A few months ago I received an email request from a small town in Texas. The writer Ray and his fiance wanted my guidance in celebrating the Day of the Dead. My answer was – celebrate it in your own way. After all, the customs for the Days of the Dead: November 1 – Dia de […]
Continue ReadingAt ten in the morning the day was already hot enough to dry the tears on my face as I walked into San Juan Cosala to attend little Santiago’s funeral. His teacher and his six-year-old school friends filed slowly into the churchyard, many of the girls in white dresses, and all of the children looking […]
Continue ReadingBitter are the fruits they eat in Michoacán, black oval fruits the size of an olive, borne in the summer on the capelin tree. Bitter is the story told to me in a mountain pueblo in the northeast corner of the state. Juan Manuel told his story of machismo and the fate of his horse as we […]
Continue Reading
A young couple who became famous artists pioneered the San Miguel de Allende foreign community. San Miguel de Allende’s vibrant art and music scene is deservedly famous. Among the early pioneers responsible for this are two Canadian artists: Leonard and Reva Brooks. John Virtue’s book about the couple, subtitled Artists in Exile in San Miguel […]
Continue ReadingSooner or later, everyone in Mexico encounters La Llorona, The Woman Who Wails. It is known that stories about La Llorona dated back to the time of the Spanish Conquest of Mexico. Some say she is older than the Aztecs, old as despair itself. Legends are often a mix of history and imagination. Real events combine with the […]
Continue Reading
Huamantla, Tlaxcala – As the bull charged towards me I lost my footing and fell backwards. As I leaped off behind the wooden fence, the bull began to butt against the plywood. Once, twice, three times. I hold my breath. Every year in this town, on the first Saturday after August 15, 20 bulls are […]
Continue ReadingA Mexican who tried to revolutionize the world of classical music was once nominated for the Nobel Prize in Physics. In 1950, Julián Carrillo was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Physics. The nomination was something of a surprise to the scientific community since Carrillo was far better known as one of Mexico’s top violinists […]
Continue Reading
Juan O’Gorman was born on July 6, 1905, in Coyoacán, Mexico City. His father, Cecil Crawford O’Gorman, was a mining engineer and artist of Irish origin; his mother was Mexican. Juan was educated at the National University (UNAM), and became a well known architect. A follower of the Franco-German rationalism school, he was one of […]
Continue Reading
Shamanism is humanity’s oldest form of relationship to Spirit. As such, it is the underpinning beneath all religion. But shamanism is not a religion. It is a complex set of practices, beliefs, values and behaviors that enable the practicioner to elicit a shift from ordinary consiousness into a trance state with a specific goal in […]
Continue Reading
Ecstasy is a real human need… a state of consciousness beyond concept. And if it does not come through… in positive ways… it’s going to come out in violence. — Elizabeth Cogburn — The Huichol shamans say we are perdido, lost. They say we are bringing doom and destruction to Yurianaka, Mother Earth, and that Taupa, Father […]
Continue Reading