On November 21, 1564, five ships and 500 soldiers set sail from the Jalisco coastal town of Barra de Navidad under the command of Miguel Lopez de Legazpi with the ultimate goal of setting up a colony in Las Islas Filipinas, the archipelago discovered four decades earlier by Ferdinand Magellan.

Like many travelers before me, I was drawn to Mexico by its fiery and flavorsome foods. A Mexican friend in my home city of Bristol, had assured me that if I loved the burritos from the generic Tex-Mex takeaways of England, then I would be like a child in a sweetshop when I arrived in her country. My friend, Jackie, has since moved back to Mexico where her parents run a traditional restaurant in Oaxaca. I was invited to visit the restaurant last Saturday as friends and family would be celebrating her mum’s birthday via a day of delicious food followed by a 1970s-themed disco. Needless to say, I was there like greased lightning! This is the story of the delicious food that I encountered on that trip.

Writes Reporter contributor John Pint: “In 2008, Canadian singer David Carroll was on a United Airlines flight to Nebraska. During a change of planes at O’Hare airport he and other passengers looked out the window and were shocked to see baggage handlers literally throwing around the guitars that Carroll´s band had checked as luggage. Carroll complained to airline staff but got nowhere. When he found the neck of his 3,500-dollar Taylor guitar broken, he tried to get compensation from United (for nine months), but again to no avail. Finally, in 2009 Carroll wrote a song entitled ‘United Breaks Guitars’ which went viral on YouTube and, to date, has been seen by 14,295,662 people. After the event, adman Laurence Boschetto told CNN that United was learning from the error and was even using the Guitar Song in their personnel training program.”  

In his famous tome “The Labyrinth of Solitude,” the poet Octavio Paz claims that “the Mexican chases after death, mocks it, courts it, hugs it, and sleeps with it. He thinks of it as his favorite plaything and his most lasting love.”

November 1, All Saints Day, and November 2, All Souls Day, are special dates set aside throughout Mexico as a time of remembrance and communion with the dearly departed.  With a unique mix of elements rooted in ancient Mexico and the European continent, the altar de muertos exemplifies the fusion of old and new world beliefs, rituals and customs. 

Royce Wheeler has retired. After 20 years working for Jaime Niembro at Ajijic Realty, the 80-years-young former physics teacher had decided to take a break.