Mexico My Home: Poems by Ira Nottonson, illustrated by Peter and Eunice Huf

Of all the books associated with Lake Chapala, perhaps the one with the most curious title is Mexico My Home. Primitive Art and Modern Poetry With 50 easy to learn Spanish words and phrases. For all children from 8 to 80. With only 32 pages, and with only a few words on every alternate page, the title is almost as long as the book!

Published in 1972, the book has fifteen short, child-friendly poems written by Ira Nottonson, with illustrations opposite each poem by artists Peter Huf and Eunice (Hunt) Huf. The illustrations are Mexican naif in style, though the Hufs’ art tended more towards abstraction or surrealism.

Sample page from Mexico My Home

Nottonson first met the Hufs, then living in Ajijic, at the Hotel Camino Real in Guadalajara one Sunday afternoon in 1971, when he spotted their selection of small, painted easels at a show in the hotel. Nottonson, who also lived in Ajijic, and was at the hotel by chance, introduced himself, and asked if they would illustrate several children’s books he was working on.

Sample page from Mexico My Home

Even though their ensuing partnership only resulted in this one book, Nottonson and his wife, Sandra (‘Sandy’) Baker Burton, became good friends with the Hufs, and with another couple: painter Beth Avary and her husband, Don. Beth also wrote some poetry. As Peter Huf explained to me over supper at his home in Germany, Ira “fancied himself as a modern poet . . . in the style of Beth Avary.” He was somewhat successful. The Guadalajara Reporter told its readers that Mexico My Home was “an unusually beautiful and practical book” of modern poetry.

Ira Nathan Nottonson was born in Brooklyn, New York, on 14 February 1933, and died at the age of 85 in Boulder Colorado, on 27 March 2018. He graduated from Brookline High School in Massachusetts, and gained a degree in English from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, before completing a law degree at Boston College Law School. In the 1960s, he apparently wrote scripts for several short dramas produced by the Playhouse Workshop. He was also a moderator for at least one episode (“The Game of Sex”) of the long-running series “Ideas on Trial.” He married Sandra Baker Burton in about 1968.

When they moved to Lake Chapala in late 1970 with their five children from previous marriages, the Guadalajara Reporter asserted that Nottonson had ‘retired’, despite being only in his thirties. The newspaper explained that Nottonson was living on income from a Night Club he owned in Cambridge, Massachusetts; from a TV production company he owned, and from his financial interest in an advertising agency. “Income from all these projects permits this young man to sit and write children’s books, three of which are in publisher’s hands for possible publication.”

After their relatively brief time in Mexico, Nottonson and his family returned to the U.S., where he was appointed general counsel to International Industries (1973-76), and then held various high-ranking positions with Postal Instant Press (1976-86). In the 1990s, Nottonson and his wife moved to Boulder, Colorado, where he taught law and business classes and wrote a regular business column for the Daily Camera.

In addition to poetry, Nottonson also wrote or co-wrote several business-related books, including The secrets to buying and selling a business (1994); Before You Go into Business, Read This (1999); Ultimate book to buying or selling a business (2004); Forming a partnership: and making it work (2007); and Small business legal tool kit (2007).

Sources

• Ira N. Nottonson. 1972. Mexico My Home. Primitive Art and Modern Poetry With 50 easy to learn Spanish words and phrases. For all children from 8 to 80. Guadalajara, Mexico: Boutique d’Artes Graficas.
• Guadalajara Reporter: 12 Jun 1971; 20 Nov 1971.
• Anon. Ira Nathan Nottonson (obituary). The Daily Camera, 15 April 2018.
• Peter Huf, interviewed at his home in Germany in 2014.

Comments, corrections and additional material are welcome, whether via comments or email.

Tony Burton

Tony Burton’s books include “Lake Chapala: A Postcard History” (2022), “Foreign Footprints in Ajijic” (2022), “If Walls Could Talk: Chapala’s historic buildings and their former occupants” (2020), (available in translation as “Si Las Paredes Hablaran”), “Mexican Kaleidoscope” (2016), and “Lake Chapala Through the Ages” (2008).

Amazon Author Page                                          Facebook Page