May/June 2015
Category Archives: May & June 2015
Editor’s Letter
“Together with a culture of work, there must be a culture of leisure as gratification. To put it another way: people who work must take the time to relax, to be with their families, to enjoy themselves, read, listen to music, play a sport.” – Pope Francis
I am always pleasantly surprised by the quality of cultural events that make their way down to our little piece of paradise. While in recent years larger festivals such as ‘Musica por la Tierra’ have been cancelled or hastily thrown together such as ‘Huatulco’s Film and Food Festival,’ the community has more than made up for the deficit by organizing outstanding events. Continue reading Editor’s Letter
Music, Art, and Fairs: May and June Events in Mexico City
By Carole Reedy
The Easter and Spring Break holidays have come to an end, the days are longer, and the sun hotter, so the time has come to say adios to the beach for a few months and explore the interior of the country. A variety of exciting cultural events are scheduled in the next few months. Regardless of your interests, day or night you’ll find something new and different in the city.
Here’s a sampling of some outstanding events. Look for more in the magazine Tiempo Libre, published every Thursday and available at kiosks throughout the city. Continue reading Music, Art, and Fairs: May and June Events in Mexico City
The Metropolitan Opera in Mexico
By Marcia Chaiken and Jan Chaiken
We love Huatulco and all the local cultural events – film nights, ballet in the park, concerts, and art shows. But we do miss the opportunity to see world class opera here. So, several times each year we travel from Huatulco to Mexico City or Oaxaca City to join about one million other people around the world watching the live high-definition performance of the Metropolitan Opera streaming from Lincoln Center in New York City. Continue reading The Metropolitan Opera in Mexico
Huatulco: A Community with Heart
By Brooke Gazer
What makes a great community is not merely rows of well built homes constructed around quality infrastructure in pleasant surroundings. It is people that make or break a community. Recently the people of Huatulco rose to the occasion, demonstrating that we are a society that cares about one another. Continue reading Huatulco: A Community with Heart
Mexico’s Most Popular Music May Be the Beatles
By Deborah Van Hoewyk
Mexico is probably the most “Beatlemanic” country in Latin America. There are half a hundred Beatles tribute bands in Mexico, not to mention a major Beatles memorabilia collector who takes one of those bands (plus fans) to the annual International Beatleweek to play in open sessions at Liverpool’s Cavern Club, a sacred site for Beatles fans. More regular hours of Mexican radio (12 a week) are devoted to playing the Beatles, only the Beatles, than anywhere else in the world. The yearly Gran Festival de los Beatles in Mexico City is over twenty years old, and features as many tribute bands as will fit, films, and exhibits. There are more than a million registered members of Mexico’s Beatles fan club, Todos Juntos Ahora (All together now); with a high estimate of 250,000, it’s possible that Paul McCartney’s 2012 “On the Run” tour set the attendance record for an event in the Mexico City’s zocalo—and the guy was about six weeks shy of his 70th birthday! Continue reading Mexico’s Most Popular Music May Be the Beatles
BOOK OF THE MONTH, The Interior Circuit, A Mexico City Chronicle by Francisco Goldman (Grove Press, 2014)
By Carole Reedy
This chronicle of Mexico City is not only a personal memoir, but also an engaging, though turbulent, tale of our times, covering the years 2012 to 2014. It’s significant that Goldman’s young wife died in a surfing accident off the coast of Mazunte, Oaxaca, five years before he wrote the book. Still recovering from his loss, he demonstrates his method for dealing with grief through his work. This is not a sentimental tryst, but rather just what the subtitle states: a chronicle of modern life for both rich and poor in an iconoclastic city with its challenges, politics, social structure, religions, tragedies, and glories. Continue reading BOOK OF THE MONTH, The Interior Circuit, A Mexico City Chronicle by Francisco Goldman (Grove Press, 2014)
Maria Sabina and Magic Mushrooms
By Brooke Gazer
María Sabina Magdalena García was a Mazateca “curandera” (native shaman) who became an icon of “pop culture” in the late 1960’s. From childhood she was raised to heal the sick through a ceremony called the velada. This involved consuming mushrooms in order to open the gates of the mind, purify the soul and commune with the sacred. The eminent ethno-mycologist Gordon Wasson traveled to a remote region of Oaxaca in 1955 to learn about the mushrooms and to participate in the velada ceremonies. In May1957, Life magazine published his article “Seeking The Magic Mushroom”. Ultimately this innocent piece of journalism altered María Sabina’s life and the culture of the local Mexican people. Continue reading Maria Sabina and Magic Mushrooms
Paying Property Taxes In Huatulco
By Julie Etra
All of us who own property in Huatulco pay taxes, which are determined by the Municipio. They are based on neighborhood, square footage of the property, improvements, and other amenities such as ocean views. Technically, they are due the first of the year, but with the holidays (Christmas, New Years, and then El Día de los Reyes) payments start up the second week of January or around the 7th when the Municipio comes back to life. Property taxes are called predial, with the accent on the ‘P’, not pre-dial. Continue reading Paying Property Taxes In Huatulco
The Reminiscence Bump…our musical link to the past
By Leigh Morrow
When I hear those unmistakable first instrumental guitar chords in opening G, played by Keith Richards to “Start Me Up” or “Jumping Jack Flash ” by the Rolling Stones, I’m instantly transported to the passenger seat of my girlfriend’s mother’s Impala convertible. It was a very pretty shade of baby blue, and we would put the top down and drive around on summer nights with our sunglasses still on, money from our jobs fuelling the gas tank and the cigarettes, and the Rolling Stones filling our ears and hearts. Music is like that. The songs of our teens follow us all the years of our life. The memories so laser sharp, that just the melody explodes us with emotion associated with that time of our lives. Musical memories are almost indelibly printed on our brains. Continue reading The Reminiscence Bump…our musical link to the past
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