Hugh Allyn Hunt, the former co-owner and editor of The Guadalajara Reporter, a prodigious author on a vast range of Mexican themes, accomplished short story writer and artist, died February 3 at the age of 90 in San Juan Cosala.
Allyn, who edited this newspaper for almost 20 years between 1975 and 1994, molded the English-language weekly into a serious journal that went well beyond the day-to-day activities of retired expatriates, contributing insights into the nation’s social, cultural, historical and political orbits, while articulating, in his erudite “South of North” columns, the heart and soul of Mexico. Many of his best-loved columns were based on his interactions with humble rural folk, with whom he often said he felt most comfortable. Hunt’s unique ability to connect with Mexico’s contradictory identities provided him with a tremendous source of material for his vivid prose.
Born July 28, 1931, in Lincoln, Nebraska, Allyn grew up in North Platte, Nebraska. His father died in a car accident when he was one year old, and he left for California in his late teens. He served in the U.S. Army, based in Los Angeles, from 1953 to 1955, prior to enrolling at the University of Southern California (USC), where he took classes in creative writing and short stories taught by Willard Marsh (“A Week with no Friday,” “Beachhead in Bohemia”), who moved to Ajijic in the early 1950s and helped pique Allyn’s interest in Mexico.
While at USC, Allyn edited a light-hearted student magazine known as Wampus, and also contributed to the university’s newspaper.
Allyn’s energy and desire for new experiences led him through a sequence of jobs that included work as a public relations representative for the Southern Pacific Railroad and assistant to the director of advertising at KFWB radio in Los Angeles. He also did a stint as a photographic model.
After two failed marriages, in 1961 Allyn met Beverly Evans, a teacher at Reseda High School, on a blind date. They married in Los Angeles on February 9, 1962, and immediately moved into a “shack” on Malibu Beach. Beverly continued teaching, while Allyn developed his writing skills, working summers as a wrangler at a camp in the San Fernando Valley.
Throughout his 20s, Allyn made multiple trips across the Mexican border to Tijuana and further down into unexplored areas of Baja California. He would frequent cantinas, and watch, and sometimes participate in bullfights (corridas), with occasional life-threatening consequences.
In 1963, encouraged by Willard Marsh and his wife George, the couple relocated to Ajijic, to “try living in Mexico for a year,” Beverly’s sister Cindy remembers, and so Allyn could continue his writing and painting.
Allyn’s first published short story was the highly acclaimed “Acme Rooms and Sweet Marjorie Russell,” a tale of teen-age sexual awakening, which appeared in the Spring 1966 issue of the influential literary magazine Transatlantic Review, and was reprinted in “The Best American Short Stories of 1967.” Between 1967 and 1973, Hunt went on to publish further stories in the Transatlantic Review, while also contributing pieces to other publications.
Beverly and Allyn eventually moved into a house they built on Calle Aquiles Serdan in Ajijic. During this period, Allyn’s passion for art was almost as intense as his writing, and he exhibited his works at various collective shows in Guadalajara, as well as Ajijic.
Allyn also began to write on cultural themes for The Colony Reporter (later, The Guadalajara Reporter), a weekly magazine for expatriates in Guadalajara and the Lake Chapala area founded in 1963 by Robert Thurston, a former journalist from Oregon who had moved to Mexico with his young family in 1956.
In 1970, the couple headed to New York, where Beverly had been offered the post of director of training at what is now the International Center for the Disabled, while Allyn tried to kick-start his writing career. He penned several articles for the iconic Village Voice magazine, which gave him a thirst for journalism. But the lure of Mexico was too strong. After a couple of years they returned to the shores of Lake Chapala, where Allyn began to write feature articles on a regular basis for The Reporter, while Beverly churned out a new column covering local happenings: “Laguna Chapalac,” an offshoot of the first dedicated column in the area called “Lakeside Look.” They also started to build a new home in Nextipac, on the outskirts of Jocotepec.
When, in 1975, Thurston and his wife Jean decided to return to the U.S. west coast, Allyn and Beverly stepped in to purchase the weekly newspaper.
With Allyn installed in the editor’s chair at the office on Guadalajara’s Calle Lopez Cotilla, Beverly took on the role as advertising manager. They rented an apartment next door to the office, returning to their home in Jocotepec at weekends.
Once in command, Hunt drew up a plan to gradually change the parochial image of the paper while maintaining its essential community character. The rejig came sooner rather than later, however, as Mexico, under the guidance of an erratic populist president (Luis Echeveria), lurched into a full-blown economic crisis.
As Hunt tells it, undertaking any kind of independent political commentary was a precarious exercise in the Mexico of those days, since government officials (most with limited knowledge of the subtleties of English) would scrutinize the paper’s articles for perceived criticisms of the ruling elite, and occasionally issue veiled threats to close the operation down.
In those early days prior to computers, producing an English- language weekly with primitive technology was an arduous task. Reporters employed a motley collection of manual and electric typewriters to crank out news items and columns on half sheets of newsprint stapled to carbon copies. Page layouts were cut-and-paste formats done entirely by hand. The original material was delivered to a dingy Guadalajara print shop where machine operators with no knowledge of English retyped texts to hammer out multiple blocks of linotype. Every Thursday staffers spent long hours at the printers reviewing and correcting proofs page by page before the paper went to press.
Lakeside resident Ann Whiting, formerly of Guadalajara and a co-founder of the Mexican National Chili Cook-off who ran the annual Ajijic event for three decades, has known the Hunts for almost 50 years. “They made a really good team,” she says, remembering the parties they used to hold in their apartment each year on Thanksgiving, when Allyn was “always such a fun host.” Allyn and Beverly were great supporters of the Cook-off, Whiting recalls, noting that Allyn served as a judge for many years, and was the master of ceremonies on several occasions.
Hunt also expanded the staff of the newspaper, employing a mix of experienced and young, hungry reporters eager to take their first steps in the profession.
Says the Reporter’s chief Lakeside correspondent DaleHoyt Palfrey, who worked under Hunt between 1975 and 1979: “Not just a brilliant wordsmith, Allyn was a superb mentor for novice journalists. Learning the trade at his exacting elbow, I came to appreciate the importance of mastering clear and concise language, accurate spelling and impeccable grammar. Underlying his imposing stature and a serious, sometimes gruff demeanor, was a kindhearted soul with a keen sense of humor. More than the occasional verbal rebukes I earned along the way, it is the jovial tone of Allyn’s husky laughter that remains most deeply etched in my memory.”
Despite Mexico’s economic vicissitudes, the newspaper flourished as the expatriate community in Guadalajara reached its zenith during the 1980s and early 90s, and development on the north shore of Lake Chapala began to surge. (It was during this period that Beverly began her successful side businesses in real estate and a B&B in Ajijic.)
While Allyn’s journalistic instincts dominated his approach to editorship (he covered the 1986 abduction and murder of DEA agent Enrique Camarena in Guadalajara extensively, and also wrote a column for the Mexico City News for 15 years), he always recognized the newspaper’s core identity as a provider of community news. When, in 1990, the U.S. State Department announced that it intended to close the U.S. Consulate in Guadalajara, Hunt was at the forefront of the campaign to protest the move, which was eventually scrapped.
Also in 1990, the Hunts moved the Reporter to larger premises on Calle Duque de Rivas, a residential street a few blocks away.
Soon after moving into their new office, Allyn’s life became complicated when he was diagnosed with cancer of the larynx. After various treatments in Houston, Texas, together with some lifestyle alterations, he managed to beat the disease, although the task of editing the newspaper became more challenging.
The Hunts sold and relinquished control of the Reporter in 1994, relocating permanently to their home in Jocotepec. Allyn continued to write, purchased farm land, raised livestock and spent many hours tending to his beloved rural activities.
Allyn’s legacy will not only be remembered by the wealth of articles published in The Reporter, and his collection of short stories, of which most, unfortunately, are unavailable online, but also for the influence that his distinctive voice conveyed to expatriates yearning to know more about the country in which they had made their home.
Says Michael Hogan, the Guadalajara-based author of “The Irish Solders of Mexico” and other works: “When we first moved to Guadalajara in August 1990, Allyn Hunt’s articles were the first pages we turned to in The Colony Reporter. He wrote about everything: Mexican history, art, architecture, current events, scenic hikes, farm practices, street vendors, quality restaurants, Mexican culture, traditions, and intricacies of language. He was a necessary guide to becoming acclimated to the city and part of the reason that we stayed for the next 30 years.”
Adds current Reporter editor Michael Forbes, who worked under Hunt between 1990 and 1994: “Allyn’s stories were always ones you could read and reread; they rarely left your head immediately once you had digested them. They were layered, with multiple textures, references and insights only someone with a true passion and affinity for Mexico could write. From Allyn, I learned the essential role that editing has in a professional newspaper, and the importance every sentence and word has in a great story. He was a hard taskmaster, but his enthusiasm for Mexico and journalism was so infectious, and motivated his writers to always strive to do their best.”
He is survived by Beverly, his wife of 60 years. No memorial service has been planned at the present time.
As of next week, the Reporter will be republishing a month-long series of Allyn Hunt’s columns, covering some of his favorite topics.