by Alma Maria Rinasz
It is Thursday, June 27th, at 4pm in the
old Purepechan capital of Patzcuaro, Michoacan. People from all over the
central Mexican state have come together to the unveiling of Jesus
Alejandre’s The Possessors of the Fish
(Los Posesedores del Pesacado). The afternoon monsoon-like rains have uncharacteristically
stayed away. People mingle among images mounted on six foot square metal frames.
These are the images of The Spirit of Michoacan, a series of photographs taken over
a six year period by Alejandre. Among the mix of artisans, musicians, museum
patrons, writers, guests, government officials, expats and curious onlookers,
stands a woman nearly six feet tall. Wearing a traditional Michoacan
dress and purple horn rimmed glasses, her smiling face and puckish blue eyes are framed
by a shock of short, spikey white hair. This
is Rose Calderone. Calderone and
Alejandre met several months earlier, when Calderone asked to buy a photograph from
Alejandre’s Patzcuaro series at one of his shows in Morelia. “He didn’t have one” Calderone says in
her interview in the video
showcasing the project, to which
Calderone responded “let’s make one!”
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Jesus Alejandre, Rose Calderone & Susan Tucceri with
Lake Patzcuaro fishermen. Photo: Andrea Gudiño Sosa |
Divine Accidents
Calderone’s first visit to
Mexico came about after two houseguests in her Chicago home invited her to
visit Morelia. “I came for ten days for Christmas in 2002. I returned in February
2003 and started to come more and more frequently.” Calderone describes her
return trips and eventually setting up a B&B as a divine accident. “I had rented a place on Aldama Street, a
private home with several apartments that shared a common patio.” After some
time, Calderone began renting the other apartments. Close friends and family would
stay when visiting Morelia. After Noche de Muertos in 2007, Calderone recalls a
friend and a Lonely Planet writer visiting her. “Morelia was like a Filini
movie, you couldn’t sort out the noise, the people, the drinking. Many of my
friends were there are the house and a friend and her family wouldn’t let
anyone leave unless they had a beer or a bottle of tequila.” It was then that
the Lonely Planet writer asked Calderone if she was interested in having her
B&B published in the guidebook. She said no. Up until then, Calderone’s
business was that of nannies and sleep training babies, she was not the owner
of a B&B; up until then, she just
took in friends and friends of friends. However, during her stays in Morelia, she had
created an authentic space where travelers, both foreign and national, were
eager to visit and tell their friends about. When Calderone was finally ready,
her B&B was mentioned in Lonely Planet but no address was given. “People would search me out, one woman slept
in her car until she could find us” Calderone laughs. Whatever she was doing,
it was working.
Around the same time
that Calderone started frequent visits to Mexico, her father encouraged her to
start her own business in Chicago. Calderone’s says that her father has been one of the most
influential people in her life. As a young woman, Calderone Sr. fostered his
oldest child’s entrepreneurial spirit. “I was curious about business, [so] he
gave me a bookkeeping job in high school. Dad was Sicilian, very old country,
quiet, an entrepreneur, a man of integrity and honesty. He was doing what he
wanted to do and the freedom and joy that comes with it…”. Calderone smiles as
she recalls her father, who according to her, rarely spoke. When he did speak, she would pay
attention. “He was an early riser. One
morning, I was typing a newsletter and he said to me, ‘you sure work hard but
you need to work smart’.” Those words of
advice have stuck with Calderone and perhaps are a part of her secret to
success. In 1999, after years of working
as a nanny, Calderone had developed a
special talent for sleep training babies.
“I was getting so many requests to do the work and the truth of it is
that I was just able to sleep train babies, and again, it was, it was just an
accident.”
Thankfully, Calderone Sr.'s quiet nature was not inherited by his daughter: Rose Calderone is powerhouse of energy and charisma. It
seems almost ironic that such a vivacious, gregarious person could help babies learn
on to sleep on their own. And fittingly
enough, getting Rose Calderone to sit down is like much like convincing a baby
that she is indeed ready to go and stay asleep.
Constantly on the move, Calderone runs La Casona Rosa and her nanny
business in Chicago simultaneously. After
almost fifteen years of specializing in sleep-training babies, Rose Calderone
has established her successful nanny business. And now she is making a name for herself in the B&B business in Mexico. It is clear that Rose Caledrone is a
woman of her own making. When not in
Chicago, or touring the colonial highlands making friends with artisans, she can
be found at La Casona premises. And Calderone
is hardly ever still. Balancing her phone on one shoulder, picking up random bits of rubbish, straightening
furniture in the historic17th century building that houses the Casona, Calderone is an
endless supply of smiles, hugs and positive words. Her joie
de vivre is by far her most contagious trait. And this joy has spilled over into her
interactions with local artists and artisans.
A Life With Art
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Rose Calderone listens as Jesus Alejandre, background,
introduces his work. Photo: Tonatiuh Torres Bravo |
Growing up the oldest of
five children, Calderone earliest exposure to arts was from her younger sister
Kathy. Kathy played the piano, painted, spoke five languages, in Calderone’s
words “a renaissance soul growing up in rural Michigan.” At twenty four and
honor student at University of Michigan, Kathy committed suicide. Calderone was thirty at the time of her
sister’s death. “At a certain point I had to make the decision that I was
committed to life or I was committed to the alternative… depression or
worse. I had my son and that was really
a declaration of life.” In Chicago, Calderone once again came into close
contact with the arts. She was involved
in the Around the Coyote Arts Festival and after moving in California, she
became intimate friends with musician Taj Mahal and his sister, singer CaroleFredricks.
In 1970 Calderone met
Taj Mahal for the first time. At the time she was dating Mahal’s photographer,
friend and road manager. They had met after Taj had left LA for the Berkley
Hills. “He couldn’t be put in a box; he was reaching out to what we now call
world music. He was pigeon holed by the music industry and I saw his struggle
to become an artist, my first real close up view of an artist who was trying to
fit in and make a living from his art.” Calderone also became very close to Taj
Mahal’s sister, Carole Fredricks. “I met Carole through Taj. Two of my friends had
opened the first French restaurant in the Napa Valley. In 1979 I introduced Carole
to Gregory Lyons and his partner Phillipe.”
Calderone’s relationship
with Taj Mahal has evidently impacted the way she relates to artists. “For the
most part you don’t get to see, have an intimate look at how an artist creates.
Even if the artist is one of your most intimate friends, you don’t do
that…” Calderone has cultivated her
sensitivity to a point where now, she helps promote art in Michoacan. Her recent involvment commissioning photographer Jesus Alejandre is testament to her love for the arts. Her commitment to the project is just the next
logical step in her own evolution. After seeing Jesus Alejandre’s
Espiritu de Michoacan show and meeting the artist
in person, the over six foot tall
photographs (1.40 by 2.50 meters) impressed Calderone to the point where she commissioned one. The result is by far one of the most representative images of the lake and its personality.
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| Los Poseedores/Jesus Alejandre |
Calderone’s contagious
energy has infected other expats as well.
Susan Tucceri, a retired restuarent manager from San Francisco, became a
part of the team now surrounding Alejandre’s project after seeing Calderone’s
enthusiasm for the photographer’s work.
The mother of painter, Tucceri does not create art herself but
“recognizes that [talent] in Jesus.”
“After my son died I came to Morelia and fell in love. Everyone was so gracious,
the people where wonderful. I had been living in San Francisco for twenty years
and it was a dream to live in Mexico. [I
knew] I’d never find anything better than Morelia. There were too many
Americans in San Miguel; Morelia felt authentic.” After Calderone commissioned Alejandre to do
the “ultimate Patzcuaro fishermen photo”, Tucceri accompanied Calderone on the
photoshoot. “I adore Jesus, he is just a geniuine young man, how he realtes to
people and how people relate to him.”
When asked which of Alejandre’s photograph impressed her the most,
Tucceri answers “the pineapple fields image. It knocked my socks off.”
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| Tierra de las Piñas/Jesus Alejandre |
Good Things to Say About Michoacan
Michoacan has been
getting a lot of coverage in the press in and outside of Mexico over the past few years. In 2008 when a blast ripped through a street full of people
celebrating Independence Day, Morelia was shown in the media as a troubled area in Mexico. Since then, Michoacan in the the international media has been called lawless, heavily criticized for the corruption in the government and in a recent LA Times article put it Mexico has a "drug war at our doorstep." The State Department no longer visits the state to provide citizen services and the Defense Department has restricted travel by Marines to the state. With
all this violence, bad press and a notorious reputation, it is easy for Mexico and the
world at large to write Michoacan off. But like those who stay in war torn
cities and towns, those who carry on their lives and make the best with what they
have, Michoacan's history and traditions are as vibrant and alive as ever.
The Soul of Mexico still draws in foreign tourists and expats alike. Those who stay out of choice and necesity do so and in the case of Rose Calderone, showcase the positive qualities that this state has to offer the world.
Here is a virtual tour of Casona Rosa
Posada La Casona Rosa~Enjoy the Magic of Morelia! from Rose Calderone on Vimeo.
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