December 14th, 2004
In Coyoacán You Can
The New York-based Project for Public Spaces organisation – a nonprofit consultancy dedicated to creating and sustaining public places that build communities – has nominated Coyoacán, 8km south of Mexico City Centro, as the fifth best neighbourhood in North America in which to live. Discuss…
Languages student Helen Murray from Rossett in North Wales writes about Coyoacán in her BBC blog about her experiences living & working in Mexico.
Filed in Mexico City, Mexico City & Beyond
This month, Richard Perry visits the early 
“Pedro Limon has been sinfully busy this year. When he wasn’t at his restaurant manager job, he was jogging or lifting weights. In the wee hours, he studied the Bible and watched religious movies. On weekends, it was church and talks with his priest. And in all these months, he didn’t have a single shot of tequila or a date with a girl. If you want to be Jesus during Easter, expect to make sacrifices.” So writes Jennifer Mena, in an excellent article about the Iztapalapa Passion Play published in the Los Angeles Times a couple of years ago: 
The scenario has been a little different in the central Mexican town of Toliman. In the ultimate act of self-sacrifice, the presidente municipal has made the role his own, playing Jesus three years’ running and attracting national and local TV coverage. No matter that he neglected to pay utility bills, prompting the state electricity company to ‘shut-down’ street lighting in Toliman for months on end; putting on a royal purple tunic and a real crown of thorns once a year appears enough to resurrect a political career, at least for another twelve months. 
Each year on the night of 14th August – La Noche en que nadie duerme (“the night when nobody sleeps”), residents of Huamantla, Tlaxcala prepare the streets leading to the main church with 7km of ‘carpets’ made of sawdust and cut flowers. These ephemeral prayer rugs are as beautiful as they are colourful. The Huamantla fair lasts from the 8th-24th August. Thanks to 