Temazcalera Miriam Margarita Gutiérrez Rodríguez Miriam grew up in Chapala enamored with the lake and the mountains, her love of nature seemingly innate. She followed her passion into a career in Urban Planning and the Environment, taking a job with the municipality of Chapala in environmental compliance in 2006. She loved her work and also […]
Niñas Sabias The only thing I knew about the organization Niñas Sabias before interviewing its dynamic founder, Hana Figueroa Uriás, was they provided reusable cloth menstrual pads for local girls. This is the least they do. Niñas Sabias, which means wise girls, is on a mission to empower girls by destigmatizing menstruation and planting the
Good Works Gazette – October 2025 Read More »
Niños Incapacitados This is the first in an ongoing series featuring groups doing good work in our local community. I launched this column featuring the program Niños Incapacitados to honor my volunteer service there which has forever changed me for the better. Entering information into a data collection sheet, I didn’t notice the little girl
Good Works Gazette Read More »
Blanca Ruth Casanova’s artwork is as bold as she is humble. Her pieces embrace color, texture, and emotion with an intense sense of physicality. They are more like portals than objects. They feel like spells, calling forth our own emotions and experiences. Like all brilliant art, it is intensely personal and therefore universal. Casanova mines
Local Artist Profile: Blanca Ruth Casanova Read More »
Many of the exact details of the first 40 years of Francisco Urzua’s life are sharp in his mind, but mental health struggles have scrambled their order and lent significance to them in a haphazard manner. The thread that runs through all the multihued shards of memory is the understanding that weaving stills his mind
Local Profile: Francisco Urzua Ines Read More »
My friends Lydia and Michael have a lovely house in La Floresta, the hearts and minds of saints and, most significantly for this story, four painfully cute doggies. Nothing grounds you in the now more than the intense attention of canine goodwill ambassadors. Enveloped in wiggly wonderfulness, I could not have known I was about
Thank You Marcus Berlin Willoughby Read More »
I sit on the tiled floor of my back porch, listening to the mourning doves hoo, hoo, hoo and the other little birds cheep, chirp, and twitter, trying to write something profound about my lime tree. My big, perpetually dusty, labradoodle, a failed foster named Güera (white girl), pushes her irresistibly cute face into mine,
Lime Tree Life Lessons Read More »
I experienced my first church-centered fiesta a month after arriving in Mexico. Resplendent with Aztec dancers, fireworks, parades, beer vendors, carnival rides and nightly music until dawn, the nine-day party celebrating Saint Francis (the patron saint of the main church in Chapala) keyed me into the understanding that Mexican Catholicism was not the Catholicism of
My First Christmas In Mexico Read More »
Daria Hilton shares her story of a neighbor who became a father figure to her. She starts by saying: I was in California for Thanksgiving when I got the text … My neighbor Rogelio had died. The tears came quick and fierce. All of my Chapala neighbors had made me feel welcome in the barrio, but none more than Rogelio.” A touching and heart-felt story.
Father’s Day Without Rogelio Read More »
El Ojo del Lago likes to pay tribute to local residents who have overcome extreme hardship to bring success into their lives. This article tells the story of Maria del-Carmen Romero Aviña.
LOCAL PROFILE: Maria Del Carmen Romero Aviña Read More »
