It got back to me that I am "happy" that Atención has closed. Rumors function like a game of Telephone-

Person one: "Now that Atención has closed, Dr. David is sitting pretty."
Person two: "Dr. David must be happy now that Atención has closed."
Person three: "Can you imagine?! He is actually happy that Atención has closed!"

The Mexicans say, "Pueblo chico; inferno grande," Little town, big hell.

I like old things. This is not just a function of my advancing age. My default is for the way things used to be. Even as a kid I hankered for yesteryear.

Lately, I've been working my way through the San Miguel Archive Project, a video collection of SMA old-timers speaking about how things used to be around here. Listening to these reminiscences, I find the old town getting etched in my "memory": surrounded by open fields, stretching just a few blocks in any direction, filled with the even-then ruins of the summer vacation spot that it once was for the silver-barons of Guanajuato City during an even earlier yesteryear.

Those early arrivals were all characters. Some, perhaps, still are. One was named Archie Dean. Archie Dean's son, noticing his father with a pile of cards of information useful to expats, suggested that his dad compile those into a book. Archie did, and thus was born The Insider's Guide to San Miguel. He speaks about selling copies of his guide to gringos that he met on the streets.

I am Archie Dean, compiling and publishing information about San Miguel, some of it useful, some of it merely interesting or entertaining.

Twelve years ago, I started my San Miguel Events, because Atención (5 pesos at the time) failed to inform me of the original inauguration of The Chapel of Jimmy Ray. Each and every week since I've combed through Atención, in paper and online, looking for events to include in my calendar of events.

The operative phrase here is "combed through," because, in my 12 years of residence here, Que Pasa (Atención's tabular listing of events, their calendar) never listed all the events that the paper contained. There were always, literally, every week without exception, some event announcements, published as short articles elsewhere in the pages of Atención that were not included in Que Pasa, the original inauguration of The Chapel of Jimmy Ray being a case in point..

Then, there were always, literally every week, a host of interesting, worthy events, usually ten or more, that were not mentioned anywhere in the publication. I know. I was counting. It was my job.

I don't like speaking badly about the dead. I'm just explaining my motivation for restarting my publishing career here in San Miguel.

Call me strange, you won't be the first, but after a long day publishing Lokkal I like to unwind by watching chess games online. There, as midnight comes and goes, I enjoy pausing those chess videos to figure out why a seemingly obvious move is not played, why one player doesn't take his opponent's piece, a piece which looks ripe for the taking to me. I like racking my brain before I go to sleep. This absurd sentiment reminds me of Robert Duvall's character, Lieutenant Colonel Bill Kilgore, in Apocalypse Now, "I love the smell of napalm in the morning."

I like trying to see what a Grandmaster chess player sees. I'd like you to see what I saw as a professional "newspaper" man when I examined Atención. But if I told you, even though my words would be written as objective testimony on this page, still, the game of Telephone would happen, and people would get the wrong idea.

Am I happy about Atención closing? There is a certain satisfaction about calling it right, about being able to say, "I told you so" to a couple of long-standing confidants. But, really there was no clairvoyance involved. You don't have to be Rupert Murdoch to know that paper is passé.

No, I'm not happy. I am sorry for our loss. I like old things. I like tradition. I like the way San Miguel was, the way it still is, except now, sometimes, you have to look for it.

If I am happy about anything to do with Atención's passing, it's that I saw it coming, that I recognized and occupied a niche that the venerable old paper left empty, delivering a comprehensive calendar of events, and doing it online.

It's been a lot of work, more than you would care to imagine, it still is. But I'm happy that my burning of the midnight oil, my efforts building Lokkal, means that even with Atención's demise, San Miguel de Allende is not left without an authentic local voice. I expect you will agree that with Luna de Queso changing their shop in response to City Market, and with other big chains moving into town, we need Lokkal's local voice more than ever.

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Dr. David presents Lokkal, the social network, the prettiest, most-efficient way to see San Miguel online. Our Wall shows it all. Join and add your point of view.

Discover Lokkal:
Watch the two-minute video below.
Then, just below that, scroll down SMA's Community Wall.
Mission

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