it­ed with their fam­i­ly often and our con­nec­tion with them is one that I’ve always trea­sured. Grad­u­al­ly, we acquired weav­ings from don Emil­iano and from Arnul­fo, includ­ing fine tapes­tries based on his own orig­i­nal paint­ings. We remained friends for many years. He and his wife at the time, Mary Jane Gag­nier, came to vis­it us at our home on Lagu­na Bacalar as well as in Taos, New Mex­i­co and some years ago, Starr Inte­ri­ors spon­sored an exhi­bi­tion of his work with Mary Jane doing one of her talks. It was a spe­cial occa­sion. We were also guests at their incred­i­ble wed­ding and there short­ly after the arrival of their baby son, Gabriel.

It is with great sad­ness that I write this, some­thing I could nev­er envi­sion doing. When we return to the vil­lage in ear­ly April, there will be no more vis­its with him, but he will cer­tain­ly live on in my mem­o­ry and in my heart as well as in those of my chil­dren, whose friend he was also…..we loved you, Arnulfo…….

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