The chic and the earthy mingle every Saturday afternoon at the upscale Andares centro comercial with a pleasant farmers market or tianguis that draws a crowd to the north edge of town with offerings of organic produce and artesanal prepared foods.

“This ain’t your momma’s Junior League,” Terrill Martinez, the Vice President for Membership of the Guadalajara Junior League’s new board, says laughingly, quoting a phrase she heard recently at a League training meeting.  “This organization has changed so much in the last several years, and especially here in Jalisco.  We are working locally to get the word out to women that the Junior League is more open, more exciting and more inclusive than ever before in its history.”

Controversies and scams related to the federal energy provider, the Comisión Federal de Electricidad, are a stye in the public eye these days.

Among the hundreds of tequilas on the local market nowadays (not to mention the international brands), how can a novice taster select the best?  Trust a chemical engineer to know the secrets of the trade, from agave planting to final labeling – as I learned on a recent boozy afternoon in the Tlaquepaque tequila boutique “El Buho.”

“Connections lead to connections,” muses tequila producer and tourism entrepreneur-turned-film producer David Ruiz as he thumbs through the pages of his latest project:  a script for a film documentary focusing on Jalisco’s iconic contributions to Mexican identity. 

Research by Spanish-language daily Mural has revealed that motorists in Guadalajara are being shortchanged by Pemex gas stations pretty much every other time they fill up their tanks.