Timothy Dwight, the fervently reactionary and comically pompous head of Yale University, was a strong Federalist supporter who predicted that the accession of Thomas Jefferson to the presidency would lead to “a frenzied dance of Jacobinism.” Jacobinism — the doctrine of the ultra-radical and anticlerical wing of the French revolutionary movement — was as much […]
Continue ReadingWhile most of the leaders of Mexico’s War of Independence were Mexican-born creoles, an exception was Francisco Javier Mina, whose name today appears on street signs and monuments throughout Mexico. Like Burke, Fox and Paine, Mina was a citizen of the mother country who deeply felt the pain inflicted on its colonists. Appropriately for a […]
Continue ReadingIn Norman Rosten’s The Joys of Yiddish, the term “chutzpah” is defined as “gall, brazen nerve, effrontery, incredible ‘guts’; presumption-plus-arrogance such as no other word … can do justice to.” As an example of chutzpah, Rosten cites “that quality enshrined in a man who, having killed his mother and father, throws himself on the mercy […]
Continue ReadingFew people have ever less fitted the conventional image of a revolutionary than Venustiano Carranza. He was a country squire rather than an intellectual, he had been part of a ruling establishment and he took up revolution at an age when most men are contemplating retirement. Yet history placed him among the leading figures in […]
Continue Reading
José Guadalupe Posada is in the great tradition of cartoonists who double as political and social commentators. That tradition includes Honoré Daumier, whose merciless portraits of bourgeois society caused him to be acclaimed as the greatest social satirist of his day, Aubrey Beardsley, who illustrated Oscar Wilde’s Salomé, and such living political cartoonists as Herbert […]
Continue Reading
Before the revolution, haciendas dotted the countryside of Mexico. With their classic architecture and splendid great houses, each Mexico hacienda is surrounded in an aura of romance. Located 40 kilometers west of Guadalajara, the circular pyramids of Teuchitlán, attract tourists from all over the world. The “Guachimontones” are the centerpiece of several attractions in the […]
Continue Reading
Tlatelolco Square in Mexico City, D. F. (now Plaza of the Three Cultures) holds a special place in the history of Mexico, and in the hearts and minds of her people. Today, most people remember it for the student massacre that occurred on October 2, 1968. However the bloody history of this place began hundreds […]
Continue Reading
and a second picture essay: Marsha Sorensen lived in Ajijic in the mid and late1960s, and made two extended visits in 1972 and 1973. Revisting Ajijic in 2008 for the first time in thirty-five years, she was struck by the “astonishing changes” and searched out some photos from the old days as a contribution to […]
Continue Reading
Some years ago an Australian TV commercial extolled the virtues of a non-alcoholic substitute called “Claytons.” A famous actor refused his last strong one at the bar, telling the barman: “Make mine a Claytons,” over which the voice over intoned: “The drink you have when you’re not having a drink.” Since then, the word has […]
Continue Reading
As they explored the New World, the early conquistadors were spurred on by the possibility of finding treasure and riches. Captive Indians told convincing stories of cities far to the north even more fabulous than the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan. The Spaniards’ greed was sufficient to fuel determined drives into ever more remote territory in the […]
Continue Reading