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NewsLetter July 2023

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. XVIII, No. 07

Each species is a masterpiece, exquisitely adapted to the particular environment in which it has survived.

— Edward O. Wilson

NATIONAL BOTANICAL GARDENS DAY

Saturday July 8

Free entrance from 10:00 – 11:00 a.m.

The Asociación Mexicana de Jardines Botánicos (Mexican Association of Botanical Gardens) annually invites its members to dedicate a day to celebrate the mission of the Botanical Gardens. This year with the theme "Botanical Gardens, promoters of dialogue for peace and sustainability" El Charco del Ingenio has prepared a very interesting program of activities.

To participate, simply arrive on time for the activities and register on the list.

FESTIVITY OF THE SANTA CRUZ DEL CHARCO DEL INGENIO

12TH PEDESTRIAN RACE IN HONOR OF THE SANTA CRUZ DEL CHARCO DEL INGENIO

Sunday July 16 / 10:00 a.m.  

ART EXHIBIT “NOSTALGIA FOR NATURE” MARIBEL PORTELA

Starting July 28th

BOTANICAL GARDEN INTEPRETIVE HALL

We are pleased to present the recent work, especially prepared for El Charco del Ingenio, by this renowned Mexican plastic artist, whose creativity exceeds the limits of conventional artistic activity. Her work is closely related to nature, which she uses as a formal and symbolic vehicle to display transformation processes through our interaction with it. As a result of this link, Maribel Portela's sculpture builds artificial organic prototypes and models. Manipulating common and natural materials, the artist builds natural imaginaries, whose infinite forms incite a playful and provocative experience in the viewer, in the form of aesthetic utopias of a world that is succumbing.

Maribel Portela has a very extensive artistic career: more than 43 individual exhibitions plus participation in more than 100 collective exhibitions, both in Mexico and cities in Europe, Asia, Africa, South America and the United States. She is a member of the National System of Creators since 2001, has carried out artistic residencies outside the country and her collections are found in various museums in Mexico, Puerto Rico, Denmark, Canada and the United States.

IN AUGUST: MESQUITE COMMUNITY FESTIVAL

You are invited to celebrate the abundance of the semi-desert and learn about the importance of mesquite in the local ecosystem, its ethnobotanical history, the harvesting and processing of the pods for the production of delicious foods with high nutritional density, and about the potential for integration into regenerative agriculture systems of this native multipurpose tree that has been the food sustenance of diverse indigenous cultures for thousands of years.

This resilient and adaptable tree has a rich ethnobotanical history and has great potential to become a staple food crop in arid regions of the world, mitigating the effects of climate change and providing food security in the face of desertification, water stress and climate instability.

Sweet and nutritious mesquite pods have been one of the most important staple foods of the indigenous peoples of the arid zones of the continent for thousands of years, they are an excellent source of protein, carbohydrates, dietary fiber, calcium, potassium, magnesium, iron, zinc and essential amino acids such as lysine.

Mesquite has the potential to become a strategic element in the revitalization of ecosystems and to provide food security for the populations of the arid and semi-arid zones of Mexico and we want to celebrate that.

IN AUGUST: THE HERBARIUMS OF MEXICO IN EL CHARCO DEL INGENIO

El Charco del Ingenio Ethnobiological Garden invites curators and staff that make up Mexican herbariums to participate in the National Meeting of Herbariums to be held in the city of San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, Mexico, on August 28, 29 and 30, 2023. The purpose of this meeting will be the digitization, database management and patrimonialization of botanical collections.

Mmore information: bit.ly/41BaQ2Y

IN OCTOBER: THE BOTANICAL GARDENS OF MEXICO IN SAN MIGUEL DE ALLENDE

Botanical gardens play a fundamental role for plant conservation and environmental education.

The Mexican Association of Botanical Gardens (AMJB) was founded in 1980 and since then, it convenes and integrates the botanical gardens of the country to promote the relationship between them and reaffirm their participation with society. It also organizes an annual meeting where, through presentations, workshops and assemblies, criteria and decisions are unified for the achievement of common objectives

To take place during October 3 – 7 El Charco del Ingenio-Jardín Botánico

More information: https://elcharco.org.mx/xxxvi-reunion-anual-y-asamblea…/

THE MOKINGBIRD AND ITS 400 VOICES

The unfathomable repertoire of the mockingbird makes it an artist or what. Its name of Nahua origin alludes to its four hundred voices, to say "many". And its scientific name is mimus plyglottos (which imitates in many languages). And that unmistakable tail, with elegant and erect feathers. With them backing the air he writes through his beak a song of songs that they repeat through the air. It perches on the tip of the highest branch of the mesquite. He likes to be unreachable, to be seen and heard. He likes to hear himself shake. It goes down to the ground to hunt worms and protein among the bushes and cacti, among the stones. If another bird or lizard disputes its prey, it puts up a fight.

  • Hermann Bellinghausen, Mexican poet

EL CHARCO DEL INGENIO, A STRENGTHENED CITIZEN PROJECT

Soon it will be 32 years of this beloved citizen, self-managed, Mexican and independent project, which has received multiple certifications, recognitions and above all has been consolidated and strengthened over the years. 

We invite you to enjoy this video and share it with your friends.

NEW PUBLICATION!

FLORES SIVESTRES DE EL CHARCO DEL INGENIO (Wildflowers Of El Charco del Ingenio)

This field guide to the flowers that sprout in the reserve is a tool for researchers and nature lovers, which also contributes to the efforts to promote and defend Mexico's biocultural heritage.

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.

NATURAL HISTORY TOURS IN ENGLISH

Every Tuesday and Thursday at 10 am

Ticket: 150 pesos per person / 100 pesos members

ARE BACK

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.