Greatest headline, and possibly the greatest and most representative story of 2009, The Year of Shouting:
Here is the famous image reported to have been painted by God on the back of St. Juan Diego's cloak, his tilma. Her shrine sits on the hill where once the temple of the Goddess Tonantzin stood. It was rubble at the time of the Virgin's appearance, smashed to pieces and claimed with a large cross. Tonantzin, in the local tongue meant "Our Mother." Sometimes she was also known as Cihuacoatl, The Snake Woman, who carried an infant strapped to her back. When she appeared again as The Virgin, the locals probably called her Tlecuauhtlacupe, which the Spaniards changed to Guadalupe. In Spain they had their own Virgin of Guadalupe, a pale and brittle likeness of the Holy Mother, nothing like this new Lady. Some people believe that the image of a kneeling Juan Diego seems permanently reflected in her eyes. Juan Diego, almost always called "humble," had been known as Cuautlatohuac before his induction into the legend of the Virgin. She stands on a dark moon, born up by an angel. Her colors do not fade. She is obviously mestizo, and she wears her mantle drawn over her in the manner of the local rebozo. She wears the black sash of a pregnant woman. She is the Mother of the Americas by any name, queen of the shrine and also of the rubble of temples destroyed by thoughtless conquistadors. She is the intercessory for all the people of the great Latino diaspora, she is carried everywhere and even on their skin. Saturday was her feast and it was beautiful, as she is.
By far the best flatpicks I've ever played. Red Bear Tortis picks, made from a cultured protein nearly identical to that of sea turtles, but grown artificially:
A pile of books for prisoners at the federal courthouse in Raleigh, NC. November, 2009
I'm so proud of this I could spit.
