Many of you know August is the month when Talpa de Allende’s image of the Virgin begins walking the back roads, visiting and blessing the ranches, cattle, crops, ponds and creeks along the way. She is accompanied by her devotees for six weeks on this summer trek. Her approach to the ranches is announced by […]
Continue ReadingMexico enjoys temperate climes throughout the year. It gets a bit warm on the coast in the summertime and a bit chilly in some of our mountains in the wintertime. But generally, we don’t suffer the debilitating hot, humid summers our northern neighbors do, nor do we skate around on frozen lakes in the wintertime. […]
Continue ReadingIn 1985, there were four Americans living in Talpa. Guy Lawlor and Bill Worth had almost finished their ranch house, or so I thought. Twenty-three years have passed and it is still almost finished. Bill never allows his measuring tape or draftsman’s pencil to lie idle for long. The great open hall upstairs, with four […]
Continue ReadingNovember is a busy month in Talpa de Allende. The corn has been harvested and the stalks stand in stacks in the open fields. The sun will soon dry them out enough so that they can be ground into fodder for the livestock. We’ve celebrated The Day of the Dead, birthdays, wedding anniversaries, The Day […]
Continue Reading
There was an Indian mound near my home when I was growing up. We knew we were not supposed to play near the mound, and we knew it was an ancient burial spot, but we didn’t know it might have been a “power place.” My older brothers had shoeboxes full of flint arrowheads collected from […]
Continue Reading
MexConnect readers know by now that March is the month when everybody who can walk, walks to Talpa. It has become a tradition that has been passed down from generation to generation. The new short-cut through the mountains connecting Mascota to Puerto Vallarta has brought even more frequent visitors to Talpa de Allende. Walkers come […]
Continue Reading
On January 10, 1906 María del Rosario Ramos Váldez was born in Talpa de Allende. Last year on her 102nd birthday, we celebrated with her at the nearby ranch of Lic. Ernesto Váldez, a long-time family friend. Those of you who have read my contributions to Mexconnect may remember me introducing her to you in […]
Continue Reading
Traveling vendors were a common sight back in Mississippi when I was growing up. We had tinkers who wandered the roads during the summertime. We could always hear them coming by the clanging of pots and pans strapped to their backs. We would run to the kitchen to bring out the enamel saucepans that had […]
Continue ReadingIn Talpa de Allende, there is a neighborhood girl who calls me her quasi-godmother. We have studied English together for the past few summers, but I find her attention span jumping about like a monkey. We decided we would study “Cooking in the Gringa Kitchen” this summer. I am not Karen Hursh Graber or Diana […]
Continue Reading
Victoria Cibrian Leon, born March 23, 1916, was the oldest girl in a family of eight children. She only had two brothers; Eziquiel and Primitivo. Toyita, as she was fondly called, never got beyond the first grade of school. When she was six years old, while playing rough and tumbling with neighborhood kids, she fell […]
Continue Reading