"I really love this place out here, and I love the way it looks. I like the way it smells. I like to go outside at night and just look at the sky and feel the wind, and I think it's a really precious place, and I think it's a precious place because of what has come before and because of what's here now."
-- Dallas Baxter
Now available: the full transcript of Marfa Mondays Podcast #12 "This Precious Place: An Interview with Dallas Baxter, Founding Editor of Cenizo Journal"
> Listen to the podcast
> Read the transcript
> All Marfa Mondays podcasts (16 of a projected 24)
Other transcripts now available include:
>Tremendous Forms: Paul V. Chaplo on Funding Composition in the Landscape
>Gifts of the Ancient Ones: Greg Williams on the Rock Art of the Lower Pecos Canyonlands
>Looking at Mexico in New Ways: An Interview with Historian John Tutino
More transcripts to be posted soon.
Podcasts in-progress include interviews with Enrique Madrid and Lonn Taylor.
>Your COMMENTS are always welcome.
Showing posts with label Marfa Mondays. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Marfa Mondays. Show all posts
John Tutino: "We need Mexico as an other. We can't deal with it as an us."
Slowly but surely the transcripts from my Marfa Mondays Podcasting Project are going on-line. Now available:
#13 “Looking at Mexico in New Ways: An Interview with John Tutino."
John Tutino: "We need Mexico as an other. We can't deal with it as an us." But his whole point is that, in fact, US and Mexico are inseparable. It's a knock-your-huaraches-off interview.
> Listen in to the podcast.
TRANSCRIPT
[MUSIC]
C.M. Mayo: Welcome to Marfa Mondays. I’m your host, C.M. Mayo and this is Podcast 13 of a projected 24 podcasts exploring Marfa and the wider Big Bend region, apropos of my book-in-progress about Far West Texas. So far in the series I’ve interviewed people in and around Marfa and also reported on my visits to some very remote and intriguing places in the Big Bend, most recently, interviews with Dallas Baxter, founder of Cenizo Journal; and with luthier and cowboy poet singing some cowboy songs, Michael Stevens; and a visit to Swan House, Simone Swan’s adobe teaching house, inspired by the legacy of Egypt’s greatest architect, Hassan Fathy. I invite you to listen to these podcasts and all the others anytime at my website, cmmayo.com, and through the website, send in your comments. I’m always delighted to hear from listeners.
[MUSIC]
Now in this podcast I take a big step back to get some perspective— big perspective. Bigger than Texas perspective. Those of you who know Far West Texas know how close Mexico is in every sense. Look at a map and you’ll see, from Marfa it’s only a little more than an hour’s drive to Presidio, which sits on the Rio Grande; cross over and there you are: Mexico. That’s what we’re going to hear about in this interview with John Tutino.
John Tutino teaches the history of Mexico and the Americas in the History Department and School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. He’s the author of Making a New World: Founding Capitalism in the Bajío and Spanish North America, which was published by Duke University Press in 2011. Tutino is also the editor of a collection of essays by various historians with the title Mexico and Mexicans in the Making of the United States, and that is available from University of Texas Press. This interview was recorded in his office at Georgetown University.
[MUSIC]
C.M. Mayo: We have Making a New World and the related anthology Mexico and the Mexicans in the Making of the United States. These are closely related, and they are both nuclear bombs!
John Tutino: Thank you!
C.M. Mayo: They’re huge paradigm-busting... across from the beginning when we had the expansion of New Spain in the 1500s to modern day immigration. My head is reeling with all this stuff that’s in these two books!
John Tutino: And I will say, you're right, they evolved together. They were a long time coming, decades in the rumination and a decade plus in the focused production. And yeah, I got to the point where I said, “The whole basic big picture of where we thought Mexico fit in the world is somewhere between wrong and mythical. And you can’t change that by chipping away at the edges and saying, look at this little piece.”
And so I ended up writing Making a New World to just try to say, “New Spain, which is the root of Mexico, was absolutely an pivotal place to the origins of the modern world, modern capitalism, and equally absolutely pivotal to the origins of the United States.” And I was working on one when I figured out the other.
C.M. Mayo: My sense is that in Anglo-American culture, we’ve always had this idea that, here is American history over here, and here is Mexican history over here, and yes, there was war and there was this and there was that, but you could like put a little bell jar on top of each subject, and what you're saying, and I know is true, is that, no, you have to look at them together.
John Tutino: Yeah. I will tell you a story. I, years ago, put together a NEH [National Endowment for the Humanties] Summer Seminar for school teachers on the interrelated histories of Mexico and the United States. NEH, the grant proposal group, approved it. They wanted to fund it, but the staff at NEH refused my title, which was “Inseparable Histories: Mexico and the United States.” They said I could teach the seminar— this was in the early ‘90s— not having the primary title “Inseparable Histories,” and I tactically said, “Well, I want to do the seminar. I’ll negotiate the title.” But that’s the extent that this goes there.
But I will also add that particularly the argument that New Spain was fundamental to the origins of modern capitalism and that it was, particularly in its north, one of the earliest, most dynamic capitalist places on Earth, is equally challenging a lot of Mexican scholars.
C.M. Mayo: Oh, yes.
John Tutino: They have sort of bought into a notion, they have been trained in a notion, that Mexico had its base in great Pre-hispanic societies that were destroyed by Spanish colonialism for three centuries, and then there has been a struggle to reconstitute something positive. And boy, there were destructions in early 16th century, though I argue they’re more disease driven than anything any human could impose. And yes, there have been struggles, but people have... I don’t fully understand, why not glory in the... You know, it’s a typical history, it’s a history of enormous economic dynamism and thus enormous conflict, change, human greatness, human exploitation, human difficulty, but it sort of puts New Spain and Mexico, I believe, at the absolute mainstream of modern history.
C.M. Mayo: So, in other words is as you call “this enduring presumption” was that capitalism started with England.
John Tutino: With England.
C.M. Mayo: And North America, and this is what we’ve been told in school and Adam Smith, and...
John Tutino: It has been the Anglo American gift to the world.
C.M. Mayo: Would you say gift or plague?
John Tutino: Well, either way. If you ask Anglo Americans, it’s their gift to the world. If you ask people who’ve experienced it without prosperity... And this is part of what I try to do. I think too often we argue that capitalism is easily the most positive thing the world has ever seen or it’s the most dastardly thing the world has ever seen, and I just see capitalism as a dominant historical reality with enormous creativities, positives, productive gains and, linked to it, changing rounds of difficulties, conflicts, human difficulties, exploitations, and we’ve got to quit arguing one against the other. We’ve got to figure out how to maximize one, minimize the other, but as a historian I just want to understand it.
In terms of that I should emphasize, in terms of taking Anglocentrism away from the study of global capitalism, I have jumped on a bandwagon there. It really came out of Asianists. One part, Andre Gunder Frank who started writing on Latin America years ago, then went to China and wrote a book called ReOrient, and Kenneth Pomeranz, who wrote a book called The Great Divergence, and I will say Gunder Frank was more the cage-rattling ideologue and Pomeranz was more the careful historian. He’s currently, it took 10 years after the book, but he’s now president of the American Historical Association. But the two of them together right around the year 2000 said, in 1600 China was the dominant economy in the world, Western Europe was a minor player and they contended for three centuries, and before 1800 nothing made it certain that Europe was going to rise to dominance and Asia was going to fade. It was a historical give and take, and then some particular things happened around 1800 that shift this. They were debating this and they were all recognizing that silver was pivotal to this world economy.
C.M. Mayo: Right. So China was demanding it—
John Tutino: Was the place demanding...the silver that went to Europe ended up in China.
C.M. Mayo: So this is the silver from Peru and from Mexico.
John Tutino: Mexico. Scholars show for most of three centuries two-thirds of it passed east to Europe, but ended up passing through the Middle East, South Asia, and ends up in China. A third of it goes directly to Manila and ends up in China.
C.M. Mayo: Through Acapulco on the Nao de China... [Manila Galleon]
John Tutino: Acapulco to Manila. And people always ask, “Why is Manila part of the Spanish empire?” It was a city of Chinese merchants under Spanish sovereignty who traded goods not just from China but from India, Indonesia, and sent them back. Have you ever been to what is now the Museo del Virreinato in Tepotzotlan on the road?
C.M. Mayo: Yes, just north of Mexico City.
John Tutino: North of Mexico City. There are two rooms there of Chinese-Christian-Asian art that were all brought back by the Jesuits because that was their colonial... It is the best way to see the wealth of China that was brought to New Spain by that silver, is to just go through those rooms in Tepotzotlan.
C.M. Mayo: And this doesn’t fit with the image of Mexico in Anglo-American cultural history or our modern media at all.
John Tutino: As a backward, exploited, crushed environment that Spanish colonialism just ground to nothing! And one of the ironies is... and we have a hard time thinking about it. So New Spain, I argue, was probably one of the three core regions of early modern capitalism, while Spain, its mother country, was in decline. And we’ve just got to learn to get over the presumption that Spain could be in decline as a European power but New Spain could be just flourishing.
C.M. Mayo: What I loved about the opening of your book, Making a New World, was you start talking about...to illustrate your points, the individual biographies of several people in the very important city of Querétaro. And as a bit of digression I want to say, I’m an American and I’ve been living in Mexico all these years, and I come back and forth frequently, and it is very rare that anybody in the U.S. has even heard of Querétaro, and yet Querétaro plays a central role in the development of the Mexican economy from almost the very beginning.
John Tutino: I will note it’s also coming back. It may be the single most dynamic place under the current NAFTA-driven economic revival. And Querétaro really became probably my favorite place in Mexico in the process of writing this book.
I had been introduced to Mexico as a 17-year-old kid going to San Miguel de Allende and I’d lived for a full year in Mexico City, lots of time in other central Mexico places, most of all in Mexico City, but when I started doing this and started spending between two weeks to a month every year in Querétaro, and the mix of its colonial heritage and its modern dynamism just made it. It isn’t a museum like San Miguel. My apologies to the San Miguel tourist bureau. [Laughs] It’s a real dynamic city but with a wonderful historic arc.
The argument is that this dynamism is there and that it is charging north.
C.M. Mayo: Well, can we come back just for a minute to those individual biographies in and around Querétaro, part of the Bajío, which includes San Miguel de Allende.
John Tutino: Guanajuato.
C.M. Mayo: León, Celaya.
John Tutino: Yes.
C.M. Mayo: It’s a group of cities north of Mexico City, kind of in the very heart of Mexico.
John Tutino: It is absolutely the richest agricultural land in Mexico. Historically the richest mines in Mexico were in Guanajuato, and with the mix of those two, Querétaro was the richest trade and industrial city in Querétaro.
C.M. Mayo: Oh, and Zacatecas.
John Tutino: Zacatecas isn’t quite Bajío in Mexican parlance because it’s north, it’s dry, but the Bajío fed it because, precisely, Zacatecas is mining wealth in dry uplands. Where did Zacatecas get its food? So the Bajío is also in a sense sustaining places like Zacatecas.
C.M. Mayo: So when we look at the beginnings of Querétaro and this economic engine that’s going to feed the northward expansion of New Spain, one of the biographies that you talked about was José Sánchez Espinosa. There was another little one in there about an Italian count...
John Tutino: Yes, Colombini. And later in the book there’s huge excerpts from a poem he wrote in honor of Our Lady of Pueblito, the local Otomí virgin who historically and still in many ways centers popular devotions in Querétaro, the way Guadalupe has historically around Mexico City.
Let me quickly go through my favorite vignette. The first one is Connín. Connín is an Otomí trader, frontiersman. He had traded across the frontier into the land of the Chichimecas. When Spaniards came he claimed to have been a lord; we don’t know if he really was but he was able to mobilize followers with a little bit of army, a little bit of settlement, and he, an Otomí trader or lord with somewhere between dozens and a few hundred Otomí friends, relatives, villagers recruited only a couple of Spanish Franciscan friars, and while literally Spaniards are still trying to conquer Mexico City, they go north and found Querétaro. And so Querétaro is actually an Otomí foundation with Catholic Franciscan sanction under Spanish rule. And for the first 30 years Querétaro is an Otomí city. Other than a priest or two there’s nobody else there. They build the irrigation. They build grist mills. They built the town. They distribute the land. And Connín and his pals take large landed estates for themselves, but they make sure their followers all have these incredibly rich irrigated gardens at the core of the city, and of course, he very quickly... he can’t remain Connín, he’s baptized and he becomes Don Fernando de Tapia.
C.M. Mayo: And what amazed me about Don Fernando de Tapia is, you give the little biography and one reads along, da-da, da-da, da-da, he did this, he did that, his daughter...
John Tutino: And you think he’s got to be a Spanish conquerer.
C.M. Mayo: He’s got to be a Spanish conquerer and it turns out, no! He’s an Otomí trader who used to be called Connín!
John Tutino: And it is the perfect example of how indigenous people weren’t always broken. They saw opportunity.
C.M. Mayo: It’s a more complex story than what we’re told at a public level. [CONTINUE READING THIS TRANSCRIPT]
> Listen in to this podcast
> Your COMMENTS are always welcome.
> My newsletter goes out shortly. I invite you to sign up for it here.
#13 “Looking at Mexico in New Ways: An Interview with John Tutino."
John Tutino: "We need Mexico as an other. We can't deal with it as an us." But his whole point is that, in fact, US and Mexico are inseparable. It's a knock-your-huaraches-off interview.
> Listen in to the podcast.
TRANSCRIPT
[MUSIC]
C.M. Mayo: Oh, yes.
C.M. Mayo: It’s a more complex story than what we’re told at a public level. [CONTINUE READING THIS TRANSCRIPT]
> Listen in to this podcast
> Your COMMENTS are always welcome.
> My newsletter goes out shortly. I invite you to sign up for it here.
Transcript of the Marfa Mondays Podcast #16: "Tremendous Forms: Paul V. Chaplo on Finding Composition in the Landscape"
Marfa Mondays 16: "Tremendous Forms: Paul V. Chaplo on Finding Composition in the Landscape" was posted as podcast (listen in anytime on podomatic or iTunes) back in January, but the transcript has just been posted here.
I'm aiming to post transcripts of all my podcast interviews, both the Marfa Mondays and Conversations with Other Writers (for the latter, so far, transcripts are available for Rose Mary Salum and Sergio Troncoso). Stay tuned for Marfa Mondays 17, an interview recorded in Fort Davis with Texas historian Lonn Taylor.
> Your COMMENTS are always welcome. My newsletter goes out soon; I welcome you to sign up here.
P.S. If you want to just follow the Marfa Mondays Podcasting Project and related posts, check out my other blog, Marfa Mondays.
Cyberflanerie: Solitario Dome Edition
 |
| Inside The Solitario Photo: C.M. Mayo March 2015 |
Meanwhile, a few links about the latter:
Chase Snodgrass's flight over the Solitario:
by Jean Evans Hardy, Iron Mountain Press, 2009
(Whoa, call the chiropracter, I brought this one home in my carry-on.)
Geology of the Solitario
by Charles E. Corry, et al. Geological Society of America Special Paper 250, 1990.
"Igneous Evolution of a Complex Laccolith-Caldera, the Solitario, Trans-Pecos, Texas:
Implications for Calderas and Subjacent Plutons"
by Christopher D. Henry, et al. Geological Society of America Bulletin, August 1997
(Super-crunchy PDF)
 |
| Google Maps screenshot |
Megan Hicks, The Big Bend Paisano, Winter 2004/2005
(PDF)
"Geology at the Crossroads"
By Blaine R. Hall, Big Bend Ranch State Park
(PDF)
 |
| Entering the labyrinth of the Solitario via Los Portales (That's my guide, Charlie Angell, he's the best, check him out on Tripadvisor.com) Photo: C.M. Mayo, March 2015 |
>Your COMMENTS are always welcome.
>Listen in to all the Marfa Mondays Podcasts anytime. The most recent is "Tremendous Forms: Finding Composition in the Landscape," an interview with Paul V. Chaplo, author of the magnificent Marfa Flights.
A Batch of US-Mexico Border Mini Travel Clips
Just posted a batch of what I call "mini travel clips," that is, super brief videos, nothing fancy (taken with my iPhone), but edited and with audio—in these, by that jaw-droppingly prolific clangy-bangy soundmaestro of Bridport, U.K., Ergo Phizmiz.
FAR WEST TEXAS MINI CLIPS
Casa Piedra Road, Far West Texas
(with a view of a fire in Mexico)
(1:06)
> Listen in anytime to my podcast. "A Visit to Swan House." Swan House, a unique adobe teaching house inspired by the legacy of Egypt's greatest architect, Hassan Fathy, is on Casa Piedra Road.
> Read my article in Cenizo Journal, "A Visit to Swan House."
Over Burro Mesa and Into Apache Canyon
(Big Bend National Park)
(1:06)
> Listen in anytime to my "Marfa Mondays" podcast, "Over Burro Mesa / The Kickapoo Ambassadors"
> Read the essay, "Over Burro Mesa."
Pecos River Crossing (Highway 90, near the US-Mexico border)
(:41)
West of the Pecos is Far West Texas. The end of the video is a gaze south into Mexico.
And I did some slight edits on a video I had posted a few weeks ago, Descent into Eagle Canyon (:53), near Langrty, Texas— Eagle Canyon flows into the Rio Grande on the US-Mexico border.
> Listen in anytime to "Gifts of the Ancient Ones: Greg Williams on the Rock Art of the Lower Pecos Canyonlands."
AND AWAYS YONDER WEST
Finally, almost the border (well, a two hour drive) is Joshua Tree National Park in California (2:24). Herewith my mini travel clip of that:
> More mini travel clips here and
> Mini clips of Far West Texas (apropos of my book-in-progress) here.
> Watch Ergo Phizmiz starring in "I Am the Music Man," a video by Martha Moopette.
>Your COMMENTS are always welcome.
FAR WEST TEXAS MINI CLIPS
Casa Piedra Road, Far West Texas
(with a view of a fire in Mexico)
(1:06)
> Listen in anytime to my podcast. "A Visit to Swan House." Swan House, a unique adobe teaching house inspired by the legacy of Egypt's greatest architect, Hassan Fathy, is on Casa Piedra Road.
> Read my article in Cenizo Journal, "A Visit to Swan House."
Over Burro Mesa and Into Apache Canyon
(Big Bend National Park)
(1:06)
> Listen in anytime to my "Marfa Mondays" podcast, "Over Burro Mesa / The Kickapoo Ambassadors"
> Read the essay, "Over Burro Mesa."
Pecos River Crossing (Highway 90, near the US-Mexico border)
(:41)
West of the Pecos is Far West Texas. The end of the video is a gaze south into Mexico.
And I did some slight edits on a video I had posted a few weeks ago, Descent into Eagle Canyon (:53), near Langrty, Texas— Eagle Canyon flows into the Rio Grande on the US-Mexico border.
> Listen in anytime to "Gifts of the Ancient Ones: Greg Williams on the Rock Art of the Lower Pecos Canyonlands."
AND AWAYS YONDER WEST
Finally, almost the border (well, a two hour drive) is Joshua Tree National Park in California (2:24). Herewith my mini travel clip of that:
> More mini travel clips here and
> Mini clips of Far West Texas (apropos of my book-in-progress) here.
> Watch Ergo Phizmiz starring in "I Am the Music Man," a video by Martha Moopette.
>Your COMMENTS are always welcome.
Marfa Mondays 16: Tremendous Forms: Paul V. Chaplo on Finding Composition in the Landscape
Marfa Flights was published to coincide with the opening of the exhibition of Chaplo's large format color photographs in the Museum of the Big Bend, in Alpine Texas. That show is open through January 18, 2015. Don't miss it!
>Listen in anytime here.
>Listen in to the other Marfa Mondays Podcasts here.
>Find out more about Chaplo's magnificent Marfa Flights here.
Gifts of the Ancient Ones: Greg Williams on the Rock Art of the Lower Pecos Canyonlands
Marfa Mondays Podcast #15 is now live. Listen in anytime to my interview with Greg Williams, Executive Director of the Rock Art Foundation. Though the Rock Art Foundation's tours and website have been spreading the word, it still seems a well-kept secret that some of the most spectacular rock art in the world is tucked into the nooks and crannies of the Lower Pecos Canyonlands of Far West Texas (and into Coahuila, Mexico). I had the great privilege of being able to view some it, specifically, the rock art at Meyers Springs, through the tour offered by the Rock Art Foundation. My interview was recorded in the Meyers Springs Ranch house kitchen, just after the four hour tour (and target shooting had commenced).
Recommended reading:
Painters in Prehistory: Archaeology and Art of the Lower Pecos Canyonlands, edited by Harry J. Shafer
Rock Art of the Lower Pecos, by Carolyn E. Boyd
Your COMMENTS are always welcome.
> Listen in anytime to all the Marfa Mondays podcasts here.
Marfa Mondays #14: Over Burro Mesa / The Kickapoo Ambassadors
Just posted #14 of a projected 24 podcasts for the Marfa Mondays Podcasting Project, Exploring Marfa, TX & the Big Bend: "Over Burro Mesa / The Kickapoo Ambassadors."
Listen in any time.
This podcast mentions Wilhelm Knechtel's book, Memorias del Jardinero de Maximiliano, translated by Susanne Igler. There's more about that on my other blog, the research blog on Mexico's French Intervention / Second Empire, "Maximilian-Carlota."
The next podcasts will be:
#15 an interview with rock art expert Greg Williams; and
#16 an interview with photographer Paul Chaplo about his new book, Marfa Flights: Aerial Views of Big Bend Country.
For updates, I invite you to subscribe to my newsletter.
P. S. Check out Chaplo's show at the Museum of the Big Bend until January 18, 2015.
COMMENTS always welcome.
Listen in any time.
This podcast mentions Wilhelm Knechtel's book, Memorias del Jardinero de Maximiliano, translated by Susanne Igler. There's more about that on my other blog, the research blog on Mexico's French Intervention / Second Empire, "Maximilian-Carlota."
The next podcasts will be:
#15 an interview with rock art expert Greg Williams; and
#16 an interview with photographer Paul Chaplo about his new book, Marfa Flights: Aerial Views of Big Bend Country.
For updates, I invite you to subscribe to my newsletter.
P. S. Check out Chaplo's show at the Museum of the Big Bend until January 18, 2015.
COMMENTS always welcome.
(review)
12 Tips for Summer Day Hiking in the Desert (How to Stay Cool and Avoid Actinic Keratosis, Blood, and Killer Bees)
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| C'est moi on (whew) August 30, 2014 at Meyers Spring, an important rock art site of the Lower Pecos, on the US-Mexico border near Dryden, Texas. As you can see, in my left hand, I am carrying a white umbrella. So I didn't need the hat, and that black backpack wasn't the best idea. I also should have worn a lightweight bandana. Oh, and more sunblock. Always more sunblock. |
I got a few things very right on this trip and a few things, well, I could have done better. Herewith, for you dear reader, and for me-- this will serve as my own checklist for the next rock art foray-- 12 tips for summer day hiking in the desert:
1. Don't just bring water, lots of water, more water than you think you can possibly drink-- bring it cold and keep it cold.
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| Everest Lumbar Waist Pack |
Of course, not drinking enough water can be seriously dangerous. But warm water when it's this hot is just bleh--and if you're carrying a plain old plastic water bottle in your hand, out here, boy howdy, it gets hot fast. (Last year, I hiked this way over Burro Mesa in the Big Bend National Park. Six hours. Head-slapper.) The thing is, you don't just want to hydrate; you want to keep your core from overheating, so every swig of cold water really helps. Before heading out, fill your insulated water bottles with lots of ice. In your car, keep them in an ice chest or, if that's not possible, wrapped in a blanket, or whatever's handy, until the moment you have to take them out. I did this for the first time, and wow, what a difference.
> Recommended: Camelback lightweight insulated water bottle
> Recommended: Everest lumbar waist pack that holds two bottles (and carry a third in-hand).
(What works for you? Suggestions welcome.)
2. Slather on the sunblock.
Yes, sun block stinks and feels gross, but if you're like me -- a descendant of those who once roamed the foggy forests of England, Ireland and Scotland-- if you don't, you may end up helping your dermatologist buy his ski condo. And no, he probably won't invite you.
> Watch this fun video, "How the Sun Sees You."
> For those with actinic keratosis (that's the fancy term for seriously sun-damaged skin), try Perrin's Blend. If that doesn't work, off to the dermatologist you must go.
> Here's how a bald guy, Tony Overbay, dealt with actinic keratosis using the latest in dermatologist-recommended chemotherapy (uyy, I am hoping my Perrin's Blend works…)
>Recommended: Whole Foods article on how to choose the best sunscreen.
3. Wear a long sleeved white collared shirt.
This protects you against the sun, keeps you cool (the white reflects the sun), protects you from bug bites and scratches. Light clothes always beat dark! Flip the collar up to protect your neck. About scratches: the desert tends to be filled with cactus and thorny scrub.
4. Knot a light-colored scarf around your throat.
This protects you from the sun. A bandana works fine. Mike Clelland (more about the guru in a moment) suggests cutting the bandana in two, so it's lighter. Porquoi pas? I didn't do this. Alas. Bring on the Perrin's.
5. Wear tough but lightweight trekking trousers.
For the same reason you want to wear the long-sleeved white shirt: trousers protect your body parts, in this case, calves and knees, from sun, scratches, and bugs. Do not wear shorts unless, for some reason you probably should be working on with your psychiatrist, you don't mind scarring and blood. And do not wear jeans. I repeat, do not wear jeans.
> Recommended: Northface trekking convertible trousers. I wore these on the trip. Very comfortable.
 |
6. Keep your pack as light as possible, in both senses.
Hey, you've not only gotta stay cool, but you've gotta hump all that water!
A few specifics:
> Use a lightweight pack and carry it on
your hips, rather than the flat of your back (see photo of lumbar waist pack above). This helps keep your back cool. But I don't speak from experience on this one: I'm going to try this for next time.
> Carry lightweight insulated water bottles.
> Ditch the hat and ditch the heavy hiking boots (more about that below. There are, of course, other places and times when a hat and hiking books would be advisable).
> Skip the camera or use a lightweight camera (I use my iPhone).
> Eat a light breakfast and bring only a little food-- since this is a day hike, you can eat a big dinner when you get back. But you will need sustenance on the trail. I recommend date, fruit and nut bars-- love those Lara bars-- that is, food that is high in energy but won't spoil in the heat, and that doesn't require any dishes or utensils. Don't bring anything with chocolate in it. (I brought a Snicker's bar. Ooey... gooey.)>Bring a white plastic grocery bag and use it to cover your pack. Two advantages: the white reflects sunlight and keeps it cooler than, say, an unprotected black or other dark-colored pack, and, in case of rain, will help keep it dry.
> Highly recommended: Mike Clelland's Ultralight Backpackin' Tips, a superb resource for keeping it lighter-than-light, yet making sure to bring what you need for comfort and safety.
> And be sure to visit Clelland's blog for many helpful videos and more.
7. Watch out for killer bees!
Seriously, Africanized bees have arrived in some desert locales north of the Mexican border. What do bees want? Sweet things and water. So don't carry around open cans or bottles or suddenly pick up open cans or bottles-- bees may smell the water or soft drink from afar, crawl inside, and then, if you do anything they don't like, such as pick up that can, they will go bezerk, and call in their buddies who will also go bezerk and might sting you hundreds of times. No kidding, people and animals have died from killer bee attacks. So be especially careful around any blooming plants where bees might be feeding. Ditto any open water, such as a tank, spring, or any puddle. And whatever you do, if you see a hive, don't go anywhere near it. Normal honey bees, however, are not a problem. Unless you have a severe allergy, a few stings might actually be good for you! (Read more about bee sting therapy on the Apitherapy Association webpage). Your real problem is, it's hard to tell the killers from the honeys until they attack.
8. Wear gaiters.
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| www.dirtygirlgaiters.com |
9. Forget the hat and trekking pole; use a white umbrella.
Really! Who cares if it looks nerdy? It's nerdier to pass out from heat stroke or end up looking like a tomato. So let those guys in jeans, black T-shirts, and baseball caps cackle all they want, as they sweat & burn & chafe. The white umbrella protects you from sun and the rain and-- crucially-- helps keep your head cool. A hat will trap heat on your head-- not what you want out here. Plus, in a tight spot, you can also use the umbrella as a trekking pole. Added bonus: scares mountain lions. I would think. Don't take my word for that, however. Also good, once folded, to toss a rattlesnake or tarantula. Not that I've had to do that, either. Just saying.
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| Not for National Geographic, but thanks, iPhone camera app |
Fortunately for me, I don't have this problem, but a lot of people do. Why suffer?
11. Take it slow and rest often.
In shade, if possible. (Oh, right, you have your umbrella!)
12. In your car, leave a reflector open on your car's dashboard and another over your stash of cold water.
If you've had to park outside, after a day of baking out in the desert, it's going to be an authentic Finnish sauna in there-- unless you use a dashboard reflector. In which case it will still be a very warm-- but far more bearable. I picked up my pair of dashboard reflectors at Walgreen's for $3.99 each and I was glad indeed that I did. Certainly you could also just use a roll of aluminum foil.
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> Looking at Mexico in New Ways: An Interview with John Tutino
> A Spell in Chinati Hot Springs
> Mary Baxter, Painting the Big Bend
> Cynthia McAllister with the Buzz on the Bees
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MORE ON MADAM MAYO:
> Why I am a Mega-Fan of the Filofax
> Small Mistake, Mongo Sucking Whirlpool
> Guest-blogger Jennifer Silva Redmond's 5 Favorite Baja California Writers' Websites
AND OVER ON MY HOME PAGE, www.cmmayo.com:
> Mini-Travel Clips, many of the Big Bend (Hoodoos, Lajitas, along the Rio Grande, and more)
> Excerpt from Miraculous Air: Journey of a Thousand Miles through Baja California, the Other Mexico: Bay of Angels
> A Visit to Swan House (article in Cenizo Journal on Simone Swan's visionary adobe teaching house in Presidio, Texas)
> Marfa Mondays Podcasting Project: Exploring Marfa, TX & Environs in 24 Podcasts
Guest-blogger Heidi M. Thomas: A Roundup of 5 Things to Know About Old-Time Rodeo Cowgirls
A Roundup of 5 Things to Know About Old-Time Rodeo Cowgirls
By Heidi M. Thomas
1. My “Dreams” series is based on my grandmother who rode bucking stock in Montana rodeos during the 1920s. Competing with and riding the same roughstock as men was not entirely socially acceptable, but there were a number of women who won world champion awards at New York’s Madison Square Garden Rodeo, in Canada, and in Europe. While Grandma did not become one of those famous cowgirls, she knew and competed with Marie Gibson of Havre, Montana (and won in a steer-riding competition in 1922). Marie won titles at Madison Square Garden in 1927 and 1931. She was killed in a freak rodeo accident in 1933.
2. Montana produced several bronc riding champions, including Fannie Sperry Steele, Alice and Margie Greenough, and Marie Gibson. The Brander sisters were two more of Montana’s rodeo sweethearts, often riding a bucking Brahma steer—double. They went on to establish a dude ranch and put on many rodeos for visitors.
3. The Miles City Bucking Horse Sale has been a well-known horse sale and rodeo in Montana since 1914. I remember attending the big social event of the year when I was in high school. Although I grew up on a ranch and helped my dad round up cattle for branding and shipping, I did not follow my grandmother’s boot steps into rodeo. For some reason I preferred not to get on anything that was going to buck me off!
4. The Madison Square Garden Rodeo of 1941 was the last time a woman was allowed to compete on the men’s circuit. Vivian White won the women’s championship title that year. My character Nettie in Dare to Dream mentors two young neighbor girls and they have to opportunity to attend that world-renowned rodeo in New York City.
5. The World wars had much to do with the demise of women’s rodeo competition. Rodeos in general declined because most of the men were off fighting and because there wasn’t money to put on rodeos or travel to them. The death of Bonnie McCarroll and Marie Gibson aroused the age-old question—Is rodeo too dangerous for women? The formation of the Rodeo Association of America also contributed, as the all-male organization did not sanction women’s events.
-- Heidi M. Thomas, author of Dare to Dream
COMMENTS always welcome. Send an email about this post and you're automatically entered in Heidi M Thomas's drawing for a free book.
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Listen in anytime:
>Marfa Mondays: Cowboys Songs By Cowboys
>Marfa Mondays: Mary Baxter, Painting the Big Bend
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