Pennies from heaven: in memory of my friend Dona
My friend passed away last week. I want to share her with you. But more than that, I need to explore my own feelings around her death. Why? First for me, so I can understand me better and second to per...
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Crime may pay
When church groups and civic clubs, north of the border, are seeking something for almost nothing, they sometimes invite me to tell about life in Mexico. Some listeners squirm around and seem dissatisf...
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The Chapala lakeside as it was
As Yogi Berra might say, 90 per cent of the world is changing. The other half is making adjustments.
Among relatively recent arrivals to the shores of Lake Lirio (formerly Lake Chapala before water hy...
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How my Mexican relatives came to California and saved the US economy
If you are a very lucky person, somebody in your family marries into a Mexican family and you end up with an abundance of diversified riches in your life.
Your home rings with laughter in at least two...
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The Dark Side of the Dream by Alejandro Grattan-Dominguez
The story begins in 1941, at the time America went to war with Japan and Germany. It concerns the Salazar family, poor farmers in Chihuahua. The grandfather, Sebastian, knows he is dying and he advises the family to move to the United States. He reasons that because of the war the Americans will want lots of people to work in their country as their men go off to fight. Their farm is a ruin. Only expensive fertilizer could bring it back to life. And they don't have any money.
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Enough water hyacinths, more than enough
Ancient Chinese proverb say ox in ditch bad news. Really bad if your ox.
Lirio (water hyacinths) on Lake Chapala, in the colorful state of Jalisco, in this magical country called Mexico, is bad news. ...
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Renovating our Morelia house
We passed through the Mexican customs station just south of the Laredo border crossing at 5:30 a.m. It was still dark. The car was crammed with things we were going to need before our major shipment of...
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Tortilla run: a day in Tijuana
We woke at 7 a.m. to the blaring horn of the propane truck " beepbeeeeeepbeepbeeeeeeeeep " and wonder if he will ever buy a muffler for that dang truck.
We dress quickly so that we can get to the ...
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A day in the life of my mother-in-law by Alex Vinson
Wake up about 6am.
Verify today is the day that water is available (every 3rd day).
Prop the front door open with a stick.
Remove the carefully coiled garden hose from its storage place ...
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Tienda del las dos estufas
My suegra (mother-in-law) decided that she wanted to sell vegetables from her front porch in rural Guerrero. I asked her how much profit she would like to make and we would work the numbers back...
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My neighbor the truck driver
What was all that whirring and buzzing noise coming from downstairs?
My new neighbor from Mexico City was spending a sunny Saturday polishing the fuel tank on his semi tractor.
I introduced myself (a...
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Where's everybody?
It was just about five years ago that my friends started to disappear from the streets of the little Mexican villages on the shores of Lake Chapala where I had retired some three years earlier. At firs...
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Midlife Mavericks: Women Reinventing Their Lives In Mexico
In her first non-fiction book, Midlife Mavericks, author Karen Blue presents the stories of nineteen American and Canadian women who left their countries, families, and cultural roles to begin new lives in Mexico.
read moreA real estate overview of Puerto Vallarta
- around the Bay of Banderas
The real estate market can be divided into five distinct zones. The most northern zone, in the STATE OF NAYARIT, is approximately 45 minutes from central downt...
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Only Once in a Lifetime by Alejandro Grattan
Here's a story that takes in a complete life, from childhood well into adulthood, and from rags to riches. It's a story that is of interest to we residents in the Lake Chapala area as it starts out in Ajijic and covers a fair number of years there - or should I say here. On page one we encounter ten-year-old Francisco Obregón, a homeless barefoot orphan outside the Old Posada on the Ajijic waterfront. It's 1940 and Francisco is hustling for odd jobs and tips. It's the only way he can manage to survive.
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Mexico weatherman
It happens every autumn. North-of-the-border questions make my day. The latest best one was "Isn't it sad to miss Christmas?"
Do what?
"You go to Mexico each winter. You always miss Christmas."
Good...
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Dateline: Ajijic
Great rain clouds filled the sky over Lake Chapala as my friend, Tomas, turned the curve where you first spy Scorpion Island en route from the airport.
"You've brought good weather," he said, grinning...
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Amazing Grace
This little story of life along Lake Chapala probably belongs in a movie or a museum dedicated to strange and unusual happenings. You can believe it or not.
Our kind and gentle friend, Grace Contrades...
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Breaking Even by Alejandro Grattan-Dominguez
"What Val saw as his long period of involuntary servitude was about to come to an end. In the prison movie parlance he liked to affect, he had done his 'hard time.' He had finally reached his eighteenth birthday, and Texas law entitled him to make his own decisions now." The time is 1955. Val has just graduated from high school - although barely. He's finally free to escape the tiny Texas town of Big Bend, which he detests, and go off to California. Val's mother, Guadalupe, is Mexican and his father, who has long since flown the coop, is Anglo, which at least makes Val part Mexican.
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Ninotchka
She was a blue-eyed creature of enormous beauty, so beautiful that she was named after a Greta Garbo Russian film heroine. You'd be proud to take her anywhere, as she was always perfectly attired. She ...
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A Christmas tree in Mexico
Finding just the right tree for Christmas in Mexico was a challenge from the start. My Austrian husband had grown up with a father who worked on decorations for their tree for weeks in advance of He...
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Learning to shop in the village
John's point wasn't, I sensed, simply a lesson in village economics.
When we moved to Mexico in 1976, I didn't regret leaving behind the Alpha Beta Supermarket, the 7-11 quick-stop, or Newport Mall. I...
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Calle Rico
The street is Calle Rico, as far as I knew, the only one with this unfortunate name in the entire nation.
read moreOld pickup truck in Mexico
Don Whitehead, distinguished author of "The FBI Story" and twice a Pulitzer Prize winner for reporting on the Korean War, was an early hero of mine.
In semi-retirement, Don was a columnist for Th...
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Sweet secrets of Sayula
In the early years of the 21st century, the beautiful Mexican town of Sayula had a wildly fluctuating gringo population. Half of it was lost in one day -- when Paul and Debbie Katz moved to Chapal...
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