Drugs, Doctors and Hot Potatoes December has zoomed by faster than a speeding bullet, which is an apt analogy for Mexico, since the top two fears raised by my Canadian friends are the ongoing drug wars and health care. Of course, there are serious drug wars in Mazatlan’s state of Sinaloa, but they are not…
Tag: chapter
My Mexican Moments: Chapter 30
MazatlanLife.com Mazatlan is a culture of last-minute events; very few things are planned ahead. Although we have a new director of Cultura, Raúl Rico González, who understands promotion and lead times, not everything falls under his watch. There are many smaller venues that have spontaneous art shows, musical concerts or flamenco presentations. This world was…
My Mexican Moments: Chapter 29
The Two Chairs Within days, Alfredo has had a complete recovery. He felt “weird” — everyone seems to say that just before a stroke; it appears you just can’t pinpoint that weird feeling — and Miriam got him to the hospital, pronto. The stroke was in the right side of the brain affecting movement in…
My Mexican Moments: Chapter 27
From Bad to Worse We are finally settling into our dust bowl, scaffold- ridden perch when jackhammers thunder down on us. Que pasa on the 8th floor? Oh God, it’s our friends Rita and Allen who are ripping up their entire floor in the two bedroom unit right above us. It’s not the condo workers,…
My Mexican Moments: Chapter 26
D Day: Did the Water get Connected? Not wanting to face our thousand cartons, we decide to breakfast with Alfredo and his buddies: Dr. Arturo and his mother Anna, Fernando who owns a cigar shop in the Golden Zone, and Ramon, an engineer. We all comment on the semi-naked beggar woman and how it’s a…
My Mexican Moments: Chapter 25
The Sensation of Being Homeless Last Sunday, our friend Jesus is laughing and laughing about our condo being ready on time. We met up walking on the Malecon and he said we were about to “experience the sensation of being homeless.” Were we? With great excitement on this September afternoon we walk up the seven…
My Mexican Moments: Chapter 24
Too Hot to Bark The dogs of Pedregoso are even too hot to bark. Their larynxes are stuffed with sweat and they can only utter a tiny yip. The smartest dog I’ve seen this month is surfer dog. Three times a week he hits the Malecon and literally paw surfs. He swims out (I’m saying…
My Mexican Moments: Chapter 23
Wait Until Dark Election rallies are clogging up our narrow streets and the Malecon. Stages are erected at a moment’s notice, while crewmen unload 500 plastic chairs. I’m convinced Mazatlan has a white plastic chair for all the residents, at least 500,000. Mexicans use them for every single event — from a wedding to a…
My Mexican Moments: Chapter 22
Hola Señor Fox Late June begins with a deja vu moment. I get a call on Saturday at 8:30 a.m. that our Hospice brochure will be on press and to “come.” As in right now. During our 20 years, Soren and I have been to maybe 400 press runs together or separately, and it was…
My Mexican Moments: Chapter 21
Time to Give Back I began my working career as a writer. While I had fun typing Spiderman scripts for the boys at the Canadian Broadcast Company, it was time I hauled my IBM Selectric around to something more creative than timing Spidey scripts in a sound studio. Tobey Maguire in a movie? Ha! A…