MEXICAN PLUMBING: It’s Come a Long Way By Margaret Van Every Availability of indoor plumbing is a basic criterion used to measure a country’s standard of living, with implications for related standards like infant mortality and disease due to unsanitary drainage and waste treatment. In this brief history of the progress of plumbing
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Who Knew? By Margaret Van Every Jeanette annually spent a couple of weeks with each of her three granddaughters who lived in different cities across the US. Her youngest and dearest grandchild Danica had recently started middle school in upstate New York and Jeanette was visiting the family during the leaf season. Danica insisted
Dreams By Margaret Van Every Claire La Flamme wasn’t the least flamboyant. From Montreal, she was a plain girl who drifted into the art school in our Mexican village, perhaps in search of finding a few artsy friends as she was passing through. We art students were a cliquish sort disinclined to pay any
Crying Shame By Margaret Van Every I was born, like the rest of us, letting loose the lusty first cries of life . . . only I kept crying long after most babies calm down because I had colic. I cried so much my parents were evicted from their apartment. The wisdom of the
JIM SPIVEY —Still in Pursuit of Answers to Unasked/Unanswered Questions By Margaret Van Every A carrot and stick motivated Jim Spivey to fulfill his potential against seemingly impossible odds. The stick was having been born into grinding poverty; the carrot an unquenchable thirst for knowledge. Add to these the synchronicity that put him in
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Three-Sided Square By Margaret Van Every I was seated at The Three-Sided Square, my outdoor surrogate church, before the program got underway. Someone wearing the kind of perfume that rocks your space sat down a couple of rows behind me. —“O-h-h-h,” groaned my seat mate, rolling her eyes, “in Canada public gatherings like this
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The Wearable Art of San Lorenzo Zinacantán By Margaret Van Every On a recent tour of Chiapas, I had no intention of buying any of the weavings, richly embroidered clothing and table linens, pottery, jewelry, and folk art. I had simplified my life in a massive purging before moving to Mexico and had come
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Bebé By Margaret Van Every I had been passing much of the afternoon at a Starbucks in Midtown, answering email as I waited for my ride to arrive at 5:30. I had been homeless all afternoon, as are many who drift into Starbucks seeking refuge from the elements, access to wifi, or perhaps a
