How well can a person understand a culture not their own? Can experiences be understood without full command of the Spanish language; a language in which civility is interwoven like lace? With these questions I return again and again to Mexico. Invited to sit “down at the table,” I’m gradually getting to know the people […]
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Moctezuma ordered his special chair. Pedro Páramo, in Juan Rulfo’s award winning novel sat upon one. Both men enjoyed equipales, the rustic leather furniture found everywhere in Mexico. Equipales are still hand-manufactured in many parts of the country. However in Zacoalco de Torres, a small town south of Guadalajara, the tradition dates back to Pre-Hispanic times. By the […]
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When Miguel Angel Martínez attended a photography class nearly a decade ago at the Universidad de Guadalajara (Guadalajara University), he suddenly knew that he had found his calling. A student in the university’s Escuela de Artes Plásticas (School of Plastic Arts), Martínez had been immersed in a world of painting and drawing. But when he […]
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Art is a necessity and as such, it is important not just in our personal lives, but is also the reflection of a society’s reality. If you are ever wandering around the streets of Guadalajara, Mexico, you may just stumble upon a larger than life young woman smiling down at you, her naked body partially […]
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As a boy, Prudencio Guzmán Rodríguez was haunted by the mysterious characters known as Tastoanes, who are part of a tradition that spans more than a century in the municipality of Tonalá, Mexico, where he grew up. The Tastoanes would come to Guzmán in a recurring dream, in which he was walking down the street […]
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“I am from Mexico, but it is like (being) from another country that no longer exists,” says famed potter Juan Jorge Wilmot Mason. Born in Monterrey 77 years ago, Wilmot eventually made his way to his long-time residence of Tonalá in the late 1950s. He says that Tonalá had far fewer inhabitants back then and […]
Continue ReadingIngredientes: 2 tazas de crema para batir 1 taza se leche (no utilice descremada o semi-descremada) 1 pizca de sal 1/2 cucharadita de vainilla natural 1 taza de azúcar 4 huevos grandes 2 yemas de huevo grande 7 cucharaditas de azúcar Preparación: Caliente el horno a 350°F. Combine la crema, leche, sal y vainilla. Hierve […]
Continue ReadingI digress from stories about the potters of Mata Ortíz, Chihuahua this month to reminisce about my first New Year in Mexico. I was 13, I was in Puerto Vallarta and the year was 1958. “Mike, come and look.” Dad shook me awake. I squinted, bleary-eyed around the dark room. It was still the middle […]
Continue ReadingI have just had a very enlightening interview with a young man who some of you may know. Bruno is the owner of Ajijic Original T-Shirts, the small gallery/gift shop right down from Bancomer in Ajijic. His story is like many others in this wonderful, talent-ridden town. Born to Jose Mariscal and Sara Lazaro, Bruno […]
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Back when I lived in a Northern Virginia condo and traveled often to Mexico and the Caribbean with the Vienna-based Emerald Shillelagh Chowder & Marching Society, I adopted the habit of buying a tee shirt featuring the name of the city or island. My favorite shirt, the one that got the most commentary from fellow travelers on […]
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