My most prized possession: a pair of black work boots of indeterminate make or era, bought years ago at a vintage shop near Portobello Road in West London. As good as they look dusty and beat-up, they certainly deserve a good buffing every now and then. While earning his keep, this shoe shiner at the Zócalo in Puebla spoke an indigenous language to his mate one chair over, snickering and gossiping -- then he charged me $25 pesos.
Humph. Isn't this service ordinarily a $15 peso job? With so many Mexico City exiles away from town during the swine flu outbreak, I guess that was his special chilango rate.
* ELSEWHERE: I answered questions for "Let's Talk," a feature at the popular U.S. Latino youth-oriented site mun2. Check the comments, they're hilarious.
** NOTES ON MY LINKS: While I blog less deeply for a little bit, I hope readers will take greater advantage of my link sidebars, especially those on D.F. These shift a lot, so how are they chosen?
The first requisite is frequent updating. Next is link-heaviness. The primary goal here is to offer readers a good cross section of sites that probe or reflect the realities of life in Mexico, in both English and Spanish. That means avoiding a sort of ex-patriates blogroll; that would not be reflective of the society at large.
Consistent favorites? They include Gancho, El Blog del Narco, Plaqueta y ya, The Mex Files, Hazme el Chingado Favor, La Plaza, The Mija Chronicles, and the aggregator Mexico Alltop. Know any others that should be here? Please drop me a comment or an email.