In Mexico, a craving for tacos is easily satisfied: there are at least 115,000 vendors of the staple of the Mexican diet.
Furthermore, almost 100% of citizens live not more than 400 meters from a taco stand, according to geographer Baruch Sanginés.
A study carried out by Sanginés focused on the country’s many taquerías (taco restaurants and street stands) using data compiled by the national statistics institute, Inegi.
He found there are more taquerías than schools, of which there are 92,000.
To illustrate that one is never far from a taco, civil engineer Ernesto Miranda measured the distance from some of Mexico City’s most famous monuments to the nearest taquerías. He began at the Monument to the Revolution.
The door of the nearest taquería was 176 meters away.
He repeated the investigation from the Angel of Independence, on Paseo de la Reforma avenue.
“Here we find one 152 meters from the main base of the Angel of Independence.”
Sanginés said the high density of taquerías speaks to “the great food culture we have.”
The taco, of course, is the perfect food for those on the go.
“The advantage of eating tacos is that you don’t waste time,” said chef Rafael Cruz. “It’s a product that is very fast, it’s faster than fast food. American fast food takes much longer to prepare. With a taco, you arrive, the taquero gives you one, and you go.”
Sanginés would like his study to lead to something that would help hungry, hurried citizens find a taco when they need it.
“The idea would be to create an app exclusively for tacos that would give information of interest. For example, which are the best? What kinds of salsas do they have? It’s about giving you the info you need to make the best decision.”
The study revealed that Mexico City has the most taquerías with 18,000. Guadalajara followed with 6,800 and third place went to Monterrey with 4,200.
Controversial artwork depicting the revolutionary hero Zapata.
A painting that depicts a nude and feminized Emiliano Zapata riding a sexually aroused horse has sparked controversy on social media after it was used by the federal government to promote an exhibition of art inspired by the revolutionary hero.
The Secretariat of Culture posted an image of the painting on Facebook and Twitter on Friday to promote the exhibition Zapata Después de Zapata (Zapata After Zapata), which opened at the Palace of Fine Arts in Mexico City late last month.
The painting La Revolución by Chiapas artist Fabian Cháirez, one of 141 artworks included in the exhibition that commemorates the 100th anniversary of the revolutionary’s death, shows a naked Zapata atop a white horse with a prominent erection. Zapata has feminized legs and is wearing a pink sombrero, a presidential sash and a high-heel shoe on his left foot whose heel is a pistol.
The Culture Secretariat’s use of the painting to promote the exhibition garnered a mixed response on social media.
One Facebook user said the federal department should be reprimanded and that the official who approved the painting’s use must be dismissed.
The painting has been greeted with a mixed response on social media.
Twitter user @tererereyo said the image made her cringe, while another Facebook user said it demonstrated a lack of respect for Zapata.
“I truly think that the image is offensive for the Mexican leader and hero. I’m not at all against homosexuality . . . but Zapata deserves respect. He was a leader who fought for land rights and freedom. I will never accept the denigration of his image in this way,” wrote Jonathan Gómez Rios.
Other social media users praised both the painting and the department’s decision to use it to promote the exhibition.
“I love that a simple painting causes so much controversy. People argue and seethe because of a painting, A PAINTING! Well done to the Secretariat of Culture and whoever’s behind this post. Congratulations!” said one Facebook user.
“Reading so many absurd comments, it appears that the artist achieved his objective,” wrote another.
“. . . The artist managed to offend . . . I love seeing you mad. By the way, the painting’s beautiful and I’m very happy that it is included in the exhibition . . .”
The revolutionary as he is normally depicted.
Cháirez himself told the newspaper El Universal that he found the controversy “interesting.”
“. . . The feminine [form of Zapata] is what causes contempt . . . We’re in a super sexist society. There are some people who are bothered by bodies that don’t obey the norms. [But] in this case, where’s the offense? Are they offended because he’s feminized?” he said.
Cháirez said that he chose to depict Zapata in the way he did because he is almost invariably represented as a manly man.
“. . . It’s rare to find [artworks] in which his masculinity isn’t glorified . . .” he said.
The artist said that before the exhibition opened he was summoned by the curator who told him that the Palace of Fine Arts management was concerned about the reaction his painting would produce.
As a result, the painting is shown separately from the rest of the artworks in the exhibition, which will run through February 16, 2020.
A group of feminists voiced their disapproval for a book on display at the Guadalajara Book Fair by burning it.
Wearing the green bandanas that have become characteristic of the feminist movement, the protesters stole several copies of a book entitled Psico-Terapia Pastoral (Pastoral Psycho-Therapy) by Juan Manuel Rodríguez and Misael Ramírez, which talks of changing sexual orientation through spiritual therapies.
The books were taken outside the fair on Friday and burned.
The feminists earlier gave a performance of the popular A rapist in your way by the Chilean collective Las Tesis before moving through the fair chanting slogans.
The protest also demanded justice for Ana Daniela Vega González, 29, a University of Guanajuato (UG) student who was murdered on November 30. Her ex-boyfriend is believed to have been responsible.
“If the fair as so many eyes, well, they’ll turn to look at us. We need to make more noise so that they hear us,” one protester told the newspaper El Universal before the book burning began.
“Protesting here is the best opportunity we have to be heard, after so many criticisms that have been made of our movement. It’s a way of projecting what we want to change,” said another.
Fair organizers coordinated to facilitate the group’s movement through the aisles. Aside from the burned books, there were no other instances of vandalism or violence in the protest.
The book fair closed yesterday after welcoming more than 840,000 visitors.
Video captured the ambassador taking a book of a shelf at a Buenos Aires bookstore.
Mexico’s ambassador to Argentina has been recalled after media outlets published a video that shows him shoplifting a US $10 book from a famous bookstore in Buenos Aires.
Óscar Ricardo Valero Recio Becerra was ordered to return to Mexico on Sunday by Foreign Affairs Secretary Marcelo Ebrard.
“I have asked the ethics committee to analyze the case of the ambassador in Argentina who is accused of stealing books in a famous bookstore. For now, I have ordered him to return home. If it is proven that the video is true, he will be removed from his position immediately. Zero tolerance for dishonesty,” Ebrard wrote on Twitter.
A security camera at the El Ateneo bookstore in the Argentine capital recorded footage on October 26 of Valero hiding a book inside a newspaper before setting off an alarm as he exited the store.
The ambassador’s possessions were checked by a security guard who found that he had attempted to steal a biography of 18th-century Italian adventurer, author and playboy Giacomo Casanova. The bookstore called the police but Valero was not arrested due to his diplomatic immunity.
The Argentine news website Infobae, the first outlet to publish the video of the ambassador’s shoplifting attempt, said the price of the Casanova biography was the Argentine peso equivalent of 189 Mexican pesos or US $10. In contrast, Valero’s monthly salary is 234,000 pesos (US $12,160).
President López Obrador appointed the 76-year-old as ambassador earlier this year, reviving a diplomatic career that began in 1970.
As a foreign affairs undersecretary in the 1980s, Valero played an important role in the Contadora Group, an initiative launched by Mexico, Colombia, Panama and Venezuela to promote peace in war-stricken Central America.
He served as Mexico’s ambassador to Chile between 2001 and 2004 and also worked for many years as a political science and international relations academic at the National Autonomous University.
The Natura Riviera Cancún, an Apple Leisure Group property.
The travel and hospitality conglomerate Apple Leisure Group announced on Friday that it has put investments worth between US $500 and $600 million on hold due to a range of factors, including a lack of tourism promotion by the federal government and lower visitor numbers from the United States.
CEO Alejandro Zozaya told a press conference that four or five projects have been “put on pause,” explaining that the company has the land and necessary permits to build new hotels but for now construction won’t go ahead.
He said the government’s decision to disband the Tourism Promotion Council (CPTM) and the consequent lack of marketing of Mexico abroad resulted in lower profits for the hotel industry this year.
“Hotels weren’t as profitable in 2019 as in 2018 and 2017,” Zozaya said.
“. . . The closure of the CPTM has hit us, it’s one of the factors that has hurt Mexico. Tourism from the United States has decreased,” Zozaya said.
Alejandro Zozaya of Apple Leisure Group: supply growing faster than demand.
He said that another factor in Apple’s decision was that the supply of hotel rooms is growing faster than demand.
“When demand doesn’t grow at the same pace as supply, [room] rates go down but operational costs haven’t fallen,” Zozaya said.
The strength of the US dollar and higher electricity rates have in fact caused them to rise, he said.
The CEO charged that tourism hasn’t been a priority for federal governments for many years even though the industry contributes to 8% of GDP. However, Zozaya added that the private sector needs to do a better job of informing the government about the importance of tourism to the economy.
To that end, representatives of the sector have met with officials from the Tourism and Foreign Affairs secretariats as well as the president’s chief of staff, Alfonso Romo.
“We’re looking for a joint effort to promote tourism in Mexico and we see some strong potential in the collection of taxes that we’re [currently] missing out on . . . We see opportunities in cruise ships and taxes should be placed on digital platforms such as Airbnb,” Zozaya said.
Although Apple is putting some of its projects on hold, the CEO said the company will still open six new hotels in Mexico by the end of next year.
The conglomerate currently has 33 hotels in 15 Mexican destinations, most of which are AM resorts in Cancún, the Riviera Maya and Cozumel. It is also a large provider of charter flights, transporting one million international passengers a year to Mexico.
Some tourism investors have big plans for Mexico, although the 100 billion pesos (US $5.1 billion) that has been earmarked for tourism infrastructure spending in the government’s National Infrastructure Plan is not scheduled to be spent until 2021-2022.
One of the trailers in the accident on the Siglo XXI highway.
Five people are dead from exposure to ammonia after an accident involving a tanker truck Friday night in Guerrero.
The five were traveling aboard a bus on the Siglo XXI highway when it was trapped in a toxic cloud of ammonia released when the tanker, a double tractor-trailer, rolled over and blocked the highway in La Unión.
Twenty-one other passengers aboard the bus were hospitalized for ammonia poisoning, as were several rescue workers, and residents of the area were evacuated from their homes.
Emergency crews worked through the night to clean up the ammonia spill. The accident was blamed on a mechanical failure.
Adalid and the man who ate tacos thanks to the boy's generosity.
An eight-year-old boy has been lauded on social media after spending 70 pesos he won in a lottery game to buy tacos for an old man selling candy.
In a Facebook post on Thursday, Karen Espinosa of Uruapan, Michoacán, wrote that she and her son Adalid were eating at a taquería when a viejito (old man) came in to sell lollipops to customers.
Seeing that he was having little success making sales, Adalid decided to give his lottery winnings to the candy vendor so that he could buy something to eat.
“I saw the viejito arrive to sell [lollipops] but nobody bought from him. He looked very sad and hungry,” Adalid told the newspaper El Universal.
“When I gave him the money, I saw that he only bought one taco so I asked my mom if we could buy him more so that he could eat well,” he added.
Espinosa agreed and the old man ended up eating three tacos: two bistec and one chorizo.
Adalid said that the man was crying as he ate, which in turn caused him to shed a few tears too.
“I cried because I saw him cry, I saw him wiping away his tears. When he finished [eating] he thanked me and gave me a hug,” he said.
Espinosa told El Universal that she knew that her son had a big heart but she was still surprised when she saw him hand over all the money he had won. He already had plans about where and how he was going to spend it, she said.
“As a mom, it fills me with joy. When I saw him go over to the man to give him the money, my heart melted . . .” she said.
In her Facebook post, Espinosa wrote that “sometimes as a mom I ask myself if I’m doing my job well . . . but actions like this provide answers to all my doubts.”
As of Saturday, the post had generated 211,000 reactions and been shared 105,000 times.
Among the comments from people who shared the post were: “God bless this beautiful big-hearted boy;” “We need more people like this this;” “Beautiful gesture;” and “This boy has found the true meaning of life.”
López Obrador thanked Trump during a visit Friday to Tabasco.
United States President Donald Trump said on Friday he would “temporarily hold off” on the designation of Mexican drug cartels as terrorist organizations at the request of President López Obrador.
“All necessary work has been completed to declare Mexican cartels terrorist organizations. Statutorily we are ready to do so,” Trump wrote on Twitter.
“However, at the request of a man who I like and respect, and has worked so well with us, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, we will temporarily hold off this designation and step up our joint efforts to deal decisively with these vicious and ever-growing organizations!”
How long the U.S. president is prepared to delay the designation and what form the increased security cooperation between the two countries will take is unclear.
Trump said in an interview last week that he had been working on the terrorism designation for 90 days and that he would “absolutely” go ahead with it. Justifying his intention, the U.S. president said that 100,000 people a year die from the consumption of drugs smuggled into the country from Mexico.
US Attorney General Barr, left, met with López Obrador on Thursday.
His assertion that cartels would be classified as terrorists came after a spate of cartel attacks including the massacre of nine Mexican-U.S. citizens in Sonora on November 4.
Responding to Trump, López Obrador said last week that Mexico was prepared to cooperate with the United States to combat organized crime but stressed that it would not accept a U.S. intervention.
Speaking late on Friday in Tabasco, the president applauded Trump’s decision to postpone the designation, stating that it showed that he had taken Mexico’s opinion into account.
“I also very much respect President Donald Trump because he’s showing with actions that he is respectful of Mexico, respectful of our people and respectful of our national sovereignty,” López Obrador told reporters at the site of the Dos Bocas refinery.
“Mexico is a free, independent and sovereign country, our constitution is very clear that we don’t accept intervention . . .” he said.
“That’s why we thank President Trump for respecting our decisions and for choosing to maintain a policy of good neighborliness, a policy of cooperation with us. He will always have, on our side, an open, frank, extended hand to continue moving forward together for the sake of our peoples and the good of our two nations.”
All necessary work has been completed to declare Mexican Cartels terrorist organizations. Statutorily we are ready to do so. However, at the request of a man who I like and respect, and has worked so well with us, President Andres Manuel @LopezObrador_ we….
The president reiterated his commitment to reducing violence by creating jobs and well-being and eliminating corruption and impunity rather than through the use of force against criminal groups.
Trump’s postponement of the terrorism designation came a day after U.S. Attorney General William Barr met with Mexican officials, including López Obrador and Foreign Secretary Marcelo Ebrard.
The president described the meeting with Barr as “good,” writing on Twitter that “as a lawyer, he understands our constitution requires us to adhere to the principles of cooperation for development and nonintervention in foreign affairs.”
The Foreign Secretariat said in a statement that “security priorities” for both Mexico and the United States were discussed as were issues including “cooperation in arms trafficking, money laundering, international drug flows and how to deal with transnational crime.”
Also on Thursday, Ebrard said in a television interview that if the United States went ahead with the designation of cartels as terrorist groups, people living in the areas where they operate could seek asylum in the U.S. on the grounds that they have a credible fear of persecution.
“They could come to the United States and say, ‘I come from a place where there’s terrorism,’ and [the U.S.] would have to grant them credible fear,” he said. “It would be a very bad deal.”
An undated photograph by Joaquín Urbina. museo del estanquillo
Photographs of middle and upper-class citizens, literary figures, politicians, circus performers, singers, as well as objects from 1860 to 1910, when photography became popular in Mexico, are on display at an exhibition in Mexico City.
Mirror Out of Your Skin is a collection of photographs that celebrates the 180th anniversary of the arrival of the daguerreotype in Mexico.
Over 700 photographs are divided into 36 thematic groups and in chronological order beginning in 1860.
The taking of portraits was commercialized in that year with the use of glass photographic plates that allowed people to make copies of small portraits known as “cartes de visite” (visiting cards in French).
“The exhibition is also a homage to 19th-century Mexican photographers who gave the image to Mexicans, both the powerful and those in the middle class who could afford to have their photo taken,” said curator Gustavo Amézaga Heiras.
Carmen Mondragón, who later became a model, painter and poet, in 1896.
Also on display will be a number of objects and pieces that give an account of how the phenomenon of photography permeated daily life at the time. It will include objects like photo albums and original pieces of furniture featured in the pictures.
Amézaga said the exhibition also includes the albums of prominent businessmen and the health records of prostitutes from 1868, which are normally housed in the Miguel Lerdo de Tejada Library in Mexico City.
Critic and art historian José Antonio Rodríguez, who participated in a pre-inaugural viewing of the exhibition, said Mexico is a country that really took to photography.
“We are one of the few countries that has photographic power. We don’t have economic power, we have terrible social problems, but we are a photographic powerhouse,” he said.
Rodríguez added that the 19th century in Mexico was complex, an era that saw great changes in photography.
The exhibition is on until next April at the Museo del Estanquillo (Museum of the Little Shop) at Isabel La Católica 26 in Mexico City’s historic center.
Cheering news: López Obrador celebrates oil discovery with Pemex workers in Tabasco.
Pemex announced on Friday that it has discovered a huge oil deposit in Tabasco that could yield 500 million barrels of crude.
State oil company CEO Octavio Romero said Pemex could confirm the existence of a “giant deposit” at the Quesqui field, located in Huimanguillo.
“With the analysis of information provided by this well and seismic data in the area, we can confirm today the existence of a giant deposit equivalent to 500 million barrels of crude oil in a 3P reserve,” he said. A 3P reserve is made up of deposits that are proven, probable and possible.
Speaking at the Quesqui field alongside President López Obrador, Romero said that the discovery was the largest since 1987 when a 536-million-barrel deposit was found in Tabasco.
He also said another well is being drilled at Quesqui that could contain an additional 200 million barrels of crude.
The Pemex chief said Pemex is aiming to extract 69,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude and up to 300 million cubic feet of gas from the site in 2020. Romero predicted that yields will increase to 110,000 bpd of crude and 410 million cubic feet of gas in 2021.
The large oil find is welcome news for the government, which has pledged to revive the heavily indebted state oil company.
López Obrador said on Friday that Pemex, which has seen its oil output decline for more than a decade, was in “a very bad state” when his government took office but claimed that it is now “bouncing back because there is no corruption and it is being managed very well.”
