Yesteryear

Simon con su tia Sara, Bejuco 1984

Piñata, Navidad 1998

Leo con los Huapangueros, Bejuco 1987

Las mujeres, Bejuco 1987

Leo en Rancho Tamyan

Cafe, Tamazunchale, 1974

Leo de Swaan 70th birthday at Rancho Tamyan, Ozuluama, Ver, 10/15/10

Leo singing one of his own lyrics, "Huasteco de Corazon"

& the afternoon gets going

& they play late into the night

getting drunk

& drunker

The Huapango is a lively musical style native to the Huasteca - an area of Mexico that includes parts of the states of Tamaulipas, Nuevo Leon, Veracruz, Hidalgo and San Luis Potosi. These places have recently received more international renown than in the past, because of the violent turf wars between rival drug cartels that leave many casualties in their wake. The daily news reports are full of stories of massacres assasinations, mass graves and other horror.

But despite everything life must go on....and for Leo's birthday some of us have come from as far away as Amsterdam, NL, Upstate New York, and from Mexico, D.F.....but most gathered from nearby towns and ranches, many of them Huapangueros who wanted to celebrate and serenade their compañero on his very special day. Leo de Swaan, born in Chile of a Chilean mother and Dutch father fell in love with the region when he first visited in his teens. Here he planted his roots with his wife Toña, their three children, grand children, great grand children - and the community of Huapango musicians of which he may be the most passionate of them all.

Mexico Time 2010©sdeswaan

Con Bram por la Calle Leonardo De Vinci

Las Raices, Rancho El Bejuco

Los Antepasados, con Natali y Jacques

El Sueño, Rancho Tamyan

El Perro, Rancho Bejuco

La Sombra, Rancho Tamyan

El Huapanguero, Rancho Bejuco

La Santa Muerte, Mexico, D.F.

First Blog/First Post

in celebration of the publication of Karuna, by Jaime Montell, we gathered in the plaza central for a "read in," Ozuluama, Veracruz

This is my bedroom at the Rancho Bejuco, Ozuluama, Veracruz, Republica Mexicana...I'm new to blog-ism..if it weren't for my internet friend Tama Hochbaum I'd still be fiddling with settings, unable to figure it out. Even so I've not gotten all that far - editing, deleting and re doing entries multiple times because they don't end up looking the way I want them to. I'm a photographer and most of what I'll be posting are photos, ideas, quotes... aiming to find my BLOG voice and style as I go along. I like my photo work to be a voyage of discovery rather than a preconceived destination - so I'll start with Mexico and let the images themselves lead me along.........