Photos

Jaripo, Michoacan. From Antonio's Gun and Delfino's Dream
Jaripo's people have been emigrating to the United States since the 1940s. Many have built gorgeous houses back in the village, though these places are usually empty about 11 months a year. From Antonio's Gun and Delfino's Dream
Nevertheless, people still keep building ever-larger houses. From Antonio's Gun and Delfino's Dream
Every January, immigrants return home for fiesta season, the last week of the month. From Antonio's Gun and Delfino's Dream
Every day that week, they hold pilgrimages to the church with flags of both countries…. From Antonio's Gun and Delfino's Dream
…and floats depicting Biblical scenes…. From Antonio's Gun and Delfino's Dream
Pilgrims in Jaripo on their way to the church. From Antonio's Gun and Delfino's Dream
Immigrants in Jaripo. From Antonio's Gun and Delfino's Dream
Delfino Juarez, in the red baseball cap, and his friends from Xocotla who followed him to Mexico City. From Antonio's Gun and Delfino's Dream
Delfino Juarez working construction. From Antonio's Gun and Delfino's Dream
Delfino Juarez break dancing on a Sunday afternoon in a dancehall near the Alameda. From Antonio's Gun and Delfino's Dream
Delfino's grandfather, Eleuterio Cruz. From Antonio's Gun and Delfino's Dream
Delfino's mother, Adelina Cruz. From Antonio's Gun and Delfino's Dream
Andres Bermudez, The Tomato King, at home with his green peppers on a ranch near Sacramento. From Antonio's Gun and Delfino's Dream
Chuy Moran, back in Ciudad Juarez, years after his rein as the king of velvet painting had ended, about to begin again. From Antonio's Gun and Delfino's Dream
Doyle B. Harden, the Henry Ford of velvet painting, in his Chico Arts warehouse in El Paso. From Antonio's Gun and Delfino's Dream
The Velasquez Twins, known as the Photographers for the realism of their velvet paintings. Years after the velvet boom ended, they were trying to hawk their wares on the tourist bridge in Tijuana. From Antonio's Gun and Delfino's Dream
Maestro Juan Reyna, one of Ciudad Juarez's original velvet painters, in his studio on the Avenida Juarez tourist strip. From Antonio's Gun and Delfino's Dream
Tony Maya, one of Tijuana's best oil painters, once a boxer and a baker, who began his art career as a velvet painter then gave it up and traveled the Baja California peninsula for a year painting in water color to get it all out of his system. From Antonio's Gun and Delfino's Dream
One of the last of Tijuana's velvet painters, Abel Velasquez in his studio, at work on a pachuco with his low rider. From Antonio's Gun and Delfino's Dream
Mercedes Quinonez became Tijuana's premier soprano after years of searching for musical instruction amid the desert of the city's cultural life. From Antonio's Gun and Delfino's Dream
Enrique Fuentes, the mild-mannered visionary who opened Tijuana's Café de la Opera, giving opera a venue in which the art's lovers could meet and younger singers could hone their chops. From Antonio's Gun and Delfino's Dream
Delfino Juarez in front of the house he built in his hometown of Xocotla, Veracruz with the dollars he earned installing floors in Southern California. From Antonio's Gun and Delfino's Dream
An old Colony Mennonite one-room schoolhouse near Cuauhtemoc, Chihuahua in northern Mexico. From Antonio's Gun and Delfino's Dream
New Jerusalem residents, dressed as their personal saints in their homemade costumes… From True Tales From Another Mexico
featuring clothes hangers shaped as halos, line up to vote in the Michoacan state election. From True Tales From Another Mexico
Others were Roman Centurions, using mop handles and industrial broom brushes… From True Tales From Another Mexico
or Israelites wandering in the desert. From True Tales From Another Mexico
The family members thrown of out New Jerusalem, accused of a variety of offenses, such as objecting when the cult's leaders sexually abused their daughters, and questioning whether cult leaders spoke with the Virgin of Guadalupe and late President Lazaro Cardenas. From True Tales From Another Mexico
The crumbling painting of Maria Villasenor, on the family's equally moribund estate near Puruaran. Villasenor and her family used the cult to become bosses -- caciques -- of the region. They were known for their ruthlessness and for bringing New Jerusalem into the PRI's fold. From True Tales From Another Mexico
At the shrine of Jesus Malverde, the narcosaint, in Culiacan, Sinaloa. From True Tales From Another Mexico
Eligio Gonzalez, who tends the Malverde shrine. From True Tales From Another Mexico
Florentino Ventura, who also tended the shrine for a while. From True Tales From Another Mexico
The façade to the shrine in Culiacan. From True Tales From Another Mexico
A smaller shrine to Malverde in the village of Sanalona, 25 miles north of Culiacan. From True Tales From Another Mexico
Busts of Malverde on sale at the shrine. From True Tales From Another Mexico
Medallions and pictures of Malverde. From True Tales From Another Mexico
Ignacio Alcazar, pioneer of the Michoacana popsicle shops now found everywhere in Mexico, and his son in their shop in northern Mexico City. From True Tales From Another Mexico
A typical Michoacana popsicle shop, of the kind found everywhere in Mexico and that transformed poor and desperate peasants from one Michoacan village into businessmen. From True Tales From Another Mexico
Another popsicle shop, this time named for the town whose campesinos started it all, but following the same business model that made the Popsicle (paleta) one of the most important Mexican products of the latter half of the 20th century. From True Tales From Another Mexico
Alejandro Andrade, a new generation of the Tocumbo popsicle empresarios, who opened a business helping paleteros from the village better market their ice cream. From True Tales From Another Mexico
Yet another Paleteria La Michoacana, a now standard part of every village, town and city in Mexico. From True Tales From Another Mexico
The paletas, made in the back of every Paleteria La Michoacana. From True Tales From Another Mexico
In thanks for all the Popsicle had done for them, the paleteros of Tocumbo built this two-story-tall statue of a popsicle at the entrance to the village. From True Tales From Another Mexico
Violeta, the emcee of the oldest drag queen beauty contest in Mexico, held every February during Carnival at the La Fogata nightclub in Mazatlan's red light district. From True Tales From Another Mexico
One of the contestants. From True Tales From Another Mexico
Before the pageant, Bella has his breasts injected with baby oil … From True Tales From Another Mexico
Brian begins the process of shaping his legs and rounding his hips … From True Tales From Another Mexico
He'll cover the leg-length sponges with six pairs of pantyhose, compressing them and giving him shapely hips and legs… From True Tales From Another Mexico
... A timely, costly process, it is used only for special occasions, such as the beauty pageant. From True Tales From Another Mexico
The queens wait for the contest to begin. From True Tales From Another Mexico
Miss Durango, representing the hairdresser class of jotos. Though she looked great, this was not to be her night. From True Tales From Another Mexico
The queen crowned at the first La Fogata beauty contest, in 1970. From True Tales From Another Mexico
Daniela, one of the contestants and a resident of the red-light district. From True Tales From Another Mexico
In the colony where they live, the jotos relax before the night's work begins. From True Tales From Another Mexico
Violeta and Monica in their room in the joto colony in the red-light district. From True Tales From Another Mexico
Jorge, who was going out with a cholo around this time. From True Tales From Another Mexico
Marta Caramelo, owner of La Fogata who started the contest years before, and his adopted son, Alejandro. From True Tales From Another Mexico
Me with queens at La Fogata the brutally hot night of the contest. The queen with the crown at far left and the queen with the crown and the leopard skin are twins. Each was crowned queen of La Fogata in different years. From True Tales From Another Mexico
Olga and his mayate, Raul. They're still together, last I heard, living in another town. From True Tales From Another Mexico
At a Pentecostal church, catering to Oaxacan farmworkers, in the valley of San Quintin, Baja California. From True Tales From Another Mexico
Oaxacan farmworkers who formed their own music club. From True Tales From Another Mexico
At one of the farm-labor camps in the Valley of San Quintin. From True Tales From Another Mexico
Oaxacan teachers in the Valley of San Quintin, with their Day of the Dead altar, which they erect to compete with Halloween and trick-or-treating for their kids' attention. From True Tales From Another Mexico
Benito Garcia, left, and his brother, both of whom years ago were poised to become the Cesar Chavezes of the Valley of San Quintin. It didn't happen. From True Tales From Another Mexico
Oaxacan basketball tournament in Los Angeles. From True Tales From Another Mexico
Zeus Garcia, once one of the great basketball players in central Oaxaca, and his team of Oaxacan immigrants in Los Angeles, Raza Unida. From True Tales From Another Mexico
Zeus at home with his son, Ervin, named for Earvin "Magic" Johnson. From True Tales From Another Mexico
Nacho, Raza Unida's center, grabs a loose ball. From True Tales From Another Mexico
Raza Unida's sweet warm-up jackets. From True Tales From Another Mexico
The basketball team from Xochistepec, Oaxaca, most of whom live in South-Central Los Angeles. From True Tales From Another Mexico
The Xochistepec team again. From True Tales From Another Mexico
The village teams line up before a Oaxacan basketball tournament, this one at the gym in the El Sereno neighborhood of Los Angeles. From True Tales From Another Mexico
Women's teams line up at the same tournament. From True Tales From Another Mexico
Zeus scolds Pancho, his best player. From True Tales From Another Mexico
The Benito Juarez Cup, a tournament of village teams held every March 21, in Guelatao, Oaxaca, and televised statewide. From True Tales From Another Mexico
At the Benito Juarez Cup, 2001. From True Tales From Another Mexico
At the Benito Juarez Cup, the team from the village of San Juan Luvina, most of whose players live in Orange County, California but make the trip to Oaxaca each year to play. From True Tales From Another Mexico
The girls team from the village of Santa Cruz Tlahuitoltepec at the Benito Juarez Cup. From True Tales From Another Mexico
A city official from San Pablo Macuiltianguis, a Oaxacan mountain village that, aided by logging revenues, built a dream gymnasium equal to those many US colleges -- with hardwood floors, movable backboard stanchions, electronic scoreboards, individual bleacher seats, two dressing rooms and a film room. Because the village is far up a mountain, it is de-populating, and thus the gym is used no more than two or three times a year. From True Tales From Another Mexico
The team from Lachatao, in the Sierra Juarez of Oaxaca, who won the Benito Juarez Cup in 2001. From True Tales From Another Mexico
La Loba - aka Guadalupe Buendia, the boss of Chimalhuacan, the massive slum suburb outside Mexico City, addressing women at her annual Mother's Day party. From True Tales From Another Mexico
Paquita la del Barrio, one of Mexico's greatest women singers, who rails against unfaithful men, singing at La Loba's Mother's Day party. From True Tales From Another Mexico
Women in the crowd hold up three fingers, singing along with Paquita to her classic, "Tres Veces Te Engane" (I Cheated on You Three Times). The crowd noise resembled that at an early Beatles concert. From True Tales From Another Mexico
Holding up La Loba's hand. It's all about politics. From True Tales From Another Mexico
Chippendale strippers entertain 17,000 poor women at La Loba's Mother's Day Party. From True Tales From Another Mexico
"When else would be able to see anything like this," one woman told me. Most women in Chimalhuacan live in shanties, without running water or paved streets. From True Tales From Another Mexico
La Loba tells the women that they need to vote for the PRI. Soon she would regret the whole event. From True Tales From Another Mexico
More strippers on the runway. From True Tales From Another Mexico
Here's the message of the party. The PRI political style taken to its extreme. From True Tales From Another Mexico
In case anyone missed the message. From True Tales From Another Mexico
La Loba asks everyone one last time, `Who you gonna vote for?' The PRRRRRIIIIII!!!! From True Tales From Another Mexico