Felices Fiestas: Happy Holidays from the Heart of Mexico
I’m smitten with this story about women who weave and use natural dyes under the shadow of Orizaba in the state of Veracruz, just over the border from northern Oaxaca state. It is a testimony to ancient wisdom, the grandmothers, folklore, cultural preservation and the strength of women to remember and to make and to […]
Dancing on the Zocalo, Veracruz, Mexico
The Zocalo, or town square, is the center of community life in Mexico. Here in Veracruz, on Friday and Saturday nights, the band starts playing at seven in the evening and dancers take to the pavement to strut their stuff. We hear tell that they go long into the night. Our hotel is right across […]
Street Life, Veracruz, Mexico
We are walking down a Veracruz street with guide Martin and I had this sudden feeling that I could be in Havana, Cuba. I’ve never been to Havana. But it’s a port town like this one, facing an unrelenting ocean and assaulted with the same kind of weather that beats up beautiful buildings so that […]
Veracruz, Gateway to La Chinantla, Oaxaca
Just as Veracruz was the gateway into Mexico for Hernan Cortes in 1519, I begin my journey here to explore remote textile villages that are part of the Chinanteco and Mazateco regions of Oaxaca state called La Chinantla. We start at Veracruz because it is a short two hours by car to cross over […]
Chipil Grows Wild in North Carolina
Jose is with us today helping Stephen in the yard, clearing out the woodshed in preparation for winter, sorting through the detritis of a cluttered garden shed, and making a haul or two or three to the dump. He and his wife just had a new baby boy, his third, three weeks old. They named […]
Expats in Mexico: Ann Mikkelsen
Ann Mikkelsen is a teacher in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She “Friended” me on on Facebook, connecting through Sheri Brautigam, another friend. “I just “met” Sheri on Facebook! A mutual friend, Anaceli Coyoc, is teaching in the same program. Anaceli and I worked together at Emerson Spanish Immersion in Minneapolis. She’s from Belize and that’s where my […]