New Mexico Mercury

The Lost Poets of the Russian Revolution

I have always loved poetry, its power and resonance in the human heart; and I have always had an affinity for the Russian poets, especially those of the October Revolution of 1917, how they used their words to further that revolution.

My meager study is cursory at best, a mere dip in a great sea of verse. Yet, it might whet your appetite to explore further, as Russian poetry holds a unique place in literature. As Joseph Brodsky says in his essay on Osip Mendelstam, “For those raised in the English-speaking world, it is difficult to comprehend that Russian poets have long had a political status as great as that as more public figures and that Russian poetry frequently has a political impact.”...

Frida’s Bathroom: A Contested Space

A locked room gives a glimpse into the mystery, complexity and strength of a Mexican icon.

Yucatán Journey, Part II: Where poison and antidote are seldom far apart

This is the second and final column about a Yucatán journey. Read Part 1 here.

We traveled around Yucatán exclusively by public bus, which does have the advantage of giving you lots of idle time to study the people and countryside. Everybody has their own opinions on when and where the buses run, so you have to be resigned to long waits and occasional dead ends. Even though the distances in Yucatán are modest by U.S. standards, it takes a day or two to get just about anywhere by bus...

La Candelaria y La Bendición de la Cruz

In Oaxaca, Mexico February 2nd is celebrated as Candlemas with remnants of a sacred day in the Aztec calendar that marks the beginning of the agricultural cycle, the midpoint between the solstice and the equinox.

Goodbye, Tony

Albuquerque, New Mexico, the world of justice, and poetry lost E. A. “Tony” Mares just after noon on January 30, 2015. Tony was gentle and kind but tough and righteous when the situation called for those qualities. With deep roots in this land and its people, his scholarship extended to Spain and Mexico in search of early events and figures of relevance; and showed up in his prolific poetry, articles, and in the memories of generations of grateful students...

Friday Voyage: Mexico City

The Aztecs called it Tenochtitlán; and the city that rose from a lake is still slowly revealing its ancient secrets to a modern metropolis. 

Yucatán Journey, Part I: The most beautiful beach in the world

On a warm, bright morning, with high white clouds scudding over the dense tropical forest, four Frenchmen, four Germans, a Dutch couple, an American couple and three Mayas, jabbering in half a dozen languages, including Spanish and Yucatec, puttered slowly down a canal dug 1,500 years ago by residents of the Mayan city of Muyil.

For centuries their descendants stubbornly fought off the Spanish and Mexican governments with the result that the canal is still there and so are the Maya, as well as the magnificent ruins of their old city. Soaring above the jungle panoply, it is a victory over time and endless tribulations...

¡COLORES! January 23, 2015

On location for "Tribeca Hacks " hackathon at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, we follow a team that focuses on language preservation.

‘I, the worst of all women’

The life of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, the brilliant and defiant 17th century religious sister and author who's become a feminist icon. 

El Machete: King Tiger

King Tiger