We are returned from AFS 2025 in Atlanta Georgia, a bit of a whirlwind experience in a quirky hotel in the midst of so many new, recent, and ancient friends. Somebody, or some deity, likes me not because I was assigned to 8:30 AM slots for my presentations. Somehow, Pat and I managed to awake at 7 AM, go downstairs in the Crowne Plaza hotel and enjoy the fine breakfast they serve there, and still make it on time to the presentation rooms.
Both presentations were fun for me to do. The first one, bright and early on Sunday morning, was the DERT forum organized by Sue Tuohy with Rory Turner and me as helpers. In my allotted 5-7 minutes, I worked outwards from my slide of the yachaks, the spiritual workers in Ilumán, near Otavalo in northern Ecuador, performing the cleansing ritual at the start of the corn harvest, to eventually land upon the concept of “ecosovereignty,” the way Indigenous people are claiming rights to their land on the basis of a spiritual connection to the land and a sustained capacity to care for it.
I boldly broke the fourth wall and imposed my presence upon the sleepy audience:
We had enough people for three round tables and they were all lively, enjoyable, and rewarding. Another good DERT event! What comes next? Ni aún se sabe.
The next morning brought about the ballad session in which I gave an extended paper that I titled “The Lyrical in Lyrical Narrative.“ This is a fun romp, inspired in part by the work of Américo Paredes, that travels from El Cid to the corridos of Mexico’s Pacific Coast, with a stop in between with Graciela Olmos’s “Siete Leguas.” I even sang a few stanzas of three or four of my examples so people could hear what they sound like, since my focus was on verse composition.The gist of the thesis is captured in this piece of my conclusion:
“We can see that defining the ballad as ‘a song that tells a story’ will hardly do, in that it leaves out the equally significant work done in making that story effective, moving, and memorable by imbuing it with a lyrical twist that stimulates an emotional response.”
Apart from these formal events, I entered into many conversations, embraced many people, and received embraces from many others, settled a couple of JFRR puzzles, and all in all communed with my extended folklore family. Counting exchanges while lying awake one night, I came up with something like 74, ranging from soulful chats to casual salutations.
The hotel was quirky, and the schedule was not friendly, but I nonetheless managed to have a very good conference. Pat and I found a fun street to walk along. Our most amazing find was grandfather tree located just a block from the hotel:
We enjoyed stopping at a couple of restaurant bars that were congenial and close to the hotel, El Viñedo Local, with a Cuban flair, and the Publik Draft House next to the old Fox Theater. Here’s pretty Patti perched on the Viñedo patio:
