Rancho La Puerta vision spreads over landscape and Tecate

 

Second in a Series

Photos and story by Donald H. Harrison

TECATE, Mexico — Sarah Livia Szekely Brightwood was designated to succeed her mother, Deborah Szekely, as the president of Rancho La Puerta after her brother, Alex, who had prepared for the administrative job,  died of cancer in 2002.

“I never studied business, never studied management,” she confided.  “I am an artist, a designer, a creative person.  I love to garden. I’ve gardened all my life. I love the natural world.  Most of my artistic expression one way or the other is connected to that love of the earth.  I would not have chosen to take on the administrative responsibilities.”

She commutes to Rancho La Puerta from Marin County, where she lives with her daughter Emily.  Her former husband is Michael Brightwood, a craniosacral therapist who lectures at Rancho La Puerta.   Day-to-day operations of the sprawling property are the responsibility of Roberto Arjona, the general manager, while Sarah’s mother, Deborah, 90,  who lives in San Diego, remains involved.  There also is a strong board of directors which advises the Szekely family on business matters,  so Sarah Livia clearly is not without resources in running the 72-year-old, 3,000-acre health ranch.

“It is still not what is in my heart to do, but I love the place and the people and our guests so much, and I do feel that the legacy of the family and the value of the work we do is so compelling that I am trying to find a way to adapt to this role, and not lose the inspiration and my connection to the things that really matter to me — tres estrellas (the ‘three stars’ farm) and the organic program, the kids program, and the works we do in the community,” she said.   “It’s a new balance.”

Sarah Livia’s face takes on an attractive intensity as she talks about her connection to the land and is similarly animated when she discusses how, despite a religiously eclectic background, she came to embrace Judaism.

La Cocina Que Canta — The Kitchen That Sings — is not only a popular feature of Rancho La Puerta, but in Sarah Livia’s view, it is a metaphor for the overall Rancho La Puerta experience.  Guests sign up to visit its 6-acre organic garden where more than 90 percent of the ranch’s food is grown. They harvest the vegetables, bring them into the kitchen, clean them, and then participate in the preparation of a meal of several courses, each pair or threesome of guests being responsible for one of the courses.

“There are a lot of women who are not at home in the kitchen–their mothers worked—and it is one of those firsts that people can experience here,” said Sarah Livia.  “We can have very accomplished cooks and novices gathered around a table where everybody is sharing with their teammates in making their part of the feast. So in that sharing you are helping each other, you’re remembering other times when you were cooking with other people, and there is that whole other level of nourishment which is about community.

“Also harvesting in the garden,” she said. “When there is a disconnect with our food, it is much easier for us to justify eating fast food or food that is unhealthy,  but when you are actually experiencing the place where the food is grown and you are harvesting out of the earth, it reminds us of how important it is over the entire cycle — how your food is grown, where it is grown, who cares for it, how the people who grow the food are cared for, how it is handled and cooked and prepared and served, and what state you are in when you eat it.

“So the people who work in the garden, their lives have meaning;  they know that they are growing really good quality food, and in the act of growing that food, they are also replenishing the soil. They aren’t harming the environment, they aren’t increasing their own toxic burden through their farming, their work.”

The name-“the kitchen that sings”– “is about that special ingredient, which is joy, and when you gather around the table and you are surrounded by these incredible aromas and beautiful colors and you are learning something and you are sharing with people, joy is present,” Sarah Livia said.

“So my desire with the cooking school was to show people how wonderful it is to create a meal in community and with intention, and to be able to eat it out of that space and celebrate that.  In doing that I am hopeful that people will be more awake and conscious about the food choices that they are making and will give themselves more time and space to cook their own food.”

The landscaping of Rancho La Puerta also reflects another of Sarah Livia’s passion.

One aspect of the ranch is that it is “a walking village in that we have a unity of materials, the materials are all local, and we have our own approach to building that has evolved over time so when you are here there is a unity, a harmony in the landscape,” she said. “Even though it has evolved in different phases, we have stayed true to the vernacular here which is brick and stone and roof tile and floor tile — it is all right here in the valley.”

“We want people to walk and we want people to be outdoors, so people can experience the buzzy, interactive, exciting life that is more in the center of the village, but their casitas (cottages) are more private and quiet,” she said.  “The journey from their casitas to their classes is also an experience.  For me, having a place for the wildlife is also important.  People delight in seeing the bunnies and the lizards and the quail scurry across the paths.  There is a child in us that loves that. The child is always eager to learn and experience something new.  A healthy child is not fearful. So we want that child to wake up and that is one of the ways I like to do it.

“I  like the landscape to flow into the natural landscape so that it seamless,” Sarah Livia added.  “So we use a lot of native plants and a lot of eco-equivalent plants.  On the practical side we have water issues and maintenance concerns so the landscape has evolved out of wanting a landscape that really delights the senses and delights the eyes that we can maintain … and that connects us to the mountain (which looms over the village portion of the property), to nature and to the wild as much as possible.  We have our own nursery so we grow all our own plants on site.”

There are many shady areas throughout the village, and “there are always surprises when you follow the path,” Sarah Livia said.  “They curve around corners and you don’t know what you are going to meet next. There may be a water feature with fish in it, and turtles, and the next time you come there might be a heron fishing from that pond, or a fox coming to drink from it, so I love that.   We are always inviting that interaction and a dynamic experience with the landscape.  We have a lot of benches for sitting, a wonderful glider under the poplar tree, and hammocks for resting in the shade.  I like people to be seduced into resting and being quiet.”

Growing up on the ranch, in the “100 percent Catholic environment” of Mexico, Sarah Livia “explored a lot” and was “very curious about different religions.  My mother (Deborah Szekely) was doing more Zen Buddhism, so at her house (in the Mission Hills section of San Diego) it was Japanese-inspired, a lot of Buddhas, shrines and incense.  I was exposed to all these different traditions.”  After her grandmother Rebecca died,  her grandfather (Harry Shaiman) married a woman named Edith, who brought with her a music box that played Hatikvah and bedtime stories out of the Old Testament.  Mother was busy and working all the time, and really it was Edith who brought the heart and soul of Judaism into my life.”  As a child in the late 19th century Edith was smuggled from the Ukraine to Palestine, her hair cut like a boy, and later immigrated to the United States.  But once Israel became independent, she felt that she needed to return to that land and help teach Hebrew.

“Trying to find my own spiritual center took me to Berkeley and the Aquarium Minyan, and I then went to the University of Oregeon in Eugene, arriving at a serendipitous time,” Sarah Livia recalled.  There were a rabbinical student and a cantorial student — Arieh who became a beloved rabbi and Yitzhak, who together ran the shul waiting for a new rabbi to come.   It was very family oriented.  They were both phenomenal musicians.  One played cello, one played guitar, and I started going to shul regularly.   We would have Shabbat potlucks in each other’s houses, Havdallah in each other’s houses, and I experienced for the first time in my life all the traditions in the time of a year.

“That was when I connected with my Jewish roots, and I can dance a lot of circle dances, know the words to a lot of songs, but I don’t have the depth of understanding as if I had been raised in the teachings.  So my friends at U of O became my Jewish community.  I had a friend who helped me put the mezuzah up, and make a challah.   I don’t always celebrate Shabbat, but my community is interwoven with the Jewish community.”

Every Friday afternoon, Sarah Livia has candles, challah and wine set out in the board room of the ranch, close to the dining room, so that Jewish guests–and their friends — can enjoy a Shabbat ceremony before dinner which, though not supervised by a mashgiach, is always pareve.

“One of the other things I really appreciated, I am part of the generation when women got to be cantors and rabbis when I was first coming in,” she said.  “I’m 56 today and 40 years ago the doorway was just opening.  One of the reasons I was able to dive in was the shechina and Miriam, and the greater awareness of the feminine within the Jewish tradition was opening.  I could walk into that, blessed when I stepped through the door.  It was joyful and spiritual and deep and it meant so much.”

While the custom of helping others pervades many religious traditions, in Judaism the concept of tikkun olam — repair of the world — resonates with Sarah Livia as it did with her parents before her.   The Szekely family has built a foundation which has focused on spreading the benefits of exercise, ecological harmony and appreciation of culture throughout the Tecate region.

With 400 employees drawn mostly from the local population, Rancho La Puerta feels a responsibility for the community in which it operates, says Sarah Livia.  “In the last 15 years one of the most successful programs that we have funded is the environmental education program.

Fundación La Puerta funded an environmental center called Las Piedras (The Stones) that is housed in a building made to look like the giant granite boulders found on the mountain of Tecate.  “We wanted to create something that on the outside looked like the boulders, but on the inside opened the eyes to the world.  Jim Hubbell (whose designs also can be seen at Rancho La Puerta and at the Foundation-supported Kumeyaay Museum in the Tecate Cultural Center) did the stained glass windows, and we created a magical space that children look forward to seeing every year. The kids start kindergarten and come to us right through middle school.  They have a series of workshops that are integrated into the national curriculum.”

On every visit to Las Piedras, the children “are learning about another layer of meaning in the environment,” said Sarah Livia. “They may learn about geology, or the plant strategies for surviving in a climate where there is a lot of dry season.  They will learn about flora and fauna interactions.  They learn about the watershed. They learn about water quality.   So, they have many opportunities in their growing up to visit Las Piedras and we are a model for environmental education in our part of the world.  We have a summer camp program with different themes every year. This year it was alternative technology.”

The camp introduces children to the wonders of the region,” she said.”They go high in the mountains to San Pedro Martir (between Tecate and Ensenada)  or down to the desert.  Many will see the ocean for the first time.”

One of the projects of Fundación La Puerta was to lobby successfully against a plan by the Tecate City Council to channelize the river.  “What we needed was to restore the river,” Sarah Livia said.  “We don’t want to send all that water away. We really need the water to recharge our groundwater.”

Next to Las Piedras is another Foundation-supported project, the Parque del Professor (professor’s park), honoring the memory of Edmond Szekely.   It is a sports and cultural complex.

“There wasn’t a fine stadium to play soccer when we opened the parque del professor,” said the namesake’s daughter.  “We have guided the town to such a wonderful place to play that the scouts for national teams come to Tecate and not Tijuana to scout for new talent.  Tecate is a tiny town compared to Tijuana, but  it’s a little bit of ‘build it and they will come act of faith.’  By creating a place to play with all the intramural teams, everybody is excited to play there, and we gave more energy.”

The Parque.Professor is also a major gathering place for two annual occasions — World Environment Day, and Mexico’s Day of the Dead.

On World Environment Day, a huge fair is held on a concourse above the soccer field, which for the occasion has been turned into a large parking lot.  Museums are among 70 to 80 exhibitors at the fair, and there is “a lot of programming and teaching that happens and it is a great day out with the family.”

The Day of the Dead, in which Mexicans remember and celebrate their ancestors, “is organized as a competition,” Sarah Livia said.  “All of the schools and organizations that want to enroll create traditional Day-of-the-Dead altars, which have a lot of symbolism.  The schools spend a lot of time choosing a theme and bringing the elements to support and celebrate the theme.  Then we have judges from the anthropology department of the university. They will give prizes to the winners.

“We have traditional Day-of-the-Dead theater pieces and music as well,” Sarah Livia said.  “It is a lot of fun.”

Rob Larson, a friend of Sarah Livia’s from post-college days, works at the ranch as a tour guide and general aide.  Conducting me on a tour through Las Piedras and the Parque del Professor, he noted that Tecate has grown considerably in recent years, attracting residents who are from other parts of Mexico.  Day of the Dead is one celebration that people from throughout Mexico have in common, he said.  By sponsoring the Day-of-the-Dead festivities at the Parque del Professor, the foundation helps to build a sense of community.

Rancho La Puerta brings its guests to the Day-of-the-Dead celebration in November, and the culture of Mexico–including art inspired by the Day of the Dead — permeate the ranch.

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Next:  The art of Rancho La Puerta
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Harrison,  editor of San Diego Jewish World, seeks Jewish-interest stories wherever he goes. His wife Nancy is an agent with Avoya Travel/ American Express, who’ll be happy to answer questions about Rancho La Puerta accommodations and reservations at  (800) 786 3265, or (619) 265-2909, or via nancy.harrison@avoyatravel.com