In the yellow light of a petrolio lantern (the electrical power was out again), Marcelino “Chelino” Mejia washed down a warm verdolaga taco with a cup of thick café de olla.

“South of The Border.”  Those words conger up images for some visitors to Mexico that do not embrace screen-fragile ease, but take on wind-rain challenges.   

Today, Mexico’s peso is suffering the ill effects of Donald Trump’s election and continued bashing of the United States’ south-of-the-border neighbor.

But the Mexican Treasury has a history of enduring and bumpy times. Probably the longest and roughest of times for the nation’s treasury was during the republic’s long and chaotic 1910-1924 Revolution. During this time, just about anyone with sufficient boldness and a printing press or blacksmith’s equipment could turn out currency and specie at will. The Treasury’s credibility and jurisdiction were constantly under threat.

As prehistorical time in the Western Hemisphere spun silently toward 1,000 B.C. approximately a thousand years after man in the Americas had planted the foundation of the first permanent village site (in Mexico), a wave of fierce, misshapened strangers appeared.

Suddenly a couple of weeks ago, in a single evening, the rainy season was behind us and October became fall.

This damp morning, 16-year-old Beto Cisneros strode briskly to the covered hay mow.  Behind him one of his sisters, 15-year-old Rosita, was walking swiftly to catch up.