This article, which deals with a small Guadalajara-based organization of social scientists dedicated to bettering the lives of the city’s at-risk youth vis-a-vis the outlet provided by art, is for those whose reaction to the threatening spectacle of groups – or gangs – of young people gathering on the street to graffiti, freestyle rap or breakdance may be some variation of “Get off my lawn!” or “There goes the neighborhood!”

On February 22, 1988, a baby opened her eyes. Sun streamed through the curtains as the sounds of the world filled her ears.

Grownups who are wont to mutter, “Animation? You mean … cartoons!? I’m a goddamn adult!”

Phyllis Rauch calls herself an introvert. Yet, due to all of the promotional events, meetings and entertaining that she shared during her 40 years of marriage to her late husband, Georg Rauch, she began calling herself a learned extrovert.

During our three-day whirlwind sojourn through the city of Guanajuato’s Festival Cervantino –

Hazardous minerals in our immediate environments may seem like relics of the past, safely vanquished for decades.