As mid-December approaches, a familiar anticipation builds across Mexico. Employees in the formal sector, as well as domestic and many part-time workers, are counting down to December 20, the legal deadline for employers to pay the aguinaldo — a mandatory Christmas bonus of at least 15 days’ wages. 

Fifteen years after her stunning retirement at the peak of her career, Tapatia golf legend Lorena Ochoa is channeling her focus into a new mission: supporting future generations and breaking down barriers in her sport. 

December 12 marks one of Mexico’s most fervent religious holidays—celebrating the Virgin of Guadalupe, the Queen of Mexico. However, the story of Guadalupe, especially for many Indigenous and rural Mexicans, transcends mere religious iconography. Guadalupe is not just another manifestation of the Virgin Mary; she is La Morenita, the Queen of Mexico and protectress of all Mexicans.

The 2025-2026 season of the Behind the Walls home tours kicked off on Thursday, November 20, with visits to four unique properties. The tour program is organized by a support group for the School for Special Children in Jocotepec and is facilitated by dozens of volunteers acting as drivers, hosts and guides at the selected locations.

If not completely cause-driven, the culinary classes of longtime Guadalajara resident Lily Walker are definitely steeped in more than a bare desire to teach plant-based, whole food cooking.

Trains rumbled overhead at Zapopan Centro station as vendors laid out honey, coffee, potted plants, handmade jewelry and clothing beneath the tracks, turning a busy transit center into a hub of homegrown, regenerative culture called the Festival de la Tierra. Over three days, hundreds of passersby stepped off the station stairway into a compact but dense gathering of workshops, ceremonies, performances and a “Solidarity Economy” street market that organizers describe as “a small spark made with a lot of heart and enthusiasm” for the Earth.

What the festival is

Now in its ninth year, The Festival de la Tierra is organized by a collective of collectives that has reshaped the event since the pandemic into a year‑round process, with activities tied to dates like the Aztec New Year on March 11-12 and International Earth Day on April 22.

Co‑founder Javier Reyes Rodríguez Curiel, who collaborates with the Escuela Campesina and the Mexican Institute for Community Development (IMDEC), said the November gathering in Zapopan marks the end of a nine-month process, spread across different locations.

He described the site under the train lines as a strategic place where small‑scale producers can meet an urban public in motion: three days where artisans, food producers, and land defenders converge at a human scale, even as “more than 300 people per hour” stream through the station.

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