Clowns and Chess

After shopping in Dolores Hidalgo it was siesta time before we met Bob and Maria for drinks downtown that evening. We finished dinner at home and decided to go early and wander around before they arrived at the restaurant. We went to Plaza Guerrero, and nothing much was going on. Nothing was going on in the Plaza de Armas or the Zenea garden either, but some noise was coming from the Jardin de la Corregidora (the woman who smuggled out the message to Father Hidalgo in Dolores that resulted in the grito. Everything is connected, see?)

There were some clowns entertaining the crowd, mostly be insulting hapless victims. One was a mime, too; and noboby likes a mime. We watched as girls got called up, were made fun of, were made to tickle him with a feather duster, etc. And then the guy picked Christiane to dance the waltz! I did not have my camera or there would be pictures all over the blog. He took her glasses and an advertisement she had been carrying, and gave them to someone in the audience. The ad caused titillation among the younger female set, don’t know why. Then they danced, kissed cheeks and she finally made it back to the crowd. It could have been worse.

A few minutes later, the clown came into the crowd and put his hat on guys who had to come up and do whatever. Then he came for me; and I was up there to the end of the show. I just mimicked everything he did in spades, which drove him nuts at first. Then he figured he would put me in my place and gave me a big wet kiss on the cheek, so I gave him one on his other cheek and a big hug. The crowd seemed to like it. He had another guy catch him when he jumped into his arms, but took one look at me and decided not to chance it with me, although he did have the girl fall backwards so I had to catch her. Anyway, we had a pretty good time.

Then we met Bob and Maria, who are really big on a conversation teacher they have. I told them that I had found a language teacher too. When C went to her culture class last week, I met a guy at a little tienda (store) who gives chess lessons for free and has had a chess club there since 1965. Maestro Villanueva has a philosophy much like my old mentor El Capitan in Cholula, and he is older than me so it felt like talking to the Capitan again. The Capitan passed away 15 years ago or so. His students include the governor of the state and the mayor of Querétaro, plus a young lady who beat everyone in her level in Merida at the Mexican championships years ago, and then came in 5th in Argentina and won something in the Chzech Republic. He has a space reserved by the city to teach chess at Alameda Park on Sundays, so today I went and immediately got hooked into a game with Noe, a young guy who is fortunately a beginner. We played two games and look forward to meeting again next Sunday. Next week I will also drop by the tienda and play a few games with the Maestro when C does her culture thing. Who says you can’t go home again.