The Pyramid of Kukulkan, Chichen Itza Photo by Tony Burton Modern sound recordings usually involve tiny disks which can hold dozens of tracks, specially designed to be easily portable an... read more

The Vanilla Festival is held in early summer every year in Papantla, Veracruz. The origins of the festival pre-date the Spanish conquest. Its timing is now tied to the Catholic celebration of the Feast... read more

  This month, Mexico celebrates her birthday, the anniversary of her independence from Spain. On the evening of September 15, the annual El Grito ceremony is held in town plazas all across the cou... read more

Semana Santa, or Holy Week, is a misnomer. It s NOT one week! It’s TWO full weeks of parades, processions, parties, prayers and pagentry. For me, it started at 3 a.m. March 16, 1997--two Sundays before Easter. Fireworks. Loud booms. Without a pause. That’s why I remember the exact hour.

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What is at the heart of festivals in Mexico? Mexican festivals have something special that those of us non-Mexicans just have to experience to understand. Santa Maria Ahuacatilan, Morelos is the place ... read more

A Mexican pig party plus my recipe for Mexicanized Mexissippi style crackling cornbread read more

December has been a celebratory month in Mexico since pre-Hispanic times, when the winter solstice, one of the two most important holidays of the year (the other being the spring solstice) was celebrat... read more

Most people think of piñatas as a fun activity for parties. The history of the piñata reveals many interesting facts that go beyond the playing of a game, although piñatas certainly have been intended for fun.

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This is an account of the annual procession of La Virgen de Zapopan from te Cathedral in Guadalajara to her home in the Basilica de Zapopan, as experienced in the early 1940s. The procession always takes place on October 12th. read more

Each year on May 3rd processions of singing pilgrims carrying streamers and flowers wend their way through towns, cities and villages of Mexico to decorate the crosses along roadsides and on mountainto... read more

Es en las comunidades campesinas del país en donde la fiesta se celebra con mayor intensidad. Destacan también algunos grupos indígenas que buscan conservar intactas sus tradiciones. En los estados ... read more

Here in Mexico, the month of May brings many holidays: Workers' Day (3rd), Cinco de Mayo (5th), Teachers' Day (15th), and the day set aside to honor Mamá, Mother's Day, always cele... read more

December 12th is a very important Catholic holiday in Mexico. It's the feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Mazamitla is a very small mountain town in Jalisco that celebrates the Virgin's feast day an annual nine-day festival. The final days, we were told, are the best. read more

Here's a guidebook with a very definite difference. It doesn't just set out in the usual way to give you a rundown on the community and make suggestions on what to do and where to go. Rather, Joseph Harmes, has put together a rather incredible list of 'bests' - some 126 pages of them in fact - to be found in San Miguel de Allende. These range, alphabetically, from Best Art Displays to where to find the Best Yogurt. In between you can mull over several hundred "bests", from Best Views to Best Dance Classes; from Best Tennis Courts to Best Places to Take Out-of-Towners; from Best Parks to Best Hidden Attractions; from Best Tortillas to Best Ways to Avoid Travellers Diarrhea… and so on. read more

"People unfamiliar with the Latin culture are curious, confused, and sometimes repulsed by the emphasis on suffering in religious figures. During Easter in North America, the focus is on the resurrection and the delights of spring. The event is concerned with the awe of transformation. There is resistance to facing the suffering that is a major part of this epic…." read more

While living in Guadalajara, Ms. Finerty became acquainted with some Franciscan priests and also with some Huichol Indians who were associated with the Franciscans. Eventually she was invited to visit a Huichol village about a thirty minute flight from Tepic, high in the Sierras in Western Mexico. The only other way to reach this community — Jesús María — was by taking an eight day mule ride. The village wasn't even marked on the map. read more