So strange are Mexico's Day of the Dead traditions that there's little chance a foreigner will ever be able to fully comprehend them.Elsewhere in Latin America, people celebrate the Día de los Santos Difuntos alright, roughly the "Day of the Saintly Deceased," with tightly-wound decorum. Dirges and whispered prayers waft in churches filled by women wearing black dresses …
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Fall falls on the ranch
Autumn is the time of year when we're especially reminded that we no longer live in the American Midwest. Here jack-o'-lanterns will go on sale by the side of the roads in mid-October, even if most Mexicans really have no clue what Halloween is all about. And a few restaurants will advertise Thanksgiving dinner specials. …
Following the bouncing exchange rates
For many Americans in San Miguel tracking the exchange rate of the Mexican peso vs. the U.S. dollar is a pastime with potential payoffs as well as guilty feelings.When the dollar goes up, or the peso down, expats whisper excitedly to one another about running to the bank to exchange a bundle of dollars and …
Looking at the bright side
At the suggestion of my friend Billie, a couple of days ago I began plowing through "The Artist's Way," by Julia Cameron. "Plowing" is not used loosely. What I got from Amazon.com is an anthology of her three books about creativity, a tome which looks and feels as formidable as the Koran.In fact, the first …
A night at the General Hospital
At around 7:30 p.m came the call, just as Stew and I were ready to have dinner. Félix, our gardener/handiman/watchman, wanted to redeem my offer to take his wife, who is eight months pregnant, to the hospital if an emergency came up. She'd been having pains since that morning and had not been able to …
Annus mirabilis
That's Latin for "a miraculous year", such as 1905 when Einstein published his theory of relativity. About an hour ago a San Miguel municipal official in a pickup stopped by to deliver news not as earthshaking as E=mc2, but astonishing nonetheless.The road connecting the ranch to San Miguel, never a main thoroughfare even in the …
A Pointer-ish sort of guy
It's always a dangerous thing to let my partner Stew wander unsupervised around the Sociedad Protectora de Animales, San Miguel's animal shelter. Sooner or later one mutt will make goo-goo eyes at him and Stew will be ready to put it in the back seat of the truck.This time around a beagle named Jack caught …
Tuning in to the cacti
The precocious cactus and its lute. Sometimes we need to accept pleasure when it comes and not ask questions.On Sunday, with nothing else to do, we invited a couple of friends to go to El Charco Botanic Garden, a small jewel just outside San Miguel, to check out a demonstration of, yes, a cactus playing a …
Time for Newsweek?
Historically I've subscribed to more magazines that I can possibly read because, one, I tend to be a compulsive magazine reader, and two, I'm also cheap and loath to pass up a bargain even if it's for something I don't really need. So when I'm offered some ridiculously low subscription rate--some alleged "professional rate"--for even …
A fair to remember
Set against the crimson sunset, San Miguel's fairgrounds looked like a Shangri-la of striped circus tents, fluttering Mexican flags and hundreds of twinkling multicolored lights.As we drove up to the dusty parking lot the sights were not quite a mythical--ticket booths and guards frisking everyone as they entered--yet the excitement of going to an annual …
El Rancho Santa Clara 