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1. Low-cost last-minute fares
to Mexico
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The peripatetic travel writer Arthur Frommer recently passed along
a tip for those seeking good deals on flights to Mexico. He
says, "Watch the weekly Internet specials provided my Aeromexico
and Mexicana." Aeromexico's 'Faresavers' program posts
a new set of fares every Thursday at www.aeromexico.com and Frommer reports
that Guadalajara appears there frequently. Mexicana's 'Mex-e-savers'
at www.mexicana.com is updated every
Tuesday, and according to Frommer offers more flexibility.
Departure dates are usually between one and two weeks in advance.
Mr. Let's-Take-a-Trip reports that the downside of both sites is
the inability to book more than a couple weeks ahead of time, but
"the chance to find a real bargain should keep interested travelers
logging on."
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2. It's not just a Mexican thing
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The Day of the Dead sites listed in SOL 38 is an admittedly Mexi-centric
list, even though the celebration is important in many other countries.
The vast majority of Día de los muertos material on the
Web focuses on Mexico, in part because of that nation's proximity
to the U.S., and also because the artist whose work is emblematic
of the holiday, engraver José Guadalupe Posada, was born in Aguascalientes
and worked in Mexico City.
Sites focusing on other parts of the world are hard
to find. Here are a few, and perhaps you have some others to share:
Traditional Day-of-the-Dead recipes from Guatemala,
from fiambre to empanadas de ayote, are available
at http://www.quetzalnet.com/recetas/recetas.html
under the heading 'PLATOS TRADICIONALES DEL DIA DE LOS MUERTOS.'
A timely feature on fiambre from the Guatemalan newspaper
Prensa Libre is on view at http://www.prensalibre.com.gt/noticias.asp?seccion=7&idnoticia=35373&showdate=762
An English-language description, ALL SAINTS DAY IN TODOS
SANTOS, HUEHUETENANGO, is posted at http://www.inguat.net/inguin/enallsaints.html
and a brief item about the same town is at http://www.guatemala.travel.com.gt/itdsantos.htm
Read about the take several Nicaraguan
writers and artists take on Day of the Dead, death, and 'Jalogüín'
in El Nuevo Diario of Managua: http://www.elnuevodiario.com.ni/archivo/1998/octubre/30-octubre-1998/variedades/variedades1.html
For an explanation of the importance of the All
Saints' Day flower trade in the Philippines, check
out http://www.inquirer.net/issues/oct99/oct29/news/news_14.htm
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3. Brilliant books from Cinco Puntos Press
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Contact: Susie Byrd cinco@cincopuntos.com
www.cincopuntos.com
Out in the West Texas town of El Paso is a family-owned
publishing house that has steadily built up a magnificent catalog
of works dealing with the border, the American Southwest, and Mexico.
It was Cinco
Puntos Press that published Subcomandante Marcos's children's
book The Story of Colors/La
historia de los colores, despite the NEA's withdrawal of
grant funding (and thanks in part to timely intervention
from the Lannan Foundation).
Cinco Puntos has recently released books by several
of Flaco's favorites. Elegy on the Death of
César Chávez by Rudolfo Anaya (Bless Me, Ultima;
http://www.castilleja.org/academics/mcl/mundo/anayar/anayarh.html
for more on Anaya) is his poetic tribute to the admirable UFW leader.
The award-winning 1986 Paco Ignacio Taibo II novel
De paso is finally out in translation as Just Passing Through.
And the amazing Luis Alberto Urrea http://www.luisurrea.com/ (Across
the Wire, Nobody's Son, By the Lake of Sleeping Children: The Secret
Life of the Mexican Border) has a new book available from Cinco
Puntos: Vatos, a collaboration
with photographs by José Galvez.
If you'd like to know more about this iconoclastic
publisher, see what Utne Reader has to say at http://www.utne.com/bBooksPr.tmpl$search?db=dArticle.db&eqheadlinedata=Cinco%20Puntos%20Press
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