Gallery: September 14, Day of the Charro (Photos by Dale Hoyt Palfrey) The Day of the Charro, celebrated on September 14 in Mexico, oft times is overshadowed by the multitudinous fiestas, speeches and fireworks celebrating Independence Day on September 16. In his elegant costume and wide sombrero, the charro is a cowboy but also a gentleman. With […]
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March is the month Talpa de Allende receives hundreds of thousands of visitors who come to pay homage to the little twenty inch tall image of Our Lady of the Rosary, also known affectionately as La Chaparrita (the short one). They come from all parts of Mexico and most of them come walking, at least […]
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I like this book, but I don’t like the title: Drama & Diplomacy in a Sultry Mexican Beach Town. The book is not about “drama & diplomacy.” It’s about one person’s life in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico from the mid-seventies to the mid-nineties. And that life is a fascinating one. I think it might be better titled, Sex, Lies, and Lots of Fun […]
Continue ReadingThere’s a tale that has floated through my family for many years. It seems that my great-aunt Tillie was having some vision problems. We didn’t know about macular degeneration in Aunt Tillie’s day, but that’s what it was. Back then they just said, “Aunt Tillie’s blind as a bat.” “Why, she can’t even see the […]
Continue ReadingThey are called romerías or peregrinaciones, and the people who make them are usually called peregrinos. They are pilgrims coming to pay homage to Our Lady of the Rosary of Talpa, and they come by the thousands at this time of the year. March 19th is celebrated as St. Joseph’s Day, and as you may know, all these religious holidays are […]
Continue ReadingIt is incredible what one can do with Google! I’m barely computer literate, but take the word cempasuchitl (sometimes written zempasuchitl), for instance. It is growing all over the countryside now. Its yellow orange flowers and pungent aroma are familiar to us, but I never knew it was associated with the Virgin Mary, nor did I know that, […]
Continue ReadingAnyone who has ever had enough stamina or time to traipse through the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City gets a mere glimpse of Mexico’s treasures. I’ve heard there are enough artifacts in storage to fill the museum twenty times over, and still have skeletons in the closet. There was a time when it […]
Continue ReadingIn matriarchal-governed communities we sometimes loose sight of the patriarchal side of the coin. We have read that physical and mental abuse runs amuck in Latin American homes. Pick up any newspaper in whatever part of the world you may be living in and you’ll find the statistics are about the same. These conditions do […]
Continue ReadingI know about sisters. I had seven. There is a brother-to-sister relationship and a brother-to-brother relationship, but it is not quite like a sister-to-sister relationship. We all know men and women who have never had a sister. Some siblings don’t really like each other; some don’t even tolerate each other, but think about the person […]
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Never underestimate the power of the pen. We’ve heard that statement all our lives. It is even truer today than ever due to our high-tech computers and Internet. People still use fountain pens filled with indelible ink to sign important documents, but most of us carry a cheap ballpoint pen around with us. Few of […]
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