José Luis’ arrow-shaped mohawk makes him appear as if he’s always in motion, or just stepped off a bike racing down the highway. And he just might have. We met working on a mobility committee for a local organization...
My neighbors: Ángel & La Chata
“Is that a pig?” That is the question that Ángel hears the most often when he takes his 2 1/2-year-old, black as night Vietnamese pot-belly pig “La Chata” out for a walk in La Roma. He also gets “Is that a manatee?” (No, señora,...
My neighbors – Sr. Ruiz
When Sr. Ruiz married his wife in 1948 she was only 16. They couldn’t find anyone to perform the service because of her age. People said it wouldn’t last, that they weren’t ready, that they were too young. They...
Mapping La Roma
After months working on my guide to living in my neighborhood, I know that mapping La Roma is a project of mammoth proportions. I have been diligently marking down tiendas de abarrotes, drycleaners and internet places for months, in...
Antolia: The Newest Exhibit in the Zoo
My girlfriend is eating the honey and achiote glazed short rib with jicama, chile serrano and sorrel slices and melon. I’m trying the turkey steak with hoja de santa pesto on top of sweet potato puree and pickled carrots....
Happy Labor Day
This morning we saw these four in the Río de Janiero park. Some members of a band called the Oaxaca brothers within a quartet that they just formed this morning. If you can get past the kid yelling at...
Mornings in the Medellín
I can’t think of any U.S. market like the ones in Mexico except Pike Place with its stands selling trinkets and fish mongers putting on a show for the tourists. I always say that the U.S. is so obsessed...
Taller Tlamaxcalli’s Toybox
Toys have no nationality, no origin, according to Álvaro Santillán. Children invented toys. That being said, Álvaro seems to have a beginning, a story, a little detail of origin for every item in the Tlamaxcalli toy workshop. the diversity...