Liliana, mi corazoncita
Corazoncita, or little heart, is a Mexican expression of affection, similar to 'sweetheart'. This is a story of my first visit to Mexico, and how a sweet, little Mexican girl became mi corazonci...
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The Aztecs speak - part 3
Quetzalcoatl was coming. Moctezuma had already sent wizards, magicians and seers, to cast spells that would destroy or at least deter the Spaniards from continuing toward his capital. Their failure had...
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Patrick Dennis, art lover
Patrick Dennis found me in Sullivan Park, just behind El Monumento de la Madre in Mexico City, one fine Sunday, and changed my life.
His buddy, Nina Olds, Gore Vidal's mother, and my mother's buddy an...
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Teotihuacan: The place of the gods
We were lucky: we managed to visit the famous pyramids of Teotihuacan on a rare sunny winter’s day, when Mexico City’s air was clear and, from our bus, you could actually see the snow capped volcan...
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Treasures in Heaven, a Novel by Kathleen Alcala
Here's an interesting novel set in turn-of-the-century Mexico City. It's a story that's mainly concerned with women's rights, which were just about non-existent in those times, and the political turbulence preceding the Mexican Revolution. Estela, a rather attractive and spirited lady, lives in a small rural town with her infant son, Noé. We meet her at the point in her life when she is leaving her husband and heading for Mexico City. Essentially she's looking for her former lover, Dr. Victor Carranza.
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A three mile stroll through Mexican history
I’m going to sound like something of a museum freak – which I’m definitely not. There’s a limit to the amount of "tourism" I can handle when I’m travelling. My strict ration is one castle, or one cathedral or one stately home per day. All of which is my way of saying that by far the classiest, the biggest and the most elegant museum I’ve ever seen is in Mexico City - The National Museum of Anthropology.
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Our Lady of Guadalupe
We possess an extraordinary account of this beautiful story, dated in the 16th century: the Nican Mopohua , written by an Indian nobleman, Don Antonio Valeriano, who was baptized and co...
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Did You Know? Mexico in the Guinness world records: part two
An earlier column described several Guinness records and their connection to Mexico and Mexicans. This month's column examines four more very different Guinness records which do not involve quite as mu...
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Did You Know? The Mexican Wave and unruly mobs
Studies of the Mexican wave may suggest how to control unruly mobs
Defined as "a rippling wave effect that passes right around a stadium full of spectators, achieved when all the spectators in turn ...
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Did you know? Mexico City's charwoman-businessman: Conchita Jurado
A charwoman-actress once captivated Mexican high society in her alter ego as Don Carlos Balmori.
An elaborate tomb in Mexico City's main cemetery, the Panteón Civil de Dolores, is a lasting reminder ...
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Did you know? Mexico has five of the world's most endangered heritage sites
Five places in Mexico are on the list of the world's 100 most endangered heritage sites.
"The World Monuments Fund (WMF) is the foremost private, nonprofit organization dedicated to the preservation o...
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Did You Know? Birth control pills come from Mexican yams
The oral contraceptive pill, often referred to simply as "the Pill" was officially fifty years old on October 15, 2001. In the words of The Economist: it "was arguably the first lifestyle drug t...
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Creating Is Being: Raymundo Becerril Porras
"For the simple fact that we are sensitive beings, we can't stop making things, creating, seeing the world in another manner. The faculty of being, of walking through the world, of seeing is born in the habit of creating - little by little - something, anything."
read moreFrozen Moments: The Photos Of Ricardo Gomez Jimenez
"I like the power to capture the image in that particular moment. It's like if a photo of you was taken, but you were caught in a moment. And then you see the photo and say, 'wow, I don't even recognize myself.'"
read moreA Million Meanings: The Art Of Raul Lopez Garcia
'Between Laughing and...'
For artist Raúl López García, it is the language of his subconscious that manifests itself in his paintings.
"About two years ago, I realized that I wasn't inventing ...
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The Fiery Spirit Of Carmen Mondragon
Known as Nahui Ollin, Mondragón is remembered as a figure in the art scene of the 1920s and as an uninhibited woman who paved the way for female liberation in Mexico.
During her heyday from the 1920s...
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Mexico's Olympic memories
It's showtime in Athens. The Greeks are all stirred up about the Olympic Games, worrying about terrorist threats and who's going to pay the bills when the party is over and everybody goes home.
Thirty...
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Mexico's hidden black trick
This is the story of Mexico City College and the hidden black trick.
Some of you may have missed Morris (Moe) Williams, even though he was out and about for more than four decades. Beginning in the fa...
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Trotsky's Ghost
I am not now, nor have I ever been a member of the Communist Party (although I did subscribe to the Daily World during the wild and woolly Sixties), but a visit to Leon Trotsky´s house in Coyoacán ha...
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Feliz Navidad from Mexico City
In a winter devoid of snow and blistery winds, one has to work a little harder to bring the Christmas spirit to life.
In the latter part of November, Ajijic holds its annual nine-day fiesta in celebra...
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Dining in the D.F.: Food and drink in Mexico's capital
A look at the myriad dining experiences to be had in the capital itself, Mexico City, commonly known as "el D.F.," short for Distrito Federal.
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On the edge of Mexico City: barefoot monks in a national park
Which village in Mexico celebrates the passing of the Old Year and the entrance of the New in the most unusual way? Almost certainly, the village of Santa Rosa Xochiac, just thirty minutes by car south...
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To market, to market: treasure hunting in Mexico City's flea markets
Some time ago I was exploring the Mercado de Antiguëdades de Cuauhtemoc in downtown Mexico City with my brother-in-law and an entrepreneurial young Mexican named Carlos Villasena, press officer for th...
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First Stop in the New World by David Lida: an interview with the author
Mexico City has long exercised a fascination for writers of varying foreign stripes - Graham Greene, Aldous Huxley, Jack Keruoac, D. H. Lawrence, William S. Burroughs, B. Traven; not to mention Latin American writers such as Roberto Bolaño, Carlos Fuentes, Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Alvaro Mutis - and while some of them have stopped here for brief periods and others have made it their home, the erstwhile megalopolis (now 'hypermetropolis') remains an elusive quarry to pin down in words. Its trawling immensity may be a well of inspiration or a veritable Oak Island of futile excavation in search of treasures that refuse to be unearthed.
read moreAnahuacalli: Diego Rivera's gift of indigenous treasures
Legendary Mexican artist and master muralist Diego Rivera spent so much time avidly collecting pre-Hispanic art it's a wonder he ever got around to painting. Rivera amassed a collection of thousands of...
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