August 2013 – Cornelia Grabner’s trip to Mexico. Mexico is a cultural crossroads: Spanish is spoken as well as 68 indigenous languages; the mestizo culture exists side-by-side with indigenous cultures. Immigrants from all over Europe arrived in Mexico since the conquest, and Mexico granted political asylum to many refugees from the fascist dictatorships in Europe… Continue reading Mexico, 2013: Introduction
Category: Mexico Blog
Mexico, 2013: Encounters and Journeys
Allow me to invite you on a journey. Travel with me through the pluricultural terrain of Mexico and seek out encounters with writers, storytellers and poets. We’ll travel from encounter to encounter: each will lead to the next. Some of them might be coincidental: people we meet along the way. Others will be by recommendation… Continue reading Mexico, 2013: Encounters and Journeys
Mexico, 2013: Listening Otherwise
Step 1 – Setting Out: Listening Otherwise Imagine your plane descending slowly; it would be evening, and you see an ocean of lights, and lights, and lights. ‘Surely we can’t be in Mexico City yet?’ you think. As the plane circles over the city, the little boy across the aisle calls out: ‘Look at the… Continue reading Mexico, 2013: Listening Otherwise
Mexico, 2013: Rodrigo Solis
First Encounter: Invisible Relationships – An Interview Jam Session on the Chronicle with Rodrigo Solís We may have been cheating. When Rodrigo and I decided that the first contribution to this blog was an ‘interview’ – I was going to interview him – we probably knew that this wasn’t quite what it was going to… Continue reading Mexico, 2013: Rodrigo Solis
Mexico, 2013: Alejandro Reyes
Second Encounter: Alejandro Reyes’ La reina del cine Roma – A Transcultural Language of Resistance Our next stop is San Cristóbal de Las Casas in Chiapas, in the South of the country. We take an overnight bus from Mexico City and then a taxi into this beautiful colonial city with its pedestrianized centre and the raised… Continue reading Mexico, 2013: Alejandro Reyes
Mexico, 2013: Poetic Words and Shared Truths: The EZLN
Third Encounter: Poetic Words and Shared Truths: The EZLN Let’s sit quietly for a moment before we continue with our journey. Let’s do some reading and some talking. Someone reached out to you and it’s time that you give them some consideration. The Zapatistas, yes. They are mostly indigenous people from Chiapas. With ‘Zapatistas’ we… Continue reading Mexico, 2013: Poetic Words and Shared Truths: The EZLN
Mexico, 2013: In the Heart of the Conch: Libraries
Fourth Encounter: In the Heart of the Conch: Libraries Find each other? Where? Let’s start looking in a library, one that is situated in the centric heart of a caracol, a conch: in La Garrucha. La Garrucha is one of five administrative centres on the land that the Zapatistas have reclaimed since 1994, and that… Continue reading Mexico, 2013: In the Heart of the Conch: Libraries
Mexico, 2013: A Gift: Reading as Receiving
Dear Reader, Forgive me for disappearing on you without previous warning. I’ll be truthful and make it worse: I’m not sorry, I won’t explain myself, I won’t apologise, and I won’t change my ways. Will you bear with me in spite of my disappearances? I’d like you to, but it’s up to you. Anyway, I… Continue reading Mexico, 2013: A Gift: Reading as Receiving
Mexico, 2013: Mexico City, a Metropolis of Exile
Norma López Suárez’ War Stories So we’ve taken the plane back to Mexico City. As the plane descends – this time in daylight –, it makes it through this brownish-yellowish-orangey dome of smog that extends over the city. In the distance, the mountains; one of them is the Popocatepetl which supposedly has the shape of… Continue reading Mexico, 2013: Mexico City, a Metropolis of Exile