Sometimes we receive letters, or more likely emails nowadays, from which we instinctively turn away before we're done reading.Such was the email Stew and I received yesterday from Vickie, a dear friend for more than forty years, telling us she'd been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. That's a bad type of cancer, I thought initially, as …
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.
After Trump's health care fiasco
For the past two days pundits have been sorting through the debris left by the implosion of the Republican attempt to "repeal and replace" Obamacare and are now looking around for someone to blame.The most risible and illogical rationale is Trump's own, which blames the Democrats for standing solidly against the Republican attempt to obliterate, …
Eulogy for an old burro
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, …
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 …
Continue reading A Mexico story: Getting rear-ended and screwed on the same day
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 …
El Rancho Santa Clara 