Women directors are still a rarity in Hollywood.  A new investigation by film industry site the Wrap discovered that two of Hollywood’s major studios, 20th Century Fox and Paramount, have no films by female directors scheduled to come out between now and 2018. 

In Mexico, the situation is decidedly brighter. According to the “Statistical Yearbook of Mexican Cinema,” by 2007, women directed around 10 percent of annual productions. By 2015, this figure had reached 25 percent, almost triple the percentage of women directors in Hollywood.

Jonathan Danby has quite a few more claims to fame that the average foreigner in Guadalajara.

“Cristal” Ballesteros as told to Stephen Woodman

When I was 14 I came out to my parents as gay and transgender.

My mother reacted badly. I left my family home and we stopped speaking for four years. 

I started wearing makeup and taking hormone pills. I also went to live with a friend in a different part of town. 

Presidential contender Donald Trump hardly shies away from promises about what he would do in his first term, even his first day, to solve what he views as urgent problems.

More than 15,000 books have been written about U.S. President Abraham Lincoln over many decades, so publisher Mikel Miller admitted he was somewhat skeptical when Guadalajara-based author and teacher Michael Hogan told him he wanted to add another one to this mammoth collection.

Anyone who has visited a Mexican botánica, or spiritual store, can confirm that the country doesn’t lack for saints or spiritual iconography.