A Central American migrant pauses during his northward trek through Mexico.
The United Nations has rebuked the U.S. government for deporting migrants under the pretext of Covid-19 legislation — the Title 42 order — that allows for the rapid expulsion of border arrivals.
The Biden administration has been sending Central American migrants by plane to southern Mexico after denying them access to protection screening and U.S. asylum procedures, a tenet of international refugee law, according to the the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
The Title 42 order was introduced by the Trump administration, but has been continued since Joe Biden took office in January.
The UN has warned that the practice will test the “already overloaded humanitarian response capacity” in southern Mexico and northern Guatemala, and could raise the risk of the spread of Covid-19 at the borders at a time when Mexico is experiencing a third wave of the pandemic.
Both the U.S. and Mexico have experienced unprecedented arrivals of migrants in recent months. The U.S. has recorded 1.2 million arrests of illegal migrants since last October, while Mexico recorded that in the first seven months of 2021 when it received a record 64,378 asylum applications, according to Comar, the Mexican refugee agency.
UNHCR representative to the U.S. and the Caribbean, Matthew Reynolds, voiced his concerns. “These expulsion flights of non-Mexicans to the deep interior of Mexico constitute a troubling new dimension in enforcement of the Covid related public health,” he said.
He added that the strategy was in contravention of international law and the humanitarian principles of the 1951 Refugee Convention. “All governments have the obligation to uphold these laws and principles at all times,” he said.
Reynolds added that risks associated with Covid-19 were no barrier to operating an effective and safe system for processing migrants. “Even where Covid-19 has surged at times, many countries have put in place effective protocols such as systematic health screenings, testing and quarantine measures that have simultaneously and successfully protected both public health and the human right to seek asylum,” he said.
In Mexico, a collective of migrant advocacy groups condemned what they called a new accord between Mexico and the U.S. and insisted that the government meet its obligation to guarantee the right to request asylum.
The collective said the first “expulsion flight” left McAllen, Texas, on Monday for Tapachula, Chiapas, where its passengers were then transferred across the border to Talismán, Guatemala, by immigration agents and National Guardsmen.
The U.S. and Mexico have undertaken a flurry of bilateral dialogue on the migrant issue this week. The president spoke with U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris by telephone on Monday, and delegations from the two countries met on Tuesday, where migration and cooperation on Central America were discussed. The president subsequently announced that President Biden would be invited to Mexico in late September.
However, past U.S. rhetoric on migration has left little room for dialogue. During a visit to Guatemala in June to address the root causes of migration, Harris addressed would-be migrants with a simple message: “Do not come.”
Huerta, left, and Toledo are no longer immune from prosecution.
Protection from prosecution of two federal deputies was removed on Wednesday, but apprehending them has already proved a problem: one has disappeared, and the other flew to Chile on July 26.
The two were previously protected by the immunity to prosecution afforded to lawmakers, but the Chamber of Deputies voted to remove their privileges, just 21 days before the end of the legislature.
Morena Deputy Benjamín Saúl Huerta, 63, was arrested on April 21 for the assault of a 15-year-old boy in a Mexico City hotel, but was released due to his immunity, and new accusations have since come to light.
On Friday, authorities lost track of Huerta, who was considered a flight risk. Just the previous day, the deputy for Puebla had called on prosecutors to study the case filed against him, but his request was rejected.
Huerta’s defense team is negotiating his voluntary surrender to authorities, according to the newspaper El Universal.
Parents of the boy who has accused a federal deputy of sexual assault wait outside Congress for the results of the immunity vote.
Shortly before his April arrest, Imagen Televisíon published audio of a telephone conversation allegedly between Huerta and the 15-year-old boy’s mother, in which he tries to reach a financial settlement. “Don’t destroy me,” he pleads with her on repeated occasions. “Let’s reach an economic agreement. … I’m begging you, help me; you’re going to destroy me. I’m a good person.”
Huerta voluntarily decided not to run in the June 6 elections.
Labor Party (PT) Deputy Mauricio Toledo, 41, was stripped of his immunity due to accusations of corruption during his time in public office from 2012-2018. He heard the news from Chile, having left Mexico more than a fortnight before.
In Wednesday’s session, Mexico City corruption prosecutor Rafael Chong said that Toledo’s income over the period was 20.8 million pesos (about US $1.05 million), while his official salary was less than half that.
He added that the Financial Intelligence Unit had detected that in 2017 the legislator received 3.4 million pesos (about $171,000) from a company called Consultoría de Gestión Empresarial Lebrija, which reported zero revenue in 2016, and that seven months after Toledo took office as a deputy, he bought two apartments in cash for 6.2 million pesos, more than five times his annual salary.
Toledo wrote on Twitter to reject claims he had fled. “My legal acts are not subject to political persecution … Mexicans freely enter and leave the country. It is a right enshrined in the Constitution and international human rights treaties signed by Mexico.”
He added that his departure was not related to politics. “I am the son of Chilean parents, and my departure from the country is due to commitments made in advance.”
Congress has appeared to have been reluctant to remove the deputies’ fuero, as the immunity is known. The process has stalled several times, earning a rebuke last week from a federal deputy minister for the delay in removing that of Huerta.
The Albo app is one of several fintech offerings that can simplify financial transactions in Mexico.
Many foreigners living in or visiting Mexico might find it useful to have one of the new and easily obtainable Mexican fintech (financial technology) bank cards, which provide you with a mobile and branchless Mexican bank for no monthly fee.
Sometimes expats have problems paying their utility bills online, sending money to an employee, buying a bus ticket or an item from Mercado Libre online, paying rent online, or receiving money from a friend for his share of a dinner out. Many people might have a foreign credit card that is sometimes not accepted online on Mexican websites, or that has a foreign transaction charge (most do).
There are several similar Mexican fintech cards, but the app for Albo is available on the Canadian iPhone app store, so that is the one I am using in San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato. Also, Albo is one of the largest and oldest of what are called neobanks. My son in Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca, is using another card called Uala, with basically the same functions.
Doing almost everything with the card is free. At one level it is a pre-paid MasterCard. Use it just like a credit card in any business that accepts credit cards, either in person or online. But Albo is also a bank account with a CLABE (Mexican bank account number), so you can instantly send and receive money to and from anyone in Mexico using SPEI transfers (the money is received in less than one minute).
Note, however, that such transfers are an option that is only available if you are a temporary or permanent resident, which allows you to obtain the personal ID number known as the CURP. You can open an account with Albo without a CURP but you won’t be able to make SPEI transfers.
You do everything from the app on your phone but if you are not a smart phone user, these cards are not going to work for you. You can pay your utility bills online from the app along with Telcel, AT&T, Movistar, CFE for electricity, Telmex, Megacable, Dish, Total Play, with more to come. But with a SPEI bank transfer you should be able to pay any Mexican bill. If your landlord gives you a CLABE number, you can pay your rent as well.
All it takes to get the card is download the app from the Apple App Store or the Google Play Store depending on your phone. For the Albo app you give your name, your address, your CURP, take a photo of your passport and a selfie. That is it: no lease, no utility bill, no 25 signatures and three visits to your bank to create an account. So a tourist or perpetual tourist can get the card.
The only reason for providing your address is so they can send you your physical card. Everything else is done online from the app. After you fund the card with 200 pesos, they will send you your physical card by DHL within a couple of days. However, unless you are going to use the physical card in shops or restaurants as a MasterCard, you can do everything with the app and your virtual card once you add money.
You can put money into your account instantly and for free from any Mexican bank account, or at an Oxxo, Farmacia Guadalajara, 7-Eleven, Extra, Farmacia Ahorro, Farmacia Benavides, Alsuper, and Kiosko for a fee of 8 to 13 pesos per deposit. However, the best option for most expats will be funding their card with direct deposits using Wise (formally called TransferWise) from their home country. I have found that I receive the best exchange rate possible through Wise, better than ATM withdrawals or other methods of international money movement.
Once you create a Wise account, you can easily send money from your U.S. or Canadian accounts (or from accounts in most other countries) to your Albo or other fintech card. My last transfer of Canadian funds to my Albo card took four seconds! You can also take out cash from an ATM (paying the local bank fee), but avoiding the international fee that you are probably paying for each transaction.
Everything with these fintech cards is in Mexican pesos, so if you spend 500 pesos at Farmacia Guadalajara using the credit card function, just 500 pesos comes out. If you send someone 1,000 pesos, they receive 1,000 pesos and you pay no fee. And you can only spend the money that is in the account — not one centavo more. If you pay your CFE or Telmex bill online, again, there is no charge to you. Same with paying your rent directly to your landlord’s account or paying a plumber.
Every transaction immediately shows up on your phone app. So, particularly for people living in Mexico part- or full-time without a Mexican bank account, one of these cards may be a good option. The Walmart stores (Bodega Aurrerá, Walmart, Superama, and Sam’s Club) offer a 2,000-peso cashback option with no fee when you make a purchase of as little as 20 pesos.
The app allows you to track expenses by category.
The Albo app allows you to turn your card on and off, so there is no chance of anyone hacking your card if you leave it off until needed. To create a new contact to send money you need a name and the bank account’s 18-digit CLABE or 16-digit Albo or other fintech card number. Once entered, the information is saved so the next time you send money it will just be a click and you enter the amount. You can also send a message with the payment. Once you set up a company bill payment, you don’t need to re-enter your account information.
These cards are called Mexican level 2 digital bank accounts, so there is a monthly movement limit. On the Albo card it is a monthly deposit limit of 55,000 pesos and a total balance limit of 200,000 pesos. There are no monthly or transaction fees. The only three fees are 150 pesos to replace a lost card, the 8 to 13 peso charge if you deposit money into your account at an Oxxo or one of the other chain stores, and the local bank ATM fee if you withdraw cash. Some people might just want to tuck some money into the card and have it just as an emergency option. You can see more in Spanish on their website.
I have no affiliation with Albo or any of the companies listed here. I just wanted to share a resource that will be helpful for some people living in Mexico without a Mexican bank account. Other similar Mexican fintech cards include Bnext, Fondeadora, Flink, HeyBanco, Cuenca, Nelo, Enso, Broxel, Warp, MIBO, RappiPay, MIIO, Xpats, Delt.ai, Tauros, Lidh, Klar, Ualá, Spin by Oxxo, and Klu.
Advantages
Albo is a pre-paid MasterCard that can be used wherever MasterCard is accepted.
The card is also a mobile and branchless Mexican bank account.
There are no monthly fees and no transaction fees (except for a small charge for making a deposit to your account at a chain store).
You can make credit card purchases in person or online.
Send and receive money instantly from anyone in Mexico who has a bank account or a similar fintech card. (Only available if you have temporary or permanent residency and a CURP.)
Pay your utility bills online with a couple of clicks.
Fund the card from accounts in Canada, the U.S., or most other countries using Wise directly to your own card receiving an excellent exchange rate.
You can move money into your account from Wise when the exchange rate is to your advantage.
See every transaction instantly on the app.
Take money out from an ATM (paying the fee for that bank).
Once you set up a bill payment like your CFE account (or a payment to a landlord, friend, employee, or anyone else) the contact information is saved so you will just need the amount that you want to send the next time.
When you send money you can include a brief explanation.
At any of the Walmart stores you can do a cashback of up to 2,000 pesos with no charge with a purchase of 20 pesos or more.
Perhaps just keep a few thousand pesos in the card for an emergency financial backup.
You can turn the card on and off with the app, so you will not risk being hacked.
There is no minimum balance.
The card can replace most of the functions available with a Mexican bank.
You can make all payments, send and receive money while outside of Mexico.
You can create “jars” in your account to set aside money for whatever categories you choose to create (rent, CFE, vacation, or Telcel).
Downsides
Albo requires the smartphone app. It will not work from a computer.
If you are not funding your card from a direct Mexican bank transfer or a Wise transfer from a foreign bank, there is a charge of between 8 and 13 pesos per transaction at the chain stores like Oxxo that will receive the deposit.
When you withdraw cash from any ATM you will be paying the local bank charge.
The maximum daily ATM withdrawal limit is 9,000 pesos per 24 hours.
UPDATE No. 2: An Albo account can be obtained without temporary or permanent residency but the account holder will not be able to make interbank SPEI transfers.
Jim Blakley is a former college counselor from Canada and now remote worker who is a 16-year resident of San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato.
A SpaceX Falcon rocket lifts off at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in April, carrying a payload of 60 Starlink satellites.
Elon’s Musk’s satellite internet service, called Starlink, which beams internet down from 1,650 satellites in orbit, will soon be offering connectivity to Mexico.
The government’s approval on May 28 set a period of 180 days in which the company, operated by the business magnate’s SpaceX, has to be ready to offer its services, meaning operations should begin by October 28.
But how fast will the service be? Internet performance service Speedtest has released the results of an analysis in which Starlink’s internet speeds were compared to those of other satellite providers and regular fixed broadband services, based on data collated from April-July this year.
The report found that in the U.S., Starlink was much faster than its satellite competitors HughesNet and Viasat, but lagged behind fixed broadband. Meanwhile, in France, Germany, New Zealand, Canada and the United Kingdom Starlink’s service eclipsed fixed broadband providers in terms of download speed.
Mexico currently depends on readily available fixed broadband, which is much faster than the available satellite services from HughesNet and Viasat. Speedtest reports that Viasat, with a median download speed of 13.95 Mbps, is the faster of the two. HughesNet was measured at 11.92 Mbps.
However, if Starlink speeds in Mexico are anything close to those registered in the U.S. they will far outstrip any internet service available in the country.
Download speeds on fixed broadband in Mexico were reported at 29.99 megabits per second (Mbps), and upload speeds were registered at 7.96 Mbps. Meanwhile, Starlink in the U.S. offers a hugely superior download speed of 97.23 Mbps, and an upload speed of 13.89.
With a 100 Mbps download speed, users can download a film in under a minute, according to the price comparison website Uswitch.
One key difference between Starlink and other satellite services is in latency, the time it takes for the signal to travel from a computer to a remote server and back. Speedtest said it was the only satellite provider in the U.S. with latency figures that resemble those of fixed broadband.
Starlink’s latency was measured at 45 milliseconds, HughesNet at 724 and Viasat at 630, a substantial difference. All fixed broadband services came in at just 14 milliseconds.
Speedtest also compared the service of broadband providers in Mexico, and found Telcel to be significantly faster and more consistent than any of its competitors, Movistar, Altán Redes or AT&T.
It also revealed mean service speeds for different cities in Mexico. The fastest was Veracruz, which was almost twice as fast for downloads and uploads as 10th place Ciudad Juárez. None of the three biggest cities made the top five: Querétaro was in second place, followed by San Luis Potosi, Puebla and Tijuana.
Guadalajara was in sixth place, Monterrey in seventh and Mexico City in eighth.
Starlink service at speeds of 1 gigabyte per second (Gbps) cost US $99 per month in the United States, and it was reported earlier this year that the cost will be the same in Mexico. Service will also require the purchase of a Starlink hardware kit, which will cost $499 plus shipping.
The company has said it plans to spend $10 billion putting 12,000 small satellites into low Earth orbit. It has launched 1,700 so far and is being used by 90,000 customers in 12 countries.
A U.S. man has admitted to killing his two young children in Rosarito, Baja California, on Monday, claiming he was was saving the world from monsters.
Matthew Taylor Coleman, 40, was arrested Monday while crossing the border at San Diego and faces charges of the foreign murder of U.S. citizens.
According to a criminal complaint filed Wednesday in a California court, Coleman told the Federal Bureau of Investigation that he drove his children from their home in Santa Barbara to Rosarito, where he shot them in the chest with a speargun.
The bodies of the children, a 10-month-old girl and a 2-year-old boy, were found Monday morning with multiple stab wounds at Rancho del Descanso in Playas de Rosarito.
An FBI agent said in an affidavit that Coleman confessed to the murders, stating he believed his children were going to grow into monsters and he had to kill them. He explained that “he was enlightened by QAnon and Illuminati conspiracy theories and was receiving visions and signs revealing that his wife possessed serpent DNA and had passed it on to his children.”
Coleman believed he was saving the world from monsters, the affidavit said, and admitted he knew it was wrong but it was “the only course of action that would save the world.”
QAnon and the Illuminati are conspiracy theorists who claim there are people secretly controlling world affairs.
In Mexico, officials have recovered the murder weapon, bloody clothes and a baby’s blanket, the FBI said.
On Sunday, Coleman’s wife reported him and the children as missing. She earlier told Santa Barbara police that she didn’t think her husband would hurt their children or that they were in danger.
Coleman, owner of a surfing school in Santa Barbara, appeared in court Wednesday where he was ordered held in custody. He will be arraigned August 31 in Los Angeles.
The tallest ever replica of the Aztecs’ Templo Mayor is being erected in Mexico City’s central square, the zócalo, to coincide with the 500-year anniversary of the fall of Tenochtitlán, the capital of the Aztec empire and forbear to Mexico City.
The Templo Mayor was the heart of the Aztec world where two deities were venerated with elaborate pageantry and sacrificial offerings. It was destroyed by Spanish invaders during the Conquest and fall of Tenochtitlán on August 13, 1521, and a Roman Catholic cathedral was built with many of the same stones next to where it once stood.
The 16-meter mostly white, square mock temple, adorned with small red and blue towers, attempts to capture the grandeur of the original, which was as high as a 15-story building, according to archaeologists.
President López Obrador will attend a ceremony in the zócalo on Friday to commemorate five centuries since the fall of the ancient city. The structure will stand in the zócalo until September 1, and a 15-minute film about the foundation of Tenochtitlán will be projected onto each of its four sides every evening.
Mexico City Culture Minister Vannesa Bohórquez López explained the symbolism of the temple’s four platforms and towers. Three of the platforms, she said, represented skulls, snakes and water and the towers on top were chapels dedicated to the rain god Tlaloc and Huitzilopochtli, the patron deity of Tenochtitlán.
Federal Culture Ministry festival director Argel Gómez Concheiro described the significance of the original temple. “For the [Aztecs] it was the center of the universe. It was the point at which one could enter the underworld and the different celestial levels,” he said.
As well as the fall of Tenochtitlán, this year also marks 200 years since independence. However, the government’s decision to plan 15 events this year to celebrate “Seven Centuries of History” have caused controversy. Archaeologists and other academics accused the government of manipulating history for political ends by claiming the foundation of Tenochtitlán was in 1321, 700 years ago, when the academic consensus points to 1325.
Yet in another area, the president has sought to set the historical record straight: he requested an apology from the Spanish monarchy and the Vatican for human rights abuses committed during the Conquest; a request which the government of Spain “vigorously rejected.”
The short film called Memoria Luminosa will be projected three times each evening from August 13 to September 1 at 8:30 p.m., 9:00 p.m. and 9:30 p.m.
San Pablo Guelatao recently registered its first confirmed coronavirus case.
A municipality in Oaxaca in the northern sierra has recorded its first case of Covid-19, while at least 64 other municipalities in the state have still had zero cases, according to newspaper Milenio.
A young boy is the first Covid-19 patient in 570-inhabitant San Pablo Guelatao, 60 kilometers northeast of the state capital, which was identified by the government in May last year as one of its “Municipalities of Hope”.
The boy has been isolated and authorities have banned anyone from arriving or leaving the municipality. Investigations as to how the boy contracted the disease are ongoing.
Mayor Consuelo Santiago García confirmed that the patient had received medical attention, that municipal authorities had taken care of medical expenses and that the family was being supported with food supplies.
She added that the town’s success in preventing infections was down to its strict protocols. “Since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, we decided to lock ourselves in, to not allow any tourism, and to put a sanitary checkpoint in place. We created an organic municipal market, with products made in the region to avoid trips to the city of Oaxaca and to take care of our elderly, and now children and young people, from any infections,” she said.
Santiago detailed that 70% of the population had been administered a first dose of Covid-19 vaccine, but children and young people between the ages of 12 and 17 were yet to be immunized.
In San Pablo Guelatao, 45% of the population are seniors, a group which has already been vaccinated with at least one dose, while 40% of the population are under 18 years old.
Oaxaca is currently orange on the the coronavirus stoplight map.
The only other states in the country with municipalities that have had zero Covid-19 cases are Puebla — with one — and Chiapas, which has had four, and is the only green state on the coronavirus stoplight map.
Josefa Méndez, right, approaches a display with a sahumerio, an elaborate incense burner made by an artisan especially for the event. Photos by Joseph Sorrentino
On June 29, the streets between the Santa Catarina and the San Juan Coahuixtla neighborhoods in Izúcar de Matamoros, Puebla, were covered with rose petals.
The reason? Every year on that day, the Cofradía de Santísimo Sacramento (Brotherhood of the Blessed Sacrament) installs a new mayordomo or mayordoma (lay religious leader) in a day-long ceremony that begins, as do virtually all such celebrations in Mexico, with a procession.
The Cofradía is one of the most important ceremonies in Izúcar, one that has been held for over 300 years.
“There are many cofradías all over Mexico,” said Raúl Martínez Vázquez, an archaeologist in Izúcar, “but the Cofradía de Santísimo Sacramento is the only one that has lasted since viceregal times. [The Spanish] created it when evangelization arrived.”
Leading this particular procession were two lines of women (dibutadas), each carrying a large tray filled with rose petals. Behind them, a young man laid down a carpet of those petals in front of four men.
For the Cofradía’s opening procession, the way is paved with rose petals.
Three of the men carried small painted boxes, called alcancías (money boxes).
“These are used to collect money all year to pay for the cost of the fiestas and for the maintenance of the church,” said Jorge Casbal, who has participated in many of these ceremonies.
The fourth man carried the platito, the most important symbol of the event.
“The platito symbolizes the Holy Sacrament, which we venerate with love,” said Josefa Méndez Flores, who was finishing her year as the mayordoma in Santa Catarina.
The platito, a small silver plate, rested on two ornate cushions. Atop it is a small silver circle that represents the host used in Catholic ceremonies related to the Holy Communion.
Although the procession was a solemn one, it was still accompanied by a band belting out popular music.
Izúcar is divided into 14 neighborhoods, with seven in its western part and seven in the eastern, separated by the Nexapa River. The mayordomo in charge of the Cofradía alternates yearly between a western and an eastern neighborhood.
This year, the office passed from Méndez in the western neighborhood of Santa Catarina to Lilia Romero in the eastern one of San Juan Coahuixtla.
Mayordomos and mayordomas across Mexico play an important role in supporting the Catholic Church.
In some neighborhoods in Izúcar, the oldest person, like Méndez, serves as mayordomo, and in others, candidates are asked to serve. In Romero’s neighborhood, “it is not required to be a mayordoma,” she said. “It is voluntary.”
“We agree to serve God. It is a communion between all the neighborhoods and our church. I always dreamed of becoming part of the Cofradía,” Romero explained.
The procession’s first stop was the Santo Domingo Church, completed in 1612, where a Mass was held. Afterward, the procession continued to the entrance to the San Juan Coahuixtla neighborhood, where it was met by the 12 new dibutados, men who will assist Romero during the year, and 12 dibutadas, most of them the wives of the dibutados.
“There are 12 dibutados,” said Méndez, “the same as there were 12 Apostles.”
The dibutados and dibutadas wore white tops and black pants or skirts, and the women had white veils on their heads. “These colors are to show respect for the Cofradía,” said Romero.
The women held trays of rose petals while the men held sahumerios, elaborate incense burners made especially for the event.
María Luisa Balbuena Palacios, a master artisan in Izúcar, has been making the sahumerios for the Cofradía for over 50 years.
“It is an inheritance from my father’s family,” said Casbal, who is Balbuena’s son. “They have made sahumerios for 150 years or more.”
“It is a beautiful tradition because it joins the neighborhoods and it is a commitment to God,” Balbuena said. “It is our belief.”
The formal accepting of the platito. A new dibutada holds a sahumerio.
It takes her almost three months to make the dozen sahumerios used in the ceremony and another two days to paint each one.
The procession continued on, led by the new dibutados and dibutadas, eventually reaching the San Juan Bautista Church, where the platito would be formally received by Romero, the new mayordoma.
The men carrying the alcancías and the platito entered the churchyard and knelt on the concrete floor in front of the church. While people sang an albananza — a song of praise — a dibutada from the San Juan Coahuixtla neighborhood approached, carrying a sahumerio, and knelt in front of them.
“This ceremony is the formal receiving of the platito in the neighborhood,” Romero said. “It is when we commit to serve and work during the year.” The dibutada moved the sahumerio from side to side in front of the men. “The incense is used to purify and sanctify the items,” she added.
Each of the 12 new dibutadas performed this ceremony.
The men then carried the alcancías and the platito to the front and placed them on a small table covered with a white cloth. The dibutados and dibutadas from the Santa Catarina neighborhood approached them individually, each with a sahumerio, repeating the cleansing ceremony.
After this, Méndez placed a garland of cacaloxúchitl flowers on the new dibutados. These beautiful, deep-pink flowers were used by many indigenous groups to decorate their elite members. The plant also has medicinal properties.
The ceremony, which up until that point had been a solemn one, soon took on a much more festive air. The Santa Catarina dibutados hoisted baskets on their shoulders and danced in a small circle.
“The baskets are presents for the new dibutados,” Romero said. “The dance is called the Huincle, or the Dance of the Guajolote (a turkey) — a dance of happiness, of joy. They bring fruit and bread.”
The baskets are given to Romero and the new dibutados, who then also perform the dance. Later, Santa Catarina’s dibutados were given baskets. “I give them a basket with chicken, mole and chocolate,” said Romero.
With presents exchanged, everyone retired under a tent to feast on bean tamales, tortillas and chicken smothered with mole, all paid for and prepared by Romero and her family and neighbors.
“We began the preparation at 4 a.m. this morning,” she said.
She estimated that she had served over 300 people that day, about half the number that typically attended the event pre-pandemic.
Mayordomos in Izúcar serve for a year, and as the mayordoma this year, Romero is making a huge commitment.
During her term, she’ll organize and, in some cases, pay for events during Holy Week next year. In addition to regular Sunday masses, she’ll attend a Mass held every Thursday morning, after which she’ll provide lunch for parishioners. Every Monday and Thursday, she’ll organize the 30 or so people who collect the donations that are used to support the church and then serve them lunch. Family, neighbors and friends will also pitch in.
When asked why she’d take on such a responsibility, she said simply, “It is my faith that moves me.”
Foreign Affairs Minister Marcelo Ebrard welcomes US officials on Tuesday.
Mexican and United States officials agreed in a meeting on Tuesday to expand bilateral cooperation on migration, border security and the economy.
Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard hosted U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, both accompanied by a delegation, the day after President López Obrador spoke with U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris by telephone.
“The U.S. delegation expressed its interest in working with Mexico to advance in the management of migration from a regional perspective, as well as to implement policies for cooperation for Mexico and the countries of Central America,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Later in the day, Mayorkas and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan met with President López Obrador and senior Mexican officials at the National Palace.
In both the president’s telephone call and the Tuesday meeting the reopening of the border was discussed, but no firm announcement was made. Ebrard told reporters on Tuesday that the reopening of the U.S. border on August 21 appeared unlikely. “August 21, I would see it as very soon, I don’t think it’s feasible,” he said.
On Twitter, Ebrard said the Tuesday event was a “really great meeting with the U.S. delegation.”
In another Tweet, he struck a cordial tone: “I’m very grateful to Jake Sullivan … Secretary Mayorkas and to all of the U.S. delegation that visited our country today, your commitment and willingness to strengthen the bilateral relationship. A great result!! It was a success.”
But few details were released, beyond the fact that President Joe Biden will be invited to visit Mexico in September.
Torok’s family working farmland outside Moroleón, Guanajuato. Life in rural Mexico can be a huge culture shock for expat newcomers.
There’s a stereotype of expats in Mexico — that they try to stretch their income and that they isolate themselves from their Mexican neighbors. Granted, such people exist, but several Facebook groups show that this is not always the case. One is Women Surviving Rural Mexico.
Camille E. Torok de Flores started the group about three years ago, building on a series of books based on her experience living near Moroleón, Guanajuato, on the border with Michoacán. It is only two hours from the Guanajuato expat enclave of San Miguel de Allende, but it is a completely different world.
So, how did she end up there? Well, love had something to do with it.
Torok, who grew up in Pennsylvania and got her teaching degree at the University of Nebraska, took part-time work at a Mexican restaurant in order to improve her Spanish; that’s where she met her husband. He had immigration issues before and after they were married, and the couple finally decided to “deport themselves” in 2006.
They initially moved to the “city” of Moroleón, which has a noted rebozo (traditional Mexican shawls) industry. The couple bought a plot of land on the outskirts of town in the developing neighborhood called La Yacata but found that their purchase “wasn’t the best decision,” she explains.
Installing solar panels on Camille Torok’s house in the La Yacata community near Moroleón, Guanajuato.
Although their land is only two kilometers outside the city, “I can see the last electric post from my house,” she says. “I just don’t have access to it.”
She began a campaign to get La Yacata electric, water and sewer service, to no avail. “But I learned a lot,” Torok says.
Solely due to economics, they moved into the partially-built house. With no electricity, they had to go into Moroleón to do everything, including charging cell phones and laptops. At home, Torok learned new skills like washing clothes by hand.
Finally, she got an online teaching gig, which paid enough to buy a solar panel setup. It provided basic electrical needs, but internet service would have to come later, she realized.
Her family teased her that if she had wanted such a lifestyle, she could have married an Amish man in Pennsylvania.
Fifteen years after arriving, “I finally got to the point where I am comfortable,” Torok says. Not having electricity for 10 years was “exhausting,” but now she can enjoy living in the house her husband built. It is better than anything they could have afforded in the United States, she says.
Teacher, author and rural Mexico conqueror Camille E. Torok de Flores.
Before she came to Mexico, Torok had looked for books with practical information about living here but found none. Unprepared for rural living, she learned by trial-and-error, taking notes and sharing her experiences with her family through a blog.
Over time, these notes and blog posts turned into online books published through Amazon, starting with A Woman’s Guide to Living in Mexico. Torok focuses on practical advice, much of which is applicable even to those of us not living in the middle of nowhere. They are at their best when Torok speaks directly from personal experience.
The books are particularly important to women who come to Mexico because of marriage or family, often without any idea of what to expect.
The biggest challenge, by far, is the sense of isolation. Although Torok grew up in a pretty rural area, “I was never an outsider in my town,” she says, “and here, I am.” Even after 15 years, her interactions with the local community are more superficial than the relationships she has with old high school friends online.
One reason, she says, is that many rural Mexicans, especially women, are not comfortable with outsiders, preferring to keep their circles of friends as they have always been. In addition, these women are suspicious of outsider women who chat with their men — who can be easier to talk to because they have lived and worked in the United States.
Foreigners’ isolation can even be an issue with the Mexican spouse’s family members, who often expect that the outsider in their circle will not adapt to Mexico and eventually return home — which does happen.
Torok’s six self-published digital books to date, all available on Amazon.
Although most in La Yacata know her, most do not know her name. “I am la gringa de La Yacata,” Torok says.
Some in the community have at least tried to change this sobriquet to la maestra (the teacher), but Torok laughs and says that people just look puzzled by this until it clicks and they say, “¡Ah sí, la gringa!”
She emphasizes that it is not out of disrespect; she simply stands out that much.
Her books have been a kind of release for Torok, and three years ago she added the Facebook group since she can provide and receive emotional support through it (and maybe sell a few books).
Most participants in the Facebook community are from central Mexico, with some scattered in other places.
She has quite a few fans, including Ashlee Brooks-Diego of Venustiano Carranza, Puebla, who says Torok is “dedicated to helping women through a very emotional time in their lives.”
“[The Facebook] group has given me reassurance on many things and fears I have had along the way,” says Samantha, a member living in Chiapas.
Overall, Torok has no regrets for leaving the first-world lifestyle of the U.S. behind.
“There is a kind of lawlessness [in Mexico], but it also brings a type of freedom. You can create a different sort of life without the pressures from … family, friends or society in general,” she says.
In the United States, things are so busy and so expensive that she could not have the lifestyle she has now, Torok says. “I wouldn’t have such flexibility. Here, I have been able to create a life that I like, where I can do things like write these books.”
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.
