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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Mexico City's miracle mile (or two)
"Wait," she protested. She bent over the crouched photographer busily framing the pleasant scene for posterity, his camera at the ready, shutter cocked. She spoke loudly into his ear. "Wait!"
On the v...
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A writer's education from the mean streets of Mexico City
Plaza Garibaldi, 2 a.m., and the mean streets are bopping.
Beers flowing. Flowing friends. Tequilas, too. Maybe a few too many.
What the hell. You'll get a taxi ...
You are a writer and this is a fi...
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Maldita Vecindad y Los Hijos del Quinto Patio
A riotous image of a storm of people bolting down a wide Mexico City avenue, in the midst of a live Maldita Vecindad rock performance from the back of a moving truck, comprises one of many memorable vi...
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The city's "apocalypse" has come and gone
In the novel "Virtual Light," cyberpunk author William Gibson envisages a Mexico City of the near future where the air is a sooted ebon and the populace wears oxygen masks.
It might seem far-fetched, ...
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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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