Age no barrier to active former nurse’s labor of love
Octogenarian Jimmy Tomlinson (right) enjoys the respect of many in the tiny enclave of Aguilallas, just about a mile and a half north of Ixtlahuacan. “It’s so small that it doesn’t even have a church,” she says. Moved by a lot of other things the community doesn’t have, Tomlinson has taken it upon herself to give these folks, mostly women and girls, a hand up. She moved into a large home in the barrio so that she could have more room to teach classes in what she calls “life skills.” The kitchen is big enough for eight cooks and at least two of the five bedrooms have been converted to a classroom and a studio. She also has four cows (soon to be five) to provide milk for her cooking classes and for local children. Tomlinson is familiar with Mexico. She and her deceased husband spent 40 years commuting between their Kentucky home and Lakeside. She worked as a registered nurse and midwife in various parts of the United States for half a century. Always on the go, she slowed down just long enough last week to talk to Jeanne Chaussee about her labor of love.
A taste of a traditional Christmas is on tap through December 23 at a 196-year-old home built in Guadalajara by an Irish railroad scion.
The Chapala area has no shortage of animal protection advocates, but step into the private world of Siegrid Hernandez and you’ll find someone in a league all her own.
Like a comet trailing sparkling stardust, Jalisco Philharmonic Director Alondra de la Parra has swept into Guadalajara, five weekends into the orchestra’s fall season and showing signs of her renowned drawing power, which promises to fill the Teatro Degollado at every concert she directs.
Lagos de Moreno has become the fifth town in Jalisco to be recognized as one of Mexico’s Pueblos Magicos (magical villages).
The human cost of Mexico’s war on drugs has been well documented, with almost every news story written about the country ending with the now obligatory statistic that over 60,000 people have been killed since December 2006.