Spooked and Sodden: Two Vignettes “de las Americas”
It was my first missing persons case as a newly-minted consular officer. At the time, I was about two weeks on the job at the embassy in Mexico City. One Monday morning I received a call from a woman in Vancouver who…
A “down under” Encounter…
Many years ago in a galaxy far away (aka: my first posting, in Mexico) had what might have been described as the consular job from hell — there were two of us with over 230,000 Canadian tourists a year in the country,…
In Conversation with Alex Bugailiskis
bout: Congratulations on “Unfinished Agenda”. David Bickford leaves no doubt that it is required reading for anyone dealing with Canada-Mexico relations, but if there were one key message you mean to convey, what would it be?
“Unfinished Agenda”: David Bickford on Mexico
296 pp, $29.95
Liebnitz at the Chicxulub Club
T HE ROOM WAS AWASH THE ROOM WAS AWASH with more lasers and open flame than the invasion of Iraq, more smoke and mirrors than the press briefings afterward. The music was so loud, carved figures on the Mayan temples outside were…
Light Stories
66 our lights were on. I thought you were going to pull something on us,” said the man with a hard stare and, without a hint of apology or nervousness, moved the safety of the .45 gun back to its locked status.…
Holding the Line in Texas
In April of 1999, Canadian Consul John Morrow spent a week walking, flying boating, and driving the border between Texas and Mexico with agents of the US Border Patrol. By night, by day, and even by infrared light, he witnessed first hand…
Saul Rae 1914-1999
The following are excerpts from a eulogy by Jake Warren, retired Ambassador, at a Memorial Service for Saul Rae on Wednesday, January 13, 1999.
Letter to the Editor
Dear Editor:
Over the Volcano
Diplomatic life in Mexico has produced at least one literary masterpiece. It is hardly flattering to the profession: Malcolm Lowry’s dishevelled hero in “Under the Volcano”, the British Honorary Consul in a thinly-disguised Cuernavaca, spends the entire book staggering around in a…
