Mexico’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 Twenty-Two Music Professors” squared off against “The “Heavy Metal Charros,” (Heavy Metal Cowboys) separated only by the four lanes of a major cross street. Batteries of powerful lights turned an area of several square blocks of the city into day. Huge amplifiers were dotted around in a very scientific and acoustically successful manner. The […]
Continue ReadingLarge families, devout Catholics, modest clothing, very poor – these are some of the common preconceived notions about Mexicans from a rural eastern Oregon perspective. However, such a view is limiting and hides the rich variety that abounds in the Mexican culture and among Mexicans from both the United States and Mexico. People who hold […]
Continue ReadingFirst written in the spring of 1994, this story has been revised several times as dictated by subsequent events. It has generated more responses than any other. Most of them have been at least somewhat rational. Every Norteamericano who reads a newspaper or watches 60 Minutes knows that an armed political/economic struggle has been going […]
Continue ReadingIt was the scorpion in the amber that fascinated Linda most, at first. A four-inch, brownish nodule of Mexican amber from the great limestone flats in Chiapas, it lay on a bed of still bright marigold flowers on the living room altar. It was a color match but a jolt down deep, a primordial fright, […]
Continue ReadingBob Culbertson, a Border Patrol chief, is chasing Mexican border crossers somewhere in Texas when a light aircraft in obvious difficulties flies overhead and then crashes in the scrub. Culbertson and his partner go to investigate and find two dead men and 40 or 50 bags of cocaine in the aircraft. One of the men […]
Continue ReadingMany readers of MexConnect have discovered these illuminating words by Octavio Paz: “In the United States the word death burns the lips, but the Mexican lives close to it, jokes about it, caresses it, celebrates it, sleeps with it, it is his favorite toy.” Those words are echoed in the translator’s (John Oliver Simon’s) introduction […]
Continue ReadingThe other day Deovijilda Lara, who owns a tacos al vapor stand in a nearby pueblo Mercado Municipal, was regaling me with tales of her family’s Christmas last year. These mostly had to do with comically inappropriate gifts, the drunken, hilarious behavior of relatives and friends, punctuated, of course, with a few dark occurrences — a car accident, a […]
Continue ReadingMaybe you already know that Mexico is the fifth largest country in the Americas by area, and 14th in the world. And maybe you already know that it boasts a population of 109 million, and that people all around the world come for the beaches, cuisine, and colorful atmosphere. But maybe you don’t know about […]
Continue ReadingThere is nothing that can compare with the sounds, tastes, and delights of Mexico. Many words have passed through many lips about Mexico, from Herb Alpert to Erik Estrada — some humorous, some poignant. Let’s listen in on some of these voices, past and present, for in them we just may get a sense of […]
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