Let me tell you how I first came to SMA. 

When I was in high school, a new girl joined our French class midyear.  She was very sophisticated; she had been raised in Europe--but somehow we became friends.  And that summer her family was going to Mexico, to a small town called San Miguel de Allende, and they asked me to come along to keep her company.  It amazes me, in retrospect, that my parents said yes.  Remember, this was many years ago--and the only time anyone in my family had been out of the country was when my dad fought in the war.

We got to SMA--which at the time, was a very small town.  In the square, on Sundays, they used to do the paseo.  The boys would walk in one direction, and the girls in another, until, perhaps, someone caught someone's eye.  And then they would go with their friends to one of the restaurants in the square.
 
And one Sunday I met a Mexican boy at the paseo. It was a very chaste romance--we went for cokes.  His family invited me for a picnic.
And one night, when I was sitting in the living room of the house we were staying in, my Mexican friend came to the house and serenaded me outside the window.

And that was my summer in SMA.
When I got back to Chicago, I got one letter from him.  I couldn't read it--the Spanish was too hard.  My mom had a friend who was bilingual, and I took it to her.
She started to read it (we were in her kitchen) and the tears just streamed from her eyes....it was that romantic.
But I was starting my last year of high school, and college was on my mind...and I more or less forgot the summer.

But those romantic songs...Lila Downs sang them Friday night--and I remember...somehow, in Spanish, you can be wildly romantic and it seems heartfelt and honest....and so, under the stars (and the moon), with fireworks in the background, I remember why I came back to Mexico.