Approximately 15 Raicilla producers will gather in the mountain town of Mascota from December 12 to 14 for the First Annual Raicilla Cultural Festival.

Mascota is the region that produces (in my limited experience) the best raicilla in the area. I’ve toured the agricultural school there that was specializing in propagating Agave maximilian, the Mascota raicilla Agave and I’ve bought some quite outstanding bootleg raicilla in the backstreets of this town.

SCHEDULE:

• Dec 12 – 7 pm, Conference on “The Importance of Branding”
• Dec 13 – 10 am, Tour of Cimarrón Chico del la Raicilla, Navidad (meal served) and Juanacatlán Lake, El Molino Museum. Cost 150 pesos per person.
• Dec 13 – Celebration in town center with music and crowning of the queen of the festival.
• Dec 14 – Raicilla sampling at noon.

All activities are Free except for the tour.

MORE INFORMATION:
EMAIL: visitmascota@gmail.com
TEL: 388 386 1160

And here’s a little more information on the difference between the raicillas and tequila: HERE

Aqui la eternidad empieza y es polvo aqui la mundanal grandeza. (Here the eternity begins and the worldly grandeur is dust.)
– Sign over the city cemetery entrance in Oaxaca City

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A photo essay: The Day After Dia de Los Muertos
5 Diciembre Pantheon (cemetery) in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, November 3, 2008
by Sarah Hepting

Sarah’s PhotoBlog: Vallarta Voyeur

I spent about 8 hours putting this show together and by the end of it, my head was bursting with images and words.

I have always loved cemeteries. When I was young, I was a very restless person, always uncomfortable and in turmoil. For several years I traveled a lot, and I frequently camped out in cemeteries. They were peaceful places for the lonely, accepting of sadness, and no one ever told me I didn’t belong there. I got to know many dead people’s stories in few words. In death, there were no expectations, no demands, and a silent companion was always welcome.

In Mexico, there is a day for those who are dead. I do not understand that some cultures do not embrace this bridge that we all must cross. Why cultures do not try to connect it to the world we live in is destructive. For we also die in this world. To hold this close only makes living that much more precious, and to connect ourselves to the grief and euphoria that is the dance of the living with the dead is a freedom, a peace, that we all need in order to move through our days with courage.

We are all alone, disconnected, but even as the stones crack with time, and our names wither with the motion of the newly living, there is a grace to this naked beauty we call life, which can only be viewed when the shadows of death offer that softening contrast.

It takes courage to celebrate with the rawbone face of a skeleton, and the Mexican people have my respect for grasping this so eloquently.

20 spaces will be made available on the Malecon and Juarez Street sides of the Presidencia on November 1 and 2 for the display of Day of the Dead Altars made by residents of Puerto Vallarta and surrounding areas. Participants must register with the Division of Arts and Culture, located on the upper Río Cuale island, with the Profr. Enrique Barrios Limón. Registration is free.

The rules for display are HERE and basically require that the displays be 3 meters by 2 meters and of a personal nature, and not political, commercial or untraditional in any manner. Only materials traditionally used in such altars will be allowed. Altars must be installed on October 31 at 6 pm and removed on November 3. Labels on the altars should be bilingual.

The Calaveras Poetry Contest is open to all residents of the area and also has rules HERE. Submissions should also be made to the Division of Arts and Culture, located on the upper Río Cuale island, with the Profr. Enrique Barrios Limón before October 31 at 3 pm. The Calaveras will be displayed in the Presidencia and there will be a reading on November 2 at 8 pm at the Los Arcos Ampitheater on the Malecon.