Building houses for Mexico's less fortunate
For some northerners, heading south of the border to live after a busy career, Mexico looks like the land of mañana. All they have to do is kick back and watch the monarch butterflies pass on their an...
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Feeding the hungry hearts in San Miguel de Allende
San Miguel de Allende has, for decades, been one of the shining jewels of Colonial Mexico, a mecca for painters, writers, musicians or anyone with artistic sensibilities who has been touched by its anc...
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Volunteers get involved on Mexico's Nayarit Riviera
Yes, Mexico is beautiful! Whether you plan to enjoy a vacation or the experience of living in Mexico, you'll find it to be an enriching life experience where one is immersed in a warm, vibrant and welc...
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Mexico's Boys Town, Villa de Los Niños
It all began with a casual comment by my friend Rodrigo Orozco — also known as Tarantula Man, thanks to the anti-poaching project he leads in western Mexico — when I told him about a hike I was org...
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Liga MAC: Mexicans, Americans and Canadians join forces in San Jose del Cabo
Photos by Mariah Baumgartle
The aroma of chicken over a mesquite grill fills the air on one of San Jose del Cabo's backstreets. Noisy dogs chase each other playfully down dusty, dirt roads nearby. Che...
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Mexico protests are a variety pack
CORAL: Non-profit center in Oaxaca assists hearing impaired Mexican children
When the Cole-Gardner family recently vacationed in Oaxaca, Mexico, they brought along several basketballs, soccer balls and baseball gloves, to donate to indigenous children without ready access to su...
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Hammering out a future for young people in Chapala, Mexico
The men and women in the Chapala-Ajijic area whom I admire the most are those who can give so generously of their time to help others (without expecting anything in return), and Lakeside seems to be ov...
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Sneaking north: an illegal immigrant returns to Mexico with honors
Luis Alberto Martinez Gomez became an illegal four years ago. He was 16.
The family concluded Luis might be better off in the United States. There was an uncle who once made a promise to help the nephew if ever needed. He came through with cash for a border coyote.
Going north sounded so simple.
It wasn't.
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In Mexico, Operation Compassion feeds the hungry
Often, when we think of starving children, we're thinking about Central Africa or parts of India or even remote areas of South America. But Mexico has its share of the poor, as close by as the Chapala area. The truth is, unremitting hunger is right here under our noses and most of us aren't aware of it. Three Lakeside residents have formed what they call "Operation Compassion."
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Four Days in the Oaxaca State Prison
At 9:15 a.m. on February 3, 2010, I steeled myself to enter the Central Penitentiary in Oaxaca, Mexico. Having heard stories of overcrowding, rampant drug use, filthy conditions, torture, inadequate fo...
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Mexico faces an uphill fight against malnutrition
More than 190 countries, including Mexico, have now signed up to the UN Millennium Development Goals, originally agreed in the year 2000.
There are eight key goals (see table) and Mexico is well on...
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Swine flu at Ground Zero (Mexico City): life in a masked city
People are still going about their business as usual, only we're all wearing surgical facemasks. I can't decide if this whole fear campaign is a massive media beat-up or if it has some credence.
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Cejas and the great escape: Dog rescue in Tijuana
Colima orphanage runs on faith
Through the years, Colima, Colima meant volcano views, small sacks of sea salt, classy museums, pretty parks, souvenir casts and carvings of hairless dogs -- and another hour to the beach.
¡No más! ...
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Traveling light to Oaxaca?
Every visitor to the city of Oaxaca has the potential to make a significant contribution.
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Wildfires and old men: the legacy of US immigrants in Talpa
What no one was aware of was that, subtly, Guy and Bill were changing the ideals of the future leaders of a Mexico mountain village. Try Guy's Guy's Gringo Chile Relleno Casserole recipe.
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Elvira Arellano: saint or sinner?
When Elvira Arellano illegally crossed the U.S. border in 1997, she had no idea that one day, she would become a beacon of light in the darkness of U.S. immigration politics, nor that Time magazine wou...
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The fence along the Mexican border
The English-speaking people of the world aren't always as smart as, say, Stephen Hawking who writes about cosmic stuff like time, black holes and the universe, but wouldn't you think the people in char...
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How To Correct Misconceptions About Mexico - And Lose Your Friends At The Same Time
We who live in Mexico, whether full- or part-time, have a duty to correct the enormous amount of misinformation perpetuated by foreign media. More creatures live with their heads in the sand than the o...
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Our beloved Oaxaca, now on US and Canadian Do Not Visit list
Is no one thinking of the ordinary people of Oaxaca and how this event is causing distress and loss of income?
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The Mexican
It's easy to tell an election is coming in the U.S., because here we go again with the border situation, better known as the "Let's build a fence to keep them out" game. If U.S. politicians were really...
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Dying to become an American
There's an easier way to become an American citizen than marching in emotional parades for immigration rights or studying U.S. history and being wait-listed for years, or even marrying into it.
You ca...
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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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Mexican-American War of ought-five
Remember that Mexican-American War (1846-1848) where the U.S. had a thing called "Manifest Destiny?" That meant President James K. Polk believed in the "sea to shining sea" destiny for the U.S.A. and t...
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