“You have to come for a test run of the Autotrén,” wrote Luis Enrique Lazcano, Quality and Safety Manager for ModuTram México, the manufacturer of an unusual and imaginative solution to the mass transit problem.

I walked into the Tec de Monterrey’s impressive Centro de Congresos and found it buzzing with excitement. At 26 stands around the perimeter of the hall, groups of teen-age girls were holding enthusiastic discussions with visitors like me who had come to watch the 2017 Technovation “finals” for Mexico.

There were no bookshelves in the home where I grew up and I can’t remember a single instance of seeing either of my parents reading a book.

I was born in Milwaukee, once famous for its beers. When I moved to Mexico, I happily found beers just as good as those in my old home town and several much better. 

In February 2013 I headed for Ahualulco’s famous Piedras Bola with a measuring tape in hand, hoping to find a certain stone ball which University of Guadalajara researchers claimed had a diameter of 3.02 meters. 

My friend and neighbor, Guadalajara muralist Jorge Monroy, loves to paint.