Para el extranjero, la palabra ‘Maya’ conjura imágenes de ruinas arqueológicas y de una cultura perdida y desaparecida. Hoy en día, la palabra ‘Chiapas’ trae a la mente ideas de rebelión, el nombre del Sub-comandante Marcos, y confusión generalizada. Lo que muchos no conocen es la relación entre los antiguos mayas y la expresión viva, […]
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El esplendor físico de la cultura maya se aprecia sobre todo en la arquitectura y decorado de sus ciudades. Estas ciudades-estado constituían la sede del poder de los reyes-sacerdotes que administraban la obediencia, el tributo y la fuerza de trabajo del pueblo que creía en ellos. Se han identificado muchas ciudades y centros ceremoniales mayas, […]
Continue ReadingQ: Jude tell us about yourself: A: I was born in Chicago and grew up in the 50’s in a small suburb. I married young, had four kids, a son and three daughters. Fourteen years later in Seattle, I found myself divorced, enrolling as a freshman at University of Washington. I spent eight very successful […]
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It was a chance thing, really. We were heading for Patzcuaro, almost due south of Guanajuato where we had spent the past several days on a photography and business junket. While we were checking out of our small hotel just this side of the tunnels that snake under old Guanajuato, the otherwise taciturn gentleman who […]
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Roads in Mexico should display this warning: Use at your own risk. This country has one of the most extensive highway systems anywhere, providing convenient and indispensable connections among villages, towns and cities. In a nation where a minority of people owns automobiles, almost everybody depends on buses to get around. These vary between long […]
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The tehuano endlessly blows where North America stops. The tehuano, the unforgiving forever wind of the Isthmus of Tehauntepec, ceaselessly scours a path through the wide gap where the continent of North America ends and Central America starts. We entered this maelstrom upon leaving Highway 200 and departing the State of Oaxaca on one of our journeys to […]
Continue ReadingMexican time is not American time. To Americans, Mexican time is usually thought of as tomorrow, but Mañana does not mean tomorrow, as everyone seems to think, no, it just means not right now. Mañana is not a promise, not a date, not a commitment, it’s just … not right now. And then there are the subtleties that you […]
Continue ReadingMexico is an endlessly fascinating country for those who take the time and trouble to delve a little more deeply into the mysteries of our “Unknown Mexico.” Dedicated amateurs and professional scholars alike have produced countless articles and books on almost every facet of Mexican culture and history past and present. It would seem that […]
Continue ReadingIn the last column we looked briefly at the history of the decipherment of the Maya hieroglyphic writing system and some of the modern myths about the ancient Maya propagated by certain popular writers, such as J. M. Jenkins ( Galactic Alignment theory) and J. Argüelles ( Dreamspell Calendar). My purpose was not simply to discredit these popular […]
Continue ReadingDecipherment of the Maya hieroglyphic system of writing represents perhaps the greatest breakthrough in unravelling the history of the ancient Maya. Estimates vary on the actual percentage of the glyphs that have been successfully interpreted so far, but enough progress has been made to enable researchers to piece together much of the early dynastic histories […]
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