When Jesús “Chuy” Acosta and his American wife Amy returned from Chicago to Acosta’s tiny hometown of Camichines in 2001, they brought with them their four young children and a strong desire to “give back” to this small Jalisco community, where Acosta was raised.

While living in Tacoma, Washington, Reverend Tim Schubert had the idea of starting a Center for Spiritual Living in Ajijic. Along with his wife Arlene, he wanted to create a community for people who didn’t feel comfortable in their traditional religions yet had a desire to affiliate and pursue spirituality in a context that was untraditional.

When a Canadian newcomer to lakeside decided to deal with a flabby belly that he was unable to correct through diet and exercise, he went to a well-known local plastic surgeon to get a tummy tuck.

On a bright October morning in 1994, Jalisco-born Dora Buenrostro killed her three children and drove to the local police station in San Jacinto, California to tell officers that her estranged husband was raging around the apartment with a knife.

When Latika Pierrette Claude stepped foot into her first yoga class in Montreal, her motive was to alleviate back pain that developed from her high-stressed job as an interior designer.

Diego Quemada-Díez as told to Stephen Woodman

Back in 2002, I was living by the railroad tracks in Mazatlán on the Pacific coast of Mexico.