Word: diederich
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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There's a lot more to Mexico man Acapulco and the silver mines of Taxco," says Staff Writer Jack White. "More than Tijuana, tequila, tortillas and tacos," adds Bernard Diederich, who has been chief of TIME's bureau in Mexico City for more than a decade. Yet cornmeal cliches have often flavored American thinking about the neighbor across the Rio Grande. This week's cover story, written by White and reported by Diederich, assesses the social, political and historical landscape of a country described by Diederich as "big, beautiful and as complicated as any on earth...
Such mysteries also captivated Reporter-Researcher Tam Martinides Gray, who often collaborates with both White and Diederich on Latin American stories. Says Gray: "Mexico has a fatalistic, almost mythical perception of itself. It is easy to get caught up in the character of the people, their eloquence, their national pride." White, for his part, got caught up in the history and mythology of Mexico's pre-Columbian people. Thus, in homage to Quetzalcoatl, the tribal god of the Toltecs, and in commemoration of this week's cover, White named his newly acquired feline house pet Quetzalcatl...
Miami Correspondent Richard Woodbury, who joined Diederich for part of his tour, agrees. "The danger quotient was raised by the glaring absence of official information from either side," reports Woodbury. "To assess the fighting, we had to visit battle zones continually." Getting there was a perilous ordeal in itself, and indiscriminate bombing and shelling made it necessary to take refuge in the homes and backyards of friendly Nicaraguans. The scene at Managua's Inter-Continental Hotel, headquarters and domicile of the foreign press corps, was similarly threatening. "Somoza flunkies were wandering around saying that newsmen should be taken...
Buenos Aires Correspondent George Russell, who had been reporting from the Sandinista headquarters-in-exile in Costa Rica, joined Diederich then but had some trouble adjusting to Inter-Continental Hotel hospitality. Said Russell...
...first night, I returned to my room to discover that it had been appropriated by three gun-toting muchachos, one of whom was sleeping in the bathtub. In solidarity with the people's hard-won victory, I decided to sleep on Diederich's couch...