The video, published on TikTok, went viral, earning 133,000 likes on the online platform.
The news website Televisa reported that the taco that so impressed the German appeared to be a campechano — a popular style of street food taco in Mexico that often combines both pork and beef — topped with green sauce.
The video has accumulated more than 900,000 views and thousands of comments.
Some Mexican users were touched by the German’s display of emotion: “I hereby declare this gentleman Honorary Mexican!” replied Joe González.
“This guy is a Mexican born in another country. Adopt him right now. We definitely claim him!” Mave Rodríguez wrote.
Other users said that a small stand on the street was the best place to sample the dish.
The humble but beloved taco is central to Mexican cuisine. It is generally a corn tortilla — sometimes wheat — filled with meat, raw onion and cilantro, accompanied by a spicy chile sauce.
The dish predates the Spanish conquistadors’ arrival in Mexico. One suggested etymology for the word “taco” is tlahco, the Náhuatl word meaning “half” or “in the middle,” referring to where the filling would be placed in the tortilla.
Durango and Aguascalientes regressed to medium risk yellow from low risk green on the federal government’s new coronavirus stoplight map, while Baja California Sur and Coahuila switched to green from yellow.
The risk level remained unchanged in the other 28 states.
There are 27 green states on the new map, which takes effect Monday and remains in force through December 26, and five yellow states.
The yellow states are Durango, Aguascalientes, Baja California, Sonora and Chihuahua.
Baja California easily leads the country for active coronavirus cases on a per capita basis. The northern border state has almost 90 current infections per 100,000 people, the federal Health Ministry reported Sunday.
Sonora ranks second with about 45 active cases per 100,000 residents followed by Chihuahua with just over 40. The only other states with more than 30 active cases per 100,000 people are Baja California Sur, Coahuila and Aguascalientes.
Mexico’s accumulated case tally stands at almost 3.92 million after 855 new cases were reported Sunday while the official COVID-19 death toll increased by 52 to 296,672. There are an estimated 19,160 active cases across the country.
The Health Ministry said Sunday that the hospital occupancy rate for COVID patients has declined 90% compared to the pandemic peak in January.
Only one case of the highly mutated omicron variant has been detected in Mexico, but given that the strain has been identified in at least 30 U.S. states – including three of the four states that border Mexico – it is likely more prevalent here than is officially known.
Silversmith Gualberto Mota Martínez is unusual in that he's from southern Mexico and made his career in the north. Leigh Thelmadatter
It is hard to overstate silver’s historic and current importance to Mexico. Despite centuries of sacking, Mexico still is the leading producer of silver ore in the world.
But with the exception of Taxco, Guerrero, Mexican silversmithing is unknown, and that is a shame.
Silver crafting was important in the colonial period, but afterward much of it died out. Some did survive, but most silversmithing done today does not have an uninterrupted history.
Most is the result of revival efforts, although some is new. But so far, only the silver of Taxco has received international attention.
One area where silverwork is growing is in the north of Mexico. Many mines still operate here, so silver is produced and exported, but this is not where the real money is.
Silver necklace and earrings by Cintya Tyaro, incorporating artisan mini-sarapes made by textile artisans. Courtesy of Tyaro Jewelry
The profitability lies in the final product, and artisans and others are looking to capitalize on this. Here are three examples of silverwork stories to give a sense of what is out there.
Alfredo Pérez Aguirre is a silversmith in the Pueblo Mágico of Jerez, Zacatecas. This state straddles the cultural divide of north and central Mexico. It is cowboy country, but the state is also home to baroque architecture as seen further south. Its silver tradition also reflects this mixture.
Pérez did not come from an artisan family, but his mother did own a jewelry store. He learned on his own to fix rings and the like, and it was only a matter of time before he was making his own jewelry designs.
People from Jerez have a preference for more ornate styles from their colonial past, and so baroque-style moon-shaped earrings is what Pérez is known for. These earrings have their origins in the Middle East and were brought to Mexico by the Spanish, who spent centuries under Muslim rule before they came to the New World.
This colonial style was originally done in gold, but because of cost, silver is preferred now.
About 70% of Pérez’s business is still done in the local community, with the rest thanks to regional fairs and international contacts he has made.
An example of Mota’s silverwork, which uses Taxco techniques but is inspired by Durango’s culture. Leigh Thelmadatter
Only 3 1/2 hours away lives Gualberto Francisco Mota Martínez, who goes professionally by “Gualas” (a Hispanization of the surname Wallace).
The city of Durango is not far from Zacatecas city, but there is a significant difference in culture. Some old buildings in the city show similarities to those in central Mexico, but you have to look harder for them, and even these are far less ornate.
Durango was conquered and settled by the Spanish later, in part because of the lack of silver and gold deposits, and so handcrafts in general here are more recent in origin and often as a result of modern influences from farther south.
Gualas’ southern influence is from his training as a silversmith in Taxco, starting as an apprentice when he was a child. The experience allowed him to learn from a number of maestros, not just one, something that taught him to be flexible and creative.
He was eventually invited by a government project in Durango to teach silverwork to disabled people in the state. The project lasted two years, enough time for the maestro to fall in love with the state.
Gualas’ techniques are all from his Taxco childhood, but his northern surroundings have had a profound impact on his designs, using inspiration from local and regional architecture and pottery and other handcrafts such as masks. Interestingly, his designs have found more popularity among international buyers than with Mexicans, but it is this absorption of images from one’s environment that is important in an artist creating their own aesthetic.
From left to right, Margarita Avila and Cintya Rodríguez at the Los Pinos Cultural Center in Mexico City. Leigh Thelmadatter
The last northerner is not one person but a small group of women artisans who share the same origin story: Alejandra Arrellano of A3, Margarita Avila of Margaret Plata, Silvia Bermúdez of Silvia Aragón (no online presence right now; phone is 871 727 5163) and Cintya Rodríguez of Tyaro Jewelry.
All four are located in the industrial city of Torreón, Coahuila. None had any background in the making of fine jewelry until they found courses in Saltillo sponsored by the state government. These courses were created specifically to get a silver crafting industry going in Coahuila, diversifying from simply exporting unworked silver.
The courses they took produced 10 graduating classes, and all four women met each other there. I met them through an event in Mexico’s capital called the Original, sponsored by the Culture Ministry in Mexico City. The women were promoting themselves there collaboratively.
“It is highly satisfying to see pieces finished, to see in physical form the ideas we had in our minds,” says Rodríguez.
All four have different, mostly modern, styles and designs, but all four are influenced by the culture of Coahuila. One particular sign of this is the inclusion of the sarape in a number of pieces. The women do not take sarapes and cut them up; instead they contract with Coahuila sarape weavers to make mini-sarapes specifically for them to be framed in silver. The completed pieces carry certificates of authenticity for both the sarape and the silverwork.
Sensitive to their niche market, these artisans specialize in unique and limited edition pieces, rather than trying to compete with mass producers. In many cases, only five reproductions of a single design will be made and no more.
Alfredo Pérez Aguirre, left, with a detail, right, of his traditional Jerez “half-moon” (although round) filigree earrings. Leigh Thelmadatter
For all four women, it is extremely important that customers know that their work comes from the north of Mexico and not from Taxco. As with other northern craftspeople, it is important to distinguish themselves because the north is not known for fine handcrafts … and simply because they are different from Mexicans in the rest of Mexico.
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.
Divine in its simplicity, lemon shortbread is a perennial fave.
The first record of cookies as we would recognize them is found in 7th-century Persia (now Iran), which was one of the earliest countries to grow sugar cane. Then, with the Muslim conquest of Spain in 711, previously expensive and hard-to-get sugar made its way more freely through the continent, and bakers began to use it more abundantly.
At that time, cakes and filled pies were the norm; cookies as we know them hadn’t really made an appearance in European society yet. What we think of as “cookies” originally had a very pragmatic use: made from small amounts of cake batter, they were for testing the oven temperature before baking cakes. That’s it.
Needless to say, bakers reveled in the availability of sugar, and by the 1300s, cookies, in some form or another, were commonplace in every level of European society. In the 16th century, England’s Queen Elizabeth I made history with gingerbread cookies fashioned in the images of important guests at a party.
By the 1800s, cookies began taking on qualities we’re more familiar with, specifically the creaming of butter and sugar, as opposed to the more liquid cake batter with its water and oil content.
The real burning question I know many of you have (especially fans of the TV show The Great British Bake Off) is why they’re called “biscuits” in England (and most other English-speaking countries, including parts of Canada) and “cookies” in the United States where, whether crisp or soft, it’s still called a cookie.
Get the flavor of Reese’s cups in homemade cookies with these easy peanut butter bars.
Hah! There’s really no answer; that’s just the way it is. The word “cookie” comes from the Dutch word for cake, koekje, and began to be used in English in the early 17th century. Historians speculate that Dutch immigrants brought the word to New York and it spread through the continent.
Here in Mexico, they’re galletas whether crispy, soft or somewhere in between.
Lemon-Masa Shortbread
These are so good you may want to double the recipe.
1 cup masa harina
1 cup flour
1 cup butter, softened
¾ cup confectioner’s sugar
½ tsp. salt
Zest of 2 lemons
2 tsp. vanilla
1/3 cup granulated sugar
Preheat oven to 325 F. Lightly grease or line with parchment two baking sheets.
In small bowl, whisk masa harina and flour. Set aside.
Beat butter, confectioner’s sugar, salt and zest at medium-high speed until very smooth and creamy, about 5 minutes — longer than you normally would do for most cookies. Scrape sides of bowl as needed. Stir in vanilla.
On low speed, mix in dry ingredients until dough comes together. Portion into 1½-inch balls.
Gently roll in granulated sugar to coat before placing onto prepared baking sheets, leaving about 2 inches between each. Lightly flatten top of each cookie with a fork.
Bake 12–16 minutes until set and the edges start to brown slightly. Remove from oven; allow to cool on the baking sheet. (Cookies are fragile when warm.)
Cool completely before serving. Store well-wrapped at room temperature for several days; freeze for longer storage.
Get a taste of Italy with chocolate biscotti.
No-Bake Peanut Butter Bars
Basically DIY Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. Yum!
3 Tbsp. butter
1 cup peanut or other nut butter
Pinch of salt
½ cup cookie crumbs (graham crackers or gingersnaps) or shredded coconut
Heat butter in a skillet, letting it melt, bubble and turn brown. Add peanut butter; turn off heat. (If nut butter is unsalted, add a pinch of salt.) Stir until peanut butter melts. Stir in crumbs. Sweeten to taste with confectioners’ sugar. Spread mixture onto a parchment-lined 8-by-8-inch pan.
In a small pot, melt chocolate chips and coconut oil/butter, stirring constantly. (Or microwave in 20-second bursts, stirring between each one.) Spread melted chocolate over the peanut butter layer, then sprinkle with toppings of choice. Refrigerate until set, about one hour. Cut into squares with a knife. Store in refrigerator.
Chocolate Coconut Almond Biscotti
1¾ cups flour
¾ cup cocoa
1 cup sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
¼ tsp. salt
3 eggs, lightly beaten
2 tsp. vanilla
1Tbsp. water
1/3 cup shredded unsweetened coconut, toasted
¼ cup slivered almonds or chopped pistachios
Preheat oven to 350 F. Whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, cocoa and salt. Using an electric mixer, beat in eggs and vanilla, then the water. Keep beating till dough is smooth and soft, or dump onto a floured counter and mix by hand. Add nuts and coconut and mix well. Dough will be stiff, but try to work it to the point that it’s smooth without any cracks.
Divide dough in half. Form each half into a 2½-inch wide, 3/4-inch tall log and transfer to a parchment-lined baking sheet.
Bake for 12 minutes; turn baking sheet and bake 12 minutes more. Dough should be firm but give slightly when pressed.
Cool 20 minutes on wire rack; cut diagonally into about ¼-inch slices and place standing upright back onto cookie sheet. Bake again for 8 minutes; rotate cookie sheet and bake 8 minutes more.
Remove from oven and cool.
These muddie buddies make for a quick treat during TV time.
Muddie Buddies/Puppy Chow
Not cookies but still a delicious treat.
1 (12-oz.) box of Chex, Crispix or similar cereal (about 11 cups)
1½ cups chocolate chips
¾ cup creamy peanut butter
1 tsp. vanilla
1½ cups confectioners’ sugar
Salt
Place cereal in a large bowl. Melt chocolate chips and peanut butter: Microwave in 30-second intervals, stirring between each, until nearly completely melted, then stir to melt completely. On stovetop, stir in a small saucepan over low heat.
Once melted, remove from heat and stir in vanilla. Pour chocolate-peanut butter mixture over the cereal; stir vigorously to coat. Refrigerate until chocolate is cool, 10–15 minutes.
Spread coated cereal in an even layer on sheet pan. With a fine-mesh sieve, sprinkle some of the confectioners’ sugar evenly over the cereal, add a pinch of salt, then toss with a spoon or your hands, until evenly coated. Repeat with remaining powdered sugar.
Store in airtight container at room temperature for 3–4 days or in fridge or freezer for months.
Pilgrims carrying images of the Virgin of Guadalupe.
One December as a child, I helped my Presbyterian grandmother decorate for Christmas. While placing the Nativity on the side table in the living room where it usually went, I asked her what she thought of Mary’s … situation.
“That must have really been something, right? To have become pregnant by God without having even been with a man?”
She looked at me and scowled before saying, “Come on, Sarah. You know she wasn’t really a virgin.”
It’s a story that cracks me up every time I think about it now, but when my 11-year-old-self heard her say those words, it really gave me something to think about.
What if she was right and the magic was all made up? And was that vitriol in her usually warm and fuzzy guidance-counselor voice because she thought the magical elements of the story were absurd, or because she thought it was terrible for someone to claim to be a virgin when they clearly were not?
Why was it so important to be a virgin anyway, and why did it end up being an important distinction only for girls?
La Virgen — de Guadalupe, the patron saint of Mexico specifically, also known as La Guadalupana — is on my mind now that her celebration is upon us. From December 9 to 12, much of the country will be at a standstill as she is celebrated.
There will be carnivals, lots of fireworks (as I write this on December 9, they’ve already started and my dog is trembling beside me), processions of pilgrims on their way to the Basilica de Guadalupe and packed churches.
The devotion is real, and it’s widespread and plentiful.
Most people familiar with Mexican culture know of this devotion and might even know the story behind it. It goes like this:
A brown-skinned Virgin Mary appeared to the recently converted Christian indigenous man Juan Diego. She told him that she wanted a shrine built for her on Tepeyac hill, on the northern edge of Mexico City.
Juan Diego informed the local Catholic bishop, who wanted some sort of sign as proof before he would agree to build a church. So La Virgen appeared to Juan Diego a second time and told him to collect roses in his cloak.
He did so and took them to the bishop. When Juan Diego opened the cloak to let the roses fall out, her image was imprinted on it.
This is, according to legend, the very cloak that is on display at the Guadalupe Basilica.
If the story was a plan by the Catholic Church — and my non-miracle-believing self suspects that it might very well have been — then it was a truly brilliant move. True or not, it made the indigenous of Mexico feel ownership of this new religion that had appeared — winning hearts and minds rather than forcing converts through violence, a technique not nearly as effective.
It gave the indigenous people a god (or goddess, as it were) in their own image, a benevolent mother who would love and protect them during ever-turbulent times.
In my more cynical days, I wrote the Virgin of Guadalupe off as simply the fantasy product of an idealized female figure invented by a chauvinist and too-powerful church determined to always insist that women behave as perfect, godlike beings while men get the benefit of being seen as the fallible animals we all are — and therefore free from blame for their animal-like behavior.
More so in some cultures than others, girls grow up keenly noticing all the ways that we’re not living up to the feminine ideal, which itself is a jumble of contradictions: be seductive but not a tease, beautiful but humble, submissive but smart, cunning but not a bad-intentioned bitch.
While there exists a masculine ideal as well, boys are given more of a pass when they don’t live up to it.
Though the culture is gradually changing, the gender of ridicule in Mexico is still decidedly female: there are few worse ways to insult a man than to call him a woman (or woman-like), but that’s not true the other way around.
So to me, the Virgin was just one more figure in a long line of impossible ideals that I and the rest of my gender would be criticized for not living up to and, besides that, an obvious ploy by the Catholic Church to trick the indigenous of the Americas into giving up their own religions, having just happened to request her altar at the site of the Aztec mother goddess Tonantzin, which I don’t think is a coincidence.
As I’ve aged, my judgments have softened. While I certainly don’t live in a constant state of Zen, it has become much easier with time to learn to just chill instead of getting all worked up about stuff, which allows me to reflect on things in a different way.
And besides, now I have something in common with her: I’m a mother.
La Virgen, unlike me, is a perfect mother: self-sacrificing, adoring, devoted to her children above all else. It’s no coincidence that the concept of motherhood in Mexico especially is held up as the noblest calling for a woman.
Women in general may be the subject of ridicule and scorn in plenty of settings, but the sacredness of the mother — especially one’s own mother — is untouchable. And the mother as an archetype is irresistible. If you’ve been lucky enough in this life to feel a mother’s love, you know that it’s endless.
If you’ve been lucky enough to become a mother, naturally or otherwise, you know that aching, loving feeling as well. If you haven’t had a mother who’s showered you with unconditional love (or if you did but have lost her since), in La Virgen, you do have one: the mother of all, in fact, watching out for you, loving you unconditionally.
She is the loving god embodied, her love for her children making any sins they might commit downright irrelevant. She doesn’t need to give forgiveness because nothing could cause her to turn away from you in the first place. She does not stand in judgement.
So, this year, I’m reframing La Guadalupana for myself as a spiritual kind of Mother’s Day. The traffic the pilgrimages cause is frustrating, but I’d certainly walk hundreds of miles in the middle of the road myself if it meant feeling my own mother’s presence again.
Sarah DeVries is a writer and translator based in Xalapa, Veracruz. She can be reached through her website, https://sarahedevries.substack.com/.
The president speaking from Nayarit on Wednesday. Presidencia de la República
President López Obrador’s detractors have one claim against him that seems to stick: that he has caused political polarization. His defense of the ninis, a slang term for young adults who neither study nor work, and his disdain for the fifís, a slang term for the bourgeois elite, are an example of the class centered perception which comes naturally to the veteran leftist.
He is adept at batting those criticisms away, by directing a simple label at his opponents: “conservative.”
Monday
The president repeated his schema for improving the country on Monday. The formula identified some of the problems facing Mexico, but was lighter on the solutions: “Mexico’s main problem is corruption, that is the main cause of the economic and social inequality. Due to corruption there is poverty, due to corruption there is violence, and corruption makes the country ungovernable. So, ending the corruption and establishing as a way of life and honesty as a form of government is the project,” he said.
The conference was gifted a number of lengthy speeches from the Tabascan. In one, he highlighted the ubiquitous nature of corruption, but his rather confusing history lesson was a little hard to follow.
For example: “In the 17th century, they burned the palace because there was a criminal complaint by the viceroy against the archbishop,” the president said. “The viceroy accused the archbishop of corruption, and of having a monopoly on food. The archbishop started the process to excommunicate the viceroy, and the viceroy ordered his arrest. The people supported the archbishop and burned the palace.”
Tuesday
Zapopan, Jalisco, was the venue for Tuesday’s conference. Governor Enrique Alfaro said the president’s hands-on approach with state governments was reaping benefits: “We are very pleased to have this work dynamic, unlike before, when a president of Mexico came to visit a state. Then, there were protocols and ceremonial acts, today there are working meetings and the possibility to talk to each other directly, to clarify things and understand where we are.”
Alfaro added that crime in Jalisco has recently ducked under the national average.
Hugo López-Gatell, the deputy health minister, confirmed that the third wave of COVID-19 was still going in the right direction, and that booster shots would go to over 60s first, amid the likely spread of the omicron variant.
The president directed a string of video calls to check up on vaccine progress in Chiapas, Sinaloa, Yucatán and Mexico City, leaving no time for questions from journalists. However, poor signal and lousy connections on the calls did little to inspire confidence.
President López Obrador receives his booster shot. Presidencia de la República
Members of the cabinet and everyone else on stage lined up for their booster shots.
“Good morning. Today you will have your booster of your vaccine. Before we start with the application, have you developed a fever in the last 48 hours?” a nurse asked, before reinforcing their protection against COVID-19.
Wednesday
Nayarit hosted the president on Wednesday, which he hailed as the birthplace of revolutionary hero Esteban Baca Calderón.
Defense Minister Luis Cresencio Sandoval confirmed both homicide and kidnapping had increased in the state. However, he added that for both crimes the state was in 21st place.
In the who’s who of lies, a weekly feature where Ana García Vilchis names and shames dubious reporting, the government rejected a claim that public hospitals were demanding vaccine certificates as a prerequisite to providing medical attention.
Vilchis said that such a practice was impossible, as the rules didn’t allow it: “The medical services of the [the Mexican Social Security Institute] are not conditional on presenting a COVID vaccine certificate,” she said.
Later in the conference, the president read a tweet by another Calderón — the ex-president Felipe Calderón — which targeted Vilchis: “Get rid of the girl, the one that doesn’t even know how to read, in her lies of the week section.”
AMLO repeated his plan to bring the health system under federal control and added that former corruption czar Santiago Nieto, who left his post after a lavish wedding in Guatemala, should be investigated for corruption.
Thursday
Journalists were no more than spectators at Thursday’s conference. There was no time for questions from the media as architects and engineers were given priority, and handed awards.
“Any human being enjoys architecture and understands it as the art of having the better quality of living space. It may be emblematic, iconic or social, but the architect in the end will make the quality of the space, the space that is for the human,” said the head of the Association of Architects and Engineers, Ricardo Rodríguez.
The president presents architect Gabriel Chávez de la Mora with his award. Presidencia de la República
Ninety-two-year-old architect Gabriel Chávez de la Mora received an award for his career building modern places of worship, such as the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City.
The architect made a plea of the president: “Your government shouldn’t cut budgets, on the contrary it should strengthen them … to ensure the protection, restoration, reconstruction or maintenance of so many buildings of our large cultural heritage.”
Pemex engineer Francisco José Garaicochea, who AMLO described as a “nationalist engineer,” won the other prize.
Oil, the president said, was a matter of national identity.
“Remember the history … A patriotic decision was made in 1938 because oil was being exploited by foreign companies. The foreigners left [hoping] … that the Mexican technicians would not be able to manage the company, and that we were going to go back to them,” the president said.
Friday
Chihuahua city was the president’s third destination of the week, the fourth worst state for homicides, Defense Minister Sandoval confirmed.
The head of the National Guard, Luis Rodríguez Bucio, addressed the migrant trailer crash in Chiapas on Thursday. He confirmed that at least 54 people of the 160 people travelling died and 105 were injured. Rodríguez added that the driver had fled and that the truck didn’t pass through any migration checkpoints, which are dotted all over the border state’s highways.
“We express our pain for these unfortunate, sad facts and send a brotherly embrace to the relatives of those who lost their lives in this accident, that’s the main thing. It hurts a lot when these cases occur,” the president said.
He pointed to poverty as the root cause of migration and seemed to defer responsibility over the northern border to his U.S. counterpart, Joe Biden. “We proposed that welfare programs should be urgently applied in Central America … I proposed it to President Biden … I said there were around 300,000 people at risk of migrating in Central America and that action had to be taken immediately,” he said.
However, he conceded that Biden had to face down a “rheumatic elephant” to resolve the problem, a term he favors to refer to bureaucratic barriers.
President López Obrador received his COVID booster shot at his Tuesday press conference. The shots are already available to seniors. Presidencia de la República
The federal government will offer COVID-19 booster shots to everyone, President López Obrador said Friday.
He said the government has sufficient doses for a universal booster scheme because it invested 40 billion pesos (US $1.9 billion) in the purchase of vaccines.
Mexico ranks seventh in the world in terms of the number of doses it has available, López Obrador told reporters at his morning news conference, held in Chihuahua.
He noted that booster shots are already being offered to seniors and confirmed that teachers will be next in line. He didn’t say when they would be offered to health workers, who received their initial doses at the start of Mexico’s vaccine rollout.
López Obrador called on people who decided not to get vaccinated when they first became eligible to come forward and get a shot.
“I’m sure there are towns in the Chihuahua Sierra where people haven’t yet been vaccinated,” he said.
Just over 79.2 million people in Mexico have received at least one dose of a vaccine, the Health Ministry reported Thursday. The figure equates to 86% of the eligible population, which as of last month is people aged 15 and over.
In other COVID-19 news:
• Mexico’s accumulated case tally increased to 3.91 million on Thursday with 3,180 new infections reported. The official COVID-19 death toll rose by 293 to 296,186.
• Mexico City will remain low risk green on the coronavirus stoplight map next week, authorities said. COVID spokesman Eduardo Clark said there were no signs of a spike in case numbers and hospitalizations continue to decline.
About 75% of COVID patients in the hospital are not vaccinated, he said.
Clark called on people not to gather with friends and families over the Christmas holiday period if they have COVID symptoms or know they were in contact with someone with the disease.
• Baja California, one of five yellow medium risk states on the current stoplight map, has the highest number of active cases in the country. The northern border state has 3,341 current infections, the Health Ministry said Thursday.
Mexico City ranks second for active cases with 2,415 followed by Guanajuato (1,806); Chihuahua (1,776); Sonora (1,596); and Coahuila (1,311).
At the municipal level, Tijuana has the highest number of active cases followed by Mexicali, Chihuahua, León, Hermosillo, Ensenada, Álvaro Obregón (in Mexico City), San Luis Potosí, Aguascalientes and Juárez.
There are just over 20,000 estimated active cases across the country.
Views like this mile-high one at El Divisadero in Jalisco await the new hiker.
When hiker Alejandro González recently published his guide to hiking in Mexico, Vive y Camina (Live and Hike), the founder of Bakpak Magazine’s goal wasn’t so much to organize excursions for already experienced hikers but rather to lure city folk out of the metropolis and into the woods.
He also wanted to leave them with such good feelings about their experience that they would happily come back for many more hikes thereafter.
“There are many things in life that we take for granted,” says González, who is also the founder of Bakpak Monterrery, one of the most active groups of senderistas (hikers and trekkers) in northeastern Mexico. “A sky of blue, a meadow, a tree. But the very fact that we can see these things at all is magic, the very fact that we can walk on two legs without falling flat on our faces, is magic.”
“If we demonstrate the value of nature,” he says, “if we teach it well, in such a way that people have fun and enjoy the experience, it generates a link between them and nature, and this link will be of inestimable value in absolutely everything they will ever do.”
This is truly a noble undertaking in a society where the younger generation would often happily keep their eyes glued to a smartphone 24 hours a day if they could get away with it.
Architect and cartographer Alejandro González has been publishing Bakpak Magazine since 2005.
The trick is that enticing city slickers of any age to follow a trail into the unknown could go terribly wrong. If, at the end of their first such experience, they come home utterly wiped out, chewed on by gnats, covered in poison ivy and walking on blisters, it’s a sure thing that they’ll never go on a second hike — and down the line, they will probably make sure their children won’t either. Hence this book.
“Be prepared!” is definitely the right motto for anyone about to walk into the woods, and here, González shares his hard-won experience and discoveries about proper hiking gear with those willing to follow him out of their comfortable homes and into the fascinating forests, mountains, deserts, canyons and jungles that Mexico is famed for:
Footwear
So far, no one has ever shown up for one of my hikes wearing high heels but, yes, a few people have arrived wearing flip-flops.
Now, I admit that I once met a campesino (farmer) who led us up to a cave atop a steep hill wearing flip-flops while all of us cavers had proper hiking boots. On top of that, Don Ginio was swinging a machete the entire time, clearing the way for the rest of us — and guess who had problems keeping up with whom!
Nevertheless, González lays forth solid arguments for going out and buying proper hiking boots if you want to get the most benefit from your exploration of the great outdoors.
Hiking takes you to hard-to-reach places like the source of the boiling hot Río Negro in Jalisco’s Primavera Forest.
“Boots give stability to every step and the best protection you can get for your ankles. They can keep your feet dry in rain and snow and allow you to move safely over rocks and thorns. A good boot is a prueba de todo — everything-proof.”
In addition to good hiking boots, says González, you should also think about getting socks specifically made for hiking. “Blisters can be the result not only of bad shoes but also the wrong kind of socks.”
In my opinion, those “right kind of hiking socks” are the ones made of merino wool. Wool has the amazing ability to keep you warm even when it’s wet. You can demonstrate its wonderful moisture-wicking power by putting your hand inside a damp woolen sock.
After five minutes you will notice that the moisture has moved to the outside of the sock and your hand is dry.
Clothing
Layers are the secret, says González, and I completely agree. Use quick-dry fabric for your innermost layer, he says, and Polartec for the next layer.
An encounter with wild mint (insert). “Close your eyes and learn to fine-tune your sense of smell,” says González.
“It will keep you warm and dry in every sort of climate or situation.”
For your topmost layer, González recommends Gore-Tex: “It’s like armor against water, wind and cold, but it allows your body to breathe and keeps you dry.”
What about sleeves and pant legs: long or short?
Here are a few arguments for long: güinas (chiggers), garrapatas (ticks), jejenes (biting gnats), stinging ants, Africanized bees and dengue-carrying mosquitoes.
Also, there’s plants you won’t want to touch: uña de gato (cat’s claw), ahuates (nearly invisible prickles), hiedra (poison ivy), espinas (thorns), mala mujer and dominguillo (stinging plants), not forgetting, of course, the bark of the incha-huevos (swollen-ball tree).
There are arguments for wearing shorts — but I just can’t think of any at the moment!
The goal of Monterrey’s Bakpak Community is to get people out of the city and into contact with nature.
Hats
In addition to preventing your brains from frying, a hat can be mighty handy for beating off those Africanized bees, biting gnats and dengue-carrying mosquitoes mentioned above.
In other words, don’t even think about going hiking without a hat.
Hiking poles
Someone gave me a hiking pole many years ago, and I’ve been using it ever since. I find it particularly useful for keeping balance on loose stones or rocky debris lying on a slope and for leaping from rock to rock while crossing streams.
In his book, Vive y Camina, González makes the case that the use of two hiking poles can actually give you better performance, particularly on slopes.
One of González’s tips is to use hiking poles, which provide stability and are said to improve performance on slopes.
Hiking poles, it seems, are able to reduce stress on feet, legs, knees and back by sharing the load more evenly, especially when you are carrying a heavy backpack.
Opponents do claim, however, that over time, you may turn into a pole junkie and lose some of the agility and balance that every hiker should possess.
Rucksack
You can distinguish casual caminantes (walkers) from experienced senderistas (hikers) by what they carry in their hands rather than on their backs.
Bringing water is a great idea, but holding that water bottle in your hand all day is not. As González suggests, even on the shortest trail, a hiker should always use a mochila (rucksack) containing “the basic necessities.”
After all, even before the Spanish conquistadors arrived, Mexicans habitually carried their belongings in a morral, a bag with a shoulder strap, typically made from ixtle (agave fiber).
Want to see this spectacular waterfall near Tequila, Jalisco? Become a hiker!
So what are those basic necessities you should carry in your rucksack?
Before we get into that, it’s important to mention that what you should be thinking about when you prepare for your hike is not the expected but rather the unexpected.
The unexpected is getting lost and spending all day trying to find your way back.
The unexpected is a freak storm on that mountaintop, transforming summer into winter in an instant.
The unexpected is a flash flood that turns a bubbling brook into a raging torrent that sweeps you right off your feet.
Or it could be a surprise attack of Africanized bees or just a sprained ankle, leaving you barely able to limp along through desolate terrain.
González’s manual has a section dedicated to hiking with babies.
Frequent hikers have experienced some or all of the above and, consequently, the contents of each of their knapsacks will be slightly different. It is however easy to list a few basics:
water
a first aid kit
a knife
a compact, lightweight windbreaker
a compass
a small, lightweight headlamp
spare batteries for the headlamp
a whistle
insect repellent
There is, of course, much more to be said, and González says it well in Vive y Camina (available in Spanish from Editorial Tente publishers in Monterrey, Nuevo León. You can get the book as a hardcover for 350 pesos or as a paperback for 250 pesos from the Bakpak online store.
The writer has lived near Guadalajara, Jalisco, since 1985. His most recent book is Outdoors in Western Mexico, Volume Three. More of his writing can be found on his blog.
Vive y Camina is a manual for hiking in Mexico published in 2021.
The morral is the traditional shoulder bag used in Mexico since long before the arrival of the Spaniards. Guelaguetza Designs
An illustration from González’s book gives tips for weight distribution in a backpack. courtesy of Alejandro González
Carmen Salinas, an iconic and prolific Mexican actress who became a federal lawmaker in her 70s, passed away in Mexico City on Thursday.
Her family announced her death in a social media message. She was 82.
Salinas suffered a stroke almost a month ago and was in a coma in a Mexico City hospital until her passing. She is survived by her daughter and seven grandchildren.
Born in Torreón, Coahuila, in 1939, the actress first appeared on television in the 1960s before making her cinematic debut in the 1970 film La vida inútil de Pito Pérez.
In a long career, Salinas appeared in a total of 115 films, 70 plays, 23 telenovelas, or soap operas, and nine television series. She also hosted a popular but controversial Jerry Springer-style talk show in 1999 and 2000.
In her youth, Salinas appeared in Bellas de Noche and other iconic Mexican sexploitation comedies.
Salinas is perhaps best known for her appearances in Mexican “sex comedies,” a genre known as cine de ficheras.
Her portrayal of the character La Corcholata in the 1975 film Bellas de Noche epitomized the kind of roles she played, said film critic Leonardo García Tsao. She was routinely rude, funny and impulsive at the same time, he told the newspaper El País.
One of the films in which she appeared – El lugar sin límites (1978) – featured the first gay kiss in Mexican cinema. On television, Salinas often portrayed “the selfless mother” in telenovela roles that allowed her to show off both her dramatic and comedic acting skills.
In 2015, the film star turned her hand to politics, entering the lower house of Congress as a deputy for the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). She once said that she didn’t want to get involved in politics, but former PRI national president César Camacho Quiroz convinced her that her charisma and proximity to the people would be assets in the role.
But her short political career will forever be overshadowed by her enduring presence on the nation’s television and cinema screens. “She will always be remembered for her good-natured and comedic roles,” García said.
Mayor Ramos asked crime gangs to respect the lives of Valparaíso residents.
A Zacatecas mayor is begging crime gangs to leave innocent citizens alone.
Eleuterio Ramos, the mayor of Valparaíso, directed a public message to criminal groups this week.
“I am a man of law, convinced … that the strength of the institutions of the Mexican state is the best route. I never thought it would be necessary to say it … I’m going to emulate the president of the republic and beg the leaders and members of organized crime groups that they respect the assets, the personal integrity and the lives of Valparaíso residents,” Ramos said.
“If you all have decided to live recklessly, fighting for an incomprehensible cause, permanently risking your life, do so at a distance from the communities and our families,” he continued. “Respect our desire to move forward with work, with effort, promoting values and guaranteeing a harmonious coexistence.”
Ramos also called on residents to avoid associating with criminal groups as much as possible, avoid addiction and keep a productive attitude, so that the community can keep moving forward.
His discourse included a request to the federal and state governments as well: he “respectfully called upon” the government to “achieve real coordination” to address the problem. From his perspective, the strategy so far has not been successful.
At least 11 communities in the Valparaíso municipality have been abandoned by residents in the face of threats and attacks by organized crime. Recently, fear of gangs has left a number of municipalities in Zacatecas without a police force in a state plagued by violence. And with 96 homicides per 100,000 residents as of October, the state is the most violent per capita in the country.
President López Obrador announced a new security plan for the state two weeks ago in which another 460 federal troops are being deployed.
