Curiosity, Travel and Change
In December of 2024, I was in a classroom in Oaxaca de Juarez with eight other immigration advocates from the United States. This was my third visit to Oaxaca, but unlike the prior two. I came as a student of MANOS: Migrantes Apoyados, No Olvidados (Migrants Supported, Not Forgotten), a Oaxacan nonprofit that supports migrants …
Hay dos Méxicos; there are two Mexicos, said our driver, Francisco, as we passed through the interminable sprawl of Mexico City on our way to San Miguel de Allende. We were passing through a stretch of sometimes makeshift auto body shops, with hand-lettered signs and beat-up cars, trying to ascertain some of the products being …
Continue reading "Two Mexicos: My Trip to San Miguel de Allende and Guanajuato"
I don’t usually think “walkable downtown” when contemplating Los Angeles. But recently I explored downtown LA—by foot and by bike—and found the bones of the city that existed before Los Angeles became synonymous with freeways. From my hotel on South Grand Avenue, I walked past gems of the 1920’s and 30’s in neighborhoods bearing names …
What could be more picturesque than those lavender fields and bastides—the medieval fortified villages hugging hilltops— of Provence? Cezanne and Van Gogh marveled at the luminous light and the ever-changing purples, vermillion, and ochres. Provence is the stuff of travelers' dreams, of memoirs of rejuvenation and inspiration. But on a recent trip through the south …
My friend Judi recently broke her shoulder bone. An expert skier, she fell on a very steep slope at Deer Valley. When I saw her finally, back home, white plastic brace wrapped around her shoulder like a shield, I asked her if the Ski Patrol had to carry her out on a sled, she whipped …
A tiny work at the entrance to Lisa Collado’s exhibit greets visitors with: reaching out to others through collage. As I peered, mesmerized, at Lisa Collado’s work on display at Tannery Pond Community Center —this series of frenetic, almost dizzying, brilliantly colored collages—I could feel Lisa Collado reaching out to me, sometimes whispering, sometimes screaming …
Continue reading "Reaching out to Others Through Collage: Excavations and Layers of Lisa Collado"
A weaver in Teotitlan del Valle gives thanks before beginning work I am in awe of people who can make something out of nothing—salvagers and re-purposers and cultivators, dumpster divers and weavers, farmers coaxing food from the harshest earth, entrepreneurs finding possibility in a world of scarcity. On my recent trip to Mexico I saw …
Capulalpám de Mendez is a pueblo mágico perched high in the Sierra Norte, reached by a curving, ascending two-hour drive from Oaxaca City. In these mountains, live people whose original language is Zapotec, not Spanish, who fight to preserve their traditions, and who live with a profound understanding of nature. View toward the villages Capulalpám …
Continue reading "The Sierra Norte: Walking in the land of the Zapotec"
Pete heading into class There is something about a test that, even at age 65, being retired, 40 years after taking two bar exams, LSATs, SATs, GREs and countless other tests, pop quizzes and final exams, still produces anxiety. At least that’s what I felt when I found myself last week in the cool, palm-shaded …
Old and On the Way 