Readers of MexConnect magazine are sharper than the average turkey. They monitor the news, spot little headlines and hear tidbits and rumors related to Mexico and immediately check to see what the old gringo knows. Depending on the subject and how much really good Mexican coffee he had with breakfast, ability to inform fluctuates. His level […]
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One more win can make a wonderful world of difference. Victor Espinoza, 43, calls himself the luckiest Mexican alive. He was the jockey aboard American Pharoah, winner of the U.S. triple crown of horse racing – the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont Stakes. His name will be forever etched in sporting history. Fame and fortune […]
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Juan Mata Ortíz is a small village of potters, farmers and cowboys in Northern Chihuahua. About 30 years ago, an unschooled artistic genius, Juan Quezada, taught himself how to make earthenware jars in a method used hundreds of years ago by the prehistoric inhabitants. Now, his works are known worldwide and over 300 men, women […]
Continue ReadingJudy pounds on my bedroom door, waking me from a very sound sleep. After all, it’s only 7 a.m. “Yeah.” I say. “There’s a scorpion in the bathroom.” Silence. “Jim!” “So kill it.” “Killing scorpions is man’s work.” She yells. Now that surprises me, as Judy is a very independent woman. Struggling out of bed, […]
Continue ReadingThe ancient game of amalla was not mere sport. The ballcourt was a “middleworld” between gods and humans, a battleground for the cosmic tension between life and death, good and evil, sacrifice and rebirth. After all, the Maya Hero Twins — Hunahpu and Xbalanque — had outsmarted the Lords of Death on the ballcourt by replacing a […]
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Baseball is not the oldest ballgame in the Americas Forget modern “traditions” like the World Series! Forget soccer, tennis and golf! By far the oldest ballgame in the Americas is the little known game of Ulama! Amazingly, this game is still played in some regions of Mexico, where it is believed to have originated more […]
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When it’s winter up north, the skimboarding season is in full stride along the Pacific Coast beaches of Mexico. This is when the best talent goes head-to-head to determine ultimately who will make it to the world championship in Laguna Beach, California, where the sport was invented. It’s a sport that has not attained the […]
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Sunday afternoon, at about ten minutes before 4 p.m., local time, in bullrings all over Spain and Mexico, matadors kneel in arena chapels and pray to La Virgen de la Macarena to protect them. For precisely at 4 p.m., a bugle will blow and they will go forth to meet their destiny. Moments later, a […]
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It’s surely one of the coolest jobs in the world — donning a glittery mask and playing superhero or villain every night, flying around a packed arena. These are the men and women who aim to make their living as luchadores — athletes-cum-performers in the unique and very Mexican sport (or whatever you want to call it) […]
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Art and sport seem rarely intertwined. There is the American cliché of the muscle-bound football jock bursting with idiotic energy, indulging his time off the field to torment the nerdy, isolated artist (who invariably exacts his revenge by growing up to become a Hollywood screenwriter and perpetuating the cliché in teen flicks — wherein the […]
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