These are some of my favorite pictures
with the stories that go with them.

 

While walking around the small town of Aquismon in the Huasteca region of Mexico, I saw some flowers on the sidewalk leading into a home. Stopping to admire them, a woman came out and invited me in. The date was the 31st of October and the flowers were in anticipation of the Day of the Dead. Upon entering the house, I was shown the altar that they had built to remember their relatives. Their home was very humble and I was moved by

the warmth that they showed me. In the few hours that I spent with them, they fed me and shared the history of their family. As I look back on that afternoon, what sticks in my mind is the feeeling of mutual honor in their home. I was honered to be invited in, and I had the sense that they were honored to have a foreign visitor. There is so much to learn from Mexicans!

 

The grandmother of the above family serving atole in their kitchen.
   

 

"PARKING PROHIBITED: BARBER AREA"

Is the translation of the sign that I saw hanging on a rock wall bordering a narrow street in the town of Xilitla. At night, when I first saw the sign, I wasn't quite sure what it meant. "Why would this street be reserved for barbers to park their cars?" The next day, I understood better what the sign meant.

   

 

   
     

 

Not too much of a story here. Walking through a market in the same town of Xilitla, I saw this woman. For some reason, the scene felt very "Mexican" to me. The old woman next to the young boy in the Izod shirt, all the cowboy hats, the market...
   

 

I found that some music groups in Mexico are similar to our sports teams. None of this year's Redskins was on the team back in the 60's when Mac Jacoby started going to the game, yet he is a loyal fan to the institution and players of today. So too was the case with the group Los Tecolines. Founded in the 1950's the group has survived playing classic Mexican romantic ballads even though many of the musicians are new members. Toņo Lopez, seen in this picture on the far left is one of the premire requinto players in the country. He has been playing with Los Tecolines for five years. I met him in San Luis Potosi and he invited me to go to Guadalajara for a concert one weekend. They performed in El Teatro Degollado (mentioned in our very own Dime text book) along with Los Panchos and Los Dandys. Upon arriving in Guadalajara, we went to a local radio station where
my friends were interviewed. They gave two concerts to a sold out crowd. In this picture, taken between the two shows, we were fooling around in the lobby of the theater. This weekend in Guadalajara with "the band" is one of my finest memories from my entire stay in Mexico.

 

 

The day after their concert, the band was invited to the home of some friends in Guadalajara. We arrived at the family's house at 1:30 in the afternoon and proceeded to spend the next 13 hours in their living room; eating, playing music, telling stories, and enjoying the camaraderie of good friends. In this picture we see Toņo playing guitar while this boy (known to the entire family only by the name of "el gordito") sang. I have found that in the US it is rare to spend an entire day with three generations of a family. In Mexico, they have a name for a day like this. They call it "Domingo" or "Sunday."
 

 

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