January 2024

Brian grew up in Santa Fe, New Mexico and has lived in San Francisco, the Bitterroots of Montana and the last three years in Mexico. “I grew up in the days of albums, reading the lyrics on the inner sleeves and album jackets. I thought to myself, “That’s what I want to do! It got […]

As my husband and I made our way around San Sebastián’s plaza on the Day of the Dead, with real sadness we encountered the altar dedicated to the memory of Doña Conchita Sánchez Encarnación, who had departed without our knowledge. Her ofrenda was located under the gazebo in the center of the plaza, perhaps an

Estancia seemed happy, sitting cross-legged on the mattress covering the landing of the unfinished top floor, as she watched the lake in the distance with the mobile phone in her hand. I imagined she waited for her friend to answer a text. I had seen the teen before from my second-story deck as she sat

The music of México is comprised of a cacophony of sounds—all of them loud! Trumpets, drums, violins, guitars, tubas and trombones are backed up by fiesta revelers, insects, burros, cattle, roosters, fireworks, church bells, air brakes, stone drills and vendors driving the street with loudspeakers announcing gas, produce, knife-sharpening or bottled water for sale. Living

And just like that, I’m in México – ish. It had been a long day of flights. They began in Aruba, were paused in Panama City, Panama, where I immersed myself in the glory of urban Panamanian living for an evening at an Airbnb (I consider myself a local there now), and finalized in Guadalajara,

Have you ever wondered how much we learned about our history was modified to suit the narrative of those in power both when it is happening and afterwards? This has bothered me more recently when there have been attempts to remove statues of important figures involved in the founding of North America. Does destroying them

VASSA Part 2 of 2 That night, Phúc had a dream. He stood at the edge of a lake and looked out at the mountains on the horizon beyond. He felt the coolness of the mud as it pushed between his toes. As he stared into the distance, something in the bottom of his vision

Historical Firsts As a salute to the first month of 2024, let’s take a look back at a few of Reader’s Digests’s most iconic firsts: First telephone call. “Mr. Watson, come here.” These dry words were immortalized in historical cannon in 1876, when Alexander Graham Bell made the first telephone call to his assistant, Watson, who was

“Mommy,” my daughter said to me before she died, “I will be an angel. I will be with you wherever you go.” But she wasn’t. I couldn’t find her and I’d lost me, too. It seemed like forever, it seemed like last week. Without my daughter, there was no separation of days and nights, of

La Reforma The liberal Constitution of 1857 defined The Reform, a tumultuous two-decade period (yet another one!) between the fall of Santa Anna and the rise of Porfirio Díaz. Melchor Ocampo was its philosophical architect, Ignacio Zaragoza and Ramon Corona its military defenders, and Benito Juárez its political leader. In 1854, Mexican liberals overthrew Santa