Huasteca Region, Mexico

As mentioned previously, I had hoped to write a little on my recent trip to Mexico but I’ve been having trouble finding a place to start. So much has changed since my last visit there seven years earlier. I can’t tell if Mexico is more American, the US is more Mexican or if it’s just that I’m finally beginning to understand both cultures. In any case, there’s too much to wrap my head around, there are race and class issues I simply do not have the skills to write about. (Like what’s up with all the vendors and ambulantes calling me “huera” when I have the same morena skin as them?) Then there’s the commercialization of El Chopo, the high prices of La Lagunilla and the intensity of Mercado Merced, all of these subjects are coincidentally being covered by Los Angeles journalist Daniel Hernandez who has been sharing his cultural observations of Mexico DF on his excellent blog: Intersections. I’ll leave the good writing and the insightful analysis to him. Instead, I’ll focus on two subjects that partly inspired this visit to Mexico: Son Huasteco music and Filigree jewelry.
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