Gracias a la vida: Finding my gratitude in San Miguel de Allende’s civility

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June 12, 2025

Aerial view of San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, with colonial architecture dominated by tall church steeples and Moorish-style Spanish domed cupolas dotting the skyline. — The writer is a Canadian who spends a few months of winter each year in San Miguel de Allende, a colonial city in the state of Guanajuato. (Jiuguangw/Wikimedia Commons)

Not long ago, when a friend of mine wobbled as he rose from a low stone wall in San Miguel de Allende, I offered him a hand. As he stood, he told me a story about civility in Mexico.

“Gracias,” he said, then added, “I’m okay. But last week, I tripped and was stumbling toward the ground. I’d have landed face-first, but this man caught me. He held me up in a bear hug. He’d been walking with groceries in one hand, his son’s hand in the other. When he saw me coming, he dropped the groceries, let go of his son’s hand and caught me!

An elderly man sitting with a cane outside an adobe building on a Mexican street — The story of a friend’s near fall and the unthinking helpfulness and civility he experienced from an unknown San Miguel de Allende resident got the writer thinking about the time he and his wife spend each year in Mexico. (Tom Hollett/Shutterstock)

“‘Gracias, gracias,’ I said. The man replied, ‘De nada,’ as though catching falling people was something he did all the time. He picked up his groceries, took his son’s hand and walked on. I stood there for a long time — steadying and calming myself before continuing, thinking how grateful I was. I still am.”

Even though the world gives us plenty of reasons to focus on things going wrong — Israel and Gaza, Ukraine and Sudan, hurricanes and horrible fires — I also find myself thinking and saying “thank you.”

While the topic of essential virtues has long been on my mind, I hadn’t thought — except in passing — about the particular virtue of gratitude. That recently changed.

For starters, I thought about it when my wife Celia and I spent a couple of weeks babysitting our grandkids, encouraging them, especially the 3-year old, to say the magic words: “may I,” “please,” “thank you,” and “you’re welcome.” Secondly, I’ve thought more about gratitude as I age, maybe because the alternative would be an unhealthy bitterness and resentment over my aches, pains and failing body.

And a major impetus to my thoughts on gratitude have been my three-month-long winter vacations in San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, and the marvelous civility of the city’s people.

The last six of the 10 years we’ve come to San Miguel, we’re barely settled into our rental before Celia begins to look for next year’s place because “in Winnipeg, I’m stuck inside during the winter,” she says. “But in San Miguel, I come alive!”

A taxi driving alone down a long, narrow downtown cobblestone street with multicolored adobe buildings with balconies and wooden doors — San Miguel de Allende’s many narrow, cobblestone streets encourage residents — both drivers and pedestrians — to take things at a slower, more civil pace. (Los Viajeros77/Wikimedia Commons)

She is deeply grateful for the opportunities San Miguel de Allende affords her to participate in the culture, and in a community where there’s graciousness and civility at every turn — literally and figuratively.

There are no traffic lights or stop signs in the heart of San Miguel de Allende. In Winnipeg, where we live in Canada, drivers and pedestrians move in accordance with the rules we were taught — with traffic lights and stop signs to help us follow them. We’ve come to assume that without these, there’d be chaos and accidents galore.

Well, there’s certainly traffic in San Miguel de Allende: buses, scores of green-and-white taxis, motorcycles, quads and cars — especially on weekends, when people drive in from Mexico City. The streets are often congested with traffic. But, remarkably, we don’t see accidents. And, just as remarkably, we rarely hear horns.

A very small number of streets in San Miguel are paved in ways that we’re used to in Winnipeg. But most of the city’s streets are stone and cobblestone, usually very rough — hard on a car’s shock absorbers. That, plus the usually narrow streets and a plethora of speed bumps, causes drivers to proceed slowly and carefully, in keeping with a set of unspoken rules.

The first of these rules is that automobiles should defer to pedestrians. A second equally important principle seems to be that we practice civility: there’s little or no competition to be first into the intersection. Drivers get to a corner that, in other cities, would have stop lights or signs determining priority and, finding none, defer to the driver who arrived first or at about the same time.

“It’s your turn,” waves the one who thinks himself second in line, to which the presumed first person often mouths “gracias” as he turns the corner.

And I think to myself, “How gracious!”

It’s not just that there’s an alternative set of rules. It runs much deeper. Things in San Miguel de Allende operate in accordance with values and principles different from what we’re used to, including especially patience and deference, the Golden Rule and gratitude.

The principles at work for drivers also apply to pedestrians. As I navigated the city’s narrow sidewalks on my first trip here, I noticed that people coming toward me stepped off the sidewalk and moved into the street so I could remain on the sidewalk. A simple act of etiquette, but a meaningfully sweet one, and I thought to myself, “How gracious!” As we passed, I said “gracias” while they shrugged and mumbled something like “de nada.”

But it’s not nothing. When others give me the right of passage — and I thank them — we contribute to a positive community ethos. As with driving, there are no formal rules for what transpires.

A young Mexican woman in a white dress and platform heeled shoes walks with her toddler daughter in a white dress in her arms down a stone paved street in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. — In Mexico, it’s common to see young children not in strollers but carried in their mother’s arms. So on San Miguel’s narrow, uneven streets, women with children, as well as the elderly, are often prioritized by other pedestrians for the right of way. (Galo Cañas/Cuartoscuro)

It’s rather an appreciation of several unspoken and loosely applied but nonetheless effective guidelines: Women take precedence over men. Older people and those who have trouble walking are considered before the younger and more mobile. And people walking in the same direction as traffic are privileged over those walking against it, as are people accompanied by young children.

The words “grateful” and “gratitude” come from an archaic Latin adjective, “grate,” meaning “thankful.” They form all or part of several English words, including “congratulations,” “grace,” “gracious,” “gratify,” “gratuitous” and “gratuity.”

According to psychologist Robert Emmons, gratitude has stages: First comes a state in which we affirm that, all in all, life is good. Then, comes an acknowledgment that we have received something that gratifies us, both by its presence and by the effort the giver put into choosing it for us — the latter a recognition that sources of this goodness lie outside oneself. Having recognized that goodness, we know whom to thank for it.

We recently saw the play “Tuesdays with Morrie.” Morrie’s several “life lessons” are profound, all worth considering, perhaps heeding. But what struck me as most important, even as he struggled to find breath, even as he moved inexorably toward death, was his focus on the abundance — the blessings — of and in his life. He was, in a word, “grateful.”

During his last television appearance, just prior to his death in 1973, the great José Alfredo Jiménez introduced his last song, “Gracias,” to thank the public for all of the affection they’d shown him throughout his career.

“If I had the means,” Jiménez sang, “I would buy myself another two hearts, to make them vibrate and fill your souls with dreams again.”

At a men’s breakfast in San Miguel, the topic for discussion was the music that we find most meaningful. I chose the song “Gracias a la Vida,” a beautiful tribute to the blessings and challenges of life by the Chilean singer-songwriter Violeta Parra.

The lyrics highlight the gifts of sight and hearing, of language and communication. They acknowledge the gift of mobility, our ability to travel to and experience cities and landscapes. They point to the achievements of the human brain as well as our ability to distinguish between good and evil. They value laughter and tears, joy and sorrow, life’s ups and downs, as well as the power of light to illuminate the path of the soul, of the singer and of the one she loves. The closing lines celebrate a sense of unity and shared experiences with others.

The song brilliantly encourages me to cherish, and to be grateful for, the multitude of experiences and opportunities that life in San Miguel de Allende — that life in general — affords me.

Bruce Sarbit is a San Miguel de Allende resident.

Why does Mexico call a main square a zócalo?

By

MND Staff

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June 12, 2025

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Mexico City zocalo from above — From Argentina to Guatemala, Spanish speakers call a city's main square its Plaza Mayor. Why do Mexicans call it a zócalo? (Comisión Mexicana de Filmaciones / CC BY SA 2.0)

Visit a Latin American city built during the colonial period and you’ll almost always find the same urban layout in the historic downtown: a central plaza flanked by a church and several government buildings. In every Spanish-speaking country, this place is called the Plaza de Armas or Plaza Mayor. Every country, that is, except for Mexico. Here, a city’s central square is its zócalo. Why the difference?

In keeping with Mexico’s capital-centric history, the answer has to do with Mexico City. And, like much that happened in the first decades of the country’s existence as an independent nation, it also has something to do with Antonio López de Santa Anna.

Mexico City’s Zócalo has undergone many changes over the centuries. (Galo Cañas/Cuartoscuro)

The square with many names

Officially called Plaza de la Constitución, the Zócalo in Mexico City, at nearly 47,000 square meters in area, is one of the world’s largest public plazas. It has changed dramatically over the centuries. In precolonial Tenochtitlan, the area that is now the Zócalo was a large open space bordered by the city’s sacred precinct to the north and by the palaces of the Mexica (Aztec) kings Moctezuma II and Axayacatl to the east and west. If this area had its own Nahuatl name, it has been lost to history.

When the Spanish and their Indigenous allies seized Tenochtitlan in 1521, conquistador Hernán Cortés tasked Alonso García Bravo, one of his soldiers, with redesigning the city’s layout. It was García’s work that produced the future Zócalo. At this point, like its counterparts across Latin America still are today, Mexico City’s main square was known as the Plaza de Armas or Plaza Mayor or Plaza Principal. Sometimes, in reference to the viceroy’s palace — now the National Palace — the square was called the Plaza del Palacio; other times, it was enigmatically called the Plaza de las Ánimas, or the Plaza of Souls. The plaza still, however, lacked an official name, and it would be two centuries before it would get one.

You might guess that the Zócalo’s formal name, Plaza de la Constitución, references one of Mexico’s six constitutions. But you would be wrong: The document the capital’s main square is named after is actually the Spanish Constitution of 1812. This notably liberal constitution played an important role in the crisis of the Spanish Empire and the independence of its colonies in the Americas. When it was ratified in Mexico — then still New Spain, but with the independence movement well underway — the Plaza Mayor was renamed in its honor.

Mexico City’s main square finally had its very own name, but it still wasn’t the one we know it by today, and its equivalents in towns and cities across the country were still called Plaza Mayor or Plaza de Armas. To get to the Zócalo, we have to jump forward in time to the early republic.

17th century painting of Mexico City zocalo by Cristóbal de Villalpando — Painter Cristóbal de Villalpando painted this view of Mexico City’s Plaza Mayor in 1695, featuring a partially ruined Palace of the Viceroys. (Bibliothecamex)

1828 and the Parián Riot

Throughout the colonial period and into the 19th century, the Plaza Mayor was home to Mexico City’s central marketplace. As the center of the country’s political life, the square was also the stage where the capital’s residents expressed their discontent and, therefore, the scene of riots that repeatedly sacked the market and destroyed the businesses there.

The final iteration of the Plaza Mayor market, called the Parián, was built after the city’s hungry masses destroyed the previous market and part of the viceroy’s palace following a major harvest failure in 1692. The riot that destroyed the Parián took place in the aftermath of the September 1828 presidential election, the country’s second as a republic.

When the conservative Manuel Gómez Pedraza beat liberal independence hero Vicente Guerrero for the presidency, he was widely understood to have won because the election was indirect, with votes being cast by state legislatures.

Two weeks after the election, Guerrero’s fellow independence leader Antonio López de Santa Anna rose in revolt in Veracruz, demanding that the elections be annulled and all Spaniards be expelled from the country. In late November, soldiers of the Mexico City garrison barricaded themselves in a city armory, echoing Santa Anna’s demands, and on December 4, groups of plebeian rioters ransacked and burned the Parián, the center of Spanish commerce in the city. Gómez Pedraza fled the city, and Guerrero was sworn in as president the next year.

Santa Anna’s monumental column

Lithograph depicting planned monument in Mexico City Zocalo in 1843 — The planned monument, pictured in an 1843 projection, was never completed.

The Parián never recovered from the events of 1828. Successful merchants took their business elsewhere, and the market became an eyesore. In the early 1840s, López de Santa Anna — who had stood aside when conservatives overthrew Guerrero in 1830 — was serving in one of his longest stints as president and decided he’d had enough.

In July 1843, the San Carlos fine arts academy published a notice for what we might now call an urban renewal initiative: A competition would be held to design a monument to commemorate the heroes of Mexico’s independence. It would stand in the Plaza Mayor, soon to be cleared of the blighted Parián.

The winner of the competition was the Spanish architect Lorenzo de la Hidalga. Describing his project, one friend wrote that it was to comprise an octagonal base with an independence hero represented on each angle. Their remains would be interred inside the base, which would support a column with an internal spiral stair to be topped with a statue representing the republic. Sound familiar? This is almost an exact description of the Angel of Independence that now stands on Mexico City’s Paseo de la Reforma avenue.

De la Hidalga’s monument was never built due to the political shakeups of the 1840s and Mexico’s debt-constrained finances — except for one part.

Santa Anna laid the cornerstone for the monument’s octagonal base on Independence Day in 1843. It was completed eight days later. Then the money ran out. But the column’s base remained in the square for decades, and it was this structure that gave the plaza the name we call it by today: the word “zócalo” literally means “plinth” or “base.”

From Mexico City, the habit of calling a city’s main square its zócalo spread throughout the country. The practice became so widespread that, despite being the original zócalo, Mexico City’s main square is often called the Zócalo Capitalino, or zócalo of the capital, to distinguish it from the rest.

Excavations in the mexico city zocalo in 2017 — The plinth that gave the Zócalo its name was briefly unearthed in 2017. (Melitón Tapia / Instituto Nacional de Arqueología e Historia)

Although it’s not used in other Spanish-speaking countries, the word’s Mexican connotation is so well known abroad that the Royal Spanish Academy’s (RAE) dictionary definitions of the word include “a city’s main plaza, especially Mexico City.”

And the base the plaza is named for is still with us: In 2017, during renovations of the Zócalo, it was uncovered by archaeologists just north of the monumental flagpole that stands in the plaza’s center.

Mexico News Daily

Sheinbaum addresses Noem’s accusations: Wednesday’s mañanera recapped

By

MND Staff

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June 11, 2025

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Sheinbaum initially responded to Noem on Tuesday, but said she would "touch on" the accusation in her Wednesday meeting with Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau. (Daniel Augusto/Cuartoscuro)

The protests in Los Angeles against immigration raids in the city were once again a dominant topic at President Claudia Sheinbaum’s morning press conference.

Here is a recap of the president’s June 11 mañanera.

Sheinbaum acknowledges US ambassador’s social media post contradicting Noem

A reporter asked the president whether she had received an apology from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem after the U.S. official accused her of encouraging “violent protests” in Los Angeles, where thousands of people have taken to the streets in recent days to express their opposition to raids carried out by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

In response, Sheinbaum noted that the United States Ambassador to Mexico Ron Johnson had made a social media on the topic on Tuesday.

On X, Johnson wrote:

“I again join @POTUS @realDonaldTrump and President @Claudiashein in condemning the violent protests that are occurring in the US. These actions don’t help. Instead, they create more problems for the innocent majorities. Law and order will be restored.”

I again join @POTUS @realDonaldTrump and President @Claudiashein in condemning the violent protests that are occurring in the US. These actions don’t help. Instead, they create more problems for the innocent majorities. Law and order will be restored.

— Embajador Ronald Johnson (@USAmbMex) June 11, 2025

Sheinbaum said that Johnson “has been a very good channel” for communication “and his posts have been very respectful.”

She noted that she would meet with Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau later in the day and said she would “touch on” the accusation Noem leveled against her on Tuesday.

Shortly after the homeland security secretary made her claim, Sheinbaum rejected it, writing on social media that it was “totally false.”

On Wednesday, she said: “What we have to seek is to avoid any misunderstandings and advance in the [bilateral] relationship, always defending the people of Mexico [and] our sovereignty.”

Sheinbaum accuses government critics of spreading misinformation that led to Noem’s claim

Sheinbaum acknowledged that she has called on Mexicans in the United States to oppose the proposed tax on remittances that has already been approved by the U.S. House of Representatives.

“Yes, we set out a strategy to mobilize [against the proposed tax] in many senses, always in a peaceful way,” she said, referring to remarks she made last month.

Sheinbaum subsequently asserted that opponents of her government distorted her remarks about opposing the proposed remittance tax, or took them out of context, to falsely claim that she incited violent protests in Los Angeles.

Last Sunday, “Mexican political personalities” claimed on social media that violent actions at protests in L.A. were “incited by the presidenta and the [ruling] Morena party,” she said.

Without mentioning any specific names, she said that political opponents disseminated “completely false” information on social media that was subsequently “picked up” by people in the United States.

People posting such information to social media “know that it’s a lie,” Sheinbaum said.

“They’re deliberately lying. … Instead of defending Mexicans … [they seek to] confuse those who read their posts,” she said.

“… It’s not a matter of criticizing the president, it’s a matter of wanting to elevate a conflict between Mexico and the United States. That’s why I say it’s unpatriotic. … They want to create, by lying, a problem between the United States and Mexico and that’s unpatriotic,” Sheinbaum said.

Miguel Elorza Vásquez, the federal government’s resident fact-checker, took the podium on Wednesday to criticize the online smear campaign accusing Sheinbaum and the Morena party of inciting violence in Los Angeles. (Mario Jasso/Cuartoscuro)

Just before the end of the president’s press conference, the federal government’s fake news debunker-in-chief Miguel Ángel Elorza Vásquez presented his regular “lie detector” segment.

“After the protests in Los Angeles, California, various commentators, cartoonists, media outlets and even politicians from the Mexican opposition have undertaken a campaign of lies and distortion to blame the president for encouraging violent protests,” he said.

“Those from Mexico who promote this lie join the disinformation chorus of United States media outlets and politicians who also promote it, and, at the same time, attack migrants with hate speech. The lie unites those who promote intolerance and hate on both sides of the border,” Elorza said.

He subsequently presented a video supporting his claim, and that of Sheinbaum, that a concerted disinformation campaign has been carried out to depict the president as an instigator of violent protest in the United States.

Sheinbaum: 61 Mexicans detained in LA raids

Sheinbaum told reporters that 61 Mexicans have been detained in immigration raids in Los Angeles and are now in detention centers in the city.

She said that Mexican consular authorities are in contact with the detained people and their families and are providing them with “all the support they need.”

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Wednesday that immigration agents have arrested 330 immigrants in Los Angeles since Friday.

By Mexico News Daily chief staff writer Peter Davies ([email protected])

World Bank forecasts 0.2% growth for Mexico, citing persistent global ‘turbulence’

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MND Staff

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June 11, 2025

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World Bank building — With the global economy in a state of "turbulence" and the uncertainty of fallout from the U.S. tariffs, the World Bank could only lift its 0% growth forecast for Mexico to 0.2%. (Shutterstock)

The World Bank updated its 2025 economic growth forecast for Mexico on Tuesday, amid growing trade uncertainty that is expected to hit Mexico harder than other Latin American countries.

The World Bank anticipates a GDP growth rate for Mexico of just 0.2% in 2025. That’s slightly up from its April reading of 0%, but down from the 1.5% growth it had predicted for this year in January. The growth forecast for 2026 is 1.1%.

vegetables at market — The World Bank cited “volatile food inflation” as Latin America’s major obstacle to managing headline (total) inflation in 2025. (@worldbankdata/on X).

Meanwhile, the growth rate for Latin America as a whole was revised downward from 2.6% to 2.3% in 2025 and to 2.4% in 2026.

“Only six months ago, a ‘soft landing’ appeared to be in sight,” World Bank Senior Vice President and Chief Economist Indermit Gill wrote in the report’s foreword. “That moment has passed. The world economy today is once more running into turbulence.”

Gill explained, “International discord—about trade, in particular—has upended many of the policy certainties that helped shrink extreme poverty and expand prosperity after the end of World War II.”

Increasing trade barriers and greater uncertainty globally are expected to slow economic growth across Latin America, according to the World Bank’s June Global Economic Prospects.

Mexico, the region’s second-largest economy, will be the most directly affected, largely due to the 25% tariffs imposed on imports by the United States for goods that are not compliant with the United States-Mexico-Canada free trade agreement (USMCA). Mexican exports to the U.S. in 2024 accounted for 80% of the country’s total exports, and around half of them were not covered by the UMSCA.

In comparison, U.S. tariffs on imports from other Latin American countries are at 10%.

“Additional trade restrictions under a revised United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement could further reduce Mexico’s exports,” the World Bank warns. Meanwhile, “a sharper-than-expected slowdown in U.S. growth would significantly reduce demand for LAC (Latin America and the Caribbean) countries’ goods and services.”

Latin America must focus on keeping “headline inflation relatively contained despite volatile food inflation,” according to the World Bank.

The global economic growth forecast is also lower than last year, at 2.3% in 2025 compared to 2.8% in 2024.

Meanwhile, China’s economic growth is projected to decrease from 5% in 2024 to 4.5% this year and 4% next year. The strict tariffs on imports from China to the U.S. will likely also hamper Chinese nearshoring activities in Mexico.

With reports from Minenio and Los Angeles Times

Peso appreciates to strongest exchange rate in 10 months

By

MND Staff

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June 11, 2025

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The peso is enjoying a sustained streak of gains on the US dollar, but it may reverse course as USMCA discussions begin toward the end of 2025. (María Ruiz)

The Mexican peso appreciated to its strongest position against the US dollar in almost a year on Wednesday, dipping below 19 to the greenback due to a range of factors, including speculation that the United States could soon exempt Mexican steel and aluminum from its 50% tariff.

At 2 p.m. Mexico City time, the peso was trading at 18.92 to the dollar, according to Yahoo Finance!

The peso was even stronger earlier in the day, reaching 18.82 to the dollar.

The last time the peso was stronger was in August last year. The appreciation on Wednesday came after the peso closed at 19.06 to the dollar on Tuesday, according to the Bank of Mexico.

Gabriela Siller, director of economic analysis at Mexican bank Banco Base, said on social media site X that the peso appreciated on Wednesday due to three reasons:

The expectation that the United States Federal Reserve will cut its interest rate while the Bank of Mexico “could pause” its easing cycle.
Optimism due to the trade agreement between the United States and China.
Speculation that United States President Donald Trump could remove the 50% tariff on steel and aluminum from Mexico.

Citing industry and trade sources, Reuters reported on Tuesday that “the United States and Mexico are negotiating a deal to reduce or eliminate President Donald Trump’s 50% steel tariffs on imports up to a certain volume.”

Bloomberg reported earlier on Tuesday that the two countries were “closing in on a deal” that would remove Trump’s tariffs on Mexican steel “up to a certain volume.”

The United States imposed a 25% tariff on all steel and aluminum imports in March, and Trump doubled the duty to 50% last week.

On Wednesday, the U.S. president announced that the United States’ “deal with China is done, subject to final approval with President Xi and me.”

Trump said that the U.S. is “getting a total of 55% tariffs,” while “China is getting 10%.”

He said that the deal also included the supply of magnets and rare earths from China to the United States, and that Chinese students would have access to U.S. colleges and universities.

“Relationship is excellent,” Trump declared.

Mexican financial group Monex said that the peso got a boost from “the optimism of investors, who anticipate a possible trade agreement [on steel tariffs] between Mexico and the United States.”

“Additionally, Trump’s comments about a trade agreement with China subject to the confirmation of Xi Jinping favor an environment of less aversion to global risk,” it said.

In another X post on Tuesday, Siller said that data showing that annual inflation in the United States was 2.4% in May — slightly lower than expected — increased the probability that the U.S. Federal Reserve would cut the federal funds rate, although she didn’t specify how soon. Most economists polled by Reuters believe that the Fed won’t make a rate cut until September.

At 4.42% in May, inflation in Mexico was considerably higher than the rate in the United States.

The Bank of Mexico’s key interest rate is currently set at 8.50%, while the Fed’s rate is much lower at a 4.25%-4.5% range. The significant gap between the two rates is widely seen as benefiting the Mexican peso.

What’s the outlook for the peso?

Siller said that the peso could appreciate to 18.50 to the US dollar this year “if there isn’t aversion to global risk, if Trump removes tariffs on Mexico and if the Fed cuts its [interest] rate while the Bank of Mexico pauses its cycle of interest rate cuts.”

For its part, the bank Banamex said on Tuesday that it estimates a USD:MXN exchange rate of 20.6 in December, which would represent a depreciation of more than 8% for the peso compared to its current position.

Banamex predicted that “noise that could arise” from the start of the USMCA review — which is scheduled for 2026 but could commence this year — will cause the peso to depreciate later in 2025.

With reports from El País and Expansión

Mexico City retains top spot as most competitive state, Chiapas ranks last

By

MND Staff

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June 11, 2025

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Mexico City Angel — Mexico City's competitiveness outpaces most parts of the country, but three states — Baja California, Jalisco and Nuevo León — have made significant advances. (Moisés Pablo/Cuartoscuro)

Mexico City remains Mexico’s most competitive state for business, while Chiapas is the least competitive, according to an analysis by a leading Mexican think tank.

The Mexican Institute for Competitiveness (IMCO) has published its 2025 State Competitiveness Index (ICE), in which it ranks all 32 federal entities based on their performance across 53 different indicators in six categories called “sub-indexes.”

The sub-indexes are innovation and economy; infrastructure; labor market; society and environment; law; and political system and governments.

Among the 53 indicators are ones that look at GDP growth rates in the 32 states, levels of informality among workers, state government debt, hospital beds per capita, access to the internet and crime rates.

According to IMCO, the ICE “measures the ability of the country’s states to generate, attract, and retain talent and investment.”

“A competitive state is one that makes efficient use of its capabilities to foster a favorable environment that contributes to improving its development and, consequently, the well-being of its inhabitants,” the think tank said in its index report.

IMCO also said that “in an era in which the global rules-based system is being questioned, the best strategy for Mexico is to bet on competitiveness.”

“The current geopolitical environment presents opportunities for the country, as long as it manages to maintain its relative advantage in access to the U.S. market. To capitalize on this situation, Mexico must promote its economic development,” it said.

Mexico City is the only entity in the country deemed to have a “very high” level of competitiveness. (Presidencia)

CDMX comes out on top once again

Mexico City is the only entity in the country deemed to have a “very high” level of competitiveness. The capital — Mexico’s top recipient of foreign investment and a magnet for workers from all over the country — retained its 2024 position at the top of the IMCO index.

“Mexico City positioned itself as the most competitive state, … taking first place in four out of the six sub-indexes assessed. It stood out in the economy and innovation sphere by registering the highest GDP per capita excluding the mining sector (541,916 pesos [US $28,750] per person), a high level of economic diversification (943 sectors), and the second highest patent rate (4.71 per 100,000 economically active people),” IMCO said.

Mexico City also ranked first in the sub-indexes for infrastructure; society and environment; and political system and governments.

A large number of major Mexican and foreign companies have offices in the capital, while the federal government and most of its agencies and departments, as well as some of the nation’s leading healthcare and education facilities, are based in the city. This helps Mexico City attract highly educated workers from around the country and abroad.

Mexico’s next most competitive states

IMCO determined that three states have a “high” level of competitiveness, allowing them to occupy positions 2, 3 and 4 on the ICE. They are:

2. Baja California Sur (BCS): a state that occupies the southern portion of the Baja California Peninsula. It is best known for the twin resort cities of Cabo San Lucas and San José del Cabo. A tourism powerhouse, BCS also ranked as Mexico’s second most competitive state last year.

3. Nuevo León: a heavily industrialized northern border state whose capital is Monterrey. The state moved up one spot on the ICE.

4. Jalisco: a western Mexico and Bajío region state that is home to the major city of Guadalajara. The capital is sometimes referred to as “the Silicon Valley of Mexico” due to the presence of a significant number of tech companies. Jalisco moved up six spots on the ICE.

Guadalajara hotel area leads the country in convention and business tourism

Baja California Sur was the top state on the “labor market” sub-index.

According to IMCO, that subindex “measures the efficiency of the main factor for production: human capital.”

IMCO determined that 12 states have a “medium-high” level of competitiveness. They occupied positions 5 to 16 on the ICE.

5. Aguascalientes: up one position compared to 24.

6. Querétaro: down one position.

7. Coahuila: down four positions.

8. Chihuahua: up one position.

9. Sonora: down two positions.

10. Yucatán: down two positions.

11. Baja California: up three positions.

12. San Luis Potosí: up six positions.

13. Guanajuato: up nine positions.

14. Hidalgo: up 11 positions.

15. Tamaulipas: down three positions.

16. Sinaloa: down three positions.

Twelve other states are deemed to to have a “medium-low” level of competitiveness. They are Tlaxcala, Colima, Campeche, Durango, Quintana Roo, Nayarit, México state, Puebla, Tabasco, Veracruz, Morelos and Zacatecas.

Those states occupied positions 17 to 28 on the ICE.

Mexico’s least competitive states

Chiapas fell two places compared to the 2024 ICE to occupy the 32nd and final position on this year’s State Competitiveness Index. It is the only state deemed to have a “very low” level of competitiveness.

Chiapas ranked last on the index with poor results on the sub-indexes for society and environment; infrastructure; and labor market, IMCO said.

Among a range of poor results, the think tank noted that Chiapas had the lowest average income among full-time workers (7,059 pesos or US $375 per month), the lowest average level of schooling among people aged 25 or older (7.56 years), and the second lowest proportion of people with technical or higher education (16%).

Rural Chiapas state, known for its coffee and fruit exports, dropped two places on IMCO’s competitiveness index. (Isabel Mateos/Cuartoscuro)

IMCO determined that three states had a “low” level of competitiveness. They occupied positions 29 to 31 on the ICE.

29. Michoacán: no change on the index compared to last year.

30. Oaxaca: up two positions.

31. Guerrero: no change.

Mexico’s three least competitive states are all located in southern Mexico, a disadvantaged part of the country that has been historically neglected.

Oaxaca ranked as Mexico’s least competitive state last year.

The State Competitiveness Index and Plan México

The publication of IMCO’s latest State Competitiveness Index comes five months after President Claudia Sheinbaum presented Plan México, an ambitious economic initiative whose goals include making Mexico the 10th largest economy in the world, reducing reliance on imports from China and other Asian countries and creating 1.5 million new jobs.

IMCO said that the success of the plan “needs local strategies,” and asserted that “the ICE is a tool that allows federal entities to understand their competitive advantages and develop collaborative strategies that help them to exploit their potential and benefit from this industrial policy.”

IMCO outlined “strengths and challenges” of 12 “economic well-being corridors” identified in Plan Mexico.

The challenges included combating insecurity in various parts of the country, increasing economic diversification in several economic corridors and lifting foreign investment in southern states.

Ebrard FDI — IMCO emphasized the importance of security, the rule of law and legal certainty in attracting business to the country’s southern development corridors. (Daniel Augusto/Cuartoscuro)

In its index report, IMCO said that states will “play a key role in the success of industrial policy and must be prepared to take advantage of Plan México to spur productive investment and raise the quality of life of their citizens.”

“To achieve this, they require logistical excellence, abundant energy, a capacity for innovation, talent and a solid rule of law,” the think tank said.

Proposals to support Plan México

IMCO set out proposals in five different areas that are aimed at supporting Plan Mexico achieve its aim of “transforming the economic conditions in the country.”

The think tank proposed:

Promoting innovation and economic diversification, including by supporting the adoption of technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI).
Developing logistical infrastructure, including by investing in infrastructure in states with “high air cargo capacity” such as México state, where the Felipe Ángeles International Airport is located.
Strengthening security, the rule of law and legal certainty, including by bolstering state police forces.
Developing human capital, including by supporting training centers focused on digital skills.
Promoting environmental sustainability, including by developing state-based energy efficiency programs.

* IMCO’s 2025 State Competitiveness Index report (Spanish), which runs to more than 100 pages and includes scorecards for each of Mexico’s 32 federal entities, can be downloaded by clicking the “libro” tab at the top of this page.

Mexico News Daily

Foreign tourists still picking Mexico, but with tighter vacation budgets

By

MND Staff

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June 11, 2025

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Several tourists having their photo taken by the sea — International tourists continue to flock to Mexico in increasing numbers to enjoy its sun, sea, food and culture. (Mara Lezama/X)

The number of international tourists traveling to Mexico has increased this year compared to 2024, according to the latest report by the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI).

INEGI’s data indicates that Mexico received 7.66 million foreign tourists in April, compared to the 6.75 million tourists it received in the same month last year, a 13.5% increase.

The largest year-on-year increase was in cross-border tourists, which grew by 10.9% to 1.53 million in April, compared to 1.38 million in the same month of 2024. Meanwhile, those arriving by air grew by only 0.2% year-on-year in April, but still exceeded 1.9 million people.

As for total spending of international tourists, money spent in Mexico increased by 12.5% year-on-year, reaching US $3.042 billion, up from a previous figure of US $2.703 billion. That increase is the result of the greater number of international tourists entering the country, as the average spending per tourist actually decreased by 0.8% from US $400.17 in April 2024 to US $396.8 in April 2025.

These figures reflect the upward trend in tourism in Mexico. In 2024, the country saw 45.03 million international tourists enter the country, up 7.4% compared to 2023, reflecting a sustained increase since the end of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Looking at the overall number of international tourist arrivals between January and April of this year, the Tourism Ministry (Sectur) revealed that in those four months, air arrivals totaled 7.86 million foreign tourists. Based on data from the Immigration Policy, Registration, and Identity of Persons Unit of the Interior Ministry, this represents an increase of 4.8% in foreign air arrivals compared to the same four-month period in 2024.

The countries that sent the most travelers to Mexico were the United States (4.9 million, though tourism in the oppposite direction has been sluggish), Canada (1.4 million) and Argentina (144,551).

“The sustained growth in tourist arrivals is a good indication that tourism in Mexico is on the right track,” Tourism Minister Josefina Rodríguez Zamora said. “We will continue working to make tourism a generator of well-being for all members of the vast tourism value chain.”

With reports from El Informador

Heineken to build new US $3B brewery in Yucatán

By

MND Staff

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June 11, 2025

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Heinekken sign — Heineken, celebrating its 135th anniversary in Mexico this year, will add a brewery near Mérida to its seven existing beer plants in Mexico. (Smit Patel/Unsplash)

Mega-beermaker Heineken México has announced an important US $2.75 billion investment for the construction of a new brewery in Yucatán, marking one of the company’s largest recent investments in Mexico.

Heineken CEO Oriol Bonaclocha revealed the move during President Claudia Sheinbaum’s morning press conference Wednesday. He said the investment will roll out between 2025 and 2028 and is expected to create 3,000 jobs.

Heineken CEO Oriol Bonaclocha (left) announced the investment at President Sheinbaum’s morning press conference Wednesday, also attended by Economy Minister Marcelo Ebrard (right) and Héctor Ibarzábal, of the Mexican Association of Industrial Parks. (Heineken México/X)

“Today, Madam President, we are here to reaffirm our commitment to Mexico,” Binaclocha said.

Bonaclocha noted that Heineken’s major new investment includes a new brewery in the Kanasín area, just outside the capital of Mérida in Yucatán state.. It will be the company’s eighth plant in the country and will be built after an unprecedented consultation with the Indigenous community local to the area.

“This project is an important milestone for the company, as it marks the first time in Heineken’s history that an Indigenous consultation was conducted, positioning Heineken as the first company in the industry to initiate an open conversation within the community,” Bonaclocha said.

The plant will have the capacity to produce four million hectoliters, with the potential of doubling its capacity if demand requires it.

Bonaclocha said that the products will bear the “Hecho en México” (Made in Mexico) seal. That means they will be identified by the Economy Ministry as having 100% of their inputs originating in Mexico and the manufacturing process itself will have taken place within Mexico.

Sheinbaum celebrated the investment, highlighting that confidence in Mexico remains. “Investments in Mexico continue. Confidence continues,” she said.

Economy Minister Marcelo Ebrard added that Heineken’s investment corresponds to the government’s interest in attracting companies that need water for their production to regions with adequate water resources.

“We’re looking for companies to establish themselves where there’s water, and the southeast has ample water resources,” he explained.

This year, Heineken is celebrating its 135th anniversary in Mexico. Its portfolio in the country comprises 21 brands, including Heineken, Tecate, Indio, Dos Equis, Amstel Ultra and Carta Blanca.

In addition to its existing seven plants in Mexico, the company has a malting plant and a logistics network of more than 170 distribution centers.

With reports from Debate and Lopez Doriga

The stunning and mysterious sights of western Mexico’s highlands

By

John Pint

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June 11, 2025

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An agave field in Jalisco, Mexico, bordered by a scub-lined mountain range in the background and a beautiful blue sky with part clouds — The gorgeous highlands northeast of Guadalajara — where ancient civilizations left behind pyramids, petroglyphs and ceremonial centers — is perhaps one of Mexico's most overlooked regions. (Kamran Ali/Shutterstock)

All five of Mexico’s major ecosystems converge in the state of Jalisco. In this article, we’ll provide a guide to the semi-arid scrubland that characterizes the northeast section of the state, popularly known as Los Altos de Jalisco, or the Highlands.

This area has few hills but plenty of flat, grassy plains covered with countless huisaches (acacia trees) and nopales (cactuses). The typical elevation is around 2,000 meters. The terrain favors ranching, and Los Altos depends mainly on raising cattle, closely followed by pigs and chickens.

The Pyramid of Pegueros had a little help from 66,000 cubic tons of earth.

The Upside-Down Wicker Basket

To get a feel for the high flatland environment, visit the ruins of the little-known Pyramid of Pegueros, also called Chiquihuitillo, the Upside-Down Wicker Basket, located 60 kilometers northeast of Guadalajara.

The pyramid is curious because, according to archaeologist Phil Weigand, the pre-Columbian inhabitants of this flat area decided to first build themselves a hill and then construct a pyramid on top of it. To create that hill, Weigand calculated they had to move 66,000 cubic tons of earth.

The main reason I’m sending you to this pyramid is that the spot is only reachable on foot — a short walk of 600 meters — obliging you to hike through the typical scrubland of Los Altos. Here you may come across acacia trees, thistles and maybe even a few Jimson-weed flowers, said to be used as a love potion, but infamous as a drug producing temporary insanity. Could there possibly be a connection?

Hot springs and magnificent views

A hot-spring paradise at the bottom of Tamara Canyon.

When you’ve seen enough thorns and scrub, you can opt for an entirely different environment by heading for the 150-kilometer-long Río Verde Canyon, which runs north and south through the highlands. Here you’ll find majestic waterfalls and, at the bottom, a semi-tropical environment dotted with numerous hot springs.

One of my favorite places in the canyon is Rancho El Venado, which offers bungalows, campsites and a delightful natural hot shower — all of them featuring magnificent views of towering, red canyon walls, 400 meters high.

After a refreshing night at Rancho El Venado, you might want to venture further north in Los Altos to the little-known archaeological ruins of Teocaltitán, 100 kilometers northeast of Guadalajara. Here you’ll find one of those rarities in the flatlands: a natural hill. What better place for pre-Columbian people to construct a ceremonial center?

Ruins of the Cookie People

Between A.D. 400–900, this part of Mexico was controlled by a civilization whose name no one knows. Some call them the Cookie People because the figurines they made were flat and shaped like gingerbread men.

To confuse things even more, archaeologists call them the El Grillo (Cricket) People, after a spot in Guadalajara where their particular architecture was first noticed.

The rectangular “sunken patio” was one of the essential features of their ceremonial centers, and Teocaltitán has one of the best examples of one: a huge flat area where thousands of people gathered, perhaps to dance or to follow a ball game being played not far below the patio.

Typical flat figurines made by the Cookie People over 1,000 years ago.

Apart from these impressive structures, now under restoration, Teocaltitán offers visitors who make it to the top a magnificent view — perhaps the best view you can possibly get — of the mostly flat highlands.

Another little-known archaeological treasure in Los Altos is a lagoon called Presa de la Luz, located 120 kilometers east of Guadalajara near the town of Arandas.

Calendars engraved in rock

In 2006, a local rancher used a tractor to clear a spot on the shore of the Presa de la Luz. Scraping off a thin layer of topsoil, he discovered a great many petroglyphs, some very elaborate. Investigation of the lakeshore revealed a total of 1,200 rock engravings.

Fourteen of these are pecked crosses, which typically consist of 260 small holes or cups, forming a cross inside a circle. As this is the number of days in the Mesoamerican year, a pebble placed in the cups may have served as a practical calendar.

Visits to Presa de la Luz are not allowed due to the softness of the rock, but you can appreciate this unique site via a well-illustrated book entitled “El Santuario Rupestre de Los Altos de Jalisco” by Rodrigo Esparza and Francisco Manuel Rodríguez Mota.

More than a thousand petroglyphs were carved into the soft rock around La Presa de la Luz.

La Presa de la Luz may be unique for the sheer number of engravings on its shore. Curiously, only 15 kilometers north of this lagoon, there is another unique archaeological site, which I call the 1,800 Bowls of the Río Raso.

Chiseling a bowl-shaped hole on the surface of a rock has a purpose similar to chiseling a spiral: Both were considered the equivalents of simple prayers for rain.

In the case of the Río Raso, however, someone got carried away 1,000 years ago, covering a 400-meter-long stretch of the river’s rocky bed with nearly 2,000 “prayers,” nicely lined up in rows.

Carne asada, Los Altos style

After wandering about the highlands, you’ll surely work up an appetite. Here’s a chance to try one of Los Altos’ specialties: carne asada.

I am told that the very best place to get it is at a restaurant called Carnitas El Alteño in the town of Jalostotitlán. Here, you will also find numerous brands of locally made tequila with a unique highland flavor.

John Pint has lived near Guadalajara, Jalisco, for more than 30 years and is the author of “A Guide to West Mexico’s Guachimontones and Surrounding Area” and co-author of “Outdoors in Western Mexico.” More of his writing can be found on his website.

Small but mighty: Mexican hops on the horizon

By

Lydia Carey

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June 11, 2025

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Close up of a green hops plant — For years, craft brewers have dreamed of using homegrown Mexican hops in their creations rather than foreign-grown ones they must use. (Stanzilla/Wikimedia Commons)

Mexico is the world’s number one beer exporting country and No. 22 in overall beer consumption. But while beer has been produced here in commercial quantities since the 1800s, until 14 years ago, 100% of the hops used in Mexican beer were imported from abroad, at a price tag of more than US $34 million a year.

While the idea of a 100% Mexican beer has been dreamt of before, it’s taken a long time for it to become a reality.

One Mexican man in a parka and a straw cowboy hat stands holding a wooden pine box with a screen on top, filled with dried hops. Another man in a blue jacket and with a thinning hairline inspects the hops, taking some between his fingers. — Quality control at Monstruo de Agua. The vast majority of hops that Mexican craft brewers use must be imported, which means the brewers struggle with inconsistent product quality when hops come from as far away as New Zealand. (Monstruo de Agua)

“Since we started [brewing] 12 years ago, it has always been our goal to have beer not only made in Mexico, but made of Mexico,” says Matias Veracruz, co-owner and brewer at Monstruo de Agua brewery in Mexico City. “When we started, everyone imported everything, and there were no national vendors of malt or hops or anything. So it was always our goal to find Mexican hops.”

Monstruo de Agua, like most craft brewers in Mexico, historically got their hops from the northwest United States: specifically in Washington state’s Yakima Valley, in Oregon and in Idaho. Along the same latitude are the hops grown in Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovenia and China. On the far end of the globe, you will find production in Australia, Argentina, Chile and New Zealand.

There’s a correlation between these places and the requirements of hops: short but intense, light-filled summers (about 16 hours of sunlight a day) and a winter period that’s not too chilly. Mexico, with its almost-even hours of light and dark year-round, is not ideal, but growers here have been trying to make it work for the last 15 years.

Miguel Loza started what was likely the first hops project in the country, planting in 2011 in Valle de Guadalupe, Mexico’s famed wine region. Originally from Ensenada, Loza started making his own beer when he was living in San Diego and decided to move back to Ensenada to try his hand at growing hops.

“I was totally on my own,” he says. “The only people I could ask questions to were in Oregon or Washington. I didn’t have a mentor or anything. I remember one person told me I should just grow avocados or something else because hops would never grow in Mexico.”

But they did grow. At the height of his project, Loza was able to obtain about a kilo and a half of hops from each of his 1,200 plants. Even that, he admits, was difficult; growing directly in the ground caused accidental cross-pollination of varieties, changes in flavor profiles due to the specific terroir where the hops were being grown and reduced control over the plants’ health.

A Mexican man in a tee shirt holding toward the camera a hops plant seedling. Behind him is a farm on a semi-arid, hilly landscape in northern Mexico. — Miguel Loza in 2017, when his business La Casa del Lúpulo was growing hops commercially. (Cerveceros de Mexico/Facebook)

Hops, much like grapes, are the type of plant that’s particularly sensitive to the ecosystem it inhabits. Water, soil, nutrients — even human touch — can affect the way the flowers taste, smell and act during growth. It’s part of what makes this plant interesting, but also what makes it complicated.

Loza eventually had to give up the farm in Ensenada when his daughter got sick and his family moved to Texas, but he still grows a small amount of hops for his own personal use.

“It was always more of a labor of love,” he says, “I knew I would never make any money. It was more for the satisfaction of being able to say we have 100% Mexican hops.”

Nine years later in 2020, Daniele Gamba started Lupex in Jalisco. A much smaller and more experimental project, Gamba worked in conjunction with the local university, growing less than 100 plants of five different varieties. These hops were planted directly in the ground with the addition of grow lights to control the plants’ flowering phase and to give them their required 16 hours of summer sunlight.

According to Gamba, they were able to achieve two yearly harvests of about 3.5 kilograms of hops per plant — an astounding amount since the average yield per plant hovers around 2 kilograms.

In the end, Gamba didn’t have enough land (he judged he would need 5 hectares to make the project economically feasible), nor could he find any local farmers willing to take on hops production, even with his technical support.

Also in 2020, Claudia Viloria and her partner Pepe Iracheta began Lúpulos Igor in Zacatlán de las Manzanas, Puebla. They currently have the oldest plants of any project — the hops that they are growing hydroponically in a greenhouse are three years old.

“The craft beer industry is growing a lot and quickly, and now with the issue of the tariffs, it’s going to be even more difficult to import supplies,” says Claudia. “We’re an alternative, especially for many brewers looking to create a product that’s 100% Mexican. There aren’t that many hops producers, and to be able to [provide for the demand], we will have to work together.”

Lúpulos Igor’s 400 plants produced between 40–50 kilograms in each of their first two growth cycles, and this year, as the plants reach full maturity, Claudia hopes each will produce 1 kilogram. They’ve been working with Monstruo de Agua, Pecados de la Malta and other craft brewers, but don’t yet have the production to commit to big contracts. Their future goal is 10,000 plants, which will require a substantial investment.

“It’s a good thing that we have other jobs,” she says, chuckling. Claudia works in public policy and Pepe is an urban planner. “Our work allows us to support this project, but setting it up and keeping it running is a big investment.”

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Some of the latest crop growing at Lúpulos Igor.

“When I first met the people from Lúpulos Igor, I basically purchased all the hops they had on them,” says Orlando Lara of Pecados de la Malta. “The beer we made with it won awards in Mexico, Colombia and Peru. We were thrilled. If you buy at supply stores, much of [the hops] is repackaged, previously opened, old, with lots of quality issues. So, instead, I started to buy directly from Yakima Valley in Washington or New Zealand, but the delivery takes time, and that also degrades the quality. The resin flavors of Lúpulos Igor’s experimental varieties, you are never going to find in prepackaged hops.”

In 2022, the most recent hops project, GroAltos, was formalized after Oscar Martínez and his partner made a first unsuccessful attempt to grow hops in Chiapas. In 2022, they planted on land outside of Guadalajara but struggled with the first round of plants. They now have 1,500 one-year-old plants on less than a hectare of land, but they hope to expand to 50 times that size one day.

How viable is the budding Mexican hops industry? In my conversations with growers and beer makers, I felt a tentative optimism saddled with a touch of frustration at the barriers.

What is obvious is that there is little communication and information shared among growers themselves, despite their seemingly strong relationships with local brewers.

“I had people tell me don’t talk about the lamps you are using, don’t give away your information,” says GroAltos’ Martínez. “But at the end of the day, in order for the industry to grow, there has to be some level of transparency. By hiding the information, you make yourself feel important, but the truth is you’re just like everyone else; what’s really valuable is your [personal] experience.”

Another concern I heard repeated was the cost of building the necessary infrastructure (in all cases, trestles; in others, lamps, greenhouses and hydroponic systems).

Gamba floated the idea that brewers could come together to support growers, as investors who could be paid back in harvest. But Martínez points out that local hops are an unnecessary luxury to many brewers who have access to high-quality hops imported from the U.S. at a decent price. He instead believes that the push should be for greater government support.

Three young men sitting at a coffee table in a Mexican courtyard. One has an open laptop in his lap and another has a laptop on the table next to his cup of coffee. The third is listening to the man with the laptop in his lap. — A meeting of the minds at GroAltos, one of Mexico’s latest ventures aiming to supply Mexico’s craft brewers with hops grown in Mexico. (GroAltos)

“Not that there’s [no government support], but there needs to be more awareness developed that hops are strategic for the beer industry — one of Mexico’s biggest exports, and that this has to do with commercial sovereignty.”

From a sustainability perspective, there’s an assumption that the cost to set up and run a hops farm is much less than the energy costs to import them from 2,600 miles away. But more study is needed to come up with the hard data on what makes the most sense environmentally — a question that can no longer be left out of any cost-benefit analysis in our era of climate change.

Other barriers seem easier to overcome. With time and professionalization, the idea of Mexican hops will seem less risky and wild. In the same way that the vineyards of the Bajío region, for example, took several years to start producing top-quality wine, these nascent hops growers are likely to produce a better product year over year as their expertise grows, as the plants adapt and mature and as growers better understand the requirements of growing hops on Mexican soil.

And the benefits of local hops are many: interesting flavor profiles, increased freshness, less dependence on international sources, easier and faster delivery and the reinvestment of money into local business owners and farmers. Brands like Monstruo de Agua, Pecados de la Malta and others for whom making 100% Mexican beer is a priority, look poised to continue supporting this burgeoning industry, and I, for one, am excited about the future of hops in Mexico.

Lydia Carey is a freelance writer and translator based out of Mexico City. She has been published widely both online and in print, writing about Mexico for over a decade. She lives a double life as a local tour guide and is the author of “Mexico City Streets: La Roma.” Follow her urban adventures on Instagram and see more of her work at mexicocitystreets.com.