San Felipe, Baja, Mexico

The Snowbird Festival, November 28, 2003

Avenida Mar de Baltico crosses Chetumál, the main artery of San Felipe, two blocks east of the Sea of Cortez. For the past three weeks Baltico has been Man at work.blocked to traffic. During that time a backhoe has been been gradually chewing up the road until, about five days ago it crossed Chetumál just in time for the Snowbird Festival. Now not only is traffic stopped two The Festival carries on...blocks short of the Malecón, but the water supply has been cut off in the downtown area while a man stands inside a thirty foot pit with a shovel steadily saluting the air over his left shoulder, the redolent smell of sewage riding the stiff breeze to the bladder-challenged crowd gathered a block away.

Of course this means that every toilet and sink for a radius of several blocks have become caricatures of themselvess, little more functional than plant stands. While beer and sodas flow, people walk the sidewalks like mailmen burdened with full bags, seeing no house for miles in any direction.

It's not as if the Snow Bird Festival is something that was sprung on the town at a moment's notice. The celebration has been as regular as the tide for over a decade. And it's not as if the road at Baltico and Chetumál suddenly cracked like an unannounced nervous breakdown. Saw horses, yellow tape, hoses and pumps have been strewn about the intersection for nearly a month. The intersection of the two events seems more than synchronous. It points at some kind of arcane planning ability. Or perhaps it reveals the real dialectic behind historic clashes --namely, one event is nursed along, nurtured to a high degree of self preservation, until another event appears and intersects it. Then presto! --instant chaos.

This year the Snowbird Festival deploys two words into the breeze above the heads of the crowd. Both are spoken with a certain degree of urgency and desperation. And both share a kind of centripetal purpose, so there is no confusion in their meaning. One is Spanish, the other English. They have come to replace the usual greeting between a norteamericano and a Mexicano. This year instead of Hola or Hello, you'll hear a voice ask Baño? and another, appearing not to have heard, reply, Washroom?

 
  • Free Admission
  • Door Prizes
  • Exhibits
  • Free Food
  • Raffles
2004 Ucoming Events
November 26th


Annual Return
of Snowbirds
  • Tourist Info
  • Refreshments
  • Folk Dancing
  • Music

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