Efren 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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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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We sat at a shady table at an outside patio listening to Pavarotti sing an aria while watching the silvery jets from a plaza fountain in 70-degree weather. This is my idea of the best way to spend a weekday lunch break in mid-December. I did just that in Querétaro, Mexico after having had a […]
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Vanessa thought it would be the perfect vacation: a full week on Mexico’s Mayan Riviera, as the travel agent had called the Yucatan coast. The agent had suggested the small city of Campeche, stressing that it was a place not yet discovered by hordes of Americans, a pristine paradise a few hours south of Merida. […]
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When Marianne Ferrucci first learned that her husband was seriously ill from a mysterious viral infection, she went out on the second floor balcony of their house in northern Mexico, gazed up at the sky and the mountains, and said aloud to herself, “It is very important to stay in touch with the eternal.” She […]
Continue ReadingArtists from the Ajijic-Chapala-Riberas area of Jalisco joined together June 6, 2003 to meet one another, renew collaborations and celebrate the upcoming rainy season at the new Kimball Gallery in Chapala. Organizer Jacqueline Stewart called the event the ” Fiesta de las Chicharras” to honor the locusts that herald the rainy season in this part of […]
Continue ReadingMidlife Mavericks: Women reinventing their lives in Mexico Written by Karen Blue In her first non-fiction book, Midlife Mavericks, author Karen Blue presents the stories of nineteen American and Canadian women who left their countries, families, and cultural roles to begin new lives in Mexico. In elegantly framed vignettes, unmarried women in the second halves of their […]
Continue ReadingFrom the late 17th century and throughout the 18th, Castille soap was the reigning soap of Europe. It surpassed even the French soaps that, at their peak, were considered supremely prized elements of the wealthy person¹s toiletry. The formula for Castille soap was a highly guarded secret in Spain, primarily because of its financial viability […]
Continue ReadingDid you know that one of the highest, most elegant and sumptuous arts of pre-Conquest Mexico was arteplumaria, the art of feather painting? Used to decorate headdresses, standards, staffs, lances, fans, bracelets, and sandals, arteplumaria was also employed to cover every one of the pre-Cortez ceremonial shields ever recovered or recorded. This rare type of ornamentation was […]
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