Never conquered by the Aztecs and despite being defeated by Mexican armies, the Tarahumaras still consider themselves an independant nation. So strong is this conviction that in the Fifties they more t... read more

It was just about five years ago that my friends started to disappear from the streets of the little Mexican villages on the shores of Lake Chapala where I had retired some three years earlier. At firs... read more

"The evil men do lives after them, the good is often interred with their bones." These words of Shakespeare may well describe the future of U.S. President Bill Clinton, but in writing about Mexican Pre... read more

Asked to identify Francisco "Pancho" Villa, most people living North of the Rio Grande and even some Mexicans would call him a "bandido" but a careful examination of his career reveals simply a man ... read more

It's name is better suited to a Musical Comedy than a conflict between Nations and calls up visions of armies bombarding each other with Éclairs, Fruit Tarts, Napoleons and even Strudel. But on April ... read more

In many ways, Porfirio Díaz is an enigma. Although he always gave lip service to democracy, during the thirty-five years that he controlled Mexico (1876 - 1911) he rode rough shod over freedom of spee... read more

Exploring the Yucatan - A Traveler's Anthology By Richard D. Perry. A Review   Indispensable for anyone heading for the Mayan world of the Yucatan and equally interesting for those w... read more

The dictionary defines the word Caudillo as "a politician backed by a military force" and a study of Mexican history reveals a country that from its very beginning until well into the 20th Century... read more

Long before the first European set foot in what is now Mexico, indigenous women not only followed their male fellow-tribesmen into battle but in many instances took up the arms of those killed or wound... read more

Historians dismiss Agustín Itúrbide with a few lines and most Mexicans have never heard of him. He deserves better. Factually, he was the one who cut the chains that bound Mexico in servitude to Spai... read more

Today, the visible remains of Mexico's Colonial era are the ornate churches and palacios, either government office buildings or the homes of Colonial officials, still surviving, in the center of Mexico... read more

According to the reports of the first Europeans to visit the New World, slavery was almost universal in what is now Mexico and Central America. Theoretically, with the arrival of Europeans, that should... read more

Asked to name the Allies in World War II, very few people would include Mexico in the list. Largely ignored by historians, it is time that Mexico's aid to the U. S. and the Allies is brought to the att... read more

The Spanish returned. With Cuitlahuac, the brother of Moctezuma who had advised against welcoming the Conquistadors, now elected as their king, the Aztecs were confident that any attempted return woul... read more

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... read more

Perhaps the most startling thing revealed by the Aztec account of the Conquest of Mexico, is that unknowingly, the Conquistadors had invaded the country at a perfect time. Superstition had produ... read more

An Aztec account of the Conquest of Mexico? Preposterous. It is common knowledge that those manuscripts that escaped destruction by the Conquistadors were gathered up under the direction of the first ... read more

Never conquered by the Aztecs and despite being defeated by Mexican armies, the Tarahumaras still consider themselves an independant nation. So strong is this conviction that in the Fifties they more t... read more

It is a tribute to the sincerity and strength of the faith of the Mexican people, that Catholicism, is still the dominant religion in this land south of the Rio Grande. Time after time, the Catholic Ch... read more

Survivors. The very word has connotations of persecution, repression, hardship and escape. It also describes people with courage, stamina, the ability to adapt and almost always a moral strength and c... read more

The vast majority of the approximately 50,000 Mexican citizens who practice Judaism via organized congregations are descendents of people who, from 1881 to 1939, found life-saving refuge in this countr... read more

The survival of Judaism in Mexico is a tale of tenacity and tolerance. The story begins in Spain with the "Conversos", Jews who had converted to Christianity, always under duress. It starts in 600 AD,... read more

Mexico is sometimes referred to as the land of Mañana” Those of us who tried to look up the word in dictionaries before coming here, could not find it in the Spanish to English section. Belie... read more

Sealed off by mountains to both the East and West, and arid, desert-like land to the North, Mexico’s central altoplano, for eons was home to Nahua, Otomi, Huichol, Cora, Tepehua and Coyutec Indi... read more