Tag Archives: The Arts

2015, November 2015

Amigos de la Musica Opera Concert

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Screen Shot 2015-10-27 at 5.25.49 PMBy Erin Vig

Amigos de la Musica Huatulco commences its 2015 winter season with OPERA on November 12 at 8:00 PM at Dreams Huatulco Resort and Spa. Although, not necessarily ‘classic’ opera the evening boasts the prodigious talents of acclaimed performers; soprano Katia Reyes, and baritone Jehú Sánchez, singing various pieces from West Side Story and Porgy and Bess. Pianist Isaac Bañuelos Capistrán, will accompany these performances. The evening, already filled with impressive talent, will be concluded by a performance of the comedy opera, The Telephone, by Gian Carlo Menotti.

Tickets can be purchased for 200 pesos each or 100 pesos for students and teachers (valid ID required) at these local businesses: Café Juanita (Marina Chahue), Foto Conejos (Guamuchil, off the zocalo [or square], Giordana’s and Yamaha (on Gardenia), WE Restaurant (in Marina Park Plaza), and Dreams Huatulco Resort & Spa (Av. Benito Juarez, Tangolunda).

2015, September & October 2015

A New Season in Mexico City and Environs

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Screen Shot 2015-10-28 at 6.29.01 AMBy Carole Reedy

September, for me, has always felt like the first month of the year. In our formative years, it’s the month when school begins, which signals many things new: classes, clothes, shoes, school books, and Sfriends. September’s also the month for new activities and variations played on tried-and-true themes. And we begin to plan for the holidays ahead. Continue reading A New Season in Mexico City and Environs →

2015, May & June 2015

Music, Art, and Fairs: May and June Events in Mexico City

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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 →

2015, May & June 2015

The Metropolitan Opera in Mexico

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Screen Shot 2015-11-02 at 4.39.47 PMBy 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 →

2015, May & June 2015

Mexico’s Most Popular Music May Be the Beatles

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Screen Shot 2015-11-02 at 4.40.30 PMBy 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 →

2015, May & June 2015

The Reminiscence Bump…our musical link to the past

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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 →

2015, May & June 2015

Having Your Own Oaxacan Fiesta!

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Screen Shot 2015-11-02 at 4.42.14 PMBy Alvin Starkman, M.A., J.D.

They say that Mexicans really know how to party. In the State of Oaxaca we do it in spades. It’s part of a longstanding cultural tradition, and it’s affordable, certainly relative to what it would cost in the US or Canada. What you would love to do at home but can’t because it would cost well in excess of $50,000, you can do in Huatulco, Puerto Escondido or the state capital for $15,000 or so, with a large glossy photo album of memories to boot. Continue reading Having Your Own Oaxacan Fiesta! →

2015, May & June 2015

German influence on Mexican Music

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Screen Shot 2015-11-02 at 4.42.35 PMBy Julie Etra

Several years ago my husband and I went to Pluma Hidalgo for our periodic coffee fix and as we walked on to the square we heard the school band playing a Perez Prado song, all brass instruments, so although it was Cuban music I was intrigued by the all brass, and then another song followed with a 1-2-3- beat reminiscent of a polka (with the brass, definitely not a waltz). Knowing that the Germans established coffee plantations in Oaxaca and Chiapas I wondered what kind of influence they had on Mexican music, and perhaps particularly Oaxacan. Continue reading German influence on Mexican Music →

2015, March 2015

Female Potters of San Marcos Tlapazola, Oaxaca

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Screen Shot 2015-11-02 at 2.00.55 PMBy Alvin Starkman, M.A., J.D.

María is one of several women of the Zapotec ethnolinguistic group encountered every Sunday at the Tlacolula market, sitting on the pavement selling terra cotta pottery. The alfareras, as they’re known, hail from San Marcos Tlapazola, a village of about 2,500 residents, tucked away at the foothills of the Sierra Madre del Sur. They sell their red clay ceramics primarily in Tlacolula, in Oaxaca’s central valleys a 40 minute drive from the state capital. Their barro rojo can also be purchased in other marketplaces and craft stores throughout the state – comals and vessels used for cooking over either open flame or propane fueled stovetops; an assortment of pitchers and vases in addition to serving plates and related dinnerware; as well as purely decorative folk art including humanesque figures and masks. Continue reading Female Potters of San Marcos Tlapazola, Oaxaca →