>UTV Day 8

>We finished up workshop in the morning by looking at one participant’s story and then looking at a short Isaac Babel story, “Crossing into Poland,” which we read for its narrative structure and voice. Chuck Wachtel has been a terrific workshop leader and I plan to keep a look out for his work.

After lunch many of us went to Cuernavaca (about 30 minutes away) to visit museums. First up was the Muros Museum which houses the Jacques and Natasha Gelman collection of modern Mexican art. It has wonderful pieces–lots of Diego Riveras and Frida Kahlos, but also Orozcos, Tamayos, Izquierdos, etc. Fantastic, although we were a bit rushed. Then we went to the Robert Brady house, which I’d visited before. Brady, who died in 1986, was an eclectic collector and his house is packed with fabulous things. The group then went to the Palacio Cortes to see the Diego Rivera murals, but I’ve seen them a couple of times so instead I went to the Zocolo, sat in the plaza of the Casa Hidalgo, and did some writing. The group eventually caught up to me, we had a light supper and drinks, Giselle arrived so we were able to catch up, and then we went back to the Palacio Cortes for Breyten Breytenbach’s poetry reading. The reading was in the Hall of the Murals, which is beautiful, but with acoustics not suited for a reading. There was quite a crowd and Breyten was seated, so we could neither hear well nor see at all. After a few minutes of that, we headed back to the Casa Hidalgo until it was time to catch the bus back to Tepoztlan.

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