CROSS-CULTURAL YIN YANG

 

Our Lady of Guadalupe meets Hello Kitty. One could not be more Mexican (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_Lady_of_Guadalupe), the other more Japanese. Everyone has seen advertising on top of taxis, and there was a time when many St. Louis cabs had illuminated signs on the top that said "Our Lady of Guadalupe - Queen of the Americas."  I never figured that out. Hello Kitty might as well be a Shinto demi-god. My granddaughter likes tacos much more than sushi but that has no effect on her fashion sense.                      

HOW’S YOUR AUTOFOCUS?

 

Ooh, this makes my eyes wobbly. Another toy vendor at the Hispanic Festival. Maybe I should have set a greater DOF and higher shutter speed but I was shooting on the fly. Is it okay to inhale this stuff?

I should get out on the street today looking for stuff but it's supposed to pour and pour. The front end of Helene, probably, passing through here while it is devastating northwest Florida and western Georgia. Maybe it will find Ron DeSantis.                

BAND OF GUNNERS

 

Gunners? I think that's how the name of the band, Banda Artillerros, translates into English (corrections invited) but it was more like heavy artillery. This was just a small part of the Mexican orchestra playing in the plaza at the Hispanic Festival. There were these three trumpets, the tuba behind them (with a microphone taped in the bell), two trombones, two clarinets, accordion, drum kit, congas and two singers. My sound app said it reached 110 db in front of the stage, enough to start causing some serious damage. The musicians were not wearing ear plugs. The crowd loved it.            

THE PERFECT SALESMAN

 

There were people hawking all sorts of things and there were plenty of children at the Hispanic Festival. This salesman's dress and demeanor seemed pretty heavy for his wares. It was a good thing my granddaughter wasn't with me. If she had been, she would have pulled the fingers out of my hand if I didn't buy her something, preferably Hello Kitty.    

AT THE HISPANIC FESTIVAL

 

I still have lots of sculpture photos in the can, TinType and conventional, but I wanted a change of tone. Our Hispanic Festival took place this weekend. The Latino population here isn't as big as many American cities but it's growing. This couple danced to an impossibly loud, large and energetic Mexican band. I'll show something about them shortly. I'm shocked the members have any hearing left.                   

A MANDOLIN, MAYBE?

This is the musician who was playing the pipes in yesterday's post, now seen under his left elbow. I'm puzzled about the instrument he is playing here, with ten strings and a tiny body. A mandolin usually has eight strings and a somewhat bigger body. A ukulele has a small guitar-shaped body and four strings. So what's this? The performer got some power with it along with his voice. I'd be happy to update this if any astute reader can fill us in.             

THE PIPER

There are lots of kinds of Latin American music, much of it associated with dance forms. I'm most familiar with tango after being sucked in on our trips to Argentina and study after we returned. Still, there is a lot I don't know much about. The lead singer announced that the band was playing a cumbia, not something I could identify. We here in North America think of pipes like these as being from the Andes. Obviously, more to learn.           

WATCH OUT, GUYS

More merch on sale at the Hispanic Festival. It's a little puzzling. The colors remind me of bees but the expression isn't particularly threatening. The shape and number resemble a postage stamp but they haven't cost 33 cents in the U.S. in a long time. No idea about Mexico or other Latin countries. I didn't see any buyers but someone might want to make a statement.

My astute colleague Steffe in Sweden points out that this is a form of Mexican lottery card. https://images.app.goo.gl/5revpyLqxjL9JVfq9

AT THE HISPANIC FESTIVAL

Finally getting back out on the street in The Lou. There some public events at this time of year as the furnace gets dialed down. The Hispanic festival is an annual event, now fully back post-pandemic. We don't have the size of Latin population that most American cities do but what we have is vibrant, as vibrant as these necklaces on sale by one of the vendors.         

ONE OF THE TWO MOST COMMON QUESTIONS ASKED OF STREET PHOTOGRAPHERS

1. Hey, mister, take our picture! (I consider that a question as well as a request.)

Answer: Sure! Lets get some good light on you.

2. Get any good pictures today?

Answer: I'll know when I download them to my computer.

So there are some events going on here this weekend.  I had to get out on the street. After a nap following Ellie's dawn patrol dance recital I got out to our annual Hispanic Festival. St. Louis has a smaller Latin population than many American cities but the event is enthusiastic and colorful. These guys were just hanging out near where I parked my car and asked Question No. 1. Made some new friends.           

From The "Better You Than Me" Department

One of those artificial rock climbing walls on the grounds of the Hispanic Festival. The people who try this are well-secured and I'm sure it's  perfectly safe. Still, I look at this fit young woman and think of my damaged shoulders and creaky knees and conclude that I was much better off where I was.      

Puerto Rico Necesita Nuestra Ayuda

We don't have much Latino population compared to most American cities but what's around is active. There is a modest annual Hispanic festival that took place last weekend.

These men were raising money for relief of Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria. Texas and Florida need our help, too, but Puerto Rico is as American as either of them and in far worse shape. There's nowhere to go inland. The whole island lost electric power and, except for the few places with generators, it may be months before it is completely restored. One end to another is running out of food and water. All of the Isla del Encanto, the enchanted island, is devastated.

I chatted with these men briefly about our one trip there. Mrs. C and I went for our anniversary some years ago. We remember the charms of Old San Juan, the point on the spine of the island where you can see both the Atlantic and Caribbean and the fascinating Arecibo radio telescope. (I'm a long-time participant in SETI At Home, in which people donate their unused computer capacity to analyze Arecibo data for signs of extraterrestrial intelligence.) It took heavy damage. Lots of people in the U.S., Caribbean and Mexico have suffered greatly in this season of disasters.          

One Love

Later in the day at the  Hispanic Festival. This person was hardly a Spanish speaker but if someone would buy the banner, so what. I never did get the "one love" concept myself. But if people bought the record...              

Susan's Back

We have not seen local character Susan Stone and The Dance of Life in some time. I once wrote a little essay about him/her (you pick). Stone showed up at the Hispanic Festival. The attitude seemed more antagonistic than in the past. Perhaps some day a reporter will discover her back story.                   

Friends Of The Maytag Repairman

Americans, except for the very young, remember the famous TV ads featuring the Maytag repairman. The idea was that he was lonely because no one ever called him, ostensibly because Maytag appliances were so dependable.

Well, there are not a lot of Republicans in the City of St. Louis. (Much of the rest of the state is a different story.) Their table at the Hispanic Festival gets about as many visits as the Maytag repairman. They are certainly enthusiastic, out expressing their point of view, surrounded by posters for candidates there is zero chance I will vote for and flags of Latin American nations (me gusta mucho Costa Rica y Argentina).

But note the Trump poster and then the Mexican flag on the table. Cognitive dissonance?          

Street Portraits At The Hispanic Festival

Faces on the dance floor. Everybody's smiling. I doubt I would. I can't dance to save my life. Just plain clumsy. 

It occurs to me that there is one kind of dance where no one ever smiles: tango. It's deadly serious and has an entirely different attitude..        

Preparation

One of a group of Mexican dancers about to perform. It makes me think me think of the preparations of a bride.

I swore I wouldn't watch the debate. Well, I'm letting the audio run while I edit pictures and write this. Sigh. 

I Don't Have To Try To Speak German Any More

And my efforts were so pathetic. I had a couple of years of it in high school so I can make the sounds.  Been there a few times but not often or recently enough to retain much. And three genders and all those case endings and no simple way to make possessives. Enough. As I've mentioned, my best languages that I'm bad at are Spanish and French. The former is  more useful in the U.S.

So STL had its little Hispanic Festival over the weekend. I could read the signs without using Google Translate. And yes, we do deserve great taste.

               

 

Gee But It's Great To Be Back Home

Back to the warmth and security of unsere Stadt auf dem Mississippi. St. Louisans are charming, friendly people.  Or most of us are.

Last Monday was 19 hours from first liftoff until last touchdown. Then work was, well, sort of a blow to the head. No time at all to edit or comment. Need to do what I can when I can.

And, hey, a great big thank you to our CDP colleague, Halcyon, and her husband for inviting us to their home for dinner while we were in Berlin. Meeting other City Daily members around the world has been one of the great pleasures of this work.               

Lonely

There are cities in this country that are very heavily Republican, like Mesa, Arizona, and Colorado Springs. Probably anywhere in Orange County, California, most of Texas and 90% of Alabama. And then there are places where it's really hard to find them: Boston, San Francisco, four of the five boroughs of New York and, um here. In the city, that is. The suburbs are mixed.

I've moved on to our Hispanic Festival. We don't have a big Spanish-speaking population but it's enthusiastic. These partisans, though, were not getting a lot of visitors and you could question their strategy. Given the statements of this year's Republican candidates, registering Hispanic voters could get more votes for Hillary.