The Sunday open air stalls at the Lagunilla in Mexico City, the expansive roadside shops just north of San Miguel de Allende, the stores and weekend marketplace at Los Sapos in Puebla, and good old fashioned picking in the state of Oaxaca. Each provides a fruitful avenue for acquiring antiques and collectibles in Central and […]
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Oaxaca is magical — its history, culture, art, architecture and folklore. The traditional Guelaguetza, celebrated in July, is a quintessential expression of Oaxaca tradition. Now, Noches Magicas de Guelaguetza are a uniquely Oaxacan Christmas festivity. Celebrated on December 22 and 23, 2011, the event invites tourists and residents to participate in a variety of cultural experiences. Beginning at […]
Continue ReadingBetween the birth and the death came a crazy-quilt of only-in-Mexico experiences that resonated with my memories Daniel Pérez González was a beautiful baby. His parents Flor and Jorge thought so; my wife Arlene and I agreed. Few are able to share our certainty, though, because we were among the very few to see him […]
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Anyone out there on the information highway heard of an American photographer named North? Worked in Mexico, made dozens of daguerreotypes of the cities, churches and countryside circa mid-1800s? Gina Rodriguez would like to know. The young photography historian, resident research expert of the INAH (National Institute of Anthropology and History) Fototeca – the national […]
Continue ReadingA riotous image of a storm of people bolting down a wide Mexico City avenue, in the midst of a live Maldita Vecindad rock performance from the back of a moving truck, comprises one of many memorable video images from that band’s new, self-produced history of itself. The scene describing the pandemonium on the day […]
Continue ReadingImmersed in the history of art and literature, weaved into the superstitions of the collective consciousness, and illumined by the silver screens of cinema, the Wild Man paradoxically basks in the light of celebrity while haunting a preserve of shadows. The “wild man” (and woman) has appeared in numerous forms throughout the centuries of art, […]
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In the novel “Virtual Light,” cyberpunk author William Gibson envisages a Mexico City of the near future where the air is a sooted ebon and the populace wears oxygen masks. It might seem far-fetched, but with the city’s population topping 20 million, and the city’s cars about a third that number and all of it […]
Continue ReadingThe agent is a point that shifts position. No choice but to run, hide, drift: bus after bus, one last run and goodbye to this country for good – but never the nightmare that encapsulates it. J2191948… J2191948… I’d slurped down some tacos of dubious origin in Magdalena, flipped a coin and called it for […]
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Legendary Mexican artist and master muralist Diego Rivera spent so much time avidly collecting pre-Hispanic art it’s a wonder he ever got around to painting. Rivera amassed a collection of thousands of objects: pottery items, stone and jade figures of animals, gods and humans. Many of the purchases were made on the black market. On […]
Continue ReadingUntil the day breaks and the shadows flee away, I will go my way to the mountain of myrrh and to the hill of frankincense. -Song of Solomon Summer day of bougainvillea, wild poinsettia and swaying jacarandas – carefree, carefree – a dry wind carried the restless spirit of the future on its back, fanned by strange […]
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