Donna Nordin: Chef, Teacher & Legend

By Tatyana Johnson/El Inde After a long day of walking around the busy streets of France and sightseeing with their tourist group, it is almost dinner time. Diane Sanchez slides past one of her travel companions’ workstations and hurries back to finish her preparations for her part of the group’s meal. Each person, assigned by…

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Rachael Rios and her Snakebite

By Geraldine Espinosa/El Inde It is the first chilly evening of the year and as the sun goes down over themountains on Tucson’s Westside, the Snakebite gallery is coming alive with Chip Thomas’s art. Snakebite is located inside an older brick building with the street-facingwall painted bright red. The building is back-to-back with the Tucson…

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Rae.L and Her Internet Friends

By Bree Brettell/El Inde “I don’t think that I keep it all together. I feel like everybody else could know me better than I know myself,” a gentle voice sings out over a funky, pop-infused beat. The voice belongs to Rae Dunlap, or Rae.L, her performing name. She is a slender young woman with textured,…

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A School Bus-Turned-Mobile Shop

By Vanessa Lucero/El Inde From the outside, it looks like a typical striped yellow school bus, though it is parked in an isolated parking lot on Ajo Way street on the west side of Tucson, nowhere near a school but instead in front of Tiny’s family restaurant. On a hot sunny afternoon, walking inside the…

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Dungeons, Dragons and Stragglers

By Noah Cullen/El Inde Here’s a scene: A straggler walks in. It’s obvious he’s a traveler from the stiffness in his legs, the mud on his boots and the weariness in his step. The bard plucks the wrong string and mutes the harp. He shakes his head. The straggler walks right to the bar and…

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