The United States government has suspended avocado imports from Michoacán after one of its Mexico-based inspectors was threatened.
Michoacán – Mexico’s third most violent state last year – is currently the only state authorized to export avocados to the U.S., although Jalisco is expected to be given the green light to do so before the end of this year.
The Ministry of Agriculture (SADER) announced Saturday that the United States had advised that it was temporarily suspending avocado shipments.
“The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service of the United States Department of Agriculture (APHIS-USDA) decided to pause avocado inspection activities in Michoacán until further notice,” it said in a statement.
The decision came after an avocado inspector in Uruapan received a threatening call to his official cell phone, SADER said.
Michoacán Governor Alfredo Ramírez Bedolla.
“APHIS-USDA reported that an investigation is currently being carried out to assess the threat and determine the mitigation measures necessary to guarantee the physical safety of all its personnel who work in Michoacán,” the ministry said.
SADER also said it was informed that APHIS personnel were discussing the issue with the Mexican Association of Avocado Producers, Packers and Exporters (APEAM). APHIS inspectors have to certify U.S-bound avocados before they can be shipped.
The United States Embassy in Mexico said on Twitter that “facilitating the exportation of Mexican avocados to the U.S. and guaranteeing the safety of our agricultural inspection teams go hand in hand.”
“We’re working with the Mexican government to guarantee safety conditions that allow our personnel in Michoacán to resume operations,” it said Sunday.
The United States’ suspension of imports came the day before Super Bowl Sunday – a day on which consumption of Mexican avocados skyrockets – but supplies to meet the increased demand were shipped before it took effect.
Michoacán Governor Alfredo Ramírez Bedolla said Saturday that his government would do what was necessary so that avocado exports could resume shortly.
He spoke with U.S. Ambassador Ken Salazar and APEAM general director Armando López Orduña on Sunday, and the three men agreed to a series of meetings aimed at the prompt resumption of exports. Issues related to the harvesting and packing of avocados in Michoacán and their export to the United States were set to be discussed.
Ramírez noted that state police have been carrying out operations to ensure the safety of workers and U.S. inspectors as avocados are picked and transported. That work will continue, he stressed.
Electric vehicles need lithium for their batteries.
Lithium is the new “white gold” because of its key role in electric vehicle batteries. Its price quintupled in the past year. Latin America has the largest reserves and produced about a third of the world’s lithium last year. A new bonanza for the region?
Not necessarily. The “lithium triangle” where most of Latin America’s proven resources are located offers sobering lessons. Of its three nations, Chile and Argentina are way out in front, while Bolivia is struggling to start.
“Argentina is definitely standing out above its peers in attracting major investments in lithium extraction,” says Emily Hersh, chief executive of Luna Lithium in Nevada and a specialist on mining in South America. “Argentina has had multiple close-to-billion-dollar transactions and investments . . . in the last eight to 12 months.”
Lithium miners were drawn by the investor-friendly policies of the 2015-19 Mauricio Macri administration and pro-mining provincial governments also helped, executives say.
Across the border in Bolivia, the story is radically different. The country has potential: the world’s largest lithium salt flat and the biggest proven reserves.
But successive socialist governments have given the state a central role in exploiting lithium, private companies have gone away empty-handed and local communities have rejected the central government’s authority to negotiate. Despite years of promises, large-scale production has yet to begin.
“Bolivia has a traumatic relationship with natural resources,” says Roberto Laserna, a Cochabamba-based economist, referring to the history of silver mining under Spanish colonial rule. “People here believe that our mineral reserves expose the country to the voracity of foreigners.”
Excitable talk by some of Latin America’s leftwing governments about a “lithium Opec” cartel of state producers to control prices ignores the reality that “white gold” is a very different proposition to oil or precious metals.
Lithium is tricky to exploit. Highly reactive, it is not mined in pure form. It is complex and costly to extract (from brine, as in Latin America, or from rock, as in Australia) and convert into battery chemicals. Although abundant globally, few deposits are commercially viable. Most production comes from Australia, Chile, China and Argentina, and most processing is done in China.
“A new mine would typically take six to eight years to start,” says PJ Juvekar, head of materials research at Citi. “What companies want to see is a stable royalty structure that is transparent.”
Chile has enjoyed a stable regime and is by far Latin America’s biggest lithium producer. The two companies there, Albemarle of the U.S. and Chile’s SQM, are increasing investment.
SQM is spending US $400 million in Chile in 2021-22 and committing $700 million to Australia, where the tax regime is friendlier, in 2021-24. “Chile is much tougher than Australia and Argentina on lithium royalties,” says Stefan Debruyne, director of external affairs at SQM. “Our lease agreement there comes close to a 50-50 split of gross margin with the state and local communities”.
Chile’s incoming leftwing president Gabriel Boric wants to create a state lithium company but SQM and Albemarle believe this will not hurt them.
“We don’t see any material impact on our operations as a result of the Boric administration,” says Ellen Lenny-Pessagno, vice president of government and community affairs at Albemarle. “He’s made it very clear he is not going to impact the two existing operators.”
Experience in Latin America suggests that a successful lithium policy involves a stable regime with a fair split of revenues that provides an incentive to private companies.
Mexico’s veteran nationalist President López Obrador has other ideas. “We are going to create a Mexican (state) company for lithium,” he said last week. “ . . . Mexico is about our sovereignty. No more of this ‘there is a mining concession’ . . . the concession of lithium is special and it’s already been decided that lithium will be exploited for the benefit of Mexicans.”
Four U.S. senators have already written to President Joe Biden complaining that López Obrador’s lithium policy would “exacerbate national security concerns related to critical mineral scarcity.”
The longer-term risk may be that Mexico’s lithium never gets exploited. The Biden administration is offering incentives to produce lithium in the U.S. and if global prices remain high, there will be a push to diversify output. “At current spot prices, producing lithium from seawater may even become viable,” says SQM’s Debruyne.
That will be of little help to landlocked Bolivia, trapped in its state-centric mining model. “It seems that Bolivia is condemned to be a prisoner of its nationalist identity and this will stop lithium ever being produced,” says Laserna.
Got a novel in you bursting to come out? The San Miguel Literary Sala has online and in-person writing workshops on offer this month. Khakimullin Aleksandr/Shutterstock
If the last two years of the COVID-19 pandemic have made you think about finally trying to write a book, it may indeed be the right time.
Book sales have been up since 2020 and continue to rise, with the industry magazine Publishers Weekly reporting that sales of print books in the United States in 2021 rose by US $67.8 million. Book sales in the United Kingdom in 2021 were the highest in a decade, reported the British newspaper the Guardian, and the market research company Mordor Intelligence expects global e-book sales to grow annually — a total of US $5 billion between 2021 and 2026.
Whether you’re thinking about writing fiction or memoir, the San Miguel Literary Sala has workshops this month to help would-be writers and writers in need of some brushing up or inspiration.
For the first time since 2021, the organization is offering a combination of online and in-person writing workshops in its hometown of San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato. Throughout last year, the organization offered only online events due to COVID.
A list of their offerings this month, which start today, follows below, with all events listed in Central Standard Time:
The Literary Sala’s February workshops include a master class in the WildWriting technique conducted by Judyth Hill from February 15–19.
Feb 14, 16, 18, 10 a.m. — Kathrin Lake: “Memoirs: How to Show the Past (Not Tell It).” Use fiction techniques to make your memoir a compelling read and avoid falling into the trap of telling versus showing. Limited to 15 participants. This live, interactive workshop will be conducted online.
Feb 14, 1–4:30 p.m. — Audrey Wick: “Women’s Fiction and the Merits of Happily Ever After.” Learn how to get your foot in the door of a US $1 billion-a-year industry: the romance genre. Also covered will be discussions of category romances and women’s fiction and the difference between weaving a romantic thread through a story and centralizing romance as the plot. This live, interactive workshop will take place online.
Feb 15–19, 10 a.m. — Judyth Hill: “WildWriting Adventures in San Miguel.” This master class will be held in San Miguel de Allende in person. It starts with a short immersion into the WildWriting technique, then spends five days exploring inspiring sites in the historic city while journaling and practicing various writing styles, including memoir, food writing, travel writing, and fiction. This class is limited to 12 participants.
February 20, 6–9:20 p.m. — David Robbins: “Art and Craft of the Narrative.” This workshop focused on storytelling surveys the basics of powerful writing and authorial voice. This live, interactive workshop will be conducted online.
February 21 & 23, 6–7:30 p.m. — Laurie Gough: “Memoir Writing: Daring to Share Your Story.” Learn the craft of writing from reading master memoirists, the instructor’s own experience and in-class exercises. and transform your life stories into an inspiring literary narrative. This workshop takes place online.
February 22, 6–9:20 p.m. — Suzanne Van Atten: “Art of the Scene, the Essential Element of Narrative Writing.” Examine the major components of a scene and how to develop it through lectures, discussing excerpts from fiction and nonfiction and writing exercises. This live interactive workshop will be conducted online.
February 28, March 2 and 4, 3–5 p.m. — Danielle Trussoni: “How to Tell the Story of Your Life.” This master class will allow writers to discuss their personal stories; will address questions writers face when writing about family, friendships or real-life experiences; and will help participants pick the perfect genre for their manuscript. This in-person class is limited to 15 students.
Journalist Carlos Loret de Mola defended his report on the president's son's lifestyle and thanked his supporters in a video response posted to Twitter. Screenshot
More than 60,000 Twitter users joined a virtual protest against President López Obrador Friday night after the nation’s leader launched another attack on well-known journalist Carlos Loret de Mola.
Convened by the organization Sociedad Civil México (Civil Society Mexico) around the hashtag #TodosSomosLoret (We Are All Loret), the protest on Twitter Spaces – the social media company’s live audio conversation host – came after López Obrador claimed that the radio, television and print journalist has a gross income of 35.2 million pesos (US $1.7 million) a year.
“… We have to see if he pays taxes, I’m going to ask for all this in a report” from the federal tax agency SAT, the president told reporters at his regular news conference.
“He earns more than me … I’m embarrassed because I earn a lot if you compare it with what the majority of people in Mexico earn. But look at how much I earn – 2.01 million pesos gross per year, and he earns 35.2 million pesos, in other words he earns about 15 times more than me,” López Obrador said.
“Do you think it’s because he’s a high-flying, very intelligent journalist? A good writer? No, it’s because he’s a bully,” he said.
After Loret contributed to a report on the president’s son’s opulent home in Houston (pictured), López Obrador struck back. Latinus
López Obrador has ramped up his attacks on Loret since the journalist presented a report by news outlet Latinus and anti-graft group Mexicans Against Corruption and Impunity (MCCI) about his son’s luxurious living arrangements in the United States.
Friday night’s protest continued into the early hours of Saturday morning and became Twitter Spaces’ most-listened-to event in Spanish with over 1 million “listens” by Saturday night.
More than 100 people, including journalists, politicians, academics, artists and comedians, spoke at the virtual protest to condemn López Obrador’s attack on Loret and violation of his right to financial privacy, as well as the president’s broader antagonism toward sections of the press.
Among the participants were former National Autonomous University rector José Narro, political scientist and columnist Denise Dresser, MCCI president María Amparo Casar, National Action Party Senator Xóchitl Gálvez and actor Héctor Suárez Gomís.
Dresser described the president’s weekday morning press conference, known colloquially as la mañanera, as a “Roman circus,” where the “emperor” takes aim at whoever takes his fancy, while Suárez said the attack on Loret sent a clear message to all Mexicans that López Obrador won’t tolerate dissent.
“It’s no longer just an attack on freedom of speech, it’s an attack on any citizen who doesn’t bow to what the president pontificates; this man, from his morning pulpit in that ridiculous variety show, decides what is good and bad,” said the film and television actor.
“This is not an attack on a journalist but on a citizen, a Mexican. And by seeking to subdue, silence and exhibit Carlos Loret, he’s sending us a very clear message: ‘Anyone who doesn’t approve of me will suffer the same thing that Loret suffered; if you, citizen, don’t praise me and applaud me, you’re my enemy. Those are the rules, let it be very clear,’” Suárez said.
Speaking to the newspaper Reforma, Loret said he was taken aback by the outpouring of support, which – according to the president – was augmented by bots that rallied around the #TodosSomosLoret hashtag.
“I still haven’t recovered from the surprise and emotion,” he said, adding that some of the comments made at the virtual protest deeply affected him.
“I was moved like never before [but] it’s clear that it’s not about me. The president’s unusual aggression against me was the straw that broke the camel’s back,” the 45-year-old journalist said, asserting that López Obrador has regularly abused his power, made “authoritarian insults” and displayed “attitudes of a would-be dictator.”
“He offended a lot of people before me and I’m afraid there are a lot still to come,” said Loret, who claimed in a video message that the salary information López Obrador presented was “wrong” and “inflated.”
The frequent attacks on the media by the president and members of his government – a “fake news” exposé session has been a weekly feature of the mañaneras since the middle of last year – have been blamed for encouraging hostility toward, and even attacks on, journalists who are critical of López Obrador and his administration.
The president shared numbers supposedly indicating Loret’s salary and income sources at his Friday morning press conference. Screenshot
In a column published by Reforma, political science professor Carlos Elizondo Mayer-Serra asserted that no president of Mexico has insulted journalists and media outlets as much as AMLO.
“We’ve grown accustomed to what would have been unthinkable before his arrival to power,” he wrote. “The media outlets and journalists that he insults today are usually the same ones that revealed the scandals of previous governments.”
Elizondo claimed that the president endangered the safety of Loret and his family by disclosing information about his alleged salary, an assertion the journalist also made himself.
“If we’re talking about tax data in the possession of the state, the transgression of several laws is clear. … According to AMLO, the data he revealed was delivered by the people who ‘send us information.’ That assertion cannot be proven and in any case the head of state of a democratic country can’t make it public,” he wrote.
“… The scandal doesn’t distract the public from the issue that has drawn AMLO’s ire: the report about his son’s house in Houston and the connection between his daughter-in-law and a Pemex contractor whose income increased this six-year period of government. On the contrary, it intensifies the issue in public debate,” Elizondo wrote.
“The mañanera on Friday shows how the president sees the world, and [is indicative of] the decline of democratic political life in Mexico. Although this decline spreads silently in many other areas, what we saw on Friday should set off alarm bells.”
Army and anti-kidnapping agents took Rafael "N" into custody in Chihuahua. FGE Chihuahua
The army and the National Anti-Kidnapping Coordinator (Conase) arrested a prominent cartel chief in Chihuahua on Saturday for aggravated kidnapping.
Rafael “N,” known by the moniker “El Fantasma” (the ghost), has been identified as the leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) in Zacatecas. He’s thought to be responsible for the 10 bodies found hanging from an overpass in Cuauhtémoc on November 18. That was part of an ongoing wave of violence which saw at least 21 publicly hanging corpses reported in the state over eight days.
El Fantasma was in charge of training recruits and is suspected of extortion, selling narcotics, kidnappings and homicides in Tepetongo, Fresnillo and Monte Escobedo.
He is also being investigated for the kidnapping of two U.S. citizens — brothers Javier and Alejandra Márquez Gómez — on December 23. The kidnappers demanded 350,000 pesos (about US $17,000) from the brothers’ U.S. relatives.
A turf war has raged in Zacatecas since mid-2020 between the Sinaloa Cartel and the CJNG, which seeks to expand in the north of the country.
Zacatecas has already witnessed gruesome violence in 2022, despite a security plan through which 210 additional soldiers and 250 extra members of the National Guard were sent to the state in November.
Standing before an onshore oil well in his home state of Tabasco last March, President López Obrador made familiar promises to halt the privatization of energy in Mexico and save the country’s oil industry for the people.
“We’re rescuing Pemex and we’re rescuing the nation,” he said, nodding to the national oil and gas company.
His state-led vision for the country’s energy policy and Pemex celebrates the past. But it is threatened by a more 21st century concern: the lack of a concrete environmental, social and governance (ESG) strategy as its peers pivot towards a greener future.
This could become a problem for Pemex, which is fully state-owned but has debt pile of more than US $100 billion, as debt investors are increasingly screening out companies that perform badly on ESG metrics, bondholders have said.
Greenhouse gas emissions at the oil behemoth, which was created in 1938 after Mexico expropriated U.S. and U.K. oil assets, rose in 2019 and 2020. In 2020, greenhouse gas emissions in extraction and production were 31.6 tonnes of CO2 equivalent per thousand barrels. That is more than one-third above that year’s target of 23.34 tonnes per thousand barrels.
Most oil and gas majors are not achieving overall emission reductions, but many are improving on carbon intensity and have longer-dated targets than Pemex, said Jonathon Smith, manager for oil and gas research at Sustainalytics, a unit of Morningstar.
Sustainalytics placed Pemex 253rd out of 261 in a ranking of how well oil and gas producers are managing ESG risks. The ratings and data provider judged Pemex’s exposure to risks associated with emissions and worker safety as “severe.”
Recent results from ExxonMobil, Chevron and others show that despite promises of a greener future decades down the line, betting on oil can still be highly profitable for investors when prices rise.
Part of the attraction of Pemex is the higher return on offer in comparison with the Mexican government or its peers. Pemex’s latest 10-year bond, which it sold in December, offers a yield of more than 7%, while a 12-year dollar-denominated sovereign bond issued in January pays a yield of around 4%.
While investors such as Fidelity, Capital Group and BlackRock all hold north of $1 billion in Pemex debt, a clearer ESG plan is regarded as crucial to luring in more investors that might push up prices and help reduce the company’s borrowing costs.
“The incremental spread you get on their bonds is multiples higher than any other quasi-government oil company . . . the ESG overhang is adding to the pain,” said Akbar Causer, emerging markets portfolio manager at Eaton Vance. “As more managers have ESG restrictions, more managers aren’t able to hold Pemex’s debt in their portfolios.”
Dos Bocas’ share of capital spending at Pemex.
Although Latin America is home to some of the energy industry’s last fossil fuel holdouts, analysts agree that Pemex lags behind other regional national oil companies such as Brazil’s Petrobras and Colombia’s Ecopetrol on ESG matters. Despite some scepticism, it is also starkly at odds with plans by large groups such as Shell, BP and Total that have all set net zero emissions targets and are investing in renewables as they manage the energy transition.
“If they [Pemex] want to remain a viable company for the medium to long term they have to implement ESG,” said Aaron Gifford, emerging markets sovereign analyst at T Rowe Price, one of the largest holders of Pemex bonds.
Although Pemex’s emissions targets are not well publicized, Gifford and others have seen some signs of improvement in the last couple of years. The group has started to mention ESG briefly in quarterly reports such as including an indicator on natural gas flaring, is engaging privately with investors and said in its most recent quarterly earnings that it had identified 209 environmental risks, although it provided little detail.
“It is clear that they’re coming around to the fact that this is an urgent matter . . . for now we are all just kind of waiting for actual measures and longer-dated targets,” Gifford said.
Alex Collins, an emerging markets corporate analyst at Pemex bondholder BlueBay Asset Management, said he had been engaging with the group for 18 months on ESG. He said he thought they did want to do more, but had a long list of other priorities. “They do care, they’re just doing a 4D Sudoku,” he said, referring to the puzzle game.
Neither fund manager has plans to divest, but BlueBay warned that their clients increasingly ask them to screen out poor performance on ESG. Pemex’s primary ESG issues are around emissions and the environment as well as its record on accidents and worker safety, analysts said.
Pemex did not respond to a request for comment.
Now, the president’s nationalist vision is making it even harder to allocate the focus and capital for a climate-focused transition. After he was elected in 2018, López Obrador inherited Pemex with a huge debt pile built up over years of declining production and bad investments. It also had massive quarterly losses and was in the throes of a major reform instigated by a previous administration that opened it up to private competition for the first time in its history.
Many analysts believe the best business strategy would be for the company to focus on its more profitable exploration and production arm, while making a credible plan to address ESG.
But López Obrador has instead prioritized the downstream business in his quest to make the country energy “self-sufficient.” He wants to stop exporting crude and importing petroleum products and instead extract, refine and use them locally.
The government has been criticized for its doubling down on fossil fuels, including trying to pass a constitutional reform to guarantee more than half the electricity market to state company CFE. Critics have said the reform would make electricity more expensive and halt private investment in renewables.
“It’s a strange bet to say the least,” said Carlos Elizondo Mayer-Serra, a professor at Tecnológico de Monterrey university and a former Pemex board member. “It’s a president and a team that don’t really understand the implications of developed countries’ fight against climate change.”
Crude oil production since 2016.
At the end of last year, Pemex said it would effectively stop crude exports by 2023. “The doubling down of Pemex’s strategic shift towards lossmaking downstream activities underlines how ideological considerations continue to eclipse commercial logic,” Nicholas Watson, managing director at Teneo, said after the announcement. “The plan is unrealistic and is unlikely to develop in the official timeframe.”
Pemex chief executive Octavio Romero Oropeza offers little challenge to the administration. An agronomist with no prior oil sector experience, he is a longtime collaborator of López Obrador.
The president has followed through on pledges to financially support the company, something bond investors have long paid keen attention to. The government cut a key tax rate Pemex pays to 40% in 2022, down from more than 65% in 2019. It also recently agreed to buy back some bonds and swap others to the tune of more than $3 billion.
“The financing side is where they focused the most this year . . . I would say there they’ve made very good progress,” said Simon Waever, a strategist at Morgan Stanley. “On fundamentals, it’s a bit more challenging . . . clearly the biggest challenge is getting production up in line with their plans but for now capex just isn’t enough.”
Around one-third of the company’s capex this year will go into the new refinery at Dos Bocas in Tabasco, according to an investor presentation from June. Last year, it bought out partner Shell’s stake in their Texas Deer Park refinery.
The former is a flagship project in the president’s native state that is officially due to open in the summer, but analysts doubt it will be ready to produce before 2023. An activist has filed a legal challenge against the project, claiming it was built on environmentally protected land.
In tandem with the financial support, the finance ministry promised a reformulated business plan for the company, but it faces a tall order to placate investors and analysts who want to see progress both on ESG and the fundamental strategy.
“It’s going to be interesting to see what exactly this whole . . . plan really entails,” said John Padilla, a partner at Latin America-based energy consultancy IPD. “If it doesn’t address ESG, if it doesn’t address the refining dynamic, if it doesn’t address the fundamental issues that you’ve got with production then it’s just more window dressing.”
Mojigangas in the downtown streets of San Miguel de Allende at the wedding of Sonrisa Lucero and Cristina Aguilar. Marcos Valdés
San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, made them internationally famous, but Mexico’s gigantic puppets are much more than a tourist attraction.
They can go by various names like mona de calenda and gigantes, but the best-known term is mojiganga, so we will use that here.
The word comes from Spain, where it originally referred to a kind of street theater, often associated with religious processions, included to provide comic relief. This use can be found in Mexico in a few places like Zacualpan de Amilpas, Morelos. Their mojiganga event occurs along with the celebration of its patron saint, la Virgen del Rosario (the Virgin of the Rosary), in September.
But the word mojiganga has mostly shifted meaning to refer to a meters-tall puppet figure made to sit on the shoulders of a person who dances along the street as public entertainment. The dancer/puppeteer is hidden by the skirt or robe of the figure, with a hole cut out to allow the dancer to peer through.
Across Mexico, there are few hard-and-fast rules for making a mojiganga, but almost always, they are a mixed-media creation. At the very least, the head of the puppet is made from papier-mâché, not only because of its lack of weight but also because the facial features can be as simple or as fine as the artisan wants.
Historical photo of mojiganga figures traditional to Pátzcuaro, Michoacán.
In most places, the papier-mâché “skin” extends down the torso, generally reinforced with wood or metal. In Celaya, a town famous for its papier-mâché work, the entire figure is made with papier-mâché, but just about everywhere else, they take advantage of other materials.
Arms are generally of stuffed cloth to allow them to sway freely and not hurt anyone who might get hit by them. The clothing is made with commercial fabric, often colorful, and the extension of this cloth down past the waist is what hides all of the dancer except for his feet, which become part of the image. Hair can be made with any of a number of materials, and certain items like jewelry can be purchased commercially or made from scratch.
Depending on the area and the purpose of the puppet, the forms that mojigangas take vary widely. They can include buxom blondes in revealing attire, brides, grooms, Mexican historical figures, devils, angels, pre-Hispanic priests, modern indigenous people, Mexican cultural figures and occasionally homages to non-Mexican persons such as Gandhi and Albert Einstein.
Some forms are dictated by tradition, such as the “turcos” and “orientales” figures in Pátzcuaro, referencing Spain’s history with the Moors, as well as the heroes of the War of Independence who must appear in San Miguel de Allende’s annual “El Grito” celebration on the night before Independence Day. Others, however, can take advantage of various cultural images and even be pure flights of fancy.
How, where and when they appear is not uniform either. They show up spottily in central Mexico, primarily in the states of Guanajuato, Michoacán, Guerrero and Oaxaca. Even in these states, they are mostly limited to San Miguel Allende, Pátzcuaro, and in Oaxaca in Oaxaca city, Santo Tomás Jalieza, and Cuilápam, where their use has been documented for centuries.
They appear most often at patron saint festivities. In places like Pátzcuaro, they are used only for this purpose. But in many other places, locals employ them for a wider variety of uses.
Hermes Arroyo posing with his creations at his workshop in San Miguel Allende.
San Miguel’s most famous mojigangas are those made for weddings, and this is the case in Oaxaca as well. Another common use is as a means of attracting customers to a business, often in Mexican restaurants and tourist shops. More recently, mojigangas have appeared in some Day of the Dead celebrations, particularly those festivals aimed at tourists.
Although guaranteed to attract attention no matter how they are used, the larger-than-life puppets are not cheap. They cost a minimum of 6,000 pesos to produce but can fetch three times that in wealthier parts of the country.
Dancing as a mojiganga is no mean feat. Straps at the puppet’s hips put all the weight on the dancer’s shoulders. San Miguel de Allende maker Hermes Guerrero says that he tries to keep the weight of his creations down as much as possible, but they are still over 20 kilograms. He has also found that replacing the braided rope straps with those made with rubber inner tubes not only makes the weight a bit easier to bear but also makes the puppet bounce more.
The mojigangas of San Miguel de Allende are the most famous because, quite simply, the large expat population there has brought them to the attention of the international press.
It would be easy to mistakenly believe that they were invented here and used only for partying purposes — not the case. Mojigangas were introduced into colonial Mexico by at least the 17th century, and their use was likely more widespread then than it is now.
Pátzcuaro historian Eugenio Calderon says the tradition almost disappeared for a time after the Revolution because of the outlawing of public religious displays. However, their use probably had been waning before that because, while religious festivities with comic/party-like elements are widespread in Mexico, the use of mojigangas is not.
An indigenous woman mojiganga created by Tonatiuh Estrada of Oaxaca city.
As for just being party favors, far older traditional uses of mojigangas remain, even outside of San Miguel’s touristy center, including some in which the dancing figure is made for a particular folk religious festival, then ritually burned.
There are a number of noted mojiganga makers in Mexico. Maestro Arroyo has the advantage of being based in San Miguel de Allende, where his wedding and other commercial creations often pay for the ones that he makes for local community celebrations.
There is evidence that the puppets’ use is slowly growing and spreading into new areas of Mexico: artisans such as Arroyo, Tonatiuh Estrada from Oaxaca and more are finding business outside their local areas.
Estrada did not begin his crafting career with the puppets. Originally a woodworker, he became disheartened with the inability to purchase wood that was not harvested illegally. He began by reestablishing local traditions but now ships mojigangas all over Mexico, particularly to the west and northwest of the country.
It is easy to get caught up with the party and commercial aspects of these creations, but they are an important part of Mexico’s history and culture. YouTube video blogger of Mexican culture and gastronomy, Carlos el Casta says, “These mojigangas are an important part of our history and identity. They serve to reinforce a sense of community while they entertain.”
Leigh Thelmadatter arrived in Mexico 18 years ago and fell in love with the land and the culture in particular its handcrafts and art. She is the author of Mexican Cartonería: Paper, Paste and Fiesta (Schiffer 2019). Her culture column appears regularly on Mexico News Daily.
Is it justifiable when Mexicans evade tolls or take over collection plazas in the face of a corrupt, indifferent government? Or is it just stealing?
If you’ve ever done any long-distance driving in Mexico, you’ve probably discovered that toll roads are the way to go.
They’re nice. They’re paved. They’re usually relatively free of potholes. They also come with insurance coverage in the case of accidents, and the famous “Green Angels” roam up and down in green vehicles to give mechanical and any other kind of assistance people might need.
All in all, it’s a pretty good service, and while I think that all roads should be as nice and as cared for as toll roads, I grudgingly understand the need to charge a fee. Mexico has one of the lowest tax collection rates in the Americas, so the money for maintaining them has to come from somewhere.
And it is quite a bit of money — so much so that toll plazas are frequently the sites of robbery and takeovers. Through a combination of “no justice, no peace”-type protests and a “cheating is cool, paying is for suckers” general philosophy from some — Mexico loses about 1.5 billion pesos in tax revenue a year that would otherwise count as income.
The issue of toll roads is an ongoing struggle between the government — which however corrupt it may be does need to collect taxes to provide the public services that it does — and citizens who don’t think they should have to pay. (In the case of takeovers, the occupiers of the toll plazas apparently think that they should be paid instead.)
Strategies for avoiding the tolls are well-known: motorcyclists simply ride around the boom, and others follow the car ahead of them, getting as close to them as they can and getting through before the boom goes back down. Others push through the booms (which are wisely flexible) or simply get out of their cars and lift them up.
For a short while, the operators of México state’s infamous toll plaza in Ecatepec thought that they had a foolproof way to collect their fees regularly flouted by drivers. As a solution, they installed spikes to rise and pop drivers’ tires whenever they didn’t pay their toll, but people quickly found a way to get around those as well.
And because toll plazas are often out in the middle of nowhere — or at least mostly not in cities — they tend to be fairly easy targets for opportunists and protesters alike. Toll collection workers who accept these jobs know that they need to be ready to be confronted at worst and ignored at best.
As someone who comes from a long line of passive resisters and activists, my first moral instinct when hearing about the takeover of toll booths is to give them the benefit of the doubt, even against my own tendency toward extreme rule-following.
On the one hand, I want everyone to follow the rules because they exist for a reason. On the other, “no justice, no peace,” right? There are a lot of people who have a lot to be mad about in Mexico, so why shouldn’t they seek justice in ways that actually get the attention of the authorities? Lord knows writing letters and standing outside government buildings with a sign doesn’t do the trick.
The students involved in some recent takeovers were from the same school as the missing 43 students in 2014 — the Ayotzinapa teacher training college — and have a history of taking over toll booths and vehicles alike as a form of social protest. They were also recently involved in a clash with the National Guard. When they set a semi-trailer in neutral and aimed it to go barreling toward the soldiers, Acapulco Mayor Abelina López bizarrely defended them, insisting that leniency was warranted because “no one was driving the truck.”
Nor does President López Obrador seem to have a problem with the students’ forms of protest. I suppose that after the disappearances, any protest behavior from students at this school, even when it’s dangerous, is permissible. As long as none of them become journalists and cover the president in a negative light, it’s apparently all OK.
When it comes to simply not wanting to pay, I understand the motivation: keeping your money while maybe sticking it to a corrupt government. One man said that people shouldn’t pay because they were in “extreme poverty,” and I laughed out loud.
People in Mexico living in extreme poverty don’t own cars.
When it comes to takeovers in which the protesters don’t do anything but let drivers through without paying, I suppose I can understand it as a political statement and general subversion. But taking over a toll plaza and then collecting money, especially when it seems to be an established business model that thrives on habit and impunity — like, wow, the protesters who attacked the National Guard had been doing these takeovers predictably twice a week for six years — that’s some cynical stuff right there.
And taking things out on toll booth workers, who after having suffered threats and beatings can’t ever be sure what to expect, is kind of like surprise-punishing a criminal’s kids for the parent’s crimes. Sure, they’re part of the household, but they’re not the puppet masters.
Toll roads are just one of the many areas in which impunity reigns. Until would-be cheaters and opportunists face a real chance of not actually getting away with it, these incidences are bound to continue.
I just hope they keep working enough for the system to continue. Those nice roads and the guarantee that help will find you if you need it aren’t things I want going away.
President López Obrador at his Wednesday press conference. Presidencia de la República
There was little rest for President López Obrador last weekend. He was in Querétaro to honor 105 years of the Mexican Constitution and in México state to open a state-owned bank. Few could criticize the 68-year-old’s stamina, although doubts about his health frequently resurface. He has long said he’ll finish his term if God and nature allow it. So far, there is no reason to believe they are conspiring against him.
Monday
Avid viewers might have felt short-changed on Monday: the government’s flashy videos of its infrastructure projects were not shown. The electoral prohibition period — which bans any activity that might be seen as campaigning — was introduced in the build-up to the April 10 vote on whether the president should finish his mandate. AMLO admitted that the videos could be seen as propaganda.
The tabasqueño paid tribute to Colonel Carlos Garduño Núñez, a soldier who fought in World War II, lived past 100, and recently died. The president also lamented the passing of Carmen Santiago Alonso, an indigenous rights defender from Oaxaca, and sent his best wishes to the president of Honduras, Xiomara Castro, who contracted COVID-19.
Nicknamed El Americano (The American) in his youth, López Obrador was still waiting for a response to a letter he sent to his alleged brethren.
“Hopefully soon this diplomatic note will be answered because it is improper, it is an intrusion into the public life of Mexico that the United States government is financing groups opposed to a legally and legitimately constituted government … it’s a violation of international law,” he said of the U.S. financing Mexican political lobbying groups.
After clashes in Guerrero by students from the Ayotzinapa teacher training college – the school attended by the 43 young men who disappeared in Iguala, Guerrero, in 2014 – AMLO called for calm. “I want to call on the boys … to no longer act in this way … You have to fight for ideals, not for destruction. There should be no rebel without a cause.”
Tuesday
The president promised some good news as he opened the conference on Tuesday. Deputy Health Minister Hugo López-Gatell was the man to deliver it: “The fourth COVID wave is declining, and that the trajectory will most likely remain that way until its complete … disappearance.”
He added that the death rate had been 72% lower than in previous waves.
López-Gatell, who faces a legal challenge by families of COVID-19 victims for his handling of the pandemic, was defended by the president.
Deputy Health Minister Hugo López-Gatell at Tuesday’s press conference. Presidencia de la República
“It is a great injustice, a smear campaign, it’s not just Dr. Hugo … We would all go to jail. We are all Hugo … it all has to do with politics,” he said.
He added he was looking forward to the visit of U.S. special envoy John Kerry to discuss energy matters and praised U.S. Ambassador Ken Salazar, who had said that Mexico’s proposed energy reform was necessary.
Salazar was subsequently criticized by a columnist at a prominent U.S. newspaper, and AMLO had some choice words for the publication.
“Is that right? The Washington Post, the newspaper that through a thorough investigation led [former president, Richard] Nixon to resign, now has [Mexican journalist] Loret de Mola as a writer? … There is a global crisis in the media … it is decadence, lack of imagination, lack of talent, lack of professionalism and above all lack of ethics. Journalism is an ethical imperative, like politics, like good politics,” the president said.
Wednesday
A journalist linked Baker Hughes – a company contracted by Pemex – to the U.S. property of the president’s son. However, AMLO said he was none the wiser.
“What is this company? I didn’t even know about it. I don’t know any of its executives … I know Mexican businessmen, but those are companies in the oil world and I don’t know any of their executives,” he assured viewers.
In her section on supposed media lies and misinformation, Elizabeth García Vilchis explained that taxes on pensions were not going up and that the beverage company FEMSA hadn’t been raided by the army. García also derided the coverage about AMLO’s son.
“There’s no conflict of interest … the report … lacks journalistic rigor, resorts to internet sources and there is no proof of anything, beyond sensationalism and bad faith,” she said.
The killers of the journalist Lourdes Maldonado, murdered in Tijuana on January 23, had been captured, the president said. Security Minister Rosa Icela Rodríguez and her deputy, Ricardo Mejía Berdeja, proudly presented the criminal investigation in detail.
Thursday
The head of the elaborately named Institute to Return Stolen Goods to the People (INDEP), Ernesto Prieto, opened the conference to detail the payment of pensions to workers from the electricians union, who were allegedly short-changed by privatization in the Felipe Calderón administration.
Sonora Governor Alfonso Durazo speaks about reducing violence in his state at Friday’s presidential press conference. Presidencia de la República
On the meeting with John Kerry, the president said his visitor left culturally enriched.
“It was a very kind, respectful conversation and it gave us time to show him the National Palace …. the extraordinary murals that Diego Rivera painted. It is something unique, splendid. It is art and culture that is not seen elsewhere,” he said.
However, relations with Spain were not quite so rosy. After an off-handed suggestion of a “pause” in relations caused controversy, AMLO clarified on Thursday that he didn’t mean a diplomatic rupture “but rather a brotherly protest.”
“We are going — for the sake of our peoples — to have a pause … We are going to calm the relationship … they should actually apologize. They haven’t, it doesn’t matter, but we’re going to enter a new stage, slowly,” he said.
Friday
Hermosillo, Sonora, played host for Friday’s conference. Governor Alfonso Durazo said his government was focused on reducing violence against the indigenous Yaqui community.
Deputy Defense Minister Agustín Radilla confirmed that the state was the seventh highest in the country for homicides.
Later in the conference, the president delivered something of a religious sermon.
“One of the representatives of the most important religious movements in the world, Jesus Christ, was crucified for defending the poor. The powerful of his time spied on him and called him the troublemaker … until they crucified him,” he said.
He offered some life advice too, courtesy of a Russian literary great: “Leo Tolstoy, who is one of the writers I admire the most, said: ‘What is happiness? It’s not in material goods, not in titles, not fame, it is to be right with oneself, it is to be well … with our conscience … It’s to be right with God.'”
However, the charitable mood wasn’t extended to Carlos Loret de Mola, the journalist investigating the president’s son. AMLO suggested that his finances might be worthy of scrutiny: “Loret is not working at [media organization] Televisa and they gave him 11.8 million pesos (about US $580,000) last year,” he said.
The president described Loret as “a mercenary, corrupt and, in the strict sense of the word, not a journalist …” in the latest of many attacks on the Latinus journalist and newspaper columnist.
Parsley is one of those ubiquitous ingredients that seems to be everywhere yet not used specifically. Sadly, its starring role seems to be as a throw-away garnish on everything from grilled fish to tortas.
That’s a shame, really, as parsley’s bright, grassy flavor — lightly herbal but sweet and fresh — is a respected asset in classic dishes all over Europe, the Middle East and some South American countries. It’s an essential in Lebanese tabouleh, Italian gremolata, French fines herbes and bouquet garni, the Québécois pommes persillade and the traditional Brazilian herb seasoning cheiro-verde.
Historically, the ancient Romans believed that a necklace of fresh parsley would prevent drunkenness. If any of you try this, please let me know if it works!
I’ve only encountered parsley in Mexico (known here as perejil, pronounced pear-ray-heel) as the aforementioned sad garnish, or sometimes in lime or pineapple agua fresca, where the tiny minced bits add a pretty green color and just a hint of herby flavor to the juice concoction.
By the way, calling cilantro “Mexican parsley” is a complete misnomer. They’re two very different plants whose flavor profiles are poles apart. What is confusing, though, are the two varieties of parsley, flat-leaf and curly. For most of us, the flavors are about the same — it’s the textures and uses that differ.
Make parsley chimichurri the costar of your steak dinner!
Curly parsley is, as the name says, curly and is what’s commonly used in French cooking. The stems are filled with small bunches of tightly packed leaves that, when fresh, can be particularly juicy and flavorful. Flat-leaf or Italian parsley is softer and holds its flavor better than its curly cousin when heated.
Whichever variety you buy, look for a fresh, bright green color, firm stems and no yellowing. Once you get your parsley home, don’t wash or disinfect it until you’re ready to use it. Store the bunch in the fridge wrapped in paper towels and sealed in a plastic bag, or you can snip the stems and place it in a glass with a little water, like you would a bunch of flowers.
Parsley Pesto
½ lb. spaghetti
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 bunch flat-leaf parsley
1/3 cup chopped pecans/walnuts
1/3 cup grated Parmesan
1/3 cup olive oil
Salt and pepper
1 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice plus wedges for serving
Cook spaghetti al dente. Drain, reserving 1 cup pasta water. In food processor, blend garlic, parsley, nuts, Parmesan, oil, salt and pepper until it forms a thick paste. Add lemon juice.
Toss hot pasta with pesto, adding reserved pasta water as needed. Serve immediately with lemon wedges.
Argentinian Chimichurri
1 cup packed fresh parsley
5 cloves garlic, peeled
2 Tbsp. fresh oregano leaves
½ cup olive oil
¼ cup red wine vinegar
1 tsp. kosher salt
¼ tsp. red pepper flakes
In food processor or blender, pulse parsley, garlic and oregano until finely chopped. Transfer to a medium bowl; whisk in oil, vinegar, salt and red pepper flakes. Store refrigerated up to 2 days.
Fresh Herb Italian Vinaigrette
1 cup loosely packed fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped
10 large fresh basil leaves
¼ tsp. dried oregano
2 cloves garlic, minced (about 2 tsp.)
¼ cup red wine vinegar
1½ tsp. honey
¾ cup extra-virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper
Combine parsley, basil, oregano, garlic, vinegar and honey in food processor. Process until a paste forms. With motor on, drizzle in olive oil. Season with salt and pepper. — seriouseats.com
Plenty of garlic and parsley make this shrimp dish divine.
Shrimp or Salmon with Green Sauce
3-4 cloves garlic
1 bunch parsley, tough stems discarded
3 scallions, chopped
½ jalapeno, seeded
1/3 cup olive oil
Sea salt
¼ cup white wine
1 Tbsp. water
1 lb. large peeled and deveined shrimp OR 3 (6 oz.) salmon filets
Preheat oven to 500 F. In food processor, blitz garlic. Add parsley, scallions and jalapeno to food processor and blend; add olive oil and salt. Blitz until combined.
Pour into 8-by-8-inch glass baking dish. Add wine, water and shrimp/salmon to the sauce; stir to combine.
Bake until shrimp are opaque, 8–10 minutes, or until salmon is cooked to desired tenderness.
Note: If using salmon, follow directions above, adjusting the bake time for the size of the filets.
Parsley and Romaine Salad
Simple flavors + lots of texture = delicious!
1 cup packed flat-leaf parsley, large stems removed
1 heart of romaine lettuce
1 Tbsp. pine nuts, lightly toasted
4 thin slices stale or toasted baguette, rubbed with a cut clove of garlic and cubed
1 Tbsp. minced chives
¼ cup vinaigrette dressing of your choice*
Cut parsley into thin strips (chiffonade) by holding the bunch tightly together and cutting across it with a chef’s knife. Transfer to salad bowl.
Stack romaine leaves; cut crosswise into chiffonade. Add to salad bowl. Add pine nuts, croutons and chives. Just before serving, toss with dressing.
* To make a simple lemon vinaigrette: 1 Tbsp. lemon juice whisked with 3 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil and salt to taste
Garlic-Parsley Butter
The simplest sauce for grilled seafood, meat, and vegetables.
1 stick unsalted butter (4 oz.), softened
¼ cup packed fresh parsley leaves
1 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice
2 tsp. lemon zest
2 cloves garlic, minced
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
Combine butter, parsley, lemon juice and zest, and garlic in food processor. Pulse until combined thoroughly. Season to taste with salt and pepper. (Alternatively, mince parsley and garlic by hand and mix everything in a bowl using a fork.) Wrap butter tightly; store in refrigerator up to two weeks or in freezer several months.
Gremolata
Serve over grilled fish, veggies, pork or meat or mix with pasta.
