The Quetzalcoatl "Trinity"
It is entirely correct to think of the Aztec legend Quetzalcoatl in three contexts -- as historical personality, as divinity and as literary subject. In the first incarnation he is a 10th century pries...
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Mexico's Niños Heroes ("heroic children"): reality or myth...
On March 5, 1947 President Harry S. Truman was on the next to last day of a three-day whirlwind visit to Mexico. Departing from his prepared agenda, he announced that he wanted to make a stop at Mexico...
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Mesoamerican religion: symbolism of the Gods - part one
Our main sources of information on pre-Hispanic religion in Mesoamerica include archaeological monuments and Classic murals, as well as Landa's Relación and ethnological reports of surviving re...
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Mesoamerican religious concepts
How do we know what we know (or think we know) about the ancient civilizations of Mexico and Guatemala?
A little knowledge can be a dangerous thing, especially when it comes to ancient Mexico. With a ...
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Mesoamerican religious concepts part one
When the Spaniards first arrived in Mexico, they were completely mystified by the religious practices of the Aztecs, Maya, and other indigenous peoples with whom they came in contact. Even the hardened...
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Cultural concepts of history
One man's history is another man's myth. Voltaire
The Maya and the Aztecs, among others, developed many different forms of literature long before the arrival of the Spaniards. They were also ...
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South of Yesterday: A True Story by Virginia Downs Miller
"South of Yesterday" is the story of my mother's life as a bride coming to a strange land. The book flows through the charmed life of an American living in Guadalajara in the early nineteen hundreds, into the violence of the Revolution, escape from and return to a much-beloved Mexico. I related never before publicized events of history."
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Zapata by John Steinbeck
In 1952, John Steinbeck won an Academy Award nomination for his screenplay of the movie, Viva Zapata! Many years later, however, a manuscript was found in UCLA Library in which it was discovered he had...
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Baja California - The Wedding
I rented a small house in La Gloria, in the hills between Rosarito Beach and Tijuana. It was a cozy place. I had painted inside and out and landscaped the yard. A willow tree shaded the back patio and ...
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Life And Death Ritual - La Corrida
I have never been an ‘
aficionado’ or ardent fan of bullfighting, but during the summer of ’57 I went to the bullfights regularly while spending the summer in Mexico City as a student. It l...
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La Bruja (the Witch)
As you may know, there are
Brujas Blanca's (white witches) and
Brujas Negra's (black witches). The white witches do good and the black witches cast spells for which mean or envious people...
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Did You Know? Mathieu de Fossey
Mathieu de Fossey was born in France in 1805, and educated in Dijon. Politically disillusioned following the end of the reign of King Charles X in 1830, Fossey responded enthusiastically to an intrig...
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Did you know? Mexico's Domesday Book
Mexico's equivalent of the Domesday book was compiled in the sixteenth century.
History shows that conquerors often have very little idea of what they have really acquired until it is firmly within th...
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Did You Know? Bouncing balls and Mexican ingenuity
Rubber balls wouldn't bounce very high if it wasn't for some Mexican ingenuity.
The Morning Glory
Ipomoea alba, the tropical white-flowering morning glory (moonflower or moon vine) is a perennial in ...
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Did You Know? Mexico yachtsman won the first round-the-world yacht race
The first Whitbread Round-The-World yacht race was won by a Mexican.
Most people do not associate Mexico and Mexicans with yachting, but it’s a fact that the first Whitbread Round-The-World Yacht Ra...
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Did You Know? The Hero of Nacozari
November 7, 2007, marks the centenary of the death of Jesús García, the "Hero of Nacozari."
The small town of Nacozari occupies a valley nestled in the foothills of the Western Sierra Madre (Sierra ...
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Did you know? Mexico City's charwoman-businessman: Conchita Jurado
A charwoman-actress once captivated Mexican high society in her alter ego as Don Carlos Balmori.
An elaborate tomb in Mexico City's main cemetery, the Panteón Civil de Dolores, is a lasting reminder ...
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Did you know? Mexico's first tourists
Father Alonso Ponce and Friar Antonio de Ciudad Real were probably Mexico's first ever tourists.
Father Alonso Ponce de León arrived in Veracruz in September 1584 and spent the next five years travel...
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Did you know? Mexico was a very different place fifty years ago
G. M. Bashford's Tourist Guide to Mexico was first published exactly fifty years ago in 1954. It was one of a spate of motoring book guides written after World War II as Americans began to hit the open...
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Did You Know? Mexico is home to oldest indigenous American domesticated dog breed.
When someone mentions "dogs" and "Mexico" in the same sentence, most people think immediately of the cute Chihuahua, small in proportions and large in personality but commonly dismissed by lovers of larger dogs as a small and unimportant "toy" breed.
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Did You Know? Mexican inventor won first color TV patent.
The world's first patent for a color TV was granted to a young Mexican inventor.
Guillermo González Camarena was just 23 years old in 1940 when he submitted his application in Mexico for a US Patent....
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Did You Know? - At One Time Alaska Was Part Of Mexico?
In the second half of the 18th century both the Russians and the British began to penetrate into the Alaskan peninsula, an area considered a Spanish possession as Spain was credited with "discovering" ...
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Did You Know? - Castille Soap
From the late 17th century and throughout the 18th, Castille soap was the reigning soap of Europe. It surpassed even the French soaps that, at their peak, were considered supremely prized elements of t...
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Did You Know? - Henequen - Sisal
One of the greatest gifts the Indigenous peoples of Mexico shared with the world was their discovery and cultivation of natural fibers. One of these, henequén, continues to be used throughout the...
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Did you know? A sacred game
The ancient game of amalla was not mere sport. The ballcourt was a "middleworld" between gods and humans, a battleground for the cosmic tension between life and death, good and evil, sacrifice and...
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