A Gringo in Mexico

Mexican life as seen through the eyes of a gringo.

Father's Day This is a video of our Father's Day trip to El Chiflon waterfalls in Chiapas, near Comitan. We spent the day swimming (actually trying to not get knocked over by the current), picnicking and hiking up to the larger falls ab...

Guadalupe Rockets Redux Back in January I posted a short video of the amazing rockets (cuetes) shot off during the Guadalupe fiesta ( Here's a video shot by my friend Bruce Ferguson of the same celebration. If you look closely about 19 ...

Dolphins in the Bow Wake Well, my big project is over and I'll be able to spend more time on video. Here's some video I shot back in April when my son Norm was here visiting. We went down to Puerta Arista and did some fishing. We launch...

Carnaval We went down to see the Carnaval celebration in Ocozocoatla last Sunday. It's a spectacular parade with lots of very colorful costumes, music and pandamonium. A local custom is that the onlookers and the parade participants thr...

Spraying Foam We went to the Carnaval celebration in Ocozocoatla, Chiapas Mexico last Sunday. There's a huge parade with great costumes and the crowd and the people in the parade throw flour and talcum powder at each other and spray foa...

Feliz Navidad Yeah, I know, it's almost February. WEll I was going through footage I took just after Christmas and I couldn't resist uploading this Dancing Singing Santa doll. Let me be the first to say Feliz Navidad, Merry Christmas!

Bull Riding, Equipulas Fiesta, Chilil, Chiapas Last Sunday was the feast day of Esquipulas and we went to Chilil to see their fiesta. I've known a family of albaniles (masons) from Chilil for about 8 years now, but have never visited th...

Guadalupe Fiesta: Rockets As part of the Guadalupe Fiesta in San Cristobal there is a Grand Quemada de Cuetes y Bombas (the great Burning of Rockets and Bombs). Once the 1000+ bombs have exploded (see previous post) the cueteros (rocket...

Bombs As part of the Guadalupe Fisesta in San Cristobal there is a Grand Quemada de Cuetes y Bombas (Greta Burning of Rockets and Bombs). The same family has been putting on this exhibition for over 45 years.

to see the video This is my post for Halloween Vlogfest 2005. This is from about 4 years ago. I did a Day of the Dead tour for seven years; five years in Oaxaca and two years here in Chiapas. This footage was shot in the cemetary in Xoxocotla...

to see the video Here's the finished version of the movie I was the the DP of in NYC. This is the finished version (I posted an animation clip from it earlier) This is a promotional film for the publishing services company that I work for. It ...

to see the video Xochimilco is home to the last of the chinampas or "floating gardens". The Axtecs used the chinampas to raise the food that was needed for their capital city of Tenochtitlan. They were originaly artificial islands that were an...

to see the video Another short clip from our vacation. The Torre Latinoamericano is the tallest building in Mexico City, much higher than any other building, so you get a great view of the valley from the observation deck on the 42nd floor. M...

to see the video This is another outake from the promotional film I worked on for the publishing services company I work for called Booklinks. They needed some comic relief and I was elected (thanks Cory). In this scene they are featuring the ...

to see the video UNAM is the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico. It's the oldest university in the Americas (founded 1551) and the largest in Latin America (290,000 students if you include all of it's campuses). The main campus is the Ciu...

to see the video We pretty much did our vacation on the cheap: we took the overnight bus to Mexico City, stayed in a fairly cheap hotel and ate mostly in economical places. I wanted to take the family to one special place to eat, so we went to...

to see the video I didn't have enough footage to make a story, but I'm posting it anyway. The zocalo is the central square of Mexico City. It stands where the center of Tenochtitlan, the Aztec city stood. The Spaniards tore down the Aztec temp...

to see the video While we were in Mexico City we went to a few markets. Tenochtitlan was the biggest market in the new world before the Spaniards conquered it and created Mexico City. It is still a huge marketplace. There are illegal street ve...

to see the video So we just got back from a short vacation trip to Mexico City (we live in San Cristobal de Las Casas, Chiapas). Here's the first of three short video blog pieces about looking for the real Mexico.