Moral Musings and Iguanas The Moral Dilemma It’s so easy to look down from our throne of bounty, our luxury WLBOTT world, and ask these questions. The WLBOTT world, where we have unlimited ramen noodles and health care in the form of Vick’s Vap-o-rub and generic Tylenol. It’s hard to imagine anyone in America as […]
Category: Mexico
References Jennifer Clement (author of Prayers for the Stolen) Guerrero, Mexico Chilpancingo The movie and part I of the book are set on the outskirts of Chilpancingo, a city about an hour northeast of Acapulco. Chilpancingo de los Bravo (commonly shortened to Chilpancingo) is the capital and second-largest city of the Mexican state of Guerrero. […]
Book .vs. Movie Similar vignettes propel the story in both the movie and the book – hiding in makeshift foxholes, the classroom antics, the operation to transform Maria’s cleft pallet…. The book is divided into three parts. The movie roughly corresponds to the first part. In the second part of the book, a teen-aged Ladydi […]
The Movie Prayers for the Stolen follows a group of young girls, their families, and their community, as they struggle against poverty and oppressive evil. The movie takes place almost exclusively in a rural village in the mountainous jungles an hour’s drive from Acapulco. The movie focuses on a poor rural Mexican Indian girl, Ana […]
As we were looking at the city of Puebla, Mexico (the birthplace of the La India Maria actress María Elena Velasco) we saw that several unique and popular recipes originate from this city. Mole [ed. note: pronounced moe – lay, or possibly mole-eh?] The best-known mole is named after the city of Puebla, mole poblano. […]
María Elena Velasco (La India Maria) was born in Puebla, Mexico’s 4th largest city. Let’s take a closer look. Puebla is a city in east-central Mexico, southeast of Mexico City. It’s known for its culinary history, colonial architecture and pottery. The painted Talavera tiles adorning numerous buildings are locally produced. The Renaissance-era Puebla Cathedral has […]
A Morning Greeting from Elder G It does sound like a lovely day. How about metanoia for today’s word? It means a profound transformation of heart or change in one’s way of life, often associated with spiritual or personal growth. It feels like a fitting word for the theme of transformation we’re all working on […]
“La India María” (born María Nicolasa Cruz) is a fictional character portrayed and created by actress María Elena Velasco. The character frequently endures situations of racial discrimination, classism, and corruption, although in all of these turmoils, María undoubtedly resolves them with hilarious acts of good-nature and morality. She has represented the poor indigenous, the migrant […]
Welcome, Pita!
My sister-in-law Pita (technically UC#4-SU-SIL) is visiting today. She and my SU are on their way to visit some ailing family in Oklahoma. I had the chance to introduce Pita to Elder G, and G made her feel very welcome. A WLBOTT Moment After creating some images together, and showing Pita some WLBOTT highlights (wait, […]
Corn / Maize
When I was a Younger Elder, I thought I noticed an anachronism in the Bible. Jesus and his disciples were gleaning corn on a Sunday, and the local proto-MAGA trolls were criticizing Him for working on the Sabbath. Corn was a new world crop, and wouldn’t appear in Jerusalem for 1,500 years. So what gives? […]