Erongarícuaro

Erongarícuaro Erongarícuaro
town
File:Erongafront.jpg
Nickname:  Eronga
Country	Mexico
State	Michoacán
Population
• Total	5,000
Time zone	UTC-6 (Central Standard Time)

Erongarícuaro, which means "Place of waiting" in the Purepecha language, is a town in the Mexican state of Michoacán. It is located about an hour and a half drive to Morelia or Uruapan and just 20 minutes from the famous colonial town of Pátzcuaro. The estimated population is about 5,000 people.

The town

Erongarícuaro is hidden high in the mountains of Michoacán at 2,200 m (7,130 feet) of elevation. To the East is Lake Pátzcuaro, one of Mexico's highest lakes.

The town retains its ancient atmosphere. It consists of largely one-story adobe or plaster-over-brick buildings with red tile roofs. The streets are dusty cobblestones traveled by horse and car. The plaza has a fountain, stage and amazing collection of trees. Wandering the streets uphill, there is a cemetery and a chapel.

Culture

• Annual Flower Show

• Tuesday Goodness Market - with homemade breads and cheeses.

Entertainment

Jaripeos and parties and festivals are common throughout the year.

Food

The nieve (ice cream), sold in shops on the plaza, is a delightful treat. There are many different flavors, made with water or with cream. Combinations of flavors add variety and taste. One of the most popular flavors is called pasta (paste). Popsicles made from exotic fruits make a pleasant taste adventure.

Except for early evening there is always food on the plaza. Food in the evening would be "atole"(hot beverage) with "buñuelos" (light fried pastries)or with tamales.

Shopping

• Woman's craft market
• Furniture and woodcrafts.

Trivia

Notable residents of Eronga

• Lázaro Cárdenas The popular leftist President of Mexico, was rumored to take his boat across the lake where no road reached. He began from his large mansion in Patzcuaro, which now houses CREFAL [1] and upon reaching Erongarícuaro was free to attend fiestas with his friends Victoria and Guadalupe Rodríguez in Casa Las Rosas. The president arranged for the two young women, who were singers of some note on local radio and in local concerts, to attend music and voice classes at Bellas Artes in Mexico City, but their conservative father refused to let them, saying that, "A young woman´s place is in the home." Victoria came to be the town's mayor—the only female mayor in the history of the town—and her sister Guadalupe was the town's postmistress. The post office was in the entrance of the house. Victoria later married Ralph Gray, a US American painter who came to the town in the late 1940s.

During Mexico's postwar art scene:

• Trotsky, Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, Jean Charlot, André Breton.
• Roberto Matta, Remedios Varo, Esteban Francis, Pierre Mabille, Benjamin Péret
• Gordon Onslow Ford and his wife Jacqueline Johnson, an American writer.
• Peruvian poet César Moro, anthropologist Miguel Covarrubias, painter Carlos Mérida
• Surrealist painter Wolfgang Paalen with painter and poet Alice Rahon, and photographer Eva Sulzer.

Current artists:

• Painter Brian Fey lives as a reclusive hermit in the forest of nearby Cerro Chivo.
• Painter, writer, restaurateur, and activist Charles Dews lives right on the town's plaza in Casa Las Rosas. The house is a present day café that serves French-Mexican fusion cuisine and is a center for many activities, including dance, literary, and art presentations, discussion groups, classes of all sorts, and, in general, functions as the hub of the local intellectual and artistic community.
• Painter and ceramic artist Jon Skaglund lives and works in the village.

External links

• Municipal government site

• Erongaricuaro Weather
• Information about the municipio of Erongaricuaro in Spanish
• Information about Erongarícuaro published on a Website by David Haun in English