San Miguel de Allende is love at first sight for many travel writers, who keep naming it the "World's Best City." (This image was generated using AI tools)
SAN MIGUEL DE ALLENDE, Mexico – For the third consecutive time since Tuesday, the colonial city of San Miguel de Allende has been awarded the title of “World’s Best City” by an international luxury travel publication whose writing team has not yet moved from the shallow end of their boutique hotel’s heated plunge pool.
The latest accolade, bestowed by New York-based Vanguard Traveler, praises the historic center’s “unparalleled, unfiltered cobblestone authenticity,” according to a press release drafted on a waterproof tablet while senior writer Julian Vance waited for a second round of mezcal-infused palomas. The publication joins two other lifestyle magazines that have independently verified the city’s global cultural supremacy this week without ever crossing the threshold of the hotel’s heavy carved-oak entry gates.
“Pack it up boys, we’ve seen everything we need” – Travel and Leisure (maybe). (Inspired Pencil)
“There is an irreplaceable, historic energy to this place that you can just feel vibrating through the premium terry-cloth of these complementary bathrobes,” Vance said, adjusting his sunglasses to better evaluate the architectural integrity of a nearby stone fountain. “When you look at the way the midday sun reflects off the artisanal rim of a hand-blown cocktail glass, you realize that other global cities simply cannot compete on a cultural level.”
The trend has raised logistics questions among local hospitality staff, who note that the rigorous evaluation process for the multi-page travel features has historically been contained within a 40-meter radius of the swim-up bar. According to internal resort data, the writers’ deep dive into Mexican heritage has so far consisted of analyzing three distinct varieties of poolside guacamole and observing a local hummingbird for roughly 90 seconds.
Spokespersons for the international publications defended the thoroughness of their methodology, noting that a panoramic view of the Parroquia de San Miguel Arcángel is completely visible if a writer tilts their lounge chair exactly 15 degrees to the left. The editorial board confirmed that while they intend to explore the city’s celebrated art markets, culinary scene and historic plazas, doing so would require putting on real shoes, which could compromise the relaxed objectivity required for the upcoming September issue.
As of press time, a fourth international travel magazine was reportedly preparing to declare the municipality a “UNESCO-worthy bastion of timeless human spirit,” pending the arrival of a fresh order of poolside club sandwiches.
The Spanish "piece of eight," mined and minted in Mexico, became a globally accepted currency as early as the 16th century. (Bank of Canada Museum/Instagram)
In 1904, A. Piatt Andrew published an article in The Quarterly Journal of Economics titled “The End of the Mexican Dollar.” It saw, quite correctly, that a period of 300 years during which silver coins mined and minted in Mexico had been the currency of choice for much of the world was coming to an end.
To understand this remarkable story, we need to understand the very nature of coins. Before coins were invented, humans had to barter: “I will give you six chickens for a sheep.” Small lumps of metal quickly became the currency of choice. Copper, silver and gold were relatively rare in ancient societies, so a small amount of metal held considerable value. Even if you were buying something large, a horse perhaps, you didn’t need to haul around great heaps of metal to make the trade. A lump of metal could also be broken up into pieces to make a series of smaller trades. Metal was also pretty indestructible. It might survive a fire in your house, or could be buried in times of danger and retrieved years later.
The world’s first coins
The Ancient Greeks pioneered the world’s first coins, which predated the wide acceptance of paper currency by 2,000 years. (FORVM Ancient Coins)
Around 500 B.C., the people of Athens conquered the silver mines of Laurion, and their city was suddenly flooded with silver. They saw the advantage of casting the metal into units of standard weight, and the result was the world’s first coins. These were round and marked by a symbol of the city that had minted them, a sign that both the weight of the coin and the purity of the metal could be trusted. From then until the wide acceptance of paper money 2,000 years later, metal coins financed the majority of human trade.
Just as the discovery of silver inspired the Greeks to invent coins, the opening of the rich silver mines of New Spain, as Mexico was then known, led to the production of the round silver coins known, among many other names, as the Spanish dollar, the Mexican silver dollar or the Mexican peso. The adoption of the term peso is an interesting story. Transactions in the Spanish motherland were made with small copper coins called reales. It was not practical to make such low-value coins out of silver, so the Mexican coins were cast with 24.44 grams of silver, making them worth eight reales. For small purchases, people literally cut the heavy coins into triangular pieces, creating the name “peso de ocho” (weight of eight) or peso. And of course, “peso de ocho” became the “pieces of eight” of pirate legends.
The emergent trade economy in Mexico
As mines developed in Mexico, Bolivia and Peru, the Spanish colonies in the Americas were producing about 80% of the world’s silver. However, this was not an even division, as by 1700, the majority of that silver was coming from Mexico. It was also Mexico, with access to both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, that was becoming the center of world trade. Convoys of merchant ships sailed between Veracruz and Spain, while on the Pacific coast, the great Manila Galleon made its annual trips between the Philippines and Acapulco beginning in 1565. Here, they met with Chinese merchants keen to exchange their luxury goods of spice, silk, porcelain and tea for silver coins.
The Mexican peso did far more than drive commerce. European governments tucked them away in vaults as a reserve, bringing them out to finance the mercenary armies that fought Europe’s endless wars. Sailors in the Mediterranean were paid in silver pesos at the end of a voyage, and Mexican silver coins were used to pay taxes in China. As trade increasingly connected the world, a silver peso that had been mined and minted in Mexico might end up in the palace of a Chinese emperor or be given as an offering in an Istanbul mosque.
Minting the Mexican peso
Producing coins in sufficient numbers became a major enterprise. Mexican mints were owned by rich and influential merchants who bought the ore at a discounted price. Within the mints, armies of workers extracted the silver from the ore, a long, hard process that was damaging to both the workers’ health and the environment. The coins were then produced by hand, first by cutting a disk of metal from the end of a silver bar, then by shaping each piece with pliers, before hammering the coins against a die to create a pattern on each side.
Mints struggled to cope with the vast amount of silver being mined, and the early coins were rushed and crude productions that could vary in shape. This generation of coins is referred to as cobs, perhaps from the Spanish phrase cabo de barra, meaning “end of the bar” and referring to the bar of silver each coin was cut from.
However, what remained consistent, and what made the coins trustworthy and desirable, was the silver content. Over time, technological advances such as mule-driven rolling mills and mechanical screw presses improved both the quality and the quantity of the coins. Grooved edges were added, an important move against the criminal act of chipping, in which gangs chipped away a little silver from coins and used these scraps to make fake coins.
A global currency
The use of Mexican pesos was not restricted to the Spanish world; they were passed on by traders throughout much of Asia. British-occupied North America also used them as the currency of choice, creating a confusing affair where prices were expressed in pounds but goods were paid for in pesos or, as they were more likely to be called north of the border, in Mexican dollars. We have discussed the term peso, but where did the name “dollar” come from?
From the 1700s, there was one coin that rivaled the peso as a “world currency,” and this was the Maria Theresa thaler. These were used throughout the German-speaking world, in Arabia, India and all across East Africa as far south as Ethiopia. The word dollar is believed to have originally been an English corruption of thaler. The Austrian thaler was so similar to Mexican coins in size and appearance that merchants seldom distinguished between them, and the word dollar started to be used for both Austrian and Mexican coins.
Upon independence in 1793, the new U.S. government opened its first mint, copying the size and silver content of Mexican coins, and even adopting the name “dollar.” The world-recognized dollar sign might also have had a Mexican origin, being a simplified version of the coat of arms that appeared on Mexican coins. However, the young United States lacked the silver or the technical skill to produce coins on the necessary scale, and Mexican silver dollars remained legal currency until 1857.
When the peso began to decline
What kept the Mexican dollar in such demand for so long was not its use in the U.S., but the Chinese hunger for silver coins. While daily trade in China was carried out in copper, silver was demanded by the government when paying taxes. The demand for silver became greater in the early decades of the 19th century when the British forced opium imports on the country, causing a considerable drain on China’s reserves of silver coins.
However, by that point, other factors were starting to turn against the Mexican currency. In 1859, silver was discovered in Nevada, the first of a growing number of U.S. silver mines. By 1873, the United States was not only minting its own coins but issuing silver “trade dollars” for use overseas. Similarly, from 1895, British coins minted in Bombay and Calcutta finally started to rival the Mexican dollar in Hong Kong and the Straits Settlements. Japan, having bought its first minting equipment from Hong Kong, started to produce its own silver coins — the yen. It took time for these to gain trust, but by 1900, the Mexican silver dollar was losing ground in the vital Chinese market to British, Japanese and locally produced coins.
A new ‘world economy’
The Mexican peso as it looked at the turn of the 20th century, when it began to lose its world currency status. (Numismaticos)
France had more of a struggle to have its silver coins, known as piasters de commerce, accepted. The first coins were slightly low in silver content and therefore not popular in Asia. The French government tried to correct this mistake by issuing special coins intended just for use across its Asian empire. However, these had so much silver that merchants tended to hoard them or melt them down for the raw metal. As a result, French-issued coins continued to operate side by side with other currencies, including the long-standing Mexican dollar.
Mexico’s silver currency suffered a heavy blow in 1898 when the Philippines, still an important commercial meeting point between China and Europe, was lost to the United States. In addition, the amount of silver coming onto the market from new mines around the world was lowering the value of the metal. Mexican coins were more or less pure silver, so a Mexican businessman wanting to buy, for example, factory machinery from France, would now have to hand over a greater number of coins. For all these reasons, by 1904, The Quarterly Journal of Economics could run its article predicting the imminent decline of the silver Mexican peso.
Bob Patemanlived in Mexico for six years. He is a librarian and teacher with a Master’s Degree in History.
This week marked a return to business as usual after Mexico's World Cup run ended with a round of 16 loss to England on Sunday. (Edgar Negrete Lira / Cuartoscuro.com)
Mexico’s World Cup run gave way this week to two of the country’s most persistent storylines: the fallout from the “El Mayo” Zambada case and economic uncertainty tied to trade and global conditions. El Tri’s tournament ended Sunday with a 3-2 loss to England in the round of 16, a result Sheinbaum called the team’s best World Cup performance despite the early exit, and the match itself became the most-watched soccer broadcast in Mexico this century.
By Tuesday, attention shifted to a sharper dispute with Washington. Sheinbaum used her press conference to ask who lied about the U.S. role in capturing Sinaloa Cartel leader Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, suggesting American officials misrepresented arrangements made with organized crime figures to facilitate his 2024 capture. Former U.S. Ambassador Ken Salazar denied the accusation in a statement Wednesday, rejecting Sheinbaum’s characterization of events. The dispute unfolded as Zambada’s own legal team asked a U.S. federal judge to consider his age and health when deciding where he’ll serve the life sentence he has agreed not to contest ahead of his July 20 sentencing.
Economic headwinds also came into sharper focus. Switzerland’s president visited Mexico City to deepen trade ties even as Toyota confirmed it will relocate Tacoma production from Tijuana to Texas over the next four years. Mexico’s foreign direct investment ranking and record May exports to the U.S. offered a counterweight, but the IMF lowered its growth forecast for Mexico, citing global uncertainty and Middle East tensions rather than domestic factors. A Pemex corruption scandal also deepened, and the government escalated its response to the deaths of Mexicans in U.S. immigration custody.
Didn’t have time to catch this week’s top stories? Here’s what you missed.
Sheinbaum’s Tuesday accusation that the U.S. misrepresented its role in Zambada’s capture drew a direct rebuttal from Salazar, who denied lying about any FBI arrangement in his Wednesday statement responding to the president. The dispute remains unresolved, with both sides offering conflicting accounts of what U.S. officials promised.
Separately, Foreign Affairs Minister Roberto Velasco announced Thursday that Mexico will pursue criminal complaints in U.S. courts over the deaths of 17 Mexicans in ICE custody or operations since the second Trump administration began, including the fatal shooting of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston on Tuesday. Velasco said Mexico will file complaints with U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and send cease-and-desist letters to private companies operating ICE detention facilities, in addition to diplomatic notes already sent and appeals made to the U.N. and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.
New evidence of FBI involvement in the kidnapping and U.S. arrest of Sinaloa Cartel drug lord “El Mayo” Zambada prompted Mexican officials to accuse former U.S. Ambassador Ken Salazar of lying about the role the U.S. played in the incident. (Mario Jasso/Cuartoscuro)
Economy: Trade ties advance while forecasts and manufacturing shift
Swiss President Guy Parmelin’s visit, aimed at expanding economic and trade cooperation, came in the same week Toyota confirmed it will gradually move Tacoma production to its San Antonio plant, ending a Tijuana manufacturing presence dating to 2002.
Mexico ranked No. 10 globally for foreign direct investment in 2025, a figure Finance Minister Edgar Amador highlighted at Wednesday’s mañanera alongside May’s export data, which showed Mexican exports to the U.S. hit a record even as USMCA renewal talks remain stalled.
The IMF nonetheless cut its 2026 growth forecast for Mexico to 1.2% from 1.6% and its 2027 forecast to 1.9%, changes it attributed to global uncertainty tied to Middle East tensions rather than domestic conditions; Amador pushed back, noting that the IMF underestimated Mexico’s 2025 growth as well.
However, Vinci Airports, the world’s largest private airport operator, said it remains open to further investment in Mexico despite anticipated slower global air-traffic growth. CEO Remi Maumon de Longevialle cited Monterrey’s role as a business hub and a stable concession framework; OMA, in which Vinci is the main shareholder, is preparing to invest another $450 million over five years.
Pemex scandal widens with new corruption complaint
Former Pemex CEO Víctor Rodríguez, arrested Tuesday on domestic violence charges stemming from an attack on his wife in March, is now named in a separate complaint over a 4.8 billion-peso no-bid vehicle-leasing contract awarded during his tenure.
The complaint, filed with anti-corruption authorities and forwarded to Mexico’s financial intelligence unit, tax administration and attorney general’s office, alleges conflicts of interest and questions the legitimacy of the winning consortium, whose listed address in México state reportedly does not exist. Sheinbaum, a longtime associate of Rodríguez, publicly distanced herself from him on June 29 and said the law would be applied fully in his case.
Mexico ranks among world’s top travel destinations
San Miguel de Allende, Oaxaca, Mexico City and Guadalajara all placed among Travel+Leisure’s top city rankings, while the Four Seasons Resort Tamarindo in Jalisco’s Costalegre region was named the top-ranked resort in Mexico and 31st in the world. The recognition comes as Mexico’s tourism sector also drew attention this week for its handling of World Cup-related travel demand.
San Miguel de Allende once again topped Travel+Leisure’s list of best cities in the world, thanks to its “vibrant colonial-era architecture, unbeatable food scene, and eclectic shopping.”
Looking ahead
Zambada’s sentencing on July 20 will test how the case affects Mexico-U.S. relations following this week’s dueling accusations between Sheinbaum and Salazar. The 2026 USMCA review remains unresolved, leaving automotive investment and broader trade planning in limbo even as export volumes hit records. Rodríguez’s legal situation is likely to expand further given the number of federal agencies now reviewing the Pemex contract, and Mexico’s response to ICE-related deaths will shape diplomatic exchanges with Washington in the coming weeks.
🐾 A Chiapas zoo welcomed a newborn Baird’s tapir, with the 8.4-kilogram male calf born at the Miguel Álvarez del Toro Zoo as part of a conservation breeding program for the endangered species.
Mexico News Daily
This story contains summaries of original Mexico News Daily articles. The summaries were generated by Claude, then revised and fact-checked by a Mexico News Daily staff editor.
Author of over 40 books, Sergio Pitol was an enormous influence on contemporary Mexican literature, particularly in his home state of Veracruz. (Instituto Cervantes)
When it comes to Mexican literature, names like Octavio Paz, Juan Rulfo and Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz immediately come to mind for their global influence and stature. And yet, there are too many others to name who have contributed to Mexico’s literary acumen, both contemporary and canonical, in ways that may have been innocuously overlooked with time. Sergio Pitol is one of those voices.
The author of over 40 books — perhaps most famously his “Trilogy of Memory” series of autobiographical essays and travel writing, and his “Carnival Triptych” novels, which include the ubiquitously translated work, “The Love Parade,” a murder mystery that takes place in a World War II-era Mexico City.
A writer of humble origins, yet significant achievements
Despite achieving fame for his work and becoming a diplomatic envoy for Mexico, Pitol preferred to live in Xalapa, Veracruz, where he spent the last 25 years of his life. (Visit Mexico)
After receiving the prestigious Juan Rulfo Prize for Latin American and Caribbean Literature (nowadays known as the FIL Literary Award in Romance Languages) in 1999, Pitol said: “A writer does not write to win prizes or tributes; he does it out of biological necessity; he writes as he breathes. And if his task is ever rewarded, he must accept it as incentive, as something casual, a mere sign of chance. And he will do well to remember, so as to position himself within reality, that … some of the greatest literary figures have not received any, for various reasons.” He would later receive the Miguel de Cervantes Prize in 2005, considered to be the most important Spanish-language literary award. Still, he never yielded on his modesty and unpretentiousness.
It’s fitting for a writer of humble origins that can be traced back to the rural mountains of Veracruz, the mountainous tropical state where he lived for many years and ultimately died in the capital city, Xalapa. In many ways, the city of Xalapa has remained present in his work, in his essence, in his embrace of the written word — Xalapa, of course, being known as the “Athens of Veracruz,” where a confluent mixture of university students, bohemian artists, musicians and poets can be found mingling at any hour along the city’s romantic, flower-shrouded avenues and cafes. He often championed its role in his creative inspiration and open-hearted lifestyle.
An advocate for Veracruz
Pitol chose to live in Xalapa’s Centro Histórico — far less glamorous for a writer of his fame than, say, the metropolitan cores of Mexico City or Guadalajara, and not as charming or well-kept as Oaxaca or Mérida — for many years, simply because he was an advocate of Veracruz and its cultural, often underappreciated, riches and contributions. Sadly, he passed away in 2018 at age 85, a few miles from where my abuelita once lived in the same area.
At the time of his death, The New York Times dubbed him as one of Mexico’s most inventive and honored figures, not simply for his scriptures, but for his role as a Mexican ambassador and diplomat (as a Mexican emissary, he traveled around Poland, Hungary, Italy, China, the former Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia, among other nations).
Here’s a brief look at Pitol’s life and career — from a Xalapeño perspective.
From Mexican orphan to internationally renowned author
Though born in Puebla in 1933, Pitol moved to El Potrero sugar mill in Veracruz, just outside of Córdoba, at age four, following the death of his father. Tragically, he lost his mother a year later, who drowned in the nearby Atoyac River.
Pitol remains beloved in Mexico for many of his works, including his “Carnival Triptych” novels and “Trilogy of Memory” series of autobiographical essays and travel writing. (Editorial Almadia)
As a child and adolescent, he battled malaria and spent significant time with his grandmother, where he learned to appreciate the craft of writing while bedridden. He credits American and British authors like Robert Louis Stevenson and Mark Twain for expanding his sense of the world through adventurous storytelling. His grandma was an adamant reader of Leo Tolstoy, and through her home schooling and encouragement, the young Pitol was exposed to iconic literary voices throughout his early life, up until he left to pursue degrees in literature and law at UNAM in Mexico City at age 16.
Literary fame and public service
His first publication came in 1959, when his short story collection, “Corralled Time,” appeared in Mexico City’s Estaciones magazine. In contrast to his later works, which are celebrated for their whimsy, parody and sense of dark Mexican humor, his early short stories were somber and dealt with conflicts around the lives of children. At large, his writing has been admired for how it combines deep personal experiences with larger Mexican histories and narratives.
From 1960 to 1989, Pitol served as one of Mexico’s most important diplomats and authors, having spent significant time in Moscow during the end of the Soviet Union’s reign, where he ingrained himself in the cultural intellectualism of the region. As a result, many of his writings reflect his views as a globetrotting freethinker. In 2017, the Los Angeles Review of Books described Pitol’s legacy as making “a compelling case for literature as a way of life, as a lens to politics, and as a key element in the experience of history.”
Much of that philosophy was shaped and nurtured by his time in Xalapa, where he permanently relocated in 1993, shortly after his retirement as a diplomat.
Xalapa: Pitol’s expansive garden
The final years of Pitol’s life were complicated by physical ailments — he died of a stroke inside his home, after years of battling aphasia — but were nonetheless crucial in developing Xalapa’s greater ethos of being a literary bastion. That is, Pitol was a seminal figure in not just Mexico’s international scope, but in Xalapa’s local canon and literary reputation.
In 2018, the same year of his passing, Milenio sent a reporter to Pitol’s home in Briones — on the immediate outskirts of Xalapa, located in a breathtaking cloud forest scenery en route to nearby Coatepec. The visiting journalist writes of Pitol’s final moments: a man enjoying his peaceful gardens, even struggling to speak at times, but very much still a spirited national icon full of grace and hospitality, sharing his love of the opera, which, along with the symphony, are a large part of Xalapa’s historied affair with the high arts. (The details recount his former dogs, some of which were named after literary figures like Homer.)
The legacy of Pitol’s work
“Juan Soriano: Perpetuo rebelde,” a book of biographical and critical essays, is one of many volumes from the writer available at Librería Los Argonautas bookstore in Xalapa. (Librería Los Argonautas/Facebook)
In his prior years, he spoke of how many of his ideas emerged while living in and around Xalapa, referencing Palabra y el Hombre — the famed literary magazine that has been published by the school since 1957, making it one of Mexico’s oldest and most respected literary journals, and which still actively releases quarterly issues and hosts cultural events in the city and its surrounding areas. Pitol served as a professor on campus for many years and, until his final days, was a prominently revered faculty member, where he taught everything from classic Mexican literature to experimental German films. In a 2018 publication by Vice, a group of his former students — who went on to become architects, artists, editors and poets — shared photos and memories of their former mentor, Pitol, after learning about his passing.
Sergio Pitol Translations
During his time, the Universidad Veracruzana in Xalapa began to publish a special “Sergio Pitol Translations” series, in which famous texts from around the world were translated into Spanish (the series ended in 2016). In addition, he founded and oversaw the “University Library Collection,” a project which he initiated in 2006 with “the purpose of reaffirming the book as an ideal vehicle for liberation and humanization, (with) titles considered classics of world literature and other disciplines.” According to the university’s official website, Pitol announced that the collection “opens the doors of knowledge to the student, both of the world and of themselves,” reaffirming his tenet of literature as a gateway for human enlightenment. The artwork and imagery for the project were designed and illustrated by local students as part of the university’s Visual Arts program.
A requiem
Today, there is a bookstore, Librería Los Argonautas, located across the street from one of Xalapa’s most prominent parks, which maintains Pitol’s appreciation of classic literature. The bookshop’s owner, Marduck Obrador Cuesta, is one of Pitol’s former students. Upon Pitol’s death, Cuesta published a note, ending with: “Rest in peace, Sergio. I’ll continue reading here.” In many ways, that sentiment is shared by many writers and students of his everlasting work — in Xalapa and beyond.
Alan Chazaro is the author of “These Spaceships Weren’t Built For Us” (Tia Chucha Press, 2026), “Notes from the Eastern Span of the Bay Bridge” (Ghost City Press, 2021), “Piñata Theory” (Black Lawrence Press, 2020), and “This Is Not a Frank Ocean Cover Album” (Black Lawrence Press, 2019). He is a graduate of June Jordan’s Poetry for the People program at UC Berkeley and was selected as a Lawrence Ferlinghetti Poetry Fellow at the University of San Francisco. His work can be found in NPR, The Guardian, SLAM, GQ, L.A. Times, and more. He is currently based in Veracruz.
Writer Ethan Jacobs shares postcard reflections from a Ruta del Desierto bus on the way to Cabo San Lucas. (Ruta del Desierto/Facebook)
CABO SAN LUCAS, Baja California Sur, Oct. 21 — I board the Ruta del Desierto bus at 7:30 p.m. en route to the Autónoma stop. I’m not flush enough to stay anywhere closer to the city center. There’s a woman in an orange blouse singing cumbia, banda and boleros with her own microphone and personal boombox that has pre-recorded songs, though I stopped paying attention after her rendition of “La Llorona,” a traditional Mexican folk song perhaps best known for the Chavela Vargas version. I must not make eye contact with her. I’ll have to tip her later if I do.
That’s how it is with street performers and baristas who give you puppy dog eyes when they tell you, “It’s going to ask if you want to leave a tip.” Plausible deniability is key.
You’ve got mail! Ethan Jacobs has sent you a postcard from Cabo San Lucas, with notes on a strange and twisted bus trip. (Mexico News Daily)
The other passengers …
… know the drill. Their expressions generally betray no emotional investment in her performance, though a select few smirk when her voice crescendoes as she talks about love and martyrdom.
Fluorescent light in the bus flickers, though not in time with anything the woman is singing. Even the bus is opposed to this dog-and-pony show, but what does it know? It’s old and senile, rocking, lurching and creaking. It inches along like an iron worm, or the Magic School Bus’s arthritic grandmother.
Outside, it’s dark, and the bus windows are tinted, so I can’t appreciate the passing landscapes. Understimulation forces me to bring my attention back to the characters on the bus. The middle-aged man with a chinstrap beard lugging a propane tank the size of his lower body. I hope it’s empty. The man sitting beside him with rings on all fingers but one, who grazes on chile-dusted peanuts. If he collects the final ring, he’ll be able to snap his fingers and make all the interloping gringo gentrifiers vanish so he can finally rest in peace. The girl with her back turned to him, watching TikToks at full volume with no headphones — no Latin American public transport experience would be complete without it.
Does she take requests?
As we get closer to Cabo San Lucas, there’s a sporadic ringing like a landline hooked up inside the bus. Doubt creeps in, and for a moment, I wonder if this isn’t actually a mobile radio station with listeners calling in to request their favorite songs as performed by the lady in the orange blouse. In reality, it’s just one stop request after another from passengers wanting to be let off. Maybe they can’t take this woman’s wailing anymore.
Mercifully, she caps her performance at three songs, after which she makes her rounds, lingering by each passenger expectantly like the collection-plate-bearing ushers at the churches my mom used to drag me to when I was a kid. The spirit of San Vicente de Paúl overcomes me, and by some strange sorcery, my fingers slide into my pocket to retrieve pesos that find their way into her outstretched hands. Before I come to my senses, she’s gone.
Ethan Jacobs is a freelance writer and writing coach based in Playa del Carmen. He has written extensively in narrative and short fiction formats, and his work has received recognition both domestically and internationally in microfiction, short fiction and narrative essay formats.
Flag ceremonies are taken very seriously in Mexico, even when kids are the escorts. (Supremo Tribunal de Justicia, Poder Judicial del Estado de Jalisco)
Yesterday, I went to the final Honores a la bandera — flag ceremony — at my daughter’s elementary school. She’s “graduating” next week, so it’s the last one she’ll have participated in at that school.
This one was extra special because the 6th grade “escolta” (escorts?) passed the flag on to the 5th grade ones as a symbolic gesture. Now they’ll be the school “elders” that keep it going! To add to the ceremony of it, a state police band came with trumpets and drums, the leader directing with a spinning trumpet.
Flag ceremonies in Mexico, and as in the U.S., are often accompanied by the national anthem and a pledge of allegiance. (Luis Ramirez/Unsplash)
In schools, every flag ceremony is basically the same. First, the escolta marches forward, directed by one extra responsible kid in military fashion. Parents of whichever group are performing the ceremony are invited to attend, and all are instructed on what to do by another kid: stand at attention, salute and put ourselves at ease.
We say the pledge of allegiance and we sing the national anthem. At my kid’s school, the kids not in the escolta read “fun facts,” some in garbled English. The flag is ceremoniously walked back. The ceremony ends, and then we can all take pictures with our kids before they go back to class.
It’s all very official.
Getting emotional over the flag ceremony
Here’s a video of it. This isn’t my kid’s school … just one of many I found online. This one has a drum line!
It’s hard to describe what a flag ceremony here does to me, even when — especially when? — it’s performed by kids. I cry literally every time.
Granted, I’m a crier. Any kind of ceremony where lots of people are doing the same thing just makes me bawl my eyes out. Ceremonies, concerts, parades — I can’t wear mascara to a single one of them. Lots of people being very serious about something all at once just gets to me.
It’s also just amazing to me that for a culture that is so incredibly bromista (prone to joking) in so many ways, this is something they take deadly seriously. Even among small children, there is no horsing around. Being chosen to be in the escolta is an honor, something kids brag about to their parents when they get home.
Pledging allegiance
It’s also just so touching, in a time when so many things are changing so quickly, to feel what the late Congressman John Lewis called “the spirit of history.” The ideals we pledge during these ceremonies are the same ones that have been pledged for decades. The ceremony is the same one now as it was in the 1980s.
Another thing I find interesting about these ceremonies is that they’re, to use the parlance of the day, “left-coded.” The parents who take off work and show up enthusiastically to these ceremonies are usually the most liberal ones. This makes sense, because Mexico has had “left-wing” governments for most of its modern history, save the years that the PAN was in control.
But it’s interesting to me because in the United States, where I’m from, it’s the opposite. Republicans are the ones who are perceived to “own” patriotism (the same way they “own” Christianity).
Here, everyone gets to “own” it, and they do. The officialness of it surprises me every time.
So let’s examine some of the elements here of the Honores a la bandera. First, there’s their pledge of allegiance (called the Juramento a la bandera), which is pretty dang beautiful. Here it is, in Spanish and English:
Symbol of the unity of our parents and our siblings.
We promise to always be faithful
To the principles of liberty and of justice
Which make our homeland an independent, humane, and generousnation.
To which we give our existence.
How to salute properly
While you recite this, by the way, you hold your right arm out toward the flag, palm down. When I suggested to my partner that this felt weird because it resembled the Nazi salute, he immediately took offense. “But that’s not what it is at all!”
Mexicans: Their official honorific gestures are not up for debate. Nor is the national anthem: you’re not allowed to make fun of it or sing a parody, or change any words. And if you’re a TV or radio station, you have to play it when coming on air or signing off (most stations are 24-hour, of course, so do it at midnight).
The national anthem, I’ll admit, I’ve never completely learned. To be fair, it’s got 10 stanzas, all right? Okay, fine. It’s now only four. But four is still a lot! Still, I should make more of an effort than I’ve made before, at least to learn the one stanza with the chorus that’s typically sung in school ceremonies.
Alas, the lyrics that I do know often make this lifelong pacifist clutch her pearls. One line that always stands out to me: un soldado en cada hijo te dio — “a soldier in every son was given to you.” And technically, that’s true: all Mexican males are required to complete military service once they turn 18 (with a few exceptions).
Singing the national anthem
The version sung for flag ceremonies is short, and I’ll put the lyrics, translation and a video with lyrics here in case you’d like to learn it. It’s certainly time for me to do so!
Here’s a “sing-along” video in Spanish, and below I’ll include an English translation. (Ojo: you can’t sing it in English. Like, legally you can’t.)
HIMNO NACIONAL MEXICANO | VERSIÓN ESCOLAR CON LETRA
English version:
(Chorus) Mexicans, at the cry of war
make ready the steel and the bridle,
and let the earth tremble at its center
at the resounding roar of the cannon. (repeat last two lines)
(1st verse) Oh Fatherland! May the divine archangel of peace
wreathe your brow in olive,
for your eternal destiny in Heaven
was written by the finger of God.
But should a foreign enemy dare
to profane your soil with his step,
think, oh beloved Fatherland! that Heaven
has given you a soldier in every son.
(repeat chorus)
And even though my daughter is graduating from elementary school, these will be taking place in middle school as well. I’ve got three more years to sing along properly! … if I can stop myself from choking up.
San Miguel once again won Travel+Leisure's top accolade this year thanks to its "singular blend of history, culture, and contemporary sophistication." (Mark de Jong/Unsplash)
I absolutely love my adopted hometown of San Miguel de Allende. Most of us who live here share a common bond in knowing that we live in a very, very special place. For many who visit here for just a few days, they don’t understand it. They have a great time while here, but they can’t imagine actually living here. They could never understand how the city was once again named “Best City in the World” in this year’s recently released Travel+Leisure magazine annual awards.
How can it be that little SMA — not even in the top 100 largest cities in Mexico — could win Best City in the World for three straight years? Even some of the long-time foreign residents and locals seem to be a bit cynical about the distinction, but they still accept it with pride. For whatever its worth, I am not surprised. I know this place is special — and that’s why we relocated here. SMA is not just a place that you see, but one that you feel — and the more time you spend here, the more you feel it.
Cleaning up the abandoned restaurants around San Miguel’s central plaza is one area of opportunity to make sure SMA keeps winning Best City in the World, Travis Bembenek writes. (Travis Bembenek)
But that doesn’t mean that it is perfect, and every city on the planet is trying to continuously improve for its residents and visitors. San Miguel is no different. The city and its residents undeniably do a ton of things right, but there are also a lot of things that need improvement if it is going to stay on top. Here is my list, in no particular order, of what the city of SMA needs to do to keep getting better and stay ranked as the best city in the world:
1. Upgrade the buses
The bus system is the lifeblood of the city. They are what connect the surrounding and outlying communities with the center city. They are what connect the children to school, families and church services, grandmas and the market, and young employees and their workplaces. It’s an extensive, efficient, affordable transportation system and it gets the job done. But the air pollution belching out of most of the buses is some of the worst I have seen in the world. People in central SMA tend to walk everywhere — kids, grandmas, families — and we are all forced to breathe in the terrible toxic bus exhaust due to an absolute neglect of emission standards and upgrades. It’s shameful. Cities throughout Mexico are upgrading to electric buses; SMA must urgently do the same.
2. Expand the pedestrian-only core by one block in every direction in the central city.
The walkability of the central core is wonderful, but it oftentimes feels too small for the number of people. Expanding the “no car” zone by a block in each direction (say, to Insurgentes Avenue) would allow the core to further blossom. Great European cities have figured this out with amazing results — SMA has to make it happen as well.
3. Turn the “arroyo cachinches” (the river winding around the edge of town) into a beautiful, walkable urban park.
Stretches of it already are being beautified by volunteers, but other stretches of it have no walking path, lots of graffiti, and garbage. A recent volunteer effort by a neighborhood organization picked up 120 garbage bags full of trash in the river in just a two-block stretch! 120 bags of trash!! Leading cities worldwide have recognized that their rivers can be turned into incredible green spaces that allow residents to exercise, breathe fresh air and enjoy nature. San Miguel has an incredible opportunity to do something amazing with the river and make it an attraction for locals and tourists alike.
Upgraded, less polluting buses and expanded natural areas would benefit the health of all SMA residents. (Travis Bembenek)
4. Program more events/activities in the Benito Juárez and Zeferino urban parks.
Both parks are ideal locations for concerts, kids’ events, sporting events, food festivals, movie nights, plant and flower festivals, etc. There is no better example than the recent Sabores de San Miguel (Taste of San Miguel) event in Parque Juárez. This event brings together the young and old and Mexicans and foreigners like few others, and everyone loves it. Why not have it quarterly instead of once a year?
5. Better promote the activities and destinations outside of town.
The mayor recently said that the city “might be reaching its limits on the amount of tourists it can accommodate.” The vineyards, the hot springs, the ranches, the mountains and the surrounding towns all have massive appeal for locals and tourists alike, but most times, few people know what is going on in those areas and even fewer actually go to them. The city government needs to engage these destinations, help promote them, and treat them as partners in offering a broader array of tourist options. Why are there not obvious and well-promoted hiking, mountain biking or horseback riding tours in the surrounding mountains? Why aren’t there monthly Sabores de San Miguel-type events at a different vineyard each month? I am shocked by how few of our vineyards most people have been to. Out of the now 24 vineyards surrounding San Miguel, most people have been to one or two — how can that be?? The city’s tourism strategy needs to be much more comprehensive and wide-ranging, and look far beyond the few blocks surrounding the parroquía.
6. Get the two large abandoned restaurant spaces on the main square opened up again.
How can the best city in the world have abandoned restaurant spaces in two of the four corners of the main square for years? They are an eyesore. Literally right next to one of the most beautiful churches in the world is a restaurant that has been abandoned for years. The city must figure out a way to solve whatever problem exists and get them open and filled with people again!
7. Do not allow Viagra/Cialis/ painkiller tourist-focused pharmacies to put up ugly, obnoxious locations in the central city.
There are plenty of pharmacies serving the needs of local residents in the central city, and they do so in a professional way. For the first time the other day, I noticed an obnoxious new pharmacy just one block from San Miguel’s famous Aldama Avenue (considered one of the top 10 most beautiful in the world). It was like the ones you see every 10 feet in Mexican cruise ship ports, catering to gringos looking to stock up on their generic prescriptions, erectile dysfunction medicine and GLP-1 medications. We don’t need new pharmacies like this one that has opened in the central city.
Pharmacies targeting tourists in San Miguel’s historic center advertise a wide variety of painkillers, steroids and erectile dysfunction medications. (Travis Bembenek)
8. Better engage the foreign community.
San Miguel is filled with foreigners with lots of time, money and experience. They must be better engaged, leveraged and challenged to make the community better. We already have plenty of dog shelter volunteers, but need more people who want to help the city and its residents improve its education, healthcare, entrepreneurial skills, clean water availability, nature areas, etc. Why not create a core of volunteer foreign teachers who commit to helping make sure all young people in the city learn English? English language skills can significantly help young students in the future, and also allow them to find jobs locally and not have to leave the community in search of work.
9. Better engage the media.
There is a huge opportunity for the city to improve how it does at engaging and collaborating with media organizations like Mexico News Daily and others. Instead of working with us to promote the main events and key initiatives of the city, they leave us in the dark like everyone else on what is going on. The monthly event calendar is usually posted late and is missing most of the actual activities that take place in the month. Why not dedicate more resources to leverage media outlets to help promote what the city is planning? I frequently talk to local community leaders planning events who tell me that they receive very little support from the city. This is a big missed opportunity.
10. Find creative ways to raise more taxes for city improvements.
Options exist, like increasing the tax on home sales, higher property tax rates on all new construction, higher property tax rates on future home sales, or higher hotel room taxes. Of course, no option will be popular, and none of them will be easy to implement, but more taxes raised will mean more that can be done to continue to improve the city.
11. Figure out a logical parking scheme for each of the main corners of the city.
Parking in central SMA is becoming absurd. At some lots, rates are now as high as 70 pesos ($4 USD) per hour. Most of these places do not offer a daily rate. In other words, parking rates are nearing $100 USD a day in some lots — that is Manhattan pricing! I frequently hear about how residents not living right downtown are beginning to avoid the central city. Parking is too expensive, it’s too hard to find parking spots — it’s too much of a pain. I can’t tell you how many times I see cars driving around and around looking for parking. As happens in so many cities, increasingly limited and expensive parking results in much more traffic as cars drive around looking for options. SMA needs to take real ownership on this issue and build affordable city lots in different corners of the city. If done right, it would raise revenue for the city, reduce central city traffic, and attract more locals to town to frequent stores and restaurants. The last thing we want to happen is for the central city to become only “for tourists,” and then the surrounding areas for residents. Many cities around the world have figured out this parking problem — it’s time SMA does the same.
12. Get much better at engaging state and federal government.
Both the federal and state governments know that San Miguel is one of the crown jewels of Mexico. I am certain that the city could put together a comprehensive SMA 2030 plan that asks for more resources to help fund specific initiatives and improve the city. The state and federal government understand the huge value for the entire county in San Miguel continuing to receive the recognition it does; they need to do their part in helping continue to improve the city.
It goes without saying that we cannot take San Miguel’s “Best City in the World” status for granted. There are examples around the world of places being “loved to death,” as well as places that became complacent and lost their appeal. SMA needs to up its game and be better taken care of. Most of us would agree that a lot more can and should be urgently done to keep the city on top!
Travis Bembenek is the CEO ofMexico News Daily and has been living, working or playing in Mexico for nearly 30 years.
With the recent World Cup mania in Mexico, tourists from across the globe descended on the country. On social media, we all saw countless videos of Mexicans and foreign tourists having a great time. So with that in mind, we thought we would ask the question: Does Mexico need more tourists? Perhaps surprisingly to many people who have only been to Mexico’s big beach areas, tourism represents only about 8% of the Mexican economy. Of course at times, some parts of Mexico feel overrun with tourists, but many other amazing destinations are nearly empty.
In this episode of Mexico News Daily’s “Confidently Wrong” podcast, we dig into the topic of tourism in Mexico. We discuss a recent conversation that I had with the Mexican tourism minister, Josefina Rodriguez, and what her team is focused on. We also look at how Mexico tourism numbers compare to other global top tourist destinations like the U.K., Spain and France to get a sense for what the potential could be for Mexico.
Finally, as the world continues to rapidly embrace technologies like artificial intelligence and robotics, countries will need to look for industries that are likely to be less impacted. Tourism is a perfect example of an industry that can not only maintain but likely continue to create jobs and opportunities.
We have all those moments in an airport customs line or waiting to get into Coco Bongo when we felt like Mexico doesn’t need any more tourists … but perhaps that is a “confidently wrong” opinion? Check out the latest episode and tell us what you think.
Confidently wrong about tourism in Mexico: Season 3 - Episode 3
Travis Bembenek is the CEO ofMexico News Daily and has been living, working or playing in Mexico for nearly 30 years.
