My husband’s Aunt Chela was a famous singer, who performed internationally. Fifteen years ago, I decided to write a book about Aunt Chela’s life for our family. I searched the internet for information on her appearances in Los Angeles, Mexico, Venezuela, Cuba, etc. but found nothing. Wikipedia had only one paragraph of the most basic, […]
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Believe it or not, there is a village in Mexico with the unlikely name of Honey. Honey. This hardly sounds like a Mexican word and certainly lacks any Nahuatl or Spanish roots. Yet, in the state of Puebla there is a small village named Honey. I admit that when I first heard of the village, […]
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Staying at a Mexican hacienda hotel is like being transported back in time. The casa principal or main house usually stands before an elegant garden ablaze with purple bougainvillea and red flamboyant. The perfume of orchids fills the air. At some haciendas a massive brick aqueduct arches above and through its arches flows a cerulean blue swimming […]
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Ahhhh. Oohhh. Awww. Mmmmmm.” These are the sounds most often heard as bathers first step into a warm mineral pool. More and more North Americans are discovering the pleasures and benefits of soaking in mineral baths, as they seek cures for rheumatism, arthritis, and a multitude of other ailments. But the Mexicans have known the […]
Continue ReadingThe history of Mexico has generally been written by outsiders, Spanish Conquistadors, Catholic missionaries, and most recently by archaeologists and anthropologists. Consequently Western ideas of historiography have dominated the writing of this history. Our concept of history, along with its method and purpose, begins with the ancient Greeks, although different historians may approach the subject […]
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“Magic realism” describes a style of Latin American writing where dreams and reality meet on equal footing in worlds lying ephemerally in between, poised to subvert back to the norm the very instant a strange experience is realized. Writers such as Carlos Fuentes, Laura Esquivel and Gabriel Garcia Marquez draw as much from the landscape […]
Continue ReadingOver the years, on road trips from Central Mexico to various parts of the U.S., we have explored different routes, some more scenic than others. One of the most unforgettable included the state of Hidalgo, in north central Mexico, where a great deal of the countryside still resembles the beautiful Mexican calendar art of the […]
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A long time ago, before the Spaniards came and changed everything, the people of the Mexican highlands cultivated maguey plants. Like the people, the magueys are native to the cool, dry, high elevation climate. The plants grew well and were useful for many things. Today, the various varieties of these agaves are sometimes called “century […]
Continue ReadingMexico’s pioneering “telesecundaria” or “television secondary school” system began back in 1968. It now provides junior high school classes in remote areas, serving about one million students in grades 7 to 9, 17% of the total nationwide enrolment in these grades. Many of the telesecundaria lessons are now available on the Internet, and before long, […]
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The state of Hidalgo is part of the Central Highlands Region of Mexico, along with the states of Guanajuato, Mexico (State of), Mexico City, Morelos, Puebla, Querétaro and Tlaxcala. The capital city of the state of Hidalgo is Pachuca. The state of Hidalgo has several interesting “geomorphosites” – places where landforms provide amazing scenery for […]
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