Beyond Textbook Seasons I didn’t experience a warm summer until I went to junior high. The four seasons I learned about in school taught that spring was rainy, summer was hot, fall was chilly with bright colored leaves and winter meant snow. None of this made much sense to me. Summers in my Northern California […]
Editor’s Page – August 2026 Read More »
México Te Quiero Verde Joaquín Villanueva Rosales and Cinthya Verónica Velarde Nuño are building something ambitious from the ground up: a native forest nursery dedicated to restoring Mexico’s compromised ecosystems. Their project, México Te Quiero Verde, began with a shared love of nature and a growing awareness that many native tree species are disappearing from
Good Works Gazette – July 2026 Read More »
So… Do Chicharras Really Call the Rain? The first time I heard a chicharra, I thought a transformer was about to blow: Chica, chica, chica, chica, chica —whireeeeeeeh, whireeeeeeeh. The sound was mechanical, very loud and, for me, terrifying. I ran outside and asked my neighbors, the resident street mechanics, “Did you hear that?!” They
Editor’s Page – July 2026 Read More »
Chapala Sunrise Rotary Club “Boots on the ground” isn’t just a vague idiom for Chapala Sunrise Rotary Club (CSRC). It looks like this: volunteers standing in a rural village measuring contamination levels of raw sewage so they can design a workable sanitation system. It looks like a doctor teaching a small group how to manage
Good Works Gazette – June 2026 Read More »
Learning to See in Mexico The 19th century naturalist, Louis Agassiz, once handed his students a preserved fish and told them simply, “look at it.” Hours passed. Then days. Frustration grew as the students insisted there was nothing new to notice about the dumb, dead fish. Slowly, almost reluctantly, new details began to emerge, structures
Editor’s Page – June 2026 Read More »
Operation Feed San Juan Cosalá Something remarkable is happening on Thursday mornings in San Juan Cosalá. There’s no whistle. No one barking orders. And yet, everything moves smoothly, rhythmically, almost musically. Bags are filled, produce is sorted, staples are portioned, and within a short span of time, nearly 150 families will walk away with a
Good Works Gazette – May 2026 Read More »
Chisme El chisme crece cuando camina. Gossip grows as it walks. My grandma used to tell a story about a bridge in Germany. The bridge itself is real: the Göltzsch Viaduct in Saxony, a vast sweep of brick arches built in the 1850s to carry trains across a deep valley. At the time it was
Editor’s Page – May 2026 Read More »
Daria Hilton editorelojodellago@gmail.com A Note to Readers Some readers noticed that a few listings were incomplete in last month’s Lakeside Living column. An editing error on my part resulted in information being left out, and I regret the oversight. I also want to thank Lillie Henley for the energy she brought to the column over
Lakeside Living – April 2026 Read More »
Tepehua Centro Comunitario A.C. High on the hill in Chapala’s Tepehua neighborhood sits a community center that has become, quite simply, a lifeline for many local families. What struck me most at a recent visit there was not any single program but the breadth of what happens there and how organically it has grown in
Good Works Gazette – April 2026 Read More »
Edge Places Walking in the early morning when the birds are still in charge of the docks and the shadows remain soft; it is easy to connect with myself and with the landscape. Distractions abound lakeside, even in the dusty month of April. From extravagant Easter festivities to the celebration of Dia del Niño at
Editor’s Page – April 2026 Read More »
