Oooohhhh, We’re Half-Way There…

If Tijuana is the land of Nortec, Veracruz is Jon Bon Jovi country. On a recent side-trip trip to visit two UA geographer friends in Xalapa, we were graced not once, but twice, by cult classic Bon Jovi hits. Glam rock lives strong on the eastern slope of the Mexican sierras.

To celebrate the [almost] half-way mark in my fieldwork, here a few images from my Veracruz trip, narrated by Señor Bon Jovi himself. Sing along...you know you want to.

Fishing vessel in the Port of Veracruz: it's tough, so tough...

From “Livin’ On a Prayer”

Once upon a time not so long ago:
Tommy used to work on the docks
union's been on strike
He's down on his luck - It's tough
so tough.

Will work for love

Gina works the diner all day
working for her man
She brings home her pay for love
for love.

She says: We've got to hold on to what we've got
'Cause it doesn't make a difference if we make it or not.
We've got each other and that's a lot for love -
We'll give it a shot.

Repeat chorus

We're half way there - Livin' on a prayer
Take my hand and we'll make it
I swear - livin' on a prayer.

I have no idea what a "six-string hock" means, but here is an Olmec head
from Xalapa's famous anthropology museum

Tommy got his six string in hock.
Now he's holding in what he used to make it talk -
So tough
it's tough.

Gina dreams of running away
when she cries in the night
Tommy whispers: Baby it's okay
someday.

Not Tommy and Gina... but geographers navigating the labyrinth streets of Xalapa

We've got to hold on to what we've got . . .
We're half way there - Livin' on a prayer

We've got to hold on ready or not
You live for the fight when it's all that you've got.
We're half way there - Livin' on a prayer

We're half way there - Livin' on a prayer









"Bless me father for I have sinned...it's been a long, long time..."
At Spain's first church in the New World, La Antigua, Veracruz