In the 1980s the Dalai Lama identified a Spanish kid as the reincarnation of a Tibetan lama who had died a few years before in California. The boy was placed in a monastery in India with other children believed to be reincarnations and trained to the spiritual life. He thought it sucked. Once he turned 18 he hit the road, lived next door to Richard Gere for a while, then became a film student in Madrid. He made it very clear in press conferences that he’d rather be slathered in honey and tied to an ant pile than assume the spiritual leader mantle.
So the next time the Dalai Lama thought he found a reincarnation of a spiritual leader in a Spanish-speaking country like, say, Mexico, it’s not difficult to conjecture that he took pity on the kid – compassion being pretty much rule number one in the Dalai Lama handbook – and just let him grow up with his family and make his own way to his destiny. What would that life look like? What would that destiny look like? Well, to start, it is said that lamas do have some say in who they will be reincarnated as so it’s likely that that the Mexican kid would have been born to vegetarians, the type who practice yoga and meditation, the kind of people who would have helped him understand the strong connection between mind and body by giving him a massage every Sunday night before the start of the school week.
So of course he would be very strong in mind and body, probably winning Athlete of the Year during all four years of high school and being captain of the Mexican team in the 13th annual International Young Physicists Tournament in Budapest. For example.
In college, given the volatile state of the environment, the resulting stress on our oceans and the implications for all the life that depends on it, he naturally would be drawn to marine biology. And, having decided on marine biology, he would of course go to the best school in the land for such studies, UABCS in La Paz. Likely a proponent of Think Globally, Act Locally, his BS thesis would be something like Environmental Diagnoses for the East Cape Coastal Zone, Los Cabos, Mexico.
Now that family he chose to reincarnate into would of course be helping with his spiritual education, but in the subtle, roundabout way that some effective families have. For example, a beloved uncle might give him a book about someone he found inspiring, someone who dedicated his life to helping mankind. Someone like Sri Aurobindo, the founder of Auroville, India, a place recognized by UNESCO since 1968 as a project for the good of mankind, where people from all over the world go to engage in an ongoing “experiment in human unity, transformation of consciousness, focus on sustainable living and the future cultural, environmental, social and spiritual needs of mankind.” This book would really speak to him and he would finally (and the Dalai Lama might say inevitably) go to India. Unlike the Spanish kid who was forced to go, the Mexican kid would think India was da bomb.
The Mexican kid would probably go on that first trip to India just as a tourist, but it would confirm and further define his path in life. Upon returning home he might try a Vipassana, or Insight Meditation retreat, and learn the power of meditation to bring together mind, body and spirit. This might then prompt him to organize a series of conferences entitled something like “Que es la Vida” or “What is Life?”, using science to explore new ways of defining life. Always questing for knowledge, he’d likely continue his studies by pursuing a Masters of Science in Marine and Coastal Sciences, with a thesis on something like Management Program of the Corridor Los Frailes-La Ribera, Municipio de Los Cabos, Baja California Sur, México; Using a Model of Environmental Indicators. And when he got his Masters he’d continue to Think Globally, Act Locally, working with organizations like the World Wildlife Federation to organize and implement a series of local workshops around a worldwide event like “Earth Hour”, in which populations across 135 countries switch off essential lights for one hour in celebration of the world’s largest voluntary environmental action, while also developing a management plan for the fishing community in Magdalena Bay.
And, without a doubt, he would find his way to a pueblo magico, to a place called All Saints, where he would continue his integration of mind, body and spirit by learning to surf. And doing more yoga. And more meditation. And embarking on a career in massage. In fact, even when his Master’s thesis gets (some would say inevitably) published as a book by Editorial Académica Española in Spain, he’d likely decide to take his budding practice to the next level of therapeutic massage, helping others to experience the healing benefits of mind, body and spirit integration. Naturally he will do his training in Auroville, India. The Dalai Lama couldn’t have planned it better!
And that Mexican kid – now a young man – could be one of your neighbors. He could be one of those surfer dudes that you see at Los Cerritos, or one of the massage therapists that you see working with guests at Los Colibris Casitas while on a Todos Santos Eco Adventures trip, or maybe even one of the baristas at Baja Beans. In fact, he could be all of those people. And of course he doesn’t have to be the actual reincarnation of a lama to set a great example of a life lived in joy and focused on helping others. Even the Dalai Lama said that we can live without religion and meditation but we can’t live without friends. Hesed does mean “friend” in Hebrew. And sometimes – although we will miss them – we have to rejoice in our friends going far away to places like India to pursue their destinies and fulfill their dreams. We just hope that the lure of our magic village brings them back to us.
What’s in a tattoo?
Hesed’s back tattoo is actually two tattoos working together as one. The first one is the circle in the middle which he got in Indonesia. “It’s a mandala of who I am, radiating light out from a circle in the middle.” The three spirals within the circle stand for the elements of earth, water and fire. The second one is, most obviously, a snake, which in prehispanic culture represents Mother Earth. Hesed has two other tattoos on his chest and is working on the design for a new one to go down his left arm.
If you sift back through the catalog of parental admonitions that were meant to ensure you a long and happy life – you know, “don’t stick your tongue on frozen metal”, “don’t eat yellow snow”, “don’t drink your father’s last bottle of beer” – somewhere buried in there your mother must surely have added “and oh yes dear, don’t swim with sharks”.
Very sound advice to be sure but swimming with sharks – whale sharks that is – in the Sea of Cortez is truly one of life’s great (and, sadly for you danger junkies, very safe) adventures. While whale sharks have thousands of teeth in hundreds of rows in their enormous mouths (imagine armed shark mouths 4 to 5 feet wide), they can neither bite nor chew. That’s right, they are happy to forego all human body parts in favor of plankton, krill and small fish. Go figure!
Whale Shark Mouth! Photo by Deni Ramirez
So now you feel safe but even if you were on the varsity swim team you’re probably wondering how you could actually keep pace with a shark in the water. Well, the whale shark got its moniker because it is the only fish that is literally as big as a whale; mature adults can reach 60 feet in length and 50 tons in weight. Reaching these proportions requires an immense amount of energy, which the whale shark gets by consuming huge volumes of plankton-rich water, then straining it out through its gills. In fact, to get the food it needs it is not unusual for a whale shark to filter 400,000 gallons of water anhour. To conserve this hard-won strength – and continue eating – whale sharks tend to do a lot of hanging about in the water, or, if moving, doing so at a very slow pace. This lollygagging is what makes it possible for non-bait types like humans to jump in and swim alongside them for a bit. Of course, when they want to put on the speed they certainly can so when a whale shark tires of your company all you will see is a swishing tail receding into the distance.
Now you’d think it’d be a relatively simple matter to learn about a mammoth fish the size of a school bus dawdling through the water eating up everything in its path. But the fact is that scientists still know relatively little about the whale shark, and La Paz resident Dení Ramirez of Whale Shark Mexico is trying to change all that. Originally from Mexico City, Dení has been studying whale sharks in La Paz since 2001, and completed her Ph.D. in marine biology last year. The whale shark’s skin is covered in a pattern of pale yellow spots and stripes that is unique to each animal, a type of fingerprint if you will, so Dení has been able to track some of the inhabitants of La Paz Bay. In fact, she has been tracking the young sharks Flavio, Tikki Tikki and Tango for almost a decade now, and has determined that they are true Baja residents. While whale sharks have been spotted across the globe from Australia to Djibouti, from the Philippines to Mozambique, Dení’s juveniles appear to travel only in the Sea of Cortez, from the Bay of La Paz to Bahia de Los Angeles – roughly 600 miles. We asked Dení why we seem to be seeing the whale sharks around La Paz so much more over the last couple of years than we ever did before.
Whale Shark Feeding in the Sea of Cortez: Photo by Deni Ramirez
“It’s really just a question of food. Over the last two to three years the conditions in the Bay of La Paz have been just right to produce an enormous amount of plankton for the whale sharks to feed on. The wind, currents, mangrove conditions – all these have combined to create an excellent environment for plankton growth that we just didn’t have for such extended periods in earlier years. Also, in the Bay of La Paz the plankton is rich in the coastal waters, and these relatively shallow waters give the young sharks in my group a certain amount of protection.” Dení is happy to take visitors with her on her research trips and share some of her extensive knowledge of whale sharks and research methodology.
Dení is currently doing a lot of work with the pregnant females who inhabit the deeper waters around Espiritu Santo Island and have found that they have much larger migrations than the young sharks due to their different needs as mothers, mothers who surely will work to ensure the long life and happiness of their offspring by admonishing “and dear, don’t try to eat the humans. They’ll just clog up your gills.”
TOSEA guest Mary Winzig recounts her whale shark adventure:
“Swimming with whales sharks is the most amazing thing I have ever done in my life. They are such magnificent animals and I felt so lucky to be in their presence. I was scared—to see something so large and to know you are jumping in the water with them made me pause for a moment. My heart seemed to be almost leaping through my wetsuit – I asked the guide to make sure they were whale sharks because their dorsal fins were so huge! But after watching them and seeing their polka dots, I realized I had to swim with them. You can’t be afraid of anything with polka dots! Jumping in and seeing them through the snorkel was magical. Once I was in the water, I wasn’t afraid. I have no idea how long I was in the water with them, 2 minutes? 15 minutes? I was transfixed. Their mouths look like the grill of a ‘57 Chevy. I have never felt so small or insignificant, but also so powerful. I have decided I have to do everything in my power to help save these magnificent creatures. Thank you Todos Santos Eco Adventures for this wonderful opportunity. I look forward to swimming with the sharks again!”
So there she was in Boston on Patriot’s Day 1976 explaining to Rosalynn Carter that her (Rosalynn’s) luggage had been stolen out of her (Donna’s) car while they made a campaign stop on the way to the hotel from the airport. Rosalynn was sad because the bible that Jimmy had given her years before was in the luggage. Donna was sad because she thought this snafu pretty much spelled the end of life as she knew it. She was right. To help the luggage-less future first lady Donna ran around town and bought Rosalynn all of her favorite beauty products, and Rosalynn was very touched by this act of kindness. So touched that when she and Jimmy moved into the White House she invited Donna to a state dinner in honor of German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt. Now invitations to state dinners at the White House are traditionally bestowed only on the true elites of the business, political and entertainment worlds, not 26-year-old legal secretaries cum campaign volunteers. Donna was stunned by this remarkable expression of thanks for a kindness she had rendered, and she took to heart what it means to not only help people when you can, but to express gratitude for the kindnesses you have received. The children of Todos Santos are benefitting greatly from these lessons.
But long before arriving in Todos Santos (and not so long after leaving her secretarial job) Donna moved into a very elite world herself, co-owning and operating one of the finest restaurants ever to grace the city of Boston, L’Espalier. Often credited with being the first independently owned restaurant to bring haute cuisine to Boston, L’Espalier opened in 1978 and to this day remains the only independent restaurant in New England to receive Five Diamonds from AAA. When she sold her share of the business in 1988, Donna moved to Virginia and thought she would concentrate solely on being a mother for a while. She did. But not long after she’d enrolled her youngest child in kindergarten she decided to open another restaurant, which she also sold for a nice profit a few years later. But not before she married one of her best customers, a BMW dealer named Marc Viglione.
School’s in Session with Donna Viglione at The Palapa Society
Now Marc is a man who has always loved the water and not long after he and Donna married in 1995 they decided to move to an ocean-side town in New Jersey. When they bid at a silent auction for charity they naturally put their money on a week at a 16,000 square foot ocean-side vacation house in Cabo… and won! So in 2003 the whole family headed down to Baja. But the surfing in Cabo was not to the liking of Donna’s son Omar so he persuaded the family to take the drive up to Los Cerritos in Todos Santos, a drive that they wound up repeating every single day of the vacation. But Donna and Marc weren’t making the drive just to cater to Omar’s surfing passion; they had quickly developed their own love for Todos Santos, one of the loveliest ocean-side towns they had ever seen. By the time they got on the plane to go home they had bought a house in Todos Santos, albeit with a limited deposit of $300 as that was all the cash they could get out of the ATM machine.
When they got back to New Jersey the Vigliones closed their business, sold their home, sent the rest of the money for the house in Todos Santos, and returned to Baja for good just a few months after first stepping foot on the peninsula. Omar was thrilled and Donna thought she would concentrate solely on being a mother for a while. She did. But soon the house had been remodeled and her son’s days were filled with surfing and high school so in the summer of 2004 she enrolled in a conversational Spanish class. She thought it would be fun to teach her Spanish-speaking friends English, and by the fall of 2005 she’d started an after-school English-language program that met at the Cultural Center. At around the same time she started volunteering at the library of The Palapa Society – a Mexican non-profit focused on improving the lives of local children – and they soon invited her to be on the Board of Directors. Not long after Donna was invited to bring her after-school Bridge-to-English program into The Palapa Society and when they moved into their new space in 2007 the program really took off. The numbers tell the story.
For this current 2011-2012 school year 70 students ranging in age from 5 to 17 are registered for the program, and 16 of those receive Palapa Society scholarships. An additional 45 Todos Santos students receive scholarships from The Palapa Society to pay for their high school education, and 19 receive Palapa Society scholarships for universities in La Paz. It’s a remarkable achievement.
One of the keys to Donna’s success is the passion of the volunteers in Todos Santos who give so generously of their time and talents. These include Todos Santos “Saint” Mario Berceril, the entrepreneurial surfer who runs an 8-week swimming program for the Palapa kids each summer; Todos Santos “Saint” Erick Ochoa, who took over from Donna as president of The Palapa Society in fall 2009 and works with local artists such as Gloria Van Jansky to teach the kids arts and crafts each Wednesday; and hero volunteers like Serena Saltzman and Tim Doyle who have so steadfastly nurtured the program and the abilities of the kids over several years.
Volunteer Serena Saltzman with Palapa Society Student
The efforts of all these people and many more have made The Palapa Society’s programs so popular with the local families of Todos Santos that the society needs a larger facility to meet the demand. But where to find the money to purchase a permanent home? Well, as it turns out, two things we previously suspected are true: 1) rock ‘n roll really can save the world (or at least some parts of it), and 2) Rosalynn Carter is not the only one who knows how to make a grand gesture.
Peter Buck of the band REM bought a house in Todos Santos about 4 years ago and found he wanted to do something for the town, something specifically connected to education. He hooked up with the Hotel California and the Journal del Pacifico and about 60 days later – in January 2012 – the first annual Todos Santos Music Festival was in full swing. By the time the last guitar chord wafted from the stage $40,000 had been raised for The Palapa Society. But this was not just some one-off fundraiser. Peter Buck plans to make it an annual event to raise money for The Palapa Society and the next Todos Santos Music Festival is already scheduled for the 3 weekends of January 10-26, 2013. Plenty of time to get your tickets!
But if you can’t make it to the Todos Santos Music Festival or if music is just not your thing, there are other ways to get involved. You can:
Martin Buber once wrote, “All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware.” Rosalynn Carter. Peter Buck. Donna Viglione. The Palapa Society has been the secret destination for these and so many other travelers. Perhaps it could be for you too.
In the fictional movie Rocky, boxer Rocky Balboa’s hero is real-life boxing champ Rocky Marciano, the only boxer to hold the heavyweight title and go undefeated throughout his career. Both the fictional and the real Rocky come from working-class households, and find discipline, passion and success in boxing. It’s no wonder then that Alexis Nuñez, the son of a Todos Santos palapero, was inspired by the movie Rocky to take up boxing and is passionate about the sport and the discipline it provides. The real wonder is that there is a real-life Mexican boxing champ to coach him – in Todos Santos – and a community that is pulling together the resources to make the boxing dream a reality for local kids.
Boxing Champ Ramiro Reducindo Radilla with His Son and Alexis Nuñez
The story begins in the parking lot of Bodega Lizarraga in downtown Todos Santos. General Manager Moises Barraza Morales put up a punching bag one day and started inviting friends over to box. Word began to spread, friends of friends began to participate, and soon enough the local kids started coming around to join in the fun. Local business owners donated some equipment and before long the Chief of Area Promotion and Development of Sport, Julio César Covarrubias Gerardo, got involved and helped the parking lot fun evolve into a more organized program. Most importantly, Covarrubias brought in the coaching talent. And what talent!
Mexican boxing great Ramiro Reducindo Radilla won the gold medal at the Pan American games in Santo Domingo in 2003, represented Mexico at the Olympics in Athens in 2004 and turned pro in 2005. Reducindo believes so much in the talent of the boxing students in Todos Santos that he drives here from La Paz after a full day of his own training to coach. Says Ramiro, “I started boxing when I was 13, about the same age as the kids I’m coaching in Todos Santos now. My goal is for at least one of these Todos Santos boxing students to be successful on the global boxing stage. I definitely see that potential in them.”
That potential was shown to the town during the first amateur boxing contest held here on October 29 in the auditorio. Two of our local boxing students with only 4 weeks of training – Alexis Nuñez and Cuauhtemoc Aviles – went head-to-head with seasoned champions from La Paz and Los Cabos, winning several points off of their opponents, if not the matches themselves. Coach Reducindo was thrilled with their performances and is confident that we’ll be seeing great things from these two in the months and years to come. Reducindo is so committed to helping the Todos Santos boxing students realize their potential that he coaches them at least twice a week for nothing more than a little gas money.
Mauricio Duran, Samuel Dominguez Pino, The Champ and the Todos Santos Boxing Kids
But to be successful the kids must practice every day, so Todos Santos locals Mauricio Duran Ramirez and Samuel Dominguez Pino keep the program organized and keep practice going on the nights when Reducindo is not in town. Reducindo leaves instructions for exercises and activities, and Samuel (a local store owner) and Mauricio (a guide with Todos Santos Eco Adventures) make sure the students follow the program. Says Mauricio, “It has been really great to watch these kids gain confidence and become more focused in their lives, to see them setting and working to achieve goals. Boxing requires a type of discipline that is not demanded of them in the other sports available here and it is making a big difference in their lives. We’re also seeing the kids lose weight and getting more focused on health and nutrition. It’s very positive from almost every aspect of their lives.”
And you can help keep that positive trend going. Reducindo is donating his time and local businesses have donated some equipment, but the needs are still great for everything from gloves, mouth guards and head gear, to a ceiling canopy to hang punching bags. If you would like to get involved please contact Mauricio for specifics: Cell: 612-13-44478 or email: . Rocky Nuñez? Cuauhtemoc Ali? It’s all possible and you can help make it happen!
“My mother was a free spirit, an egalitarian and a bohemian, and ended up getting sent away to school because she was always running off to work with Diego Rivera on his murals. And all this was when she was just 10 years old. You know, she never really cared for Frieda Kahlo very much.” So begins Alejandra Brilanti’s story of her mother Ana Nuñez Basso de Brilanti, the matriarch of the Brilanti family of Todos Santos and renowned silver artisan of Taxco.
While the likes of Eleonor Roosevelt ultimately became fans and customers of Ana’s, and her story is featured prominently in the histories of the silver jewelry industry in Taxco, it can be definitively declared that her artistic success was not her mother’s fault. When Ana was a little girl one of her sisters died and was laid out in the family parlor for 3 days. Ana thought the scene was beautiful and painted it. Her mother thought the painting was blasphemous and smashed it. These constant struggles over art earned Ana a passage to boarding school where, at the age of 14, she graduated to a teaching position to contribute to the family income. She worked incredibly hard for the rest of her life, but – despite her mother’s best efforts – she worked doing what she loved most: art.
Ana Brilanti
Ana and her husband Rafael moved to Taxco from Mexico City in the 1930s for Rafael’s government job. Around the same time, an American named William Spratling left his job as an instructor in architecture at Tulane University in New Orleans (where he shared a house with William Faulkner) and moved to Mexico full-time. He became an integral part of the Mexican art scene, and used the proceeds of a commission earned securing a New York exhibit for Diego Rivera to purchase a house in Taxco. At this time, the early 1930s, Taxco was famous for the production and export of silver, but there was no silver jewelry industry in the town to speak of. That all changed under Spratling. He opened his first store in Taxco in 1931, and by 1933 silver jewelry and silver objects designed by Spratling had become the major sellers in his shop.
William Spratling
Spratling needed talented artists and artisans to create the jewelry for his store, and he was continually on the lookout for new apprentices for his workshop. One day as he was walking down the street, he saw Ana Brilanti in front of her house, and couldn’t help but notice the beautiful designs carved into her door. He inquired and Ana admitted that she was indeed the wood carver and designer, and Spratling persuaded her to share more of her designs with him. Amazed by what he saw, Spratling invited Ana to learn to work silver with him and the Brilanti silver dynasty was launched.
By 1940 Ana – like many other Spratling apprentices around that time – felt accomplished enough to go off on her own and, with Spratling’s blessing, opened her first silver store in Taxco, Plateria Victoria S.A. Ana’s husband had created a new technique for making jewelry of both copper and silver, and this combination became one of the distinctive hallmarks of Ana’s line of Victoria jewelry. American department stores accustomed to buying jewelry for their customers in Europe had their supply lines disrupted by World War II, so they started purchasing silver jewelry and objects from Taxco. Ana’s store did so well that her husband left his government job to become Ana’s manager and promoter, and their success lead to the opening of a 2nd store in Taxco in 1958 called Cony.
Alejandra was 12 when her father passed away, and it was only then that she really got to know her mother. And despite all of Ana’s success, the woman that Alejandra discovered was still that 10-year old egalitarian at heart. She never spent any money on herself (“why would a person need more than one pair of shoes?”) but continually gave her money to those in need. Not only did she run a small local hospital, she also made all the clothing and sheets that it needed. Alejandra continued to live near her mother after she married Ruben Gutierrez, and the couple only left Taxco and Ana when the tough economy in Taxco drove them to seek opportunity in Mexico’s last frontier, Baja California Sur.
Alejandra Brilanti with Ruben’s Pottery in Manos Mexicanos
Cabo was Alejandra and Ruben’s first home in Baja, but a few weekends in Todos Santos soon convinced them to move north, and for the last 16 years they’ve made their home, built their business, and raised their family in Todos Santos. Their beautiful store of pottery, handicrafts and jewelry – Manos Mexicanos – has been in at the corner of Centenario and Topete since its inception.
And the magic of our pueblo magico has nurtured the artistic leanings of the family. Shortly after moving to Todos Santos Ruben took a pottery class with a Navajo Indian who had been invited to town by founding artist Charles Stewart and his wife Mary Lou. While Ruben had always been good with clay, that instruction and inspiration set him on a path to creating some the most beautiful and distinctive pottery to be found in Baja. Alejandra and Ruben’s nephew Arturo also found his artistic calling in Todos Santos: he works at Manos Mexicanos by day, and paints every night after putting his children to bed. His works can be found in both his mother’s store Galeria A and Manos Mexicanos. And of course there are the Brilanti silver stores. After Ana Brilanti’s death, Alejandra’s brother Pepe joined her and Ruben in Todos Santos. He opened Joyeria Brilanti, a store that pays wonderful homage to Ana’s beautiful designs. Pepe’s son Rafael also runs a Brilanti Joyeria in Todos Santos, producing silver works based on both his Grandmother Ana’s designs and his own.
Alejandra and Arturo in Manos Mexicanos
Given the fierce battles that she fought to pursue her own artistic career, Ana Brilanti would no doubt be thrilled to see her skills, designs, and innate artistic talent blossoming and thriving with her descendents in an artist colony. Her only note of disapproval might be for the Frieda Kahlo Christmas ornaments on sale in her daughter’s store!
