Grupo Estrella: One day, they may wake you from a peaceful slumber. 
JACONA, Michoacan — Normally at 12:30 a.m. this sleepy residential street on a hill overlooking Zamora, is, well, asleep. But one recent early morning, about a dozen conspirators gathered to carry on a tradition that, while started by Europeans, has been honed to a fine art by Mexicans.
The plot […]

Covering Dylan: The Spanish Rocker Eva Amaral
 
So a few weeks after concluding that Bob Dylan was a lost cause for Spanish speaking audiences, I woke up to Radio Zamora playing a Spanish version of Hard Rain that features the same top-shelf passion as the original, all while actually sounding better.
Turns out the song is a very new creation […]

 Let’s hear it for those spacious skies and amber waves of grain, baby!
LOS ANGELES — Your faithful correspondent returns to the United States today, for a month-long vacation/family obligation tour. The Mexican school year is over, so it was a logical time to head back. But as it happens, this is also the week when we raise […]

The drama. The bodyguards. The babes. The reality-defying plot twists.
All the finest ingredients combine and then explode in a cloud of jealousy and betrayal every weekday at 2 p.m., when Azteca 13 broadcasts this compelling train-wreck of a telenovela, Amor en Custodia (Love in Custody). It’s so bad, so melodramatic, and so cheesy as to […]

I should have been lecturing this particular English student about his obnoxious habit of not doing his homework, but honestly, I was more interested in his shirt, which featured the English phrase “Molars Forest” in giant capital letters.
What exactly was that all about, I wanted to know. Who/what is Molars Forest? And why is it […]

Just imagine the uproar if a drug kingpin knocked off an American police chief coming home from work. Think of the live continuing news coverage, the outrage, the congressional hearings, the candlelight vigils, the marches, and the fiery speeches laced with a thousand never agains. 
But here in Mexico, sadly, this sort of incident is becoming so […]

Imagine the combined popularity of Elvis and Madonna, then add the staying power of The Beatles. That’s Vicente Fernandez, the Mexican crooner who is knocking at 70’s door, but doing it with vigor and immense popularity.
These days, it’s darn near impossible to walk down a street without hearing his latest smash hit, “Estos Celos” (This Jealousy), a long […]

Turn on a Mexican radio station, walk down a Mexican street, and you’re likely to hear American music. But not just any American music. Bad American music. The very worst of the 70s and 80s, plus today’s top teeny-bopper hits. Basically, if it has a catchy beat and no soul, it has an excellent chance of […]

A couple of weeks back, I put out my list of Five Things Mexicans Could Teach Americans. This week, the gringos are returning the favor. Enjoy.
(1.) How to govern. Let on to an American that you are a political science major, and they will snicker and ask what you do with that in the “real […]

(NOTE: Five things Americans Could Teach Mexicans is put off for a week, due to the following breaking holiday news.)
You may have never heard of it, but Children’s Day is an official, UN-sanctioned world holiday. It is even celebrated in the United States, but nobody seems to give a rip about it.
“Every day is children’s day,” I can hear the […]