Yes, a week ago Mexico and people all over the multicultural Americas celebrated la Virgen de Guadalupe, but I thought I'd show you what the following day was like, after the chaotic and claustrophobic midnight march to serenade her. Indigenous danza groups performed in the Virgen's honor all over the Basilica plaza. One that caught my eye was this group that was representing a Native North American nation. Some of the younger ones danced in what looked like ranger outfits.
I also saw pilgrims from Eastern Europe, the Philipines, and nuns from Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity. Above, people leaving the chapel at the top of Tepeyac.
I've been in Mexico City a month-and-a-half now and it's been intense, busy, super-entertaining, and with the book project, a new form of exercise in discipline and patience, a new rigor with words. Intersections is taking the rest of the year off, and what a year it's been. I started this blog on December 20, 2006, as a way to give some context to the piece I did on the L.A. Times's problematic history with Latinos. A year later the blog has a strong weekly readership base and clicks and links from all over the world. Thanks, everyone. For some of my all-time favorite posts -- on L.A., art, gangs, Mexico, graffiti, race, media, the immigrant rights movement, politics, and everything pop -- see here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.
Heading to the beach in Oaxaca ... ¡Feliz año nuevo!