New York Travels
The first time was in New York, along Seventh Avenue, near the intersection with Broadway, where the streets come together to make a piece of pie. No doubt I was gawking. Might as well have carried a s...
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Life of a new chili cookoff judge
Dedicated to All Chili Cook-off Judges Everywhere.
Recently I was honored to be selected as an Outstanding Famous Celebrity in my Community, to be a judge at a chili cook-off because no one else wante...
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Pilgrimage with La Virgen de Zapopan from "A House in the Sun" by Dane Chandos
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.
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Tzurumutaro, Michoacan: a town at the crossroads
The town had been sort of a laughing stock, ignored by outsiders,one of those dusty lonely little burgs where no one seemed particularly interested in much beyond survival. Like sad and decrepit towns ...
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Finding Joy In Daily Life In Morelia
I always knew I’d end up in Mexico, but I didn’t know where. Mexico City holds world-class fascination, but there’s a reason even the idle rich have second homes elsewhere. Chapala had just too m...
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The Listserv Phenomenon
Many listservs and Forums are cybercommunities of distinct personalities rubbing digital elbows. Just as a small town might have its old money patriach, its moral guardian or even a town drunk, standar...
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Sweet secrets of Sayula
In the early years of the 21st century, the beautiful Mexican town of Sayula had a wildly fluctuating gringo population. Half of it was lost in one day -- when Paul and Debbie Katz moved to Chapal...
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Keep it simple
Half a lifetime ago, the West family went south for a Christmas vacation in a quaint, little village on the Gulf coast of Florida. The pencil factory was long gone from Cedar Key. Tourist traffic roari...
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The Horse Show and How to Shoot Straight - From the Novel The Line/La Línea
Jaime sprayed the dark, empty cobblestone street from left to right with a few quick rounds, mostly for effect. To his surprise he heard the explosion of glass.
I had known Jaime Nuñez for three y...
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Where in the World is Amy Gray Kirkcaldy? - Adjusting to life in Mexico
To live here, you have to learn to love it unconditionally. You have to stop trying to accept Mexico and let it accept you instead, or else you'll never appreciate its beauty.
Back in the summer of 20...
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Ask an old gringo: Easter, cobblestones and WalMart
Questions and answers about life in Mexico.
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Elvira Arellano: saint or sinner?
When Elvira Arellano illegally crossed the U.S. border in 1997, she had no idea that one day, she would become a beacon of light in the darkness of U.S. immigration politics, nor that Time magazine wou...
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Medical and Dental Treatment and Coverage in Oaxaca
Our personal experience with emergency treatment over the past ten years has been nothing but positive.
When I first gave up the practice of law in Toronto in favor of early retirement in Oaxac...
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Stars shine in sunny Mexico
Along with many other expatriates living in Mexico, we occasionally hear of a famous one who lives, or once lived, among us.
We know that Helen Hayes, Erich Fromm and Maurice Evans lived in Cuernavaca...
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Mexico backroads
The backroads of Mexico often offer adventure, perhaps a bit of excitement, sometimes a touch of the dramatic and, occasionally, a hint of danger.
We thought we'd found all four on a deteriorating 10-...
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The real Don Adams is still Alive
The real Don Adams came to Mexico to die. It seemed like a good place for such a significant event. Convenient. He could drive down from Texas. Good weather if anybody wanted to walk in a funeral march...
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The Widow Tamez, accidental expatriate
Back in the old days of Pirate Island, an island only by definition, located along the Rio Grande near Ysleta and San Elizario in El Paso County, Mexico and the U.S. had a boundary by treaty mdash; the...
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A personal experience with union negotiations in Mexico
Our manufacturing operation in Mexico was in trouble and we had to make a lot of changes quickly to rescue the business...
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Gringos are changing Mexico
Southbound gringos of retirement age have the uncanny ability to immediately identify changes that should be made in Mexican lifestyle. Maybe you've heard the laundry list.
"Punctuality is in desperat...
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Expatriate writers in Mexico and the six-word memoir
Some expatriates muse knowingly that retirement is a state of bliss, while others declare emphatically that it's the State of Jalisco. So much to do and for once, so much time in which to do it. Many r...
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Ask an old gringo: health care, bureaucracy, bike paths and Christmas gifts
Questions and answers about life in Mexico.
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Nogales, here we come
It is more than Mexico's constant sun and the bewitching landscape that entrance us. It is the people.
October is revival month. We are at the tag end of six months in Canada the province of British C...
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Lake Chapala fishing trip
Gary West with Salvador
A fishin' we will go, a fishin' we will go; hi, ho, the merry-o, a fishin' we will go.
Second son Gary came to the west end of Lake Chapala, to the suburbs of Jocotepec, in ...
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Wishes Instead of Resolutions
For a change, this year I'm not going to fool around with a list of resolutions to alter my behavior, resolutions that have always been elasticized by my characteristic rationalization. There's always ...
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A cold winter for a young man from Mexico
New Year's Day, 1910 was colder than ever.
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