Mar 282024
 
Lake Chapala postcards: a photograph by Juan Victor Aráuz

Juan Victor Aráuz Gutiérrez (1914-2000) and his father, Juan Aráuz Lomeli, were photographers who lived and worked in Guadalajara. Because they sometimes photographed the same subject at the same time, there is uncertainty in the case of some images as to which of the two men was the photographer. Juan Victor Aráuz Gutiérrez (sometimes mistakenly […]

Mar 212024
 
Can a copy have as much merit as an original painting?

One curiosity in the permanent collection of Guadalajara’s Instituto Cultural Cabañas is this pretty painting by Ignacio Ramírez titled “Vista de Chapala.” The painting is dated 1986, even though the view  it depicts is clearly from many decades earlier, as evidenced, for example, by the absence of Casa Braniff (completed in 1905) and of several […]

Mar 142024
 
Writer, poet and movie producer Hans Oppenheimer lived in Ajijic in the 1960s

While trawling through the archives of the Guadalajara Reporter many years ago, I stumbled across a one-line reference to the German-born film producer Hans Oppenheimer. Anita Lomax, the weekly newspaper’s Ajijic correspondent, commented in 1964 that “Hans Oppenheimer, writer and poet” had just left Ajijic for a visit to Mexico City. Earlier that year, Oppenheimer’s […]

Mar 072024
 
Lake Chapala on a postcard:  S. Altamirano of Guadalajara

A striking series of color-tinted postcards was published by S. Altamirano in the mid-1920s. The application of color on these cards was far more sophisticated than that used earlier by (among others) Alba y Fernández. The reverse side of these cards carries the imprint, “Editor S. Altamirano, Av. Colon 165, Guadalajara.” The front of the […]

Feb 292024
 
Edwin Hall Warner, an engineer who wrote short stories

Some years ago, I stumbled across an early, unattributed short story which mentioned Lake Chapala and made several references to the town of La Barca, and to José Velarde (“The Golden Ass”). The story, titled “The Sorceress” and published in 1894, was about the impacts of superstition, religion and sacrifice. Recently, while researching a short […]

Feb 272024
 

“The Sorceress: How an American Engineer was Sacrificed to the Aztec Gods.” by Edwin Hall Warner. 1894. The calzada principal in La Barca runs a meandering course easterly through the town to the garita. The houses on each side are of the usual Mexican type, the more pretentious of stone, others of adobe, with barred […]

Feb 222024
 
Art Mystery: Is this really a church in Chapala?

Two young US artists—Everett Gee Jackson and Lowell Houser—who had first met at art school in Chicago, arrived in Chapala in 1923. Apart from short trips elsewhere they spent the next three and a half years at Lake Chapala—living first in Chapala, then in Ajijic, and then returning once again to Chapala—before continuing their highly […]

Feb 212024
 
Photographer and hotelier Winfield Scott (1863–1942)

Photographer and hotelier Winfield Scott was born in Galesburg, Michigan, on 15 July 1863 and died in Los Angeles, California, on 19 January 1942. Scott spent six months in Mexico in 1888, and then lived in the country, with occasional breaks in California, from 1895 to 1924. From 1890 to 1894, he was working in […]

Feb 152024
 
What was Chapala like in 1925?

In a departure from our normal style, this post looks at a 1925 editorial in the long-running Guadalajara daily El Informador titled “La Villa Veraniega de Chapala” (The Summer Resort of Chapala). Quotes used throughout this post are informal translations of the original Spanish. The most likely candidate for the editorial’s authorship is the newspaper’s […]

Feb 082024
 
Lake Chapala on a postcard: La Joyita and Ocotlán Station

Several popular curio shops in downtown Mexico City at the start of the twentieth century stocked all manner of wares to sell to tourists and travelers, and some even published their own postcards of Mexico. An 1898 list in The Mexican Herald of stores selling “Opals and Mexican Curiosities” included Granat & Horwitz (in the […]

Feb 012024
 
After living in Ajijic, Bart McDowell became a senior editor of National Geographic

Author Bart McDowell (1923-2009), who later became a senior editor of National Geographic magazine, first visited Ajijic in 1952. Born in Texas on 10 September 1923, Hobart (‘Bart’) K. McDowell Jr. graduated with a degree in political science from the University of California before completing a master’s degree in journalism at the University of Missouri. […]

Feb 012024
 
José de Olivares and his account of a perilous boat trip on Lake Chapala in 1901

In 1901, José de Olivares—author, poet and US diplomat—wrote a newspaper column about his adventures when visiting Lake Chapala. The column has several geographical inconsistencies which suggest that the author may have slightly embellished his real life experiences for dramatic effect. And an unfortunate editing typo resulted in the title of the piece being printed […]

Jan 262024
 
“Andrade”: a mystery photographer of Lake Chapala in the 1930s

Every now and again my research into the photographers who captured images of Lake Chapala used on vintage postcards draws a near-complete blank. This post considers two striking images taken by “Andrade.” The only reference I have so far found to Andrade comes in the unpublished journal (now in the archives of the California Historical […]

Jan 252024
 
Sculptor Lesley Jervis (aka Lesley Maddock, Lesley Sherratt) lived in Jocotepec 1968-1970

Sculptor Lesley I. Jervis (born Oct 1943, in Stoke-on-Trent, UK) and her then husband Bruce Robert Sherratt, an artist and art educator, lived in Jocotepec at the western end of Lake Chapala from 1968 to 1970. Prior to their arrival in Mexico, they had lived and traveled for some time in the USA. Jervis and […]

Jan 182024
 
Fashion columnist Mary Hampton first visited Chapala in 1949

Of the many journalists who have reported on Lake Chapala over the years, one of those with the most distinctive individual viewpoint was Mary Hampton, a long-time fashion editor based in California. Born on 14 September 1899 in Nogales, Arizona (at a time when there was no border wall separating the town from Nogales, Sonora), […]

Jan 042024
 
Snakes alive! Mrs Fannie Ward picnics at Lake Chapala in 1887

Newspaper correspondent and intrepid traveler Fanny H. Ward (née Brigham) was born in Monroe, Michigan, on 27 January 1843 and died in Kent, Ohio, on 4 October 1913. Little is known about her early education and upbringing. She married in 1862 and moved to Washington DC about a decade later. The couple had three children, […]

Dec 282023
 
Lake Chapala on a postcard: Antonio Mólgora (father and son)

Antonio Mólgora was an Italian businessman and hotelier who ran various hotels in Chapala from about 1907 to his death in 1927. Both he and one of his sons, also named Antonio, were accomplished amateur photographers and published a number of postcards, the son generally preferring pictures of boats and people to pictures of buildings. […]

Dec 212023
 
Norwegian anthropologist Carl Lumholtz found votive offerings at Lake Chapala in 1902

Carl Sophus Lumholtz (1851–1922), born in Lillehammer, Norway, was a scientist, traveler and anthropologist in the generalist Humboldtian tradition. After graduating from the Theology department of the University of Christianía in Oslo, Lumholtz went to Australia as a naturalist. While living with cannibalistic aborigines in northern Queensland, he became fascinated by the study of primitive […]

Dec 192023
 
A Christmas Potpourri of Lake Chapala Links

Many of the artists and authors associated with Lake Chapala have clear links to Christmas. Admittedly, some links are more tenuous than others. Here, in no particular order, are some that come to mind: German-born photographer Hugo Brehme, who is credited with having introduced the first photographic Christmas cards into Mexico. Brehme photographed Lake Chapala […]

Dec 072023
 
Dr Leo Stanley visited Mezcala Island in 1937

We have looked previously at several excerpts from the journal written by Dr. Leo Leonidas Stanley (1886-1976) about his multi-day visit to Lake Chapala in October 1937. Jocotepec in 1937 San Luis Soyatlán and Tuxcueca in 1937 Chapala in 1937 On the morning of 15 October 1937—his final day before returning to Guadalajara—Stanley decided to […]

Nov 302023
 
Chapala Wishful Thinking #2: Chapala in the old days?

This is the second in a mini series identifying some examples of photo identification errors which pertain to the Lake Chapala area. Estampas de Chapala by Manuel Galindo Gaitan is an outstanding two-volume collection of mainly vintage photographs of Chapala and other places around the lake. Some of the historical details in the text are […]

Nov 232023
 
Chapala 1912-1922: Excerpts from Bertha Kaiser's diary

Bertha Kaiser was the third wife of Swiss printer and shopkeeper Juan Kaiser, who—in addition to selling accounting books and ledgers via his store “Al Libro de Caja” in Guadalajara—also published beautiful early postcards of Chapala and Guadalajara featuring the work of such distinguished photographers as José María Lupercio and Winfield Scott. Bertha’s diary, written […]

Nov 162023
 
Fishing at Lake Chapala: the postcards of Mauricio Yáñez

Mauricio Yáñez was a Mexican photographer and one of the more prolific producers of postcards in Mexico during the 1930s. He took thousands of tourist photos of Mexico, showing towns, cities and people, including at least 20 related to Lake Chapala. This view of Chapala and its lakeshore (below)  includes a lakefront cantina mid-way between […]

Nov 092023
 
Dr Leo Stanley described searching for idols and attending a band concert in Chapala in 1937

We have looked previously at several excerpts from the journal written by Dr. Leo Leonidas Stanley (1886-1976) about his multi-day visit to Lake Chapala in October 1937. Jocotepec in 1937 San Luis Soyatlán and Tuxcueca in 1937 Stanley and Alonzo (his traveling companion) had ridden on horseback around the western end of the lake to […]

Nov 022023
 
Alexander Nicolas Muzenic, student of Josef Albers, taught art in Ajijic

Alexander Nicolas (“Nick”) Muzenic was born 25 September 1919 in Kansas, and died in Los Angeles 12 March 1976. His first names are variously listed as Nicolas, Nicholas, Nikolas, A. Nicolas or simply Nick. His family, of Austro-Croatian heritage, also used the anglicized surname Muzenich. He lived and worked in Ajijic from about 1948 to […]

Oct 262023
 
Frank Herbert, author of Dune, wrote a short novel set at Lake Chapala

As we saw in previous posts, science fiction fans everywhere should be eternally grateful that Frank Herbert (author of Dune) accompanied his friend Jack Vance to Chapala in 1953. They arrived in September and rented a house in Chapala for a couple of months. Several aspects of their joint trip to Mexico are endearingly told […]

Oct 192023
 
Lake Chapala on a postcard: the mysterious F. Martín from Mexico City

At least two postcards of Lake Chapala from the late 1920s bear the imprint on their reverse side of “F. Martín. Mexico, D.F.” and a stylized “FM” circular logo. According to researcher Arturo Guevara Escobar, the “F. Martín” name was registered as a trade name and used for about 50 years for several distinct series […]

Oct 122023
 

One of the earliest literary mentions of Lake Chapala comes in “Ixotle,” a story by Andrew Jackson Grayson published in 1870. Here is the full text of the original article: IXOTLE During a sojourn in Tepic of some six weeks, for the purpose of making collections of Ornithology, I went into the almost impenetrable mountains […]