Editor’s Comment
MexConnect: 30 years old this month!
MexConnect is 30 years old this month! Happy Birthday MexConnect! ¡Feliz cumpleaños, MexConnect! While the precise date is lost in the mists of time, this 1997 newspaper article, based on an interview with MexConnect founder David McLaughlin, dates MexConnect definitively to June 1996, when, from the then small village of Ajijic, he established its first […]
Travel
Mexico by Motorcycle: The Avalanche
As I mounted my red, Honda SL 175 combination bike a cool drizzle sprinkled Mexico City. The city only had seven million inhabitants then, but still presented a puzzling maze my three week visit hadn’t deciphered. Today’s tourists complain about the lack of highway signs but there were even fewer in 1971. Two possible potholed […]
Vibrant Puerto Vallarta didn’t overwhelm my autistic partner, it set him free.
When you say the word Mexico, something odd happens to the anglophone ear. The M leans in. The E lingers. Pressure builds. Anticipation hums, then release. To most, it’s just a word. To a neurodivergent nervous system, it’s the waiting before the jump. Arriving in Mexico can feel like a sensory freefall. It is a […]
Food & Cuisine
Searching for Saffron in Mexico: Azafran and Azafrán de bolita
mazbook1, Jul 24, 2013: I have lived and cooked in México full-time now for 16 years and there is one puzzle I still haven’t solved. The spice saffron – azafrán – is probably the world’s most expensive spice, as it is just the dried stigmas of the purple flowers of the crocus sativa. Expensive since […]
History & People
Mexico this month – June
Index to Mexico this month (all 12 months) June 1, 1565. Andrés de Urdaneta sets sail from the Philippine Islands on what eventually becomes recognized as a landmark voyage in sailing history. His return to New Spain, by sailing across the Pacific Ocean from west to east, is the earliest documented successful voyage in this […]
Chapala’s rich architectural heritage: here today, gone tomorrow?
The small lakeside town of Chapala in Jalisco had more buildings designed by notable architects in the first half of the twentieth century than any other location of its size in Mexico, perhaps even in North America. In 1900, Chapala was little more than an overgrown fishing village with one major hotel and 1753 residents. […]
Love affair began when President Díaz met President Taft at Mexico/US Summit
October 16th 2024 marks the 115th anniversary of the first summit meeting, in 1909, between the presidents of Mexico and the United States. Mexico has had a long tumultuous history from the ancient Maya to modern day events. Like any personal relationships, it hasn’t always been pleasant. From wars and human sacrifice in pre-Columbian days, […]
The Path of Most Resistance: the Top Yucatán Caste War Sites
For far too long the history of 19th Century Mayan free rule in the Mexican Yucatán has been largely ignored. But local Maya are working to put it on the map. Through museums, ruins, guided tours and more, they are preserving the legacy of this largest post-colonial indigenous revolution in the Americas, commonly known as […]
What was Mexico like 70 years ago?
G. M. Bashford’s Tourist Guide to Mexico was first published exactly seventy years ago in 1954. It was one of a spate of motoring book guides written after World War II as Americans began to hit the open road and drive south in search of sunshine and adventure. How much has Mexico really changed in […]
Mexico this month – May
Index to Mexico this month (all 12 months) May 1, 1552 A royal decree establishes four schools for natives in the province of Nueva Galicia (now Jalisco): in Guadalajara, Atoyac, Ahuacatlán and Juchipila. 1, 1917 Venustiano Carranza begins his term as President. During his three years in office (until 1920) fighting continues in much of […]
Living, Working, Retiring
Let the Pavement Speak: Stories Beneath Your Feet
Almost a quarter of your skeleton lives in your feet. Fifty-two bones. Dozens of joints. They will carry you 75,000 miles over a lifetime, enough to circle the Earth three times and usually without complaint… usually. Yet we spend most of that time ignoring them. Not to mention what lies beneath them. The trouble is, […]
FREEDOM (poem)
Pan American Highway near Oaxaca © Tony Burton, 1981. The Pan American Highway is a dark asphalt ribbon. To the east and west, low brown hills rise in the distance. To the south, Oaxaca. To the north, Mexico City, many miles away. It’s quiet, deserted, nothing in sight but the jeep heading across open […]
Mexico by Motorcycle: The Avalanche
As I mounted my red, Honda SL 175 combination bike a cool drizzle sprinkled Mexico City. The city only had seven million inhabitants then, but still presented a puzzling maze my three week visit hadn’t deciphered. Today’s tourists complain about the lack of highway signs but there were even fewer in 1971. Two possible potholed […]
Recipes
Books & Authors
Aztecs & Maya
The Path of Most Resistance: the Top Yucatán Caste War Sites
For far too long the history of 19th Century Mayan free rule in the Mexican Yucatán has been largely ignored. But local Maya are working to put it on the map. Through museums, ruins, guided tours and more, they are preserving the legacy of this largest post-colonial indigenous revolution in the Americas, commonly known as […]
Visiting Dzibilchaltún: an ancient city in an ancient land
Once a vast city of 40,000 spread across 8 square miles or so of jungle and meadows, Dzibilchaltún was a long-lived Mayan city, a major player in the salt trade, and the ultimate survivor. Founded around 300 B.C., Dzibilchaltún lasted until the arrival of the Spanish in 1540. An architectural marvel even now, as it […]
The Maya civilization, cities of the Maya
The material splendor of the Maya culture is appreciated, more than in any other field, in the architecture and ornamentation of their cities. These city-states were the center of power for the king-priests who administered the obedience, the tribute and the manpower of the people who believed in them. Many Maya cities and ceremonial centres […]
The Maya civilization and cities: a resource page
To the foreigner, the words ‘Maya’ and ‘Mayan’ conjure up images of archeological ruins and a lost society and culture. Currently, the word ‘Chiapas’ brings to mind rebellion, Sub Commandante Marcos and a sense of confusion. What many do not understand is the relationship between the historical Maya and today’s living expression of that culture […]
Interactive Maps
Selected Posts
Mexico This Month
10 Years Ago
20 Years Ago
- Annabell Molina Muniz commented on Toribio Romo: the patron saint of migrants: St. Toribio is my friends great great uncle .she a
- Lugh Nguyen commented on La Quinceañera: a celebration of budding womanhood: Me and Kai misner like this
- Tony commented on November in Talpa: month-long celebrations: You are more than welcome. Thanks for your kind wo
- Joshua Lofgren commented on November in Talpa: month-long celebrations: I am a direct descendant (great great grandson) of
- trapper commented on Moving millions through Mexico City’s Metro: Allan wall is my Spanish teacher
Art & Artists
Destinations
About Mexican Food
Searching for Saffron in Mexico: Azafran and Azafrán de bolita
mazbook1, Jul 24, 2013: I have lived and cooked in México full-time now for 16 years and there is one puzzle I still haven’t solved. The spice saffron – azafrán – is probably the world’s most expensive spice, as it is just the dried stigmas of the purple flowers of the crocus sativa. Expensive since […]
Culture & Arts
The History of Mexico City College and the Virtues of Studying Abroad
Many of the world’s prestigious institutions of higher education have welcomed students for centuries. The oldest established school is the University of Al-Karaouine in Fez, Morocco, founded in 859. The University of Bologna in Italy opened its doors for the first time in 1088, soon followed by the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom […]
Gems of Mexico: The Opal Miners of La Trinidad, Queretaro
Twelve of us, nine humans and three small pups, chugged up the mountainside to Mina El Redentor (Redeemer Mine) in the back of a 4×4 all-terrain vehicle with double traction. The rocky, cumbersome path from the village of La Trinidad up to the mine took about 20 minutes to conquer and put my gimbal camera […]
Adventure Tourism
Cultural Customs
Marquesitas: sweet, delicious and addictive
I am not an addict or so my dealer says. Because I can stop whenever I want. I probably won’t, but that’s a different story. Today, for example, is Friday. It would be ridiculous to quit right before the weekend, wouldn’t it? I blame Guadalupe or Lupe, as she prefers. The thirty-seven-year-old supplier has spent […]
FREEDOM (poem)
Pan American Highway near Oaxaca © Tony Burton, 1981. The Pan American Highway is a dark asphalt ribbon. To the east and west, low brown hills rise in the distance. To the south, Oaxaca. To the north, Mexico City, many miles away. It’s quiet, deserted, nothing in sight but the jeep heading across open […]
Handmade hammocks made with patience and love last a lifetime
Men are strange creatures. On the hazy fumes of a drunken evening, they will compete over anything: V8 vs. V6 engines, grill surface area, lawn stripes and, after sufficient cerveza, even personal appendage metrics. But in a brightly lit taquería, when the conversation behind me turned to hammocks, I couldn’t help overhearing. For research purposes, […]
TWO WORLDS (poem)
Airport Lounge (Villahermosa). Image (cropped): Vmzp85, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons The First Class lounge floats like Olympus on the second floor at Benito Juárez Airport, a discrete distance above the multitude herding like hungry cattle on the concourse below. Inside, soft leather couches surround TV monitors offering fútbol and the latest […]
