Los antiguos mayas descubrieron dos ideas fundamentales en matemáticas: el valor posicional y el cero. Sólo otra gran cultura de la antigüedad llegó a encontrar, cerca de 300 años después que los mayas, estos conceptos: la cultura hindú. Estos dos elementos, el valor posicional y el cero, pudieran parecernos simples y básicos hoy en día. […]
Continue ReadingThere is no truth in the words of foreigners. Chilam Balam of Chumayel The news arrives every day: accusations of menacing maneuvers by the Mexican army in Chiapas, proclamations and declarations from different groups and leaders, peace commissions that grow and die like wild flowers in the fields. Violence and killings. Injustice and oppression. Articles […]
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We possess an extraordinary account of this beautiful story, dated in the 16th century: the Nican Mopohua, written by an Indian nobleman, Don Antonio Valeriano, who was baptized and converted to Catholicism. He was a very educated man. The language he used was Náhuatl, the one the Aztecs spoke. The story is called the Nican Mopohua […]
Continue Reading( En Español: La Caridad Empieza En Casa) Weeks ago, the world was shocked by the news arriving from Acteal, Chiapas. More than forty persons, including women and children, were brutally shot to death while praying for peace for their land. The perpetrators of this massacre were gunmen organized and armed by groups that oppose the […]
Continue Reading(In English: Charity Begins At Home) Hace unas semanas, el mundo se estremeció con las noticias provenientes de Acteal, Chiapas. Más de cuarenta personas, mujeres y niños incluidos, fueron brutalmente asesinadas mientras rezaban por la paz en sus comunidades. Los autores de esta masacre fueron elementos armados por grupos que se oponen al Ejército Zapatista […]
Continue ReadingMany years ago, on one of my first trips to the United States, I had the opportunity to attend to a rather formal party, organized in honor of one of the local personalities at the small, charming Midwest city I was visiting. I remember that I received a printed invitation, and I also remember something […]
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I was born in a land that has her womb full of sunlight; that smells of tobacco, and the air intoxicates you because it tastes of rum. The sea caresses all of her body: it dresses her with garments made from coral and salt. Marisela Verena Each year here in Guadalajara, we host an international […]
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For the thousandth time, the automobile was stuck in the road. Damn! Things were much worse than we’d imagined. I opened the car door and stepped down to see how to get us out from the hole in which we had fallen. Not without difficulty, my wife and I managed to find enough rocks to […]
Continue ReadingLocated in the southern part of the Mexican Republic, the state of Oaxaca is bordered on the north by the states of Puebla and Veracruz, to the east by Chiapas, to the west by Guerrero, and to the south by the Pacific Ocean, comprising 95,364 square kilometers. The great valleys of the state are located […]
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Orchid. This sole word conjures up all that is beautiful, exotic, rare. An aura of fascination has always encircled this extraordinary plant family. Its cultivation is considered something esoteric and difficult. Not so. In a climate as the one we enjoy in Guadalajara and surrounding areas, to maintain a healthy and productive orchid collection is a […]
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