The Festival Internacional Cervantino in Guanajuato
Guanajuato is, and has been for a long time, a centre of culture and education. In one way or another, it has always been prosperous, either through the richness of its farmland or its mines. There was...
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Guanajuato's sonic landscape
Sometime during my first month in Guanajuato, the idea floated into my head of writing an article about the sonic landscape of the city. This of course includes a great deal of music, since it resounds...
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Life and music in Guanajuato
The city of Guanajuato is nestled in a sort of steep basin in the Sierra Madre Mountains and spreads up around the center of the basin. Imagine a huge, terraced rice paddy such as we've seen in photos ...
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Cascarones: Egging on Mexican fiestas
The Romans coined the phrase Omne vivum ex ovo, "All life comes from an egg." The egg is a universal symbol of birth and resurrection, employed in burial practices of the ancient Egyptians and Gre...
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Piñatas
On TV we saw a "Pinyada" I have no idea of the spelling. It was a stuffed shape (rather large) filled with sweets that you hang up and hit till it breaks and the sweets fall out. I have heard this is Mexican? My 6-year-old son thinks it is lovely - can anyone help on how to make such a "Pinyada."
read moreFiestas de Octubre - Auditorio Benito Juarez, Guadalajara
ESPECTACULOS EN EL INTERIOR DEL AUDITORIO BENITO JUÁREZ
ADDITIONAL PROGRAMS & LOCATIONS:
Community Service Programs · The Bohemio ...
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Las Posadas
Christmas posada
© Dale Hoyt Palfrey, 1996
In Mexico, the Christmas holidays begin unofficially with the saint's day of Our Lady of Guadalupe. But can decorations appear anytime after the Day of t...
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Mexico's traditional papel picado: Classic art for a Mexican fiesta
Experienced Mexico travelers recognize a sure sign that a local fiesta is in progress whenever they spy a churchyard or stretch of roadway bedecked with lines of bright tissue paper cut-outs. ...
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Mexico's Dance of the Sun: Danza del sol
Every so often, an event or circumstance occurs which changes the way we think of ourselves, or our place in the universe. Today was a day like that.
Late yesterday, a guest of my neighbor learned of ...
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The piñata tradition in Mexico
In Mexico the breaking of a piñata accompanies almost every festive occasion. I loved making and breaking piñatas before ever traveling to Mexico Experiences there brought home the fact tha...
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Huellas ...del cohetero
It's a brisk, moonless night. At the edge of the Ajijic plaza, an anxious group of villagers huddle shoulder to shoulder, casting expectant glances towards the star-studded sky. A sudden barrage of whistling, sputtering explosives rents the night air. The crowd takes a collective lunge backwards, letting out a gasp of wondrous surprise. A brilliant flash of multi-colored lights illuminates the mass of upturned faces.
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Huellas ...de Santa Cecilia
November is a festive month here in Ajijic, beginning with the celebrations of All Saints Day and Day of the Dead, and ending with the feast of the village's patron, San Andrés.
Invariably the most l...
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The foundational bull ranches
It has always seemed appropriate to me that the Spanish Ministry of Agriculture, in their monograph Geografia Espanola del Toro de Lidia, uses the valleys of the major rivers of Spain to structure thei...
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Bullfighting in Mexico: The conquest of fear, Latino style
The excitement of the bullfight
© Shep Lenchek, 1997
On Sunday afternoon, at about ten minutes before 4 p.m., local time, in bullrings all over Spain and Mexico, matadors kneel in arena chapels an...
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The Colored Paper Affair
LOVE OF COLORED PAPER is as Mexican as tortillas, tacos, or tequila. There are fiestas all year round and each one is festooned and bright with multi-colored streamers, flowers, and bows; fringed, fold...
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