A New Time for Mexico

A street vendor competes with an international ice cream chain for business...



Although many United States citizens bemoan having to "press one for English," and trumpet the risks that our country is becoming Mexican-ized, I believe the opposite is true: Latinos in general and Mexicans in particular are influenced by gringo culture at a far greater pace. Mexicans are more likely to listen to U.S. rock and roll music than gringos are to listen to rancheras. Mexicans are more likely to wear T-shirts with English logos and insipid catch phrases than gringos are to don campesino clothing, mariachi pants or hats the size of hot tubs. Although that would be cool.

Taxco

Taxco, pronounced "Tasco" and previously spelled the way it is actually pronounced, is a quaint, steep, traffic-choked and exhaust-fumed previous colonial silver mining city. It is literally butted against the sides of mountains a few hours southwest of Mexico City wherein the guardrails along the highway into town are mostly crosses and shrines indicated by skid marks over the high side.



History has it, depending on who you ask, that toward the end of the revolution (my guess it was the first-of-a-series of popular Mexican revoultions), the Spanish blew up the mines to keep them (the mines) from falling into the hands of the revolutionaries wherein the cash and American Express receipts would be squandered on, you know, "the people" rather than on yet more elaborate Catholic cathedrals. The silver market of exquisite jewelry and sculpture is now geared toward the Mexican and Gringo tourist trade. Mexicans who live in Mexico City will look for any reason to bolt for a few days.

Anyway, the silver trade is still one of the most important elements of the Taxco economy. That and hustling cardboard "handmade-by-my-family" placemats and brightly-colored Chinese finger handcuffs (only God know why) around the Zocalo, or central plaza.

Following are some photographs snapped around the little sidewalk-challenged -- meaning there are none -- city of 55,000 souls, where all the streets are as vertical as a steeply-pitched roof. Many are hip shots of locals, taken along the streets, sidewalks and around the zocalo while my wife researched the many joyerias (jewelry stores, I'm told), & the William Spratling ranch in Taxco Anjego ("old Taxco"). Spratling's designs, gringo industry and gringo capitalism in the early 20th century helped establish the current Mexican silver market. Like most artstes, Spratling's efforts command more capital today, following his death in a 1960's traffic accident (which suprisingly, there aren't more of).

If you've gotten this far and are not yet bored to tears, re-start the slide show to begin at the beginning of a bunch of snaps. Seriously, it shouldn't take long to wade through them.

I'll Take the Train....

Forty eight hours to San Bernardino and back to see my new grandaughter. Here are some snaps of the trip:

Fiestas, Mariachis: Una Tradición Mexicana

One can hardlly travel in Mexico without happening upon a fiesta. Whether a national holiday like El Grito or a municipality celebrating the dedication of a new bell in a church tower, Mexicans are known for joyous celebrations. Any excuse for a party will do, some have said. Now, that's my kind of country.

El Dia de los Muertos

El dia de los muertos, or Day of the Dead, has been celebrated throughout Mexico and parts of Central America since pre columbian times. Originally an Aztec celebration, the November 1 and 2 holiday has become infused with Catholic symbolism and faith.
“Our relations with death are intimate”, Octavio Paz wrote in Labrynth of Solitude, “more intimate perhaps than those of any other people.”
He further described the celebration as an escape from the difficulties of every day existence – not only the poverty, but also a kind of blackness in the soul which perhaps has its roots in the joining of two antagonistic groups, the Indian and the Spanish.
For more images from this project, go to http://photojournale.bladepicturecompany.com/categories.php?cat_id=63

San Miguel de Allende, Mexico

Santuario de Atotonilco, Guanajuato, Mexico

Guanajuato, Mexico

Jail Cell, San Isidro, Honduras

Rural San Isidro, Honduras, has no actual police force, so when troublemakers are afoot, the townspeople take it upon themselves to lock the culprit in a concrete cylinder, under Hiroshima-class sunshine, on a hillside along the road.

This unfortunate prisoner had been causing trouble while hopped up on dope, so was apprehended & locked in the hoosegow for three or four days.

As in much of Latin America, family or friends are counted upon to provide the creature comforts of food, water & to provide -- and empty -- the chamber pot.

Woe unto the culprit who has no friends.

Tough Feet

Most children I've seen in the Honduras countryside appear to tromp around barefoot with no complaint. Me? I say 'ouch' if I step on a Captin' Crunch while walking on carpet.

Washing Machine

While missionaries build her a new home, a woman scrubs laundry with water brought in from a nearby hydrant in Santa Cruz, Honduras.

Mother and Child

A young woman stands in the doorway of her cousin's one-room shack with her son while missionaries with Corazon para Honduras build a new home in the background in Santa Cruz, Honduras.

Brazos Abiertos, Pentecostal Church Meeting

Pentecostal church meeting in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. Temperature, 90 degrees; humidity, 90 percent.

Kitchen and Bath

A young woman bathes her little sister while her grandmother and cousins cut up some chicken for dinner in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. Meanwhile, some dogs wait for scraps.

Trabajador de la Tierra

Queremos el Bono San Jose?