I attended the San Miguel Writers’ Conference “Viva Mexico Fiesta” for the first time in 2011, the same year Sandra Cisneros was the keynote speaker. I’d lived in Mexico for about eight months, but I’d never seen anything like it before.
I remember walking into the courtyard of the Instituto Allende and being greeted by a man standing next to a burro. As he poured me a shot of tequila I could hear the distance sounds of live music and laughter. I downed the booze, and smiled at the man. He offered me another shot.
From then until I left things sort of blurred together. There was food and more drinks and every ten minutes it seemed like there was a new performance either on the stage or in the crowd. I don’t want to spoil it for anyone who has never been to a Mexican fiesta, but I definitely agree with Barbara Kingsolver who said in 2010 that, “The Viva Mexico Fiesta goes down in the books as one of the ten best parties I’ve ever attended in my life. I’m sure I can’t remember the other nine.”
During that evening I wandered around meeting different people until it got late and I was standing at the bar talking to a group of writers. I’d been working on a novella where the protagonist was supposed to cut off his own hand during the climactic scene, but I was having trouble figure out his motivation. I explained this to the group and the next thing I knew we were brainstorming my story. By the time I went home I had a cocktail napkin filled with ideas on how to fix the story, which I used in the months after the conference.
When the following year came around I was more excited about going to the Fiesta than seeing our keynote speakers. Sure, we had very acclaimed authors coming, but I’ve always been more interested in meeting other writers and talking to them on a personal level. Since I was working for the Writers’ Conference by this point I didn’t have the same free time as the year before and I found it impossible to get lost in the crowd. Every five minutes someone would come find me with a problem that needed solving.
At one point I was called to the front entrance where there was an disagreement between the door monitors and a woman with a large entourage. Someone told me she didn’t have tickets but she insisted on coming in. I looked at the woman and started to laugh. Then I turned to the door person and said, “Sandra Cisneros and anyone she is with can come in.” Sandra and her entourage whisked past the door monitor and into the party.
I never got to ask her if she had a good time, but I’m sure she did. She’s coming back in 2013 to party-it-up with Luis Alberto Urrea and Juan Villoro. Maybe she’ll cut-a-rug with Cheryl Strayed and ZZ Packer. Either way I’m sure the Viva Mexico Fiesta is sure to be a hit in 2013.