Sunday afternoon, at about ten minutes before 4 p.m., local time, in bullrings all over Spain and Mexico, matadors kneel in arena chapels and pray to La Virgen de la Macarena to protect them. For precisely at 4 p.m., a bugle will blow and they will go forth to meet their destiny. Moments later, a […]
Continue ReadingThe Cruz Roja Mexicana functions 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Like the American and Canadian Red Cross, it assists at disasters, but additionally acts as an Emergency Medical Service. By Mexican law, it is the only organization, outside of big cities, authorized to render first aid to anyone injured in an auto […]
Continue ReadingSealed off by mountains to both the East and West, and arid, desert-like land to the North, Mexico’s central altoplano, for eons was home to Nahua, Otomi, Huichol, Cora, Tepehua and Coyutec Indians. Only the Chichimecs, who lived in the foothills of the Eastern mountain range were warlike. It was a fertile, peaceful region, never dominated […]
Continue ReadingMexico is sometimes referred to as the land of Mañana” Those of us who tried to look up the word in dictionaries before coming here, could not find it in the Spanish to English section. Believing that it meant “tomorrow,” we then looked in the English to Spanish Section. There it was, “tomorrow.” Reassured, we headed […]
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Its name is better suited to a Musical Comedy than a conflict between Nations and calls up visions of armies bombarding each other with Éclairs, Fruit Tarts, Napoleons and even Strudel. But on April 16, 1838 a French Fleet began the blockade of Mexico’s east coast seaports, launching a war. It was based on a […]
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Exploring the Yucatan – A Traveler’s Anthology, By Richard D. Perry. A Review Indispensable for anyone heading for the Mayan world of the Yucatan and equally interesting for those who have been there, this Traveler’s Anthology gives a comprehensive overview of the exploration of the area. Although it not really a guide-book, it offers a […]
Continue ReadingHistorians dismiss Agustín Itúrbide with a few lines and most Mexicans have never heard of him. He deserves better. Factually, he was the one who cut the chains that bound Mexico in servitude to Spain. Perhaps historians are uneasy with him because he proposed an Empire rather than a Republic. In fairness to him we […]
Continue ReadingAsked to identify Francisco “Pancho” Villa, most people living North of the Rio Grande and even some Mexicans would call him a “bandido” but a careful examination of his career reveals simply a man willing to break the law to further a cause. In many ways, he remains an enigma. Born in San Juan del Rio, Durango, […]
Continue Reading“The evil men do lives after them, the good is often interred with their bones.” These words of Shakespeare may well describe the future of U.S. President Bill Clinton, but in writing about Mexican President Benito Juarez I would paraphrase these words to read, “The good that he did lives after him, the damage was […]
Continue ReadingIt was just about five years ago that my friends started to disappear from the streets of the little Mexican villages on the shores of Lake Chapala where I had retired some three years earlier. At first I thought they were sick or had moved back to the “old country” but then I met a […]
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