Motorists traveling recently along the Guadalajara-Chapala highway may have been puzzled by what looks like the structural foundations of a mighty cathedral rising up near the roadway between the airport and the Cajititlan turn-off. The towering tangle of iron girders is in fact the framework for what will soon turn into a temple for Mexico’s […]
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The Sunday Mexican fiesta at Guadalajara’s Camino Real promised cockfighting. I should have expected the “cockfight” would amount to a quick display of two cheerfully bored roosters who could have auditioned for a wholesome children’s show. “Genuine cockfights are illegal in Mexico,” chastened self-appointed cognoscenti. I should have known that a real cockfight was as likely to take […]
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Guadalajara is the second largest city in Mexico. The metropolitan area includes Tlaquepaque, Tonala, and Zapopan, with a total population of about 4 million people. It is located about 200 miles east of Puerto Vallarta, and 300 miles west of Mexico City. Guadalajara seems prosperous, orderly, and clean, compared to most Mexican cities. My wife […]
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The streetlamp on any street, in any city, sees so many people passing by… Alberto Cortez I live now in this junkyard. It is not such a bad life. The open sky, the sun, the rain, and the beautiful starry nights of October are my faithful companions. Almost every morning, except when it is very […]
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I was born in a land that has her womb full of sunlight; that smells of tobacco, and the air intoxicates you because it tastes of rum. The sea caresses all of her body: it dresses her with garments made from coral and salt. Marisela Verena Each year here in Guadalajara, we host an international […]
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One day Mary and I decided to go to the nearby town of Tequila where, of course, they make tequila. There’s a train you can take from Guadalajara to Tequila on Saturdays. Lots of tourists do this. I’d read articles in guidebooks that described whole groups of people getting stone cold drunk during drinking contests. […]
Continue ReadingToday Mary and I set out to drive completely around Lake Chapala, Mexico’s biggest lake. It’s quite an undertaking, about a 180-mile drive. Before hitting the road, we went to “Sanborns” for breakfast. I ordered my own breakfast in Spanish, asking for eggs, ham, and orange juice. This was the second time I’d tried to […]
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Deep down in all of our hearts, there is that desire to escape the everyday world in which we feel trapped and find our personal paradise. Or, to be more precise considering the limitless alternatives of that thought, how would one conceive of their own paradise? Perhaps to some it would be a deep, dark […]
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“There is a sensitive filament in our beings, which responds to Mexican music…. To the sight of a horse well ridden, to the spectacle of a bull skillfully lassoed…. All of us, absolutely all of us, share the national feeling for horsemanship.” José Alvarez del Villar Bill, my husband, answered the phone and handed it […]
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How well can a person understand a culture not their own? Can experiences be understood without full command of the Spanish language; a language in which civility is interwoven like lace? With these questions I return again and again to Mexico. Invited to sit “down at the table,” I’m gradually getting to know the people […]
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