St Laurence was one of the seven deacons of the Church of Rome and was executed on 10th August 258, four days after Sixtus II and his companions. By now, few of the facts of his life are known for certain: he was probably a Spaniard from Toledo. A basilica was built over Laurence’s tomb fifty years after his death, by the Emperor Constantine, and the anniversary of his martyrdom was kept as a solemn feast. By the sixth century, it was one of the most important feasts throughout much of western Christendom. His name occurs (with Sixtus’s) in the Roman Canon of the Mass. Happy Feast Day to all Deacons.......watch oyur heads!
The "traveling" relics of Saint John Bosco will arrive here in Merida tomorrow, 11 August with a Solemn Mass at 11:00AM. I shall attend.
Speeding on the Periferico [the main road the encircles the entire city]:
Radar and a high speed camera has arrived in 3 spots along the Periferico in Merida. When a driver exceeds the speed limit, the camera takes a picture of the vehicle’s plates and the radar does what radar has always done. Then, the bill for the fine is simply mailed to the home of the owner of the vehicle. This is a dandy little system that has been used with great success in large cities everywhere and there is no reason not to use it in Merida. We have long noticed that all of the lovely wide roads around Merida seem to invite a little bit of a heavy foot, which results in far too many accidents.
Bread and Blah-Blah
If you don’t know, you should know that there is great homemade bread available at the Slow Food Market every Saturday. The baker is Monique DuVal, an expat living here with her husband and two sons. Not only does she have many different flavors of whole-grain breads, sweet breads, loaves full of nuts and seeds, muffins, cookies and more, but she has perfected sourdough bread rounds and everything is fresh every Saturday morning.
Yucatan To Investigate Legalizing Same Sex Unions
The Governor of Yucatan has stated that she is open to looking into legalizing same-sex marriage along the same lines as he law that the Supreme Court recently upheld for Mexico City. It is widely thought that a beginning point would be some sort of recognized same-sex union, but this is still a huge step in the direction of affording human rights to everyone who lives in Yucatan. At the present time, the Supreme Court is considering adoption rights for same-sex couples. If that happens, same-sex adoption laws are expected to go nationwide in a short period of time. This is even more good news on the human rights front and, since human rights are important to us, we are pleased to see Mexico moving forward with both same-sex marriage and adoption rights. blablablabla.....
Cholo has Passed Away in Merida
Award winning theater actor and satirist Hector Herrera "Cholo" passed away in Merida last week. His body lay in state in the Teatro Peon Contreras and his funeral was held there. Although he is probably best known for his totally irreverent satirical monologues, he also won an Ariel (Mexico’s Oscar) for a movie and is best loved and remembered as an extraordinarily talented teacher of regional theater. Cholo was the father of seven children and leaves behind his wife, Jazmin Lopez, who is also known as “Tina Tuyub” on stage.
Theater of the Blind
This past week saw the performance of some wonderful murder mystery plays by Yucatan’s blind theater group. We will be watching them closely because they have several projects planned during the Fall Cultural Festival in the month of October. One is these will be a play entitled “Haunted.” Yucatan has so many opportunities for the differently-abled citizens who live here. I am constantly amazed at the artistic heights to which these talented individuals continue to rise. We ask that everyone please take the time to go out and see these performances whenever you can and let these artists know that their hard work is appreciated.
YAPA Volunteers Needed!
Yucatan Ayuda (Help) Por Los Animales, a new group of English-speaking volunteers dedicated to helping all the local organizations that help animals, has held its first meeting and what they find they need most is volunteers. While the greatest need still lies in the spay/neuter program area, it has come to light that domestic violence often includes violence against pets. With this in mind, a new push toward working with families on the general issue of violence is now developing. If you can help with this type of counseling, it would be deeply appreciated. If not, then perhaps you can volunteer at the shelters while others address the educational and counseling programs.
Rio Lagartos: Crocodile Farming Coming Soon
Campeche has gone into the crocodile farming business along its southern coast. Their farming experiment has been a total success and Yucatan’s Rio Lagartos fishermen have decided to add crocodile farming to their own list of income producing resources. Toward that goal, they have just paid a visit to Campeche to see how its done. Since both meat and skins have value, crocodile farming wastes nothing and allows local people to manage the crocodile population in their area. I suspect this will be a good thing on more than just an income producing front. It seems that increases in environmental temperatures produce more male than female crocodiles. In the wild, they are then run off by the largest local male crocodile and look for new homes along the coast and in rivers. The result is increases in crocodile attacks on humans. While this is not a problem in Yucatan now, proper farming techniques will ensure that crocodiles will never become a problem in the State of Yucatan.
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