The conference

This morning I gave my paper in this building, La Casa Presno, the location of some of the social science departments of BUAP. The conference room opens to the left of this central courtyard. Climbing the stairs took me into a world of gold leaf and potted plants that I don't usually associate with the social sciences.
The historical center of Puebla is full of buildings that have been renovated from private mansions into official, commercial or educational spaces. I have enjoyed the openness of the conference. Usually, the scholarly conferences I attend are held in convention centers or hotels: this one took place all over the city. In between sessions of the conference, we got to go outside, breathe fresh air and participate in street life.

I'm glad I made use of my first days in the city for photo wanderings. This ice stand is right outside a cathedral, and when I asked if I could take photos, the saleswoman told me when the cathedral opened. She was very surprised that I wanted to photograph her selling ice. Of course, I'm not so good at explaining what I'm doing, but she said it was ok.

This is the building on the corner next to my hotel, where I am now resting on my last afternoon in Puebla because I am sick. I have such a delicate digestive system. Sigh. The little "H" on the right marks my hotel.

I guess I'll have to cross Puebla off the potential-places-to-retire list after all.

Everyone has been very nice to me in Mexico, from the airline counters in San Antonio to the waitcaptain at the banquet who took the time to listen to me explain in baby Spanish that I didn't feel well, and could I please have some yogurt (most expensive yogurt I've ever eaten, I imagine), to the bellmen who thought I really liked my room in the hotel and wanted to stay in it even though they were preparing to fumigate that floor with pesticide. They went out of their way to get permission to let me stay there in spite of my willingness to move to a room that would not be fumigated.

I still haven't mentioned anything about the content of the conference. I know readers will be really interested if they get this far and keep clicking...

I was one of 15 participants in a seminar on the theme, "This is not your home." The topics ranged from my consideration of Anna Politkovskaia's reporting on the Chechen war to the reconstruction of Berlin, building at the site of the 9/11 attacks, South African fiction that interrogates the notions of reconciliation and truth, fiction about the German invasion and occuaption of France during WWII, the apartheid wall in Israel/Palestine, poetry about the Israeli invasions of Lebanon, illegal immigration into Western Europe from the East, German fiction about Mau Mau (revolution in Kenya), a novel about the genocide in Rwanda, Orhan Pamuk's novel Snow and a Palestinian novel of resistance.

I found all the papers fascinating and have a lot of literature and scholarship to add to my summer reading list. You'd think with intellectual interests such as these, I would have a stronger stomach.

Gym Source

Yo estoy en Mexico

I haven't written anything since the ice storm, because I've had a storm of things to do! By the time I get done with everything in the week, then I just want to sleep instead of writing.

I am currently at a conference in Puebla, Mexico.

In 1988 I visited Puebla on a day tour from Mexico City. We got the tour as compensation for some bad experiences with the tour company. That is, the guide on a private tour we took thought that neither of us could speak Spanish and was saying mean things about Americans. I astounded him when I asked questions about something he had been telling our driver in Spanish. I'll never forget the look of horror on his face!

From the previous visit to Puebla, I remember the convent where the nuns hid for years to avoid having to leave the convent for political reasons and mole Poblano.

I have already had some wonderful mole poblano. The waiter told us that the mole at La Fonda de Santa Clara has 24 spices, chocolate, three kinds of chiles (ancho, chipotle, and one that started with a p), shredded tortilla, sesame seeds and peanuts. He thought he might have missed some ingredients....

Today I found a vegetarian restuarant and decided I could retire here. If I do, I'll have to pull together some sentences that make sense in Spanish. So far, I'm getting by on nonsense that combines Spanish, Russian and French (thank God I forgot almost all the Farsi I learned last year, or I'd really be in trouble!) and big smiles. Mexican people are gracious; they figure out what I mean.

The reception for the conference took place in a courtyard of the BUAP (Puebla's university), which is located in a 17th-century building where an important philosopher who was also a friend of Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz studied. It was something on the order of a high school then.

I walked all over the historic district. Mexican cities are colorful, and Puebla is no exception. This is one of my favorite images so far. I am glad to be taking photos. Now, all I have to do is find the time to get my printer fixed and I'll be able to inspire myself by hanging the photos all over my studio walls. I don't have as many good feelings about pixels as I do about paper.

I sat at a cafe on the central square, or zocalo, to work on my paper for the conference. One of those moments when I think, "This is how life should be." I managed to cut about five pages. Some of my favorite ideas landed on the cobblestones because I don't have much time to present the paper, which is about Anna Politkovskaia's reporting on Chechnya. When I publish this work, I am moving away from writing about war to something else.

I don't know what yet, but it will be geared to inspire us to acts of friendship and hospitality.

Gym Source