Mexico

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Selected posts on Mexico

My most recent book on Mexico which won the Indie Excellence Award for History. More at my website.

Many of my posts here on Madam Mayo are apropos of my books, e.g., Miraculous Air: Journey of a Thousand Miles through Baja California, the Other Mexico; Metaphysical Odyssey into the Mexican Revolution; The Last Prince of the Mexican Empire; Mexico: A Traveler’s Literary Companion; and other books and many essays, which you can read all about on my website. See also my blog Maximilian~Carlota, resources for researchers of 1860s Mexico, which has a large, rich archive.

Why the focus on Mexico? I am a US citizen born on the border in El Paso, Texas (albeit raised in northern California and educated in Chicago) and, married to a Mexican, I have lived in Mexico City and, from there, traveled frequently and throughout the Mexico for over 30 years. I find Mexican culture and history endlessly fascinating.

Posts on Mexico:

From the Archives:
Henry R. Magruder’s Woodcuts from his Memoir, 
Sketches of the Last Year of the Mexican Empire
August 15, 2022

From the Archives:
“The Essential Francisco Sosa or, Picadou’s Mexico City”
March 20, 2022

Readers Write: “Should I Move to Mexico?
March 14, 2022

From the Archives:
My Review of Heribert von Feilitzsch’s
In Plain Sight: Felix A. Sommerfeld, Spymaster in Mexico, 1908-1914
February 7, 2022

From the Archives:
“Tulpa Max or, Notes on the Afterlife of a Resurrection”
January 17, 2022

How Wide is Your Overton Window? Plus from the Archives:
“On Writing About Mexico: Secrets and Surprises”

November 15, 2021

My Interview About Francisco Madero a “Classic Reboot”
on Jeffrey Mishlove’s “New Thinking Allowed”–
Plus From the Archives:
A Review of Kripal and Strieber’s The Super Natural 
(and Reflections on Mishlove’s The PK Man)
July 19, 2021

From the Archives:
Sam Quinones’ Dreamland: The True Tale of America’s Opiate Epidemic
June 21, 2021

From the Archives:
“A Traveler in Mexico: A Rendezvous with Writer Rosemary Sullivan”
May 17, 2021

Notes on the Two Editions of Cabeza de Vaca’s La Relación
(Also Known as Account, Chronicle, Narrative, Castaways,
Report & etc.)
and Selected English Translations
May 3, 2021

Ignacio Solares’ “The Orders” in Gargoyle Magazine #72
March 15, 2021

Upcoming Virtual Lecture on Francisco I. Madero
and Spiritism at the Centro de Estudios de Historia de México
February 15, 2021

Q & A with Timothy Heyman on the Incomparable Legacy 
of German-Mexican Novelist B. Traven
October 26, 2020

“Traven’s Triumph” by Timothy Heyman (Guest Blog)
October 19, 2020

From the Archives: A Visit to Las Pozas,
Xilitla, San Luis Potosí, Mexico
June 1, 2020

Daniel Chacón’s “Words on a Wire” Podcast Interview
with Yours Truly About Francisco I. Madero’s Secret Book
March 2, 2020

Q & A with Bruce Berger on A Desert Harvest
November 25, 2019

From the B. Traven Conferences in Berlin / Plus Cyberflanerie
July 29, 2019

Q & A with Diana Anhalt on Her Poetry Collection Walking Backward
June 24, 2019

Journal of Big Bend Studies: “The Secret Book by Francisco I. Madero”
June 17, 2019

Who Was B. Traven? Timothy Heyman on the Triumph of Traven
May 6, 2019

José N. Iturriaga’s Mexico in US Eyes
(México en las miradas de Estados Unidos)
December 24, 2018

Luis Felipe Lomelí Interviews Yours Truly
About Mexico: A Traveler’s Literary Companion & etc.
December 10, 2018

“Dear Mother, Am feeling hard as a rock and brown as an Indian”:
More Postcards from the US-Mexico Border Circa 1916

November 13, 2017

Cartridges and Postcards from the US-Mexico Border of Yore
September 11, 2017

What Is Writing (Really)?
Plus A New Video of Yours Truly Talking About
Four Exceedingly Rare Books Essential
for Scholars of the Mexican Revolution
September 4, 2017

Spotlight on Mexican Fiction: “The Apaches of Kiev”
by Agustín Cadena in Tupelo Quarterly and Much More
August 7, 2017

A Visit to the Casa de la Primera Imprenta de América 
in Mexico City
April 3, 2017

What the Muse Sent Me about the Tenth Muse,
Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz

March 20, 2017

Lord Kingsborough’s Antiquities of Mexico
February 13, 2017

A Visit to El Paso’s “The Equestrian”
January 23, 2017

Biographers International Interview with C.M. Mayo:
Strange Spark of the Mexican Revolution

January 17, 2017

Reading Mexico:
Recommendations for a Book Club of Extra-Curious
& Adventurous English-Language Readers
November 21, 2016

Another One Hundred Foreigners in Morelos:
José N. Iturriaga (and Yours Truly) in
Cuernavaca’s Historic Jardín Borda
July 4, 2016

Peyote and the Perfect You
May 23, 2016

Notes on Artist Xavier González (1898-1993), 
“Moonlight Over the Chisos,” and a Visit to
Mexico City’s Antigua Academia de San Carlos
May 2, 2016

Global Migration: People and Their Stories
(Introduction to the Panel with Elizabeth Hay,
Lisa See, Luis Alberto Urrea, and Juan Villoro
at the San Miguel Writers’ Conference)
April 18, 2016

Café San Martín: Reading Mexican Poet Agustín Cadena
at the Café Passé in Tucson, Arizona

December 14, 2015

Translating Across the Border
October 29, 2015

On Francisco I. Madero as Medium:
Q & A with Rev. Stephen A. Hermann, Author of Mediumship Mastery
July 15, 2015

An Interview with Alan Rojas Orzechowski
about Maximilian’s Court Painter, Santiago Rebull
February 2, 2015

Why Translate? The Case of the President of Mexico’s Secret Book
November 17, 2014

The Harrowingly Romantic Adventure of US Trade with Mexico
in the Pre-Pre-Pre NAFTA Era:
Notes on Susan Shelby Magoffin and
Her Diary of 1846-1847,
Down the Santa Fe Trail and Into Mexico
July 11, 2014

Una Ventana al Mundo Invisible (A Window to the Invisible World):
Master Amajur and the Smoking Signatures
May 11, 2014

Francisco I. Madero’s Commentary on the Baghavad-Gita
(or Bhaghavad-Gita)
June 12, 2013

John Bankhead Magruder:
A Military Reappraisal by Thomas M. Settles
February 15, 2011


Many more posts going back to 2006 to be added soon…

Three Fabulous Things About Ciudad Juárez
November 20, 2017

The FIL or, The Mexican Megabookmashup
December 21, 2015

José Luis Blasio, author of Maximiliano íntimo:
Some Notes and Reflections
June 21, 2010

Cosecha de la FIL: In Celebration of Literal
December 2, 2009

See also the old blog, Maximilian~Carlota, Resources for Researchers, which has a large archive.