View of Parque Fundidora from atop Blast Furnace. © 2024 Allan Wall

Monterrey’s Fundidora Park showcases city’s industrial heritage

As readers of MexConnect are no doubt aware, Mexico has a great variety of tourist attractions of various types. There are the pre-Hispanic ruins, Spanish colonial architecture, churches and cathedrals, government buildings, battlefields, fortresses, houses of famous people, museums, beaches, mountains and other types of natural scenery. But what about industrial tourism? That’s one you […]

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Ivonne Kennedy.

Ivonne Kennedy: Oaxacan painter with international sensibility

Don’t let the name fool you, Ivonne Kennedy is a genuine Oaxacan painter—but on her own terms. Kennedy was born in 1971 in the city of Oaxaca. While ‘foreign’ last names are not terribly uncommon in Mexico, they are pretty rare in Oaxaca, and ‘foreign’ first names even more so. So, quickly, before we get […]

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Vintage postcard of Mazatlán, Pearl of the Pacific

A family trip to Mazatlan—Sinaloa’s Pearl of the Pacific

La Perla del Pacífico-“The Pearl of the Pacific”. That’s what Mazatlán, Mexico, is called. Mazatlán is located in the state of Sinaloa, on Mexico’s Pacific coast, looking out across the water towards the tip of the Baja California peninsula. However, Mazatlán is not the only “Pearl of the Pacific.” At least 9 Latin American coastal […]

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Passenger Train (Wikipedia)

Railroad Ride Through the Jungle Fifty Years Ago

Who would have dreamed a train from hell could slice through pristine jungle for two days? We’d have gotten off, escaped, even tried to walk out, except for two problems. We didn’t know where we were, and most of the Mexicans spoke Indian languages, not Spanish. The preceding weeks of restful, carefree travel hadn’t prepared […]

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Fishing boats sit idle on the beach, Isla Holbox, Mexico © Ryan Biller, 2021

Whale shark ecotourism brings new hope to fishing communities in Isla Holbox, Quintana Roo

Each year, the Mexican state of Quintana Roo is swarmed by foreign tourists. Even in 2020, in the midst of the global COVID-19 pandemic, the city of Cancún alone saw upwards of two million tourists. Being that the region was one of the few permitting entry to foreigners, I decided to make the journey from […]

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Students at UIEM, San Felipe del Progreso, Mexico State - Estudiantes en la UIEM, San Felipe del Progreso, el Estado de México. © 2021 James Musselman

Higher Education for Indigenous Communities in Mexico

More than 8 million people in Mexico, about 6% of the total population, speak one or more of the country’s 68 original (indigenous) languages. [1] Najo’obiñ’eje, Welcome, bienvenidos, in Mazahua. Pjiekak’joo, “We speak”, the name of the critically endangered Tlahuica language. Despite an official proclamation following the Mexican Revolution of the elimination of racial prejudice […]

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Viñedos Aztecas © 2021 Jane Simon Ammeson

Sampling fine wines on the Querétaro Wine Trail

In a land of smokey mezcals, rompopes, single-distilled raicillas, cervezas, tequilas, and Kahlua—that thick, sweet coffee liqueur made in Veracruz whose name in Nahuatl means the house of the Acolhua people—wine would seem to scarcely merit a mention. But in the 30 miles stretching between San Juan del Río and Bernal, known as the Querétaro […]

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La Anunciación a María, clay and polychrome figurine, artist unknown, Tlaquepaque, Jalisco, 1982 © Anthony Wright, 2012

Christmas in Mexico: Navidad en Mexico, a Mexican holiday resource page

Few North Americans recognize that the roots of these treasured “Christmas” traditions were active long before the birth of Christ. In fact, most evolved from pagan winter solstice rituals of the Celts, Druids, Scandinavians and indigenous groups, and the much older Jewish Festival of Lights. While the most beloved Mexican Christmas traditions are firmly based […]

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