Police in Puebla recovered this truck and its cargo of oxygen after it was stolen.
Criminal gangs and internet fraudsters have diversified into oxygen tanks as demand for the essential gas soars due to the worsening coronavirus crisis.
At least 14 robberies of oxygen tanks have occurred this month, according to federal authorities.
The Security Ministry and the federal consumer protection agency Profeco said in a joint statement that there have been five robberies in México state, three in Mexico City, two in Tlaxcala and one in each of Puebla, Durango, Sonora and Michoacán.
Three men were arrested in Amozoc, Puebla, on Wednesday in connection with the robbery of a truck carrying 89 oxygen tanks while two men were ordered to stand trial after allegedly committing the same crime in Coacalo, México state.
At least three other alleged suspects have been arrested in connection with the theft of tanks, which are currently selling for as much as 30,000 pesos (US $1,485) on the black market. (Tanks of medical oxygen usually cost between 4,000 and 7,000 pesos, or US $200 to $345.)
“We’ve had reports of fake oxygen and black markets [for oxygen] – even [organized] crime is now involved,” Interior Minister Olga Sánchez said Tuesday.
In addition to robberies of trucks, oxygen tank thefts have occurred at hospitals in Tlaxcala, Sonora and México state, the newspaper Reforma reported.
Federal authorities are also going after people seeking to defraud citizens looking to purchase oxygen online for their ill loved ones.
Profeco chief Ricardo Sheffield said Wednesday that hundreds of online oxygen vendors have had their e-commerce pages or social media profiles deleted.
“We’re working hand in hand with cyber police, the National Guard, social media platforms and e-commerce sites. We’ve taken down more than 100 e-commerce pages that were defrauding consumers, speculating and abusing with their prices. [We deleted] 700 Facebook profiles as well and we’re going to take another 1,000 down this week,” he said.
Sheffield called on consumers to ignore ads for oxygen tanks on social media, saying that the tanks are likely stolen and filled with industrial rather than medical oxygen.
“You’ll be throwing your money away, … most probably they won’t deliver anything to you,” he said.
Mexico City police have detected cases in which people paid for oxygen tanks that were offered at low prices online but never received them. Six oxygen supply businesses in Mexico City, México state and Jalisco have been shut down by Profeco for passing off industrial oxygen as medical oxygen, selling half-filled tanks at full tank prices and price-gouging, while another 10 have been sanctioned.
Prices for oxygen have increased due to higher demand, especially in the Mexico City metropolitan area, where the coronavirus situation has continued to deteriorate despite an economic shutdown having been in place for more than a month. Oxygen has been in short supply in recent weeks but the federal government is attempting to remedy the situation.
The Health Ministry has ordered that the production of medical oxygen take precedence over industrial oxygen in order to increase supply, while steps are being taken to import oxygen from the United States for use in the north of Mexico.
The collective was searching an empty lot in the remains of an abandoned hog farm in Culiacán and had just found what they believed to be a gravesite when shots suddenly rang out.
The women were forced to drop their digging tools and run, seeking refuge at a nearby gas station where they called authorities for aid.
When they finally returned later that day, escorted by local, state and federal authorities and representatives from the National Search Commission, they found that their tools had been stolen and were forced to abandon their search temporarily. However, when they returned the following day, they found four graves.
The group continued their search at the site Thursday, believing there could well be more.
The group, which leader María Isabel Cruz Bernal formed three years ago after her municipal police officer son went missing three years ago, is a group of 370 women with missing family members. They say they search for their loved ones because if they don’t, no one else will.
Once a week, even on holidays, the group goes to sites throughout Sinaloa to search for potential gravesites. They maintain a Facebook page where they solicit anonymous information via a telephone tip line.
Sinaloa holds the unenviable top spot for the most clandestine graves discovered in any Mexican state.
During Wednesday's melee, the mayor appears to be removing the noose from his neck.
Residents of a southern sierra Oaxaca municipality, fed up with a mayor they claim is corrupt and does nothing for the community, got as far as putting a rope around his neck and threatened to hang him.
They held the Sola de Vega politician captive for a day under threat of death to demand his resignation after blocking access roads.
Hoping to avoid more violence, state security officials approached the blockade to the municipality in force but maintained their distance while they tried to negotiate with residents.
National Action Party (PAN) Mayor Esaú Núñez was taken captive Wednesday — and at one point threatened with lynching — after he approached the blockades and attempted to enter a dialogue with residents. After residents reacted by taking him captive, beating him, and throwing a noose around his neck, he was rescued by another group of residents but held captive for hours in a building near the municipal palace.
“The government did not put you in power, the people did, and if the people want you out, then let’s go,” one of Nuñez’s constituents can be heard on a video recorded of the mayor’s capture.
In the video, Nuñez can be seen reduced to tears, begging the group not to kill him.
The mayor was freed Thursday morning, but the blockades remained in place.
Nuñez is the root of the problems in Sola de Vega, say the residents. They accuse him of diverting public funds to buy himself a ranch, purebred horses, and several luxury vehicles instead of executing promised public works. They also say he is in cahoots with local criminal gangs.
Matin Mijangos, a representative for the Citizens’ Committee for Sola de Vega, told the newspaper Milenio that Nuñez has forgotten his duties to the municipal government, has prioritized the desires of a powerful family over the town’s needs and has permitted organized crime cells to operate in the community.
In a radio interview, Nuñez disputed the characterization of his administration and said the background to the dispute was political. In the case of at least one public works project residents said he never built, a recycling plant, he claimed that the funds to build it had yet to arrive.
The blockades have been stopping traffic for hours at a time on the Oaxaca city-Puerto Escondido highway since Tuesday. At one point on Wednesday, vehicles waited as long as 12 hours until 1:00 a.m., when local officials managed to negotiate a temporary freeing of the barriers to allow traffic to pass.
The state is likely paying the price for relaxing restrictions during the Christmas-New Year's holiday period.
The government of Guerrero has implemented red light restrictions as the southern state faces what the governor described as “the worst moment of the pandemic.”
Guerrero switched to maximum risk red on the stoplight map on Wednesday and will remain that color until February 14, according to a decree published by Governor Héctor Astudillo.
Maximum capacity levels in businesses including hotels, restaurants, shopping centers and supermarkets have been reduced to 30% as a result of the red light decree. Beaches, public swimming pools, gymnasiums and places of worships are also limited to 30% of normal capacity. Businesses and public places are not permitted to open before 7:00 a.m. and must close by 5:00 p.m.
Cinemas, theaters, museums, bars, nightclubs, party halls and casinos must remain closed while red light restrictions remain in place and large events such as weddings and 15th birthday parties are prohibited.
“We have to suspend all nonessential activities,” Astudillo said in a video message.
“… We’re in the worst moment of the pandemic. We’re going through the worst moment because infections are increasing. This is the point at which we all must be responsible, and the first person you must take care of is yourself. You must also look after your family,” the governor said, noting that virus transmission among families is a risk.
“… We have to prevent death. … Let’s be responsible, let’s stay at home, let’s together reduce Covid-19 infections,” Astudillo said.
Guererro’s death toll passed 3,000 on Wednesday, according to state government data, while the Pacific coast state has recorded just over 30,000 confirmed cases since the start of the pandemic.
Cases, deaths and hospital occupancy have all risen this month after hundreds of thousands of tourists, including many from coronavirus hotspot areas such as Mexico City and México state, descended on destinations such as Acapulco and Zihuatanejo/Ixtapa over the Christmas-New Year vacation period.
State Health Minister Carlos de la Peña Pinto said two weeks ago that Guerrero was already “starting to pay the bill for what we lived through during December.”
Hospitals in Taxco and Iguala have filled up with virus patients in recent weeks and case numbers have increased in cities including Acapulco, where the health system is also under severe pressure, and state capital Chilpancingo.
A bar in Acapulco is closed after the government decreed red-light restrictions on Wednesday.
Across the Guerrero health system, 74% of general care beds set aside for coronavirus patients are occupied, according to federal data.
The announcement that red light restrictions were being reimposed triggered concern among business owners and workers, who warned of the economic impact of the tighter rules.
“I was honestly expecting the news – after December it was obvious. But I’m not prepared for this, I’ve been unprepared for Covid for a year, the truth is it’s impossible to prepare for something like this,” Pascual Verdeja, a hotel manager in Acapulco, told the EFE news agency.
A bar manager in the same city said that he and his team of 15 employees will struggle to put food on their tables “because we live day to day.”
In other Covid news:
• Municipal authorities in La Paz, Baja California Sur (BCS), have placed new restrictions on business opening hours due to a recent increase in coronavirus cases. All nonessential businesses, including restaurants, bars and tourism operators, must close by 11:00 p.m. every day of the week. The sale of alcohol is prohibited after 10:00 p.m. in restaurants and 9:00 p.m. in supermarkets and stores. The local government didn’t say how long the restrictions, which took effect Tuesday, would remain in place.
La Paz authorities also said that large social and family gatherings are banned and reminded citizens that the use of face masks is mandatory on public transit.
The state capital currently has more active cases – 817 – than any other municipality in BCS, according to the state government. La Paz also ranks highest among the state’s five municipalities for Covid-19 deaths, with 453 since the start of the pandemic.
BCS, currently high risk orange on the federal government coronavirus stoplight map, has recorded 22,573 cases and 1,006 deaths.
• For a second consecutive day, a new single-day record for Covid-19 deaths was set in Mexico City on Wednesday. The city government reported 464 additional fatalities, a figure 27% higher than the previous record of 365 deaths, which was set Tuesday.
The capital’s Covid-19 death toll is now 27,943, which equates to 18% of Mexico’s overall total of 153,639 fatalities. Mexico City’s accumulated case tally is 462,892, which accounts for just over one-quarter of all cases detected across the country.
The case tally in the capital, which has faced red light restrictions since December 19, is higher than the combined total of the 19 Mexican states with the lowest number of confirmed cases.
México state ranks second for both cases and fatalities, according to federal data, while Guanajuato ranks third for cases and Jalisco has the third highest death toll.
Harvey and Hirschsohn were killed at their vacation home in El Socorrito.
A man has been arrested by authorities in Baja California in the September stabbing deaths of a San Diego-area couple who frequently spent time in Mexico.
Authorities believe that Emmanuel “N” killed retirees Ian Hirschsohn and Kathy Harvey in Hirschsohn’s home in El Socorrito, Ensenada, probably in late August. Police believe the suspect, who his daughter says was known to Hirschsohn, stabbed them in their sleep while burglarizing the home then dumped their bodies in a well a few miles away.
The couple were reported missing on September 2 after they did not show up in San Diego on August 30 as planned. Authorities, who found the bodies on September 5, say they found items at the scene that belonged to the suspect.
Hirschsohn’s daughter Ava Setzer identified the suspect to the San Diego Union-Tribune newspaper as a member of the family that owns the ranch where her father’s home is located. She said her father knew the family well, including the suspect. According to Mexican census information, the tiny town of El Socorrito has a population of about 30.
According to Setzer, authorities believe the suspect stabbed the couple, loaded their bodies into Hirschsohn’s Toyota Land Cruiser and drove to a well “in the middle of nowhere,” where he also dumped bedding from the home.
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The victims enjoyed exploring Baja California. Harvey, a native New Yorker who had lived in the San Diego area for over three decades, had worked as a physical therapist until her retirement in 2014, according to her son Robert Harvey.
“She had a bucket list of places she wanted to travel … and multiple friend groups,” he said.
His mother had been dating Hirschsohn for a least a couple of years, he said. “She was really happy with Ian.”
Hirschsohn, a widower, was “more active than anybody half his age,” said his daughter. “He lived the most full life, probably three times over.”
The news of the arrest came as a relief to the victims’ loved ones.
“The past couple of months, this whole process, I can’t even describe how difficult it’s been,” Setzer said.
Harvey said it was a comfort to know that his mother’s murderer was “going to have to pay for it, that he’s not going to get away with it.”
Deputy Health Minister López-Gatell: time to reflect on virus strategy.
As Mexico’s official Covid-19 case tally approaches 2 million and the death toll continues to climb at a rapid pace after passing 150,000 this week, coronavirus czar Hugo López-Gatell on Wednesday committed to evaluating the national pandemic strategy with a view to improving it.
The deputy health minister made the pledge at a virtual forum at which a compilation of papers entitled Reflections on Mexico’s Response to the Covid-19 Pandemic and Suggestions to Face the Coming Years was presented.
Containing observations from 38 medical experts who attended a November coronavirus seminar organized by the National Institute of Public Health, the compilation proposes a range of government actions and measures to bring Mexico’s coronavirus pandemic under control and reduce the number of Covid-19 deaths.
Among them: improving communication about the pandemic, advocating forcefully for the use of face masks, making masks mandatory in all enclosed spaces, creating a medical guide for coronavirus patients that highlights the importance of using pulse oximeters to measure oxygen levels, accelerating the Covid-19 vaccination program, strengthening the competence of health workers, promoting a culture of hygiene and improving the systems to monitor and trace coronavirus cases and contacts.
After hearing some of the proposals, López-Gatell told the virtual forum that the government would carefully review the document they are contained in.
Graue: the health system has been overwhelmed.
“I want to say emphatically – and in this I carry the voice of Health Minister Jorge Alcocer – that we don’t just have the joy of receiving this systematic, analytical, critical and purposeful observation but also the commitment to use it in the best way,” he said.
“[We’ll] use it to make a stop along the way, to reflect on how we can improve … Mexico’s health conditions during and beyond the Covid-19 epidemic,” López-Gatell said.
At the Health Ministry’s Wednesday night coronavirus press conference, the deputy minister said the government would announce in the coming weeks whether changes to the national coronavirus strategy that take the experts’ proposals into account will be made.
“We’re carrying out an internal reflection … to identify the specific changes that have to be made in the different areas that have been pointed out, including epidemiological surveillance, health promotion, communication of risks and social communication. There are also aspects that have to do with well-being and the economy. In the next few weeks, starting next week I hope, we’re going to present the recommendations one by one and [outline] the response the government will have with respect to them,” López-Gatell said.
The government has been widely criticized for its pandemic response, especially for not testing widely enough, failing to set an example with regard to mask wearing – President López Obrador, currently ill with Covid, has seldom worn one – and not enforcing a strict lockdown.
At Wednesday’s virtual forum, National Autonomous University Rector Dr. Enrique Graue called on the government to “take a pause on the road, leave polarization behind” and evaluate the results of its coronavirus strategy and how it can be improved. The university rector, an ophthalmologist, charged that the failure of the government’s strategy has caused Mexico’s health system to be overwhelmed with coronavirus patients.
Speaking at Wednesday night’s press conference, López-Gatell denied that was the case.
“In net terms I believe that it hasn’t and the evidence is there to see,” he said, referring to hospital occupancy levels.
Across the national health system, 60% of general care beds are currently taken but the occupancy rate in six states is 80% or higher. They are Mexico City, 88%; Guanajuato, 84%; México state, 83%; Hidalgo, 83%; Puebla, 81%; and Nuevo León, 80%.
Mexico’s accumulated tally passed 1.8 million on Wednesday with 17,944 new cases reported while the official Covid-19 death toll rose to 153,639 with 1,623 additional fatalities registered.
Mexico has ranked second to last among 98 countries in a “Covid Performance Index” developed by an Australian think tank to measure the effectiveness of pandemic responses around the world.
Developed by the Lowy Institute, the index tracked six measurements in the 98 countries for which data was available: confirmed cases, confirmed deaths, confirmed cases per million people, confirmed deaths per million people, confirmed cases as a proportion of tests and tests per thousand people.
The period examined spans the 36 weeks after each country’s 100th confirmed case of Covid-19 using data available to January 9, 2021. Mexico recorded its 100th case on March 18 last year.
The Lowy Institute used the six indicators to calculate a score out of 100 for each of the 98 countries.
“A score of 100 indicates that a country achieved the best average score across the six indicators compared to all other countries examined at a comparable point in time. Conversely, a score of 0 indicates that a country had the worst average score at a given moment during the pandemic,” the think tank said.
Covid testing rate is among the indicators employed in the performance index.
Mexico’s score was 6.5, placing it 97th among the 98 countries, ahead of Brazil, which achieved a score of 4.3. Brazil ranks second in the world for total Covid-19 deaths with more than 220,000 whereas Mexico currently ranks fourth with more than 153,000. Mexico’s death toll will likely soon pass that of India, which currently ranks third. The United States ranks first with almost 430,000 fatalities.
Brazil ranks third for confirmed coronavirus cases with just under 9 million, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University, while Mexico ranks 13th with just over 1.8 million. However, Mexico’s accumulated tally is considered a significant undercount due to the low testing rate.
The presidents of both Mexico and Brazil have repeatedly downplayed the threat of the coronavirus, opposed strict lockdowns and failed to advocate forcefully for face masks. Another thing that President López Obrador and Jair Bolsonaro have in common is that they both contracted the virus, the former just days ago.
The other countries among the 10 worst ranked by the Lowy Institute were Colombia, Iran, the United States, Bolivia, Panama, Oman, Ukraine and Chile.
New Zealand, which has only recorded about 2,000 cases since the start of the pandemic and just 25 Covid-19 deaths, was ranked first for the effectiveness of its pandemic response with a score of 94.4 out of 100. The island country implemented a strict lockdown at the start of the pandemic and closed its border to most foreigners while maintaining a tight quarantine program for returning citizens.
Vietnam ranked second followed by Taiwan, Thailand, Cyprus, Rwanda, Iceland, Australia, Latvia and Sri Lanka. China was not included in the rankings due to a lack of publicly available data on testing, the Lowy Institute said.
The think tank noted that the coronavirus pandemic has affected the Americas (North and South) more than any other continent.
It said that smaller countries with populations of fewer than 10 million have consistently performed better in managing the pandemic than their larger counterparts. Mexico has a population of 126 million, according to 2020 census results, and one of the largest cities in the world in Mexico City, which has been the country’s coronavirus epicenter since the start.
The Lowy Institute also said that richer countries unsurprisingly had more resources available to fight the pandemic and performed better on average than developing countries for most of the crisis to date. However, it noted that “the relatively ‘low-tech’ nature of the health measures used to mitigate the spread of the virus to date, including large-scale lockdowns, may have created a more level playing field between developed and developing countries in the management of Covid-19.”
Mexico implemented a national social distancing initiative between late March and the end of May, which entailed the suspension of nonessential economic activities, but it never enforced a hard lockdown involving restrictions on people’s movement. Since early June, a stoplight system has been used to guide restrictions but freedom of movement has remained largely unaffected.
The Lowy Institute also examined the success or otherwise of different political systems in managing the pandemic.
“Despite initial differences, the performance of all regime types in managing the coronavirus converged over time,” it said.
Coronavirus cases and deaths in Mexico as reported by day. milenio
“On average, countries with authoritarian models had no prolonged advantage in suppressing the virus. Indeed, despite a difficult start and some notable exceptions, including the United States and the United Kingdom, democracies found marginally more success than other forms of government in their handling of the pandemic ….”
Mexico’s federal government, the fourth since a new era of democracy began in 2000 with the end of the the Institutional Revolutionary Party’s quasi-dictatorial, seven-decade rule, has maintained that people must retain their right to freedom amid the pandemic and as a result hasn’t enforced curfews or travel restrictions as some other countries have, or issued a federal mask mandate.
“The most important thing is freedom,” López Obrador said late last year when asked about a federal lawmaker’s refusal to wear a face mask during a meeting.
“People have to decide freely [what to do] and have confidence in [their fellow] Mexicans because they always act wisely, the people are wise,” he said.
The federal government has been widely condemned for its pandemic response, with much of the criticism focusing on Mexico’s low Covid-19 testing rate and the failure to enforce a strict lockdown.
The publication of the Lowy Institute’s performance index comes just after the news agency Bloomberg updated its “Covid Resilience” rankings. Mexico ranked last among the 53 countries included in Bloomberg’s index, which used 11 indicators to assess the coronavirus situation in individual countries and their government’s effectiveness in handling the pandemic.
Many people are dying in their homes, which might explain some of the difference.
Mexico’s Covid-19 death toll in the first eight months of 2020 was a lot higher than that reported by the federal government, according to data published Wednesday by the national statistics agency Inegi.
Inegi said that a preliminary analysis of death certificates indicated that there were 108,658 Covid-19 deaths in Mexico between January and August last year.
The figure is 44.8% higher than the 75,017 deaths that were attributed to the infectious disease in the first eight months of 2020.
Edgar Vielma Orozco, an Inegi director, said in a radio interview that the fact that a lot of Covid-19 victims have died at home rather than in hospital could partially explain the discrepancy between the Inegi and Health Ministry numbers.
“A lot of people are not dying in hospitals, they’re dying in their homes. In fact, the majority of people die in their homes – 58% die outside hospitals. That could partially explain this difference,” he said.
Similarly, Inegi president Julio Santaella told local media that the statistics agency’s count is based on death certificates while the Health Ministry uses hospital data.
Inegi also reported Wednesday that 673,260 deaths occurred between January and August 2020. The figure is 37.9% – or almost 185,000 – higher than the average number of deaths in the same period during the eight previous years.
The 108,658 Covid-19 fatalities in the January-August period account for 58.7% of the 184,917 “excess deaths.”
Covid-19 is likely to have been the cause of some of the other additional deaths although they were not classified as such. Some were likely the result of people with existing health problems not seeking out the medical attention they required out of fear that they could contract the coronavirus at hospitals and clinics.
Mexico City, the country’s coronavirus epicenter since the beginning of the pandemic, recorded the biggest spike in deaths in the January-August period followed by México state, Veracruz and Jalisco.
Inegi reported that Covid-19 was the second-leading cause of death between January and August 2020 after heart disease, which claimed almost 142,000 lives in the period. Diabetes, which caused almost 100,000 fatalities, was the third most common cause of death.
The Health Ministry has previously reported that were more than 193,000 excess deaths between January 1 and September 26, 2020. It said in October that 139,153 of the excess deaths – or 72% – were judged to have been caused by Covid-19.
Mexico’s official death toll rose to 152,106 on Tuesday with 1,743 additional fatalities – the second highest single-day total of the pandemic – but the real toll is almost certainly closer to 200,000.
The accumulated case tally increased to almost 1.79 million after 17,165 new cases were reported on Tuesday. The case tally is also widely believed to be a significant undercount as Mexico’s Covid-19 testing rate is very low compared to many other countries.
A woman in the remote Oaxaca village of San José Tenango. Photos by Joseph Sorrentino
It was an hour in on what would end up being a four-hour hike through the Sierra Juárez in Oaxaca when I discovered that my camera’s light meter wasn’t working.
I did the obvious: took the batteries out, wiped them off and put them back into the camera; the meter was still dead.
I did the obvious again. When that didn’t work, I turned the camera off and on several times, turned it upside down, shook it. I may have even given it a gentle tap or two. Nada. I was perplexed. I’d had the camera checked before the trip and swore I’d installed new batteries.
And then I simply swore.
Although I’d previously been to Mexico for a variety of projects, this was my first time heading deep into el campo: rural Mexico. I was going there because I’d written a series of articles about Mexican farmworkers in upstate New York, and after hearing their stories about what their lives were like back in Mexico, decided I needed to see conditions for myself.
Many in San José Tenango eke out a living from coffee.
A friend in Mexico City put me in contact with Instituto Maya, an organization that advocates for farmers, and they put me in contact with CEPCO, a fair-trade coffee organization based in Oaxaca that connected me with Candido and some other coffee growers in the Sierra Juárez. Candido’s mission was to make sure I made it to the Oaxaca village of San José Tenango.
To get there meant a seven-hour bus ride through switchback mountain roads at night in a hellacious thunderstorm during which the bus driver used his windshield wipers only intermittently. He did, however, blast Mexican rap music at ear-damaging levels.
After that, it was a three-hour wait in the back of a pickup truck (camioneta) in the predawn chill in Huautla, followed by another trip of just over two hours. Camionetas are essentially rural taxis that drive over mountain paths strewn with rocks and boulders. The soreness in my back, legs and butt — not to mention the bumps on my head from banging it on the overhead rail — attested to just how rocky the ride was.
I spent a few nights in Leonora’s home — she was another CEPCO member — while I waited for someone to take me deeper into the mountains. After three days, I was getting anxious to be on my way and was relieved when Leonora told me to pack my stuff. I was going with Maximiliano to San Martín.
“Take some mandarins,” she told me. “And some toilet paper.”
I was warned that the hike was strenuous, but I bike a lot and didn’t think it’d be a problem; it was.
A mother and child walking the coffee fields.
The steepness of the climb, combined with the altitude and — I’ll admit it — fear, left me exhausted. So I was relieved when Maximiliano signaled after about an hour that we were taking a break. He spoke Mazateco, a native language, and a few words of Spanish. I spoke some Spanish, but he didn’t understand most of what I said. It was a very quiet trek.
I talked with a friend in Oaxaca before going on this trip and mentioned I was concerned about getting sick.
“Joseph,” he sighed, “you know, Mexicans get sick too.”
So I decided not to worry. But during that short break, I watched Maximiliano as he crouched behind a large rock, filled a small Coke bottle with water and took a few sips. I assumed there must be a stream. When I went to look, I found that the water came from a muddy puddle.
I decided it was time to start worrying.
Soon afterward, I took my camera out of my backpack to take a few shots, and that’s when I learned something was wrong with my light meter. When Maximiliano signaled it was time to continue, I stashed the camera in my backpack and walked on, about as depressed as I ever was.
Abelardo and his wife housed the writer.
Leonora said the hike would be three hours, and when we reached that point, I asked Maximiliano (as well as I could) how much longer it would be. He must have understood me because indicated “a little more.”
We continued on, me believing that the end of the journey was always just around the next bend. I was having some trouble keeping up with him. I kept pace going uphill, but he dusted me on the downhills and flat stretches. Imagine my chagrin when I learned he was 72. I was a youthful 48.
Mercifully, after another hour, we arrived in San Martín. It was barely a village. Homes were widely spaced along a dirt path and were constructed of wood and tin. It was the poorest village I’d ever been in.
Maximiliano took me to Abelardo and Hortencia’s home, and they graciously agreed to let me stay. When Abelardo saw I was shivering, he kindly gave me a soda while Hortencia heated some soup.
It’s difficult to photograph without a light meter, but I made adjustments by over- and underexposing each shot. I was doing this for the first day when, late in the afternoon, the meter bounced back to life. I had no idea why but was extremely grateful. I then went nuts.
I spent two weeks photographing in San Martín and in Santa Catarina, shooting 40 rolls of film, a total of just over 1,400 images. I photographed women cooking, people harvesting coffee, doing other work. Then, as I was leaving Santa Catarina, the meter died again but my work was done.
A San José Tenango elder drinks the local brew.
When I got back to San José Tenango, I told Leonora what happened. Without any hesitation, she said, “It was Chigonido.”
I didn’t understand. “Who’s Chigonido?” I asked, reproducing the name as best I could.
“Chigonido is the local god,” she explained. “He didn’t want you to take photographs.”
“But people were OK with me taking photographs,” I said.
“It does not matter,” she said. “If he does not want you to take photographs, you cannot take photographs.”
I told several people in the village what had happened. They all confirmed that it was because of Chigonido — even a college-educated teacher agreed.
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When I took the camera to a store in Oaxaca, I expected to learn there was a serious problem and had already decided to call a friend back in the United States and have him ship down my other camera. But there was no need. The problem was the batteries: they were dead.
Later, as I thought about what happened, I couldn’t understand how dead batteries could come back to life for two weeks, allowing me to shoot 40 rolls of film before dying again, this time permanently. The only explanation I’ve come up with — and I’ll admit it’s a remote possibility — is that maybe the people back in San José Tenango were correct.
Or, rather, partially correct. Maybe Chigonido did step in. But instead of preventing me from photographing, he brought the batteries back to life, bailing me out.
Joseph Sorrentino is a regular contributor to Mexico News Daily.
With thoughtful décor and no wet floors, Empress Carlota's bathroom at Chapultepec Castle might do well on the writer's rating system for Mexican bathrooms.
We interrupt today’s regularly scheduled anxiety-fueled opinion piece to pretend like we’re in “old times” and talk about something completely different: not Covid-19 or economics or human rights but bathrooms.
If you’ve lived in Mexico or even visited it for any significant amount of time, you know that the bathrooms can be experiences on their own. As someone who has to pee a lot and often, I like to think of myself as somewhat of a connoisseur at this point. If there’s a bathroom in a place I’ve visited, I’ve for sure been inside it.
Let’s start with home bathrooms. Those of you who’ve come from more-north North America have certainly noticed some major differences. First, most bathrooms here, even in large houses, are pretty tiny. Sitting down might have your knees knocking against the shower door or the cabinet under the sink (if there is one). Standing up could risk you bumping your head against the ceiling, as many half-baths are built under the stairs.
But there’s good news. There will probably be a mirror and toilet paper. There will probably be soap and a towel as well, which is really all you need. If you’re lucky, you might get to feast your eyes on some elaborately embroidered toilet and tank seat covers (they can be seasonal, too!). I’ve seen some great ones, but my favorites by far are Christmas themed.
Don’t expect to find countertops, cabinets or shelves. Such items have been — inexplicably, to me — somehow classified as either luxury or unnecessary items. Why these things have been equated with hanging chandeliers in closets is beyond me, and I work hard to supplement them however I can in nearly every house I’ve rented. I’ve also never found reading materials in anyone’s bathroom here, something I didn’t realize I’d miss until it wasn’t around.
From here, allow us to graduate to bathrooms in cafes and restaurants. As you can imagine, these can run a fairly large gamut, from literal toilets in the middle of a closet complete with swaying lightbulb to incredibly fancy get-ups with soft music and lights that come on automatically when you walk in.
Surprisingly, the fanciness of the establishment is not always indicative of the state of the bathroom. One not-cheap hipster burger-and-beer joint that was elaborately decorated and cared for had a dark bathroom with a sopping wet floor right by the kitchen. The metal door didn’t close all the way, and the toilet flushed by pulling on a string dangling out of a tank. I also had to ask for toilet paper to be put in the bathroom (spoiler alert for those who have bathrooms to stock: if the user has a vagina, they’re going to need toilet paper).
The nicest bathroom I’ve been in — it gets five stars! — was in a tea shop here in Xalapa. The walls were painted a pleasing charcoal with a slight sheen, and there were real plants on real dust-free wooden shelves and a cool, tiny white-tiled floor. Soft paper towels awaited me in a cute basket by the sink. The mirror had a beautiful frame, and it even had fancy scent-matched soap and lotion. The door locked, there was no mold or peeling paint and the light switch was immediately identifiable. 10/10.
A classification of bathrooms that some might not be familiar with are those found in municipal spaces. In parks, for example, bathrooms must be paid for. They are not necessarily nice or clean, but when you’ve got to go, you’ve got to go. So you pay your approximately six pesos, and an attendant hands you about 10 squares of toilet paper and a ticket for your entry. When you’re done, you’ll wash your hands with some kind of mystery soap: sometimes it’s liquid and sometimes it’s powder, but it’s always in a recycled plastic container with no label. My favorite mystery soap so far has been one that left my hands smelling exactly like the grape soda I used to love drinking as a kid.
Bus stations are another adventure. Sometimes there are attendants, but usually you simply put your coins into a turnstile and are mechanically allowed in. The space available in the turnstiles is quite small, and I’ve been known to carry either my bag or my kid over my head in order for us to fit through. Once inside, toilet paper is available in a dispenser on the wall, and you grab however much you think you might need. I’m always torn at this point between not wanting to waste paper and being afraid of not grabbing enough. I usually take a little extra and stick it in my pocket or purse for next time.
When I see stocked toilet paper dispensers inside stalls, I actually send up a little prayer of thanks. What a treat! The toilet seat might not be there but no matter! This is plenty. Thank you.
Back when I first came to Mexico, I used to joke with a friend that we should start a bathroom rating system for public establishments, like Yelp but for bathrooms! This could be done anywhere, of course, but with the variety available in Mexico, it can be an especially fun game.
Behold, the star system:
1 star: It is identifiable as a bathroom. That’s it.
2 stars: It has a door that closes, a light that works and running water.
3 stars: All of the above plus a lock on the door and a mirror. Soap and toilet paper are there without having to ask for them. There’s a toilet seat.
4 stars: All of the above, plus it’s clean: no mold, no sopping wet floors (oddly common here), moderately decorated and an easily findable light switch.
5 stars: All of the above, plus intentionally organized and decorated. A hook to hang your purse, fancy soap and lotion.
So there you have it, folks. It’s a fun game you can play with yourself while you’re out, as you’re pretty much guaranteed a new adventure with each trip. It also gives you something to think about other than the pandemic! Win-win.
I’m thinking of making a calendar next.
Sarah DeVries is a writer and translator based in Xalapa, Veracruz. She can be reached through her website, sdevrieswritingandtranslating.com.
