The night before Revolution Day, David, Patricia, and I took their mother to El Pistolero, “The Gunfighter," to celebrate her seventieth birthday. I suppose there was a certain revolutionary spirit in Carmela’s tossing back a beer in a bar with her son and daughter —...
Mexico
THE DEAD DON’T COMPLAIN – A Holiday Weekend in El Paso & Juárez (Part 5)
David drove, and his mother Carmela rode shotgun, stiff-backed and silent - maybe because her son's CD of thumping, electronic Latin dance music was vibrating the compact car around her. “This music doesn’t bother your mother?” I asked Patricia, who sat with me in...
LAUGH ‘TIL YOU DROP – A Holiday Weekend in El Paso & Juárez (Part 4)
Around noon, an aging sedan rolled up. A skinny, baby-eyed girl-woman got out, stepped up to the courtyard gate, and gave me a puzzled smile through the bars. She had long, metallic-red hair, mod side-bangs, and fluffy white ankle boots. “Sara?” I asked. She widened...
THE CARTEL SHOOTING NEXT DOOR – A Holiday Weekend in El Paso & Juárez (Part 3)
I woke to the safe sounds of a gas burner igniting, a pan shifting, an egg sizzling. It was only then that a rooster started crowing somewhere in Colonia del Carmen. Perhaps he sets his clock by Carmela. I lingered in bed, until I heard 69-year-old Carmela and her...
WATCHED OVER BY SMALL SAINTS – A Holiday Weekend in El Paso & Juárez (Part 2)
As Patricia and David had promised, their mother didn’t live far across the river from El Paso, Texas. After David drove through downtown Juárez, he spent five minutes winding through dark neighborhoods before turning into Carmela’s driveway. He unlocked a padlocked...
THE MEXICAN REVOLUTION & THE DRUG WAR – A Holiday Weekend in El Paso & Juárez (Part 1)
I woke in terror and opened my eyes to green tubular objects floating toward me — string beans, or slow-motion bullets. I yelled, startling my husband. When I snapped out of it I reassured Dale, “It’s only what always happens.” Meaning: “It’s only because night...
NEXT STOP, AN UNDECLARED WAR ZONE – Non-essential Travel in Chihuahua, Mexico
This Thursday, I’m traveling to a place that should have yellow caution tape around it. According to the news, according to family and friends, according to the U.S. State Department, if I’m looking for danger: non-essential travel to Chihuahua, Mexico is the way to...
PARADISE LOST & FOUND – Taking the Kids to Mexico – by guest trekker Candace Kearns Read
In my life before kids, I might have traveled to a seaside resort in Mexico to relax, troll for shells, and enjoy a sense of calm. There would be a lot of sitting around staring at scenery, reading, and languishing over meals completed without disruptions. Nobody...
The Traveler’s Dilemma
When I tell people I’m an avid traveler, I say so with both pride and shame. Pride: because world travelers tend to be among the most environmentally conscious, culturally sensitive, socially progressive people you’ll ever meet. Shame: because, as a traveler, I cause...
Mango Pie
Alongside the highway that roars past Bucerias, Mexico, on the opposite side of that highway from the susurrating surf of the Bahia de Banderas, I slowly slide my fork through the crust of the most delicious tropical taste my tongue has ever savored: mango pie. Pie in...
