Creative Nonfiction / Travel Writing

"In Celebration of Literal: Latin American Voices / Voces Latinoamericanas"
A talk by C.M. Mayo at the Feria Internacional del Libro, Guadalajara, Mexico, December, 2009 (Madam Mayo Blog)


"A Traveler in Mexico: A Rendezvous with Writer Rosemary Sullivan"
Inside Mexico, March 2009 Now also available as a free podcast on my "Conversations with Other Writers" page.

"From Mexico to Miamar or, Across the Lake of Oblivion" Massachusetts Review, December 2006. Now available as an audio CD (2 CD set) read by the author, and a Kindle edition from dancing Chiva. . Washington Independent Writers Award for Personal Essay, 2007



"The Essential Francisco Sosa, or, Picadou's Mexico City"
Creative Nonfiction, Mexican Voices issue, ed. Ilán Stavans, Summer, 2004. Included in the anthology Hurricanes and Carnivals: Essays by Chicano, Pochos, Pachucos, Mexicanos and Expatriates, ed. Lee Gutkind, (University of Arizona Press, 2007). Lowell Thomas Award for Travel Journalism Article, Personal Comment, First Place (Gold), 2005. Washington Independent Writers Award for Personal Essay, 2005

"Only Pearls: A Brief History of Pearl Fishing in Baja California"
Planeta.com winter 2003. Excerpt from Miraculous Air: Journey of a Thousand Miles through Baja California, the Other Mexico, (Milkweed Editions, 2007).

"Hell, I Knew It was Paradise"
The Mexico File, Dec/ Jan 2002-2003.An excerpt from a chapter in Miraculous Air: Journey of a Thousand Miles through Baja California, the Other Mexico, (Milkweed Editions, 2007)
>>Now a podcast

The Visitors / Los Visitantes
Traducción por Bertha Ruiz de la Concha (Tameme, 2002) A bilingual version (English / Spanish side-to-side) of a chapter in Miraculous Air: Journey of a Thousand Miles through Baja California, the Other Mexico, (Milkweed Editions, 2007)

"Lay Thine Hand Upon Him"
Massachusetts Review, Fall 2002. A chapter in Miraculous Air: Journey of a Thousand Miles through Baja California, the Other Mexico, (Milkweed Editions, 2007). Lowell Thomas Award for Travel Journalism Article, Environmental Tourism, Third Place (Bronze), November 2003

"El Halloween and the Día de Muertos"
North American Review, Fall 2002. An excerpt of a slightly dfferent version of a chapter in Miraculous Air: Journey of a Thousand Miles through Baja California, the Other Mexico, (Milkweed Editions, 2007). Included in the anthology Writing the World: On Globalization, eds. David Rothenberg and Wandee J. Pryor, (MIT Press, 2005)

"Oceans of Tears"
Planeta.com, Fall 2002. Excerpt from Miraculous Air: Journey of a Thousand Miles through Baja California, the Other Mexico, (Milkweed Editions, 2007).

"A Touch of Evil"
Fourth Genre, Spring 2002. A chapter in Miraculous Air: Journey of a Thousand Miles through Baja California, the Other Mexico, (Milkweed Editions, 2007) Lowell Thomas Award for Travel Journalism Article, Cultural Journalism, First Place (Gold), November 2003

"In the Land of the Clouds"
Southwest Review, vol. 87. No.1, 2002. A chapter in Miraculous Air: Journey of a Thousand Miles through Baja California, the Other Mexico, (Milkweed Editions, 2007)

"Into the Sierra de San Francisco"
Brevity, Winter 2002. An excerpt from a chapter in Miraculous Air: Journey of a Thousand Miles through Baja California, the Other Mexico, (Milkweed Editions, 2007)

"Bay of Angels"
Southwest Review, Winter 2000. A chapter in Miraculous Air: Journey of a Thousand Miles through Baja California, the Other Mexico, (Milkweed Editions, 2007)

"Heady Xalapa: Into the Heart of the Veracruz Coffee Country"
Business Mexico, March 1999

"Underground Art in Lower California"
Wall Street Journal, March 5, 1998. Finalist, Texas Institute of Letters' Stanley Walker Award for Best Work of Journalism in a Daily Newspaper, 1998
(Note: the title is not mine; the cave art is not underground.)

"Old California, Missions and Murals"
Los Angeles Times, April 6, 1997