Rose Calderone & Casona Rosa: The Heart of Morelia

by Alma Maria Rinasz
It is Thursday, June 27^th, 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!”

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 historic17^th 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

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.

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.”

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.

Review of Paul Owen's Todos Somos Ellas

This post has been updated July 21, 2013 at 10:53 CDT
-by Alma Maria Rinasz

Todos Somos Ellas currently showing at the Palacio Clavijero in Morelia, Michoacan, Mexico are photographer Paul Owen’s attempt to “bring particular attention to the violence against women taking place in Mexico to help bring about the eradication of feminicide throughout the world.” With a concise and illuminating introduction by Isabel Gil Everaert, this interactive project forces the onlooker to reflect and ask questions. The sixty large scale photographs, with female images at the center of the frame portray fear, sadness, supplication, anger, self-defensive indignation and powerlessness. One photograph shows a clenched fisted woman, shifting her weight onto one leg, as if she were going to step towards the onlooker. Her body language says “I will protect myself and I will fight back.” 

photograph by Paul Owen 

In another photograph, we see a viejita,  madrone colored hands cover her face while a light blue shall, drapes over her head like so many women when they enter el templo (church) to pray . The sepia toned backdrop contrasts the blue of her shall, the same sky blue associated with the Virgin of Guadalupe. In another photograph, the Virgin makes an appearance, her face is not covered, but the woman’s next her is. Mexican women beg the Virgin for help, in real life and on television.  La Virgincita is there when no one else is, silent and present. In the photograph of the viejtia, there is no observable facial characteristic. Is this a woman or a faceless ser, a being from another realm, wandering the streets, penitent and supplicant, like La Llorona? Is she asking for forgiveness or is she asking for help? Or is she the Virgin’s intercessor, sent to be seen so we react, so we do something about all this violence against women?  

As a nod to Michoacan's largest ethnic minority, the purepechas, some of the women photographed are using the traditional güare's rebozo or shall. And then there are the younger female subjects, teenagers and girls, their faces covered, some in motion, as if they are just about to walk away, others stand, reminders that Mexico does not just have a serious problem with feminicide, but also with human trafficking of women and children.

The Michoacan state government supported Owen’s show, a show that denounces feminicide yet the state government does little to protect women’s rights. Abortion is penalized in Michoacan. Women are also systemically denied the right to choose how to birth. In the photographs where women are holding their abdomens, I wonder if any of those women have experienced abuse in government run hospitals and clinics in Michoacan.  Access to health and reproductive care are limited and de-humanizing treatment by hospital officials and staff is the norm. The Women’s Hospital in Morelia is notorious for denying birthing mothers the right to have a family member or coach accompany them during labor. Women are lined up in the waiting room and once admitted, left to sit alone while the staff discusses their most recent personal anecdotes. 

Perhaps if Paul Owen were to focus his lens on how women are treated in these government run hospitals, women’s reproductive rights in Michoacan (or lack thereof) would be taken seriously by the government. If he were to visit the Women’s Hospital he would see how women are not only the victims of violence perpetuated by their husbands, boyfriends, lovers, family members and organized crime but also of their own government. And almost as a foreshadowing of this thought, one of the photographed women, a nurse, her white uniform and nurse’s cap a testimony to institutionalized identity, holds her abdomen, maybe this is a message to those of us who know the reality of women’s lives in Michoacan. “I am a part of the problem” she seems to say “and I am ashamed by this knowledge.”  

Mexico is portrayed in the media as rife with violence and in Paul Owen’s own country there is a notorious war on women. Historically, US-Mexico relations have had racist over and undertones. It is projected that in 30 years, a quarter of the US population will be ethnically Latino. Within this context, Owen’s photographs could be seen as in fact facilitating international relations between the two countries. He has shown the many faceless women in Mexico, of diverse social levels and ethinic orgins, who all are and can be victims of violence and silent complacency.  Todos somos ellas, meaning we are all them, shows us that what happens to women, happens to all of us. Violence, feminicide, human rights; these are cross-cultural issues. The photographs are an invitation to dialogue about feminicide on a worldwide scale, but also an outright demostration of how Mexican society and government knows that this is happening but is doing very little to change it. 

Todos somos ellas will be showing at Palacio Clavijero from July 19^th to August 31^st, 2013 in Morelia, Michoacan, Mexico. For more information about the project, please visit www.todossomosellas.com

Con perros y gatos

I am trying my hand at writing in Spanish. This article is about the state of domestic animals and strays in the city where I currently live, Morelia, Michoacan. As always, leave a comment, I love to know what you think!

¿Alguna vez has visto un animal lastimado o atropellado en la calle? Circulando por las calles de cualquier ciudad es probable que tarde o temprano, encontrarás un animal doméstico, ya que sea perro o gato, herido. La ciudad de Morelia no es diferente. Hace poco en Morelia, vi un gato atropellado en la calle. A primera vista pensé que ya estaba muerto, pero a pasar a un lado del animal, vi que movía su cola. “Pobre gato” pensé, y sentí una gran tristeza por ese ser que obviamente estaba sufriendo. Sin embargo, seguí mi camino salvo que llegara tarde a la cita que tenía. Reconozco que esta actitud de indiferencia es muy común. Como sociedad hemos acostumbrado a “esto no es mi problema” cuando en realidad la situación con animales compete a todos. Quizas diras “pero tienen dueños y ellos son los que tienen que cuidar a sus mascotas” sin embargo, en la actualidad solamente 1 en cada 10 animales en situación de calle son reclamados por sus dueños. Como bien lo comentaron Marielena Hoyo,  ex-directora del zoológico de Chapultepec, Tania Muller, secretaria del medio ambiente del Distrito Federal y Georgina Molina, presidente de la asociación Rescate Animal el mes de abril pasado en CNN, México Opina (dale clic aqui para ver el video) hay una gran problema con el maltrato animal en las ciudades de México.

fuente:www.ghapad.com

Los refugios para animales en la ciudad de Morelia son varios, como Perra Vida, Adopta Amor, Hogar Refugio Lumi, Amar y Ghapad. En Morelia Ghapad tiene más de 10 años operando, rescatando animales y abogando por la concientización de la sociedad acerca de la condición de los animales. También cuenta con refugios en Tacambaro, Lázaro Cárdenas y Tarimbaro.  El refugio Ghapad trabaja no solamente con los animales sino también con las personas ya que la educación es una parte integral del cambio de cómo son tratados los animales. Tuve la oportunidad de conocer a dos personas entregados a trabajar con los animales. Fernando Valladiva, voluntario del Ghapad  y Carlos Herredia Gonzalez.

A Fernando Valladiva le hice la pregunta ¿qué deberíamos hacer, los ciudadanos urbanos, cuando nos encontramos a animales en situaciones donde han sido heridos o atropellados?

“Yo aconsejo que llevar en el carro una toalla o manta y un botiquín de primero auxilios” comenta Fernando, y agrega “al momento de acercarse al animal, ponte entre la calle y el animal. No dejes que el animal te vea ya que se podría espantarse. Toma el animal desde atrás y en el caso de un perro, cubre su boca y cargo el animal con cuidado. Hay varios medicos veterinarios en la ciudad de Morelia quienes trabajan con animales rescatados, entre ellos están es el doctor Hugo Valiente.”

fuente:Cambio de Michoacan

Fernando está muy ocupado, es el paseo dominical de los perros del refugio, y se va con una perrita que parece French Poodle, llamada Candy. Espero a Carlos Herredia Gonzalez, voluntario fundador de Ghapad. Nos sentamos debajo de un árbol ya que es un día muy caluroso y el sol esta fuerte. Carlos saca un cigarro  y me ofrece uno. Le agradezco pero no fumo. Nos ponemos a charlar mientras Carlos fuma su cigarro. Comienza a explicar acerca de la situación actual de los animales domesticados en México. “”Existe una laguna legal impresionante.” Pregunto acerca de un caso reciente en las redes sociales donde se dio a conocer que un caballo había sido atropellado en la glorieta de Juan Pablo II en Altozano. “En este caso del caballo llamaron al zoológico pero esto no esta en su competencia a nadie le compete a través de asociaciones varios frentes existe una responsabilidad ciudadano. Animales de trabajo son registrados con dueño.”

Carlos termina su cigarro y le hago la siguiente pregunta, ¿cómo podemos generar un cambio en la sociedad ante como son tratados los animales? La respuesta de Carlos es conciso y apasionado. “Recoger perros y gatos no ayuda a nada, no soluciona el problema...va en aumento. El problema viene de la gente y por una [falta de] respeto a la vida. [Hemos tenido un] acercamiento al ayuntamiento para cambiar leyes y reglamentos, formar y generar cultura, propuestas de ley aunque ya existe una ley desde 1988 con Villicaña. En papel esta bien pero no hay quien lo aplique.”

Carlos se ve interrumpido cuando uno de los perros que esta siendo paseado por uno de los voluntarios empieza a ladrar a otro perro y tumba a su paseador. Carlos se pone de pie rápidamente y corre al auxilio del hombre.

Regresando a la sombra del árbol donde iniciamos nuestra charla, Carlos me sigue contando de actual situación de la ley para la protección de animales en Michoacan. “[Hubo una] ley propuesta del PAN en Michoacán...del refugio fueron a pedir apoyo Macarena Chávez y Dr Morelos bloquearon la ley por los toros, mostraron su falta de conocimiento en la ley propuesta”.  Carlos explica “volvieron hacer la ley por el Partido Verde muy parecido lo que habían ya trabajado. Ahora la ley del medio ambiente y la sigue es de protección animal.”

Y finalmente cuando le cuento del gato que había visto atropellado en la calle, Carlos me comenta que pudiera haber llamado a la perrera y quedarme a acompañarlo en su proceso de muerte “hasta donde tu te puedes comprometerte con ese animal.” El sol ya esta muy fuerte y aún hay más perros por pasear. Carlos se pone de pie y me dice “esto no lo hacemos por los perros,  lo hacemos por nosotros porque queremos vivir en una sociedad mejor.”

Para más información acerca de Ghapad, consulta su página de Facebook. Ahi encontraras informacion acerca de veterinarios quienes colaboran con el refugio y también todo tipo de información de como ayudar a animales en situaciones de peligro.