Cogan’s Reviews What a wonderful book this is for explaining some of the mysteries of Mexico. It’s not pretty stuff but one emerges with great admiration for the Mexican people and their ability to survive in a plainly rotten social and economic system. Ms. Hellman, who is a Professor of Political and Social Science at […]
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Cogan’s Reviews What on earth is one to make of this big sprawling exuberant novel? There were times when I enjoyed it and other times when I wondered if I would even finish it. For my taste, it’s just a bit too sprawling and exuberant. It’s as if Sandra Cisneros just had too much to […]
Continue ReadingCogan’s Reviews “Breaking Even” starts out thus: “What Val saw as his long period of involuntary servitude was about to come to an end. In the prison movie parlance he liked to affect, he had done his ‘hard time.’ He had finally reached his eighteenth birthday, and Texas law entitled him to make his own […]
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Cogan’s Reviews One of the problems with reviewing this short but interesting novel is that the plot is based on a couple of surprises. To say too much about it would spoil the story. Once the action gets well underway the reader is presented with a surprising development involving one of the main characters. At […]
Continue ReadingCogan’s Reviews The story begins in 1941, at the time America went to war with Japan and Germany. It concerns the Salazar family, poor farmers in Chihuahua. The grandfather, Sebastian, knows he is dying and he advises the family to move to the United States. He reasons that because of the war the Americans will […]
Continue ReadingThe following article is essentially a letter which a friend of mine, Ralph Rodriguez, a resident of Guadalajara, wrote to his children some years ago. It concerns an annual festival which is held in the town of Mazamitla, Jalisco, every December. It’s a pretty interesting time to visit and make the 90 or so minutes […]
Continue ReadingCogan’s Reviews Here’s a story that takes in a complete life, from childhood well into adulthood, and from rags to riches. It’s a story that is of interest to we residents in the Lake Chapala area as it starts out in Ajijic and covers a fair number of years there – or should I say here. […]
Continue ReadingMothers of Mexico’s missing say Christmas and birthdays are the hardest parts. That makes sense. Christmas is family time. We see it in our community. Workers are off for a few extra days. Three generations climb into pickup trucks and go visit relatives – even if it is just across town. They have lunch and […]
Continue Reading“Be careful what you wish for,” they say, “you might get it.” That may be true most of the time, but not this time. My son has given me what I wished for — he just married a Mexican girl! Keiko was born and raised in Mexico City to Japanese and Mexican parents. She was […]
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The Christmas season in Mexico is a time filled with delightfully colorful customs, among which one of my personal favorites is the traditional piñata -breaking that highlights most holiday festivities. It’s a hoot to watch the youngsters unleash all that pent-up energy and, while on the one hand there’s a certain element of greed and agression implicit […]
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