Cogan’s Reviews A very straightforward, unbiased, factual account of Mexican history from the times of the Indians, the Mayas and Toltecs and Aztecs up to the 1960s. The most interesting part for this reader was the early history before the Spanish conquest and the time immediately following. It’s a genuinely interesting adventure story. Having travelled […]
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Cogan’s Reviews One of the problems with reviewing this short but interesting novel is that the plot is based on a couple of surprises. To say too much about it would spoil the story. Once the action gets well underway the reader is presented with a surprising development involving one of the main characters. At […]
Continue ReadingCogan’s Reviews I must confess I had never seen or heard of this volume until very recently and I was rather surprised to see the publication date on it – 1989. Obviously it has been around along time. The Dictionary is based on a rather neat and simple idea to help us learn new words […]
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Cogan’s Reviews So far I haven’t managed to make it to the Baja. Hopefully that will be corrected in the next year or two as my wife and I work our way through the list of places we hope to visit in Mexico. However, while reading Steinbeck’s book, I found myself looking up various guidebooks […]
Continue ReadingCogan’s Reviews The story begins in 1941, at the time America went to war with Japan and Germany. It concerns the Salazar family, poor farmers in Chihuahua. The grandfather, Sebastian, knows he is dying and he advises the family to move to the United States. He reasons that because of the war the Americans will […]
Continue ReadingCogan’s Reviews I’ll confess to having some trouble getting into this collection of stories. I found the first two tales so downbeat that I wondered if I could read the rest. I persisted, however, and I’m glad I did. They aren’t the most pleasant stories you’ll ever find and the characters – both Mexican and […]
Continue ReadingCogan’s Reviews As Ms. Spiegel writes in her introduction: “San Miguel de Allende is infused with history: every cobblestone seems to hide secrets about its past. All the stores and boutiques housed in former colonial mansions; all the restaurants that occupy the courtyards of elegant villas, all the gigantic wooden doorways through which the carriages of […]
Continue ReadingCogan’s Reviews Here’s an unusual volume with ten individual authors, each of whom is independent of the other nine except for the fact they all reside – either full or part-time – in the Lake Chapala area of Mexico. Their book consists of some 45 or more pieces of fiction and non-fiction plus a poem […]
Continue ReadingCogan’s Reviews Here is the history of Mexico in the last two or three decades – and what a history it is. It’s the story of how a dictatorship eventually found its way toward becoming a democracy. As stories go, this one has everything – political corruption, student demonstrations leading to a massacre, earthquakes, citizen […]
Continue ReadingThe following article is essentially a letter which a friend of mine, Ralph Rodriguez, a resident of Guadalajara, wrote to his children some years ago. It concerns an annual festival which is held in the town of Mazamitla, Jalisco, every December. It’s a pretty interesting time to visit and make the 90 or so minutes […]
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