The oarfish found at Pichilingue, La Paz, last week.
An oarfish, a deepwater eel-like fish not generally seen in Mexican waters, has made another surprise appearance, turning up Friday in Baja California’s Pichilingue Bay in La Paz.
The discovery of the fish, believed in Japan to be omens of earthquakes, comes barely a month after another oarfish was caught June 11 in Cozumel.
David de Zabedrosky of the World Climactic Network revealed the Baja California sighting on his Twitter account Sunday, showing pictures of the large eel-like fish and estimating its length at about three meters.
The deepwater fish are not frequently seen in Mexico’s Pacific Ocean, although it happens occasionally. Last summer, also in La Paz, an oarfish washed up on El Coromuel Beach. Around the same time, another washed up on a beach in Los Cabos. In 2013, dead specimens washed up on California beaches in Oceanside and Catalina Island.
Although the plankton-consuming fish are believed to live at depths of 200 to 1,000 meters, they are sometimes sighted at the surface — and are believed to be the source of many legendary accounts of sea serpents and other sea monsters. In Japan, many believe they signal oncoming earthquakes and tsunamis.
In 2011, this belief was reinforced when supposed multiple sightings of oarfish on Japanese coasts occurred soon before the 6.6-magnitude earthquake in Fukushima that led to a tsunami and an accident at the Fukushima nuclear plant. They can occasionally be pushed ashore by strong currents and get stranded in bays like Pichilingue and end up dead or alive on beaches.
Jane Dill and her new book of quarantine cocktails.
Artist Jane Dill’s fun new book, Quarantine Cocktails: 50 Cocktails in 50 Days of Quarantine in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, is exactly what the title says it is.
“It all started when my husband and I were having a cocktail on our roof deck in early April, talking about how ‘Happy Hour’ was making a comeback all over the world during quarantine,” she recalled. “It seemed to be a fun way for us to mark each day, to delineate between daytime and nighttime, what with all the days endlessly running together.”
Dill posted photos and descriptions of those first cocktails on her Facebook page, and within a week family and friends were clamoring for her to make them into a book. It got to the point where if she hadn’t posted the day’s cocktail by 8 p.m., her phone would be beeping with folks asking what was going on.
She never intended to turn her adult beverage creations into a book; the couple’s regular Happy Hour was just “a way to keep sane.” But without her regular teaching and gallery work, Dill said, “the one thing I had in abundance was time.”
Dill began researching cocktails on the internet, and became particularly intrigued by Prohibition-era mixed drinks like the Sidecar and the Gimlet. She started making a cocktail basic, simple syrup (50/50 sugar and water, cooked down to a syrup consistency), and then infusing it with herbs, chipotle, or jalapeños to add a Mexican flavor to her drinks.
Fifty cocktail recipes inspired by the coronavirus quarantine.
“We began on April 7 and ended on May 26,” she said. Her nightly posts of new cocktails were shared like wildfire. “I don’t even know how many people were enjoying cocktails with me.”
For those who may be leery of learning how to make cocktails at home, Dill has some simple advice.
“This is the antithesis of mixology bibles, fancy glassware and expensive booze,” she laughed. In fact, all of the drinks in the book are shown in the same two martini glasses, photographed on Dill’s rooftop deck in San Miguel de Allende. “We had just moved and downsized, and just didn’t have a lot of glasses. We’re very informal here!”
As an artist and calligrapher, color is important to her. Although at times she wouldn’t have the ingredients she wanted, like grenadine for a Tequila Sunrise, she figured out that blended frozen raspberries would give her the color and tart flavor she was looking for.
In the Chocohula Covfefe — a play on President Trump’s famous garble — she couldn’t find crème de cacao. On a whim, she used a Magnum chocolate ice cream bar, blending it with the other ingredients. The result was a delicious dessert cocktail, “best eaten with a spoon.”
“The idea is to improvise,” said Dill. “My philosophy of quarantine cocktails is to improvise, re-create and have fun experimenting with different spices, fruits and colors. Toss it in the blender, pour it in a nice glass and knock yourself out.”
This mocktail becomes a cocktail with the addition of vodka, rum or tequila.
Quarantine Cocktails: 50 Cocktails in 50 Days of Quarantine is available on Amazon as a paperback and ebook. If you’re in San Miguel, the book can also be purchased directly from the author and delivered to your door for a small fee. She’ll also ship within Mexico. Fifty percent of the profits from sales of the first 100 books go to a local non-profit, Feed the Hungry. Details can be found on Dill’s website.
All recipes make two cocktails. Feel free to leave out the alcohol for a “mocktail.”
Pina Frambuesa
Ice
½ cup fresh pineapple, cut in chunks
½ cup raspberries
1 cup coconut water
2 Tbsp. fresh lime juice
½ cup rum, vodka or tequila
Blend all ingredients in blender.
Chocahulua Covfefe
A delicious dessert cocktail, best eaten with a spoon!
Ice
1 cup strong coffee or espresso
½ cup vodka
¼ cup Kahlua
Half a vanilla/chocolate Magnum Bar or Dove Bar ice cream (or cocoa powder to taste)
Sprinkle of cinnamon or nutmeg
Blend all ingredients in blender.
Drunken Guayaba Slushy
Yes, you could use fresh guayabas, but a frozen bolis or paleta (popsicle) from your local tienda works just fine.
Ice
1 cup grapefruit juice
½ cup frozen strawberries
¾ cup coconut water
1 guayaba (guava) bolis or popsicle
½ cup vodka, rum or tequila
Blend all ingredients in blender.
Friskey Whiskey
A sweet and sour, hot and boozy combo.
Ice
½ cup Jack Daniels whiskey
½ cup orange juice
1 Tbsp. maple syrup
½ tsp. minced jalapeños
Splash of orange bitters
Blend all ingredients in blender.
Janet Blaser has been a writer, editor and storyteller her entire life and feels fortunate to be able to write about great food, amazing places, fascinating people and unique events. Her first book, Why We Left: An Anthology of American Women Expats, is available on Amazon. Contact Janet or read her blog at whyweleftamerica.com.
López Obrador said Lozoya should be granted protected witness status.
Former Pemex CEO Emilio Lozoya, extradited to Mexico by Spain last week to face corruption charges, must be protected because he is cooperating with authorities and his life could be in danger, President López Obrador said Monday.
Speaking at his morning news conference, López Obrador said that Lozoya, head of the state oil company for four years during the 2012-18 government of former president Enrique Peña Nieto, should be afforded “protected witness” status.
“This is practiced in the United States and other countries and I believe that if the legal framework exists … to do something similar [in Mexico], this procedure must be applied. In this way, information is obtained. … The man has to be looked after,” he said.
The president said that Lozoya, who arrived in Mexico aboard a government plane last Thursday and was subsequently taken to a Mexico City hospital for treatment for anemia, an esophagus problem and general weakness, could provide valuable information to the Attorney General’s Office (FGR) about white-collar crime committed by officials who worked with the previous government.
The former CEO is accused of receiving multi-million-dollar bribes from the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht in exchange for awarding it a lucrative refinery contract as well as benefiting from the 2015 purchase by Pemex of a rundown fertilizer plant in Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz, at an allegedly vastly inflated price.
Lozoya and former president Peña Nieto.
López Obrador asserted that white-collar criminals, like other criminals, work in groups or networks and that Lozoya could help authorities to understand more about their “shady deals”and complicity during the “neoliberal” period.
“Everything he’s going to say will be of great public utility because it will help to banish corruption, … which is the main problem in the country. It will help a lot,” he said.
López Obrador acknowledged that the former Pemex CEO could receive a reduced prison in sentence in exchange for cooperating with authorities but stressed that “it’s not just about putting one, two, three, five, 10, 20 or a thousand people in jail – it’s about these disgraceful acts not being repeated.”
Despite being in hospital, Lozoya has already submitted a first statement to the FGR, the president said, adding that he had mentioned the names of “personalities [and] politicians” and spoken of “the mismanagement of money.”
López Obrador said that he had no direct knowledge of the declaration – in theory, the FGR is completely independent from the government – but read about it in media reports.
“It’s almost in the public domain, they’re almost publishing it and it appears that it’s real, it’s true,” he said.
In other words, people fearful of being implicated in the corruption of which the former state oil company chief is accused could take out a contract on his life.
Therefore, both the ex-official’s health and his physical security must be taken care of, López Obrador said, adding that the latter shouldn’t be neglected while he is in hospital.
Indeed, two National Guard vehicles are stationed outside the private hospital in southern Mexico City where Lozoya is receiving care, the newspaper Reforma reported.
Pedestrian and vehicle access is controlled by private security guards, the newspaper said, adding that federal agents are discretely patrolling the interior of the facility. Lozoya’s hospital stay is expected to last about a week.
The former Pemex CEO is the second high-ranking member of the Peña Nieto government to be taken into custody on corruption charges after former cabinet minister Rosario Robles, who allegedly participated in the embezzlement scheme known as the “Master Fraud.”
The Peña Nieto administration was plagued by corruption scandals but López Obrador said Monday that he wasn’t planning to pursue the ex-president or any of his predecessors.
Women remain still as a black bear checks them out in Chipinque Park. (El Universal Estados/X)
A trio of young women walking the paths of the Chipinque Ecological Park in Nuevo León got some unwanted attention when a highly curious black bear got too close for comfort and gave the visitors a thorough examination.
The medium-sized bear, captured on a 59-second video, can be seen sniffing the women’s legs and torsos and in one case, getting up on its hind legs twice, at times placing its front paws on a woman’s shoulders as it sniffs her.
Voices can be heard in the background as companions of the women attempted to drive the bear away and advised the three not to move.
The women took the advice and remained completely still as the bear interacted with them and not until it began to walk away did they leave the scene of the encounter. The video was posted on Twitter, where it has had over 4,000 views.
Chipinque Park is part of the larger Cumbres de Monterrey National Park in the eastern Sierra Madre mountains.
#NuevoLeón El incidente ocurrió en uno de los caminos de terracería del parque Ecológico Chipinque en el municipio de San Pedro Garza García pic.twitter.com/mMScNkbjlT
— El Universal Estados (@Univ_Estados) July 18, 2020
According to experts, this type of sighting is not unusual in the park during certain times of the year, when bears come down from the mountains in search of food and water. The bears even appear in residential areas. Black bears are considered to be an endangered species in Mexico, due to the destruction of their habitat and illegal hunting. However, its only protected population is in Sierra del Burro, part of the eastern Sierra Madre mountain range which lies in the state of Coahuila.
The women followed expert recommendations to the letter, according to Nuevo León Civil Protection authorities, who reminded residents on that they are in “bear country” and that they have to learn to coexist with the animals.
They advise people who encounter a bear to “remain calm, never put yourself between a mother and her cub.”
However, other videos of the same incident posted on social media show that companions of the three women were not so cautious. One showed a member of the group trying to take a photograph of herself with the bear, going against official advice to avoid taking photographs or selfies.
Two visitors to the city of San Miguel de Allende have been arrested and fined by authorities after refusing requests to wear a protective mask in public.
The man and woman — only identified by authorities as “Victor G.” and “Paulina H.” — were visiting from the neighboring state of Querétaro when they were arrested Saturday evening while walking with a third person, also visiting from Querétaro.
According to authorities, a police officer approached the trio as they were walking in the downtown historic area and reminded them that they were legally required to wear masks. The third person in the group at that point donned a mask, authorities said, but the two arrestees refused, authorities said.
They were taken into custody and later ordered by municipal authorities to pay a 500-peso fine and spend 12 hours in police custody, according to a press release from Mayor Luis Alberto Villarreal’s office.
According to Guanajuato’s Secretary of Public Health, San Miguel de Allende has recorded a total of 169 confirmed cases of Covid-19 and nine deaths since the beginning of the pandemic. Of those cases, 165 have occurred through community transmission. Guanajuato state currently has a red rating on the federal government’s virus risk stoplight system.
In the press release, Villarreal said that people who refuse to comply with the city’s public health regulations are endangering public health and could face up to 36 hours in custody. Villarreal told the newspaper Milenio recently that “a wrong step could return us to closing our tourism destination again.”
In March, the city closed access to non-residents who could not produce evidence of a compelling need to enter the city.
Although it recently reopened to tourism, the city has been taking its Covid-19 preventative measures increasingly seriously. Since May 1, it has been urging people to wear masks in all public spaces, including while walking outside, on public transportation, and inside businesses — a requirement that gained teeth July 10 when the Guanajuato state government certified it as an official ordinance.
Beginning May 29, the city installed health checkpoints at entry roads from the neighboring cities of Querétaro and Celaya. Officials have been asking those entering the city limits the purpose of their visit, taking car occupants’ body temperature, reminding people of the legal obligation to wear masks in the city, and offering a free mask to those who say they don’t have one. Transit authorities have been monitoring municipal bus routes to ensure that drivers are wearing the required masks throughout their routes.
The municipality also began bolstering the entry checkpoints with dogs trained to sniff out drugs and explosives after an incident at a checkpoint where a dog detected a bag of marijuana under a seat.
Governor Mendoza and López-Gatell at a meeting in May. The former has rejected the latest coronavirus risk map.
The governors of several states have indicated that they won’t impose stricter coronavirus restrictions this week despite being allocated a “red light” on the federal government’s latest “stoplight” map, used to indicate the risk of infection.
The governors of Baja California Sur (BCS), Yucatán, Quintana Roo and Querétaro all said they will maintain the less severe “orange light” restrictions that have been in place in their states in recent weeks.
BCS Governor Carlos Mendoza Davis said the state’s health safety committee had voted in favor of maintaining the risk level at orange. He asserted that the committee is a responsible decision-making body with the best interests of BCS residents at heart.
Mendoza acknowledged that coronavirus case numbers have recently risen but attributed the spike to an increase in testing. He said that a declining Covid-19 fatality rate in BCS and the availability of hospital beds were among the factors considered by the health committee before deciding to maintain the “orange light” risk level.
BCS has recorded 3,107 confirmed cases since the beginning of the pandemic – the fifth lowest total among Mexico’s 32 states – of which 895 cases are currently estimated to be active. The state has the lowest Covid-19 death toll in the country, with 117 fatalities, according to federal data.
Data presented at the federal Health Ministry’s coronavirus press briefing on Sunday night showed that 27% of general care hospital beds set aside for coronavirus patients in BCS are currently occupied while 34% of those with ventilators are in use.
In Yucatán, where there are an estimated 1,413 active coronavirus cases, the state Health Ministry decided that it too would maintain the risk level at orange this week.
Before the state was allocated a “red light,” Governor Mauricio Vila announced the reimplementation of a ley seca, or dry law, prohibiting the purchase of alcohol all week. He also said that residents were banned from using their cars at night, with the driving restriction beginning at 9:00 p.m. in coastal communities and at 10:30 p.m. elsewhere, and concluding at 5:00 a.m.
Yucatán has recorded 7,226 confirmed coronavirus cases since the beginning of the pandemic and 699 deaths.
Quintana Roo Governor Carlos Joaquín reiterated Saturday that his government has its own “stoplight” system and therefore won’t respect that of federal authorities.
Quintana Roo Governor Joaquín: state has its own stoplight system.
“Orange light” restrictions will remain in place this week in the northern half of the state, which includes the popular tourism destinations of Cancún, Playa del Carmen and Tulum, but “red light” rules will persist in the southern half, Joaquín said.
The Caribbean coast state has recorded 6,161 confirmed cases, of which 1,273 are estimated to be active, and 792 Covid-19 deaths.
Querétaro Governor Francisco Domínguez Servién said that his government won’t shut down any economic activity that has already been permitted to restart.
“We will continue with the economic activities that have already been reactivated but with greater vigilance of compliance with health measures,” he said.
Querétaro has recorded 2,896 confirmed cases – the fourth lowest total in the country – of which 399 are estimated to be active. The Bajío region state has also recorded 403 Covid-19 deaths.
Although stricter restrictions won’t be imposed in Querétaro this week, Domínguez said he was prepared to place further limits on activities if the coronavirus situation worsens.
Jalisco Governor Enrique Alfaro preceded his counterparts in BCS, Yucatán, Quintana Roo and Querétaro in speaking out against the federal government’s updated “stoplight” map, asserting on Friday that Deputy Health Minister Hugo López-Gatell had allocated a “red light” to his state because “he felt like it.”
For his part, Tabasco Governor Adán Augusto López claimed Friday that the deputy minister has presented incorrect coronavirus data for the Gulf coast state.
“I can’t [put up] with Gatell. I don’t know where he gets some of his numbers from,” he said during a hospital visit.
Despite the governors’ airing of their public grievances with the federal government, López-Gatell said Sunday that there is no dispute with nor animosity toward the state leaders.
He said the federal government respects and supports the decisions that states take with regard to the tightening or easing of coronavirus restrictions.
“We’re not going to oppose them,” López-Gatell said.
However, the federal government will not cease to provide recommendations to help the state’s combat their local coronavirus epidemics, he added.
The deputy minister emphasized that the development of the “stoplight” map is not only his responsibility but rather that of all federal health officials.
“It’s not López-Gatell’s stoplight, it’s the institutional stoplight of federal health authorities,” he said.
The official brushed aside the remarks of the Tabasco governor, saying that they were motivated by a “slight lag” in the reporting of data that has now been explained to him.
The coronavirus pandemic has become a highly politicized issue in Mexico with many government critics accusing President López Obrador and his government of first downplaying then mismanaging the health crisis, and not doing enough to support the economy amid the coronavirus-induced downturn.
Some governors, especially those who represent the conservative National Action Party, have added their voices to the criticism.
Mexico’s pick to run the World Trade Organization says he can fix its broken dispute resolution mechanism within 100 days, use it to ease U.S.-China trade tensions and keep Washington from quitting the global trade body.
Jesús Seade, a veteran of three decades of negotiating trade agreements — most recently getting the USMCA trade pact between the U.S., Mexico and Canada across the line — is one of eight candidates to succeed Brazil’s Roberto Azevêdo as director-general after he steps down in September.
The field is led by two female African former ministers — Kenya’s Amina Mohamed, a former trade minister who has chaired the WTO’s general council, and Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, a former Nigerian finance minister and senior World Bank official. Seade insists he is not disadvantaged by a widespread desire to make the multilateral body’s leadership more diverse.
“Maybe there’s a fascination for someone who comes from a certain continent or is of a certain gender,” Seade told the Financial Times in an interview from Geneva, where the candidates last week pitched their programs to the WTO’s general council, kicking off what is meant to be a consensus-based selection process.
Seade thinks his resume gives him the edge: stints as the WTO’s deputy director-general and senior posts at the International Monetary Fund and World Bank working on “dozens and dozens of countries” worldwide. He also notes that he has lived in China and gone head to head with tough U.S. trade representative Robert Lighthizer over USMCA.
“Some candidates have terrific experience but my experience has been much more specific on trade negotiations,” he said.
While he said it was too early to speak of firm support for any candidate, Mexico is relinquishing leadership of the OECD in a move seen as designed to bolster Seade’s chances.
Whoever steps into Azevêdo’s shoes will first have to fix the appellate body — the WTO’s dispute resolution mechanism — that has been at a standstill since last December. The U.S. has exercised a veto and blocked the appointment of new judges to the body, which adjudicates on contested rulings over disputes between members.
Seade locked horns with Lighthizer several times during the USMCA negotiations, including over Washington’s desire for steel and aluminium quotas and labour inspections. But they hammered out compromises after setting out what both sides could accept.
“You need to respond to what is said to you, to engage. If there’s a suggestion you need to say exactly what you buy and don’t buy … begin to find a way to converge,” he said of his negotiating style. “I prefer a negotiator that takes risks.”
He would apply the same tactic to the appellate body amid “profoundly different philosophies” in Europe and the U.S. about how it should work.
Seade says fixing the dispute resolution mechanism would help settle US-China relations.
“I think [the problem] is extremely grave, super serious but quite specific,” he said of the U.S. objections, but this could be addressed “with good robust engaged discussion, negotiation … I would hope it can be resolved within my first 100 days.”
Fixing the dispute resolution mechanism could in turn help settle U.S.-China trade tensions.
“A lot of the trade war is bilateral but … a lot of discrepancies should belong in the WTO … Let’s put in place together the dispute settlement system and use it in relations including with China,” he said.
He would like other problems arising from U.S.-China discussions to be tackled in Geneva. “We certainly hope to be a helpful partner — sticking my neck out as I have done many times to get results to help them find solutions that are acceptable to both.”
China’s reluctance to relinquish “special and differential treatment” status — being considered a developing nation within the WTO despite also being a global superpower — was a “challenge,” he added. But nations had to advance in negotiations on fisheries, electronic trade and regulation “to create confidence” before tackling tough issues of industrial subsidies, he said.
“It is for [other nations] and China to figure out what can be done … What I can offer is [to be] a forceful and powerful and reliable, honest intermediator that will bring them to the table, that will work with them to find the way forward,” he said.
A multilingual Mexican and Lebanese national, Seade, 73, said the “bread and butter” of his career had been working with developing nations, including helping Argentina and Colombia exit financial crises, negotiating debt forgiveness for 15 African nations at the IMF and helping devise Morocco’s sales tax.
He has lived in North and South America — amassing, he said, an enviable collection of Brazilian music — as well as in Europe. He spent more than a decade as a professor in Hong Kong and China, where he picked up enough Mandarin to deliver a speech competently.
He dismissed suggestions the U.S. could pull out of the WTO altogether but stressed that “they have a grudge with the WTO — we have to understand that grudge, and that grudge is not Republican … it will be there whoever wins the next elections.”
“We must not have illusions that if [President Trump’s Democrat challenger] Mr. [Joe] Biden wins, then it’s all dandy for the WTO. Not at all, we must engage with the U.S. … We need to work with them and we need to fix it,” he said.
Then he repeated a joke shared among Mexican trade negotiators when he threw his hat into the ring: “Only Jesus can save the WTO.”
Why do we drink it, asks the deputy health minister.
Covid-19 has had a huge impact on Mexico due to the high prevalence of diet-related chronic diseases, Deputy Health Minister Hugo López-Gatell said Saturday.
Speaking at an event in Berriozábal, Chiapas, López-Gatell said that if people had diets free of junk food and sugary drinks – which he described as “bottled poison” – the impact of any virus on the population of Mexico would be less.
He has said repeatedly that the high prevalence of diabetes, hypertension and obesity is a major factor in the high number of Covid-19 deaths in Mexico.
López-Gatell, the government’s coronavirus point man, said Saturday that diet-related health problems date back 40 years in Mexico and lamented that many people have abandoned healthier, more natural foods for highly-processed ones.
“What are we eating? How much salt are we putting on our food? Enough salt already! [Packaged] food already has salt,” he said.
“How much sugar are we putting into drinks? Fruit already has sugar. And, of course, why do we need bottled poison?” López-Gatell asked, referring to sugary soda and juice. “Why do we need to eat donuts, cakes and chips?”
The deputy minister told his audience that if there are overweight and obese people within their communities, it is because they are consuming too much of the wrong foods and drinks.
“There is no reason for you to have overweight people [in your communities]. If you have them, it’s because they’re eating too much [junk food], … it’s because they’re drinking soda or juice. … Those that are bottled are not juice, it’s paint with sugar,” López-Gatell said.
“Health in Mexico would be very different if we hadn’t allowed ourselves to be fooled by the lifestyles that are shown on television, heard on the radio and which we see in advertisements,” he said.
The health official’s remarks came a month after President López Obrador delivered a sermon-like video address in which he urged people to follow a healthy diet full of fresh and nutritional food.
Corn, beans, seasonal fruit, fish and hormone-free meat should be on Mexicans’ dining tables, he said, adding that drinking a lot of water and exercise are also crucial for good health.
Coahuila Governor Riquelme, wearing hat, hosted a birthday party on Saturday.
Coahuila Governor Miguel Riquelme hosted a big birthday party for one of his employees Saturday in spite of a prohibition against such festivities, according to a report by the newspaper Reforma.
The event took place in the city of San Juan de Sabinas and was attended by Mayor Julio Long, Saltillo Mayor Manolo Jiménez, and various other mayors and political dignitaries from around the state.
The party was in direct violation of state and municipal decrees. On Friday, a committee headed by Jiménez asked citizens to report large social events and parties that put public health at risk.
Saturday’s birthday party, held for Riquelme’s chief of staff, Lauro Villarreal Navarro, was revealed when Mayor Jiménez posted images of the festivities — which he later deleted — on WhatsApp. In the photos, guests are neither wearing masks nor maintaining a safe distance.
In one photo, Riquelme can be seen with Jiménez, businessman Urbano Santos, and Monclova Mayor Alfredo Paredes, whose city was in the news in April for having the largest outbreak of Covid-19 in Mexico at the time.
According to the federal health ministry, the state has had 8,995 confirmed Covid-19 cases since the beginning of the pandemic, and 1,339 are currently active. According to the state, 80% those active cases are concentrated in six municipalities, including Saltillo, Torreon, and Monclova.
Health workers are attempting to convince more people to heed coronavirus warnings.
The streets of the market in the Mexico City pueblo of San Gregorio Atlapulco, normally filled with street vendors and people selling produce from wheelbarrows and small stands, are now empty after the Xochimilco government shut them down until at least August 2.
The small fruit and vegetable stores remain open but no baskets filled with produce sit in the streets like they usually do; everything has been pulled inside. The market itself, usually bustling, is eerily empty. The building’s walls are now plastered with posters, some warning about the dangers of the coronavirus, others encouraging people to wear masks and keep a safe distance.
Last week, Xochimilco healthcare workers arrived. They’ve been walking through the market wearing white protective suits and armed with antibacterial gel to spray on people’s hands and others were spraying disinfectant on sidewalks and buildings. They’ve set up a tent behind the church to test people for the virus.
The federal government uses a stoplight system to indicate areas with high numbers of infections with red being the worst. If there were another color to indicate an even worse situation, San Gregorio might warrant it. That’s because the pueblo, with a population of about 30,000, has the highest number of infections out of 1,812 colonias, pueblos and barrios in Mexico City.
“We are handing out information,” said medical services assistant director Marisol Olivares. “We want to tell people what is happening.”
A healthcare worker dispenses gel in San Gregorio Atlapulco.
It’s good to finally get attention — and some action — from the municipal government. But sadly it has the feeling of too little, too late.
Back in March, when the pandemic was just getting underway, thousands of people crammed into the pueblo for the Fiesta de San Gregorio, a 10-day event marking the death of the pueblo’s patron saint. Streets in the center were lined with vendors, there were concerts every night and a huge fireworks display on the last night. Everything was well attended.
I photographed the the first day of the event — from a safe distance — and over the course of several days interviewed people about the pandemic. What I was almost always told was, “No pasa nada.” Nothing will happen.
Some people claimed it was because Chicuarotes (which is what people living here call themselves; it’s a local chile) are stronger than other people. Others said — only half jokingly — it was because Mexicans drink a lot of tequila.
No one wore a mask at the festival; no one practiced safe distancing. That attitude continued for months and we’re now paying the price.
One of the people I interviewed in March was Ábel Cortina, who owns a small store near the center of the pueblo. He was one of those who believed nothing would happen, that the pandemic was simply a rumor. He’s changed his opinion.
The market has gone quiet since officials banned street vendors.
“I was wrong back in March,” he said. “We did not see the danger. We had our fiestas, we did not keep distance, we carried our saints in processions. We were wrong.” He now wears a mask and keeps a bottle of antibacterial gel on the store’s front counter.
At one of the last Catholic Masses in late March, before all church activity was suspended and the church locked up, Padre Arturo, the parish priest, told his parishioners that they would be protected by the pueblo’s patron saint. Legend has it that in 590, San Gregorio stopped another plague by organizing prayer vigils and processions.
“[Padre Arturo] said we must entrust ourselves to San Gregorio,” Octavio Flores said in early April when I spoke to him, “In the same way that he saved his people from the plague he will save us from the coronavirus.”
The 15-year-old Flores is a member of “Los Varones,” an organization of 14 young men who dedicate a year or more to serving the church. “I believe San Gregorio will protect us, certainly,” he said at that time. “I do not use a mask or gloves because my faith will protect me.”
It’s anyone’s guess how many people fell ill because of their faith in the saint but Flores is healthy and now wears a mask when he goes out. “The hope that San Gregorio would protect us from the pandemic has failed.” He said his faith is still strong but “Now we have to protect ourselves.”
Unfortunately, not everyone has caught onto that.
Bustling crowds during the town’s fiesta in March. No pasa nada, they said.
Until the municipal government banned street vendors, Nazario Fernández Landero sold pots and pans on Calle Insurgentes. The day I met him, he wasn’t wearing a mask. “I was in a rush this morning,” he said, “and forgot it.” When asked if he was afraid to be without a mask, he pointed one finger to the sky. “I am not afraid,” he said. “If God says he will take me, he will take me.”
He’s not the only one who believes this and, for whatever reason, there are still people congregating without masks.
Mexico City’s Central de Abasto is the world’s largest market and it’s estimated that between 300,000 and 400,000 people pass through there in a single day. So it’s no surprise that it’s a major center for the viral outbreak. Many Chicuarotes sell their produce in the market or work there and it’s believed that they were among those who brought the virus to the pueblo. In fact, many people who work there have become sick and some have died.
Juan Serralde grows vegetables in the agricultural area known as the chinampería and every Sunday delivers his produce to the Central de Abasto. “I do not sell there, only deliver five or six boxes,” he said. He takes many precautions, including wearing a mask, gloves and spraying himself with disinfectant. He’s still afraid but feels he has no choice. “I go to the city for necessity, to provide for my family. We have to keep working because there is nothing else.”
The Clinica Médica Isabel is a tiny clinic in the pueblo that can’t treat people with Covid-19 symptoms. When someone arrives with symptoms, they’re sent to a hospital but some refuse to go. “People are afraid to go to the hospital,” said Domingo García Flores, the clinic’s administrator. “In fact, they believe that doctors want to kill them.” So they quarantine at home, putting others at risk.
There’s no doubt that, in some ways, things have improved. The majority of people are wearing masks, fist bumps and elbow taps have replaced handshakes and hugs, most stores have antibacterial gel available. But there are those who are out and about without masks and social distancing in the market, despite there being fewer people, is still not practiced.
Olivares, the assistant director of medical services, said healthcare workers will be coming to the pueblo daily for at least another two weeks. “We are bringing doctors and nurses. We are trying to educate people,” she said.
But, she added, “People still do not listen.”
Joseph Sorrentino lives in San Gregorio Atlapulco and is a regular contributor to Mexico News Daily.
