Mexico City
Improvising Survival
The clash between the new global gentrifiers and Mexico City’s informal economies.
From downtown, it takes about an hour by metro to get to the Wednesday flea market...
Mexico City is home to Plaza de Toros Mexico, the largest bullring in the world. The first...
Mexico City
The Pulque Chronicles
Mexico’s pre-Hispanic alcoholic drink finds new life in the city’s old school bars.
Ten years ago I lived in an apartment building in downtown Mexico City. One afternoon a...
Whereas the Greek underworld included five rivers, Mexico City’s underworld is a bit more complex—roughly 7,500...
Mexico City
Eternal Funeral Pyres
The myth behind the Mexican volcanoes Iztaccíhuatl and Popocatépetl
The Iztaccíhuatl volcano is 51 miles from Mexico City but visible from almost any rooftop. Izta,...
Cuba
Museums: Forming the Stories We Tell Ourselves
Institutions reflect the biases and longings of a culture
The headline banner reads: “Between 1960 and 1962 the CIA spent millions persuading [Cuban] parents to...
Colombia
Desert Dwellers
A writer ponders the benefits of tourism to La Guajira, Colombia's northeastern desert.
The dry wind sweeps desert dirt and endless trash across long and lonely miles, twisting around...