Felipe

Felipe Zapata is a nom de plume.

After working 30 years as a newspaper copy editor (New Orleans, Puerto Rico and Houston), I retired at 55 in December 1999, discarded all my possessions, packed two suitcases the next month, and flew to Mexico alone.

I knew no one and spoke no Spanish. I had done little planning, only that I would be attending a language school.

I have since married (2002, third time’s the charm), built a big home painted red (2003) on the outskirts of a Colonial town high in the Sierra, become a Mexican citizen (2005), and learned pretty good español.

I write about my life in Mexico, plus political and cultural issues unrelated to Mexico. On occasion, I write fiction, but as time passes — and I age — I find myself doing less of that.

You’ll find the best of my work at The Pearls of Zapata, one of my sister websites. Some brief stories pleased me so much that I gave them their own websites:

Dark Girl in the Blue Dress.

Last Night of the Iguana.

Not fiction, but fascinating, is the epic, which was serialized in a Texas newspaper, of our 2012 anniversary trip to:

Cuba: A Communist Hellhole.

I am politically conservative with no church element, which is to say sort of a libertarian, a classic liberal if you will.

Not the contemporary, intolerant “liberal/progressive.”

In spite of not being Christian, I heartily support the Judeo-Christian tradition of the West. Were I to embrace an organized religion for myself, it would be Buddhism.

I vociferously oppose the glorification and promotion of multiculturalism — pushed by the naive but which often leads to mayhem and murder — the evil of political correctness, and people who worship Mohammad.

Hooray for Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East and where women walk free, happy and armed.

I support drug legalization for adults, very-early-term abortion rights and euthanasia for whomever wants it.

I view these as conservative stances.

And, of course, the standard stuff: strong military, minimal taxes, equality of opportunity (not results), free-market capitalism and butt-out government.

Black-and-white photography is a hobby, and you’ll find a link at the top, right, in Bookmarks where it says Felipe’s Photo Art. Take a look.

This website is fact, fiction and opinion stirred in an odd pot. It debuted in 2011, replacing the wildly popular, now-offline Zapata Tales, which debuted in 2005.

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Tidbit: The real Felipe Zapata was the son of Gen. Emiliano Zapata. Little Felipe died at the age of 5 from a snake bite. And his daddy died at the age of 39 from gunfire.

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Email: unseenmoon@fastmail.com