On my current house sit in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, the homeowner was kind enough to leave me a list of her favourite places: stores, restaurants, and entertainment. One place that piqued my interest was the Pocket Theater, on the upper floor of Mercado Sano, a specialty food market. Pocket Theatre has two movies showing at any given time, with this week’s line up dedicated to biographical films. I decided on the 11 a.m. showing today, so that I could do the 15-minute walk in the cooler part of the day. Off I went to see “On the Basis of Sex”, the true story of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, in her pioneering work to rid America of gender discrimination.
I’ll add a link here to the trailer, for those not familiar with the story. I really enjoyed the movie, and must admit to a few tears at the end, overcome with how far women’s rights have come since Ginsburg started law school in the 1950s.
Here’s the cozy entrance to the theatre. I was a little early, so that the theatre itself wasn’t open yet. One elderly lady sat quietly, and just nodded when I said ‘hola’.
The entrance fee of 120 pesos ($8 Canadian) entitled you to not only the movie, but also a drink and a small bag of popcorn. What a bargain. I chatted with the lady while we were waiting and learned that she’d moved there from America 13 years ago. Like many places, she said it was just a small village when she arrived, but that it’s now a city. An elegant, well-spoken lady, she seemed saddened by the change.
When I paid my 120 pesos, Pedro (in the photo) showed me a floor-plan of the theatre and asked me to select my seat, out of the 19 seats there. Along with the other lady, I chose the back of the three rows, and left just one seat between us. We continued our conversation in the theatre until the movie started. I really enjoyed our chat.
As you may notice from the decorations, the theatre is celebrating its first anniversary. I asked Pedro to pose for me, explaining that I write a blog when I travel. He then apparently asked me if I’d like him to take my photo. Up to that point I’d been speaking Spanish, but in my limited way with no sentence structure. When he asked me if I wanted my photo taken he spoke so fast that we laughed and then he started speaking English instead.
We were the only two people for that viewing of that movie. The other lady said that not many people came to the morning time slots. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience so plan to watch their schedule and return again. When house sitting, it’s good to sometimes live more like a local, rather than a tourist. That was the case today.
Where on Earth is Francine? 