“Congratulations on your revolution,” said our old, limping friend Don Salvador Gomez.

“Revolution?”

“You don’t know?” he asked arching his heavy white eyebrows. “Don’t you have a birthday coming up?”

“We’ve had our birthday. Two a year would kill us at our age.”

Don Salvador looked pained. “Your FOURTH OF JULY!” he said, almost spelling it out for us.

“Oh, of course. Why didn’t you say so.”

Hari Simran Singh Khalsa, a 25-year-old New Yorker with a wispy red beard and a contagious smile, was visiting Mexico for a yoga retreat.

In this second in a monthly series of LOOKING BACK, the Reporter is publishing some headlines taken from its June editions 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50 years ago.

Few historical figures in Mexico generate so much contention as Porfirio Diaz, the dictator who served as the nation’s president for more than 30 years between 1876 and 1911.  As expected, the 100th anniversary of his death, on July 2, is sparking a good deal of controversy, most notably regarding the possible repatriation of his remains from France, and whether he deserves any kind of “official” recognition or homage.     

Sheryl Malin has a disarmingly simple metaphor that explains her passion over the last four years to promote the type of medical treatment she received in Mexico — a turtle bowl.