We just received this notice from Sananto Cultural Arts. Manny Castillo, the Executive Director, has just undergone surgery for cancer. Here is the notice from Sananto.

October 21, 2008

Dear Friends & Supporters of San Anto Cultural Arts:

As most of you know by now our Executive Director, Manuel “Manny” Castillo, was recently diagnosed with cancer and underwent surgery yesterday morning. His immune system is healthy and he is recovering well. The doctors are restricting visitors for at least a couple of days while Manny recuperates from his surgery. The latest conversation with Manny’s immediate family was that Manny is in excellent spirits and ready to take on the fight of his life. The doctor’s prognosis is good and we ask everyone to maintain positive thoughts for Manny and to please keep him in your prayers daily. The Board of Directors and Staff have come together to make sure we maintain programming levels that Manny would expect us to continue in his absence. If anyone wishes to send cards or letters of encouragement we request that you send them to San Anto Cultural Arts located at 1300 Chihuahua Street, San Antonio, TX 78207 and we will make sure Manny receives them. Should you desire any further information we request you speak with Heather Eichling, Development Coordinator and she can be reached at (210) 226-7466. On behalf of the board of directors and staff of San Anto Cultural Arts, we thank you for all your calls and gestures of support during these times and we ask you to please continue to keep Manny in your prayers.

Sincere thanks,

San Anto Cultural Arts’ Board of Directors and Staff

I first met Manuel back in '93 when he was working alongside Mennonite volunteer friends of mine at Inner City Development by day and playing with a punk band called "El Santo" by night. Over the years, he has shaped Sananto cultural arts into a truly grassroots, service oriented arts organization. Sananto works intensively with youth from the West Side and has filled a niche that I suspect some didn't even know needed filling when the organization started. Let's all keep Manuel in our thoughts and send gestures of support as outlined above.

Where to Eat in ABQ during ASA

OK, folks, time for the shamelss family plug department. We wish we could go to ASA this weekend in 'burque, but it's just not going to happen. For those of you who are going, we hope you'll check out Cafe Green. You may recall our earlier post about cousin Camille and Kyle's wedding. They trained in Aspen as chefs and really seem to be making a good go of this restaurant, which they recently acquired and re-opened. As we've watched the stock market on its roller-coaster ride and watched Bush try to scare us all into accepting his bailout plan, we've been praying they can ride out the storm with their new business intact. What do the reviewers say about Cafe Green? Here' s a particularly eloquent one.

Yummy!!!

By babsormom, 11/04/06

For th best food around, no doubt this is the place!

Hey, you know babsormom can't be wrong. Go get some truffle fries. You deserve them. Cafe Green is at 319 5th Street SW, at the corner of 5th Street SW and Silver (map).

Breaking Tomato News

After my last post on tomatoes, I got merciless about picking flowers off the plants, hoping that this would push them to put their energy into ripening existing fruit. That effort appears to have paid off, with help from some unseasonably warm weather. Here on the left is a mixture of tomatoes from the volunteers and some from the plants we bought. I have no idea where the seed for the yellow ones came from. This is stuff that has been ripening inside for about a week.

Today, I picked a bunch more. Here (right) is what came off the volunteers today.

And then below, in the black bowl, is what came off the commercially started cherry tomato plants today. So far, there is one tomato on the Pennsylvania heirloom plants that is starting to turn orange, but the rest are mostly green. Finally, there are three volunteer butternut squash (below left). Tomorrow we have dinner with a colleague of Lola's, and we'll be using some of our harvest in a pasta salad.

Today, the man who put new gutters on the house came to do the same to the garage. When I saw him out back, he asked what I had done to make the tomato plants grow so large. "Those bad boys are goin' crazy," he said. We ended up talking for a bit about gardening. As a gutter-installer, you see a lot of yards, and our man says we have some of the best tomato plants around.