For a while I’ve been asking myself how it’s possible that I keep finding new natural wonders to write about after 25 years of living near Guadalajara. So, one day I sat down with a map and drew a circle around the city, with a radius of about 250 kilometers, nicely encompassing many of the […]
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
March 3, 1996 — In Mexico, various Indian peoples still play ancient instruments. And their songs and dances — which tell of uprisings against their masters — pay tribute to their ancestors. These Mexicans play African “hand pianos” and perform “the dance of the black people.” Mexican “corridos” — or song-stories — tell of slave […]
Continue Reading
Elvia Silva Bartolo believes her big ceramic pots have a pretty good chance of winning a prize at the 46th annual Tianguis y Concurso de Artesania de Domingo de Ramos on April 9 in Uruapan, Michoacán. Bartolo lives in the village of Zipiajo where she and other artisans practice an ancient Purepecha craft in which they make […]
Continue Reading
“In the paintings of Jorge Monroy we see the hand of a master, the expression of an artist, a cultivated talent forged by the hammers of study, constancy, dedication and creative energy.” Godofredo Olivares Jorge Monroy’s art is well known in Mexico because his charming watercolors have appeared every week in the newspaper El Informador for more […]
Continue Reading
David Santos Alonso massaged the clay flower pot as stinging smoke skulked from the wooden cooking area. Inside the kitchen, his wife Maria Lydia prepared tortillas on a comal over a brick fogon next to a pot of water. Cocuchas — tall clay jars crafed in the Michoacan town of Cocucho — rose from the concrete floor and opened into sensuous […]
Continue Reading
Palm trees reach towards the sky above the plaza. Water gushes from a swan-shaped fountain. Flowers bloom profusely. A banner above the bandstand declares February a month of ‘Love and Friendship’ in Colima City, Colima Mexico. Picking my way among smiling faces, I seek an empty chair, set up in the park for the evening’s […]
Continue ReadingEs en las comunidades campesinas del país en donde la fiesta se celebra con mayor intensidad. Destacan también algunos grupos indígenas que buscan conservar intactas sus tradiciones. En los estados como Guerrero, Oaxaca, Veracruz, Puebla, así como el Distrito Federal, Morelos, Hidalgo y Chiapas, las festividades alcanzan un alto índice de participación, conviertiéndose en un […]
Continue Reading
Squatting on the rocky cliff high above the bay, two young boys watched the man below who, knee deep in water, held his net ready. Suddenly, the boys yelled and pointed to a school of fish swimming behind the fisherman. As the man cast his small net, the boys clamored down the hill and flipped […]
Continue Reading
….¡Ay laguna de Chapala tienes del cuento la magia, cuento de ocasos y albarradas de enamoradas noches lunadas. Quieto Chapala, es tu laguna novia romántica como ninguna! Enclavado en la parte central del estado de Jalisco, Chapala “el lugar de búcaros u ollas pequeñas”; o “el lugar mojado o empapado”; o “el lugar de chapuzones […]
Continue Reading