el crispito

Pruned Tree, Chapalita Sur

Although the cutters seem ready at a moment's notice to lob off all the limbs of a tree, conversely they seem hesitant in their slaughter once they have set to it. One rarely sees a tree cut off at the bottom of the trunk. Instead, they leave the center of the tree standing, stripped of all branches and foliage, leaving only segments of the limbs, like a deciduous Venus de Milo.

Pruned Tree, Chapalita Sur

This poor specimen below stands across from our apartment building. It provided nice shade for the woman that sells tacos every weekday on the corner, but the branch on the far right began to grow too near the power lines that you can see in the shot. Even though it was the only branch that threatened to come anywhere near the wires, all the limbs of the tree were cut off.

I walked outside one day to wait for my cab, and I saw the crew of three men starting to dismantle the whole thing. By the time I returned from my errands, this is all that was left.

Pruned Tree, Chapalita Sur

Nobody seems to know why they cut trees like this in Guadalajara. Nobody seems to find it attractive. Everyone I have talked to finds it ugly, and none can explain the logic behind stripping trees down so severely but not removing them entirely.

Pruned Tree, Chapalita Sur

There are many neighborhoods in Guadalajara that have no trees whatsoever. Apart from little ornamental tokens here and there and a couple in Plaza San Francisco, the centro histórico and surrounding neighborhoods have no trees. Starting around Avenida Federalismo as you head west from the downtown along Avenida Vallarta, you start to see a few more here and there. Parque de los Colomos has a lot of trees, but it is clearly set apart from the ritzy, tree-free residential areas that surround it. It is as if it were a tree ghetto where trees are tolerated and not as viewed as threatening as long as they are kept isolated in a self-contained area.

Pruned Tree, Chapalita Sur

A shopping complex for Wal-Mart and Sam's Club near Plaza Galerías has a few ficuses littered about throughout the enormous parking lot. On the hot days before the rainy season comes, when the sun blazes in the sky and there is little breeze to cool things down, customers treasure the little islands of shade created by those trees in that sea of baking asphalt. All the spots in the shade fill up before any others. Even if people have to walk from the far edge of the parking lot where there are no other cars, they will take park in the shady spots to keep their cars cool.

So why do tapatios not plant more trees, and why do they do this to the trees that already exist?

Pruned Tree, Chapalita Sur

I have heard it argued that after the trees are savaged like this, that new growth will start again and the tree will soon be just as leafy as it was before. This is a load of hogwash.

To the extent that the leaves do come back, they come back as shown in the photo below. A few twigs grow out of the side of the hacked off branches and start to put out leaves. This is hardly as leafy as the tree was before, and it results in a weird combination of poofy/gangly, like a recently trimmed French poodle.

Pruned Tree, Chapalita Sur

After a few years of struggling back, it might get to where it looks like this.

Pruned Tree, Chapalita Sur

This is an example of a tree that survived pruning and managed to slip under the radar thus far. It's safe, but for how long?

Pruned Tree, Chapalita Sur

Others are not so lucky.

Pruned Tree, Chapalita Sur

The ones that do not make it are left to stand like this for years on end. This one, across the street diagonally from our apartment, has been like this since we moved in, coming up on two years now. Who knows how long it stood like this before we got here?

Pruned Tree, Chapalita Sur