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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Charity Begins At Home
( En Español: La Caridad Empieza En Casa)
By: Ing. Luis Dumois
Weeks ago, the world was shocked by the news arriving from Acteal, Chiapas. More than forty persons, including women and chi...
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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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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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Endangered Mexico: An Environment on the Edge by Joel Simon
There's no good news in Joel Simon's book. It's a catalog of the awful things that have happened in Mexico since the time of the Conquest.
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Dry season in Oaaxaca: are we flushing today?
I have been living in southern Mexico, in the city of Oaxaca, for two years noticing daily customs and ways of doing things that are not the same as where I lived in the mountains of Colorado. One big ...
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Travel in Mexico is broadening
Tequila Sunrise is a disco in Puerto Escondido, owned by a couple of Californians. This sign belongs to them. I just thought it ironic that "drugs" apparently does not include booze, which they are in ...
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The calm amid the storm
Like "The Hidden Places", this article is about the play of light and shadows on the eye of the observer; of the offered and the hidden; of peace in the midst of struggle. (The picture is of the Guelag...
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Glad to be here
In January, I celebrated my fifth anniversary in Oaxaca, the second longest period of time I have ever spent in one place. " Soy vagabundo" (I am a wanderer), I often answer when asked what I "do...
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Happy anniversary to me
La Casa de Mescal is a Oaxaca landmark, which at the millenium will have been doing business at this location near the Zocalo for 60 years. Those of us who prefer Mezcal to its cousin, Tequila, know th...
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Where are you, Juan Valdez?
This piece was written in early 1995. A year later, pieces on why we should buy "organic" coffee were appearing regularly in the mainstream press. (The picture is of the ancient cedar in Tule, outside ...
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Welcome to Los Angeles
I wrote his in early 1995. Thankfully, the decency and good will of the average Oaxacan had not vanished along with their purchasing power and hopes for the future.
Teen age gangs, on the rise, have m...
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Charity begins at home
These kids are Tarahumara indians who live in the Copper Canyon area. The Tarahumara are among the most marginalized of Mexico's indigenous peoples, and suffer from severe drought in the summer and nea...
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