Stay off the beach is authorities' message to hotels.
A battle is brewing over public access to beaches in Quintana Roo.
The federal office of maritime land zones (Zofemat) will launch legal action against large hotel chains that refuse to open up access to the Caribbean coastline, director Rodrigo Hernández Aguilar told a press conference.
If hotels fail to comply with orders to grant public access to beaches they could be demolished, he warned. The Zofemat chief said that access to between 90% and 95% of beaches in Quintana Roo is obstructed. Under Mexican law, all beaches are federal zones and must be accessible to the public.
The legal action against hotels, many of which belong to Spanish-owned chains, is part of the government program known as the National Movement for the Recovery of Public Accesses to Beaches, Hernández said.
One hotel project in the Puerto Juárez area of Cancún has already been demolished because it would have blocked public access to the beach.
“We demolished the project because it was obstructing the federal zone,” Hernández said. “. . . We’re going to continue battle by battle . . .”
He said that the Spanish-owned Palladium Hotel Group, which is building a new property that will block access to the Chacmuchuc beach in the municipality of Isla Mujeres, is one of the chains that will face legal action.
“. . . They come to Mexico to do what they wouldn’t dream of doing in Spain, where they couldn’t close a beach and if they tried there would be an energetic and historic protest,” Hernández said.
“Why do they come here to do what they don’t do there? Investment is welcome but they have to include the coastal communities and Mexicans [in their plans].”
Hernández issued a “friendly call” to Quintana Roo Governor Carlos Joaquín to visit Zofemat to contribute to the beach access recovery plan. His support, the federal official said, will be important to resolve beach access issues in Playa del Carmen, Akumal, Chemuyil and Tulum.
“I especially want to request his support to open public access . . . at Punta Venado beach [in Playa del Carmen], Hernández said.
The Zofemat director said that public access in beaches in Quintana Roo had been restricted due to corrupt dealings between past governments and a number of hotel groups.
An anti-violence activist and relative of the nine victims of a cartel ambush in Sonora last month declared on Sunday that defending human life must be the No. 1 priority in Mexico.
“For the love of God, let’s stop fighting for secondary things,” Julian LeBarón said at a rally against violence in Mexico City. “Let’s agree that the obligation of each one of us is to defend human life.”
While an estimated quarter of a million people listened to President López Obrador speak in the zócalo to mark the first year of his government, a few thousand marched from the Angel of Independence to the Monument to the Revolution, where the anti-violence (and anti-AMLO) event was held.
Julian and Adrian LeBarón and other members of the Mormon community in northern Mexico, devastated by the November 4 attack that left three women and six children dead, marched at the rear of the contingent.
“Those who murder women or children, those who murder their neighbor have no [place in this] country. . .” Julian LeBarón said.
Members of the LeBarón family in Mexico City on Sunday.
“. . . What’s at risk now is our freedom. If we have no way to protect life, we have no way to protect freedom. We have to join together to protect life and take up the battle to those who are taking it away. They’re not Mexicans!” he added.
“. . . We have to be united to defend life. That’s a lot more important than all the differences we have.”
Speaking to the rally attendees, among whom were leaders of three opposition parties, Adrian LeBarón also said that other issues paled in comparison to the violence plaguing Mexico.
“I’m sorry if I offend anyone but my heart is full of pain and my voice is trembling with rage. Sorry to come here and say that today I don’t care about the economy or corruption, the airport or political party colors . . .” he said.
“. . . We live in a country where we lose life for the most unfair of reasons: wanting to live. For being – I’m saying this in the name of Rhonita [one of the three women who were killed] – a woman, girlfriend, wife, lover . . . a giver of life, a daughter, granddaughter . . .” LeBarón said.
“We live in a country that has lost the respect for life . . . that has lost the capacity to feel . . .”
Also on Sunday, federal authorities said that three suspects had been arrested in connection with last month’s attack including a suspected plaza chief of La Línea, a gang with links to the Juárez Cartel.
Authorities said shortly after the attack that the criminal group may have mistaken the vehicles in which the women and children were traveling as those of a Sinaloa Cartel splinter cell called Los Salazar. Family members rejected the claim.
Sunday’s arrests followed the detention of another suspect in Mexico City last month. Military authorities said the man detained in November provided information about the alleged perpetrators of the crime that led to the latest arrests in a joint operation between police, the National Guard and intelligence agents.
After a meeting with López Obrador on Monday, Adrian LeBarón said that he and other family members were happy with the progress that has been made in the investigation.
“. . . We can’t say more because it’s dangerous even for us. We have another meeting with him [the president] in a month . . .”
An art show in Mexico City’s Art Point Polanco gallery invites visitors to rethink their relationships to the natural world and the other living things in it.
Artist Karen Rumbos wants her audience to reflect upon endangered species, to find a connection to them and ultimately consider what can be done to preserve their habitats when they visit Don’t be sorry, do something.
Her intention, however, isn’t to scold her audience or take them back to school. Rumbos hopes to captivate with the exhibition’s colors, shapes and textures, ultimately creating empathy and respect for nature and the animal kingdom in her audience.
The exhibition begins even before entering the gallery: in a display window in the facade, a glittery panda welcomes visitors among stalks of bamboo.
Inside, the show is spread out among the gallery’s three floors, comprising nine framed paintings, three murals, an installation and a life-size giraffe sculpture. Rumbos used oil paints, acrylics, resins, wood and gold and silver leaf, among other materials.
Artist Karen Rumbos intends to captivate with the exhibition’s colors, shapes and textures, ultimately creating empathy and respect for nature.
Plaques provide context for each piece with information from the United Nations and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
The show’s other highlights include a polar bear covered in around 5,000 beads of Czechoslovakian crystal in a habitat covered in white fur.
The monarch butterfly installation is also sure to please. Rumbos pays homage to the insects’ breeding grounds in Michoacán with a display made of dried foliage inhabited by dozens of butterflies. Artistic representations of the insects convincingly cover the walls and hang from the ceiling.
The most colorful section is on the third floor of the gallery, where tropical murals stand out on a backdrop of bright Mexican pink. Among the furniture in a comfortable room and the brightly colored walls of a small terrace there are leafy palms, monkeys, birds and butterflies of all colors.
The most impactful experiences, however, are those in virtual reality. Footage from the documentary Our Planet contrasts the splendor of the natural world, from the North Pole to the African savanna, with the consequences of climate change, pollution and resource exploitation.
The exhibition will be on display at Art Point Polanco, located at Calle Séneca 53, in Polanco, Mexico City, until December 31. The gallery is open from 10:00am-6:00pm, Monday-Friday. Entrance is free and does not require a reservation.
Sunday's one-year anniversary celebration in Mexico City.
The transformation of Mexico is “within sight,” President López Obrador declared on Sunday in an address in Mexico City’s central square to mark the first anniversary of his government.
In a 90-minute speech to an estimated 250,000 supporters in the zócalo, López Obrador listed his government’s achievements since he took office on December 1, 2018.
Among them: laws to combat corruption, the implementation of austerity measures, a change to the constitution to prevent tax avoidance by large corporations, cancelation of the previous government’s education reform, elimination of protection from prosecution for the president, creation of the National Guard, increased welfare for the nation’s most disadvantaged people, a 16% increase to the minimum wage, establishment of a northern border free zone and a 94% reduction in petroleum theft.
Accompanied on stage by his wife, Beatriz Gutiérrez Müller, the president claimed that his government has fulfilled 89 of the 100 commitments he made in his inaugural speech as president one year ago.
However, “the main task of the government,” Lopez Obrador stressed, is to “eradicate political corruption.”
“We’re implementing order from the peak of power . . . We’re cleaning up the government from top to bottom, like stairs are cleaned,” he told loyal supporters who intermittently broke into chants such as “es un honor estar con obrador” (it’s an honor to be with Obrador) and “no estás solo (you’re not alone).
Stamping out corruption and implementing austerity measures has allowed the government to fund the budget without raising taxes, increasing the cost of fuel or putting the country into debt, the president said.
López Obrador conceded that the economy hasn’t grown as the government would have liked but claimed that there is now a “better distribution of wealth.”
The president expressed confidence that the new North American trade agreement will be approved by the United States and Canada “very soon.”
López Obrador highlighted that construction of the Santa Lucía airport and the modernization of the railway on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec have both begun.
AMLOve in the zocalo.
“Corrupt conservatives” attempted to stop the former project through legal action but couldn’t, he said, because “reason and the law were enforced.”
López Obrador also said that construction of the new refinery on the Tabasco coast is underway as are projects to upgrade the six existing ones. In addition, the government has halted a 14-year decline in oil production, he said.
International tourism and spending by foreigners while in Mexico have both increased compared to last year, the president said before taking the opportunity to thank the navy for its efforts to clear sargassum from the country’s Caribbean coastline.
López Obrador said that half of all Mexican households and 95% of indigenous ones are benefiting from at least one government welfare program.
“Soon it will be 100% of indigenous households,” he said, adding his oft-repeated slogan: “For the good of all, the poor come first.”
López Obrador said that his government is preventing the over-exploitation of water and has outlawed the use of genetically-modified seeds and fracking.
In the second half of his speech, the president railed against producers of television series that portray the drug trafficking underworld as a “paradise” with “mansions, luxury cars, power, good-looking young men and women and designer clothes.”
There is also “another reality,” López Obrador said – people who consume drugs “can die within a year.”
“. . . That’s sadness, pain and suffering for young people, for their families. That’s not the way to achieve happiness . . . True happiness is being at ease with oneself, being at ease with our conscience, with each other . . .” he told attendees, among whom were also federal lawmakers, state governors and the event’s guest of honor, former president of Uruguay José Mujica.
“. . . If we reduce the consumption of drugs, we will be able to solve the serious problem of insecurity and violence; if not . . . it will be more complicated,” López Obrador declared.
As on many previous occasions, the president blamed the high levels of violence currently plaguing the country on the security strategies of his predecessors, especially Felipe Calderón, who launched the so-called war on drugs shortly after he took office in late 2006.
“The country is still suffering the consequences of that mistaken policy,” López Obrador said, asserting that his government will not repeat such an “absurd and unhinged strategy.”
Sonora Santanera was among the entertainers at the event.
The president said his government remained committed to addressing the main causes of violence – “unemployment, poverty, marginalization” – ensuring that no human rights violations are committed by the armed forces and finding the 43 teaching students who disappeared in Guerrero in 2014.
Reducing crime is the government’s “main challenge,” López Obrador said.
“But we are certain that we are going to pacify Mexico with the support of the people and the coordinated work of the entire government . . .” he added.
While the transformation of Mexico is “within sight” and a lot has been achieved in the government’s first year, the president said that the country is still in a “process of transition” and a lot more needs to be done.
“The old has not yet finished dying and the new is still being born . . .We’re not playing around, we’re not pretending, a new way of doing politics is underway, a regime change. It’s not more of the same, now we’re being guided by honesty, democracy and humanism,” López Obrador said.
“How much time will we need to consolidate the project of transformation? I think one more year . . .The foundations for the construction of a new country will be established . . . It will be practically impossible to return to the period of shame . . . the neoliberal period . . . I’m sure that when we complete two years of government the conservatives will no longer be able to reverse the changes . . .”
Poon, Volovich and Hardeman with Puerto Morelos' new fire truck.
A donated fire truck arrived in Puerto Morelos, Quintana Roo, from Edmonton, Alberta, on the weekend after a lengthy bureaucratic delay.
Retired firefighter Chris Hardeman and his friends Roger Poon and Brad Volovich arrived at their destination on Saturday after driving the truck from Texas, where it had been held up by nearly a year by bureaucratic red tape.
They arrived late in Puerto Morelos, but there was a reception party nonetheless.
“We were actually surprised [at] the reception that we got because of it being so late,” said Hardeman after their arrival. “There was probably a good contingent here of 30 to 40 people. We thought there’d be three or four.”
“We had a big, long, 17-hour day of driving yesterday to get here. So it was nice, everybody staying up to greet us.”
The three intended to deliver the fire truck in January but were stopped at the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas for not having the proper paperwork.
They left the truck parked in Laredo and returned to Edmonton to wait out the administrative process.
“It’s taken quite a long time with a little break in between while it sat in Texas,” said Volovich. “We’re happy to finally get here last night. It was a great experience after all is said and done, even with the delays.”
The Puerto Morelos fire chief and firefighters were among those who waited up to greet the Canadians.
Donated by the city of Edmonton, the CAD $35,000 truck will serve Puerto Morelos as well as the neighboring town of Leona Vicario, which has no fire service at all, Hardeman said.
Hardeman, Volovich and Poon started a GoFundMe page in January 2018 to collect donations to acquire fire equipment for Puerto Morelos and as of Monday it was just over CAD $2,000 short of its $18,000 goal.
Poon had to return to Canada just after arriving, but Hardeman and Volovich will stay in Puerto Morelos until December 8 to train the local crew to operate the truck.
“They’re all really excited to get at it, and certainly very, very thankful for what the three of us have done,” said Hardeman.
After finally getting south of the border, the trio had to deal with another setback when the truck had an electrical problem. However, people stepped up to help out, and they were able to get the problem fixed easily.
“The power of social media and the generosity out there is simply amazing,” Hardeman said.
This is not the only example of retired firefighters from north of the border helping underequipped areas of Mexico. The tragic death of a woman in a house fire La Ribera, Baja California Sur, in August prompted a former fire chief to found a volunteer fire department.
San Miguel's mayor inspects the paving project on Sunday.
San Miguel de Allende Mayor Luis Alberto Villarreal said Sunday the public works project on the Avenida Guadalupe is 85% complete.
Accompanied by the local director of public works and infrastructure, Antonio Soria, Villarreal spoke with constituents who live in the area and listened to their opinions on the project.
The repaving of the street with stamped concrete will benefit the estimated 5,000 students who attend the area’s five schools, as well as over 700 local businesspeople who make a living there, he said.
It will also improve transportation for thousands of people who use the avenue daily, as the area is home to around 20% of the residents of San Miguel.
“What we want to do is make the people of San Miguel proud, tell them that they can and should live under the same circumstances as people in the historic center or other areas,” said Villarreal.
“Here there are more than 700 businesspeople, several schools with two shifts, and each day over 5,000 students walk this street that didn’t have any sidewalks. We can’t continue to allow this to happen,” he added.
He also emphasized that they are not only laying pavement for the road, but also laying the foundations for the second stage in the project, an arcade that will be completed in 2020.
Villarreal added that the arcade will be similar to that of the city’s main square, the Plaza Principal, which will stylistically integrate it with other key areas in the city.
The project also includes painting of facades, restoration of cantera limestone and the installation of new awnings.
The mayor repeated his promise to have the project completed in less than 90 days, and announced there will be an inauguration ceremony on December 12.
It was a rainy day in Mazatlán – unusual, especially at this time of year – and then the power went out. What to do? Finally make those Jamaica tacos, I thought.
I’d wanted to share a recipe for a taco filling made from flores de jamaica, the dried red hibiscus flowers more commonly used in agua fresca, and had scoured the internet in search of one that made sense to me.
The few times I’d had these tacos in restaurants I’d loved them, and I appreciated the idea of using Jamaica so creatively, as a sort of contemporary Mexican take on a very traditional local ingredient. I found some recipes but wanted to try it myself before sharing it here. So I’d assembled all the ingredients a week or so ago and there they sat, untouched, on my kitchen counter.
Back to the rainy day. I started tweaking the recipe I’d found, substituting coconut oil and adding more garlic and fresh ginger. As the flowers and onions cooked and the kitchen started smelling really good, I thought the brightness of some fresh flavors and crunch – carrots, cilantro, avocado — would be good too.
Then – no tortillas! And now it was raining hard. I did have a ciabatta roll, though, and thought, what the heck, I’ll just make a sandwich.
Fresh Jamaica flowers: once dried, they can flavor water or fill tacos.
Because the filling was so soft, I toasted the roll then put a thick layer of mashed avocado on the bottom. Then I added a big dollop of the fragrant, colorful filling, piled the carrots and cilantro on top, drizzled some salsa verde over it all and quickly clapped the top on. Sat down to eat — and my, oh my. Very messy – but very yummy.
So what are we talking about here? Flores de jamaica are hibiscus flowers, but not the big, colorful, decorative ones you have in your garden. This is a different variety, roselle hibiscus, or Jamaican sorrel, and the fresh flower is small and white with a red center. The plant is kind of a leggy bush and after the flowers drop off, the rubbery, ruby-red prehistoric looking pod that’s left is what’s dried to make Jamaica (pronounced hah-my-ka). And yes, they also make an iced drink with the flowers in Jamaica, usually with cinnamon and fresh ginger added.
Making a beverage from Jamaica flowers is so easy there’s really no reason to buy a packaged mix. And please don’t even consider a powdered mix! The flowers have lots of natural vitamin C and that pretty red color is natural too, although some packaged brands will add dye. Better to buy from a local grower if you can, in bulk. One more thing – the juice or wet flowers will stain, so do be careful.
Flores de Jamaica Taco or Sandwich Filling
The combination of coconut and olive oils makes for a delicate, special flavor, but you can use all olive oil if necessary. Much like a stir-fry, experienced cooks will have fun experimenting with other ingredients — bell peppers, fresh jícama, chipotle, shredded potato, even Italian seasonings — to make their own signature flavor.
1 Tbsp coconut oil
1 Tbsp. olive oil
1 cup packed dried hibiscus (Jamaica) flowers
4 cups water
2-3 onions, julienned fine (you need 2 heaping cups)
2-3 big cloves garlic, minced
1-inch piece of fresh ginger, minced
2 ripe avocados or fresh guacamole
½ cup cilantro, chopped
1 carrot, grated
Salsa verde (or whatever you like)
6 corn tortillas or crusty whole grain bread or ciabatta rolls
Salt to taste
Rinse flowers well to get rid of sand and grit. In medium saucepan bring water to boil, add flowers and boil for five minutes; cover and let sit for another 10 minutes. Using a colander, strain liquid, which you can use for agua fresca. (See next recipe.) Set flowers aside.
Heat oils in a frying pan at medium high. Add onions, garlic and ginger; cook, stirring, till translucent and a little browned. Stir in the flowers and cook for about 10 minutes more, stirring to keep from sticking. Add a little salt.
To serve, use as a filling for tacos or sandwiches. Garnish with fresh avocado or guacamole, shredded carrot and chopped cilantro. Drizzle with your choice of hot sauce or salsa. Makes about three sandwiches or five or six tacos.
Jamaica Agua Fresca
Besides being a beautiful ruby-red color, Jamaica is rich in vitamin C and so easy to make. Change it up by adding sparkling water or a cup of pineapple or orange juice at the end.
5 cups water
2 cups (packed) dried Jamaica / hibiscus flowers
¼ cup fresh lime juice (optional)
Sugar or honey to taste
Rinse flowers well to remove dirt and grit. Bring water to boil in large pot. Add flowers; remove from heat, cover and let sit overnight. (No need to refrigerate.) Strain into pitcher, add sugar or honey to taste and lime juice if desired. Serve cold over ice.
Dried Jamaica flowers.
Agua de Jamaica (Hibiscus Tea) Concentrate
This colorful syrup is also great to use in making cocktails. The flowers have a fair amount of pectin, and if you don’t add enough water or too much boils away, it may thicken or gel a little.
1 cup packed dried Jamaica / hibiscus flowers
7 cups water
1½-2 cups sugar (or to taste)
Rinse flowers well to remove grit. Place in a pot with the water and bring to a boil. Boil for 10 minutes, remove from heat, cover and let cool. Strain through a colander or mesh strainer, saving the liquid. Add liquid back to the pot, add the sugar and bring to a boil again, stirring occasionally, until sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat and let cool. Pour into a container with a tight-fitting lid and refrigerate. Keeps for up to two weeks.
To serve, dilute the concentrate with still or sparkling water with one part concentrate to three or four parts water. Makes about four cups.
Janet Blaser of Mazatlán, Sinaloa, has been a writer, editor and storyteller her entire life, and feels fortunate to write about great food, amazing places, fascinating people and unique events. Her work has appeared in numerous travel and expat publications as well as newspapers and magazines. 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.
Gangsters left their mark on Villa Unión's municipal offices.
Clashes between police and suspected members of the Northeast Cartel left 22 people dead in Coahuila after gangsters attacked a small town in the northern border state.
The Coahuila government said that eight gunmen and four state police officers were killed in clashes on Saturday in Villa Unión, a town about 65 kilometers south of the border city of Piedras Negras.
Police killed seven more suspected cartel members early Sunday as they traveled towards Nuevo León after fleeing Villa Unión, the government said.
The other two people killed were unarmed civilians who were kidnapped by criminals. The newspaper Milenio reported that that two municipal Civil Protection workers and a 15-year-old boy were abducted in Villa Unión on Saturday.
The boy is believed to be one of four minors who were kidnapped but subsequently rescued by authorities.
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Governor Miguel Ángel Riquelme Solís said Monday that the death toll had risen to 22 after the discovery of the body of one of the attackers. He also said two people have been arrested.
The deaths of the cartel sicarios and police on Saturday occurred during a confrontation that lasted more than two hours.
Armed men traveling in pickup trucks emblazoned with the initials CDN (Cartel del Noreste) entered Villa Unión at about midday Saturday and attacked municipal police and the municipal offices, triggering a state police operation that turned into a lengthy gunfight that claimed 12 lives.
Rapid gunfire can be heard on videos posted to social media by local residents, while photographs taken after the gun battle showed burned out vehicles and the bullet-ridden façade of the municipal building. A church and some 30 homes were also damaged during the clash.
A resident identified only as Martín told Milenio that he and other locals hid in a shop while the gunfight occurred.
“. . . We were told that they [the suspected cartel members] . . . came to clean out all the filth,” he said, apparently referring to municipal police.
However, the motivation for the cartel’s attack on the small town was unclear, the Associated Press reported. Villa Unión Mayor Narcedalia Padrón Arizpe said in a television interview that the town is usually very calm.
A truck abandoned by cartel in Coahuila gun battle.
Municipal public security director Jonathan Vallejo told reporters that seven of 10 municipal police officers deserted the town after the attack.
“For now, we’re focused on returning peace to the residents of the municipality, later we’ll see what we’ll do,” he said.
Sunday’s clash occurred on a road known as “La Brecha del Gas” that connects Villa Unión with the Nuevo León municipality of Anáhuac, Coahuila authorities said.
The government said that suspected cartel members were located thanks to an air and land search. Police seized a total of 17 vehicles, 18 weapons and a large quantity of ammunition from the criminal group on the weekend.
Governor Riquelme said that several gunmen stole vehicles to flee Villa Unión and kidnapped locals to guide them out of the town on dirt tracks. The Saltillo newspaper Zócalo reported that one of the stolen vehicles was a hearse on its way to a funeral.
The vehicles of two men from the United States in Coahuila on a hunting trip were also hijacked by suspected cartel members. The men were reported as missing but were later found “safe and sound,” police said.
The United States attorney general is scheduled to meet with authorities in Mexico this week to discuss bilateral security cooperation but President López Obrador has repeatedly stressed that he will not accept any U.S. intervention to combat organized crime.
Hundreds of people were evacuated from several stores in Monterrey, Nuevo León, Friday and Saturday after pepper gas attacks that are believed to have been used as a diversion by thieves.
As many as 270 customers and employees at a Liverpool department store were evacuated on Friday after pepper gas was released in the men’s washrooms on the second and third floors. One person was treated for exposure to the gas.
Hours later, an attack in a Soriana supermarket cleared out the store and led to one woman being treated for the effects of the gas.
Then on Saturday, 600 customers and 80 employees were evacuated from three downtown stores.
Some people were treated for eye and respiratory irritation after the attacks. Firefighters were deployed to clear the areas of the gas, and Civil Protection and the Red Cross were also called to the scene.
Authorities have released no information about any robberies that might have been carried out, nor have any arrests been announced.
Many people might think that the only beadwork done in Mexico is that of the Huichol (or Wixáritari) people. But that is not the case.
Inocencia González Saiz, 83, was awarded Mexico’s national grand prize in handcrafts for her life’s work in beads at a ceremony at the Los Pinos Cultural Complex in Mexico City earlier this month.
González is Cocopah, one of five indigenous groups found in Baja California. There are about 500 members of the indigenous group in the state, mostly in the town of El Mayor on the highway south from Mexicali to San Felipe.
The Cocopah have inhabited the lower Colorado River and the river delta for hundreds of years. There are some in Sonora (fewer than 100), but the largest community — with 1,000 members — is the Cocopah Tribe in Arizona.
González was born in El Mayor on December 28, 1936 but it wasn’t until 1973 that she decided to learn to make Cocopah beaded collar yokes from Juan García Aldama, an elderly man and the last person who knew how to make them at the time.
Beaded collar yokes, as made by González, right, have a special place in Cocopah identity.
The collar yoke has a special place in Cocopah identity. For many generations, it was an important aspect of Cocopah women’s dress, along with a skirt made of willow bark. The collars in their current form date back to the early colonial period, when the Spanish brought glass beads to trade with native peoples.
While relatively cheap to make in Europe, glass was previously unknown in Mexico and beads were made laboriously one by one from stone, shell, bone and clay. The abundance of the European beads allowed the Cocopah to create much more elaborate beaded adornments, including collars that could extend down over the chest and back.
González was in her late 30s at the time of her apprenticeship, but had no experience with the making of beaded ítems. Since then she has dedicated her life to preserving this art, along with the Cocopah language, rites, dances and traditional cuisine.
Since her maestro died in 1990, she has become the expert on the collar yokes, along with daughter Antonia Torres González. Inocencia González is the only artisan in the community that uses the old weaving method, and her pieces take up to a year to make.
The making of small beaded jewelry items and other trinkets is widespread among Cocopah women in El Mayor, mostly to sell at markets and to tourists. But it is the work of women like González that ensures its cultural roots stay intact.
