Into the Tropic of Cancer
How a wandering surfer’s search for waves resulted in one the world’s great musical festivals in a Baja Pueblo by Mark McDermott A few years ago, a van swung onto Manuel Márquez de León, a street that runs through the downtown “Centro” district of Todos Santos, a pueblo in Baja California Sur, Mexico. The vehicle parked in front of a makeshift taco stand named for its owner, Alma, who makes arguably the best shrimp and fish tacos in town (and whose son, Carlos, works around the corner at a music venue called La Morena and makes arguably the best margarita in town, almost mystically so, since he does not drink). The van’s sliding door opened, and a ragtag crew emerged. They walked down the street, improbably elegant in their disarray, carrying instrument cases. At the head of the pack was a tall blonde guy wearing a 1950s Don Lopez gabardine-style wool jacket and a white Stetson hat. Another had longish hair dyed bright red. A dark-haired gypsy-looking man wore a black hat, and another slouched along in a poncho with a cigarette dangling from his mouth. A jewelry vendor whose habit it was to stand on the corner outside his store watched the crew from across the street. “Llegaron…
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