en Zacatecas

Pues, llegó el amante chido, so ya no hubo tiempo para estar sentado frente a la pantalla, but no más por no dejar -

Zacatecas treated us well! They have a tradition called 'callejoneadas' and the librarians met as a group the Wednesday night before my presentation to partake. We met in the Alameda at 8 p.m. and were given a small jarrito on a ribbon to hang around our necks. 2 or 3 young ladies had jugs of mezcal que convidaron whenever the mood struck. Ouch! I thought - no one is showing up for my ponencia in the a.m., todos van a estar crudos! We followed the brass band around town for a while and ended up at a sound and light show that used an old Augustine convent for backdrop, very cool.

The ponencia went well, started out with about 20 in attendance and ended with a full house. There were 3 of us on the panel - a woman from Colima presented about a project she implemented at her university - biblioburro. Basically, they did a reading promo campaign centered on the school mascot - a donkey. Tristemente, when the donkey died - from an African bee sting! - the project died with him.

Oralia Garza de Cortés presented about Día de los niños/día de los libros. She covered the trajectory of services to Latino children over the last half century in the U.S., especially this project.

Mine went well, some interesting discussion about respecting people's reading preferences and encouraging readers to challenge themselves. The cool thing was that this librarian guy from San Diego came who is very active in international exchanges and projects between Mexico and U.S. He introduced me to the director at the Benjamin Franklin library in Mexico City! So, conectados! A ver qué pasa...