SMA is filled with magical creatures and I’m not even talking about the people.  There are two heavenly creatures featured in SMA art that though they sound alike, and can somewhat look alike, are very different in history, faith and intent. Alebriges are the colorful …

In my office where I can enjoy glimpses of the Parroquia and the corresponding fireworks lies a false wall.  The wall was, I believe, created to light (by skylights above, a fireplace below and electrical lights at night) a Tree of Live stone sculpture taken …

When teaching dance part of what I enjoy is doing choreographies to songs in English that feature Latin rhythms.  For instance, most pop songs in English are cha chas.  For danzon, I like to use the song That Old Devil Called Love.  It was a popular …

Last Thanksgiving I wanted to make a cake for my Spanish teacher modeled after Lucy Ricardo from the 1950’s I Love Lucy show because my teacher wore a black polka dotted dress similar to one on the show. A fellow student, and Canadian pal, came with me …

While I was still in diapers my then teen aged sisters rushed to the drive-in theater to see Hayley Mills’ latest comedy about two girls in an all-girls Catholic school run by nuns called The Trouble with Angels. Oddly, the cast included actresses that went on …

Who is Lupita Reyes?  A tele-nova vixen?  A Banda beauty?  Latest best-selling sensation to hit the Writer’s Conference?  Actually the appropriate question is what, not who, for Lupita Reyes is a euphemism for the holiday season spanning from the day for the Virgin of Guadalupe (Lupita) through Three …

For my parents choosing baby names was made fairly easy by the Church.  Their first daughter was born in a Marian year (a year the Pope devotes to Mary) so she, like most of the girls in her Catholic school classes, was named Mary.  The …

Once having used staple saint names Michael, Mary, Margaret, Marie, Patrick and most of the apostles on my siblings, my parents’ middle aged surprise (me!) got named for the most powerful saint, Joseph. To the more text bound countries north of here, St. Joseph is little mentioned …

You find yourself at the local Corpus Christi festival, or one of many others in Valle De Maiz and elsewhere in town, when suddenly a dancing dragon appears.  Well, this dragon is not like Puff, the Magic Dragon, but a kind of dragon-ish creature.  Often with …

Spirituality in SMA is marked by a strong, feminine temperament. Prior to the arrival of the Spanish, the Divine was seen as the meeting of the masculine and feminine.   Amongst the indigenous the intersection of the two was represented by a cross.  Early missionaries used …