Thursday, January 13, 2005

Workshop winding down

Cloudy and a little cooler this afternoon in Tepoztlan, and the week is almost over. Today my second story was workshopped. The reaction was better than to the first, and it doesn't feel like it needs much work to be finished. (Ah, well, of course I thought it was already finished, but that's a different issue.) Grace liked it.

Last night we had a wonderful party at the home of July Charlot. Google Juli and see what you find. She performed with the Marx Brothers and Xavier Cougat and, when she retired from show biz at the age of 23, became a dress designer. She invented the Poodle Skirt, whatever that is. Anyway, she has a fabulous house, filled with the memorabilia of a fascinating life, and also meticulously maintained gardens. The main event for the evening was a reading by Bob Nichols, Grace Paley's husband of 35 years, who writes some very interesting fiction. A new writer for me, although he's been around awhile obviously. We also heard poetry recited in Nahuatl, an Indian language spoken by more than 4 million people in Mexico, by Roberto Palacio. After he read in Nahuatl, he read in Spanish, which was translated into English. Then we walked home, with a stop at the barrio's festival of their patron saint, Santo Domingo. Lots of fireworks. Nice ending to the day.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Clifford,

Quite by accident I ran into your blog/diary?, while searching for something else.

The word Nahuatl shone at me. Actually I was searching for a Spanish language translation of Barbara Tuchman's March of Folly... to send to a friend in South America.

I believe in synchronicity, though also serendipity...?

Many years ago (I'm 51 now) I studied Nahuatl in Mexico City at the E.N.A.H. (Escuela Nacional de Antropologia e Historia), so I was pleasantly surprised to read your entry dated 01/13/2005, "Workshop Winding Down".

I love poetry, and Nahuatl Poetry is exquisite.

I never blog, or write to strangers on the internet...
So why am I doing this?

I don't know. Best, Martin

Unknown said...

Martin,
Thanks for stopping by. As it happens, when you left this comment I had just completed the 2007 edition of the workshop in Tepoztlan. We didn't have a Nahuatl reading this time, but the people and the language are never far in that part of the country. I learned this time around that Paul Bowles, whose fiction I have much admired, did Nahuatl translations.