The Camino Copalita was one of the most rewarding and challenging experiences I have ever had! A 6-day hike from San Juan Ozolotepec to Huatulco (about 80km). The terrain was hilly and rough but I was with an incredibly supportive group and knowledgeable guides.
The group met at a café in Oaxaca City on a Sunday morning before embarking on the 6-hour drive into the heart of the mountains to the first community we would be visiting. The people of San Juan Ozolotepec were incredibly welcoming. Before dinner we stood in a circle and each person introduced themselves and said what their hopes were for this experience. I was so moved that I actually thought I might cry as I looked at the diversity of our group and the compassion we each carried with us. In a world that is consistent in its attempt to divide us, there was a certain magic in being welcomed by strangers under the vast night sky of the Oaxacan sierra, being offered food, shelter and friendship.Continue reading Camino Copalita→
Carminia Magaña was born in Mexico City on October 28, 1939, to a family of Yucatecan origin; was one of three children, although her brother died as a child. Her father, a lawyer, was secretary in the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation. Her pedagogue mother was a precursor to the preschool education commissioned by President Adolfo López Mateos.She received all her education at the American School and obtained a degree in Art History at the University of the Americas.Her command of English and French, and ease in public relations, allowed her husband, who was an attache official for Pemex, to live and entertain in different cities, such as The Hague, Paris and New York.Continue reading Carminia Magaña→
If you had been lucky enough to be museum hopping in Mexico City a while back (2011), you would have encountered a two-museum exhibit that marked the rebirth of an ancient Mexican art.Alas: El vuelo de las imágenes del mundo indigena (Wings:The flight of images from the indigenous world) took place at the famous National Museum of Anthropology and History and the somewhat less visited National Museum of Art (Museo Nacional de Arte, now known as MUNAL – see article elsewhere in this issue).The exhibit was followed in 2016 by a book of 33 essays exploring the creative interaction between the new and old worlds, as seen in … FEATHERS (Images Take Flight:Feather Art in Mexico and Europe, 1400 – 1700).Continue reading From Ancient Culture to Antique Kitsch: Mexican Feather Art→
On September 7, 2019, two years after an 8.2 magnitude earthquake struck southern Mexico, a community action group in Huatulco, Colectivo Tilcoatle, honored those affected with a photography exhibition entitled Memoria de Luz (Memory of Light).Continue reading Memoria de Luz→
“When I think of immigration, I want to think of families. I want to think of unity. I want to think of a safe place, you know, free of persecution, a place where we can welcome a child that is hungry.”
Rashida Tlaib
Within moments of being born we are placed in our mothers arms and it is like being injected by a syringe full of love, truly the most powerful drug. Three weeks after my daughter was born my friend Bianca and I decided to drive from Puerto Angel to Puerto Escondido for the day. I strapped my baby into her car seat; a luxury item back then and we headed off. As I drove I glanced nervously in the rear view mirror to make sure she was snuggled and safe. I didn’t get very far before I pulled over to check and make sure she was still breathing as she was sleeping so peacefully lulled by the movement of the car. She was fine and let out a small yowl as I prodded her to make sure she was ok. Then I burst into tears and I said to Bianca, “How does anybody stand living with this heightened sense of love and responsibility?” Continue reading Editor’s Letter→
After living in Mexico for twenty years, I consider it home; last month I left the country briefly for the first time in twelve years. It was also the first time I used two passports to travel.Leaving and entering Mexico, I had my Mexican passport stamped; entering and leaving Canada, I presented my Canadian one.Continue reading On Becoming a Mexican Citizen→
For centuries, men, women, and children have been roaming our planet, relocating for a variety of reasons, from hunger and safety to gainful employment. The immigration phenomenon is grist for writers who guide us in our understanding of human nature and desire. Here is a sprinkling of notable literary works relating the wide-ranging experiences of immigrants.Continue reading Immigrant Tales Penned by Our Favorite Authors→
The fate of over a half-million young adults, born in Mexico but raised in the U.S., will hang in the balance when the U.S. Supreme Court convenes this fall and hears cases that challenge the legality of DACA – Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals.Although there are immigrants from other countries who are registered in the DACA program, Mexicans constitute 80% of the more than 700,000 people who were in the DACA program as of a year ago.And given the current composition of the Court and related rulings, it is quite possible that these young people, who have provided demonstrable valuable service to the U.S., may be deported to Mexico, a country where most can’t recall living previously, with no friends and possibly no family, and a culture with which they do not identify.How did they become enmeshed in this travesty? Continue reading DACA: A Prime Target of Anti-Mexican Xenophobes→
About a decade ago, beginning in the wake of the 2008-09 US economic crisis, the pattern of migration between the United States and the state of Oaxaca got turned on its head. To a significant extent, it was because of the initial stages of the global mezcal boom.Continue reading The Mezcal Boom and Migration: Strange Bedfellows?→
By Jane Bauer
By MJ Kelly and Oscar Olivos
By Deborah Van Hoewyk
By Kary Vannice
“When I think of immigration, I want to think of families. I want to think of unity. I want to think of a safe place, you know, free of persecution, a place where we can welcome a child that is hungry.”
By Brooke Gazer
By Marcia Chaiken and Jan Chaiken
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