Around our small ranch animals are constantly born while others die. For those raised for food, mostly goats, sheep and cattle, their stay on earth is brief and uneventful until their last day. Donkeys, horses and ranch dogs live longer but only for as long as they can perform their jobs.Then there are the fatalities, …
Author: Alfredo Lanier
My husband and I live on an off-the-grid ranch outside San Miguel, along with the challenging but dear company of four off-the-street dogs and three cats. My interests lie in politics, writing, photography and sundry forms of spirituality.
When Pope Francis spoke to me
No matter how prettified San Miguel's colonial Centro becomes, street beggars refuse to go away.And why should they? Beggars have been part of San Miguel forever so why should they pack up and go so as not to offend the sensibilities of tourists who will be here for only a week, or two or spoil …
U.S. manufacturing revival? Dream on
In Herr Trump's piñata of hollow slogans, hyperboles and plain lies, the one about "buying American and hiring American"—with its implicit promise to resuscitate a manufacturing sector that withered away decades ago—stands out as one of his most appealing and appalling promises. Exhibit A sits on the shelf next to the TV in our living …
A Mexico story: Getting rear-ended and screwed on the same day
This week did not begin auspiciously. Six weeks ago we had left our motorcycle at the local hole-in-the-wall Suzuki dealer, located next to an auto electrical supply store oddly named "The Mummy," to see if they could sell it.There were no buyers, so Monday morning we picked it up so Félix could drive it back …
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Too early to rehabilitate George W.
Absence might make the heart grow fonder but the recent gushing over George W. Bush as not-such-a-bad-president-after-all is myopic if not delusional. Compared to the present occupant Bush's eight years at the White House might look like the Age of Wisdom, but that's setting the bar about an inch off the ground.Granted that Trump's perpetual …
Caught in the gaslights
The first three English words I learned when I arrived to the U.S. in 1962 came courtesy of the New York City subway and were, if I recall correctly, "No spitting, loitering or eating." I jotted the words and looked them up when I got home, a habit I maintain today. English has to be …
The courageous profile of transgendered people
On the topic of transgenderism I declare myself to be naive, even ignorant, yet also profoundly persuaded by the courage of transgendered people.Contrary to what some might think, gays don't have any inside information on the subject. I'm gay and have been in a relationship with a man for nearly forty-five years, but I've never …
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A would-be Mexican superman
Ever since we hired Félix seven and a half years ago, when he showed up at our gate practically begging for any kind of a job, he's proven to be a source of both awe and sadness, one of the smartest, hardest working and most decent family guys I've ever encountered but one too who'll …
San Miguel's Fake Spring
While our compatriots back home suffer through daily charges and countercharges of "fake news," in San Miguel we're in the middle of our fake spring, a teaser season that comes about three months before the rains and the real spring arrives. Fake spring brings warmer temperatures, mid seventies at midday and mid forties at midnight, and …
A week at the beach, without Gladys
We had taken her on our yearly one-week stay at the beach only twice but already it had become a family tradition. Of an undeterminate age, except old; or breed, other than a street mutt, the ever-chunkier Gladys had learned to jump excitedly on the back seat of the car, do a few tight turns …
El Rancho Santa Clara 