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MEXICAN HISTORY - PERSPECTIVES
BIOGAPHY
For Ronald A. Barnett. ©2005 R. A. Barnett -My parents and I first came to Mexico in the early 1950's. In those days farmers still plowed the fields with oxen and the waters of Lake Chapala washed over top of the pier. My mother and I had always been interested in Mexican archaeology and history, my father in a warm, cheap place to retire when he ended his career in the Canadian Armed Forces. After that we made frequent trips back and forth between Canada and Mexico. We lived for a time at Ana Capri on the south shore of Lake Chapala, where my friend Salvador Cardenas taught me how to fish for charales with the casting net. We first settled in Ajijic, where we lived for many years. We then bought a house at Roca Azul just outside of Jocotepec at the western end of Lake Chapala, where we have lived ever since. My father now spends most of his time in Canada with my brother for medical health reasons.
Over the years I have seen many changes in Mexico, some good, some not so good. Goods and services have improved, especially for foreign visitors and full-time residents, but Mexico has been losing some of the traditions and culture that brought us here in the first place. However, more than enough remains to keep me busy researching and writing about Mexico past and present.
During my years in Mexico I have come to know Mexico Desconocido ("Unknown Mexico"), the inner soul of Mexico, through my relationships with the Huichol Indians, the curanderos, the temascaleros, and others who continue to follow the old ways. I am familiar with many pre-Hispanic traditions and ceremonies that have continued to the present day. With Huichol friends I have attended the peyote fiesta at Las Guayabas in the Huichol Sierra and assisted as the Ahombre de fuego@ at the spiritual temascal or traditional sweat bath. Because of my background knowledge of pre-Hispanic sources I have, on occasions, been able to explain the origin of a ceremony or custom to those who actually practice it.
My articles on Mexico and other topics have appeared regularly in local publications since 1994. I am currently working on several research and writing projects: the pre-Hispanic concept of history (history from the viewpoint of the Maya, Aztecs, Mixtecs, and others), Mesoamerican religion from Olmec times to the present, and comparative epic poetry and saga (a worldwide survey and analysis of epic and heroic narrative from earliest times to the present).
I never found time to get married and raise a family. When I am not working on my research projects I run long distance on the bicycle path between Jocotepec and San Juan Cosala. In Canada I played the bagpipes at the competitions of the annual summer Highland Games. I have continued to play the bagpipes at special events here in Mexico.
EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND
- (1953-56) High School, Clinton, Ont. (Grade 13 Honours Diploma)
- (1956-60)University of Toronto, Canada, B.A. Honours Sociology (English, French, Spanish, Sociology, Psychology, Anthropology, and Philosophy. First class standing in Anthropology and Philosophy)
- (1960-61) Changed courses, began Greek and Latin. First Class in Ontario Provincial Grade XIII Latin exams)
- (1961-62) Special Student Status, University of Toronto, Greek and Latin (First Class standing).
- (1962-67) University of St. Andrews, Scotland, Honours M.A., Classics (Greek and Latin prose composition and all major fields of Classical Literature: Epic, Philosophy, History, Rhetoric, Comedy, Tragedy). Special Subject: Greek Lyric, Elegiac, and Iambic Poetry. Dissertation: A Comparative Stylistic Analysis of Four Latin Historians: Sallust, Livy, Tacitus, and Ammianus Marcellinus.
- (1967-68) University of Toronto, Post-Graduate M.A. (Homeric Epic, Old Irish Language and Literature, Classical and Epic Sanskrit, and Comparative Philology of Sanskrit - Indo-European Comparative Linguistics)
- ((1969-70) Minor Ph.D. field: Lucretius, De Rerum Natura. Ancient Greek Dialects and Mycenaean. French and German Reading Requirements. Linguistic Studies (Phonetics, Descriptive, Historical, Semantics, etc.)
- 1970-71) Ph.D. Research: a Linguistically-based Semantic Analysis of the Text of Sophocles (in Greek). Courses in Mesoamerican archaeology and Spanish at the National University, Mexico City.
- (1973) Minor Ph.D. Dissertation: Early Greek Epic and its Influence in the Archaic Age.
- (1979) University of Toronto, Ph.D., Classics. Thesis: A Comparative Study of Homeric Epic (Iliad and Odyssey) with Special Emphasis on the Indian (Sanskrit)Epic and Celtic (Early Irish Sagas). Included work on Classical Nahuatl and Maya texts of a heroic or epic type (Popol Vuh, Epica Nahuatl, Books of Chilam Balam).
Academic Honours and Awards (B.A., M.A., M.A., Ph.D.): Sir Daniel Wilson Residence Bursary (twice); Urwick Award in Sociology; Dominion Provincial Bursary; Toronto Open Fellowship; Dominion Provincial Graduate Fellowship; Canada Council Fellowship (twice, with supplemental grant)
Former member of many Academic Associations and Societies, among them the Classical Association of Canada, the American Philological Association, the Language Association of America, the American Classical League, the Vergilian Society of America, etc.
Was professor at the Universidad Autonoma de Guadalajara, Mexico, where I taught courses in Latin, Current Trends in Linguistics, Historical Linguistics, Techniques of Linguistic Investigation, and Philosophy of Language (1977-78). Taught a course in Mexican archaeology and ethnology at the University of Toronto School of Continuing Studies (1982). Have taught English at the Artisans Center, Ajijic, and elsewhere. Have given public lectures on the Huichol and other Mesoamerican topics in Guadalajara and at Lakeside.
Published numerous articles on Mexico, health and fitness, and history in Canadian West, New England Senior Citizen, Alive, and Clubmex. Published in anthology: Frontier Days in the Yukon. Was a regular contributor to Foresight, Canada=s National Retirement Magazine. For three years I wrote the monthly column for the former American-Canadian Club located at Plaza Del Sol, Guadalajara. Academic articles published in the Bulletin of the Canadian Celtic Arts Association and Independent Scholars of Antiquity.
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