Mexico’s Golden Age of Cinema: Cantinflas
1911 was not a particularly humorous year in Mexico, what with the bloody Revolution exploding in the countryside. But in that same year the seeds were sewn for decades of future laughter, for Fortino Mario Alfonso Moreno Reyes was born August 12. Señor Moreno Reyes, better known as Cantinflas, was to become of the most,...
J.C. Superstar ! Julio Cesar Chavez: Boxing legend
If you mention the words “J.C. Superstar” to an American, the chances are they will think you are talking about a Broadway play. Utter those five syllables south of the Rio Grande, and get ready for an onslaught of words about Mexico’s most beloved practitioner of the sweet science. Julio Cesar Chavez is emblematic not...
Mexico’s Golden Age of Cinema: Cantinflas
1911 was not a particularly humorous year in Mexico, what with the bloody Revolution exploding in the countryside. But in that same year the seeds were sewn for decades of future laughter, for Fortino Mario Alfonso Moreno Reyes was born August 12. Señor Moreno Reyes, better known as Cantinflas, was to become of the most,...
The Organized Chaos of Lucha Libre
Sundays in the United States are impossible to disassociate with football. Not so in Mexico, where futbol americano enjoys regular television airtime, but it hasn’t reached the level of importance that the sport now enjoys north of the border (slightly less important than breathing, but far more important than governing the country). So how, in...
The Mexican National Anthem
The Sunday night national radio hour in Mexico is not an exciting affair. A bit like NPR’s This American Life (minus the forced quirkiness), the weekly program gives government broadcasters a chance to clue listeners in to, for instance, a new health program in some state far, far away. Not surprisingly, most Mexicans tune out....
The Four Generals of the revolution
The Mexican Revolution, although taking place in the second decade of the twentieth century, is still very much alive in the minds of Mexicans. The bloody civil war pitted the rich against the poor, the clergy against the faithless, and the landowners against the landless. When all was said and done, one million Mexicans had...
The Incredible Trajectory of Benito Juarez
Scour the annals of Mexican history, from Independence through the present day, and you will find no man more admired than Benito Juarez. The 19th-century president is almost universally beloved by his forebears, with only those unaware of him withholding their veneration. A full-blooded Indian from humble origins, Juarez dedicated his career to modernizing Mexico,...
J.C. Superstar ! Julio Cesar Chavez: Boxing legend
If you mention the words “J.C. Superstar” to an American, the chances are they will think you are talking about a Broadway play. Utter those five syllables south of the Rio Grande, and get ready for an onslaught of words about Mexico’s most beloved practitioner of the sweet science. Julio Cesar Chavez is emblematic not...
