This past week there was another fundraising event here in
Loreto Bay, this time to benefit the Loreto Internado, organized in large part
by the Loreto Bay Volunteers - but including a number of key Volunteers from
the town as well. The theme was “Pueblo
Magico” (Magic Town) which was a designation that Loreto received last year from
the Mexican Government as part of a tourism promotion program that focuses on
destinations in Mexico that combine natural beauty and historical significance.
About 200, mainly Loreto Bay residents attended and
purchased 50 peso (about $4.00 US) tickets and filled the colonnade surrounding
the Clubhouse Courtyard, which was the “stage” for the children’s performance. Wine, beer and cold drinks were available and
following the performance “kid’s food” in the form of hot dogs, tacos,
guacamole and flan was sold, and the crowd filled tables and chairs that had
been set up around the outside of the Clubhouse. As people finished eating, the 5 man version
of Los Beach Dogs took to the stage and played two sets into the early evening
when it was the adults turn to dance to the popular classic rock repertoire. 
As usual, a great time was had by all, but I wanted to focus
on the beneficiary of the fundraising – the Internado, which is a residential
educational support system that will be unfamiliar to many of you who do not
spend time here in Mexico.
Loreto has a surprisingly large number of schools for a town
this size, but the Internado plays a unique role among them and traces its
history here back almost 60 years.
Basically the Internado is a residential facility serving elementary
school children from the surrounding rancheros, who would otherwise be unable
to attend school due to their remote living circumstances, being too far from
town to attend on a daily basis.
Therefore the system of residential dormitories was developed to
accommodate the students from Monday to Friday and return them home to the
rancheros to spend the weekends with their families. 
The roots of this go back to the Mexican Constitution in
1917 which declared that every child in the country was to learn to read and
write, at the minimum. The first
Internado opened here in Loreto in 1946, almost 30 years before the highway
that opened most of the Baja was built, and its first home was in several rooms
in the ruins of the old storehouse next to the Loreto Mission (which now houses
the Mission Museum).
While
this was far from an ideal situation, almost 70 years ago in Loreto it was the
only suitable building available.
Finally, in 1971 the Mexican
government built the present facility, with two dormitories, a dining hall and
kitchen, and a house for the director in Colonia Zaragoza, a “suburb” of Loreto
across the large arroyo south of town.
Needless to say, this was a huge improvement - but without sufficient
funds from the Government to maintain the facility, things started to
deteriorate with the wear and tear from the large numbers of children passing
through. Even sufficient food became a
challenge because Government funds only supplied a subsistence diet of beans
and rice which many of the families could not afford to supplement from home.
By 1982 when a new Director took over the Internado
things were pretty grim for the kids, only
two of the toilets and one shower worked and the children were getting one
tortilla and half a cup of coffee for breakfast before they went to school. He appealed to the then small ex-pat community
in Loreto for assistance and soon the plumbing was fixed and food and other
basics like soap, toothbrushes and toothpaste were donated and the Volunteer
support of the Internado had begun.
English lessons conducted by Volunteers soon
followed, along with others who spent time enriching the kids learning
experiences, including Linda, a Nopolo resident who is still very active after
20 years - she even had a cameo appearance in this evening’s performance. The Internado has become an important focus
of the Loreto Bay Volunteers, an ad hoc group that has become quite active in
many areas within the larger community of Loreto. These volunteers operate under the umbrella
of “Los Amigos de Loreto” whose operations I described in some detail in an
earlier Blog http://livingloreto.blogspot.mx/2013/02/amigos-de-loreto-friends-with-benefits.html,
and who also organized the very successful Food and Wine Festival http://livingloreto.blogspot.mx/2013/03/loreto-food-wine-festival-2013.html.
The next major challenge faced by these
volunteers who want to assist with the education of the children of the area,
is replenishing the scholarship fund that has been in operation here for a
number of years. Here in Mexico,
education is free up to the grade six level, but there are fees to attend
Junior and Senior High Schools amounting to about $200 US per student per year
to cover uniforms, school supplies, lab fees etc. – a modest amount by North American
standards, but beyond the reach of many of the Internado children’s families,
who live on a subsistence level in the remote rancheros described in last
week’s Blog http://livingloreto.blogspot.mx/2013/04/spring-rain-comes-to-living-roots.html.
As a result, without sufficient funds for
the higher education fees, many promising elementary students unfortunately
finish their education at the grade 6 level, denying them the opportunity to
improve their opportunities and continuing the cycle of subsistence that has
been their family’s lot for generations.
To this end there have been some endowments and generous donations in
the past to the scholarship fund, and currently it is supporting 19 students
learning at the Junior High to University level.
However, these funds have been depleted and
more support is required to keep this valuable and important program viable
going forward. You can make a difference
by contributing on line through the Amigos de Loreto website (www.amigosdeloreto.com) or there is a foundation that can accept
donations, you can reach the O’Neil Loreto Education Fund through: Kirk
Connally, 665 Tabor Lane, Santa Barbara, CA. 93108 and mark your check “OLEF”
so the contribution finds its way back to Loreto to keep on the good work.
Sharing in the fun and excitement of 40 kids
performing a pageant about the “Magic Town” they live in, and seeing the
pleasure that 200 ex-pats and volunteers received from their efforts (many of
whom who have grandkids the same ages) while contributing modest amounts that will
have a major impact on the way that these kid’s can live while away from home
getting a basic education – this was one of the more important parts of “Living
Loreto”!
