Exploring Mexico’s Artists and Artisans Richard Hay Reagan had three great loves — art, jazz and Jeanora Bartlet. Jeanora is now a sprightly octogenarian and as we chat at her home in Bruton, Somerset, England, she is, initially, not too keen to share memories of her late partner. I had originally sought out Jeanora because […]
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Return to the U.S.The following year, Rick decided to return to North America. With financial help from brother Pete, he flew back to California. Jeanora took several of Rick’s large paintings and returned to France, planning to sell them in Paris to raise her own plane fare back. En route, she raised some funds by […]
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Mexico on the surface is beautiful enough, but you have to dive to find its true treasures. Spanish is an indispensable tool for this, as it opens the door to readings and — more importantly — people you would not be able to connect with otherwise. I have been in Mexico since 2003 when I […]
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Just outside the unassuming little town of Teuchitlán, Jalisco, 40 kilometers due West of Guadalajara, lies one of the most impressive archeological sites in all of western Mexico. However, the first time I saw it — in 1985 — I was anything but impressed. “Where’s the pyramid?” my friends and I asked a local farmer, […]
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For me, Tonalá has always seemed like a magical sort of place, like something that one would only stumble upon in the make-believe world of fiction. Its narrow, dusty streets lined with unadorned buildings give Tonalá a rather unpolished look as compared with neighboring Tlaquepaque or Guadalajara’s downtown. Yet there are treasures to be discovered […]
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Each year on May 3rd processions of singing pilgrims carrying streamers and flowers wend their way through towns, cities and villages of Mexico to decorate the crosses along roadsides and on mountaintops to honor and remember the Holy Cross. All over the country thousands of crosses in streets, parks, cemeteries and churchyards are visited and […]
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Just the place for a Snark! I have said it twice, That alone should encourage the crew. Just the place for a Snark! I have said it thrice What I tell you three times is true — — Lewis Carroll Are there ghosts in Mexico City? Built on the ruins of the grand Aztec City […]
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Agustín Victor Casasola was not a painter or a poet or one of the many intellectuals or revolutionaries during the early decades of the twentieth century who consciously strove to forge a Mexican identity. Yet, as witness and recorder of those tumultuous years, his influence was as great and may prove to be more lasting. […]
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An icon in Mexico City, the Revolution Monument or Monumento a la Revolución is also known as the Arch of the Revolution. It is located on Plaza de la Republica between downtown Reforma and Insurgentes, and has long been a premier tourist attraction, one of the capital’s architectural must-sees. Only in recent times, however, has the Monument […]
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We sit in darkness, on an earthen floor. Hot vapor condenses and drips down my skin as I hug my knees against my chest and breathe lightly to cool the scalding vapor before it reaches my lungs. The beat of a drum, leather stretched over a wooden frame, penetrates my chest, and we begin to […]
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