Amid the reconstructed pyramids of Monte Alban, a pageant is performed commemorating ancient legends of how the sun and the moon and the Earth were born, and were set free to roam the heavens. Designed with help from the Dragon Theater of Maine, and performed by local singers, dancers and musicians, “Sol y Luna” will, […]
Continue ReadingMexico is a noisy place. Unless your cave is very high up the mountain, far beyond human habitation, noise is an integral part of your life. Certain kinds of noises are universal, occurring with equal frequency and comparable decibel levels in both urban and rural locations. The chief among them is church bells, which ring […]
Continue ReadingAll my life, I have been a coward about death and dying. It’s all so unsanitary somehow; so negative; so threatening. Better to turn your head, tune out suffering, and tune in to the happy positive life of eternal youth that is the birthright of every television-watching white kid who grew up in the U.S. […]
Continue ReadingSome days are better than others. Visa days are hardly ever good, filled as they are with anxiety and uncertainty. All this visa business seems so silly to me, and so costly, and so inconvenient. Why can’t I just live here in peace? It’s enough to drive a person to drink… Welcome to the ripoff […]
Continue Reading[” Rompe – Cabeza ” (ROM-pe ca -BAY-sa, literally “head breaker”), is a term that Mexicans apply to all puzzles, from crosswords to mazes.] As you stroll through the Alameda, the vest-pocket park in front of the Cathedral plaza in Oaxaca, around 7:00 in the evening, keep an eye out for Ignacio Cervantes. He’s the elderly, white-goatee’d […]
Continue ReadingNovember first is children’s day in the series of remembrances and festivities that are known as Dias de los Muertos (days of the dead). On this day, the souls of departed children migrate to the homes of their still living relatives to take a sip of chocolate off the altar which has been constructed to […]
Continue ReadingGringos call them “speed bumps”. Mexicans nickname them ” policia durmiendo” (sleeping policemen). The tópe (TOE-pay), a bump in the otherwise potholed road of Mexican life, is an endless source of fascination for anyone, like myself, who loves to categorize the phenomena of everyday existence. However and wherever constructed, speed bumps are self-regulation at its most basic. The […]
Continue ReadingWe are tall, white, middle aged and well fed. They are short, dark and thin. We are foreigners and they are native born, “Indio”, indigenous. We are retired academicians and professionals and they are farmers, ” campesinos“, “peasants”. We are donors to a relief effort that was mounted in response to the devastating earthquake and monsoon rains […]
Continue ReadingSanta Maria Tiltepec was once a thriving village, important enough for the conquering Spaniards to order a fine church built. The church still stands, a monument to the determination of the conquerors and the artistic and architectural skills of the indigenous Mixtec peoples who constructed it from drawings of other churches, brought over from the […]
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In more than five years as an expatriate living in Oaxaca, I have forgotten much, learned a little, and been more amazed than bored. One of the things I think I have learned is that for most of us here in Paradise, what we get out of it depends a lot on what we bring […]
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