Superman is an illegal alian: humor and satire in the corrido
Mexicans are lining up on the south side of the Rio Grande and North Americans are lining up on the north side, each group of citizens looking for something from the other. For the North Americans, it'...
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Why Mexico, you ask?
May is our primary month for visiting friends and renewing acquaintances in the good old United States of America. It's catch-up time for birthdays and anniversaries, the correct time to analyze Tennes...
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Old friends ask about Mexico
A pair of old friends from New York dropped in to see me for a couple of days. First thing I have to tell you is that we hadn't seen each other in over twenty years. Second thing is that they thought m...
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Pssssst! Wanna Buy A Rolex?
The first time was in New York, along Seventh Avenue, near the intersection with Broadway, where the streets come together to make a piece of pie. No doubt I was gawking. Might as well have carried a s...
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A prudent application of guilt
Guilt can be a wonderful thing, and very useful. That's why it's so popular in religion, especially the one I grew up in. Catholic. If applied wisely to the tender minds of children, guilt can last a l...
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The biggest mistake I ever made in Mexico
You might think the biggest mistake I ever made in Mexico was packing up and driving north to Taos to escape the cinder-bearing, stinging hot winds from Chiapas. But you'd be wrong.
Or you might think...
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Lions Club in Mexico: giving and receiving
You've heard about those push-and-shove Americans who cross the border with their arms full and want Mexico to stop, look and listen. Well, they're at it again. These northern do-gooders, wearing Lens ...
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An Evening in Paris with Mom
Someone was wearing Evening in Paris perfume the other day, and the scent instantly reminded me of Mom. I haven't smelled Evening in Paris since we lost her, yet its fragrance transported me back to ch...
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There's something about Mexico
A Maya myth, as recorded by Alfonso Villa R. in Quintana Roo and recently reported to me, tells us that God created a number of human couples, each with the racial characteristics of the group to which...
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Comparison of Mexican and Canada/US Education
Background
Whereas the Canadian and US educational systems have been influenced by their British ancestry, the Mexican educational system is based on its French and Spanish ancestry. The different beg...
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El taxi, or el toro?
Hemingway said there are two types of spectators at a bullfight: those who identify with the bull, and those who identify with the matador.
When a bull is properly lined up for the kill, it is called ...
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Buying a home in Mexico
Who would have thought that buying a house in Mexico would be such a scandal? Maybe it should have occurred to me beforehand that I would encounter some very unusual problems while trying to acquire pr...
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Who would have thought?
I've been very quiet for the past few months; I apologize for the silence. I'm finally back, and I have BIIIIIIIIG news. No, it's not a divorce, or a birth, or a career change that brought me a six-fig...
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By the way ...
I've been living and working in Mexico for almost two years, and lately, I've been reflecting a great deal about my experiences-and my articles. I was going to write about Mexican family economics (and...
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To bribe or not to bribe?
There´s no denying it - Mexico is a beautiful land. But there is no uglier sight in this world than what I am about to describe. Imagine a portly man dressed in black pants with a yellow stripe down t...
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A dog's life
About three months ago, I was at the mall with Carlos. It was a Sunday like any other; we were simply out for a stroll around the shopping center. Carlos always goes to the pet store to look at the dog...
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Mexican family economics
One of my first questions upon arriving to Monterrey was, "How do people survive here?" Salaries are so embarrassingly low for the majority of the population, and the cost of living is sky high. So how...
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Odds And Ends, Or Forty Things Everyone Should Know
While in Mexico I have learned many things, some of them nice and some of them not so nice. Most of what I have "learned" just makes me chuckle, like the time my mother-in-law told me I would get anemi...
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Mexican eye for the gringo guy
According to the show business trade paper, The Hollywood Reporter, "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy," the megahit TV show whose stars are known as The Fab Five, will soon have some light-hearted compet...
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My Life As An Escaramuza Mom
In this day and age, dedicated parents willingly support any type of sporting activity that draws the interest of our off-spring. The average mother of today assumes a host of collateral tasks that go ...
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Leo loves a good cockfight
The scene is set: The pit, the crowd, the beer, the betting. No question about when the cockfight begins. The tension level goes up and noise soars with it. There is a violent explosion, a blur of fury...
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Los Dias de los Muertos (the Days of the Dead)
Foreigners have more trouble understanding Los Dias de Los Muertos than any of Mexico's other fiestas. At first glance, Day of the Dead decorations, colored paper garlands, little skel...
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Where did the word 'gringo' come from anyway?
When expatriates leave their homes in Mexico to visit their places of birth, they sometimes playfully refer to their original country as " Gringolandia."
Where, I wondered, did the word "grin...
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Mrs. Baldwin of Missouri teaches all about Mexico
When sixth-grade teacher, Dorothy Baldwin, sent an email asking for permission to use my story, "The Day I Photographed Josefina's Family," in a class project about Mexico, I said yes, and requested sh...
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Wedding invitation
Petra is the grand matriarch in our Mexican community of Nestipac, in suburban Jocotepec. A daughter and two children live to the right of her home. Two sons and their familes live to her left. Those o...
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