Travel in Mexico is broadening
Tequila Sunrise is a disco in Puerto Escondido, owned by a couple of Californians. This sign belongs to them. I just thought it ironic that "drugs" apparently does not include booze, which they are in ...
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The calm amid the storm
Like "The Hidden Places", this article is about the play of light and shadows on the eye of the observer; of the offered and the hidden; of peace in the midst of struggle. (The picture is of the Guelag...
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Glad to be here
In January, I celebrated my fifth anniversary in Oaxaca, the second longest period of time I have ever spent in one place. " Soy vagabundo" (I am a wanderer), I often answer when asked what I "do...
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Happy anniversary to me
La Casa de Mescal is a Oaxaca landmark, which at the millenium will have been doing business at this location near the Zocalo for 60 years. Those of us who prefer Mezcal to its cousin, Tequila, know th...
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Where are you, Juan Valdez?
This piece was written in early 1995. A year later, pieces on why we should buy "organic" coffee were appearing regularly in the mainstream press. (The picture is of the ancient cedar in Tule, outside ...
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Welcome to Los Angeles
I wrote his in early 1995. Thankfully, the decency and good will of the average Oaxacan had not vanished along with their purchasing power and hopes for the future.
Teen age gangs, on the rise, have m...
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Charity begins at home
These kids are Tarahumara indians who live in the Copper Canyon area. The Tarahumara are among the most marginalized of Mexico's indigenous peoples, and suffer from severe drought in the summer and nea...
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A gala in Oaxaca
Inside the main chapel at Santo Domingo Church, one of many highly decorated colonial and post colonial buildings in Oaxaca in which music is presented.
The Teatro Macedonio Alcala exists because of t...
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Letters from Mexico watch out for the wind
This was written around Christmas of 1994. The banner hangs outside an opposition union office in Oaxaca.
After ten days, the occupation ended. The teachers, some ten thousand strong, went back home t...
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A world class museum opens in Oaxaca
A detail salvaged from the original convent of Santo Domingo graces one side of the main entrance to the newly refurbished Oaxaca Cultural Center and Regional Museum.
[This is a special article abou...
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Truth in packaging
In a place where the image of something can attain more significance than its substance, the propaganda war is waged without letup. Just like at home... (The wall of the governor's official residence, ...
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Letters to the editor: Sept. 1996
Below are some archives of letters to the editor that Stan has chosen to answer with open responses.
August 23, 1996: A Border Resident Shares Her Experiences
Sandy Weisel writes:
Hi, I just love ...
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Is this the border zone, or the twilight zone?
On one end of the Tapatio, one of Guadalajara's walking streets, is a plaza featuring many quirky benches, a table, and this chair. Cast in bronze, it is worn into a wonderful patina by the many people...
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Is there a doctor in the house?
This drawing of a latrine is painted on a wall next to the main square in San Martin Tilcajete, Oaxaca. It was paid for by the National Health, as a preventative medicine strategy.
There are fou...
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Letters to the editor: Dec 1995
Below are some archives of letters to the editor that Stan has chosen to answer with open responses. December 20, 1995
Victor Salas writes that, having been born and raised in ...
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Welcome to San Miguel de Gringolandia
I don't remember where this picture was taken, but I thought it a nice little color splash to brighten your day. Photography by Dan McWethy
[This article, as many I have written, says at least as much...
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Three blind mice
This was written in 1994. How to survive - and stay - in Oaxaca, were very much on my mind. (The picture is of the Oaxaca State Band playing their Sunday concert in the zocalo.) Photography by Diana Ri...
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The Rompe Cabeza man
Maestro Ignacio Cervantes plies his trade in the Alameda, in front of the Cathedral in Oaxaca. Photography by Diana Ricci
[" Rompe - Cabeza " (ROM-pe ca -BAY-sa, literally "head b...
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What's today's rate?
I wrote this in early 1995, when the peso was on a slide. For many, especially the Mexican people, the "devaluation" was no laughing matter.
"It's 5.0 at the Caseta de Cambio (money changer) in Cinco ...
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Fear and uncertainty in Chiapas
A monument to the 45 refugee victims of the massacre on December 22, 1997 in Acteal, Chiapas, at the hands of a paramilitary death squad. The child's shoe is a symbol of the many children who died that...
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No tengo cambio?
This clown is plying his trade in the Oaxaca Zócalo.
He probably needs change. Photography by Diana Ricci
There is a deep, dark, secret hole where all the change goes, and nobody k...
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On the border
Some 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 c...
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Let's keep it to ourselves
This is our patio. We can seat 26 in a pinch, but we like to hold it down to 20. This is not as much work as it may seem, since all our large parties are pot-luck, and everyone we know either cooks lik...
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Zedillo changes his mind
During the more than three years since the Zapatistas walked out of the jungle, and into history, El Sub has consistently predicted that he will not live to see victory. When I wrote this article, a li...
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Merry ( cough, hack ) Christmas ( wheeze )
A latecomer brought by TV and consumerism from El Norte, this Santa, with his reindeer made from local tree branches, was greeted with a mixture of awe and nervousness by the children on the plaza in f...
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