Serendipity and the search for the Global Soul

Abstract

Mexico is a land of many faces. There are the rich fertile floating gardens of Xochimilco and the vast barren desert of the north central plains. There are the pyramids of ancient civilisation just outside the modern towering buildings of La Capital. There are the small, rural towns and villages like that of my grandfather (San Ignacio, Jalisco) and the vibrant, cosmopolitan city of Guadalajara 30 kilometers away. There are the jungles of war where the new Zapatistas—indigenous people scratching out a living—have appropriated from the ruling political party (PRI) its own hero (Emiliano Zapata) and have renewed the call for genuine land reform as if to expose the hypocrisy of the PRI-led government. There are the proud Zapotec people of the mountain region of Oaxaca and the Tarahumara of the canyon lands of the state of Chihuahua.