Defined as “a rippling wave effect that passes right around a stadium full of spectators, achieved when all the spectators in turn stand up with their arms raised and then sit down again with their arms lowered” (Chambers 21st Century Dictionary), the Mexican wave or La Ola is a cooperative, coordinated and spectacular sight that gained popularity […]
Continue ReadingSooner or later, everyone in Mexico encounters La Llorona, The Woman Who Wails. It is known that stories about La Llorona dated back to the time of the Spanish Conquest of Mexico. Some say she is older than the Aztecs, old as despair itself. Legends are often a mix of history and imagination. Real events combine with the […]
Continue ReadingThe first Whitbread Round-The-World yacht race was won by a Mexican. Most people do not associate Mexico and Mexicans with yachting, but it’s a fact that the first Whitbread Round-The-World Yacht Race, in 1973-4, was won by the Mexican ketch Sayula II, skippered by Ramón Carlin, a Mexican businessman who made his money from washing […]
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San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas, where I chose to live five years ago, is a city time almost forgot. Situated in the highland valley of Jovel at an elevation of 2,100 meters, it’s a city mingling future and past. As the gateway to mountainous communities, more indigenous than mestizo, it’s a city where ancient […]
Continue ReadingA Mexican who tried to revolutionize the world of classical music was once nominated for the Nobel Prize in Physics. In 1950, Julián Carrillo was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Physics. The nomination was something of a surprise to the scientific community since Carrillo was far better known as one of Mexico’s top violinists […]
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There are Mexicans these days who have never attended a Cinco de Mayo celebration. The holiday has taken a back seat to the many saints’ days and other festivals. The growth of celebrations in the United States was initially triggered by a lawsuit from LULAC, the League of United Latin American Citizens, several decades ago, […]
Continue ReadingMayhem prevails in many Mexican cities during rush hours. The traffic in some big cities rarely seems to let up, or slow down, as vehicles jockey for the best position before becoming ensnarled in a tangled web of blocked intersections and jam-packed avenues. Even thirty years ago, a standing joke (pun intended) in Mexico City […]
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That’s right! They wouldn’t! And just think of the hours of pleasure that a simple rubber ball gave you as a child. Would you have had as much fun if it hadn’t had a good bounce? I don’t think so… It has long been known that the pre-Columbian peoples of Mexico had rubber objects, including […]
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Shamanism is humanity’s oldest form of relationship to Spirit. As such, it is the underpinning beneath all religion. But shamanism is not a religion. It is a complex set of practices, beliefs, values and behaviors that enable the practicioner to elicit a shift from ordinary consiousness into a trance state with a specific goal in […]
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Ecstasy is a real human need… a state of consciousness beyond concept. And if it does not come through… in positive ways… it’s going to come out in violence. — Elizabeth Cogburn — The Huichol shamans say we are perdido, lost. They say we are bringing doom and destruction to Yurianaka, Mother Earth, and that Taupa, Father […]
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