A Canadian writer's life

Friday, January 24, 2014

Scary and beautiful, the art of Emilio Sosa Medina

Tucked into a small space near the corner of Avenida Hidalgo and Avenida López Mateos sits an unassuming little store, Artesanías Glenssy.

This store has intrigued me for quite some time. The walls are hung with brilliantly coloured, very scary creatures. Does this man have nightmares? I wondered: Nightmares that he transforms into vivid three-dimensional sculptures?

I’m certain the two-headed creature with three rows of pointy teeth and a bright yellow tongue was the main villain in one of the Alien movies!

In an attempt to protect his intellectual property to prevent other artists from copying his ideas, the artist has posted many signs in his store: no photographs. I am a camera buff. Photographs help me write about things that interest me, so I decided to approach the artist and see if he would be willing to chat and be photographed. As it turns out, he is quite fluent in English, which is a good thing, as I am still struggling with Spanglish.

His name is Emilio Sosa Medina, and he was born in Yobain, Yucatan, in 1955.

A political activist since he was a teenager, Emilio left his hometown in 1974, moving to Isla Mujeres, where he met an island woman who took him under her wing, helping him find work.

He first worked as a kitchen assistant and then as a bartender, but continued to yearn for a creative outlet for his energies.

In 1986, Emilio took lessons at the local Casa de la Cultura to learn papier-maché techniques, and he became entranced by the possibilities. Using up to 40 kilos (87 pounds) of newsprint for some of his larger sculptures, Emilio creates supernatural beings from Maya mythology plus his own fantastic monsters. His imagination is astounding.

Crafting each intricate piece is a painstakingly slow process. The piece he is currently working on will take up to three years to complete.

Layer upon layer of newsprint is carefully formed over a wire frame and left for several days to dry naturally in the warm Caribbean climate. Several coats of vivid acrylics followed by a final glaze of clear polymer resin give the grey papier-maché vibrancy and character.

Content to live simply with his three children and four grandchildren nearby, Emilio is blazing a new trail in folk art. Even though Mexican mask folk-art has been in existence for thousands of years, and was a well-established part of life when the Spanish arrived, Emilio brings new life to the art form.

His one-of-a-kind pieces enhance interior spaces in homes on Isla Mujeres and around the world.

Hasta luego

Lynda, Lawrie, Thomas, Sparky, and Chica

Murder. Mayhem. Revenge. Romance.

Friday, January 17, 2014

Reducing the world’s supply of puppy poop. Spay and neuter clinics in Mexico!

Alison on puppy poop patrol

“She’s over there.” A young woman points into an obscure corner of the large room, towards a tall blonde-haired woman who is cleaning up puppy poop, a whole lot of puppy poop.

“Yep! That’s Alison.” I agree, walking towards her.

Alison grins at the dozen or so puppies as they tumble around her feet.

“Okay, now, no more poop!” She admonishes them with a lighthearted laugh.

Nice try, Alison. Feed a puppy; it poops.

VIDAS clinic this week in Mexico

Today is the sixth and final day of the free spay and neuter clinic being held in the Alfredo V. Bonfil neighbourhood near Cancun. The VIDAS (Veterinarios Internacionales Dedicados a Animales Sanos) organization is sponsoring the surgery, encouraging residents to bring in family pets or street strays.

Hundreds of people responded, bringing in dogs and cats. Fifteen veterinarians, local and American, were on duty to operate on the animals.

Recovering strays and sick animals.

The final total was over 1200 animals spayed or neutered. Impressive.

A long-time resident of Isla Mujeres, Alison Sawyer Current began helping stray dogs over fourteen years ago. She and husband Jeff Current share their home and yard with dozens of dogs as they convalesce from illnesses or injuries.

The dedicated volunteers of Isla Animals organization have succeeded in placing over 5000 dogs into happier homes in Mexico, Canada and the USA. The organization has also sponsored several spay and neuter clinics on Isla Mujeres, working towards curbing the overpopulation of cats and dogs on the island. It’s an endless job. Not a thankless job, but endless.

Nelly Cortes and Trina Noakes

Walking me around the VIDAS treatment area, Alison gave me a quick biography on some of the folks who volunteer their time, year after year, for these events. I met so many talented people; people like Nelly Cortes, who owns a company in Cancun called Storm Catchers, specializing in hurricane shutters. She is adept at gathering up strays and helping owners get to and from the clinics. Nelly and Jesika, founders of Animalistas rescue society in Cancun, make a formidable team, searching the neighbourhoods for more patients for the doctors.

Gillian Pultz - with messy toes

Then there is Gillian Pultz, who competently handles the post-op recovery area, ensuring the dogs and cats are safe while they slowly start to regain consciousness.

I watched in amusement as Gillian quickly pulled a large dog’s head and shoulders over the side of a table, while the dog vomited on her toes. She never flinched, just carried on ensuring the dog was safe and breathing well.

Once the dog had stabilized, she grinned ruefully, saying, “I have to wash my feet. It’s a bit gross.”

An important part of the surgery is the recovery process, which is very hands-on for the owners.

Owners helping pets with recovery

The owners lovingly pat and rub the animal, stimulating them back to consciousness while the disoriented animals swivel their heads back and forth in confusion: Where am I? What happened?

Alison, with her quick sense of humour, likened it to being abducted by aliens and returned to earth - after someone messed around with your reproductive organs.

I watched as Lisa Edwards and Vanessa Hill knelt on the floor beside each recovering pet, patiently explaining to the owners how to care for their animal post-surgery. Fluently bilingual, they recited the instructions as if it was the first time that day, not the hundredth time. Keep the animal quiet, calm, and dry. Don’t wash them or the incisions, no ointments, once they can walk on their own, give them a small amount of food and water, check the wound for signs of infection. Over and over and over again. Always smiling and empathetic.

Tony Ikonen - post op instructions

As with every job, there is always someone who does the heavy lifting. Tony Ikonen is the muscle for the group, lifting and carrying the large dogs from the surgery tables to the cleanup area, and then to the recovery floor to be with their owners.

He also spent time with the owners explaining the post-surgery care procedures and reassuring them that help is only a phone call away if any problems develop.

Gillian Pultz and Leasa Newlin clean animals

Next Alison introduced me to Leasa Newlin, with her lovely French polish manicure. Alison laughed as she recounted meeting Lisa a dozen or so years ago. “She arrived with these beautifully well-manicured nails, and I thought to myself, she’ll only last a day or two at most. And here she is all these years later, still helping and still falling in love with strays.”

Today, Leasa was assisting with deworming, tick and flea removal, ear cleaning, removing matted hair and clipping nails. “This is a full-service clinic,” Alison says with a grin.

Doctor Lesli Groshong and her daughter

The veterinarians are fast, experienced, and accustomed to treating local diseases and specialized problems. Lisa McCarthy returns year after year, managing what is referred to as The Super Hero Team. In the operating area, the doctors were concentrating on their work, so the only one I was able to chat with was Doctor Lesli Groshong, one of the original organizers of the free clinics. Lesli started in 1998, but by 2002, when she was pregnant with her second child, her daughter, she was unable to be the main coordinator. The veterinary college students, under the guidance of Dr. Claudia Lewy, took over the management of the events. Lesli has continued to assist in every way possible. Her two pre-teen children are immersed as well in her work, her passion, contributing wherever they can.

Keeping track of the pets

Between helping out and checking on the volunteers, Alison continued to chat with me about her personal passion, Isla Animals.

Anytime that Alison and Jeff are involved with the larger spay and neuter clinics in other mainland cities, it directly benefits the animals of Isla Mujeres. How? Most of the supplies for the island clinics come from the leftovers from a bigger event, and every year, her list of helpful contacts increases.

Jeff! Go-for-more-puppies!

She and Jeff have recently rented a small house in Cancun close to the passenger ferries that travel between Isla and the mainland.

The new location will help relieve some of the pressure on their personal home on the island, giving them time to refurbish and repaint. A mainland facility will also give them easier access to more veterinary services in Cancun without the back-and-forth shuffle on the passenger ferries.

In the meantime, Jeff is the main gopher-guy for the organization: Jeff go-for-this, Jeff go-for-that. And sometimes he’ll arrive back at the treatment area with tasty rewards for the group, Krispy Kreme donuts, to be devoured between tasks. My kind of man!

As a last comment, before I headed back to Isla Mujeres, Alison said she has two rescue organizations in New York City that can help out with adoptions. All she needs are human escorts who are travelling to nearby locations. If you are able and willing, send a message to Alison via the Isla Animals Org. Facebook page.

Hard-working doctors!

Thanks to Alison and Jeff for an insider’s peek into their world. I know I missed mentioning several hardworking doctors and volunteers, but I didn’t have a chance to speak with everyone. You were all so darn busy improving the lives of so many animals.

“Oops, better check the bottom of my shoes before I get a ride with Jeff. I think I stepped in puppy poop!”

Hasta luego

Lynda, Lawrie, Thomas, Princess Chica, and Sparky

Murder. Mayhem. Revenge. Romance.

Friday, January 10, 2014

The white stuff. Winter in Mexico!

The wind howls, shouldering its way through cracks and crevices, forcing its way into the house. It slides under the door, bringing with it fine white particles. You can’t hide from me! I’ll find you.

Outside the flecks blow through the air, collecting along the edge of our patio, drifting into corners and coating accessible surfaces. The particles insinuate themselves into clothing, sliding into tender spaces where jackets meet pants. In Centro, the street cleaners shovel it – yet again – off the streets and over the retaining walls: sand, damn sand!

What? Did you think I was talking about snow? We live in Mexico!

A few months ago, we were enjoying a beach day when a Norte was just getting started.

A Norte is a belligerent storm that blows from the north across the US/Mexico border, bringing strong winds, cooler temperatures, thick clouds and heavy rains.

On this particular day, it was still brilliantly sunny, and the kite surfers rode the exhilarating winds, getting huge air under their boards.

We, on the other hand, were being sandblasted. We carefully picked particles out of our beachside lunch. Chomping down on a burger seasoned with bits of coral and shells can be tough on tooth enamel.

We discovered the easiest solution is to rinse the offending grit out of our mouths with an icy cold beer.

And don’t talk a lot, just enjoy the day. Talking leads to sand in your teeth.

However, this week we are suffering from the effects of the Polar Vortex that is enveloping most of Canada and the USA with record-breaking cold. Island tourists had abandoned plans for a lazy day at the beach, huddling instead inside hotel rooms, wondering: why now, why me?

When a Norte hits after an extended dry spell, the sand is lighter and easily snatched up by the wind and deposited wherever. Other times, the rain will saturate the grit before the winds arrive to plaster the wet mess onto buildings. It’s a lot like blowing snow, but without the cruelly cold temperatures.

Meanwhile, back at our beachside casa, we have different challenges with sand. We have a beach and we have pets. It’s an interesting combination.

The two cats, Tommy and Chica, seldom venture far, but they like to investigate the surrounding area before deciding where they will nap for the next few hours. Each trip out and back beautifies our floors and furniture with numerous paw prints.

Tommy, my fourteen-year-old cat, has a thick double coat that feels more like unspun wool than hair.

Particles cling to his belly and his legs. His favourite napping spots are identified by a circular pattern of debris, the shape of a large, relaxed cat.

Chica, the younger tabby cat, deposits her contributions on coffee tables and comfortably padded kitchen chairs. She is fastidious with personal hygiene – spending the next thirty minutes removing every fleck of sand from her silky fur, leaving it for me to remove from the furniture.

Sparky, a short, part-terrier, part-something-else pooch, recently decided that he, too, should live at our house. He’s a rough-coated coated low-to-the-ground sand-magnet. His ideal day includes a swim in the ocean, then a tussle in the sand with a neighbour’s dog, finished by a quick dash inside to say hello. Strewn across the patio is his gritty pathway leading into our main floor living space and up the circular stairway into our bedroom.

Sweeping, I return the sand to the beach for the animals and us to recycle on the next jaunt through the house. Housekeeping is a hit-or-miss proposition. We usually think about cleaning the house when the dust-bunnies are larger than our seventeen-pound cat, or when the ocean-side windows are occluded with a glaze of salt and sand.

If we clean the house, it will only get dirty again. It’s inevitable.

Accumulations of sand lend authenticity to the beach house theme of our casa.

And finally, there is the challenge of sand in your shorts caused by swimming in the warm Caribbean Sea. The sandy-bottomed ocean reflects beautiful hues of turquoise, indigo, and aqua-blue. The rolling waves scour the ocean bottom, lifting the fine white sand into suspension – and depositing the residue in the tender areas under bikinis and bathing trunks.

It can be painful.

So, to our hardy northern readers who are currently dealing with temperatures as low as -50 °C, save a bit of sympathy for us. Instead of enduring record-setting cold and snow, caused by the Polar Vortex, you too could be dealing with the challenge of scratchy sand in your shorts.

It’s a real hardship. Honestly. You should try it sometime.

Hasta luego

Lynda, Lawrie, Thomas the Cat, Sparky, Princess Chica

Murder. Mayhem. Revenge. Romance.