Mexican photographer Enrique Metinides: The man who saw too much
Exploring Enrique Metinides' images is to immerse yourself in those depths of humanity awash in raw emotion, as the 79-year-old photographer has captured some of the most poignant moments to unfold on ...
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Dolores Hidalgo: Mexico's Cradle of Independence
As you walk toward the main square from the bus terminal in Dolores Hidalgo, it's hard to imagine the impassioned frenzy that heated this Mexican village on September 15, 1810. Here, on the balcony of ...
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Mexican chicken in yogurt sauce: Enjococado
The name of this dish is derived from the Spanish word jocoque, which is sometimes translated as buttermilk, but is really a type of thick yogurt of Middle Eastern origin. In the city of Puebla, with its large Lebanese population, jocoque is sold in most supermarkets, but in rural areas it is homemade and truly delicious. If you can't find jocoque, a mixture of half sour cream and half regular plain yogurt is an acceptable substitute.
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Mexico City metro adventure: 148 stops
As I have said before, Mexico City, to these old eyes, is too big, too hectic, too crowded, too liberal, too much of several things.
Mexico City is very exciting, prosperous, problematic, fashionable,...
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Mexican microeconomics: The Tuesday market in San Miguel de Allende
Like a shimmering mirage that lasts only until your next blink, the Tuesday Market, or tianguis, appears once a week at dawn, assembled upon a vast windswept concrete slab near the parking lot of the S...
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Mexico City's Templo Mayor connects Mexicans with their past
Despite years living in Mexico City, I had never been to the archeological zone of Templo Mayor — once the heart of the Aztec empire of Tenochtitlan, now located in the heart of the Historic Centre n...
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Mexico City's Xochimilco Canals
For anyone planning on spending time in Mexico City, the Xochimilco Canals (pronounced: so-chee-MIL-ko) is an experience not to be missed. After a first glance in any guide book, the traveller would be...
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Did You Know? Cinco de Mayo is more widely celebrated in USA than Mexico
Why this one? The main reason is that the Battle of Puebla marks Mexico's only major military success since independence from Spain in 1821.
On May 9, 1862, President Benito Juarez declared that the Cinco de Mayo, the anniversary of the Battle of Puebla, was to be a national holiday. In the U.S., the Cinco de Mayo has been transformed into a much more popular cultural event. read more
Cinco de Mayo: What is everybody celebrating?
Ask about the history behind these celebrations, and a few may be able to tell you that the Mexicans defeated an invading French army on that date in 1862. Beyond that — except maybe in Puebla — general knowledge of the circumstances becomes sketchy. Why were the French there? What happened next? Did the French just go away? Many teachers in the U.S. still tell their classes that May fifth is Mexican Independence Day, which is dead wrong.
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Audubon de Mexico: A community partner for ecological awareness
I'm sitting in a third grade class at the Independencia School in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Aside from the charming teacher, there's hardly a full set of teeth in the room, although nobody's smile...
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The Devil's Workshop
Feeling detached, perhaps defensively, from his plummeting body, Sands wonders, "How had the little people emerged from the painting over his buffet?
It was his Rafael Cantú masterpiece, The Last Supper, the prize of his collection. And they were the characters from the painting. He recognized the odd, ragged leather outfits.
Had he been murdered by these nightmare versions of Christ and the Apostles?" ... read more
Mexican trout with sesame seeds in parchment paper: Trucha empapelada con ajonjoli
The Mexican trout farms in the mountains outside Atlixco have open air restaurants that are crowded with families getting out of the city on weekends. The menus feature trucha empapelada, or en papillo...
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Chapultepec: Mexico City's urban forest
City parks were not an important part of my life when I was a child. I was raised in the country on a farm which, for all practical purposes, was a park. Growing older, though, I learned to appreciate ...
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Easter in San Miguel de Allende: Our Lord of the Column
The church bells have been tolling most of the night, interrupted only intermittently by the blast of rockets soaring into the night sky. One resounding boom echoes throughout the city at midnight. Thi...
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Building houses for Mexico's less fortunate
For some northerners, heading south of the border to live after a busy career, Mexico looks like the land of mañana. All they have to do is kick back and watch the monarch butterflies pass on their an...
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The Theft of the Virgin
In The Theft of the Virgin, sixty paintings from the popular Vergruen Reference Collection of outstanding masterpieces of art — all forgeries — are on temporary display at the Bellas Artes in San Miguel de Allende... But are they all forgeries?
Paul Zacher, one of many talented artists in San Miguel de Allende, is our protagonist and for the most part our narrator.
Zacher suspects a scheme that is putting originals into the hands of very amoral and very wealthy collectors. read more
San Miguel de Allende: A Place in the Heart - Expatriates Find Themselves Living in Mexico
The idea of the book originated when Scherber, after living in San Miguel for only eight months, began asking himself questions like: "What had I given up to come here, and what had I gained? What was my new role in the community? Was I an exile? An expatriate? Would I ever live in the States again? How did I react to Americans I saw here visiting? What had I done?" read more
