Remember when our alphabet agencies--CIA, DIA, NSA, FBI--were actually competent? Are you sure? Maybe they were just better at burying their mistakes...
This anthology gathers the strong voices of accomplished poets reaching into and beyond nostalgia to remember, to honor, and to document through figurative imagery their experiences of Mexico and the vibrant border areas before the ravages of narco-violence. Locals Listen to the Mariachi Band at El Jardin in San Miguel You see their silhouettes along the stone wall or arm in arm below the glow of garden lights huddled like foothills, earth you could plant maize in. Cowboy hats and serapes, the smell of beer and cinnamon churros. You think of family and language how the music rolls through your hips to the sweat behind your knees. How it rushes through you, to a place you still don’t know. —Lois P. Jones
You'll find Business in Mexico the ideal handbook for effective cross-cultural business dealings. You'll gain information on culture and behavior as they relate to U.S.-Mexican business protocol and relationships, background on the country and culture of Mexico, and guidelines for social and business interactions. You'll learn of the historical differences between North American and Latin cultures and the resulting effects on interpersonal and business relations. Since it is impossible to predict all social situations, the authors provide information to enable you to use common sense in situations not specifically addressed in the book. To help you do business more smoothly in Mexico, Business in Mexico explains cultural differences in such areas as time, schedules, and deadlines; linguistic style and written communications; women in business; acceptable dress; and management styles and management/labor relations. Full of practical information, the authors include advice in these key areas: business and banking schedules how to avoid problems and delays in mail and telephone communication cultural differences in planning processes and procedures how to arrange meetings and bring business matters to a head without frustrations and delays cultural differences which can lead and have led to management problems and high turnover of employees in American-managed companies in Mexico negative stereotypes which exist on both borders and how these ideas can be changed The book includes a helpful glossary of Spanish business terms and general vocabulary words, along with a list of Mexican holidays for scheduling reference. Trade with Mexico is an important venue of business, and businesspeople, students and professors of business, marketing executives, and human resource managers will not want to be without this book. Business in Mexico is a first step in successful U.S.-Mexico trade.
In February of 2003 my friend Dave and I entered Mexico through the port of Nuevo Progreso from South Texas. We were eager and hopeful it could be as good as our earlier rides. Just a few blocks into Progreso the bumps, smells, sights, and sounds assured us it was all there "Viva La Mexico!" We pressed along the Emerald Coast riding to the Gulf of Mexico. We were lounging in the lap of a bygone era. We rode south to the bottom of the gulf and then north up the western shore of the Yucatan Peninsula. Then we rode east across the haunting Yucatan Peninsula to the Caribbean Sea. The ancient temples of the Mayan ruins pushed all the way through forest that was part of the great biosphere to our south flank that went deep into Guatemala. To our north flank vast miles of empty arid land undulated over many miles of underground rivers connecting the beautiful cenotes. We entered Belize from the north riding through savannahs back to the sea then west entering Guatemala on its eastern border near Tikal. I had big hopes, but limited knowledge of Guatemala. I was swallowed whole by it on day one. We rode through its beauty and its struggles all the way to its eastern border with Mexico along the Pacific Ocean. In Mexico we rode along the beautiful Pacific capes and north up into the mountains that are the bastion of Oaxaca. We rode a mountainous route all the way back to the U.S.A. Not before these images had dried and cured in my mind did I begin to understand how much I enjoyed this adventure. Awesome!
This guide is drawn from our larger book on Mexico's Gulf Coast, but here we focus on the region of Veracruz, including Tuxpan, Papantla, Costa Esmeralsa, Tlacopaltan, Xalapa, Coatepec, Xico, Orizaba, Cordoba, San Andres Tuxtla and the town of Veracruz itself.a We travel to grow OCo our Adventure Guides show you how. Experience the places you visit more directly, freshly, intensely than you would otherwise OCo sometimes best done on foot, in a canoe, or through cultural adventures like art courses, cooking classes, learning the language, meeting the people, joining in the festivals and celebrations. This can make your trip life-changing, unforgettable. All of the detailed information you need is here about the hotels, restaurants, shopping, sightseeing. But we also lead you to new discoveries, turning corners you haven't turned before, helping you to interact with the world in new ways. That's what makes our Adventure Guides unique.a The area of Veracruz, Tabasco and north to the US border is a throwback to Mexico of old. It has volcanoes, rainforests, Maya ruins and such abundant wildlife that you will see hundreds of toucans and an island filled with monkeys. Experience the dance and music of Veracruz (birthplace of La Bamba), the fabulous local foods of Xalapa, the local festivals, the miles of pristine coastline, Mexico's tallest mountain, the sheer beauty of the jungles. Town and regional maps.a Reviews: Great Guide for a Much Overlooked Part of Mexico. I'm planning a trip to Veracruz soon, so I was delighted to find this book recently. All I was able to find before were general Mexico travel guides which gave scant attention to the state of Veracruz or the Gulf Coast area. This guide gives excellent, in-depth information on this much overlooked part of Mexico. All the cities and towns I plan to visit were listed in this guide, and good information on lodging was given. The general Mexico guides seem to recommend only the most expensive places to stay, while the Gulf Coast guide also includes budget accommodations. There was also good information on the archaeological sites to visit, where to stay and how to get there. Best of all, there was information in this book that I hadn't been able to find on the internet, which is where I had been augmenting the meager information on Veracruz that was in my other Mexico travel guides. In addition to the well researched and well presented written material, the book contains a nice section of color photographs, many of which were taken by the author. --a Marie McC (VA, United States)aaa This is the only guidebook I've ever seen that focuses on the Gulf Coast states of Mexico. Fortunately, it's an excellent one. If the Gulf Coast of Mexico is of interest to you, you should definitely add this book to your collection. Super helpful book if you're looking to be more adventurous than just going to Cancun! Seems to be very well researched and has a fresh just-been-there feel to it. -- S.D. Barnes"
This guide covers Veracruz, Tabasco and north to the Texas border. It offers background information on the history, culture, geography and climate of the region as well as practical information for where to stay and what to see and do.
This guide is drawn from our larger book on Mexico's Gulf Coast, but here we focus on Tabasco, Oaxaca, Villahermosa, Chiapas & Palenque. We travel to grow OCo our Adventure Guides show you how. Experience the places you visit more directly, freshly, intensely than you would otherwise OCo sometimes best done on foot, in a canoe, or through cultural adventures like art courses, cooking classes, learning the language, meeting the people, joining in the festivals and celebrations. This can make your trip life-changing, unforgettable. All of the detailed information you need is here about the hotels, restaurants, shopping, sightseeing. But we also lead you to new discoveries, turning corners you haven't turned before, helping you to interact with the world in new ways. That's what makes our Adventure Guides unique. The area of Veracruz, Tabasco and north to the US border is a throwback to Mexico of old. It has volcanoes, rainforests, Maya ruins and such abundant wildlife that you will see hundreds of toucans and an island filled with monkeys. Experience the dance and music of Veracruz (birthplace of La Bamba), the fabulous local foods of Xalapa, the local festivals, the miles of pristine coastline, Mexico's tallest mountain, the sheer beauty of the jungles. Town and regional maps. Reviews: Great Guide for a Much Overlooked Part of Mexico. I'm planning a trip to Veracruz soon, so I was delighted to find this book recently. All I was able to find before were general Mexico travel guides which gave scant attention to the state of Veracruz or the Gulf Coast area. This guide gives excellent, in-depth information on this much overlooked part of Mexico. All the cities and towns I plan to visit were listed in this guide, and good information on lodging was given. The general Mexico guides seem to recommend only the most expensive places to stay, while the Gulf Coast guide also includes budget accommodations. There was also good information on the archaeological sites to visit, where to stay and how to get there. Best of all, there was information in this book that I hadn't been able to find on the internet, which is where I had been augmenting the meager information on Veracruz that was in my other Mexico travel guides. In addition to the well researched and well presented written material, the book contains a nice section of color photographs, many of which were taken by the author. -- Marie McC (VA, United States) This is the only guidebook I've ever seen that focuses on the Gulf Coast states of Mexico. Fortunately, it's an excellent one. If the Gulf Coast of Mexico is of interest to you, you should definitely add this book to your collection. Super helpful book if you're looking to be more adventurous than just going to Cancun! Seems to be very well researched and has a fresh just-been-there feel to it. -- S.D. Barnes"
In the early decades of the twentieth-century, Main Street was the heart of Los Angeles’s Mexican immigrant community. It was also the hub for an extensive, largely forgotten film culture that thrived in L.A. during the early days of Hollywood. Drawing from rare archives, including the city’s Spanish-language newspapers, Colin Gunckel vividly demonstrates how this immigrant community pioneered a practice of transnational media convergence, consuming films from Hollywood and Mexico, while also producing fan publications, fiction, criticism, music, and live theatrical events. Mexico on Main Street locates this film culture at the center of a series of key debates concerning national identity, ethnicity, class, and the role of Mexicans within Hollywood before World War II. As Gunckel shows, the immigrant community’s cultural elite tried to rally the working-class population toward the cause of Mexican nationalism, while Hollywood sought to position them as part of a lucrative transnational Latin American market. Yet ironically, both Hollywood studios and Mexican American cultural elites used the media to present negative depictions of working-class Mexicans, portraying their behaviors as a threat to middle-class respectability. Rather than simply depicting working-class immigrants as pawns of these power players, however, Gunckel reveals their active participation in the era’s film culture. Gunckel’s innovative approach combines media studies, urban history, and ethnic studies to reconstruct a distinctive, richly layered immigrant film culture. Mexico on Main Street demonstrates how a site-specific study of cultural and ethnic issues challenges our existing conceptions of U.S. film history, Mexican cinema, and the history of Los Angeles.