Everyday and everyplace is history.
Calle Toluca is a short narrow little-used cobblestone street with six casas
and an old folks home, Casa Hogar Inmaculada, run by Catholic nuns
and owned by the Bours family before they donated it to the city. Calle Toluca
connects Calle Galena and Calle Sonora. Gaudalupe Hill stands between it and
the Plaza to the east which is a ten minute walk by way of the two shortest
approaches, up and over the hill or around its northern face. It is the start
of a new day on Calle Toluca in Álamos, Sonora, México. Estamos aquí.
As the song is sung, “here comes the sun.”
Álamos, Sonora, México is waking up. The morning chill will be chased
away by a brillant rising sun. Traffic on Calle Galeana, Calle Sonora and the
busier streets that lead to the Alameda and Plaza can be heard in spirited
surround-sound. Barking dogs, motorcycles, bicycles and an auto suite of
honking, braking, accelerating, alarms sounding and car radio music compose
the hustle and bustle of a proud rural Mexican town going to work, school,
shopping or visiting. It is all about tempos, timbres, frequencies, transients,
crescendos, contrary motions, counterpoints and call and responses.
Roosters crow and pedestrians talk and whistle amongst themselves.
Chirping/hissing/clicking insects, percussive parrots, sonorous doves
and a multitude of other bird species, either flying or roosting, embellish
a 3D soundscape which includes near, distant, left to right, front to rear
and ground level to treetop, or above, polytonal and polyrhythmic notes, tones
and phrases. All of this, and an unending parade of accidental incidentals
like horse hoofs on stone, contribute to a sunrise symphony known as
Álamos, Sonora, Mexico. Calle Toluca has a front row seat.
Casa 6 Toluca welcomed the 2017 Álamos Sonic Expedition’s
base camp from February 25 to March 6. Anders and his equipment
stayed in the room to the left of the flowering vine-framed front door.
It had a bathroom and shower with the best water pressure Anders
experienced during his Álamos stay. Directly across the street from
Casa 6 Toluca is the old folks home which had been unoccupied for 20-25
years before the Bours donated it. The Bours also own the house to the
west of Toluca 6 and a large field that borders the northern walls of
all the homes on the north side of Toluca. Earle passed away in 2016
and his ashes are in a bench in the new section of the cemetery.
Earle and Álamos are one for eternity.
Anders met Joan in 1992 when she was a regular visitor at the Nuzums
on Calle Commercio. Elizabeth Nuzum and Joan were good friends
who shared many interests including art and design. Joan Gould Winderman
is a free-spirited modern woman with an athletic vocabulary, animated
conversations and no shortage of percolating opinions. An upcoming essay
will document a couple of Joan’s handmade paper and photo art projects.
Anders first met Earle in 1996 when he visited the Winderman’s house for
coffee one spring afternoon. As Anders was leaving Casa Toluca, Earle
pulled him aside and said, ” I want you to know, and I mean this as
a compliment, I can’t tell if you are a rich man or a poor man.”
If Anders had met Earle for the first time on a street Anders
could have said the same of Earle.
The open floor plan kitchen, dining table and sitting areas have a wall of
windows that bring the immediate garden and surrounding mountains
into full view. Art, books, knickknacks and plants are placed with purpose
and design on shelfs, tables and walls. This month’s New Yorker magazine brings
bundled reflections from north of the border. It should be noted that Álamos
does not look at folks like Joan as being Norte Americanos because México is
part of North America. People from Canada, United States and around the
world who have taken up residences are members of the “foreign community”
in the best sense of the word.Each individual brings with them their culture
and set of beliefs. New Yorker serves an important purpose
on Joan’s table.
On a bedstand in the bedroom Anders stayed in was a new book, published
in late 2016, of Earle Winderman’s letters complied by Joan Gould Winderman.
Joan was using this copy to make revisions for the next print run. A window
into the world of Joan and Earle can be discovered by reading her introduction to
Trauma and Drama: A Spanish-Style Home Restoration, Alamos, Sonora,
Mexico 1987 to 1989. Anders enjoyed reading of Earle Winderman’s
interactions with people Anders had met in the early 1980’s.
Earle chose Álamos, or Álamos chose Earle, to reinvent himself in México.
In 1987 he rented a house, went to Spanish school, bought a house from
Mrs. Smallens that had been vacant for eight years and began the renovation.
The search for “dome” men runs throughout the book. The long sought “dome”
men arrived November 28, 1988 and were finished in December. The house
was functionally completed in 1989 with Joan’s arrival.
Anders thought “a love story” could be added to the book’s cover –
Trauma and Drama: A Spanish-Style Home Restoration, Alamos, Sonora, Mexico
1987 to 1989 – a love story. Earle clearly expressed his love for reinvention,
new friends, language, life in México, the ying/yang of renovating a ruin
and partner Joan. Beloved Runner, a hybrid wolf, was by Earle’s side as
he wrote these “wishing you were here” letters to Joan.
Water is on the tip, or unfortunately not on the tip, of most tongues
these days worldwide. A major change from when Anders last visited
Casa Toluca is the swimming pool is now a garden with roof rainwater
being piped underground into the old pool. Water delivery was an issue
when Anders first visited Álamos in 1983. Municipal water in Centro Álamos
was being delivered for a hour or two. The reality is Álamos may have
had centuries of water management experience with limited water resources.
Casa Toluca well has has never failed in 30 years but has been deepened.
Casa Toluca 6 ownership wants no water that cometh to goeth unused. It is
a sign of the times: store water for when there is no water.
Manual came with the house when Earle purchased it. He is a major character
in Earle’s letters. The relationship between property owners and those who
work for them is complex. It can be seen as a game with all players playing
against, and with, each other while always aware that they need one another
on many levels. It is a dance that can last decades.
Manual retired a long time ago and received a stipulated payment for his years
of service. He still comes to take care of the grounds he knows so well. He has
been here longer than anyone else that is still living.
Anders spent time in 2017 outside a building supply store across the street from
the hospital. Several men from the “foreign’ colony were making purchases.
Everyone knew what the other was working on. They knew the joy of victory and
the agony of defeat. These stewards were a community within a colony
within a town. Earle was once one of these men. Today in 2017 his home,
in his absence, seems to be in good working order. Much of what Earle built
as a gringo building contractor still stands. He left a strong foundation
for the future. He left Casa Toluca in a better place.
The garden is a vital place with tomatoes, herbs, lettuce, flowers,
squash, chilis, eggplant, parsley, 10 flowering vines and 2 rose bushes.
There are 2 orange trees, 1 Meyer lemon, 3 lime, and 1 wonderfully sweet
grapefruit, lots of apple banana, several guava, 2 large mango and 1
pomegranite. Joan told Anders she would head north later in the year
when there was no longer food in the garden ready for the dining table.
This was the view from atop Casa Toluca’s roof looking west into a dramatic
sunset. This day was coming to a close. Sometime after 1 a.m. it began to rain and
thunder. It was as if the rainy season of August and September had arrived.
in late February/early March Within a couple of days, as Anders prepared to head north,
otra lado, everyone was talking about the unseasonably hot weather.
©2017 Anders Tomlinson, all rights reserved.
Special thanks to Joan Gould Winderman
and Denver Clay for their assistance.