1965

First Fiestas de Octubre

American Legion Post Three named Barbara Bertram as their candidate for the U.S. float to participate in the first Fiestas de Octubre parade. A number of U.S. expat organizations in Jalisco are expected to send representatives to a community council meeting at the Consulate to present their princesses for the float, said Fred Mardus, chairman of the float committee. The Jalisco Department of Tourism is currently preparing a heady program of some 50 classes of events and the city is carefully tending its one million rose bushes so that they will be in full flower during the festival. Special events include a fiesta taurina with the best matadors in the world, international soccer games, a national charreada, water skiing events on Lake Cajititlan and motor boat races on Lake Chapala.

Although meat is a mainstay of Mexican cuisine and vegetarians are generally not at home here, the discriminating seeker of good quality, grass-fed or organic beef, pork and lamb — especially city dwellers — may come up almost empty.

One of Jalisco’s more unusual side-trips could be the perfect place  for new-age enthusiasts searching for more connective experiences with their inner selves.

At least for the next month, Guadalajara is taking its place — alongside Jerusalem’s Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum and the Chinese “Bodies” exhibit that showcases preserved and dissected human remains — as the locale for two gruesome but probably necessary museum exhibits. 

Plenty of people will tell you that witchcraft works in Mexico. A spiritual cleansing can safeguard against bewitchment. A wife can put a spell on a husband to stop him philandering. A storekeeper can hire a witch to put his rivals out of business. 

A hundred years after his death, Porfirio Diaz is remembered not only as Mexico’s longest ruling president, but also as the person credited with putting Chapala on the map as a tourist destination.