Columns

Guadalajara’s annual Fiestas de Octubre has presented its coveted Silver Paintbrush (Pincel de Plata) Award to watercolorist and muralist Jorge Monroy.

A few days ago my wife and I were invited to spend a night at Hotel Villa San Francisco in Chapala. We had already been forewarned that there was “something different” about Hotel VSF, so we asked our host Tony Wilshere for a bit of his history, hoping we might get two stories: that of Chapala’s newest hotel and also the story of the man behind it.

In 1992, archaeologist Phil Weigand published sketches of several circular pyramids and a ball court he had found in the hills above Santa Rosalía, eight kilometers north of Etzatlán. Ever since I came across his drawings, I had wanted to visit these ruins in the company of an archaeologist who might explain what I was seeing. Weigand said that these ancient monuments are “in excellent condition” but also mentioned that the climb up the hill is very steep and you’d better bring along “water, food and a telephone in case of emergency.”

Having lived in Mexico for many years, I have come to believe that the word “ley” has a very different meaning here from concept of “law” I grew up with as a child. In certain countries, “The Law” is thought of in positive, and almost reverential terms. The Law is a beacon of justice, the sine-qua-non for order in society. It has the solid support of the great majority of people and in most cases is considered fair and impartial. If you come to Mexico with this definition of law engraved on your mind, you may be surprised or even shocked at what we might call “the more casual approach to law and order” which you will encounter here and you may be tempted to blame what you see around you either on lawlessness or on corruption.

Two recent explosions at small fireworks workshops in the Ciénega region of Jalisco which claimed the lives of eight people have focused attention on this long-standing craft activity.

On the cusp of May, the hottest month of the Jalisco highlands, campesinos are making a last push to burn off their fields, mend toppled fences of rock, barbed wire and long-spined huisache branches, readying milpas (corn fields) for hand planting before mid-June rains arrive.