Update: La Panaderia Monarca, the Monarch Bakery: One Year Later: New Years 2021
It was a dream made manifest, a way to earn a living doing what one loved to do while not harming the environment. La Panaderia Monarca opened one year ago in the little pueblo of Macheros, at the foot of Cerro Pelon, one of the monarchs major overwintering hideaways. It grew from 250 loaves a day to over 800 loaves daily. Then the pandemic came. Fear arrived. Business slowed. Without the influx of m
oney from tourists, and with the local economy in shambles, the bakery faltered.
The bakery is fluttering slowly back to life. New Years was made more cheerful for everyone in Macheros since each one received a gift bag of a sweet bread for 2021 to remind them how tasty bread baked by Memo really is. This was made possible by the generosity of many who donated therough the Go Fund Me for Mexican Bakery. We hope he can hang in till the area 
is once again safe to 
open to tourists and money flows through this little pueblo.
There are many challenges that monarch butterflies face, among them deforestation in Mexico. For the people who live in poor pueblos in the foothills of the mountains where millions of monarchs overwinter, trees are an integral part of their lives; they cook food over the fire, build their homes and furniture from the wood, and sell a few trees to help feed their families. There are few alternatives to earning a living.
One young man, my godson, Memo (Guillermo) Velasquez, had a dream. Instead of cutting trees, he wanted to bake bread and open a bakery in his little pueblo. There is no bakery in the area. This project has great potential to succeed, eventually employing many others.
With your help, the bakery began operations December 18th, 2019. Here is a photo of Memo with the first two hundred fifty loaves
. Each person employed in the enterprise is not cutting trees to feed his family. Learn how you can expand bakery operations to hire more people. Click here to make a donation via Go-Fund-Me: View fundraiser You will be enabling a young man’s dream of baking bread instead of cutting trees, a reality.
With the help of many, the bakery opened and slowly expanded. Then, the pandemic hit. Still, the bakery was a boon to the community. However; at this moment, October 2020, when the pandemic has hit Mexico severely, no one has money. The bakery is temporarily shuttered. I hope to report better news soon.
This project helps transform the lives of the people of this rural area to create a better future for their families while protecting their environment.
Thank you for donating via Go-Fund-Me: Bakery
Every journey begins with a single step. Memo started baking bread in his casita. I received these photos via the internet, a miracle in itself that this rural world is able to connect and communicate .
Back Story:
In the shadow of Cerro Pelon, a mountain on the border between the states of Michoacan and Mexico, where millions of monarch butterflies overwinter, there is a small pueblo called Macheros. I have gotten to know the people in this pueblo over the years by living among them.
After an intense two-month quest climbing the mountains of Mexico, I was guided to the sacred mountain of monarchs, escorted by the political patriarch of the area, plus ten mountain men with pistols, lassos and rifles, among them Valentin Velasquez. It was the first day of spring 1977; approximately fifty million monarchs were in an aerial mating dance.
It was extraordinary, the magnificent reality exceeding my dreams and expectations. That first visit, I left my escorts behind, disappearing among the monarchs. I fell to my knees in deep gratitude. In exchange for my being witness to this sacred ancient gathering, I vowed to do all in my power to protect the monarchs, which I knew included helping the very poor mountain people.
I have been visiting almost yearly ever since then, camping among the monarchs in the early years, with Valentin Velasquez as my guide and protector. Subsequently, I spent some time of the year living among the mountain people when making my pilgrimage to the monarchs. They have become part of my extended family.
I have been witness to how life has changed for the butterflies, the people, and the environment in the decades I have been going there. I chronicle these changes in my book, The Adventures of a Butterfly Warrior, for which I am looking for a publisher or literary agent. My first book, The Spirit of Butterflies: Myth, Magic & Art, published by Harry Abrams, has sold out.
Poverty is an ecological disaster. I have tried to help the mountain people in various ways through reforestation programs, helping to distribute six million trees planted by the campesinos. I have helped the women sell their hand woven pine needle craft creations as well as teach others how to do it.
The butterflies have guided me in a myriad of ways. From literal search, to spiritual guidance, to environmental activism, the monarchs have given me many lessons, including every positive act reverberates in the world. Positive activism is the antidote to fear, hopelessness, and cynicism.
My godson, Memo (Giullermo), 24 years of age, is the grandson of my guide Valentin, guardian of the monarchs, as his father had protected the butterflies before him. Memo wants to protect the environment just as his grandfather and great grandfather had done. He also needs to provide for his young family, yet doesn’t want to cut trees.
He has a passion for baking bread and has had a dream to open a bakery as a way for him to earn a living as well as employ others in the village. There is no other ‘panaderia’, bakery, in this rural area, but there are many towns nearby where he could build a clientele. Now that so many people visit the area, there are many hotels as potential clients.
I have witnessed the profound changes that this pueblo has gone through in my decades of visiting. In the 70’s and 80’s, there were no roads to the area, there was no electricity, no plumbing, no running water (even now cold water is brought to the outside of each house from high in the mountains through underground pipes), electricity arrived in the 1990’s. Roads to and through half the town have been built only in the past five years.
A few years ago, the first B&B opened in Macheros by Joel Moreno, a lovely young man in his thirties, whom I have known all his life, and his beautiful American wife, Ellen, who has a PhD in anthropology. Having worked for many years in the U.S. sending money home to build his dream, a B&B, his English was excellent. They met about eight years ago when he was her guide to the butterflies.The beautifully appointed B&B is the first to have indoor plumbing, with hot water heated by a solar panel, amenities the townspeople do not yet enjoy.
A bakery would be another profound step in helping the people of this pueblo step into the future. In my early years traveling here, I felt as if I were a million reality miles away from the States; slowly the dynamic is changing, now only half million reality miles away.
There are many stories to share, but I hope you will help the monarchs by helping this bakery succeed, creating a self-sustaining business as an alternative to cutting trees.
The monarchs, Memo, the people of Macheros and I thank you from our hearts.
Memo has had this dream for years. You gotta have a dream if you want to make it come true.