It was just about five years ago that my friends started to disappear from the streets of the little Mexican villages on the shores of Lake Chapala where I had retired some three years earlier. At first I thought they were sick or had moved back to the “old country” but then I met a […]
Continue ReadingIn the wake of the tragedy of 11 September, 2001, I was reading as much news as I could get my hands on. I was shocked to read one article that talked about a scam that briefly made the rounds in the US, where the promoters were asking for donations for the victims of New […]
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The people waiting at the Civic Center either went to get someone out of jail or take the train to the US-Mexico border. That was life, dia y noche in San Diego and the most charming way to enter Mexico, via Tijuana. Immediately after 2nd Ave. the Blue Line: San Ysidro-Tijuana, ran in both directions. That was […]
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Considering we were relative newcomers, it was a surprise and an honor in 1979 when we were asked to join the planning committee for the 450th anniversary of the founding of our village of Jocotepec. I couldn’t resist saying to my husband, Georg, “I presume 450 years ago is when the Spaniards found it. The […]
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Now that Jocotepec’s major annual festival, The Lord of the Mountain, is history once again, my thoughts turn to the next important holiday, Valentine’s Day, when we celebrate sweethearts and lovers. Here in Mexico February 14th is also known as Dia de la Amistad (Day of Friendship). What a typically warm and Latin addition to the […]
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John’s point wasn’t, I sensed, simply a lesson in village economics. When we moved to Mexico in 1976, I didn’t regret leaving behind the Alpha Beta Supermarket, the 7-11 quick-stop, or Newport Mall. I had no qualms at saying good-by to the traffic on the South Coast highway, or the swiftly disappearing charms of Laguna […]
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We were finally moving to Mexico, but when I first learned the name of my new street, Calle Rico, I was very dismayed. That name, Rich Street, symbolized some of my concerns about our newly constructed home. Not only was it larger and fancier than any other structure far and wide, but it also was set on […]
Continue ReadingDriving in Oaxaca, Mexico, became a little more difficult in September / October, 2009. That’s when federal, state and municipal governments actually began enforcing the law, at least in the City of Oaxaca and in parts of the central valleys. Until then, rules of the road for driving in Oaxaca were on the books, but […]
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When I first gave up the practice of law in Toronto in favor of early retirement in Oaxaca, I assumed that the years I would add to my life by leading a much more stress-free existence in Mexico, would be lost by the inferior health care system to which I would be exposed, subjected and […]
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We usually think of weddings and baptisms as rites of passage we attend on separate occasions. But November 27, 2008, marked the celebration of both in San Lorenzo Albarradas: the nuptials of a couple in their early twenties, and the baptism of their three-year-old daughter. What resulted was a melding of highly organized custom characterized […]
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