In the United States stereotypes abound regarding Latin America’s strong machista culture (with corresponding levels of homophobia). But recent victories for homosexuals (in Uruguay, Argentina, and Mexico City) should call into question such assumptions given that Latin America appears to be getti[...]
Archive for the ‘Mexico’ Category
Pennyless
Pets are not people, not more worthy of life than humans. I distinctly remember experiencing reverse culture shock to an extreme when I came home for a quick vacation during my teaching stint in Honduras. Fresh off the plane, I went to one of my brother’s lacrosse games. I overheard person aft[...]
How Much Difference Did I Really Make After 5 Months of Teaching English?
Jon Clarke likes to play with words, understand people, and vice-versa. He’s English, and this manifests itself through an uncontrollable desire to have a nice cup of tea whenever possible. Global wanderings have taken him all over the place, nodding and smiling in a variety of different i[...]
Drug Trafficking and Fear
If fear is where all faith begins, Mexico has the potential to understand faith like never before. Fear is what kept me from writing this two weeks ago. Fear is just as common in Mexican life as tiled counter tops and concrete floors. Recently, it’s been creeping up from deep, deep down. Creep[...]
Double Pull
At minute 38, Mexico scored the first goal against South Africa. The students watching the game went wild. But then the referee retracted it. Off sides. The emotion went one from one extreme to the other. “Boooo!” cried our middle schoolers whose morning classes were canceled to particip[...]
Sometimes Reality Hurts for an Idealist
One of the hardest things about being an idealist is that many times reality hurts. A lot. When I heard about the attack on a caravan of activists in Oaxaca, Mexico a couple of weeks ago, which resulted in the deaths of both a Mexican and a Finnish activist, it hurt. I don’t know either [...][...]
May 28th, 2010 - 11:19 am § in Around Town, Mexico
On My Toes
I’m in a dangerous place. Not because of the drug war going on around me. Nor because I’m 30 feet up a rock face of El Potrero Chico. Not because I’m hanging by a 10-millimeter-wide chord on my handy dandy harness. It’s dangerous because it’s comfortable. The comfort zo[...]
Without Corn There is No Country (Sin Maíz No Hay País)
“Maíz is life, it is happiness, it is parties, it is everything,” said Raúl, a campesino from the state of Hidalgo who we interviewed at the “¿Transgénicos? No, Gracias.” conference this week in Guadalajara. “When the contaminated [genetically modified] corn came into our are[...]
