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Environmental History of Howler Monkeys
Deep in the lush jungles of Central America lives an abundance of unique wildlife. The sounds of the jungle thrive and harmonize as the tropical birds, frogs, and insects call to one another. Within…
Chac: Deity on the Yucatán
In the summer of 1989, the residents of a Yucatán village near the ancient ruins of Yaxuná were in great distress. Due to a drought, two of that year’s crop plantings had failed and a third crop…
The Pirates of Campeche
You are awakened by the sound of gunfire. You stumble outside to a night sky filled with the suffocating smell of smoke. More gunshots ring out in the distance, as a harmony of pained, panicked…
Mexican Socialist Thought
A socialist revolution is rarely succinct or adhesive to a single strict ideological interpretation. When Mexico experienced its 1910 revolution, the rule of President Porfirio Díaz, the man the…
Braceros in Texas
Cruz Leon Martinez was just a newlywed when he was approached by his friends with a way to earn extra money. He and five of his friends traveled to Mexico City to obtain contracts for agricultural…
The San Lorenzo Head in Houston
On a hot, June day of 1963, a large flatbed truck drives through the metropolitan area of Houston, Texas carrying cargo in a steel cage. Within the unbreakable enclosure resides not a living creature,…
Elizabeth Catlett and the Cold War
Elizabeth Catlett, an African American Artist at the height of the Cold War, chose to leave possible persecution in the United States. With this decision in mind, she settled in Mexico to work with a…
The Soviet Advance on Mexico
In early December of 1959, Anastas Mikoyan, the Soviet Union’s first deputy premier and one of its most formidable political figures, shouted "Viva México!" to a group of oil workers in the small…
Thomas C. Mann and El Chamizal
In 1961, President John F. Kennedy appointed Laredo, Texas native, Thomas C. Mann, as the first U.S. Ambassador to Mexico from Texas. Long a proponent of settling a fractious border dispute involving…
John F. Kennedy and the Politics of the Virgin of Guadalupe
During a brief trip to Mexico City in 1962, President John F. Kennedy attended mass at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe. What at first may appear to have been little more than a gesture of good…
Mayan Ritualistic Use of Tobacco
Balamkú cave in Chichén Itzá holds high numbers of Maya artifacts. The connection between the Maya and the Underworld being intertwined in the inner earth is not a new revelation, but what rituals…
The Smallpox Vaccine
Although it has now been eradicated, smallpox, named for the pus-filled blisters that often rendered the disease-ridden individual unrecognizable, left a devastating and indelible mark on the New…
Finding Tollan at Xochicalco
Over the course of centuries, beginning with Fray Bernardino de Sahagún's mention during the sixteenth century, the ancient Mesoamerican site of Xochicalco, which is in the state of Morelos, Mexico,…
Pre-Columbian Midwifery Practices
Throughout history and across all cultures women have arguably held the most significant role in society: motherhood. This role has required every culture group to create medical practices, as well as…
Empires of Glass: The Importance of Obsidian in Mesoamerican Societies
Quetzalcoatl, the plumed serpent ingrained in the historiography of Mesoamerica cultures, is steeped in mystic symbolism that permeates almost every aspect of the Mesoamerican cultures dating back…
The Power to Dominate: Jaguar Symbology in the Olmec Tradition
With the ability to see in the dark, uncanny stealth, and incredible strength, the jaguar is the apex predator of Mexico, and its greater living space throughout Central and South America. No other…
Tollan and Quetzalcoatl in the Ancient City of Tula
Religion is one of the most powerful forces in human history. Religion compels people, saves people, condemns people, and halts people. Records of religious beliefs have been found in almost every…
Chichen Itza: The Tollan of the Yucatan
Chichen Itza’s timeline from the classical and post-classical period is shrouded in mystery from the surrounding Mayan civilization. The city-state of Chichen Itza itself has many features in…
Xoc: A Broken Past
In December 2015, the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City recuperated the Bas-relief known as Xoc. An Olmec sculpture, just over 2 meters tall, once sat in the Lacandon jungle of Chiapas…
"Rebels of the Grains": Zapatistas and Rock and Roll
Rage Against the Machine is a rock band based out of Southern California that consists of vocalist Zack de la Rocha, guitarist Tom Morello, bassist Tim Commerford, and drummer Brad Wilk.[1] The four…
Ed Ricketts: Life, Friendship, and Adventure
“Half-Christ and half-goat,”[1] this was how Edward Flanders Ricketts was described. He was a marine biologist, based in Monterey, California on Ocean View Avenue. He is known for his book, “Between…
John Steinbeck and his Voyage to The Gulf of California
“Below the Mexican border the water changes color; it takes on a deep ultramarine blue – a washtub bluing blue, intense and seeming to penetrate deep into the water."[1] This quote is from "The Log…
U.S. Grant and the Railroad
Many years later following the end of his presidency, Ulysses S. Grant decided to venture on a trip to Cuba and Mexico in December of 1879. Grant’s colleagues, such as Whitelaw Reid, asserted that…
Mexico and Hurricane Katrina
The Ejército Mexicano (Mexican Army) rolled into Nuevo Laredo on September 8, 2005, as Hurricane Katrina slammed into southern Louisiana after making landfall in New Orleans. A line of forty-five…
Ocelots in South Texas
The ocelot (Leopardus pardalis) is about the size of a bobcat but holds many characteristics of its more famous cousin, the jaguar, (Pathera onca). This spotted yellow- furred cat prowls in the…
The New Cuauhmeh: Escuadrón 201
The cuauhmeh, the plural form of eagle in Nahuatl, were a special division of soldiers in the Aztec military that were known for their ferocity and ability to capture opponents for ritual sacrifice.…
Las Pampas Ranch
One of the main factors that caused the 1910 Mexican Revolution was agricultural workers not being able to own the land they worked on. Mexico had far too many large, individual land holdings making…
Parque Lincoln
If one were to find themselves strolling through the parks of Mexico City, they might be surprised to run into a statue of United States President Abraham Lincoln in Mexico City’s aptly named, Parque…
Ramón Valdiosera, A Life
When watching films like “Coco” or seeing displays of Mexican art, a pink tone stands out; this pink tone composed of purplish tones, similar to the color fuchsia, has ties to Ozuluama, Veracruz,…
Jackie Kennedy in Yucatán, 1968.
What is the image you think of when thinking about a Former First Lady? Perhaps it is the image of a prim and proper woman fashionably dressed sipping tea. Jackie Kennedy was a fashionably dressed…