The real Mexico: Antiques roadshow South of the Border
An American acquaintance of mine, who believes himself to be quite astute about such things, is in the habit of asking whether San Miguel de Allende is the real Mexico and, if it's not, where can it be...
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Mexico's lucha libre: Dreams of professional wrestling
It's surely one of the coolest jobs in the world — donning a glittery mask and playing superhero or villain every night, flying around a packed arena. These are the men and women who aim to make thei...
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Mexico City Airport
Mexico City report
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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Good Friday in San Miguel de Allende
Holy Week — from Palm Sunday through Easter Sunday — is observed throughout Mexico. However San Miguel de Allende's fervor and pageantry are some of the most powerful and beautiful.
The image of E...
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Benedict XVI: the Pope in Mexico makes Catholic news
His predecessor Pope John Paul II visited Mexico on five occasions and was much beloved here. I was just a child during the last papal visit in 2002, a rowdy little Catholic boy who wanted to be a rock star when I grew up. read more
Mexico City: Forward looking city with a pre-Hispanic past
What can one say about Mexico City? It's the capital of Mexico, the biggest metropolis in the Western Hemisphere and the world's eighth-richest city. It's also a first-rate tourist attraction.
Locat...
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Down and Delirious in Mexico City: Memoir by Daniel Hernandez digs deep into youth culture
Mexican-American author Daniel Hernandez has hit a fresh nail on an old head by exploring different youth cultures in Mexico City. Youth is a favored subject for a modern mass media obsessed with this ...
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Flirting in Spanish: What Mexico taught me about love, living and forgiveness
The story began in 1992 in San Miguel de Allende. Susan, in Mexico less than three months and having "decimated whatever savings I once had," supplemented her meagre but easy-earned modeling income by teaching English.
Carlos, the poor Mexican teenager, was indeed wise for his years; after her first class was over, he alone "remained, still seated at the second desk in the middle row, watching me." read more
Infernal Drums
"He found a cheap room at a dive called Hotel Milan in Old Town — the historic center of a coastal metropolis split into neatly demarcated districts of progress and poverty on a peninsula snaking up the coastline of Nayarit."
In Mazatlan he joins up with three New Zealanders, harmless jerks, introduces himself "and played at acting the chum." In San Blas — "on a spit of white land divided by estuaries, surrounded by jungle" — they buy some cheap dope, but the transaction turns out to be a set-up read more
Mexican Queretaro-style lentil soup with nopales: Sopa de lentejas con nopales estilo Queretaro
This recipe, adapted from Diana Kennedy's The Essential Cuisines of Mexico, contains the characteristically Mexican ingredients nopales, fresh green chiles and cilantro.
Ingredients
½ cup brow...
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Fragrant, flavorful allspice: An essential Mexican seasoning
Mexican-style rabbit in red pipian with wild mushrooms: Pipian rojo con conejo y hongos silvestres
This colorful alabrije rabbit by Jacobo Angeles races across the Mexican mountain meadows.
© Alvin Starkman, 2008
I taught this in a cooking class I gave last summer in Cuetzalan, Puebla, where I ...
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Mexican chicken and allspice stew: Chilpozontle
A specialty of the Puebla mountain town of Zacapoaxtla, this Mexican dish uses allspice leaves as well as berries in a savory chicken stew. If you can't get allspice leaves, fresh bay leaves work well....
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Mexico City's Modo Museum whets the collecting appetite
I once lived next to an elderly woman in Mexico City whose home was a veritable museum of unique and occasionally bizarre collectibles. Her living room was given over to the collection and there was ba...
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Miel de maguey: an ancient Mexican sweetener brings hope to modern villagers
Reading the recent Mexconnect article Tears of the maguey: Is pulque really a dying tradition? brought me to the realization that here in Cholula, many of the pulquerías (pulque bars) have slowly and ...
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