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Huatulco

Editor’s Letter

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By Jane Bauer

“The great cause of inequality in the distribution of wealth is inequality in the ownership of land. The ownership of land is the great fundamental fact which ultimately determines the social, the political, and consequently the intellectual and moral condition of a people.”
― Henry George, Progress and Poverty

Learning about history in school was like hearing about people you would never meet. For me, there was an abyss between the Then and the Now.

Even when we were studying WWII in grade six it felt so distant – something that belonged in a museum exhibition with a sign warning you not to touch it. Of course we need only look at the morning news to see that human atrocities are never ending. Our species is insatiable for more, insatiable for claiming ownership and dominion over… well anything that crosses it’s path. World leaders behave like squabbling five year olds, each pulling the arm of a doll while screaming ‘mine’. There is a crassness to needing so much.

From the moment I moved to Mexico I felt the way the past covered the now like a gauze, time here is not linear but layered. Although the Mexican Revolution occurred over a hundred years ago, life here will constantly remind you what it accomplished. This month our writers explore Emiliano Zapata, a Mexican icon and hero of the revolution.

Revolution is word that conjures up violence and conflict and yet the Mexican Revolution aimed for more equanimity, more humanity and dignity for living off the land. It questioned ‘what is ownership?’ and challenged the class system that gave, and continues to give, one group power over another. I would even go so far as to say that it hinted at the dissolution of the ego. If our egos are intertwined with what we have, then releasing this idea of dominion and ownership is letting go a little bit of what most of us have been taught defines us.

These questions and reverence for the land continue today, not throughout all of Mexico, but in some places. Places like the communal land village where I live. Where there is a feeling of contentment that I hope rubs off on me.

If you are in Mexico enjoy Día de la Revolución celebrations on November 20th. There will be a parade in almost every town and city with children dressed up as revolutionaries, a testament to the way history is now.

See you soon,

Jane

P.S. Aim for a plastic-free vacation and travel with your own refillable water bottle.

Huatulco

Editor’s Letter

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By Jane Bauer

“What’s the point of being an Australian guy traveling through India if you are going to go to India to meet other Australians?”
Alfonso Cuaron

My first experience with movies in Mexico was when the traveling movie caravan came to Mazunte while I was living there in 1997. They set up a tent in the field by the elementary school and showed a double feature of an old Mexican black and white film and Die Hard. Everyone in the village came out since most people didn’t have electricity, let alone televisions. The chance to watch something was a novelty.

When the first theater in Huatulco opened at Plaza Madero in the early 2000s it felt like we were being vaulted into modern times. I love movies so much that when I was pregnant I would make the two-hour drive from Puerto Angel to Huatulco to rent videos- not DVDs- because the selection was better than what was available in Pochutla.

While many people love to immerse themselves in Mexican culture through tacos and tequila, film is often overlooked because of the language barrier. But I believe film is a wonderful way to begin to understand the nuances and attitudes of a culture.

In this issue our writers explore Mexican cinema and there are enough amazing films mentioned to keep you busy but I can’t resist recommending a few more.

La Caida (Dive) 2022
Beautiful cinematography contrasts the precision of profesional diving with the subtleties of grooming by a seasoned abuser. Inspired by the true story of the sexual and mental abuse allegations on the Mexican diving team. Karla Souza, the Mexican actress who plays the lead, trained for three years to portray the Olympic diver.

Güeros (Gueros) 2014
Filmed in black and white, the cinematography captures the wildness, chaos and freedom of youth in the 90s. I was hooked from the opening scene. Two brothers go searching for folk-rocker Epigmenio Cruz on the streets of Mexico City during the student strikes of 1999.

La gran seducción (The Great Seduction) 2023
This fun movie is about a big city doctor sent to a small fishing village that has suffered economic hardship. The residents think that if the doctor decides to stay it will improve their circumstances and set about to woo him. This is a remake of a Canadian film that was first made in 2003 and then again in 2013.

See you in November,

Jane

Huatulco

Chapulín Tournament

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By Jane Bauer

For the second year in a row, Jose Luis Bohorquez and his family hosted a Chapulín Tournament. The festivities started at 7 am on September, 22 at his ranch just south of Copalita where he has fields planted to attract chapulínes. It was a busy event. Participants had three hours to collect as many jumping creatures as they could. Many families wandered through the fields with bags for collecting the bugs.

Under a magnificent tree, there was food on the grill and sopes on the comal. Horse rides were available and live music played. In the evening the festivities moved to the cancha in Copalita with a calenda and more delicious offerings from local cooks.

Still not sure what I’m talking about? Chapulínes, or grasshoppers, are a popular snack in many regions of Mexico, especially Oaxaca. These edible insects have been enjoyed for centuries, valued for their rich source of protein, vitamins, and minerals. Typically, they are toasted with lime juice, garlic, and salt, and often seasoned with chile powder for a flavorful kick. Chapulínes are commonly eaten as a street food or as a crunchy topping for tacos, salsas, and guacamole. Their earthy, slightly tangy taste makes them a beloved delicacy, connecting Mexico’s culinary traditions with sustainability and the use of native ingredients in modern dishes.

The practice of harvesting chapulínes dates back to pre-Hispanic times in Mexico, where indigenous groups like the Zapotec and Mixtec considered these insects an essential part of their diet. Chapulínes were abundant in the fields during the rainy season, making them a reliable, sustainable protein source. Traditionally, they were collected by hand, often early in the morning when the grasshoppers were less active. After harvesting, they were toasted on clay comals and seasoned with local spices. This ancient tradition continues today, passed down through generations, reflecting the deep connection between the region’s agricultural practices and its culinary heritage.

As more and more people shop corporate it is encouraging that the Bohorquez family is highlighting the beauty of this tradition. Another great reason to be here in September!

 

Huatulco

Mexican Wines

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By Jane Bauer

Mexico has a growing wine industry that’s capturing the attention of oenophiles worldwide. Back in 2006 there were only 25 commercial wineries, today there are over 120. While the country’s wine production dates back to the 16th century, only recently have Mexican wines gained international recognition

A Historical Journey
The history of Mexican wine begins with the Spanish colonization in the early 1500s. Spanish settlers brought grapevines to the New World, and the first vineyards were established in what is now the state of Coahuila. Casa Madero, founded in 1597 in this region, is the oldest winery in the Americas and still produces wine today. Despite its early start, Mexico’s wine industry faced numerous challenges, including prohibitive laws imposed by the Spanish crown to protect their domestic wine markets.

The Wine Regions of Mexico
Modern Mexican wine production is concentrated primarily in the Baja California Peninsula, particularly the Valle de Guadalupe. This region, often referred to as the Napa Valley of Mexico, benefits from a Mediterranean climate and diverse soil conditions, ideal for growing a variety of grape varietals. Here, wineries produce exceptional wines that rival those from more established wine-producing countries.

Other notable wine regions include:
-Querétaro: Known for its sparkling wines, this central region’s high altitude and cool climate provide perfect conditions for grape cultivation.
-Coahuila: With a winemaking history spanning over four centuries, this region produces robust reds and crisp whites.
-Guanajuato: Emerging as a significant player in the Mexican wine scene, this area offers a mix of traditional and innovative wine styles.

Mexican winemakers cultivate both international and indigenous grape varietals, resulting in a diverse and intriguing wine portfolio. Common varietals include Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Chardonnay, but Mexico also produces unique blends that showcase the country’s terroir. Tempranillo, Zinfandel, and Nebbiolo have found a distinctive expression in Mexican soils, creating wines that are bold, flavorful, and distinctly Mexican.

The Future of Mexican Wine
The Mexican wine industry is on a path of rapid growth and innovation. Winemakers are embracing sustainable practices, experimenting with new techniques, and focusing on quality over quantity. This dedication to excellence is earning Mexican wines a place on the global stage, with increasing numbers of bottles gracing the shelves of international wine shops and restaurants.

A couple of my favorites:
Fume Blanc from LA Cetto, Valle de Guadalupe- this light and crisp dry white is an excellent price point and perfect for a summer dinner.
Tablas from Taller Agrico, Valle de Guadalupe- this complex red is a blend of tempranillo, grenache and petite sirah. It is an unfiltered wine from a smaller producer and has a very smooth finish.

Huatulco

Editor’s Letter July 2024

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“We Spaniards know a sickness of the heart that only gold can cure.”
Hernan Cortés

How a culture narrates its past says a lot about who they are today. When many of us were taught history in schools we were told heroic tales of explorers discovering new lands. We memorized the dates of those momentous events and celebrated them.

However before 1492, 1521, 1534 there were already things happening on this side of the world. In fact, the first people from Europe to arrive in what we now call the Americas were the Vikings. Around 1000 AD, the Viking explorer Leif Erikson, sailed to a place he called “Vinland,” in what is now the Canadian province of Newfoundland.

Prior to these extranjeros touching down, there was a lot of action and living already occurring in the Americas. William M. Denevan writes that, “The discovery of America was followed by possibly the greatest demographic disaster in the history of the world.” Research by some scholars provides population estimates of the pre-contact Americas to be as high as 112 million in 1492, while others estimate the population to have been as low as eight million. In any case, the native population declined to less than six million by 1650.

In this issue we look at the Aztecs. This mighty civilization was sophisticated and some say more advanced in many respects than those who destroyed it.

When I was in school and learning about the people who sailed into the unknown I wondered what could possess them, where did they get the drive? Was the hunger for riches and power so enticing? Where did the motivation come from? I thought as I grew up and understood the ways of the world it would be become clear, but if I am honest, it only bewilders me even more. How great is our need for supremacy over one another? Perhaps it is our value system that needs an overhaul?

If looking at the news is any indication, we never know in the moment whether we are on the ‘right’ side of history. Maybe at the end of the day there is no right side, for even on the side of our ‘enemies’ are those trying to forge new paths of cooperation.

See you next month,

Jane

Huatulco

Editor’s Letter

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By Jane Bauer

How much information can your brain hold?

I was listening to a talk by Dr. Charan Ranganath, a professor of Psychology and Neuroscience and Director of the Dynamic Memory Lab at the University of California, and he said “Memory is selective, so it is better to focus on quality over quantity.” He went on to describe how our brain discards information that is superfluous, much the way we empty our computer’s ‘recycle bin’.

When I was a growing up my mother consumed ‘news’ from 6pm-6:30pm while she cooked dinner, via the radio, courtesy of the CBC. She would shush anyone who needed to speak to her during this sacred half hour. Even then, I recognized that there is a dark kind of pleasure to hearing about crises in other parts of the world.

Gitnux.org reports that today average media consumption worldwide is 455 minutes per day. In 2021, U.S. adults spent 13 hours and 35 minutes per day consuming media. That is a lot! It is not just when you reach for your phone, there are screens everywhere vying for your attention.

I love using the word ‘consume’ when talking about media because it drives home the idea that it is something that really enters us, like food and sustenance. Yet, we treat it like something that glosses over us, disregarding its power and heft to shape us. While this issue looks at journalism, I invite you all to examine how media influences your life?

As Dr. Charan Ranganath suggests, focus on quality rather than quantity. Ask yourself “What do you really need to know?” One of the largest shifts with the rise of the internet’s presence in our lives is that not only are we consumers but we have become the product. Each time you search for something, make an online purchase or post, your habits are monitored and assessed so that companies can help you to ‘consume’ more efficiently.

When it comes to news consumption, what your internet browser shows you will be very different from what it shows someone who holds vastly different views from yours. While this may seem efficient, it actually creates a false sense that most of the world thinks just like you when the truth is that your reality is only showing you a slice of what is out there.

Be as selective about what you watch, read and listen to as you are about what you eat. Keep informed but also put your phone down and look at the world around you.

See you in July!

Huatulco

Editor’s Letter

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By Jane Bauer

“The savanna hypothesis
addresses the issue of how we select places to
live and why we find some landscapes more beautiful than others. The central argument is that our preferences in this domain were shaped over evolutionary time through the repeated selection of safe and healthy environments over dangerous
and resource poor landscapes.”
Kevin Bennett
Department of Psychology, Pennsylvania State

On a podcast I listened to recently, the interviewee suggested that each of us has a landscape that defines us. I hadn’t thought of looking at the world this way but it made a lot of sense. The chef being interviewed talked about his pull towards certain types of food and certain landscapes which, if he looked back far enough, were a part of his ancestry.

I wondered, what landscape am I? Where do I feel most at home? What are the sensations I crave; open desert spaces, high mountains, plains with grasses, the woods or the wide ocean and a sandy beach?

I didn’t have to think too hard. I am drawn to the forest and the jungle. I yearn to feel dwarfed by an army of majestic trees, small dirt paths, and rocky rivers that cleave and twist their the way between hills. I love seeing sunlight speckled through canopies of tree branches, Japanese has a word for this: komorebi.

When people ask me how I got here, I tell them about that first visit and the people I met. That something made me want to return, I try and find the words for it but they always seem to slip away. I don’t mention the landscape because it sounds sort of silly and fantastical, but that is what it really was. I came to this seam where the mountains kiss the ocean, it closed me in between the lapping waves and the darkness of its forest. It beckoned me down dirt paths and up river beds and waterfalls. Stay with me it said and I did.

This month our writers explore outdoor pursuits. We hope it encourages you to do a little exploring. If it does, please let us know via email or on our socials.

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*All our previous articles and issues are available on the website.

Happy Exploring,

Huatulco

Editor’s Letter

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By Jane Bauer

“The day the power of love overrules the love of power, the world will know peace.”
Mahatma Gandhi

What is love? This is something that humans have been asking for years. We seem torn as to whether to hold it up as the highest of emotions or as a frivolous undertaking.

Is ‘love’ what is depicted by grand gestures and romantic films? Or is it something that builds over time by the routine and comfort of a long marriage? If love is everything, why do we hesitate to accept it as a justifiable reason for turning your life upside down?

What if romantic love isn’t ‘the thing’ we are meant to aspire to, and we have gotten it wrong from too much Jane Austen and John Hughes? Romantic love as we know it only began to appear to be named in the 1500s- prior to that, relationships were mainly transactional for survival and to expand one’s wealth.

I recently started following an IG account about a German farmer who cuddles his chickens, goats, cows and sheep to a soundtrack of new age and classical tunes. It is very soothing- I can feel my nervous system relaxing as the animals nuzzle into him. What if love is what you transmit to each being you come into contact with? If that is the case what does your love look like?

Does it spread out freely in smiles to the person helping you in a store or bringing you coffee or cutting you off in traffic? The best advice I have gotten for getting annoyed with strangers has been to move through the world with the assumption that everyone is doing so with good intention. This has saved me countless grumpy moments.

If you are a regular reader you already know about my concern for the migrants that are crossing our paths. This morning there were about a hundred people of all ages and shades of skin. I rode past in the comfort of my car, on my way to a job I love and the very least I could do was allow love to flow out of me, to offer a water, to make eye contact. We often exchange ‘que dios te bendiga’ which I love, even though I don’t consider myself religious. Lately a few have responded with ‘te lo pago’ with their hands in prayer, this means they will pay it forward and my heart swells with gratitude at the love that can spread from acts of kindness.

Maybe love isn’t that complex. Perhaps it is as simple as seeing another and knowing there are no others.

See you next month,

Jane

Huatulco

Editor’s Letter

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By Jane Bauer

“When our eyes are graced with wonder, the world reveals its wonders to us. There are people who see only dullness in the world and that is because their eyes have already been dulled. So much depends on how we look at things. The quality of our looking determines what we come to see.”
― John O’Donohue, Beauty: The Invisible Embrace

As we have done for the past many years, the theme of our January issue falls in line with the Chinese New Year which this year is The Year of the Dragon. This logic may seem a bit silly but was fine when we had the year of the chicken, the pig and the ox, but dragons? “Dragons are for children’s stories”, I mused to myself, “a gateway animal to the study of dinosaurs and keeping snakes as pets.”

I was intrigued to see how our writers would navigate this theme and I was contemplating this as a majestic gold-colored iguana made its way across the road.

The truth is that fairy tales and mythological creatures are born from something real. The iguana with its golden tail swinging from side to side, the jagged edges of soft spine that run from the head down to the tail, and the long thin toes with protruding claws, is fantastical. If we look at everyday things with new eyes, we realize that our world is as full of wonder and magic as any fairy tale or Harry Potter book. The world we live in is full of many beasts and creatures and happenings that are wondrous.

As we slide into 2024, let us remember to look upon our world with wonderment. Be amazed by the night sky full of stars and the creeping awakening of the morning light. Talk to insects and take a moment to see the way the vultures and pelicans dance through the air. Let your fingers caress the bark of a tree and think about all the tree has been present for in its unmoving stillness. Magic is everywhere. One of the saddest things that happens as we grow up is that we are encouraged to move away from looking at the world in a whimsical way and yet it is looking at it in this way that joy is most readily available to us.

Let go of practical things that are weighing you down and allow yourself to be kissed by the breeze, at least for a little while.

See you next month,

Jane

Huatulco

Editor’s Letter

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By Jane Bauer

“Perfection is achieved not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.”
Antoine de Saint-Exupery

One of my favorite things is to rearrange a room and I have found that many spaces benefit from having things removed rather than added. The trouble is we get so attached to having stuff and having things the way they are.

Even if you don’t consider yourself as someone who concerns themselves with design, most of us add our own signature to a space. Think for a moment about your living room, picture it in your mind if you aren’t there. Visualize each item that you have chosen and ask yourself why? Is it for its sentimental tie to a past event – a display of photographs perhaps? Maybe the object has a practical use – a candy dish, or a foot roller you keep tucked under the couch. Why have you arranged the furniture the way it is – to maximize light or seating faced towards the television set?

What about the colors? Were you intentional as you filled this space or did it become layered over itself with time? What might be taken away? How does the room reflect who you are and your habits?

In this issue our writers explore design. We didn’t limit the topic to home design or architecture or clothing and it was fascinating to see what people came up with. From papel picado, to the clothes we wear to the buildings we spend our lives in, what is clear is that no corner of our lives is untouched by design. Unknowingly, we have each curated our lives, piece by piece over time.

You may not consider yourself a symbol of design but the truth is that we all are. Our style is reflected in our clothes, our haircut, our living room, even the plates we choose to eat our dinner off.

As we approach this commercial season what if instead of adding more stuff to our ever-growing piles, we became intentional about the spaces and objects we already have? Decluttering your space has been shown to reduce stress and anxiety, and lead to greater creativity.

Let’s lighten our load as we vault into 2024!