Maya Doomsday
I'm sick and tired of hearing disagreements between the U.S.A. and Mexico. First, there's the emigration thing with fences and coyotes and blustering politicians; second is the drug thing where the U.S. blames Mexico for their own addictive population; and now the U.S. is blaming the Maya for a prophesied 2012 doomsday scenario.
read moreSteinbeck's Tortilla Flat
John Steinbeck penned his famous book, Tortilla Flat, in 1935, and apparently never considered Hollywood's casting choices when it was made into a film in 1942. If he had, he would've fallen flat himse...
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US postage stamps and Tijuana, Mexico's Seabiscuit connection
Seabiscuit Stamped Envelope (44 cents)
© United States Postal Service, 2009
© United States Postal Service, 2009
Washing Dishes in the Ancient Village / Lavando platos en el antiguo pueblo: A Few Comments
Speaking of Mexico
There is nothing that can compare with the sounds, tastes, and delights of Mexico. Many words have passed through many lips about Mexico, from Herb Alpert to Erik Estrada -- some humorous, some poignan...
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Beautifully Arranged
In the United States those who live on the streets are called homeless, but Martín had a home.
When I moved to La Ribera, a small pueblo just north of Cabo San Lucas in Baj...
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Small Brown Bishops
From my seat near the aisle I am so close to the glowing casket that I can almost touch it.
Although I was baptized 70 years ago, until I came to this little Mexican town I ...
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Huellas . . . De Mis Amores
Chicho gently took my hands in his, leaned in close and locked in on my eyes with a soul-penetrating gaze. "¡Qué bonitos ojos tienes, güerita!" he whispered huskily.
Geez, I wondered to myse...
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Where Divergent Religious Customs Merge: Death Of An Infant In Oaxaca
Between the birth and the death came a crazy-quilt of only-in-Mexico experiences that resonated with my memories
Daniel Pérez González was a beautiful baby. His parents Flor and Jo...
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To the charreada with stars in her eyes
"There is a sensitive filament in our beings, which responds to Mexican music….
To the sight of a horse well ridden, to the spectacle of a bull skillfully lassoed….
All of us, a...
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Pilgrimage with La Virgen de Zapopan from "A House in the Sun" by Dane Chandos
This is an account of the annual procession of La Virgen de Zapopan from te Cathedral in Guadalajara to her home in the Basilica de Zapopan, as experienced in the early 1940s. The procession always takes place on October 12th.
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Helping The Needy
"If you did not have the money to buy such a nice big truck, my goats would still be alive."
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The Guaymas Chronicles: La Mandadera by David E. Stuart
Although it's about Mexico, this one starts off in Ecuador in the 1960s where the author was doing doctoral fieldwork for a dissertation on haciendas in that country. His work took him to a remote research station on the side of a mountain seventy miles from electricity, running water, telephones, etc. One day while riding his horse along the side of a gorge, with the bottom of a canyon almost a thousand feet below him, the horse stumbled and fell. On its way over the edge it rolled over Stuart and disappeared, leaving him badly crippled. He was rescued and eventually found his way to Guaymas, on the coast of the Sea of Cortez, in Mexico, where his fiancé, Iliana, lived. Thus begins the story of his recuperation and, at the same time, the exploration of Mexican society and customs which is described here.
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Queen of the South by Arturo Perez Reverte
The story line concerns a young Mexican girl, Teresa Mendoza, 23 years old, who is in love with a Chicano Cessna pilot who flies cocaine and hashish from Colombia to locations in Texas. It's a dangerous trade to be in and Teresa's lover, Güero Dávila, is well aware of the risks, not only from drug enforcement agents but also from rival narcotraficantes. With the former, the risks are imprisonment. With the latter, the penalty is death should one lose a shipment or not play the game the way the bosses want it played.
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Agave Marias: Border Crossers, Boundary Breakers by the Lake Chapala Women Writers
Here's an unusual volume with ten individual authors, each of whom is independent of the other nine except for the fact they all reside - either full or part-time - in the Lake Chapala area of Mexico. Their book consists of some 45 or more pieces of fiction and non-fiction plus a poem or three. The non-fiction includes travel tales, accounts of significant events in the authors' past lives, recollections of interesting people and other offbeat memoirs and anecdotes.
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Creations In Silver - By Dona Eva Martinez
The designs of Doña Eva Martinez are mostly 18th and 19th century with some pre-hispanic symbolism, predominantly earrings. They are of pure silver and treated to give an antique finish. The designs a...
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A Christmas Story
"Melley Klischma..." That's what I heard when I opened our back door that Christmas morning.
A very young David L. Eppele was bleary-eyed from the yule lights, the tree and the presents. I was right i...
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Armando
Juan Mata Ortíz is a small village of potters, farmers and cowboys in Northern Chihuahua. About 30 years ago, an unschooled artistic genius, Juan Quezada, taught himself how to make earthenware jars i...
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Adaptations: Survival Of The Cleverest
Juan Mata Ortíz is a small village of potters, farmers and cowboys in Northern Chihuahua. About 30 years ago, an unschooled artistic genius, Juan Quezada, taught himself how to make earthenware jars i...
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When Time Was Young
The Malecon in Puerto Vallarta
Photo by Brent Cassie
When Time Was Young
A short story by James Bailey© Jim Bailey 2006 -
It was not, of course, as he ...
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Tears from the Crown of Thorns: The Easter Passion Play in San Miguel de Allende by Charlotte Bell
"People unfamiliar with the Latin culture are curious, confused, and sometimes repulsed by the emphasis on suffering in religious figures. During Easter in North America, the focus is on the resurrection and the delights of spring. The event is concerned with the awe of transformation. There is resistance to facing the suffering that is a major part of this epic…."
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Mexican Mornings: Essays South of the Border by Michael Hogan
Here's an interesting and entertaining collection of essays, mainly about Mexico, like "The Crawling Things of Paradise", a small tribute to all the crawling, flying, buzzing, poisonous, and non-poisonous insects to be found in the state of Jalisco. In the essay "Connections: Odysseus and the Gran Chingón" we find a quite learned investigation into the prevalence of machismo in Latin American society. On the more sober side there are copious references throughout - both critical and positive - to the Mexican natural environment, the economy and the Mexican character.
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Mexicans: Changing The Eastern Oregon Perspective
Large families, devout Catholics, modest clothing, very poor - these are some of the common preconceived notions about Mexicans from a rural eastern Oregon perspective. However, such a view is limiting...
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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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