Sacramento area community musical theater (esp. DMTC in Davis, 2000-2020); Liberal politics; Meteorology; "Breaking Bad," "Better Call Saul," and Albuquerque movie filming locations; New Mexico and California arcana, and general weirdness.
But migrant crossings have slowed to a near halt, bringing a striking change to the landscape along the southernmost stretch of California.
Shelters that once received migrants have closed, makeshift camps where migrants waited for processing are barren, and nonprofits have begun shifting their services to established immigrants in the U.S. who are facing deportation, or migrants stuck in southern Mexico.
Meanwhile, the Border Patrol, with the assistance of 750 U.S. military troops, has reinforced six miles of the border wall with concertina wire.
...Border Patrol agents in the San Diego sector are now making about 30 to 40 arrests per day, according to the agency. That’s down from more than 1,200 per day during the height of migrant arrivals to the region in April.
In May 2023, the Biden administration ended a pandemic-era policy under which migrants were denied the right to seek asylum and were rapidly returned to Mexico. In the leadup to the policy change, migrants descended on the border by the thousands.
Last April, San Diego became the top region along the border for migrant arrivals for the first time in decades. Stalnaker said there’s been a 70% decrease in migrant arrests so far this fiscal year, compared to the same period last year.
“To say there has been a dramatic change would be an understatement,” he said.
But Stalker noted that Border Patrol expects an increase in attempts by migrants to enter California by boat “as we continue to lock down the border here and secure it.”
With migrants now unable to seek legal ways of entering the U.S. through the asylum process, advocates anticipate that more will begin to risk their lives by attempting to enter illegally through more remote and dangerous terrain. Some desperate enough might even try to jump over all the newly installed concertina wire.
Surprised by the blowback they received for agitating against everyone else, the NM GOP vows to lower the temperature by agitating yet more:
While officials investigate if a New Mexico Republican Party office was set aflame intentionally, state GOP leaders are calling for turning down the political temperature and strengthening the state's crime laws.
"This isn't just about Republicans," said Party Chair Amy Barela at a news conference on Monday. "This is about every New Mexican that has suffered because of a system that fails to hold criminals accountable. From car-jackings in Albuquerque to tragic murders in Las Cruces, the crisis is escalating, and time for action is now."
State Senate Minority Leader William Sharer of Farmington said legislators should work together to strengthen the state's juvenile code, target street gangs and cartels and support law enforcement. House Minority Leader Gail Armstrong of Magdalena said Republicans are still ready to come "to the table for solutions."
...Although the arson investigation has yet to be completed, New Mexico Senate Republicans tried to pin blame for the fire on rhetoric from Congresswoman Teresa Leger Fernández at a town hall Saturday in Santa Fe.
“In the wake of a prominent Democrat official calling for her supporters to be ‘agitators,’ it appears some unhinged supporters took the message to heart and acted out in a violent manner,” the group’s leaders said in a statement.
...Leger Fernández did call for her supporters to “agitate” with specific actions like coming to town halls, following Democratic politicians on social media and calling Republican members of Congress. In a statement Monday, Leger Fernández said “political violence of any sort is unacceptable, including this attack. The perpetrators must be held accountable.”
“It is a ludicrous leap to twist encouraging democratic participation, calling your representatives and showing up at town halls into an insinuation of violence,” Leger Fernández said.
This week, I worked two days as a substitute teaching assistant at the Montessori school, both times in-class, and not my usual gig in Club M, the afterschool program to care for some of the kids until their parents pick them up after work. My job as an in-class teaching assistant is mostly to check off work that the students have been assigned.
I'm beginning to feel like a big fish in the sea, moving through a school of little fishies. An accepted part of the ecosystem.
On Tuesday, I worked in a classroom with grade 1-3 schoolkids. The work was mostly uneventful, but I was struck how hampered the kids were. Somehow I don't think my cohort in the 60s suffered to the same extent. Out of a class of about twenty, one girl had her foot in a boot and got around on crutches. Four of the kids had casts on their broken arms, and a girl went around collecting signatures on a get-well-card for a fifth kid who had just broken her arm. Probably some stories there. A sweet bunch. One boy in particular was mugging for attention. I noticed the kids were having some trouble with equivalent fractions (I don't recall working on fractions so young).
On Thursday, I worked with TK Kindergartners, the youngest and most-fun kids in the school. I sat on a tiny chair in the back of the class as the teacher introduced me. The kids weren't fooled by the teacher's formalities. One kid looked back at me and said, "We've seen you before. At Club M." The other kids looked at each other, nodded in recognition, and said, "Yes, Club M!" Another kid wistfully said, "I wish I could go to Club M." So, the little fishies gave their stamp of approval to the big, awkward fish in the back.
Among the first activities of the day was a vision screening test. So, we all walked over to a portable-style classroom towards the back of the school. The kids gave me an informal history lesson. They recalled how they used to play on the grass at this location, but then the school put the classroom there. One kid said he had heard that Club M was going to be moved soon to this place. All the kids marveled at how so many changes were coming to their school.
As the kids waited their turn, the teacher led the class in singing rhymes, sometimes to that familiar tune of "Frère Jacques." The rhyme that stuck with me, because it was unfamiliar, was:
Ten little candles on a birthday cake.
Wh! Wh! Now there are eight.
Eight little candles in candle sticks.
Wh! Wh! Now there are six.
Six little candles, not one more.
Wh! Wh! Now there are four.
Four little candles, red and blue.
Wh! Wh! Now there are two.
Two little candles, one by one.
Wh! Wh! Now there are none.
Returning to the classroom, I noticed how two girls who I noticed were rivals on the playground two weeks ago were rivals in the classroom too. I guess that kind of friction is to be expected.
I've been unusually careful with one girl, who've I've seen on the playground before, and who reminds me of my sister when she was young. From her body language I can see that older males scare her - a chaotic threat - and as the oldest male around, I'm the scariest of all. I try to put her at ease. She accidentally knocked over a stack of blocks, but I didn't chastise her or try to make her anxious. Isn't it amazing? Blocks sometimes fall over of their own accord!
I walked some of the kids over to the playground for snack and recess. One girl got stuck and almost fell off the play structure. One of the other TAs and I helped rescue her.
Later, while checking off work, I noticed some of the kindergartners were having trouble noticing when they used backwards or upside down letters. Another kid had spelled the word "moment," but didn't see the need for placing the second letter "m" in the word. He had already used the letter once. Why use it again? Can't people understand it in context? Still, I could see these kids were more advanced than I had been at their age.
For the afternoon art project, the teacher presented a video on the Indian holiday of Holi, which involves, among other things related to Krishna and Vishnu, smearing bright powdered paint on one's face and the faces of friends. The kids were going to celebrate Holi too. The TK kids weren't supposed to paint their faces, but they were supposed to paint silhouettes of people on paper.
I had instant reservations. These were kindergartners. There's no way that bright powdered paint on the fingers won't show up on their faces and clothes too! Still, the kids mostly-succeeded in their task.
One girl was crying - an earache. Her classmates were trying to comfort her, but the day was winding to a close, and there was nothing we could do.
Class dismissed. I was asked to stay on for the beginning of Club M. First, afternoon TK recess.
There was some friction. For several weeks now, the girls have been building a big eagle's nest using pine needles falling from nearby trees. The girls tried to exclude one of the girls -Miss Eagle herself - because the nest wasn't large enough, but we TAs weren't going to let that happen. Just make the nest bigger, we said. One of the boys called it a "poopynest" and made one of the girls cry in frustration.
Then, time to take the kids over to the big Club M room. As we headed over, I was thunderstruck. The entire school was celebrating Holi, not just our class. The big paved play area was covered in powdered paint, which had also been rained upon. There was paint everywhere. Large number of students and teachers and administrators alike were on the playground smearing paint on each other's faces. The only ones fairly-unaffected by the paint fiesta were the kindergartners and their TAs. Somehow the crazy scene seemed very Californian to me. We don't know anything about Holi here in California, but we were going to celebrate it to its utmost!
Club M had barely started when I was faced with my next challenge. A very young boy had peed his pants - a very-common problem at his age. I escorted the boy to the bathroom. He took off his pants, but then had no backup clothes. It was unclear what to do next.
By coincidence, the boy's older brother came to the bathroom. The brother said there night be clothes in the boy's backpack, which should be in the big Club M room. I asked the brother if he would go to the room to get the backpack, but he refused to go, because he had not yet been granted permission by his teacher to go to the room. I don't know if he feared his teacher, or felt I didn't have enough clout with his teacher to persuade him, or just figured rules are rules. The older brother left. We were out of options.
So, I dressed the young boy in my coat and we made our way back to the big Club M room to look for the backpack. By this time, the older brother was present in the big Club M room and he was able to locate the backpack. But then, we couldn't find any clothes. So, out of options again, we went back to the bathroom.
We eventually left the bathroom again, and on reexamination of the backpack finally found the stash of replacement clothes. So we returned to the bathroom for the third time to get the boy changed and back to Club M.
Poor young kid. So dependent on everyone else - people like me - to get through the day.
One of the biggest shocks (or, for the rest of us, the least surprising development of 2025) is that Nebraska’s farming economy is being crushed under the weight of Trump’s second-term immigration policies.
Shocking, right? Who could have guessed that mass deportations would leave entire industries—industries that rely heavily on undocumented workers—crippled and understaffed?
Well, literally everyone.
According to the Center for Migration Studies and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), an estimated 45% of the U.S. agricultural workforce is undocumented. And that’s likely an undercount.
Nebraska, where agriculture constitutes a major share of the state’s GDP and employment base, is particularly vulnerable.
Migrant and seasonal farmworkers perform essential duties in planting, harvesting, and processing, especially in the state’s robust corn, soybean, and livestock industries (Martin, 2017).
Policies aimed at mass deportation and the reduction of H-2A visas have disrupted labor availability, leading to delayed harvests, increased spoilage, and rising operational costs (Martin, 2022).
The American Farm Bureau Federation has long warned that deportation-driven enforcement without a corresponding legal labor framework would severely compromise food security and domestic production capacity (AFBF, 2019).
These workers are the backbone of agriculture, handling everything from planting and harvesting to processing and distribution.
And yet, when Trump spent years on the campaign trail promising to “deport them all,” his farmer base either cheered or stayed silent, assuming, I suppose, that crops would magically pick themselves.
But now? Now that the fields are empty, the harvests are delayed, and labor costs are soaring? Suddenly, there’s a crisis. Suddenly, Nebraskans are begging for someone—anyone—to step in and help them keep their farms running.
Here’s the thing: when your entire industry is built on the labor of undocumented immigrants, maybe don’t vote for the guy who swore to rip that labor force away.
It’s like hiring an arsonist to remodel your house and then being surprised when all that’s left is ashes.
Of course, it’s not just the labor crisis choking Nebraska’s economy. The state itself is staring down a $289 million budget deficit, thanks to yet another Trump-era policy change: massive cuts to federal Medicaid funding.
Now, if you’re wondering what Medicaid has to do with farmers, let’s break it down.
Nebraska is a heavily rural state, and rural hospitals and clinics rely heavily on Medicaid reimbursements to keep their doors open.
According to the Nebraska Hospital Association, over 60% of rural health facilities in the state rely on Medicaid for more than a third of their operational revenue (NHA, 2022).
With those funds slashed, rural healthcare providers are at risk of shutting down.
And when hospitals disappear, so do the people. Rural economies, already fragile, spiral into decline.
It’s a domino effect: fewer people means fewer workers, fewer consumers, fewer tax dollars.
It's hard to overemphasize how destructive these balloon-launch cancellations are for our ability to model the weather and make weather forecasts. Without good data, models work on the principle of garbage in-garbage out. What's worse, of course is that these canceled launches are concentrated in the upper Midwest, which will wreck forecasts for the Mississippi Valley and the East Coast. Where a lot of tornadoes happen.
Apparently the idea is to wreck the forecasts of the National Weather Service, so Americans will turn to private weathercasters. Those private businesses rely on the same balloon launches, however, so everyone will be in the same dark pit of ignorance, at least until the balloon launches are restored, by whatever means.
Maybe anecdotes can help. In the late summer, I do some hurricane-path forecasts for friends who live in Tampa, FL. One thing that struck me about forecasting for the Caribbean Sea and the western Atlantic is how flat the tropical pressure gradient can be. With very little guidance from the immediate environment, hurricanes can respond instead to very distant events. Hurricane paths can be affected by the presence of thunderstorms in Venezuela, or by how rapidly storms pass from the Canadian Rockies onto the Great Plains. With enforced ignorance in the upper Midwest - here there be dragons! - it becomes harder to forecast hurricane paths in places like Florida.
The U.S. just experienced a deadly storm outbreak with over 100 tornadoes and 1000 hail reports. Weather balloons were a big tool for the NWS in these storms but...
The following National Weather Service locations will launch only 1 weather balloon per day — rather than 2. ❌❌
This limits how much data is being fed into weather models, and may slightly decrease accuracy over the northern U.S.
Note that I disgree that there will be a slight decrease in accuracy. It's going to be bigger than that.
Late last night, Jasper and I traveled down a quiet street in Curtis Park, a very familiar stretch that we've traveled at least 2,000 times before.
Then, Jasper stopped walking, and peered forward. Nothing was moving: no dogs, cats, people, cars, skunks, or raccoons. Still, Jasper panicked. He reversed direction, and forcefully dragged me away. It was Halloween in March!
Some spirit, some ghostly presence completely spooked him, and we quickly headed home, for safety.
At best, they’ll have the best-appointed community theater in the D.C. area. At worst, they’ll have to close:
In a recording of the meeting shared with The Washington Post, Trump and members said they’d like to see “Camelot,” “Cats,” “Fiddler on the Roof,” “Hello, Dolly!” and “The Phantom of the Opera” featured at the Kennedy Center. Speaking with reporters, Trump said, “We’re going to get some very good shows.”
There are a number of practical problems with this wish list, the first of which is that none of those musicals are touring in North America (although a tour of “Phantom” does launch in November). And if the Kennedy Center were to try to mount its own nonunion productions, it would run into a brick wall of standing labor contracts.
I went to the Tower and saw this film, directed by Rungano Nyoni, and set in modern Zambia. Loved it! There's a notable Surrealist influence in the movie, which features among other things Southern African pop music and kiddie TV, and mysteries related to the death of Uncle Fred. I detect echoes of "Breaking Bad" in the film. I still don't fully understand the plot, which is among the reasons I loved it.
I liked how modern this film is, mixing Smartphones, Zoom calls, and modern architecture into centuries-old traditions with respect to death. Makes for vivid filmmaking.
Also, the film wasn’t quite non-Western. Zambia was colonized by the English, and the people in the film spoke a mix of English and Bemba. So it was familiar and not familiar at the same time.
In addition, the soundtrack was curious. It featured a song called "Godly" by Omah Lay, who is a Nigerian singer, well-known on the international Afrobeats circuit, and whose songs I've heard before in Jamaican Dancehall class. So, despite being a bit exotic, the song and its style was nevertheless familiar, and not limited to southern Africa. In addition, there was a country-western song called "Come On Dance" by John McNicholl, someone I've never heard of before. So, a mix of familiar and unfamiliar.
The 18.6-year precession cycle of the Moon, as it orbits the Earth, will culminate soon, perhaps today (as of March 21st). Right now, the Moon is at -28 degrees 40 minutes, and will soon break -29 degrees.
The Moon must be beautiful right now as it rides high in the Southern Hemisphere nighttime sky. It’s so far south it barely makes any appearance at all in the Northern Hemisphere sky. Here in Sacramento it won’t rise until after 2 a.m., then it’ll skitter across the southern horizon before setting midmorning. It’s WAY south- as far south as it ever gets - and looks ultra freaky (clouds permitting).
The Moon will keep swinging north and south for the rest of this year, slowly settling back into its familiar grove. In nine years, the Moon will be dull once again, but by 2043 it’ll be nuts once again! Hoping to catch it then too.
Walking Jasper at 1 a.m. last night, I felt icicles. A black Tesla Cybertruck raced passed us, bright halogen headlights cutting through the darkness of the silent neighborhood. Who knows where it was coming from, or where it was going? The sinister Swasticar looked like a beast of burden for Sauron's Nazgul, but more likely it bore a panicked dweeb trying to get home before the woke neighborhood awoke.
Well, that was brutal. Less than a day after I became aware of a cat wanting to move onto my premises, he’s gone: hit by a car out on the street. My neighbors buried him on our joint property line. Apparently he had claimed all of our houses as his own, and had already become quite popular.
I suspect a conspiracy. The birds who rule the back yard weren’t going to have anything to do with a cat, and put out a hit.
One month left in the Sacramento rainy season. How are we doing? (as of March 18th)
The Sacramento area is succumbing to the gravitational pull of the Southwestern drought. Currently, Sacramento rainfall is about 90% of average, and slowly dropping.
There are indications of a big storm coming around March 30th, so we'll see then if the trend can be reversed.
Links to 28 different "Breaking Bad" and "Better Call Saul" posts can be found on the sidebar of the Marc Valdez Weblog desktop website. Choose the link that works best for you.
This post describes Native-American influences on "Breaking Bad": particularly Hopi influences (last updated March 28, 2025).
Let me know if you have any problems or questions (E-Mail address: valdezmarc56@gmail.com).
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To avoid unnecessary friction, I have redacted the addresses of all single-family homes in these books. (These addresses are still available at Marc Valdez Weblog, however.) The pictures in the print editions are black-and-white, in order to keep costs down.
"A Guidebook To 'Breaking Bad' Filming Locations: Including 'Better Call Saul' - Albuquerque as Physical Setting and Indispensable Character" (Sixth Edition)
This book outlines thirty-three circuits that the avid fan can travel in order to visit up to 679 different filming locations for "Breaking Bad" and "Better Call Saul" in the Albuquerque area. Some background is provided for each site, including other movies that might have also used the site for filming.
"‘Breaking Bad’ Signs and Symbols: Reading Meaning into Sets, Props, and Filming Locations” (Second Edition)
“‘Breaking Bad’ Signs and Symbols,” aims to understand some of the symbolism embedded in the backgrounds of “Breaking Bad” and “Better Call Saul,” in order to decode messages and stories Vince Gilligan and crew have hidden there.A series of tables are used to isolate how certain (particularly architectural) features are used: Gentle Arches, Tin Ceilings, Five-Pointed Stars, Octagons, etc. Daylighting innovations that were either pioneered or promoted in Chicago are examined: Glass Block Windows, Luxfer Prismatic Tile Windows, and Plate Glass Windows.
Certain symbols advance the plot: foreshadowing symbols like Pueblo Deco Arches, or danger symbols like bell shapes and stagger symbols. Other features, like Glass Block Windows or Parallel Beams in the Ceiling, tell stories about the legacies and corruptions of modernity, particularly those best-displayed at Chicago’s “Century of Progress” (1933-34).
In addition, a number of scenes in the show are modeled after Early Surrealist artworks. The traces of various artists can be tracked in both shows, including: Comte de Lautréamont, Giorgio De Chirico, Man Ray, Max Ernst, Leonora Carrington, René Magritte, Toyen, Yves Tanguy, Remedios Varo, Paul Klee, and in particular, Salvador Dalí.
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Video Presentation
Presentation for the Southwest Popular/American Culture Association (February 22, 2025).
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Introduction
The writers of these shows mix modern ideas with traditional religious ideas as they start writing their scripts. It’s useful to reveal these starting points. In this talk I’ll focus on Native-American ideas.
Some Native-American ideas are broadly-held among many tribes. For example, the Thunderbird, a protective spirit, makes an excellent avatar for Jimmy McGill, a lawyer who fights to protect the little guy. Fifi is a Thunderbird (BCS 208, "Fifi").
“Fudge” Talbott wears a native-style blanket and a Thunderbird emblem on his jacket. Thunderbird emblems occasionally appear in show backgrounds (BCS 208, "Fifi").
Nevertheless, most of the Native American ideas used in these shows come from the Hopi, a Puebloan tribe who live on northern Arizona’s high mesas. On the left here is the village of Walpi. The Hopi religion is remarkably sophisticated and emphatically peaceful. The Hopi believe the only reason they are able to live where they do is because of the rainfall they attract through the purity of their rituals.
Since I kept bumping into Hopi references in “Breaking Bad,” I obtained an authoritative survey on Hopi religious culture, the “Book of the Hopi,” by Frank Waters, published in 1963. This was a fortuitous find. It soon became clear that Vince Gilligan and the creative team at “Breaking Bad” also relied heavily on THIS book. I’d like to share with you some of these stories, so you can see the parallels for yourself.
Let’s start with a map of eastern Arizona. We have the Hopi homeland in the north. I will also mention the Tohono O’odham tribe later in this talk. They are located south of Phoenix. Please note four locations: the city of Globe, Arizona; the pueblo of Zuni, in western New Mexico; Wénima, an ancestral village of the Zuni located just north of Springerville, AZ, and Oraibi, the religious center of the Hopi.
The first half of “Better Call Saul” concerns itself with the quarrels between two brothers, Jimmy and Chuck. The Hopi are sadly familiar with such rivalries. One such rivalry occurred between two brothers of the Water Clan, in the days of the Hopi migration, when they were both competing to lead a village located near Globe, AZ. This rivalry is the model for Jimmy and Chuck’s rivalry.
Which brother should be chief? To resolve the question, each brother planted corn, and prayed for rain.
The younger brother prayed to a deity called Panaiyoikyasi, or Short Rainbow, and rain fell on his corn, but rain did not fall on the older brother’s corn. The angry older brother demanded that the younger brother leave, so the younger brother and his faction migrated northeast to Wénima and lived there for about a decade before finally migrating to Oraibi.
So, who is Short Rainbow? Short Rainbow has power over the fertile earth when it is wet with rain. This image on the left shows the moment when Kim Wexler is visually identified with Short Rainbow (BCS 209 “Nailed”).
Short Rainbow is actually a male deity, but for the show’s purposes gender is reassigned. Short Rainbow is closely-linked to another deity, Kuwánlelenta (To Make Beautiful Surroundings), Guardian Spirit of Sunflowers and deity of the Sunflower Clan. The same symbol, modeled on an insect pollinating a flower, is used for both deities.
Francesca’s beautiful floral blouses appear to identify her with this second deity.
In 1960, archaeologists discovered a statuette at Wénima, an example of a Típoni, a badge of religious authority; in this case, for the followers of Short Rainbow. The Hopi broke off the right arm of the statuette when they left Wénima, in order to prevent Short Rainbow’s great power from being abused in their absence.
In “Better Call Saul,” Kim’s broken right arm precipitates Kim and Jimmy’s migration away from Wexler-McGill (BCS 407 “Something Stupid”). This break comes up again in the episode ‘Plan and Execution,’ when Howard angrily berates Kim for her soulless character. The way he puts it is by saying that Kim has a piece missing.
Now, how does a Hopi deity who calls Wénima, Arizona home go about taking human form – finding a place to live, choosing a mother, growing up, and then becoming a lawyer? It’s a daunting task. Apparently there is a constraint: Kim Wexler has to come from the same place as Short Rainbow, or at least a place with the same name. But modern Wénima, Arizona, is a wildlife refuge and is thus implausible as the home of a modern human. There is a way out, though. As it happens, Red Cloud House is a nickname given by the Hopi for Wénima, AZ. If only there was an inhabitable place also called Red Cloud.
We see young Kim Wexler waiting for her mom in the parking lot of Red Cloud Junior High School (BCS 506, “Wexler v. Goodman”). Red Cloud is a Nebraska town near the Kansas state line; named after the Oglala Sioux warrior Red Cloud. Thankfully, Red Cloud, Nebraska, exists and can provide the necessary sustenance for Short Rainbow to transform into Kim Wexler.
The Wexler-McGill law office represents Wénima; a waystation on Jimmy’s migration through life. Jimmy honors Short Rainbow, here on the left (BCS 209 “Nailed”). Indeed, anytime Jimmy puts on a colorful suit and a bright tie, he honors his deity, Short Rainbow.
It’s no coincidence that three important, different structures in the “Breaking Bad” universe are red in color. Each structure is a refuge, like Wénima, Red Cloud House.
Walter White’s red New Hampshire cabin is a bitter refuge (BrBa 515 “Granite State”).
Kim’s red-brick school is a formative refuge (BCS 506, “Wexler v. Goodman”).
Kim and Jimmy foster each other’s careers at the red refuge of Wexler-McGill (BCS 208 “Fifi”).
Here is the jagged-line Wexler-McGill logo (BCS 306 “Off Brand”). To the Hopi, any such jagged line symbolizes water. Wexler-McGill is a symbolic home of the Water Clan. Not being born into a clan herself, Kim Wexler adopts the Water Clan as her own.
And what about the older brother? Deprived of rain, he is suffering extreme thirst and he starts ripping holes in the walls to find water (BCS 310, "Lantern").
The symbolism here comes from that most-famous of all Surrealist movies, Luis Buñuel’s 1962 film “The Exterminating Angel,” where guests at a dinner party find that they can’t leave. They still have alcohol to drink, but they yearn for water, and they rip holes in the walls in order to find it.
Just like in “Breaking Bad,” there are markers for a full year of the Hopi Ceremonial Calendar in “Better Call Saul,” starting at Fall Equinox. Note that this calendar is not the timeline of the show, but rather a completely-separate timeline. And it follows that there are four seasons in the show too.
Certain characters in the show are best understood as Kachinas. Kachinas are not deities, but rather helpful spirits that are deeply-involved in daily life. Some 300 or 400 Kachinas are recognized among the Hopi. Some Kachinas are popular, and others obscure; some fade away even as new ones appear.
Kachinas in the show can be best-recognized after-the-fact, by the way they disappear at Summer Solstice in the Hopi Ceremonial Calendar. Sometimes there are other indicators too, such as superhuman strength. Lalo too is a Kachina, and he makes his first appearance at Spring Equinox. The Veterinarian, Howard, Lalo and Mike all vanish at Summer Solstice, just like Kachinas do.
Mike Ehrmantraut exhibits unusual strength with his throat punches and thug fighting. Mike makes his first appearance in “Breaking Bad” after Jane’s death, at Winter Solstice in the Hopi Ceremonial Calendar. Mike is the first Kachina of the New Year, just like the Hopi’s Soyál Kachina is first (BrBa 213, "ABQ").
Lalo (Kachina) Salamanca (BCS 408, "Coushatta").
Howard (Kachina) Hamlin (BCS 605, "Black and Blue").
The Veterinarian (and Kachina), Dr. Caldera (BCS 606, "Axe and Grind").
So, returning to the two quarreling brothers, how is it that they both found themselves near Globe, AZ, anyway? The brothers were among Hopi refugees fleeing the collapse of a great southern city, a place called Palátkwapi, or Red House. Where was Red House located? No one knows for sure. Hopi legends state that their migrations spanned vast distances, so who knows?
“The Book of the Hopi” describes a dawning realization, among the Hopi and archaeologists alike, that the physical properties of Red-House legend – a city with no kivas divided into three districts – can be found at Paquimé, at Casas Grandes in Northern Chihuahua, in Mexico.
Here is a map showing southeastern Arizona, southwestern New Mexico, and northern Mexico. Here is Globe, AZ, in the upper left, Silver City, NM, in the upper right, and Paquimé, in the lower right. Not far from Paquimé is Galeana, where Nacho says his mother’s family is from. North and east of Paquimé is the forbidding Chihuahuan Desert.
According to legend, Red House was besieged and sacked by the Spider Clan. The Hopi were forced to flee. Archaeologists say Paquimé was burned around the year 1350. It is likely these are hazily-remembered events that occurred about 675 years ago.
Welcome these fine gentlemen, waiting to grill Mike Ehrmantraut in front of a mural of the ruins of Paquimé (BCS 206 “Bali Ha'i”)
This mural completes a tableau of power and intimidation. These guys, likely of the Spider Clan, can ruin your life. Their forbears have done it before; they can do it again.
On another level, Paquimé represents Chicago, a city under duress from capitalism run amok; particularly the drug trade, administered from afar by Mexican cartels. Jimmy and Chuck are refugees from Chicago.
Are there other indications the Salamancas belong to the Spider Clan? In “Breaking Bad,” the wagon wheel is associated with the Salamanca family; for example, here on the left, foreshadowing how Hector ends up in a wheelchair(BrBa 307 “One Minute”).
A wagon wheel, or indeed, any kind of wheel with spokes, is an abstracted spider web (BrBa 413, “Face Off”).
For example, when Hank gets shot and ends up in a wheelchair, it’s as if he’s been caught in a web. Wheelchairs equate with spider webs.
In this image, Lalo is about to jump onto Jimmy’s overturned Subaru Esteem (BCS 509, “Bad Choice Road”). Lalo definitely has that superhuman strength characteristic of a Spider Clan Kachina, and he is able to jump like Spider Man.
Some artistic inspirations for “Better Call Saul” appear to come from the kiva murals at Kuaua Pueblo, located just a few miles north of Albuquerque, at the Coronado Historic Site, across the Rio Grande River from Bernalillo, and next to the Tamaya Resort. An interpretation of the murals can be found in the “Book of the Hopi.”
Among the refugees from Paquimé were twin children, a boy and a girl, who fled unprepared across the desert. With a bow and arrow the boy finally shot a deer for food. Before it died, the deer gave them detailed instructions about what to do with its body: specifically, to make an awl – an A-W-L – in the traditional manner from the bone in its rear leg. The deer also instructed them to make clothes from its skin.
At night, the spirit of the deer carried them north. Ultimately, the twins passed across the future site of Albuquerque and arrived at the Coronado Historic Site.
Young Kim Wexler’s theft of the Starlite brand of awl-shaped earrings appears to be her way of honoring her hero, that plucky little girl who founded the Awl clan of the Hopi (BCS 606, "Axe and Grind").
Awl-shaped earrings
Mural image of the girl who founded the Awl clan of the Hopi. Also note the rectangle found at the girl’s feet. This rectangle is a sipápuni, a symbolic orifice between worlds. Sipápunis are represented several times in these murals.
I visited Coronado Historic Site on February 19, 2025, in hopes of seeing the mural above. I was not able to do so - the building in which the mural is housed is still under repair. Still, the guides there looked at the illustration I had in "The Book of the Hopi" and said, "Oh yes, the girl with the red shoes." I thought this was remarkable. They explained that the illustration in the book didn't look exactly like the real mural, where the girl has red shoes. It opens up the question of whether the concept of red-bottomed shoes in the TV series might come from TWO different independent sources!
Lydia's shoes (BrBa 510, "Buried"). Elsa Schiaparelli and Salvador Dali experimented with red-bottom women's shoes in the late 1930s. Christian Louboutin picked up this experiment again in 1993 with his famous shoes. In “Breaking Bad,” Lydia is presented in Hopi terms as a young Máraw woman, looking for the husband of her dreams (see post on the Hopi Influence in "Breaking Bad"). Would Lydia have adopted the red-bottom shoes from the Awl-clan girl instead of, or in addition to, Christian Louboutin? It's all quite amazing! Synchronicity!
The vertigo-inspiring doormat in the HHM lobby, a seemingly infinitely-deep rectangle, represents a sipápuni (BCS 109 “Pimento”).
Marco’s ring-of-power is a sipápuni too. The ring’s jet-black onyx suggests infinite depth.
There are many other sipápunis in the shows too. The grave that Walt and Jesse use to threaten Saul, and the grave where Lalo and Howard are both buried represent more sipápunis. The murals at the Coronado Historic Site may inspire other props, costume pieces, and set pieces in the show.
Palm Coast Sprinkler is ultimately a Hopi idea. Magic water jars – inexhaustible canteens - are very desirable to have in the desert. There were many refugees from the sack of Red House, all of whom desperately needed water as they scattered (BCS 612 “Waterworks”).
Under the guidance of colorful Kachina Áholi, who’s holding a magic water jar here in his left hand, Water Clan refugees from Red House settled for a time near Silver City, NM, but then migrated eastwards; according to legend, all the way to the Atlantic Ocean.
This mural shows water sprinkling from a girl’s water jar. This mural appears to be Kim’s inspiration. Like her Water Clan forbears, Kim moves to Florida’s Space Coast, where she focuses her energies on sprinklers.
What are some of the religious ideas behind Saul Goodman’s life in Omaha as a fugitive? “El Camino,” which means the road in Spanish, means specifically “The Road of Life” of the Hopi, which is identical to the path of the sun.
The sun travels westward across the sky in the Land of the Living. When the sun sets in the west, it rises in the west of the Underworld, the Land of the Dead, and then travels eastward across their sky. When the sun sets in the Underworld’s east, it rises again in the east of the world above. When the sun passes between these two worlds it passes through a sipápuni, a tunnel, at a place called the House of the Sun. When it’s summer in the world above, it’s winter in the world below, and vice versa. Of particular importance is Winter Solstice, when the Kachinas begin returning to the world above, and Summer Solstice, when the Kachinas return to the Underworld, celebrated in a ceremony called Niman Kachina.
Summer Solstice Sunrise Azimuth at Oraibi. I stumbled across an interesting astronomical curiosity. The azimuth of Summer Solstice sunrise at Oraibi, the religious center of the Hopi, passes directly across Omaha, Nebraska. On this important day, Omaha is truly the House of the Sun. This same sunrise azimuth also passes across the northern tip of New Hampshire, where Walter White takes refuge in “Breaking Bad.
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After “Breaking Bad,” Saul finds himself in Omaha, Nebraska, living in the Diamonds Apartments under the alias Gene Takavic and working as the manager of a Cinnabon eatery. The place swarms with round spirals, particularly the Cinnabon rolls themselves (BCS 101 “Uno”).
To the Hopi, a round spiral represents the Sun, so this place must be the House of the Sun, likely very close to that tunnel from where Summer Solstice sunrise occurs. But this implies that much of Omaha must be in the Land of the Dead.
So, the Vacuum Cleaner man has done his work well. He has squirreled Saul away just inside the Land of the Dead. It’s the perfect hiding place.
I think the creative team initially chose black-and-white cinematography to distinguish the Land of the Dead from the Land of the Living, but later realized they had a problem if they also wanted to show Jeff the cab driver under arrest in the Land of the Living. So, black-and-white cinematography is instead used to distinguish the post-Breaking-Bad world from what came before.
Jeff once lived in Albuquerque, but upon his death had joined his deceased mother Marion in the Land of the Dead. Jeff blows Gene’s cover. What should Gene do (BCS 501 “Magic Man”)?
Gene senses an opportunity. According to the Hopi, if someone adheres to rigid ritual purity, after death they can go directly to the next universe as a Kachina. That’s immortality! So, Gene starts campaigning to become a Kachina. Gene needs followers; people who are willing to collect precious things on his behalf for his annual return to the Land of the Living.
For his part, Jeff is more than willing to fall for Gene’s con. From various clues, like the Lady-Liberty Típoni visible on Saul’s desk in his TV ads, Jeff knows that Gene must be a powerful priest.
Gene entices Jeff with a promise to reveal secrets of “The Game,” and brings both Jeff and his friend Buddy under his tight control in a conspiracy that amounts to a religious cult.
Gene instructs his new followers in the art of burglary. Jeff runs in a Hopi ceremonial manner in order to honor his new boss (BCS 610 “Nippy”).
Instead of running along a long linear path, though, Jeff runs in a mazelike rectangular grid, and collects precious things on the way (BCS 610 “Nippy”).
In the store, Jeff trips, but recovers (BCS 610 “Nippy”).
Jeff and Buddy succeed in their criminal enterprise, under Gene’s direction (BCS 610 “Nippy”).
One interesting detail is that Jeff detaches magnetic security tags from the stolen goods (BCS 610 “Nippy”).
For Summer Solstice, the Hopi gather magnetic objects for the Kachinas to take to the Land of the Dead. “Better Call Saul” suggests the Hopi Dead do the exact opposite, by gathering non-magnetic objects for the Kachinas to take to the Land of the Living.
Gene’s Kachina campaign fails, because he is not pure of heart. Dodging the police, Gene frantically searches for the Sun’s tunnel into the Land of the Living (BCS 613, “Saul Gone”).
Then Gene jumps into a dumpster and spills his diamonds across his body (BCS 613, “Saul Gone”).
The Chinese religious reference here is the Taoist quest for spiritual enlightenment, which is called the perfection of the ‘Diamond Body.' Spilling diamonds doesn’t make a diamond body. Gene gets hauled back to Albuquerque (BCS 613, “Saul Gone”).
“Better Call Saul” then returns to a symbol previously used in “Breaking Bad,” the “Man in the Maze” symbol of the Tohono O’odham tribe. For example, one of the participants in Jesse’s self-help group bears two tattoos on his arm. The upper tattoo is the Hopi Tawa symbol and the lower tattoo is the “Man in the Maze” symbol, which, in recent years, has become popular in Hollywood (BrBa 407 “Problem Dog”).
At birth, a person enters a maze. It takes a lifetime to reach the center of the maze. Looking back, a person can see the many turns that got them to this point. Looking forward, the person suddenly meets the Sun God. In an instant, the person spontaneously combusts.
At the end of “Better Call Saul,” Kim Wexler visits Jimmy in the maze of ADX Montrose federal prison. The colored flame of the lighter alludes to a time, coming soon, when Jimmy will face the Sun God in all his majesty (BCS 613, “Saul Gone”).
Kim Wexler, Goddess.
In conclusion, “Better Call Saul” mixes modern and ancient ideas, with Hopi religious ideas featuring prominently. In particular, Kim Wexler is a deity in human form. Here, in this painting by Joseph Michael Oland, Kim contemplates joining Younger Brother’s Water Clan.
References
“Book of the Hopi,” Frank Waters, 1963.
“Chaco Astronomy: An Ancient American Cosmology,” Anna Sofaer and others, 2008.
“The Chaco Meridian: Centers of Political Power in the Ancient Southwest,” Stephen H. Lekson, 1999.
“Hopi Kachinas: The Complete Guide to Collecting Kachina Dolls,” Barton Wright, 1977.
“Jung and Eastern Thought: A Dialogue with the Orient,” J.J. Clarke, 1994.
“Sam Shepard – Four Two-Act Plays,” Sam Shepard, 1980.
"Space, time and the Calendar in the Traditional Cultures of America," by Stephen C. McCluskey, Chapter 3 in "Archaeoastronomy in the 1990s," Papers derived from the third ‘Oxford’ International Symposium on Archaeoastronomy, St. Andrews, U.K, September 1990, Edited by Clive L. N. Ruggles, 2014, Ocarina Books, Ltd.
