An Array of Utopian Flowers
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Defensible Space: My Wildfire-Appropriate Retrofit Journey – Part I
Posted on November 16, 2018 | 1 Comment -
KXL Blocked – How Indigenous People Will End Tar Sands Pipelines
Posted on November 12, 2018 | 1 Comment -
Mythological Journey to the Aztec Underworld
Posted on October 10, 2018 | 1 Comment -
Confronting Wildfire: Retrofit Communities, Not Forests
Posted on September 17, 2018 | 1 Comment -
San Onofre Nuclear Waste Dangers Compound
Posted on September 4, 2018 | No Comments
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WilderUtopia in 102 Languages
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Mexico Archive
Mythological Journey to the Aztec Underworld
Posted on October 10, 2018 | 1 CommentIn Aztec cosmology, the soul's journey to the Underworld after death leaves them with four destinations: the Sacred Orchard of the Gods, the Place of Darkness, the Kingdom of the Sun, and a paradise called the Mansion of the Moon. The most common deaths end up on their way to Mictlán with its nine levels, crashing mountains and rushing rivers, and four years of struggle. This pantheon of gods and goddesses and the expanse of the 13 Heavens provides the cultural basis for the Day of the Dead customs and celebrations.
Corazón Vaquero: Last of the Californio Cowboys of Baja California
Posted on May 8, 2017 | 1 CommentThe film 'Corazón Vaquero: The Heart of the Cowboy', documents the rural "Californios," raising livestock in the way of their Spanish ancestors in the Southern Baja California mountains. Facing tourism development, road building, and cultural changes, the isolated ranchos still persist with their self-sustaining subsistence-based way of life.
Journey of Grandmother Rain – World Creation of the Wixáritari (Huicholes)
Posted on March 10, 2017 | No CommentsHere we re-tell the story of Takutzi Nakawe, Grandmother Rain, and how the world was created, according to the Wixaritari (Huicholes) of the Western Sierra Madre Mountains of Mexico.
Yaqui of Mexico: How the Sorcerer Cricket Saved the People
Posted on January 3, 2017 | 1 CommentThe traditional Yaqui story of the Sorcerer Cricket, made into a video short by Gabriela Badillo, tells how he saved the people from a serpent monster, only to face the prophesied coming of the Spanish conquistadores.
Is Day of the Dead Culture in SF’s Mission Endangered?
Posted on October 30, 2016 | 1 CommentIn San Francisco, the Mission District has celebrated Day of the Dead every year in since the early 70’s with altars in Garfield Park, serving as a community graveyard for the night and through art, music, other live performances and a walking procession. With the neighborhood in transition from rapid gentrification, will this vibrant culture rite continue? Yes, for now... Photos by Jack Eidt from 2015.
B. Traven: Underground Anarchist in the Mexican Jungle
Posted on March 27, 2016 | 3 CommentsB. Traven, German underground author, anarchist and writer of the Treasure of Sierra Madre, purposely obscured his origins to evade consequences from his revolutionary past in Germany and to stoke his literary mystery that hinged upon his words: "An author should have no other biography than his books."
Postcommodity’s ‘Repellent Fence’ Land Art Spans the U.S. Border
Posted on February 20, 2016 | 3 CommentsPostcommodity is a collective of American Indian artists from different backgrounds and mediums, combining to create giant musical instrument installations, video, sound and sculpture. Their Repellent Fence installation floated Scare-Eye Bird Repellent balloons over the border between Arizona and Sonora.
Film: Carlos Reygadas Meditates on the Mennonites of Mexico
Posted on February 6, 2016 | No CommentsCarlos Reygadas, the Mexican surrealistic filmmaker known for confounding audiences with somnolent landscapes and stark visions of humanity melding among the wily breeze, the flow of a silent river, and the meander of children wandering through tall grass. He has created a subtle masterpiece with his 2007 film Silent Light.
Death By Misadventure: Malcolm Lowry’s Gin-Sopped Volcano
Posted on October 22, 2015 | 1 CommentMalcolm Lowry’s 1947 masterpiece "Under the Volcano," about the fervid last hours of an alcoholic ex-diplomat in Mexico, is set to the drumbeat of coming internal and external conflict. Autobiographical and reflective of the expatriated trust-funder in a futile search for an artistic home, the perpetually inebriated master got lost along the road toward his own abyss, and died under suspicious circumstances, out-of-print.
Kuuchamaa: The Exalted High Place of the Kumeyaay
Posted on August 29, 2015 | 3 CommentsThe Kumeyaay of southern and Baja California have a rich history of coexistence on the border of California and Mexico in the mountainous region of San Diego County. Here we republish Florence Shipek's treatise on the preservation of their sacred mountain called Kuuchamaa, also known as Cuchuma, as well as several videos on their culture, history and stories.
Aztec Myth: Quetzalcoatl Rescues Humanity in the Land of the Dead
Posted on December 11, 2014 | 4 CommentsPart of the Mesoamerican myth of the origin of people, where Quetzalcoatl, the Plumed Serpent, descends into the Land of the Dead, Mictlán, to rescue the bones of humanity and bring them back to life.
Mexico’s Ayotzinapa 43: Revolutionary Movement Grows Amid US Silence
Posted on November 24, 2014 | No CommentsThe disappearance of 43 rural students in a city surrounded by mass graves, in a region controlled by an unholy alliance of drug traffickers and corrupt public officials and police, in a country ruled by neoliberal multinational interests backed by an iron hand has awakened Mexican despair and rage.
Calavera de Azúcar: Painted Sugar Skulls on Dia de los Muertos
Posted on November 13, 2014 | No CommentsMexico's traditional celebration of Dia de los Muertos embraces the inevitability of death. Painting faces in the style of Santa Muerte (Saint Death), Calavera Catrina (Dame Skeleton), or another loving tribute to the counter-Guadalupe icon Frida Kahlo pays homage to the beauty in death, offering eye-candy sugar skulls in tribute to the ancestors.
Peyote Guardians: The Huichol Struggle of Life and Spirit
Posted on August 18, 2014 | 2 CommentsTwo recent documentary films chronicle the struggle of the Huichol or Wixárika People to protect their culture and spiritual connection with the ancestors, through the journey to Wirikuta, where peyote grows, now threatened by mining and development interests.
Pamparios: A Trip with the Huicholes to Collect Peyote
Posted on December 16, 2013 | 5 CommentsWatch the full documentary on the Huichol journey to Wirikuta, where they travel every year to collect peyote. The pilgrimage take place with the intention to return to where life originated and heal oneself and the community.
B. Traven’s “Macario” – Magical Realist Journey on Day of the Dead
Posted on September 7, 2013 | 3 CommentsThe Mexican film Macario (1960) weaves a tale of magical realism - with special appearances by God, the Devil and Death. It all begins on the Day of the Dead, when a campesino named Macario goes on a hunger strike. B. Traven, the mysterious German writer exiled in Mexico, wrote the story, inspired from indigenous folk tales.
Baja California: An “Earthly Paradise” in the Desert
Posted on July 10, 2013 | 5 CommentsBaja California, despite proximity to the US and recent rampant growth, remains a wild and untamed coastal desert. Behind the charming pueblitos and peaceful resorts lies a varied history where conquest and development have moved both slow and fast. Following a recent trip to the Gulf of California town of Loreto, this first in a series of articles attempts to define what makes the place special, as well as what the future holds for this (mostly) hidden resort region.
La Loba: Wild Woman, Luminous Wolf
Posted on May 15, 2013 | 11 CommentsClarissa Pinkola Estés tells the story from the deserts and mountains of Northern Mexico about a wolf woman, a collector of bones, who resurrects the wild spirit of life from the depths of the Underworld.
Maya Ruins at Tikal: A New Beginning at Winter Solstice
Posted on December 21, 2012 | 5 CommentsTwenty five hundred years ago, a group of peoples settled Tikal, surrounded by the lowland rainforests of the Petén Basin of northern Guatemala. Their descendants would create a remarkable civilization that populated cities and villages across much of southern Mexico, Belize and Guatemala. Today, it has returned to the jungle.
Kumeyaay People: Traditions Survive in Baja California
Posted on October 22, 2012 | 5 CommentsGroups of Kumeyaay People live in the isolated canyons of the Tijuana River watershed, high in the Baja California peninsula. They harvest acorns and pine nuts, hunt rattlesnake and small animals, collect grasses to weave baskets. They allow a glimpse of what life in Southern California before the Spanish arrived was like.
Stories of a Maya Rebirth: Heart of Sky, Heart of Earth
Posted on September 8, 2012 | No CommentsThe documentary "Heart of Sky, Heart of Earth" presents an alternative worldview to industrial capitalism consuming the earth, following six young Maya into their daily and ceremonial life, revealing their determination to resist the destruction of their culture and environment.
Chiapas: Freedom and Justice for Zapatista Communities
Posted on July 28, 2012 | No CommentsThe Zapatista community of San Marcos Avilés, composed of Tzeltal indigenous people, calls for international solidarity in their struggle for autonomy and natural resource protection from oppressive and violent forces of Mexico's entrenched neoliberal economy.
Popol Vuh: The Ancient Maya Dawn of Life and Overcoming the Forces of Awe
Posted on July 23, 2012 | 9 CommentsThe Popol Vuh (Maya K'iche' for "Council Book" or "Book of the Community") features a creation myth, the Dawn of Life under the spectre of a flooded world, followed by the epic mythological stories of two Hero Twins: Hunahpu (Blow-gun Hunter) and Xbalanque (Young Hidden/Jaguar-Sun) as they confront the Lords of Death and Disease in the underworld caves of the "Place of Awe."
Swimming into Xibalba: Secrets of the Maya Underworld
Posted on March 24, 2012 | 4 CommentsThe BBC documentary swims deep into the mythological underwater world of the "cenote sagrada" of Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula.
Tonantzin Transforms into Our Lady of Guadalupe
Posted on December 17, 2011 | 1 CommentPart II of the story of the Virgin of Guadalupe, part of the Spanish colonial appropriation of the Aztec Earth Mother Tonantzin: The future St. Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin explained to the Bishop of Mexico City how the Virgin appeared to request a temple be built at Tepeyac in her honor.
