Recent columnist articles
Drums in the Hills by Frank O. Dolezal and Kathryn Dolezal Tyler
Frank Dolezal, fighting for Pancho Villa during the Mexican revolution, was captured by some of Venustiano Carranza's troops, taken before a mockery of a trial, and was charged with "Treason against the legitimate government of Mexico." With fifteen other prisoners he was taken to a clearing, offered a final cigarette, and then shot.
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The Huichol: more personal reminiscences
The Fiesta de las Plantas Medicinales is held every year in a different pueblo in Mexico. This three day event features workshops given by curanderos (native healers), herbalists, and other native specialists in various traditional practices and beliefs involving alternative or traditional medicine. I had read in the Fiesta brochure that there was to be a workshop on Traditional Huichol Medicine conducted by a genuine mara'akame (shaman-priest) from the remote sierras.
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Antonia Cruz Rafael: the ceramics of Ocumicho, Michoacan
They crept and crawled, oozed and slithered from the clay, prickly spiders and sneaky snakes and pesky lizards darting from the dark wet dough, turtles swimming to its surface, bug-eyed devils rising from the mud, all brought to life by the magic touch of Antonia Cruz Rafael. Ocumicho is part of a cluster of villages in western Michoacan known for its clay crafts.
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Fiona Dunnett: images of self and death in Oaxaca
Comic strips, a young Canadian's self portraits, and photographs of violent deaths in a Mexican daily newspaper, make strange bedfellows. But they constitute a major part of the driving force for the c...
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Drink One to Me, Christian Bennett by Vicki Allen
How about a romance novel set in Mexico? And complete with a beautiful young girl who is of course headstrong and independent; and a bad man who is handsome and powerful and in fact a legendary drug lord; and his equally handsome but not quite-so-bad assistant.
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Steinbeck's Tortilla Flat
John Steinbeck penned his famous book, Tortilla Flat, in 1935, and apparently never considered Hollywood's casting choices when it was made into a film in 1942. If he had, he would've fallen flat himse...
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Mexico's place names and their meanings
I’ll break your jaw! (Chalco)
In the umbilicus (Xico)
Place of the squashed serpent (Coapatongo) [1]
Mexico’s place names or toponyms provide a rich and fun source for linguistic analysis. In...
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Wandering warriors: the Tastoan masks of Prudencio Guzman
On July 25, Saint James Day, Tastoanes perform in many towns and villages. The first performances in 12th century Spain were known as the dance of the Moors and the Christians. In Spain's version, the event symbolizes the expulsion of the Moors, while Mexico's variation -- often called the dance of the Tastoanes -- is commonly interpreted as the representation of the Spanish conquest of Mexico in the 1500s.
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American novelist Charles Fleming Embree set his first novel at Lake Chapala
Strange, but true. Charles Embree's A dream of a throne, the story of a Mexican revolt, is based on the story of the Lake Chapala area during the 19th century.
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The Huichol: personal reminiscences
I began to discover that certain vested interests involving the Huichol did not welcome outsiders. There was almost a political rivalry among various individuals and groups who regarded the Huichol as their own private preserve. This sense of proprietary rights by over the Huichol was confirmed later when I went to Mexico City. Back then there was intense rivalry among people working with the Huichol., too.
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