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There are some awesome answers, I'd just like to add about things that I commonly see of visitors: Sombreros, Religion, Politics, and Poverty/Inequality.Sombreros.Spanish word for 'hat', outside of Rodeos, Charreadas, Mariachi music bands, some rural settings, and some other limited music/fashion circles, you will most likely NEVER find a Mexican person that uses it. I find it amusing at best, and and offensive at times, when foreigners want to wear or buy one mimicking what they've seen in foreign media. Then why does it seems like such a symbol of our country, you may wonder?The reason lies in timing.The beginning of photographic and film media coincided with the Porfirian-revolutionary era in Mexico (1860's-1910). The image of poor peasants with huge round hats is the one that most people have of Mexican individuals around the world. During that time, that's what Mexico looked like. Something like this:Note in this picture we have some Hacienda 'peones'. Haciendas were production units, very very similar to plantations. Peones were un-free laborers, similar in a few ways to plantation slaves, except these were formally free but in debt-bondage for life, they even had to inherit their debt. Being part of the Hacienda production system they used those products that were produced there, by other peones like themselves, that they owed for life.During that era, the Porfirian government was careful to project its image abroad. With the beginning of photography, film, and news media, you would rarely see that kind of images. Instead, something like this would be distributed at the time (note no huge hats):The social costs of the Porifiran government were huge. Peonage and debt-bondage were horrible institutions that millions sought to escape. After the demise of the Porfirian government through the Mexican Revolution (1910), government control fell, and so did censorship. The United States was the largest investor in the country and news of the Revolution were largely covered because of the danger to US investments. Images like these would circulate the US media and sometimes in European newspapers, peons in rebellion:Here's one of French press. France was also a very important investor in Mexico during the Porfirian era, from there, the interest in following the events.This guy is revolutionary leader Emiliano Zapata. He led rebellions from the south. Note that this is where the mustache comes from. All in all, a personal choice, more like fashion/practicality than national identity.And this guy is Doroteo Arango, a.k.a. Francisco 'Pancho' Villa.US investors were scared. There was a huge revolution and their companies, railroads, oil companies, Haciendas, factories, and land was in danger. They pressured the US government to intervene. And it did. It influenced the post-revolutionary government in Mexico to make sure it didn't just redistribute all of the US-owned properties to the rebel peon winners. In 1913, its ambassador supported the assassination of newly elected president Madero. The new guy in power, Huerta, ended up betraying everyone and siding with Germans. Keep in mind WWI was just about to start.Foreign intervention requires public opinion support, therefore, media coverage of the revolutionary events in Mexico was crucial. In April 1914, US president Woodrow Wilson ordered the invasion of the Mexican port of Veracruz, its gateway to Europe and the Atlantic, to prevent German weapon shipments. Take a look at this example from May 1914 of the Miami Herald. Note the huge sombrero hats all over the place:Look at this political cartoon from 1916. Yet another invasion, 'the punitive expedition', to try to capture Doroteo Arango in the aftermath of the Revolution. Note the hat on the Mexican as the characterization. This is a US newspaper.At this point, Mexicans were associated with those huge hats abroad. The point is that this is really more of a US construct than a Mexican one, because Mexicans wore hats in a functional manner not in a symbolic, simplifying manner. Peones spent more time out working the fields, so they needed more protection from the sun. City laborers, middle-class professionals, bureaucrats, and such, used much smaller hats, as the fashion of the time. Think of the other photos of urban areas above, and also look at this photo of print technician José Guadalupe Posada's engraving workshop. Only one guy has a hat and it doesn't look huge at all:These are some rural teachers. Clothes look rural, but not the hats. That's because they were not in a field. Not a single huge hat:Now, look at this image of rev. leader Zapata with some rebels. Note that some have big hats but not all of them...This speaks to the rural, peon nature of the hat. The revolution involved everyone, but the big hats were easier to turn into a symbol of Mexican-ness for foreign audiences. A reader in New York or Paris would not struggle to identify a person with a huge hat as Mexican. But with a smaller hat (like the ones in the workshop or beside Zapata), they could be from anywhere: Spain, Argentina, Cuba, Panama, or even the southwest US or even India or Australia. Wherever. But the huge hat made it simpler for editors and readers abroad.Another example of why its a US construct and not Mexican, is this famous image in several of its variants:As has been noted, Mexico is very large, almost the size of all of western Europe. The US (back then) recognized Mexico for the most part as the border area, which is almost entirely a desert, hence the cactus. The multi-colored cloth that appears on some of these is a traditional cloth called 'sarape', generally used at the northern city of Saltillo, in the State of Coahuila, a few hours drive from the US border. US visitors would rarely go further into Mexico, so all they got to see was the desert and they would not cross the mountains that limit the dessert.So why is it an issue of timing if Mexicans really used those hats?Image expert Roberto Gomez explains that the impact of these images as the first ones being distributed around the world determined our image, in exactly the same way that the Mona Lisa became famous because its theft coincided with the first printed images in newspapers. It was the first criminal 'scandal' that had an image to be properly printed in newspapers, unlike before when only carvings were used.Look at "Le Petit Perisien" from august 1911. Before around this time, newspapers were only columns of text, and some engravings or simple cartoon illustrations, mostly text. The Mona Lisa was just another painting in the huge Louvre. No one knew anything about it, it was unknown, until that day."The famous painting of Leonardo Da Vinci "La Gioconda" has disapeared from the Louvre museum". Imagine reading only text and suddenly a huge image. Definetly a first.When the painting was found two years later in 1913, it was also reported with an image, but note how there are also other smaller images in the newspaper. Technology was moving, but the impact had been made."La Gioconda has been found".Look at the New York Tribune's report from 1913's report of finding the painting. Coincidentally, right next to it there's a report of US attacks on the Mexican port of Tampico.Just for comparison purposes, look at the same newspaper in April 1912. They used an engraving to illustrate the sinking. Consider that you have never seen that engraving before and why.Mexican newspapers could not print images like that yet, and they did not have foreign distribution networks or target non-Mexican publics, apart from being in Spanish. Domestic newspapers would not have portrayed Mexicans with those huge hats, but it would portray peasants with them. Look at these political cartoons of the time:"Adventures of a Tourist" from 1903. It is the story of a guy that read that Mexico was so prosperous that he decided to go and find fortune. You only see the huge hats at the last part where it says "After seeing the prosperity of Coahuila, he went to San Luis Potosí". The guys in the huge hats seem almost dead of hunger, satirizing the poverty of peasants in contrast to publicized prosperity.This last one is quite famous, its called the "Diaz-Creelman interview" by Posada. It shows how President Diaz interviews with US journalist Creelman, meanwhile outside his armed forces attack a protest that claims for the end of his reelections. The protesters have huge hats and the police, small ones. The hat is then a symbol of poverty, of peasants, not of Mexico or nationality.OK, so, how is this a Faux pas?Because of this, foreigners expect those huge hats on everyone's head and they even want to buy them and/or take pictures with them. Of course, Mexican tourist businesses cater to their whims, so they reinforce it by providing the service/product around tourist areas. This evolved into such a chiché that even when notable visitors go to the country they are given a sombrero to take a photo with: Popes, presidents, Pelé, even the Kardashians!Pope Benedict XVIPope John Paul IIPelé after winning the 1970 FIFA World Cup in Mexico City. Note no one else has any kind of hat in a stadium filled with 100,000 people.Kardashians in Mexico, 2011....aaaand earlier this month, Pope Francis, who is beside Mexico's current president.This is not to say that hats are not used anymore, but the ones used (in rural areas) are the vaquero-kind, known to you 'mericans as a cowboy hat. Down here it's called 'texana' or sombrero vaquero.'Texana" hatThese days it's somehow a trend, particularly in the north, to wear the hat combined with these ridiculously pointy boots. Not my style, but hey, we're a huge country of over 122 million people! I've never seen this out of the Northeast (Nuevo León, Coahuila, San Luis Potosí). To each his own!Note that 'vaquero' [cowboy] culture is in reality of Mexican origin. Vaqueros would be low-class cattle herders, as in which 'Charros' are the elite ones, part of the same culture. Here's a few charros practicing charrería at a charreada:Look closely on the background right, behind the woman, you can see a few guys with smaller hats, dressed simply in jeans and shirts. Those are not Charros, just vaqueros.Back to faux pasTherefore, it is a faux pas to expect hats everywhere on everyone, or to walk around with one, or to put it on other people because 'they are Mexican' or to do it trying to mimic of what you've seen on TV. I've seen this behavior, it is embarrassing to say the least.Also, it's best if you don't try to buy them or take silly photos with them trying to mimic the Kardashians, Speedy Gonzalez, the 3 caballeros or whatever media image you have of Mexico, ESPECIALLY if you are with other Mexicans. Add emphasis on top of that if these Mexicans are educated. Lots of uneducated ones will just follow the media trend without understanding anything about it, so I expect different views on this topic from them.However, if they offer you a big hat in a party, soccer match, or for a picture, yeah it's fine and it's ok because it's just for fun. But when you ask that you want to buy some, people will freak out and not know what to tell you. You will most likely only find them at the airport shops or some souvenir stores. Real charro hats are very hard to find outside of the Charrería circle. I've never seen them for sale anywhere.Keep in mind this is a great chance to get close to your Mexican friends by asking them to take you to a "Charreada", the exhibition show of this sport. You will probably never see a foreigner there and Mexicans will respect you more for respecting our culture.2. ReligionDepending on what circle you are in, you can make a faux pas if you're not careful.Most Mexicans in rural areas or low-socioeconomic levels are extremely religious. They worship saints, the Virgin of Guadalupe, Jesus Christ, and follow the Catholic Church's teachings. They oppose abortion and some can be very intolerant of evangelic Christians, Protestants, Mormons, and so on. Many are even extremist.Considering this, it's best to cut your losses and try to avoid the topic altogether. If they ask you about your beliefs, and they probably will, simply say you believe in God. Islam, Buddhism, or anything else will be frowned upon and they may tag you as heretic, hurting any chances you may have of moving on with your relationship with them. Also avoid questioning them about their beliefs, they will be offended. On the other side they could try to convert you, which is even worse.Mexican culture is swamped with catholic connotations with small faux pas:Spring break vacations is called the "holy week"DON'T expect people to work that week. Most won't understand if you refer to it as Easter (pascua), the Easter bunny or whatever other name.During this holy week there are several representations of the Passion of the Christ, with live corporal punishments.DON'T criticize or question it, and don't go if you're light hearted.Lent is a huge season for seafoodDON'T take people out to a steakhouse or host a BBQ on lent Fridays (cuaresma).December 12th is a day of pilgrimage to the Guadalupe Virgin Church in Mexico CityYou can complain about traffic, but DON'T complain about the belief, the veracity of the miraculous story, or about fanatics that do crazy things.Christmas eve (24th at night) is the day when people have dinner with their families, similar to Thanksgiving in the US or Chuseok in KoreaDON'T host parties or events the evening of the 24th, don't attend a family dinner that evening (unless you are specifically invited if you can't be with your family for some reason) and don't bring anyone if you're invited. No dates, only family.January 6th is also a holiday to cut the "3 wise men's cake" (Rosca de Reyes)DON'T pass on it, you may even have to eat several slices through the day.December 12th through January 6th, although not officially a holiday, paralyzes government and private businesses.DON'T make business appointments for that date and don't expect people to actually work.February 2nd is tamales day for the "day of candelaria": if you get the dummy in the cake, you pay for the tamalesDON'T skip on this one, you can ask for help but don't show up empty handed.There are small 'ferias' or festivals around each church to celebrate the day of the saint that the church is named afterThey will disrupt traffic, steal power from wherever they can, and create a lot of noise and trash. Just take it.There's a lot of love towards the figure of the PopeDON'T mention any substantial issues of the Catholic church (visit or no visit), like gender equality, abortion, contraception, pedophiles, or anything to do with how rich the church is.However, it's a whole different story if you are in a middle-to-high class environment or in a primarily urban setting with more educated people. Most of them will be atheist, Catholics by family but not in reality, and a few are evangelic Christians. They are very tolerant, open to abortion and contraception, but you will be looked down on if you reveal that you are a believer of _________. They could start questioning your faith, your customs, or your beliefs, making you very uncomfortable. If you try to convert them that will be even worse.In this case, also try your best to avoid the topic altogether and say you are atheist.Finally, do not expect de-facto religious tolerance. People would generally freak out if a Muslim prays, and to a less extent if you say grace, or ask if something is halal or kosher.3. PoliticsExclusive topic for Mexicans. In fact there's a law that says you can be deported if you get involved in political activities.In what concerns most Mexicans, the US is responsible for drug violence and the loss of territory; poverty and corruption is responsibility of the PRI party; and all politicians steal and fix elections.It's OK if Mexicans mention it, but it is NOT okay if a foreigner brings it up or responds. Only if they invite you in the conversation with some educated people then your opinion will be respected and happily heard, but you better not start a conversation about this with the average person.4. Inequality and povertyDepending on how you measure poverty, around half of all Mexicans live in it.It will put everyone on the edge if you make a rational comment or observation about it. Pointing out extreme and evident inequality or poverty is not well seen, even between Mexicans.This picture shows extreme inequality. There are many many places like this, so I know it's real. This is more like a 'middle' class vs high class.You will most likely encounter urban poverty and beggars. Ignore them or do as your Mexican friends do.In some places, these inequalities are trying to be hidden. This picture shows a huge ad wall beside Mexico City Airport. The photo was taken to show that winds tore the ad, but you can see that it is hiding inequality and 'ugliness'.Better to keep your comments about this to yourself.

I wrote this article decades ago and just copied it from the internet to post here.The Eric Pryor Matter as Told By Someone Who Was There And Saw It All HappenBy Eric MarshGet out your popcorn, you are in for a wild read.- ---------I was recently informed that the televangelist wannabe Eric Pryor was up tohis old tricks again. Apparently this time he tried to prevent the Los Altosschools from celebrating Halloween. For the benefit of those who areunfamiliar with Mr. Pryor I thought I'd put to paper my experience with himand his anti-Pagan crusade. I believe that this is also a commentary on atleast some elements of the moral fitness of leaders in the big business knownas "Christianity."In telling the Eric Pryor story I will not break explicitly statedconfidentialities, but as I no longer consider myself a member of the Pagancommunity (though once initiated, always initiated) I have no reason to "playnice" with either side. This is just the story with of my experience withEric Pryor, Dick Bernal and the other players involved. I will also state atthis point that the events I'm describing are to the best of my recollectionbut I don't have all the dates and specific documentation at hand and so somedetails will be vague. I'll try to answer any specific inquiries about thosedetails that I may receive via email at [email protected] background about myself. I first became involved in Wicca in 1984, whenI was attending school. I was raised as an atheist and decided to "try on"religion. After looking around I decided that Paganism fit the best. In 1988 Imet my wife, Janet Christian, a go-getter who essentially brought theorganization Bay Area Pagan Assemblies (BAPA) to life and nurtured it untilit could stand without her. We eventually became HP and HPS of our own coven,Shadow Dancers. During the time we were involved in Wicca we saw a great dealof infighting, back stabbing, and "Witch Wars." For her efforts trying to makeBAPA happen Janet was the target of a lot of this sort of activity by past andpresent members of the BAPA board, some former coveners who carried somegrudges, and others.I finally concluded that those who will attack someone else to make themselveslook good do not deserve the efforts of someone like Janet and have just saidto myself, "fuck these people." This is not to say that I have not met somefine people as well, but I'm sorry to say that too often these are the folkssitting on the sidelines, not out there in positions of leadership. I've justseen too much nasty crap by people who should be assuming some sort of moralleadership and I've become sick of it. As you will see, this applies to allsides of the religious street. So now my time and money is spent on much morerewarding activities such as riding my motorcycle and traveling to theCarribbean and other places for scuba diving and underwater photography. As Isaid earlier, I'm not here to sugar coat anything, just to tell a story.- ----------Eric Pryor first showed up shortly before the first BAPA Witches HalloweenBall (1989).A televangelist by the name of Larry Lea was coming to town Halloween nightand having a huge "crusade." Lea was said by man in the know to be the nextbig up and coming televangelist. He was personally groomed by Oral Roberts(Mr. 900-Foot-Jesus) for the role. As part of his act Lea often dressed up inmilitary fatigues and spoke in militaristic terms. He was the guy who prettymuch put the term "Spiritual Warfare" on the map. The use of military termsin a religious context concerned me and the "San Jose Mercury News" wrote anarticle about him that addressed the controversy raised by such language.A few weeks before Halloween we received a mailing by a fellow who calledhimself Dr. Eric Pryor. "Dr." Pryor was trying to organize a counter protestagainst Lea, which sounded like a pretty decent idea. Janet and I were muchtoo busy with the Witches Ball to do any follow up on this and when wereceived a call from "Dr." Pryor; I chatted with him on the phone for a whileand got the impression that the guy was either a very high powered individualor a pretty big BS-er. He dropped a lot of "names" mostly from within theEast Cost Pagan community, such as Leo Martello, Laurie Cabot, Herman Slater,Lady Sintana, and others. I invited Pryor to the Witches Ball and told him Iwould speak to him some more at that time.When Eric Pryor showed up at the Halloween Witches Ball, his appearance wassomewhat striking and pretty freakish. He was tall and very thin (almostgaunt). His hair was bleached blond and he wore a clergical collar with apentagram on the front. He introduced his girlfriend as "Lady Trampoline." Hewore black leather gloves and had a large silver "occult-style" ring on eachfinger. At this point I was pretty skeptical about him but then again Paganscan tend to be pretty weird sometimes so I decided that for the time I wouldgive him the benefit of the doubt.When Pryor described his plan to do a public ritual in San Francisco toprotest Larry Lea's visit Janet and I decided to go along with it for a couplereasons. First of all I supported the idea of someone getting out there andsaying that we don't want a bunch of militaristic fundamentalist loonies inthe Bay Area, or anywhere else for that matter. The other reason was thatPryor had drawn a lot of media attention and as representatives of a Paganorganization we figured it would be a good idea to get some more mainstreamappearing faces in front of the camera so that the general public would notidentify all Pagans with Pryor's brand of freakishness. Trying to present amainstream image to Paganism was one of the goals we were trying to achievewith BAPA (in fact, it was part of BAPA's charter). In fact, we had done aninterview with the religion editor of the "San Jose Mercury News" just a fewweeks earlier to further that goal.The day of the ritual I brought my camcorder and helped Pryor set up. Janethad gone with him and his girlfriend to their apartment and described it as amess. I video taped the ritual, which went pretty well at first. There werelots of press and probably about 50 people in robes. The ritual, as describedto us, was to be pretty tame. Pryor had a figure candle when he said he wasgoing to burn as a symbolic way of removing the negativity Lea was bringing tothe city. He assured us he was only going to use the candle to banish thenegativity and not in any way to harm Lea.Things went well (and according to plan) until Pryor found that the figurecandle would not light in the breeze. Instead, Pryor allowed people to takeout their aggressions on the candle. This started with a few people swattingit with brooms to "sweep away" Lea's influences. The action with the broomsbecame more aggressive and then `Z' Buddapest used the opportunity to spend aminute or two on her soapbox. Finally Pryor cut the candle in two with hisathame. This upset some people within the circle and they started to do acounter working to undo what they perceived as (and it really was) essentiallya curse. This was all very exotic for the press and they missed the wholepoint (good). The story went international on CNN and made the lead of mostlocal stations. It raised enough attention in the area that Halloween nightthere was a huge gay protest in front of the Christian crusade with a lot ofpeople getting yelled at and a couple hit with eggs.The day before Halloween a local TV talk show was interviewing Larry Lea andDick Bernal, the minister of Jubilee Christian Center (JCC), a large localEvangelical church, and some others. The subject was supposed to be exorcisms,which somehow came out of the "Spiritual Warfare" of Lea and company. At thelast minute Eric Pryor managed to get himself onto the show. This no doubt wasa great surprise to Lea. Since the show dealt with exorcism the fundamentalistsdid their little act and Pryor came up with an "exorcism" that consisted of alot of stabbing actions (in the air) with his athame. To be honest, it wasquite an embarrassment.Pastor Dick Bernal, being the sharp character that he is, recognized anopportunity when he saw one. He invited Eric Pryor out for breakfast and overcoffee invited him to the Lea event. He sent a limo to SF to pick up Eric andhis live-in girl friend, Cassandra, and he put them up in a nice hotel, payedfor their dinner, and (Eric told us later) gave him a couple of hundreddollars (Eric and Cassandra were living in near-poverty). At the Lea eventEric and Cassandra were given VIP seats in the center of the first row.Halloween night was a circus. I wore slacks and a polo shirt so that I couldget into the Larry Lea event. Outside there was a big protest with lots ofpeople dressed up for the usual San Francisco Halloween celebration. There werea lot of partiers, signs, and a huge cross that used a penis for the uprightbeam. I went inside the auditorium and got some video and then went outsideinto the crowd. The crowd had their fun with the arriving Christians, and thenthe cops herded them off to the Castro district for the big Halloween bash.Eric Pryor did end up attending Lea's event and was treated like a king. Afterthe event he was quoted in some brief TV interviews as saying that he wastorn between Paganism and Christianity. Lea also video taped a one-on-onebetween himself and Pryor.The next day Pryor called me from the hotel where he was staying, and Janetand I went to visit Cassandra and him. He bought us dinner from room service(at Bernal of JCC's expense) and explained that he was thinking of putting on"an act" of going over to the Christians so that he could go undercover and"get the dirt" on them. I was more skeptical than ever but figured it couldn'thurt to stay in the loop just to keep up with what was going on. That was thelast we saw of Eric Pryor for a few weeks.About this time Don Frew of the Covenant of the Goddess got into the act. Iexplained to Don what was going on and his biggest concern seemed to be thatPryor would make Pagans look bad with the Christian crowd. This was alegitimate concern, I must admit. By this time Pryor was making claims to theChristians that he was the leader of the Bay Area Pagan community and impliedthat he was a big national Pagan leader. (JCC was referring to him as theWitch King -- but we never knew whether Pryor claimed that or the church justchose the title on their own.) When Frew heard that Pryor planned to goundercover to get dirt on the Christians he contacted Dick Bernal at JCC toexpress his concerns that Pryor was not all he claimed to be. It soon becameevident that Bernal (and Lea) were not so concerned with the truth as theywere with appearances. I don't think that either of them cared who or whatEric Pryor was but rather what he could pass himself off as to Christiancongregations.I heard from Pryor again a few weeks later, after Thanksgiving. Eric called meand invited me to his wedding at JCC. I accepted and asked him if he would likeme to video tape it for him. He said yes, and the day of his wedding I shotsome footage. At the very end I shot a few seconds of Bernal and Pryor signingwhat appeared to be a wedding license. Pryor started to ask me if I would liketo witness it but Bernal cut him off. After the wedding Pryor, Dick Bernal, theassistant Pastor (who was later convicted for child molestation) their wives,and some others went out for dinner.At the dinner Pryor was pushing Bernal in regard to a number of "outreaches"including one to the Pagan community. He wanted to have a huge discussionbetween leaders of both communities, video tape the whole thing, and presentit on Christian TV channels. He said that it would eliminate misunderstandingsbetween the two groups and could open a line of dialog. I, in turn, toldBernal that if they wanted to open lines of dialog this was _not_ the way todo things. My suggestion was that a small group get together over coffee a fewtimes to try to create some trust; only when trust was established couldsomething like Pryor proposed work. I did say that I would try to get somelocal leaders in our community to meet with Bernal if that's what he wanted todo. He agreed and I started to make arrangements.I pulled together a group that included Don Frew and Russell Williamsrepresenting COG, Janet Christian and Diana St. Martin representing BAPA, andAnodea Judith the president of the Church of All Worlds. I tried to just actas an arbitrator. The Pagans were mostly concerned that Bernal would actuallybelieve Pryor's claims about himself and insisted that he not be included inthis discussion. This got Pryor all upset but he had no choice but to go alongwith it. His girlfriend attended and I recorded the discussion. The Pagans inattendance said that they might be willing to consider a forum like Pryorproposed but only if Pryor was not involved in the project in any way. Bernalmore or less poo-pooed our concerns and while he tried to act interested inwhat we had to say he didn't commit to anything.As the result of this meeting Pryor went ballistic. He started to assert thatthe reason local Pagans would not support his video project was "selfengrandizement" and went about trying to sell his idea to Pagan "names" inouter parts of the country. To counter this the then-leadership of BAPA wentinto high gear, contacting Pagans across the country. We wrote some articlesdescribing the events that occurred up to that point. Lea Samul or COG wrotean excellent account of the whole Pryor incident. We still have copiesavailable. During this period we spent a lot of time on the phone and spent alot of money on postage. Eventually we got the word and Pryor's TV show neverhappened because no self-respecting Pagan would appear on it.As part of this process we tried to find out just who this Eric Pryor wasanyway. Nobody seemed to know much of anything about him or where he came from,although Herman Slater in New York, was able to tell us that he did know EricPryor. I sent a confidential letter to Bernal explaining this and Bernalimmediately handed it over to Pryor. Pryor then sent me several rather bizarrefaxes full of religious ravings as the result of this.At about this time Pryor went on televangelist Larry Lea's program and agreedwith Lea when asked if "a Pagan is as likely to shoot you as put a curse onyou." Jubilee Christian Center also produced a video tape about Eric Pryorthat they were selling for $20. What I recall most vividly about that videotape was that the security guys wearing dark sunglasses holding the crowd backwhile Pryor's occult books, artwork, drums, and altar implements were rituallyburned in a large pile in the JCC parking lot looked like a cross between CIAand mobster. Pryor and several others even stomped up and down on the drums tobreak the drumheads. (I later discovered that Pryor had secreted away some ofhis ritual implements so that they would not be destroyed.)During this period we were contacted by a producer for ABC TV's PrimeTimeLive news program, who was doing a story about corrupt televangelists. Thisproducer was curious about the events surrounding Lea's Halloween crusade.After telling all that we knew about the event, Janet mentioned that we weretrying to research Pryor's background but could not come up with much. She alsodescribed how we had come up with a blank when trying to find the records ofPryor's marriage to Cassandra. Because I had video taped a few seconds ofPryor and Bernal signing what appeared to be a marriage certificate I sent acopy of the tape to the producer so that she could research the matter.By this time we were getting the sense that the whole bunch, Lea, Bernal,Pryor and the rest of this televangelist crowd were pretty sleazy characters.What our PrimeTime Live contact came up with about the marriage confirmed thisfeeling.The "marriage" had been a deliberate hoax. Eric Pryor was already married to awoman, and had some kids by that marriage. He had simply walked out on her oneday (the classic "going out to get cigarettes and never coming back").Because Bernal and Lea wanted to sell Eric Pryor on the Evangelical churchcircuit as "The Witch that Switched" they could not have him living "in sin"with his girlfriend. Knowing that Pryor was already married to another womanBernal presided over a sham marriage for the sake of appearances. The nextDecember the video tape I took of Pryor's marriage was shown on PrimeTime Live,along with evidence of other deceptions on the part of Lea. On top ofeverything else, Lea's father passed away at about this time. Taken togetherthese events ended Lea's career as a major player among the televangelistcrowd. Shortly thereafter Bernal explained his part in the sham to hiscongregation during a Sunday service. It didn't keep them from coming backthough; some people have got to be terminally stupid.The next time I saw Pryor was during an all day Christian event in a smallpublic park in downtown San Jose. He was evidently developing his "act" thathe hoped would make him a name on Christian TV one day. Eric's teeth had beenstraightened at JCC's expense and he was wearing a $400 suit (althoughCassandra was still wearing "thrift store" quality clothes and army boots).They arrived in Bernal's stretch limo. Again, I recorded the whole event.Pryor did a lot of yelling about how he was going to "Kick Satan's butt" andtried to keep it comical. He also attacked Pagans a lot. I spoke briefly toCassandra and told her that my only interest was that the truth be toldregarding who Pryor was and his claims to be the former leader of Bay AreaPagans. In a brief moment of openness she told me that this all wasn't abouttruth, it was about the true God, the all mighty dollar. (I liked Cassandra;I think she was just a victim of her circumstances.)Pryor next put together a presentation attempting to associate gays withPaganism. It was all pretty off-the-wall stuff that ended with a display ofthose gay sex toys that can be shown to a Christian congregation and somePagan ritual implements. During the entire presentation while Pryor had hisback turned to the audience so that he could operate a slide projector he had aguard wearing dark sunglasses standing with his arms crossed behind Pryorfacing the audience. I have to wonder if this guard was supposed to throwhimself in the way of any curses cast by Witches in the audience.In the months that followed a number of things occurred. Pryor went to Salemwith a video crew to try to get some footage of him confronting the "evil" inthat town. He and his crowd accosted a young mother and forced her to kneel infront of him, his camera, and her child. For this and some other equallyslimey actions the local police department sent him out of town with a warningthat if he ever returned he could expect to stay for a while at city expense.He took his act to JCC south, an old bar that was converted to a church whenthe owner converted to Christianity. Pryor was wearing military fatigues and Iwas there with my camcorder. This time I video taped him spewing venom abouthow Pagans should not be allowed to commit such crimes as that of raising theirchildren in their faith.After a number of embarrassing incidents Pryor tried to improve his status byhaving the religion editor of the "San Jose Mercury News" write a story abouthim and his conversion. The only problem with this was that I had alreadydiscussed the matter with the man and had given him 30 pages of documentationregarding Pryor's past and his activities. When the article came out itshredded Pryor. After this when I sat in a Sunday service at JCC, Pryor was nolonger given a seat among the church's dignitaries.Two weeks after the San Jose Mercury article came out the author was founddead. The official cause of death was a heart attack.Sometime around this time Janet and I received a video tape in the mail fromsomeone back east who knew Pryor years earlier. The tape shows, among otherthings, Pryor having group homosexual intercourse, sitting on a bathroom floorshooting up heroin and then vomiting violenty into the toilet, dressed in dragand doing an obscene dance, and other bizarre images. We also spoke to hisstill-legal-wife, who had been trying to find him for years so that she couldtry to collect child support. She was living on food stamps and welfare, whilePryor lounged in the lap of church wealth and luxery.Eventually Pryor's past started to catch up to him. It's possible that hiscontribution to the downfall of Larry Lea and subsequent damage to Bernal'sministry caused him to lose favor in Bernal's eyes. When I spoke to Pryor onetime he indicated that Bernal was by this time considering him to be an idiot.Pryor started to drink (he was evidently a recovered alcoholic) and crying thatCassandra had taken their child and left him as justification. Evidentlybecause I had always treated him honestly, Pryor called me. He was on abinge drunk, had a number of guns and was alluding to suicide. I convinced himto come to an AA meeting with me but he wouldn't leave his pistol behind so weended up just driving around a while. Eventually Bernal spent the money tosend him to a couple of Christian recovery programs, but Pryor could not takethe discipline and left.Pryor then started to slide in and out of periods of drunkenness. During aperiod of sobriety he was involved in an incident at Circle Sanctuary werePryor and televangelist Jeff Fenholt lead some followers to protest the Pagangathering there. I think that these things were probably more of anembarrassment to his mentor Bernal, than anything else. The last time I sawEric Pryor he was on a 30 day drunk and talking about suicide. Always the con,he pulled some of his old Wiccan tools out of a chest and informed me that hewas ready to come back to Paganism. Though he claimed this was because theChristians had treated him so badly, evidently this was because they were justgetting tired of his behavior. I told him that this might not be a gooddecision on his part. After that I visited him a few times and then decidedthat perhaps if booze really kicked his butt far enough then he might do whatit takes to get his life together.After I last saw Eric Pryor, still curious I called JCC a few weeks later andwas told that he was no longer associated with the church. When I'd talked toPryor he had mentioned another, smaller area church. On a hunch I called thesecretary there. She told me that the church's Pastor was very intererested inworking one-on-one with Pryor because he was in such a sorry mess "as a resultof his past involvement with that Satanism." I've got to give Eric credit forhaving an instinct of knowing where his next meal is coming from.It impossible not to see the irony involved in the Eric Pryor affair. Pryorcast a curse on Larry Lea and those of his ilk. Consequently, as a Christian,Pryor was an element in Lea's downfall. Dick Bernal thought he would have agoing (and growing) concern with Eric Pryor as the Witch that Switched butinstead Eric Pryor became a growing concern of Dick Bernal. From here it looksas if Pryor may _be_ the curse that he cast at those others.Life and death. Religion and sin. Greed, power, and deceit. Men falling indisgrace from the peak of their profession to obscurity. These are the reasonswhy the story of Eric Pryor is one of those fascinating true tales with all ]the elements of a tragedy in the greatest tradition of Western literature.Best of all, in this story all the characters deserve each other.A religious morality tale for our own time; someone should write an operaaboutit.