05012016Sun
Last updateFri, 29 Apr 2016 3pm

South of North – A young ‘Indian’ girl goes looking for a job among white Mexicans, finds Wixarika deities still the best help

A young Huichol girl, gripping a costal with a machete sticking out, sat at the far end of the cattle truck.  Forward, against the cab sat four mestizo workers.  All the Mestizos – driver and workers – called her “La India” and tried to talk to her.  Alma Rosa Molinas said nothing.  She pulled her poncho tight against the cold.  Only her eyes showed.


South of North – Mexico’s spiny challenges: crazed rulers, the habit of embracing lethal corruption, uncertainty of law

“What’s happening in Jalisco is ... a readjustment by a criminal organization that has enjoyed great complacency from the state government, which has let it grow, ” said an opposition congressional candidate for the June elections.  When repeated later, there seemed to be a slight hesitation, mid-sentence, cultivating the impression that the author of this increasingly widely held observation wished to add a greater embrace of tricky, corrosive behavior.  A new scuff marring the presidency. “The real estate scandal” of course is  survivable:  What are they going to do, impeach him?

South of North – Cattle drive as political leaders, fiscal gurus and czars ruin the economy, order assassinations

Various forms of present government corruption threaten Mexico’s dreams of growth.  Past similar attempts at self-aggrandizement stir the memories of many long-time residents.  The 1994 devastation of the Mexican economy is one of these.  A new president, Ernesto Zedillo, had just been sworn in (December 1,1994), unknowingly inheriting the disguised economic debris left behind by outgoing President Carlos Salinas de Gortari.

Miriam was from the shore of the Sea of Galilee, taking part in transforming the western world

Mary Magdalene had an unfortunate name.  It continues in “religious” memory to be too popular.  There were so many Marys that Pope “Gregory the Great” bunched several of Christ’s female followers together and turned Mary of Magdala into a whore.  (Magdala: a well-known city 120 miles north of Jerusalem on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee.)