Exploring Zacoalco de Torres
Mano
Lista Photographic Workshops makes it’s home in Zacoalco de Torres, a bustling
small town of around 25,000 located an hour from Guadalajara in the state
of Jalisco. It’s a place where you’ll see just as many bicycles in the
streets as cars, where family-owned farms and small businesses thrive,
and where traditions such as walking around the town square on Sunday nights
are still preserved.
Zacoalco benefits from its location as the midpoint between Guadalajara and Colima, and serving as a commercial center for many smaller surrounding towns. The small farms of Zacoalco’s agricultural industry thrive, producing corn, tomatoes, agave (used for making tequila and mescal), cucumbers, chile peppers, and a variety of fruits. Producers from Zacoalco and other areas come together on Sundays for the tianguis, or outdoor produce market. Zacoalco is famous for being the home of dozens of small workshops that produce equipales, a traditional type of leather and wood furniture that decorate many homes and restaurants of the region.
The residents of Zacoalco are primarily Catholic, and the town has an abundance of churches, some dating from as far back as the 1700’s. Festivals to celebrate holidays and saint’s days are numerous, with much of the town gathering for parades, street carnivals, and fireworks displays.
Zacoalco is centrally located connecting you to the heart of central Mexico. It’s one hour from Guadalajara’s international airport, 2-3 hours from the beaches of Colima and Michoacan, 1 hour from Lake Chapala, 45 minutes from the mountain forests of the Sierra de Tapalpa, and 3 hours from the jungles of Nayarit.
Participants will stay in shared double rooms (limited single rooms
available for an additional $200) in Zacoalco’s Hotel de Mendez,
located one block from the town’s main plaza and one block from Mano
Lista Workshops headquarters. The hotel features clean, spacious
rooms with private bathrooms and 24-hour hot water, as well as free
wireless internet access and an adjacent convenience store.
At least two meals a day will be provided to participants, with the third meal being the responsibility of workshop-goers. Mano Lista will happily provide recommendations for tasty and reputable dining options.
Please see the workshop general schedule for meal specifics.
Zacoalco’s climate is semi-arid and warm, with intensely warm sunshine,
but can get cooler in the evenings when the sun goes down, especially
in the winter months. We recommend layering as a dressing strategy,
adding or taking off clothing as sun levels dictate. Bring a sweater
and light jacket, as well as a light scarf. As the zone very seldom
gets to the freezing point, it’s not common to encounter indoor heating,
and the extra clothing warmth can be helpful at night or at higher
altitudes. A check of Guadalajara’s average seasonal temperatures should
give you a good idea of what to expect.
The workshops also go camping for an evening at the hotter and more humid coast, so bring a swimsuit, towel, sunscreen, and bug spray.
Comfortable walking shoes are a must.
Traveler’s checks should not be necessary, and are usually a hassle and expensive to cash. Zacoalco has two banks with easy ATM access and fair currency exchange rates. It’s a good idea to let your bank know that you’ll be traveling to Mexico, so that they do not deactivate your debit or credit cards for seemingly unknown foreign location activity.
All Mano Lista workshops are designed for digital SLR users. Please come prepared and informed about using your camera and digital technology; do not expect to learn to use your camera during the workshop. Also, the groups will participate in nightly projections and critiques of the day's work, which will necessitate you being able to edit and manipulate of your images.
To accomplish this, participants should bring a laptop and have the ability to present their work on it. And, just as important, students should be able to deliver (via burned CD or USB flash or hard drive) a full resolution JPEG of images chosen for group critique. Mano Lista's LCD digital projector are for staff facilitation of critique and projection. They are not for participant use.
If, in addition to shooting digitally, you would also like to shoot film, on-site black and white processing can be provided at an additional charge
The traditional Mexican idea of meals and meal times which we embrace at Mano Lista varies slightly from what you may be accustomed to north of the border. Here’s the lowdown:
Breakfast is served around same time as American breakfast, but is significantly more substantial. In addition to cereal, frequent breakfast favorites include eggs, chorizo (spicy sausage), pancakes (called panques or hotcakes), tacos, quesadillas, chilaquiles (a traditional dish with thousands of variations, but usually includes fried tortillas, salsa, cheese and eggs), oatmeal, fresh fruits and coffee.
Even if you’re not a breakfast person, we recommend that you eat up (as well as carry some granola bars with you) because of the big difference in meals. In Mexico, lunch is the biggest meal of the day, and is served between 2 and 4 in the afternoon. Students come home from school and local businesses close as families gather around the table to feast and talk. Lunch dishes vary, but usually include soup or rice to start, followed by a main course, and can finish with a dessert. Most everything is accompanied by a pile of fresh, hot tortillas and ample salsa.
Dinner is the lightest meal, usually eaten around 9 or 10, and can be tacos or hot dogs from one of the numerous street vendors that pop up as the sun goes down, or simply some cookies and a glass of milk before bed.
While it may take a bit for foreigners to adjust to this manner of dining, we feel that it’s worth it for participants to join in the traditions to gain a greater understanding of what life is like here, as well as be living in the rhythm of town. You’ll be eating lunch when the restaurants are open, taking a much-needed siesta while everything is closed, and be out on the street shooting when there’s action to be seen and the light is at its best.
A basic Spanish class focusing on the needs of the traveler/photographer will be given to all workshop participants at the beginning of our week, with the emphasis on you feeling comfortable moving around town independently, introducing yourself, deciphering menus, asking for directions or prices, and for permission to photograph.