An adventure back to my “roots”….off to Frankfurt, Germany tomorrow.

My sister Nancy and I are off on a major trip tomorrow. We are part of a 40 person group that has been invited by the City of Frankfurt as part of a program called: “The Frankfurt am Main Visiting Program for former Jewish Citizens and their Descendants”. Our dad visited his homeland in 1995 and somewhere between then and now we had placed our names on a list of interested people to go on this trip. About 1 ½ mos ago we received the invitation (they are paying most of the expenses of this trip). In planning for this I have had much going on in my head and before I leave, I want to remember these thoughts and to revisit them after the trip for any new insights into my past and myself.

What is my identity? I spent my whole life thinking of myself as an “American”, which I am. Now having lived in another culture – Mexico, I even have feelings that I belong here in one way or another, though it is a culture that is very difficult to enter if there are neither Mexican nor Spanish roots. However, now, as I am embarking on a trip to Frankfurt, Germany I have many thoughts and feelings brewing inside of me.

I have always known that I am a first generation American with parents both born in Germany (and they met on a blind date in the USA on Pearl Harbor Day) but until this last month, I have spent not little, but NO time thinking about my roots and how I am truly connected through blood to this country that I do not know and to its people. There are just some simple facts that I know – my parents did not seem to have anger nor did they express negative feelings about either Germany or its people though they both left as a result of the Nazi movement in Germany. They seemed content in their lives to live the “American dream” and not look back on what I would imagine to be, a very difficult time in their young lives. A note here to remember is that when asked what his race was, my father always answered “Human” which I always felt was a great legacy and one of the reasons that perhaps I have little outward prejudices (though I believe that we all have some.)

Our maternal grandmother, Grete Heimerdinger, was bitter and angry most of her life with her situation as she was no longer recognized as “feine leute” (fine people) when she arrived in NYC. She was just one of many immigrants leaving her riches and fancy lifestyle behind. My grandfather's jewelry business in Weisbaden was "jewelers to the king and queen"! In fact, she spent her many remaining years (she arrived in NYC at the age of 29 and died in NYC at the age of 98) wishing and hoping that she would regain her former status. One of my favorite moments with her (as there were difficult ones as well) were when she reminisced and told us the stories of her days in Frankfurt and Baden Baden and the fine times they had before the war.

My paternal grandmother, Edith Vogel (Boma to us) was different. I traveled with her in the summer of 1966 (she would have been 67 years old – almost my age now though she seemed older to me at that time when I was only 20) and when she saw or overheard someone with a German accent the hairs on her neck stood up and she had only unpleasant and unhappy thoughts in her mind and she did express this to me. I did not understand at the time and asked her always how she could feel this way about someone who was surely not there during this time of Germany as they seemed too young. Of course that was only 30 some years after their exodus from Germany and in that short time, her feelings were still raw. She did not, however, let this stop her life of travel and doing good. It merely stopped her from ever wanting to go to Germany. Now, many years later, I have so much more understanding of why she must have felt this anger toward her countryment.

Both of our grandfathers died when we were young so we did not have the fortune to connect with them as we did with our grandmothers. For the most part, in our household or at any of our family reunions of the time when there were many relations that met every year when German was the language between them, there was never real discussion about this difficult time in both sides of the family. Hence we grew up on Long Island living the lives of suburban New Yorkers doing what we all did in the 50’s and 60’s – living kind of like the old TV shows of the time.

As I write, we (my sister Nancy, and I) are gathering materials, reading whatever we can find on the subject, communicating with Cori (our niece who is our family historian) and reading books about this time. Nancy is reading the short book written by Henry Salfeld about his exodus and arrival on the US shore in 1933 and there is much information about our family and their early days in NYC that we are finding interesting, with dates and information to piece together about things that have happened in the past. Our cousin Rolf from Switzerland has also done much research on the family for the Jewish Museum in Frankfurt. We could do a full investigation of our family but I probably will not as it would take a great deal of energy and time. Mostly I want to “feel” what my roots are and be open to what that feeling is.

Having lived in several Latin countries, I can only imagine how it would feel to be connected by blood to these people and how, through culture a people develop their habits, customs, thinking, etc. So, the German people – both the good and the bad, have some characteristics that I am sure are in me and I am beginning to re evaluate my identity. Will I discover connections to my Jewish identity or will I only feel my connections to the German identity? I think because our parents and grandparents were more “German” than “Jewish” in their lifestyle and perhaps this is culture, this surely had an effect on my upbringing. Having developed my own “spiritual” path with little connection to any religion has allowed me to think openly about this for myself but never in the context of religion. Will I experience a “connection” to these roots? As we say in Spanish – vamos a ver (we will see!).

I do believe that traveling and living in a county with its people allows one to experience a culture. The difficulty in one where the language is different is that one has to either learn the new language to really communicate and then still feel like an outsider, or be more or less a tourist looking in a window but not really living in the same house. I am afraid that this might be how I experience Germany as I do not know the language and it surely too late for me to try learning another one so completely different than Spanish which is still a challenge to be fluent.

So, here I am, one day before my travels with many thoughts and ideas. As I have more, I will write more. I will hopefully be able to answer some of these questions about myself, my identity, my feelings of the father/mother land and my connections to this very deep and compelling past – the land of war, hatred and intolerance. These are thoughts that are COMPLETELY against all my values and yet they existed – in my own “people”. How did they all learn to hate with vengeance when many just thought that they were doing the best for their country? Hard to imagine but maybe that is why I do not understand war at all – how do people hate their neighbor when the day before they lived in peace.

It is very hard to imagine the thoughts and feelings that everyone had when their need to flee was eminent. How would I feel today in the same shoes? Questions, questions, questions???

Thanks for indulging me in my thinking process and more shall be revealed!

February to May....La Vida Flexible

Happy birthday to Ricardo and Sophia

Come along with us as we travel from summer to winter to spring.

We left San Miguel in the middle of February to the islands of Turks and Caicos to join our niece Joanna and her family - Stephan, Julian and Sophia. It was a wonderful chance to have special time with them in sunshine - boating, swimming and best of all - taking care of the kids at night while J & S went out for dinner. For those who don't know - these kids are as close to grand kids as we will ever have and we love our time with them. One of the big reasons for going was to celebrate the birthdays of both Ricardo (60) and Sophia (3) on the same day of Feb. 18th.

FLEXIBILITY!!!

The theme of this post is "flexibility" - for planning, for exercise, for finding new ways to live in the world, for dealing with weather, for life, etc. I have been contemplating this for a while. I am used to doing yoga which I saw as flexibility for my body, but now have come to realize that our lives are full, challenging and exciting because we are practicing flexibility for our body, minds, spirits and life in general. My gratitude for this ability to live this way is beyond words and we are both grateful for each other's support as we travel the path of life.

Rosey and Allan in Asheville

We left the warm islands for Asheville, NC where it snowed 3 times and was the complete opposite in weather. Despite this we were graced with the opportunity to spend quality time with many of our friends. Together with Rosey and Allan we had a nice weekend in a rented cottage. Unable to do our usual hiking in the mountains because of freezing temperatures and precipitation, etc. we enjoyed walking around town and delicious meals. It is one of our special rituals together to make a special meal for the four of us.

Mushroom soup and roasted veggies

We stayed with Amy and Sofie and their cats. The main reason we went to Asheville in the winter was to join Amy at the University of North Carolina Asheville for me to present a talk on "Eating with intention...why does it matter?" followed by a cooking class the next day in their brand new demonstration kitchen. It was a challenge for me to get back to this part of my life but I was honored to be invited and was welcomed by the students and friends who participated in both events. Best was being with our friends and the chance for Amy and I, once again, to work together and brainstorm our future plans. You have seen already that we have started another blog for our travels which you can find at:
http://vegan-food-adventures.blogspot.mx

We also caught up with other friends and family - Susie and Terry (and his mom); Leanne Campbell and her son; Sven from our days in Ithaca, NY; Dusty and Nancy whom we met in San Miguel and new friend - Corinne.

The garden at Tapachula #7

Our home for March

Richard at " Instituto Jovel" School of languages

Then we were on our way back to Mexico - once again to San Cristobal de las Casas which is located in the state of Chiapas in southern Mexico near the Guatemala border - land of the Mayas. We rented two different homes during the two months of March and April. We LOVE our lives here in San Cris. Much of our day to day life is similar wherever we go....yoga, Spanish, a little bit of art, good and healthy food, walking everywhere but here we both have agreed that there is something different for each of us.

Aerial yoga

Me and my "new pals"

Here begins my thinking about flexibility. I found myself taking many new classes in yoga - trying new teachers and filling myself with the complete immersion of the yoga principles or "sutras" for body mind and spirit. First were the teachers we knew from last year - Vanessa, Julia and Mayra all whom we love. Then I found a sign for "Aerial Yoga" and gave it a try. It was fun and very different and I realized that there is no reason not to try things that seem attractive to me for one reason or another. I saw a sign during the whole month of March about a 100 hour Ashtanga Yoga workshop for the month of April and I thought about it every time I saw the sign - mostly thinking it would be too hard and that I was "too old" for a new method as I have been doing a different style for so long. With my flexible spirit I decided to try it for the first day or two. Now, with just a few days to go, I have been six days/week from 7-9 am and most afternoons from 4-6 pm with a few extra hours thrown in. My thoughts after this experience.....I feel "young" as I spend these many hours with 20-30 year olds from all over the world....all breathing deeply together as we do our postures. There is an amazing feeling of family and I am learning much about prayanama (breathing), meditation and connection to myself all the while, getting stronger physically.

For Richard there has also been "flexibility" and new experiences. He has attended the Buddhist center since arriving with daily meditation. He befriended the Buddhist nun and then spent afternoons with her helping her with her English. He then discovered Qi Gung as a replacement for yoga while his sore back has been healing. Now we are both following our separate physical and spiritual paths....different but yet so similar. We are looking forward to following these paths at our homes in SMA.

So, our days in San Cristobal continued with visits from some of our friends from San Miguel. First came Susan Dorf and we enjoyed sharing our home and fun activities. Together we went to Toniná.

Huipiles from Zinacantin

A view of San Cris from one of the churches

With Susan Dorf

Toniná  is a pre- Columbian archaeological site and ruined city of the Maya civilization located about 2 1/2 hours from San Cris.

The site is medium to large, with groups of temple-pyramids  set on terraces rising some 233 ft above a plaza, a large court for playing ball and over 100 carved monuments, most dating from the 6th century through the 9th centuries AD, Toniná is distinguished by its well preserved stucco sculptures and particularly by its in-the-round carved monuments. 

Toniná was engaged in sporadic warfare with Palenque, its greatest rival and one of the most important polities in the west of the Maya region, although Toniná eventually became the dominant city in the west. It is newly "discovered" and not as common a tourist site as Palenque. 

Next came the visit of Maria Elena and Tomy - Mexican friends from San Miguel de Allende. We have spent a wonderful week visiting sites, walking around town, cooking and eating together in the house and at restaurants. This was an introduction for them to a different lifestyle than they have been accustomed to and a chance for us to speak Spanish all day, everyday. 

In Sumidero Canyon

We went to Sumidero Canyon and to San Juan de Chamula. Chiapas has so many places to visit and experiences to share.

Sunday market in San Juan de Chamula

Church in San Juan de Chamula

In front of the church in San Juan de Chamula

Now, once again, our time is coming to an end in San Cris but we have many adventures ahead.

Stay tuned in June as I write about my experiences in Germany. Both Nancy (my sister) and I are going to Frankfurt, Germany at the invitation of the City of Frankfurt. Our dad went in 1995 and now they are inviting the second generation. We both have been reading of the history of the time as well as investigating documents and dates about our family. Both our parents have major connections to Frankfurt before World War II. With the help of our niece Cori who is our "family historian" we are managing to find out much about our history.

Once again, thanks for traveling with us and happy springtime to you in whatever part of the world you are.

Five years and the last two months...thoughts from Ricardo

We are five years out living in a different culture and having more adventures than one can dream of.  We have made our home base for this time in San Miguel de Allende a place that we visited 15 years ago and have returned to almost every year until our retirement five years ago.  We have made many friends there and have found opportunities to use our skills to make a difference and of course to keep ourselves busy.  We are now house sitters and haven't paid rent for most of the time since our retirement.  This has enabled us to afford many trips to other Latin countries and to the USA to visit our family and friends.  We have been to many places outside of the U.S.......Ecuador, Peru, Patagonia, Spain, Chiapas,and various other locations in Mexico.

Now we are like gypsies who try to carry our homes on our backs and live as simply as one can during this time.  Since we found a locker to store more "stuff" our possessions have grown just a bit more. Our life together remains pretty similar from place to place with the main difference being its physical and cultural attributes. The world for us has become a very interesting playground.  We have always found wonderful people and great vegetarian food. Our day often begins with a stretch or yoga class followed or preceded by a cup of tea in one of our many favorite places.  We choose to be in places where we don't need to have a car, just our two good feet.  Currently we are living in Latin countries and visiting the US just once, maybe twice a year.  Needless to say we are thankful for this opportunity that many in the world could not even dream of.

If you have been reading Susan's blog posts then I don't have to describe all the details of the past few years. I shall bring you up to date on our recent events.


This last month has brought us to many different places. The big news for me is that I just turn 60 and was able to spend that occasion with Joanna (my niece) and her family on the islands of Turks and Caicios. We had never heard of this place before and now it is a memory forever. My great niece Sophia, whose name means wisdom, has the same birthday as I do. I will never forget this birthday where she turned 3 and I turned 60, even when I'm older and maybe a bit senile. We met Joanna, Stephan, Julian and Sophia there for five days of great fun.

The children never stopped entertaining us and we are looking forward to this summer to share more time with this precious family.  OK, so what about the island is so special? "Everything!" The beach is very long where you can find time to be alone and just look at the incredible turquoise water. The beach is guarded by the second largest coral reef so there are hardly any waves. The food was incredible not to mention the large hot pool with a fancy restaurant inside.  We were able to spend hours with the family playing and eating fabulous and delicious gourmet food in the pool! The kids never wanted to leave the pool and I can't blame them. We were all spoiled to the max.  Not to shabby I must say.

From there we headed up north to Asheville, North Carolina where Susan was invited by our professor friend Amy Lanou to talk and give a cooking class at the University of NC at Asheville.  Even with a snow storm, 25+ people showed up for her talk.  To say the least, I'm always very proud of her and her intentional way of living, which was the theme of her talk. The next day she filled up the large demonstration kitchen with eager people to learn more about eating and living with intention.  For all of you who know Susan you can see why I am so happy to be apart of her journey.  We had fun staying at the home of Amy and Sophie with two snow storms! What added to this part of our trip was the weekend spent with our friends from Chapel Hill, Rosey and her husband Allan.

Rosey and Allan at the Flatiron Bldg in Asheville

Always make delicious food with Rosey!

At UNCA kitchen with Amy

Making delicious plant based food

We were able to catch up with them and my cousin Susie and husband Terry who brought along his beautiful mother, a real southern beauty. In this short time in Asheville we met or reconnected with many others...Corinna, Sandy & Bob, Dusty & Nancy, Sven Pedersen and Leanne Campbell and her son Stephen. It was a walk down memory lane meeting as some of these people we had not seen for many, many years.

Susie, Terry and his mom in Asheville

We left Asheville after a week in the cold, to journey back to southern Mexico to a place called San Cristobal de las Casas. This is our third time here in three years and we are calling this our vacation time. Here we have few friends and obligations. This is our time to be selfish and only think about ourselves though missing greatly all of our friends and family.  

This town is very special to us for so many reasons and too many for me to list. However I would like to describe it as best as I can.  San Cristobal has a new age feel without being too wu wu. The restaurants almost all understand veganism and will have a plate or two to serve people with our type of palate.  Living here we have very little chance to use our native tongue and have to rely on our Spanish skills. The yoga here is great and at a reasonable cost which allows us to go sometimes twice a day. The town has tourists here but of two kinds, neither seems to be in the need of five star accommodations though I'm sure one could find such place here. The older tourists come here to see the ruins, the city and nature and will only stay a short time. The younger tourists, which are many, stay longer to just enjoy being in a place of comfort and social consciousness and are mostly Europeans and South Americans. Funky clothing and dreadlocks prevail! So, every day is filled with things that we enjoy and in ample quantity. We are already thinking about planning our next time here and maybe again later this year. This time we are renting a beautiful home for this month and another one next month. For me there is a deeper reason why I so much enjoy being a part of this world here in Chiapas. When I was just a young twig of a boy, I would visit my grandparents and great aunts in Guatemala City. Even though it was only a few visits, I remember with all my senses the joy I had being close to them. Here in San Cristobal de las Casas, I can feel and remember it as it was just yesterday. The music is marimba, beans are black, people are Mayan and are wearing there ethnic clothes, the smell of wood burning, the high altitude with its fresh air and the children playing as there is no tomorrow. So for me being here and this close to the border where my mother was born fills me with a special kind of joy. It's like coming home to a home I never had.

Our "casita"

The funky cactus in our yard

Our house

Our yard

Thank you for traveling with us on our adventure in Latin countries and maybe in the future we will venture to other destinations where they don't speak Spanish.  With love from Ricardo y Susanita.

Libros sin Fronteras weekend in San Miguel de Allende

Viola Canales touches the hearts of young and old

Viola Canales

I want to share with you some highlights and photos from the visit of Libros sin Fronteras' invited author, Viola Canales to the community of San Miguel de Allende, MX.  She arrived late Wednesday and then began a whirlwind tour reaching well over 400 people during the weekend. 

The children reading in unison with Viola

Thursday morning at 11 was an appearance at the school at Las Clavallinas in the campo. This community is approximately 45 minutes outside SMA with very limited public transportation. Several of the Libros sin Fronteras team carpooled to this community and then to the rural community of Estancia de San Antonio for an afternoon event. All the students were well prepared with questions about the book and there was a wall display at Estancia with artwork, questions, reviews of the book, etc. 

Outside the classroom at Las Clavallinas

Art are writing projects based on
the book "El Gusano de Tequila"

After each of the talks, Viola spent time signing each book with a few kind words of encouragement to each of the children.

Signing each book with a few words for
each child of encouragement

signing books in Estancia de San Antonio

Some of the children in Estancia de San Antonio

Thursday night was the Literary Sala talk "Bridging Two Worlds, as a Storyteller" and Viola here touched the hearts of the adult expat community of San Miguel. These attendees did not need to be convinced of the need for literacy and Viola took the opportunity to speak about her several books and her connection to the stories and rituals of her childhood Mexican experiences, encouraging everyone to find their "don" (inner light or gift to share with their community and world).

On Friday morning the Libros sin Fronteras team headed to the community of Cruz del Palmar. As we headed out, there was a bus sent to pick up children from La Palma and Los Ricos to bring them to Cruz del Palmar and an opportunity for the children to be together from several rural communities. This event was attended by several mamas and abuelitas (grandmothers) and often Viola referred directly to them when talking about her life and her book. It was the memory of her family and the childhood memories that are so very much a part of her life.

The children of one of the visiting schools had all made drawings for Viola, and are seen here showing them off before presenting them to her.  Viola wound up with quite a sizable  pile to take home and some will be displayed here in SMA in the future.

Displaying the art work by the students from Los Ricos

Consejo Turistico in SMA

Introducing LsF in Spanish

Saturday morning was a very well attended event for the local community - mostly children. Here again there was transportation arranged to bring the rural communities of San Miguel Viejo (Ojala-Ninos) and the community of El Huizachal to San Miguel. I introduced Viola in Spanish for this event and after talking to the enthusiastic crowd, reading from her novel and her latest publication, a book of poems, Viola invited Hortensia (Horte) to the microphone to share her success story and the success of Libros sin Fronteras. Horte, from El Huitzachal, started reading Cajas de Cartón, the book from last year's author, Francisco Jimenez, along with her children and then with the encouragement of some of the LsF team members, she finished her high school equivalency and then with the help of LsF and Mujeres en Cambio, she received a 4 year scholarship to the University Allende to study nursing. She is now in her first year of study. She shared with the audience how hard she works, how education and reading are so important in her life and how each person can go on to study as she has. She was so comfortable with a mic in her hands and really touched us all. 

Horte shares her experience with the audience

Viola reading from her new book of poetry

Walking through the crowd

Viola's 4 books

Sunday morning was the last event of the weekend at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of SMA where Viola once again had an overflow crowd to hear her talk entitled "Living Life with Ritual, Sparking the Spiritual". She shared again stories from her book and how she connects rituals of Mexican culture into her life and encouraged all, once again, to find their "don" or gift to the world.

These 4 days were the culmination of our 2014 program and the success was tremendous. We exceeded our fundraising goal (and so money is being saved for the next year's program) and we purchased 380 books which were disbursed to children in very rural communities. We know that we have touched the hearts of so many children and also connected with many adults, both Mexican and foreigners. We thank ALL of you reading this weekend review for your support, both as volunteers and especially as financial donors. It is with your help that this project happens. Please stay in touch for news of our next year's author and book.