Every two years, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) awards the Equator prize (worth 30,000 dollars) to communities that have shown “outstanding achievement in the reduction of poverty through the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity.” One of the winners of the 2004 Equator prize was the indigenous community of Nuevo San Juan Parangaricutiro, in […]
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Oddly enough, we couldn’t find Patamban in any of our guidebooks but when we went there on that late October weekend we found that, somehow, about a hundred thousand people had managed to congregate for the town’s annual Fiesta de Cristo Rey parade and festivities. I’m guessing at that number but, judging from the square […]
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Los antiguos mayas descubrieron dos ideas fundamentales en matemáticas: el valor posicional y el cero. Sólo otra gran cultura de la antigüedad llegó a encontrar, cerca de 300 años después que los mayas, estos conceptos: la cultura hindú. Estos dos elementos, el valor posicional y el cero, pudieran parecernos simples y básicos hoy en día. […]
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Coyote doesn’t offer a word to guide us through this mysterious and arduous process. He leaves us to our own world, to our private vision quest. The sweltering heat of the lodge is suffocating. Sweat drips from my body and mixes with the earth I sit on, creating mud. The amber necklace I’m wearing begins […]
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“Does your husband ever carve nudes,” I asked Enedina Castillo Castillo, only half jokingly. She grinned up at me with those wise eyes. “Once he carved a David that looked like the one by Miguel Angel,” she assured me. “You mean the one in Italy,” I asked incredulously. “Sí, the one with the hands. “And the….” […]
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Letters From Mexico In the seven years that I have lived in Oaxaca, I have often caught glimpses of the Maestro working in his studio; run into him at various cultural functions; and crossed his path on the street. His life and his works have had an affect on my life here, far greater than […]
Continue ReadingA lo largo de los años, hemos viajado por carretera desde México a diferentes partes de los Estados Unidos. Las rutas varían, y algunas son más escénicas que otras. Uno de los viajes más bonitos pasó por el estado de Hidalgo, en el norte de México central. Ahí, los paisajes todavía asemejan al arte de […]
Continue ReadingFor an exotic place and a surprising destination, I strongly recommend The Instituto Cientifico de Na Bolom, the Scientific Institute of Na Bolom (House of the Tiger). It is located in the State of Chiapas, 8000 feet high in the breathtaking mountains. It was established in the ironically-named San Cristobal de Las Casas, the fastest growing […]
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As I walked through the gardens of La Nueva Posada, my eyes were riveted on the young indigenous girl seated on the garden wall. Her vivid yellow skirt and blue top reminded me of our magazine’s masthead. To the Huichols, an eclipse is the symbol of a new era. For the Huichol, indigenous people of […]
Continue ReadingMexico is a country of color, diversity, grand differences in geography, climate and perspective. The same is true of her people. From the mysterious origins and fates of her earliest inhabitants; the current indigenous peoples; to the history and influence of immigrants from Spain and other areas of the world, Mexico has developed an intricate […]
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