New Mexico Mercury

Cruel and Unusual

El Machete

Weekly Poem: Sing no hymns save frog-croaks

Frogs, a sort of mascot for my brother
whose friends called him Hoppy.
One of his tree ornaments,
a frog wearing a Santa hat,
hangs on our tree every Christmas,
near the back.

Flat fields of his youth provided
nowhere to hide, the sky was too close;
so he left muddy rivers, farm ponds
and sloughs to become a frog out of water,
exotic desert amphibian, trying to drown
Vietnam nightly
at the Green Onion Bar...

Friday Voyage: Africa

The wild animals of Africa give us better insight into ourselves in this visually stunning account by Margaret Randall.

Defending the History and Culture of Ciudad Juarez

In the crisis-ridden rubble of downtown Ciudad Juarez, a group of citizens is arising to restore the cultural vitality and legacy of the Mexican border city.

The Hotel That Came Back from the Dead

Once unique outposts in an expanding West, railway hotels have faded as travel habits have changed - but one gem is being restored to it's past glory.

Provincial Matters, 8-5-2013

V.B. Price's weekly collection of appreciations and observations.

Weekly Poem: In Hobbs

Monday morning sunrise – Hobbs, New Mexico, October 25, 2010
Already the west winds blow, relentless
Rocking the pickup we huddle inside
The dogs and I
“In Hobbs,” granddaughter Lily shrugs her two-year old
Shoulders and remembers the summer green Ruidoso mountains
I am on the edge of town
Down a gravel road that runs by the ruins of a
World War II Quartermaster’s depot
Abandoned now, only concrete borders and cactus around...

Insight New Mexico - Dorinda Moreno

V.B. Price talks with Dorinda Moreno and Sadie Vialpando Williams about their efforts to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the landmark New Mexico film Salt of the Earth.

Loving our children means educating them

What does it mean to say we love our children, or that we believe they are our future? What does it mean when our elected officials tell us that education is important, or that the US has the best educational system in the world (a lie we hear frequently, from our president down to the gullible man or woman on the street)?

The country that glibly considers itself to be the most advanced, the most developed, the most powerful in the world, spends just 5.5 percent of its GDP educating its children. According to UN 2011 statistics, the United States is first in the world in military spending, designating 4.7 percent of its GDP to its armed forces...

A Sotol Story

A modern day adventure through the mysteries of an ancient potion.