Non-students, then and now
The champion Oaxaca state high school band, playing in the courtyard of the ex-convento de Santo Domingo. Few will go to University. Of those who do, some will be students and some may become "porros"....
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Behold, a flock of tourists
A tomb in the panteón (cemetery) of San Felipe del Agua, outside of Oaxaca City, decorated for Day of The Dead. Photography by Diana Ricci
It has been a quiet summer season, and the zocalo (town squ...
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Dodging rockets in Oaxaca
The author and mate /photographer Diana Ricci, at the entrance to their 100-year-old Apartment building in Oaxaca in 1996. Photography by Diana Ricci
Miracles are part of everyday life to the people ...
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Columbus Day in America
In Parque La Venta, Villahermosa, Tabasco, rests an artifact from the Olmecs, who flourished some 3,500 years ago. Photography by Diana Ricci
Yesterday was Columbus Day in the U.S. of A. There were p...
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The more things change, the more they are the same
The ruins at Yagul, a few miles outside Oaxaca city. Photography by Diana Ricci
I read a very interesting newspaper article the other day. It was a wire service feed from Pacific News Service, writte...
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Dancing in the streets
A French theater troop presents a "son et lumiere" performance of an ancient indian legend, in the reconstructed ruins of Monte Alban (1995). Photography by Diana Ricci
One of Oaxaca's many fine ar...
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Music in the streets
The Oaxaca State Band plays a Sunday Concert in the Zocalo. Photography by Diana Ricci
The trucks arrive about 11 a.m. Two small flatbed trucks, piled high with folding chairs. Half a dozen workers m...
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Borders suck
Sitting in California, Old Mexico, in July 1996, I realize how much of my time is wasted dealing with borders, particularly the one between here and the Old Country (Pictured is a fruit stand on the ro...
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Thank you and goodbye
See Stan and Diana.
See them change.
See how their hair has gotten grayer.
See how Stan has on a shirt, for a change, not a t-shirt.
Can you tell Stan is...
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Where do they get these ideas?
There's nothing like leaving home to help a person see things a new way. Traveling from my home in Oaxaca to the U.S. in the spring of 1996 provided exactly such an experience (Pictured is a performance artist doing her thing on the plaza in front of the Cathedral.).
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Small world indeed
When I wrote "Getting And Giving Back", in the spring of 1996, I had no idea that I would be meeting Gerardo a few weeks later. (This statue is in the ex-convent in Cuilapan, near Oaxaca.) Photogr...
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Getting and giving back
The church in Ocotlan de Morelos, near Oaxaca, that artist Rodolfo Morales had restored as a gift to his community. Photography by Diana Ricci
Much of Mexico is poverty-stricken, but only in economic...
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The bye-bye blues
An Easter pageant in Tlacolula, near Oaxaca. Photography by Diana Ricci
We're out of here! Our bags are almost packed, except for a few last minute gifts for the kids and the grandkids. Arrangements ...
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Oaxaca Newsletter issue 14
"BORDERING ON CHAOS": READ IT, BUT BE A SKEPTIC
Andres Oppenheimer, a Central America hand reporting for the Miami Herald, has put out a very interesting book on the roots -- and likely outcome -- of ...
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Day of the Dead: death and decoration in Oaxaca
The panteon (cemetery) in San Felipe del Agua, a suburb of Oaxaca, decorated for Day of the Dead. Photography by Diana Ricci
All my life, I have been a coward about death and dying. It's all so unsan...
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Pina Palmera update
Hi.
Please pass this on to all the people who have been getting communications from me, through you. It is meant to be a semi-final report.
I just got back from a lunch meeting at Casa Colonial, and ...
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Frequently asked questions
Before you send me an EMail, check here to see if your question has already been answered.
Since going on the World Wide Web, I have received many letters from readers requesting specific i...
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Monarch butterflies: fewer where you live this year?
These Monarchs were snapped by a young entrepreneur who walked around with a fistful of copies of different photos, gleefully selling to Gringos like us who, even though we had our own camera, lacked c...
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Letters from Mexico - everything comes to those who wait... in the Zócalo
In some towns, it is called the Plaza Nacionál, the Plaza de las Armas, the Parque Independencia, or the Plaza Centrál, but wherever you go, the local folks know it as El Zócalo. Whether it is a hug...
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The struggle continues
When this was written in the fall of 1994, there was still a sense of hope in the air: for democracy, for the economy, for a fair and equitable relationship with the U.S. People still believed that wit...
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Sequoia Park or Oaxaca, there's no place like home
I don't mind you disagreeing: Mexican emigration and the economy
From time to time, I receive letters like the one I have reproduced below. Most often, they are well thought out and not without compassion, as is this one. Usually, I answer them in my "Letters To The...
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On becoming a statistic: A story of two children in a Oaxaca hospital
(Originally published in somewhat different form in The Mexico City News, November, 1982)
Eli was sick a lot in Oaxaca. The air of the city of Oaxaca in those days was fecalized. Many people there sti...
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Spring-time boogie: From Oaxaca to California
Misol-Ha, where the trail takes you behind the falls. Situated between the Mayan ruins at Palenque and the city of San Cristobal, in the highlands of Chiapas, this site has been developed as ejido (co-...
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Rain, rain go away: Summer in Oaxaca
Whether rain or shine, the protests in front of the government palace in Oaxaca go on. This banner, with likenesses of Ricardo Flores Magon and Emiliano Zapata, says "This paradise, this flag, this lan...
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