The attitude towards death evidenced in the quintessentially Mexican holiday of Día de Muertos (Day of the Dead) might be puzzling for some. It isn’t difficult for foreigners to interpret dancing skeletons, candy skulls and general drunken revelry as disrespect for the dead and grief at human loss. Nothing could be further from the truth. […]
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La Virgen de Guadalupe – Mother of all Mexico Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe The Virgin Guadalupe “La Reina de México”, “La Virgen Indígena” Fiesta de Guadalupe in Puerto Vallarta Paying tribute to Our Lady of Guadalupe in Oaxaca The Virgen of Guadalupe – Celebration in Oaxaca The Virgin of Guadalupe: Tonantzin or Mary? Our Lady of […]
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Inside Mexico In those days a decree from Emperor Augustus was issued, ordering a census for the entire world. […] Everybody had to be registered, each one in his city. Also Joseph, who came from the lineage of David, came up from the city of Nazareth, in Galilee, to the city of David, named Bethlehem, […]
Continue ReadingThe Romans coined the phrase Omne vivum ex ovo, “All life comes from an egg.” The egg is a universal symbol of birth and resurrection, employed in burial practices of the ancient Egyptians and Greeks, and eventually adopted by Christians in the second century in conjunction with the celebration of Easter. Though brightly colored eggs […]
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Mexico on the surface is beautiful enough, but you have to dive to find its true treasures. Spanish is an indispensable tool for this, as it opens the door to readings and — more importantly — people you would not be able to connect with otherwise. I have been in Mexico since 2003 when I […]
Continue ReadingPara bailar la bamba Para bailar la bamba Se necesita Una poca de gracia Una poca de gracia Y otra cosita Can you hear Ritchie Valens belting that one out? One of Rock and Roll’s most copied songs (from garage bands, movies, and college marching bands, to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir). La Bamba is an […]
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For me, Tonalá has always seemed like a magical sort of place, like something that one would only stumble upon in the make-believe world of fiction. Its narrow, dusty streets lined with unadorned buildings give Tonalá a rather unpolished look as compared with neighboring Tlaquepaque or Guadalajara’s downtown. Yet there are treasures to be discovered […]
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Each year on May 3rd processions of singing pilgrims carrying streamers and flowers wend their way through towns, cities and villages of Mexico to decorate the crosses along roadsides and on mountaintops to honor and remember the Holy Cross. All over the country thousands of crosses in streets, parks, cemeteries and churchyards are visited and […]
Continue ReadingWhereas the Canadian and US educational systems have been influenced by their British ancestry, the Mexican educational system is based on its French and Spanish ancestry. The different beginnings have produced different approaches. For the Mexican, the educational base is deductive reasoning; moving from the global towards the particular. However the last critical step of […]
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We sit in darkness, on an earthen floor. Hot vapor condenses and drips down my skin as I hug my knees against my chest and breathe lightly to cool the scalding vapor before it reaches my lungs. The beat of a drum, leather stretched over a wooden frame, penetrates my chest, and we begin to […]
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