This months cover features an example of Huichol yarn painting, Cuadros Estambrados, a transformational art form to the artists and shamans of the Huichol people, who use it to depict their myths, sacred totems, and stories. This particular example sprung from the imagination of Justyn Vallori, a local artist and psychic who says she was drawn […]
Continue ReadingThis month’s cover features an etching by local artist and graphoanalyst, Rita Pomade, who admits to having a life-long fascination with lines and their potential for expression. Rita works in pen and ink, printmaking, linocuts, and pastel, as well as interpreting the lines of her client’s handwriting, for which she studied two and a half years in […]
Continue ReadingEfren Gonzalez was born and raised in Ajijic, a student of the Santos Degollado Secondary School, at the top of Encarnacion Rosas. Never did the artist dream he would be the painter commissioned to adorn the huge wall facing the main entrance. The town of Chapala agreed to pay 1500 pesos, hardly the cost of […]
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This month’s cover proudly displays the work of Ajijic native, Javier Zaragoza. The Artist was discovered by Niell James, an author and pioneer in this area. She also was the founder of the LCS (Lake Chapala Society) and upon her death, willed her estate to the organization. In those days, Ms. James would supply art […]
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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 […]
Continue ReadingQ: Jude tell us about yourself: A: I was born in Chicago and grew up in the 50’s in a small suburb. I married young, had four kids, a son and three daughters. Fourteen years later in Seattle, I found myself divorced, enrolling as a freshman at University of Washington. I spent eight very successful […]
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This month’s cover is a digital photo of papier-mâché chili peppers taken in Ajijic. These strings of papier-mâché items are known as ristras and are just one of several Mexican paper, art forms. Typically, ristras are fruit, vegetables, garlic, birds and other animals. Paper crafts have a long history in this country. Everywhere you look there are paper articles […]
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Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlan celebrates its 100th anniversary in 1998. “[Mariachi] Vargas was one of the first organized groups to go to Mexico City and become popular. But that was just one style of music. During the thirties and forties, the record industry sort of standardized mariachi music. In a way that was good, and […]
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It was a chance thing, really. We were heading for Patzcuaro, almost due south of Guanajuato where we had spent the past several days on a photography and business junket. While we were checking out of our small hotel just this side of the tunnels that snake under old Guanajuato, the otherwise taciturn gentleman who […]
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There is no buzzing lobby. No long formidable hotel desk. No jostling line of people waiting to check in and out. Instead, there is the Hacienda’s Concierge desk, set in the open-air reception terrace, amidst stunning Old Mexico architecture and looking out on the almost unbelievably beautiful azure waters of the Sea of Cortez. And, […]
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