Speaking of church buildings, we stumbled upon a beautiful church in Valle de Bravo, the inside painted a brilliant yellow, contrasted with green and brown trim. The church was beautiful, but once again we were troubled by the large black Christ at the altar in front.
I am not sure if we have told the story [...]
Archive for the ‘Mexican history’ Category
12 Jun
Beautiful Church, Black Christ
5 May
Cinco de Mayo: Myths and Realities
Believe it or not, Cinco de Mayo (the 5th of May) is generally celebrated more in the US than in Mexico. The holiday commemorates the Mexican defeat of the French at the Battle of Puebla in 1862, and does not commemorate Mexican independence, as many Americans believe. In fact, Cinco de Mayo is not even [...]
18 Mar
The Oil Holiday
Today is a national holiday in Mexico in celebration of oil expropriation under President Caldenas in 1938 when the national company Pemex was created. It may seem like a strange occasion for a holiday, but it was a big deal for Mexico to nationalize oil and be “free” from foreign investment. To this day, there [...]
16 Mar
The Venice of Mexico
Mexico City used to be an enormous lake, which is hard to imagine because of the water shortages and drought experienced by the inhabitants today. But more than a thousand years ago, the native Indians who settled the valley began building islands in the lake that were used for farming, residences, and a natural defense [...]
20 Nov
Mexican Revolution
Today, November 20, is a Mexican holiday celebrating the beginning of a war to overthrow Porfirio Diaz and to begin a revolution. The revolution lasted for almost twenty years, and many people will say it wasn’t really a revolution, because the power was eventually transferred into the hand of the PRI, the political party that [...]
28 Oct
Mexico Trivia: Disputed Land
When was the first time the US ceded land back to Mexico after the Mexican-American American War, and how much land was it?
24 Oct
The Irony in a Name: PRI
For 70 years, the Institutional Revolutionary Party (Partido Revolucionario Institutional) had a monopoly on political power in Mexico. Only in 2000, when Vincente Fox and PAN took the presidency, was the chain of power broken. To understand Mexico in the 20th century and even today is to understand the irony inherent in the name Intitutional [...]
18 Oct
Laughter and Labor
Earl Shorris, writing on the distance between rich and poor at the time of the Mexican Revolution:
“The secret of perpetual motion had been discovered in Mexico: the admixture of elegant laughter and unseen labor. As all the rich men and beautiful women knew, the distance between laughter and labor was a gift of God, and [...]
13 Oct
An Unjust War
Why are the US and Mexico such “distant neighbors,” borrowing the title of Alan Riding’s book? Reasons abound, but none can much more significant than the unjust war that marred their relationship from the beginning: the Mexican-American War. Recently I have been researching more about this oft-forgotten foray in foreign relations with Mexico, and it [...]
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