One more win can make a wonderful world of difference. Victor Espinoza, 43, calls himself the luckiest Mexican alive. He was the jockey aboard American Pharoah, winner of the U.S. triple crown of horse racing – the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont Stakes. His name will be forever etched in sporting history. Fame and fortune […]
Continue Reading
Mexico has struck gold – again. Long, long ago, Aztec and Maya chiefs, visiting Spaniards and Catholic fathers accumulated gold as a status symbol, to enhance riches or to upgrade church ambience. There was a bowl of nuggets for the tomb, a full chest for the sailing ship and layers of gold for steeples, saintly […]
Continue Reading
This is the beginning of the end…. Ruffo Espinosa, Sr., the author of this remarkable historical novel, was born in Mexico in 1907, although he spent most of his adult life in the United States. He studied both at the University of Southern California and the University of Arizona, and held a bachelor of arts […]
Continue Reading
Some corrupt Mexican soldiers are also looking for the hidden gold, and so Kylie and Raven and their Yelapa companions have a lot more on their hands than they had bargained for. R. D. Lyons is a long-time resident of Puerto Vallarta. Fittingly his first novel is set in the little coastal village of Yelapa, […]
Continue ReadingThat morning when Michael left his house on Miguel Blanco to head toward the tortillería on Constitución, on impulse he looked through the window of his little curb-parked 1996 Geo, only immediately to discover that during the night he had been robbed. Maps, manuals, insurance papers, were scattered across the seats. Alas, he at last had […]
Continue Reading
For this old brain of mine — that threatens to retire before I do — a book that makes simple what has always been somewhat complicated to me is a book that I will cherish. Clark M. Zlotchew, Ph.D., has taught Spanish language at SUNY College at Fredonia in New York State since 1975. He […]
Continue ReadingHow did Robert Mulligan find himself, in August, in a Mexican jungle, running a small flat-bottomed boat up a sleepy little river into the steamy interior, pointing out tiny alligators to the wives of two retired telephone executives from Detroit, Michigan? Three years ago when he left his tenured position teaching literature at a small […]
Continue Reading
Barry Golson’s book, Gringos in Paradise, is a warm, entertaining, and illuminating tale of the experiences Barry and his wife Thia had while building their “dream house” in Sayulita, a little seaside village forty-five minutes north of Puerto Vallarta. The book is organized around “the house,” beginning with their initial impulse purchase of a piece of land […]
Continue Reading
The Four Agreements has now sold over 3,000,000 copies, was on the New York Times bestseller list for five years, was featured twice in “O” The Oprah Magazine, and ranked #30 on a USA Today list of top 100 books from the past ten years. I liked these two books by Mexican-born Don Miguel Ruiz […]
Continue Reading
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 Reading