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Newsletter December 2022

NEWSLETTER

OUR MISSION:
Protect and preserve the natural and cultural heritage of Charco del Ingenio, as well as maintain a botanical garden dedicated to the conservation and study of regional flora and ecosystems, mainly oriented towards environmental education.

INDEX

Vol. XVII, No. 12

THANKS CHARCO: Annual Membership Party

Thanks Charco, a magnificent way to support nature!

Friday 02 December, 3 to 6 pm. Aldama 9, Downtown

Thanks Charco is the annual social event where you can support the Botanical Garden, a relevant environmental organization in the region. By renewing or becoming a member you contribute to conservation, education and scientific programmes that take place in the surrounding local communities and those in the north and northeast zone of the state of Guanajuato.

The valid date of this promotion starts on November 24 (Thanksgiving Day) and ends with a party on December 2. The venue for the membership party will take place in the beautiful Mexican home located on Aldama 9, downtown, from 3 to 6 pm.

During this period, the cost of the annual membership is reduced to 800 pesos or (47 USD), and can be purchased or renewed at the Botanical Garden or during the Membership Party, on December 2.

Benefits:

  • Free access for the membership holder, 365 days a year during open hours
  • Discounts at special events
  • Guests: The holder may enter with two companions
  • Contribution to a unique project that protects the biocultural heritage of Mexico.

Once your payment is made, please send your information to elcharcontabilidad@gmail.com, to generate your membership. 

National Banks Transfer

Please specify EL CHARCO OF INGENIO AC at the time of transfer or deposit:

Bank: BBVA
Account: 0136317251
KEY: 012210001363172517		 

ARTISTIC GLANCES ON MEXICAN NATURE

10 SILKSCREENS FOR EL CHARCO DEL INGENIO
Centro Cultural El Nigromante
Open daily from 9 am to 5 pm
Until February 2023

In 1997, when the San Miguel del Allende Botanical Garden accomplished its first years of life, a group of renowned artists from the national scene made graphic work in silkscreen aiming to support the environmental conservation initiative of El Charco del Ingenio. Ten creators generously acknowledged the request of Cante AC –the organization then responsible for the Botanical Garden.
The outcome was a set of 10 silkscreen works, printed in Jan Hendrix workshop, all devoted to the drylands nature, an habitat where flourish marvelous plants --cacti, agave and other succulent species-– which shape a vast part of Mexican landscape and have played a core role in our ancestral history.
The list of participating artists speaks for itself: Mario Palacios Kaim, Joy Laville, Pedro Friedeberg, Sergio Hernández, Jan Hendrix, Miguel Castro Leñero, Carla Rippey, Boris Viskin, Martha Hellion y Roberto Turnbull.
Today, twenty-five years after that generous group offering, the National Institute of Fine Arts and Literature, through El Nigromante Cultural Center, exhibits the set of such graphic works, whose original artistic value increases with the passage of time. And in this way joins the Botanical Garden drive to link art and nature in pursuit of preservation of the bio-cultural heritage of Mexico.

EMILIO GONZÁLEZ RULLÁN (1955-2022): IN MEMORY

Some days ago, surrounded by his loving family and after a long and difficult lung malaise, local artist and activist Milo Gonzalez passed away. Few people know that it was Milo who created in the 80’s the first environmental group in San Miguel, Madre Tierra, carrying out pioneering reforestation programs in the municipality. Milo also had a founding role in the conservation projects of the Botanical Garden. When these were just an uncertain idea of a group of dreamers, it was Milo who had the vision and proposed the rescue and acquisition of Charco del Ingenio, as well as a property in the Picachos mountain range to create a forest reserve, both territories today pillars of the conservation project. Member of the Board of Directors of El Charco del Ingenio AC during the 90s, it was he who designed and directed the construction of the Vault of the Botanical Garden, which to date functions as an auditorium and multipurpose room. 

Today we say goodbye and recognize Milo González as a friend from long ago and as one of the "doers" of the El Charco del Ingenio conservation project.

NATIONAL MONARCH BUTTERFLY MONITORING: 2022

Light traveler! The Monarch Butterfly (danaus plexippus) is a pollinating lepidopteran that promotes the genetic diversity of plants. Weighing less than a gram, it travels one of the largest migratory journeys: it crosses three countries covering about 4,500 km. 

As every year, they spent a few days in our city and the Botanical Garden participated in scientific monitoring whose information joins those of hundreds of monitors throughout Canada, the United States and Mexico. The scientific information collected is of great help to the conservation programs of this brave traveler. 

NEW PIECES IN THE SCULPTURES TRAIL OF EL CHARCO

Thanks to the generous contribution of the Mexican artist Dana Aerenlund, two magnificent sculptural pieces can already be admired by users and visitors, which remind us of the stelae of pre-Hispanic monuments. Its titles are more than evocative: "Without corn there is no country" and "Gift of the gods", these structures are a tribute to the primordial plant that gave life to the inhabitants of our continent for thousands of years.

CHICHIMECA ETHNOFLORA: EXHIBITION OF PHOTOGRAPHIC MEMORY

As a result of the work of the Faculty of Natural Sciences of the Autonomous University of Querétaro, researchers from that institution and El Charco del Ingenio, the photographic exhibition "Etnoflora Chichimeca" was presented on November 25 in Misión de Chichimecas, San Luis de La Paz, Guanajuato, along with an Úzar gastronomic tasting in "La Casa del Pueblo" of this rural community.

The Úzar people, also known as Chichimeca Jonaz are one of the few Chichimeca groups of the highlands that survived the devastation of the conquest, along with the Guachichiles and Guamares, whose ethnic group still have representatives, and the Xi'iuyet peoples, the latter more numerous than the rest of the Chichimecas today. These ethnic groups, together with the É'zar, have a linguistic trunk and a common origin, which have linked them for millennia in many cultural aspects.

This work was funded by CONACYT (National Council for Science and Technology) within the project "Strengthening an Ethnobiological Garden in Guanajuato".

NEW PUBLICATION!

"Manejo sustentable de Dasylirion acrotrichum (Chimal, cucharilla)” is a technical manual publication that contributes to the conservation of this threatened plant, which is also a fundamental part of the ceremonies of the native peoples of the region.

This effort is only the first in a series of three publications that El Charco del Ingenio has prepared during the year 2022.

ASK FOR THIS BOOK ON YOUR NEXT VISIT TO THE BOTANICAL GARDEN

  

EL CHARCO DEL INGENIO: MEMBER OF BOTANIC GARDEN CONSERVATION INTERNATIONAL (BGCI)

Since 2005, El Charco del Ingenio has been part of Botanical Garden Conservation International , the largest network of botanical gardens and plant conservation experts in the world. Based in London,England, this organization brings together a large number of botanical gardens in more than 100 countries. Its mission is to link members to create global participatory strategies in order to ensure plant diversity, for the well-being of people and the planet.

In a country like Mexico, whose geography comprises an enormous biotic wealth, botanical gardens play a fundamental role in the knowledge and conservation of biocultural heritage.

KIND REMINDER TO OUR MEMBERSHIP

We ask all members to carry their membership card and register in the entrance book each time they visit the Botanical Garden.

Respect for El Charco del Ingenio and the people who collaborate daily in our areas is very important.

NATURAL HISTORY TOURS IN ENGLISH ARE BACK

Every Tuesday and Thursday at 10 am

Ticket: 150 pesos per person / 100 pesos members

ARE BACK

Tickets: 150 pesos per person / 100 pesos members

December 14

January 11

February 8

AT 9AM

Soul gifts, musical gifts: Thank you, Michael Hoppé

It is very moving to see the ways in which people and sectors of our community support El Charco del Ingenio, a territory that has given peace, joy and nature to its users and visitors during the months of the pandemic.

Michael Hoppé is a recognized composer and musical producer, born in the United Kingdom and inhabitant of San Miguel since the 80s. He is an active member of the Botanical Garden, who recently has offered a lovely gift to El Charco, inspired by the daily walks he realizes on the trails of the reservation, in the company of his wife Monica. The work, Under Mexican Stars is a musical piece that takes you back to the most beautiful landscapes of Mexico or a night walk through the cobblestone streets of San Miguel. Beneath Mexican Stars (Under the Mexican stars), is a musical piece that can take us back to the most beautiful landscapes of Mexico or to a night walk through the cobbled streets of San Miguel. Beneath Mexican Stars (Under the Mexican stars), is a musical piece that can take us back to the most beautiful landscapes of Mexico or to a night walk through the cobbled streets of San Miguel.

Listen here:

ART AND SCIENCE IN THE BOTANICAL GARDEN
NEW SET OF 12 POSTCARDS: BUTTERFLIES AND MOTHS OF EL CHARCO

Graphic work of four creative women from San Miguel de Allende:

Marijose Marín, Marisol Guerrero, Paquina Langenscheidt and Rocío Ríos

Available in our gift shop: 300 pesos

NEW IZCUINAPAN REGIONAL ARCHAEOLOGY HALL IN THE HISTORICAL MUSEUM. MIGUEL MALO ZOZAYA COLLECTION

The Botanical Garden shares and celebrates with the association Amigos del Museo this new exhibition space of the archaeological heritage of San Miguel de Allende, which was inaugurated last October in the "Casa de Allende Museum". The Sala Izcuinapan already exhibits the valuable archaeological collection gathered by Miguel Malo Zozaya, who for years studied and disseminated regional pre-Hispanic history, especially that which flourished during a period of a thousand years in the middle section of the Laja River.

After 50 years in which most of this collection left San Miguel de Allende, this extraordinary collection has returned to be safeguarded, studied, restored and exhibited permanently in the Museum.

This great effort towards recovering such important heritage derives from the confluence of diverse participants: historians, archaeologists, restorers, museographers, photographers, designers, draftsmen, activists ..., a vast collective work with the support of INAH (National Institute of Anthropology and History) and local donors.