The Milagro Beanfield War and The Sound of Silence
If you have not seen that movie, put it on your to-do list. Directed by Robert Redford, with Sonia Braga, Ruben Blades, John Heard, and with small parts played by Freddie Fender, Christopher Walken, and Melanie Griffith. Not one of the greatest movies ever made, but one of my favorites. Charming, beautifully filmed, and with plenty of interesting characters.
It is set in a small fictional town in New Mexico and filmed mostly in Truchas, NM https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truchas,_New_Mexico. Ajo, Arizona reminds me of Milagro. Some beautiful old buildings are pristinely maintained and some beautiful old buildings are crumbling. Driving into Ajo, I get the sense of a people who have lived here for generations in a very isolated way. Even though they are the closest town with motels to Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument -- not one of the most famous members of the National Park System, but still it does attract tourists from many places. In that way it also reminds me of Kingman, Arizona. Kingman is located on Historic Route 66, is called by name in the song about the highway, and attracts tourists from far and wide. I was there on a random Wednesday in February, and in the Route 66 Museum I heard tourists speaking a foreign language. Yet the feeling of the town is highly insular and the reality of the town is that it is geographically isolated.
Here are some photos of buildings in Ajo. The first is a beautiful church in pristine condition.
The next is an old hotel that at first glance still looks magnificent. It does still retain much of its beauty, but what the photo doesn't really capture are the boarded-up windows on the side and the windows open to the elements on the front. If you look closely, you can see the piles of discarded furniture and trash along the side of the building and the fence that's falling apart. I'm including a close-up of that part that's a bit over exposed to make it easier to see.
The place that I stayed is an old school that was converted to an inn and conference center. This is what I saw when I first stepped out of my van upon arrival.
What I heard was silence. There was no wind. There was also no road noise. Any mechanical noise from heaters or air conditioners must have been between cycles. There were only birds and silence. I can only recall being somewhere that quiet once before. Certainly not camping in the desert -- I've only been there around other people. Between the people and the wind and the nearby freeway, there is always background noise. The other place was outdoors at Sierra Hot Springs up near Truckee, CA, on the road trip I took to commemorate my 50th birthday. I thought I'd never be able to experience silence like that again because of the noise my nearly-deaf ear generates inside my head these past few years. But when I got out of my van at the Sonoran Desert Inn -- in that moment and for a few minutes afterward -- there was that rare kind of silence when the sound between the bird calls is actually quiet, not some kind of background noise. I am so happy and grateful to have had that experience again! I may never hear it again in quite that way, but I'm going to try. I have plans the next few days, but then I hope to get back to Ajo on another still, quiet day before I leave the area.
It is set in a small fictional town in New Mexico and filmed mostly in Truchas, NM https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truchas,_New_Mexico. Ajo, Arizona reminds me of Milagro. Some beautiful old buildings are pristinely maintained and some beautiful old buildings are crumbling. Driving into Ajo, I get the sense of a people who have lived here for generations in a very isolated way. Even though they are the closest town with motels to Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument -- not one of the most famous members of the National Park System, but still it does attract tourists from many places. In that way it also reminds me of Kingman, Arizona. Kingman is located on Historic Route 66, is called by name in the song about the highway, and attracts tourists from far and wide. I was there on a random Wednesday in February, and in the Route 66 Museum I heard tourists speaking a foreign language. Yet the feeling of the town is highly insular and the reality of the town is that it is geographically isolated.
Here are some photos of buildings in Ajo. The first is a beautiful church in pristine condition.
The next is an old hotel that at first glance still looks magnificent. It does still retain much of its beauty, but what the photo doesn't really capture are the boarded-up windows on the side and the windows open to the elements on the front. If you look closely, you can see the piles of discarded furniture and trash along the side of the building and the fence that's falling apart. I'm including a close-up of that part that's a bit over exposed to make it easier to see.
The place that I stayed is an old school that was converted to an inn and conference center. This is what I saw when I first stepped out of my van upon arrival.
What I heard was silence. There was no wind. There was also no road noise. Any mechanical noise from heaters or air conditioners must have been between cycles. There were only birds and silence. I can only recall being somewhere that quiet once before. Certainly not camping in the desert -- I've only been there around other people. Between the people and the wind and the nearby freeway, there is always background noise. The other place was outdoors at Sierra Hot Springs up near Truckee, CA, on the road trip I took to commemorate my 50th birthday. I thought I'd never be able to experience silence like that again because of the noise my nearly-deaf ear generates inside my head these past few years. But when I got out of my van at the Sonoran Desert Inn -- in that moment and for a few minutes afterward -- there was that rare kind of silence when the sound between the bird calls is actually quiet, not some kind of background noise. I am so happy and grateful to have had that experience again! I may never hear it again in quite that way, but I'm going to try. I have plans the next few days, but then I hope to get back to Ajo on another still, quiet day before I leave the area.
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