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The New World Mexican Women of Tecalpulco, Mexico Reviewed by Rita Pomade

New World Women is a native women artisan group in Tecalpulco, Guerrero who decided to form a production cooperative. These skilled artisans are the original designers and producers, creating beautiful jewelry. Theirs is a cottage industry with a goal of perpetuating the region's craft tradition and creating a source of work that can keep their people at home — an alternative to migrating to urban centers or to the U.S. These enterprising women utilize modern means of communication. They communicate through their web page and via romantic novelas serialized on blogs. They write e-mail, post videos on YouTube, and have published an unusual book: The New World Mexican Women Workbook: How to Make Your Own Traditional Mexican Jewelry. read more
book-reviews crafts social-issues Taxco, Guerrero

100 Love Sonnets Reviewed by James Tipton

"Well," you might be asking, "just what does a book titled 100 Love Sonnets have to do with Mexico?" "A lot," I might answer, "because this is a collection 100 sonnets, the first 50 of which were written after the break-up of a fifteen-year marriage" and include fantasies of a future relationship.

The final 50 were written after the author meets Gioia in San Miguel de Allende. They become lovers and "The second half of the sonnets, from 51 on, were inspired by and written for her."

Both halves, though, are about extraordinary women. read more
book-reviews literature

A Pillow Stuffed with Diamonds: Tanka on La Vida Mexicana Reviewed by Rob Mohr

When poet, accomplished musician, champion swimmer and a writer/editor who developed innovative Florida arts curricula entered Mexico, her experiences were deftly transformed into finely-nuanced poetry.

Margaret Van Every's bilingual lyric poetry, following the seventh century Japanese five-line Tanka format, affords the reader one pleasurable moment after another.

With well-honed sensibilities she unveils her day-by-day confrontation with Mexican culture and its people — a confrontation that soon became a love affair. read more
book-reviews literature

Driving Baja: A Guide for First Timers Reviewed by James Tipton

This short book tries to answer questions that first-time Snowbirds who are thinking about driving (perhaps with RVs) down the Baja are likely to ask: "…could we really do it? Is it safe to drive there? Are the roads OK? What if the car breaks down? How do we buy food? Can we take the dog? What if we get sick? Can we drink the water?" Baja California is a peninsula, over 1,000 miles long. read more
book-reviews Baja California

Crossing with the Virgin: Stories from the Migrant Trail Reviewed by James Tipton

This is a powerful book! Four thousand people — men, women, and children — over the past ten years have died trying to cross the Arizona desert in search of better lives.

This is the story of some of those courageous people from Mexico and Central America, and it is also the story of some equally courageous people from the United States... read more
book-reviews social-issues Northern Mexico

Modern Mexico: Through the Eyes of Modern Mexicans Reviewed by James Tipton

Modern Mexico: Through the Eyes of Modern Mexicans
"Most Mexicans don't live on dirt farms, wear sombreros and eat only beans and tortillas. Most Mexicans stay in Mexico because they think the quality of life is better than in the United States. … These are their stories." To write Modern Mexico, "Mexico" Mike Nelson talked with lots of people... read more
book-reviews social-issues

Paradise Valley Reviewed by James Tipton

"Paradise Valley — five thousand acres of prime, flat, fertile farmland nestled in the Sierra Madre of northeastern Mexico, only a hundred miles from the American border."
Inspired by actual events, several Amish families — finding new state laws impossible to live under because they undermined their faith and way of life — set off in 1922 to begin a new life in Mexico. read more
book-reviews fiction history Chihuahua

Revolutionary Days: A Chronology of the Mexican Revolution Reviewed by James Tipton

Revolutionary Days: A Chronology of the Mexican Revolution
Ray Acosta is a second generation Mexican-American His grandparents came from four different parts of Mexico… having fled during the height of the Mexican Revolution. After watching Ken Burns' TV epic on the U.S. Civil War, Acosta was struck by Burns' concluding with "something to the effect that the Civil War still has a profound impact on our lives." read more
book-reviews history

The Through Line: A Journey from Darkness into Life Reviewed by James Tipton

Popular Ajijic photographer Jay Koppelman has two things to celebrate this winter: one, the recent opening of Studio 18, on Colón 18 in Ajijic, which features exclusively his photographs; and two, the recent publication of the first collection of his Mexico photographs, in a handsome coffee-table format, The Through Line. read more
book-reviews Chapala Ajijic, Jalisco San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato

Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo in poetry — Shooting Script: Door of Fire Reviewed by James Tipton

Shooting Script: Door of Fire is a sequence of poems about several "heroes:" Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, Leon Trotsky, with bit parts from Trotsky's wife Natalia, actress Paulette Goddard, surrealist Andre Breton and others.We see them — Diego, Frida, Leon — as if we are watching them through a camera lens. Three people driven by obsessions. read more
book-reviews famous-people

Temples of the Mist: Mayan 6th Sun Reviewed by James Tipton

Temples of the Mist: Mayan 6th Sun
Seventeen-year-old Caleana's parents go to Mexico to camp out in the jungle near the Palenque ruins, but in the jungle mist the pilot of their small plane loses control and crashes. The father — a gifted archaeologist — is killed and possibly the mother, although because the mother's body had not been found, no one is sure.
Uncle Aiden, Aunt Bette, Caleana and her brother fly back to identify the body of their father, and while there Aunt Bette takes the children to the Mayan ruins at Chichen Itza. Aunt Bette places in Caleana's hand "a beautiful amulet of green jade and crystals around a circle. In the middle of the circle was an ancient Mayan woman with a serpent on her head, and jaguar ears and claws." It had been found at the crash site and it was believed to be Caleana's mother's. read more
book-reviews fiction maya Yucatán Peninsula Palenque, Chiapas

The Lacuna: A Novel Reviewed by James Tipton

Tha Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver
"Mexico admits you through an arched stone orifice into the tree-filled courtyard of its heart, where a dog pisses against a wall and a waiter hustles through a curtain of jasmine to bring a bowl of tortilla soup, steaming with cilantro and lime...."

Barbara Kingsolver seduces us once again into a tale well told, a tale of passion and intrigue, of politics and despair, of conspiracy and love. Much of her latest novel, The Lacuna, is set in Mexico, during the still turbulent decades that followed the Mexican Revolution. read more
book-reviews

Sweet Spot: A novel about Mazatlan Carnival, Dirty Politics, and Baseball Reviewed by James Tipton

book cover of Sweet Spot: A novel about Mazatlan Carnival, Dirty Politics, and Baseball by Linton Robinson
I've read a lot of novels in the first ten years of this new century, and I must say that Sweet Spot is one of the three or four I like the best.
The story is set during seven spectacular days of Carnival in Mazatlán, the second largest Carnival in the world. A lot happens during those seven days, including scandal, murder, amoral politics, drug lords searching for our protagonist "Mundo," and bed time with a desirable young revolutionary, the amoral Mijares.
Sweet Spot is incredible. Linton Robinson should be catapulted to the top of the pile of contemporary authors. Why didn't this novel win the National Book Award or the Pulitzer Prize? read more
book-reviews fiction Mazatlán, Sinaloa

Geo-Mexico: The Geography and Dynamics of Modern Mexico Reviewed by John Pint

Colima's Volcan de Fuego
Did you ever wonder why rain usually falls in the late afternoon or night during the summer in western Mexico? Can you figure out why the death rate for Mexicans is four times higher than for US-born workers in the southeastern USA? Do you know why "harmless" organic fertilizers washed into a lake can eventually kill every living thing in it? If you find these questions intriguing, you're going to want to own a copy of Geo-Mexico by Richard Rhoda and Tony Burton. read more
book-reviews geography

Siqueiros: Biography of a Revolutionary Artist by D. Anthony White Reviewed by Rita Pomade

  Siqueiros: Biography of a Revolutionary Artist is a fascinating read for anyone looking for a great story with fascinating characters. It's also an enlightening read for anyone interested in Mexi... read more
artists book-reviews

Drums in the Hills: a personal story of the Mexican Revolution Reviewed by James Tipton

Drums in the Hills cover art
Frank Dolezal, fighting for Pancho Villa during the Mexican revolution, was captured by some of Venustiano Carranza's troops, taken before a mockery of a trial, and was charged with "Treason against the legitimate government of Mexico." With fifteen other prisoners he was taken to a clearing, offered a final cigarette, and then shot.

Miraculously he survived, rescued by Yaqui Indians who saw his leg sticking through the pile of dead bodies…the leg was slowly moving. A Yaqui medicine man cleaned Frank's wounds and, even after gangrene had set in, restored him to health.

Frank's son, Frank O. Dolezal, and his son's daughter, Kathryn Dolezal Tyler, wrote this interesting adventure filled with intrigue, love, loyalty, deceit, suffering and survival, set for the most part in the early days of the Mexican revolution, much of it in and around Alamos. read more
book-reviews history

American novelist Charles Fleming Embree set his first novel at Lake Chapala Reviewed by Tony Burton

Strange, but true. Charles Embree's A dream of a throne, the story of a Mexican revolt, is based on the story of the Lake Chapala area during the 19th century. read more
book-reviews fiction Chapala Ajijic, Jalisco

Mexican Folk Art from Oaxacan Artist Families by Arden Aibel and Anya Leah Rothstein Reviewed by Alvin Starkman

Aficionados of folk art of the state of Oaxaca in southern Mexico are already familiar with Arden Aibel Rothstein and Anya Leah Rothstein's Mexican Folk Art From Oaxacan Artist Families. It was surpris... read more
book-reviews Oaxaca

Gods, Gachupines and Gringos: A People's History of Mexico by Richard Grabman Reviewed by James Tipton

Gods, Gachupines and Gringos no more resembles the typical "history of Mexico" book than a rushing river resembles a dried-up arroyo. I was reading the book at the Lake Chapala Society in Ajijic this morning when a couple of buddies joined me. I told them about the book, and read them a few of the passages above as a little sampler. When I finished I looked up. They responded in unison, "Where can I buy a copy?" read more
book-reviews history

The Last Prince of the Mexican Empire by C. M. Mayo Reviewed by James Tipton

 
In 1864 the Archduke Maximilian von Habsburg, accompanied by his ambitious and beautiful wife Charlotte, arrives in Mexico City. Louis Napoleon had previously sent thousands of French troops to the financially and politically unstable country. Even though Mexico is ruled by a democratically elected president, Benito Juárez, Maximilian is installed as Emperor of Mexico. Juárez must go into hiding. read more
book-reviews famous-people history

Washing Dishes in the Ancient Village / Lavando platos en el antiguo pueblo: A Few Comments Reviewed by James Tipton

Washing Dishes in the Ancient Village / Lavando platos en el antiguo pueblo: Poetry by James Tipton
A little over a year ago, I was searching for a title to pull these short poems together. Enedina stepped out to wash dishes in the cold water of the worn concrete tank immediately behind the house. She greeted that first morning of the new year in her short white dress and white high heeled shoes. read more
book-reviews literature perspectives

Lake Chapala through the ages, an anthology of travellers' tales Reviewed by James Tipton

There is something for everybody in Tony Burton's, Lake Chapala through the ages. Whether you are fascinated by the early history of the place where you now live or visit (or would like to visit), or whether you are interested in early accounts of the natural history of the region, or of the lake itself.

read more
book-reviews exploring-tourism history Chapala Ajijic, Jalisco Jocotepec, Jalisco

Ghosts of the Palace of Blue Tiles: Los fantasmas del Palacio de los Azulejos by Jorge Fernández Granados Reviewed by James Tipton

Ghosts of the Palace of Blue Tiles
 
Many readers of Mexico Connect have discovered these illuminating words by Octavio Paz: "In the United States the word death burns the lips, but the Mexican lives close to it, jokes about it, caresses it, celebrates it, sleeps with it, it is his favorite toy." read more
book-reviews day-of-the-dead literature

Sacred Lake Poems by Bill Frayer Reviewed by James Tipton

  Available from the author Life in Mexico observed by someone who is bursting with affection for his new country. I have reviewed a lot of fiction and non-fiction books for Mexico Connect, but I... read more
book-reviews fiction literature

Notes from Exile Reviewed by Rita Pomade

Mexico is a haven for exiles where the braver or weaker or more foolish can find themselves or re-create themselves or… lose themselves. T. M. Spooner's novel, Notes from Exile, is a lakeside st... read more
book-reviews
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