Dan DeFossey, left, and Roberto Luna of Pinche Gringo BBQ.
On one side of the border, one gringo is determined to build a wall between Mexico and the United States. But on the other side, another gringo is building a bridge between the two countries instead.
The latter is Dan DeFossey, who for the past six years has run the Pinche Gringo BBQ restaurant in the Mexico City neighborhood of Narvarte with his business partner Roberto Luna – el pinche Mexicano.
“We want to be a cultural center where we offer a variety of activities and a bridge between Mexico and the United States,” DeFossey told the newspaper El Economista at the restaurant’s newer second location, the Pinche Gringo BBQ Warehouse in the neighborhood of Anáhuac.
“. . . We want to send a message that there is no wall between us. This place is a letter of friendship between Mexico and my country,” he added.
One way that DeFossey has helped strengthen his business while responding to the increasingly strict immigration policies of the United States government is by hiring Mexicans who have been deported.
Pinche Gringo BBQ in Mexico City.
“That’s our government. I feel responsible for it,” DeFossey, a New Yorker, told TheLos Angeles Times last year. “You ask yourself, ‘What can I do?’”
In addition to serving succulent Texas-style barbecue and traditional American sides year-round, El Pinche Gringo also hosts Fourth of July, Super Bowl and United States election parties, among other events. Live music and comedy in English also keep diners entertained.
“When someone comes into this house [El Pinche Gringo] it’s as if they’ve arrived in Austin, Texas, and for two hours you have the chance to get up close to a little bit of the food and culture of the United States in an environment where social classes or where you come from don’t matter. When you leave, you return to Mexico, my country for the last 10 years,” DeFossey said.
The concept has proved popular, with long lines of hungry diners often waiting to get a seat at one of the two locations.
El Pinche Gringo goes through a tonne of meat on a typical weekend and serves countless pints of beer, including the Mexican craft variety.
DeFossey said in his job he can act as a kind of cultural ambassador for the United States and show Mexicans that many gringos are intent on developing good relations with their neighbors, not the other way around.
However, he added, “what matters most to us with the concept of El Pinche Gringo is to bring about a change and I think we’re achieving it.”
The adventure continues. As my regular readers will know, The Captured Tourist Woman (TCTW) and I have spent the last three months working towards arrangements for the long awaited renovation of and additions to our recently purchased home.
It’s not that there is any shortage of contractors, architects or other self-proclaimed construction experts in our area; we are just a bit picky. My decades in the construction industry — 30 years in the States and 10 here in Mexico — mean I am not an easy mark for those builders who want to charge a high price for mediocre results.
The hard-working and very capable crew that I built up over my time here in Mazatlán has, in the time since I gave up that work, formed their own company complete with the addition of an architect and a project manager and more workers.
Of course, my first choice was to go with my old crew. However, they have cleverly moved on in a more substantial way than I had envisaged. They now have a business focus on expats who believe that if something costs less than “back home” it’s a deal.
When we first talked about them doing our job, my former team members apologetically told me my years of training in north of the border standards had put them in a very profitable position. Sure enough, after much goodwill on their part but an inability to reduce their new and larger income by an appreciable amount, it became clear that they were in a far more profitable position than we were willing to contribute to. So we had to look further.
As a general contractor in California, I was only allowed a thousand dollars as a down payment prior to the start of a project. After the down payment, the only funds that would come my way were based on the percentage of completion of the contracted work. However, things work differently here in the land of mañana.
Mexican builders of residential homes want, and sometimes get, an outrageous amount money up front; some will ask for half or more of the bid amount and others will be more reasonable, requesting only a 30% down payment. I know of expats who have forked over 60% of the project cost prior to anyone showing up to work. Most of these heavy down payment projects have serious problems when the builder has spent the upfront money and needs much more than the bid amount to finish the job.
In the early days we checked on all possibilities, and many builders would only do an all-inclusive job; of those, all the contractors required the local gringo standard of a huge down payment. That didn’t slow us down much because we then aimed for a labor only arrangement (in which the contractor supplies the work force while we pay directly for all materials and subcontractors).
Many gringos are not keen on that because of a fear that workers will take forever. I’m confident our job will be relatively time efficient. This type of arrangement is not unknown to builders, even if not preferred (because the builder won’t be making anything on his ordering of materials), so I knew there would be possibilities.
However, the unusual aspect in our case was that we would not require the builder to be present on the project site, nor would he need to supervise in any way. This arrangement relieved him of any serious effort or responsibility. Although demanding for me, it would give me much more control over the product, and other advantages.
For this type of service, the builder would be given a percentage over and above the labor costs. All he would have to do would be to show up on payday to get his cash; a trouble-free arrangement for the right builder.
We finally got down to the wire with two people. One is an architect, and the other a contractor. They were both amenable to the arrangement offered, which would allow them to lunch long on our largess. Of course the closing of the deal would be dependent upon the weekly labor cost. It would consist of amounts payable to albañiles (masons) and their peones (yes, that’s what they are called) along with general laborers. We explained to both potential builders we wished to start as soon as conveniently possible.
At 8:00am on the Monday following our request for labor prices, none of which had yet been provided, our doorbell rings. When I answer, I find the architect along with four other men, all in work clothes and armed with a variety of construction tools. With a large toothy smile of the style one associates with used car salespersons, the architect announces that they are here to begin our project.
I stepped outside and quickly closed the door behind me so TCTW would not assail this brazen architect who wished to begin without providing any prices. I believed my action kept this smiling con-man from an ambulance ride; she is Australian, you know.
When I asked for the rates, he gladly informed me of the weekly cost of each individual with him. The rates were somewhat over the standard but I moved on. When I asked what he wanted per week for his part in this unfolding fiasco, he looked me in the eye and with a straight face gave me a figure which brought forth a string of Spanish expletives.
Unfazed, he went on to claim, apparently with complete seriousness, that all construction projects in Mexico required an architect and I had little choice in the matter but to use him. Needless to say, I sent him and his unfortunate crew packing. By the time I told TCTW of my conversation with the audacious architect, he was well out of harm’s way.
The builder we ended up with is quite happy to have his crew working while he sleeps in, enjoys long lunches and collects his not unreasonable number of pesos each week.
He assured me that none of the workers drank beer or smoked pot during working hours; I did, however, wonder about lunch time. But what the hell, we were ready to roll and the deal was as good as it was going to get.
Today we have only three workers at the house. The next edition of this saga will follow the antics of “Larry, Moe and Curly” and their lively romp through different parts of our house while creating massive amounts of dust and rubble.
The writer describes himself as a very middle-aged man who lives full-time in Mazatlán with a captured tourist woman and the ghost of a half wild dog. He can be reached at buscardero@yahoo.com.
Police remove six-year-old Beto from his home yesterday.
Mexico City police have rescued a six-year-old boy who was allegedly tortured by his aunt and a 22-year-old man.
After receiving a tip from neighbors yesterday morning, officers found the boy alone in a locked room with his hands tied together at an address in the southern borough of Tlalpan.
According to neighbors, the boy identified only as Beto has been tortured in a variety of ways for the past six months. His incessant screaming yesterday prompted them to alert authorities.
In addition to having his hands tied together and being held behind locked doors, the boy had allegedly been tied up by his neck, burned with cigarettes on various parts of his body and forced to go without meals.
Occasionally, the minor escaped from his home or was allowed outside during which time neighbors noticed that he showed signs of abuse, the newspaper El Universal said.
After forcibly entering the Tlalpan home yesterday and rescuing Beto, police called paramedics to check the boy’s health. Recent wounds and scars were evident on his body.
A 46-year-old woman who said she was the boy’s aunt and a 22-year-old man were arrested outside the property and taken into custody. Neighbors described the boy’s family as “problematic” and that as many as 10 people lived at the home.
The case is similar to that of a four-year-old boy who was found in the Mexico City borough of Gustavo A. Madero in 2017.
The minor, named only as Antony, was suffering from severe malnutrition, head injuries and cigarette burns on his back.
His uncle and aunt were found guilty of abusing the boy and sentenced to 50 years in jail.
Jorge Monroy with his watercolor, The Lake of Seven Colors at Bacalar.
The Guadalajara Chamber of Commerce has put on display a collection of 44 watercolors celebrating Mexico’s Pueblos Mágicos (magical towns) program, all of which are by local artist Jorge Monroy, whose mural Under the Wings of Mercury can be seen in the chamber’s foyer.
Mexico’s Secretariat of Tourism launched the magical towns in 2001 in recognition of the fact that tourists come to the country not only to bask in the sun on a beach, but to experience Mexican hospitality and culture.
Thirty-two towns were originally selected for the program and over the years the number has grown to 121. Last year it was announced that President López Obrador would cancel the program, but in February of this year the tourism department said it would continue “more strongly than ever.”
All of the paintings in the Guadalajara exhibition originally appeared in the Sunday edition of the newspaper El Informador which, over a period of some 20 years, has published around 1,000 of Monroy’s works.
“The Chamber of Commerce wanted to celebrate the Pueblos Mágicos,” Monroy told me, “so they asked the Jesús Álvarez de Castillo Foundation to lend them around 50 of my paintings representative of the most beautiful magical towns in every state of the republic. Of course, they made sure to include all of those in Jalisco, which now number eight.”
Aqueduct near Mineral de Pozos in Guanajuato.
While accompanying Jorge Monroy through this outstanding collection of canvases, I discovered that the painter could not only speak about every one of these sites, but could recall minute details of his visit, down to what he had eaten for lunch when he was there and where he had eaten it.
When I asked him to name his 10 favorite Pueblos Mágicos, he said it just could not be done because “each one is different” and I suddenly realized this was the same answer I have always given to people who ask me to name my favorite hiking trail.
“OK,” I said, “why not just tell me a bit about a few places where, after visiting the streets of the pueblo itself, I can wander out of town and find even more attractions to enjoy.”
“Here’s a good example of that,” said Monroy, stopping in front of one of his paintings. “This is the town of Huasca de Ocampo in Hidalgo and by chance it was the very first town to be designated a Pueblo Mágico, back in 2001, by the Secretariat of Tourism. Not only is the town itself beautiful, but it is surrounded by spectacular historical and natural attractions.
“In colonial times it was important for its mines and, in fact, mining still goes on there today. Great riches were generated for Spain and as a result, lavish haciendas were built. Two of the most notable are San Miguel Regla and Santa María Regla, both of which are now luxurious hotels. Then, just minutes away, you have the Basaltic Prisms, which are polygonal columns with five or six sides, ranging in height from 30 to 50 meters, among the longest in the world and much admired by Alexander von Humboldt in the early 1800s.
“The whole area is so extraordinary that it was recently incorporated into the Comarca Minera Geopark, a new member of the UNESCO Global Network of Geoparks.”
Basaltic Prisms at Huasca de Ocampo in Hidalgo.
As we continued walking along the long corridor at the Cámara de Comercio, we came to Monroy’s painting of the magical town of Coatepec in Veracruz. Its streets are beautiful and well-preserved, he told me, and it is located at so high an altitude that both the town and its surroundings are often shrouded in fog.
“This whole area,” he said, “is dedicated to coffee production and on the outskirts of the town you find fincas cafeteras, beautiful coffee plantations surrounded by exuberant vegetation. Many of the local mansions have now been converted into hotels and all around you find gorgeous waterfalls. One of the nicest in my opinion is the Cascada de Xico.”
While we perused his collection of paintings, Jorge Monroy pointed out many other Pueblos Mágicos where the magic continues beyond the confines of the town. One of these was Mazamitla, which is located in Jalisco, 28 kilometers due south of Lake Chapala at an altitude of 2,240 meters.
“The streets are charming, the church is remarkable for its elements of Chinese architecture, and the town is located in the middle of the Sierra del Tigre, famous for its log cabins hidden away in a beautiful and peaceful pine and oak forest.”
Not to be missed, said the painter, is the 30-meter El Salto waterfall just south of Mazamitla and the curious Los Cazos cauldrons carved into the bedrock apparently for fermenting mezcal.
Over the years, Monroy continued, “I’ve learned that some of the most interesting Pueblos Mágicos — with plenty to explore on their outskirts — are the old mining towns, such as San Sebastián del Oeste in Jalisco, Real de Catorce in San Luis Potosí, Real de Asientos in Aguascalientes and Mineral de Pozos in Guanajuato. Actually, a visit to any of Guanajuato’s many ghost towns is always an adventure.”
Pátzcuaro, Michoacán.
At the end of the Cámara de Comercio’s U-shaped art gallery we came to the last painting in the exhibition, showing the magical town of Bacalar in Quintana Roo. “All I can say is that this town is situated on the shore of the most beautiful lagoon in the world: La Laguna de los Siete Colores (the Lake of Seven Colors). Its beauty is simply indescribable, but I hope I have caught a little of it in my painting.
“Bacalar is enchanting all by itself: it was a fortress and the old cannon are still there. All around Bacalar there are amazing archaeological sites like Kohunlich and Chetumal; there’s the enormous Biosphere Reserve of Sian Ka’an, which stretches all the way to Tulum; there’s dazzlingly beautiful Mahahual beach and then, just to the south, you have Belize: more than enough magical sites to keep even John Pint busy!”
• Jorge Monroy’s paintings of the Pueblos Mágicos will be on display — without charge — at the Guadalajara Chamber of Commerce until March 20.
The writer 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.
Metro staff carry a subway user up the stairs in Mexico City.
With many of the escalators down at Mexico City Metro stations, how do commuters with mobility problems negotiate the stairs?
With the help of subway system staff, of course.
Fifty Metro employees have been deployed to assist subway passengers who find it difficult to climb the stairs on their own.
As much needed maintenance work in 70 or so escalators in stations of the Mexico City subway system continues, 50 workers have been deployed to aid users
The service will be provided while maintenance is carried out on escalators in eight stations on the subway’s Line 7.
A subway worker provides assistance to a Metro passenger.
Metro officials explained that the service is aimed at senior citizens, disabled users and pregnant women who use the escalators on a daily basis. In some cases, workers are carrying subway users all the way to a station’s entrance.
The government of Michoacán is preparing to slash budgets and sell public assets including goods and property seized from organized crime in order to pay off debts owed to teachers.
Governor Silvano Aureoles told reporters yesterday that the government still needs 3.6 billion pesos (US $187.3 million) to cover salaries and bonuses owed to teachers and thus put an end to protests and blockades in the state.
To that end, Aureoles said the government is reviewing its assets with a view to putting them up for sale.
“We’re going to put vehicles on sale, all the helicopters, land, property and assets seized from organized crime . . .” he said
Aureoles also said that government programs and departments – with the exception of the secretariats of Health and Public Security – will see their funding slashed in order to free up resources to pay teachers.
More than 8 billion pesos will be required over the course of the year to meet payroll obligations, the governor said.
Aureoles explained that the government’s plan to cut costs and sell assets would be unlikely to generate enough so he will ask the federal government for more assistance.
“We won’t be able to draw blood from stones. Let’s see where [this plan] gets us,” Aureoles said, adding that he hoped that the federal government would contribute the additional funds needed to “stabilize the teachers’ payroll issue.”
CNTE teachers’ union members blocked railway tracks in Michoacán for about a month earlier this year to demand payment of unpaid salaries and other benefits.
The protest cost the economy billions of pesos because thousands of shipping containers were left stranded in Lázaro Cárdenas and Manzanillo, Colima, and many exporters couldn’t get their goods to the port cities.
After the rail blockades ended, teachers continued protests at other locations including municipal government offices.
Aureoles said that he is determined to end teachers’ protests once and for all and improve strained relations with the CNTE.
“As a government, we’re going to make sacrifices . . . We have to use [funds allocated to government programs] to pay teachers, that’s okay, teachers will never again have to go out to the streets to protest for their salaries . . .”
Archaeologists continue to uncover artifacts and human remains at the Chak Pet archaeological site in Tamaulipas.
The National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) has found human remains, pottery, arrowheads and ritual figurines dating back nearly 3,000 years in the Huasteca region near the port of Altamira.
Scientists and students from the institute accompanied local officials this week on a tour of the newly uncovered vestiges of the old Huastecan civilization.
So far, archaeologists have uncovered more than 5,000 artifacts and 532 human remains at 50 different points in the municipality of Altamira, presumably belonging to the former inhabitants of Chak Pet, who lived in the area from 900 BC to 200 AD.
The remains and artifacts will undergo radiocarbon tests to more precisely determine their age, along with other details such as diets and diseases they may have suffered.
The newspaper Hoy Tamaulipas revealed the possibility of a future collaboration between the municipal government and INAH to create a tourist route to display the region’s rich cultural history as well as a museum to house the uncovered artifacts and serve as an aid to tourists and residents alike in learning about the region’s past and peoples.
Juárez is one of the more popular residential areas for foreigners.
Mexico City draws foreigners on a large scale, and the Juárez, Polanco and Anzures neighborhoods are where they choose to live, says the online house rental platform Homie.
In Juárez, 70% of home renters are foreigners, while in Anzures they represent 60% and in Polanco 50%.
Homie content manager Carlos Arias explained that those neighborhoods are preferred by foreigners because their workplaces are located there. The fact that they also offer many transportation options, safety, urban amenities and an array of entertainment options are further enticements.
“It all depends on services and connectivity,” he said.
All three neighborhoods meet these requirements “perfectly,” allowing foreigners to feel more comfortable.
Venezuelan nationals compose the largest group of foreigners in those neighborhoods, representing 22% of the total, followed by Colombians at 16% and United States expats at 10%.
The average monthly rent in Polanco is 52,800 pesos (US $2,750), said Homie, explaining that a typical monthly income estimated to be nearly 120,000 pesos ($6,240) is also a contributing factor in their decision to live there.
People in Juárez earn an average of 100,000 pesos ($5,200), and their rent is 26,200 ($1,360), while those opting for Anzures earn 50,000 ($2,600) and pay 25,500 pesos ($1,320).
Opposition deputies protest amendment with cutouts of former President Maduro and signs declaring 'No re-election.'
President López Obrador vowed today to sign a declaration that he will not seek another term in office after opposition lawmakers said that a constitutional change allowing for a referendum to cut short the six-year presidential term opened the door to his re-election.
The president said at his morning press conference that he will present a signed commitment on Monday declaring that he will not stand for re-election in 2024.
“I give my word and what I consider most important in my life is honesty but in any case, I’m going to make a public commitment,” López Obrador said.
The Chamber of Deputies yesterday approved a constitutional amendment that would allow voters to have their say on a president’s performance three years after taking office.
The vote would be held on the same date as mid-term congressional elections. López Obrador says that if citizens choose to revoke his mandate, he will resign.
Supported by lawmakers from the ruling Morena party and its coalition partners, the reform received the required support of two-thirds of members in the lower house. The reform will now be passed to the Senate for debate and another vote.
“It’s a trick,” said National Action Party (PAN) Deputy Marcos Aguilar Vega of the midterm vote.
“We must switch on all the warning signs because the examples are clear: revocation of mandate was proposed in Venezuela and that opened the door to the ambition of Hugo Chávez to perpetuate his power.”
PAN Deputy Xavier Azuara said “these changes will allow the executive [branch of government] an intense political campaign in a shameless way in 2021 just when this chamber and 13 governorships are renewed.” It’s a “path to re-election,” he added.
On Twitter, PAN national president Marko Cortés wrote: “Today Morena and the Mexican government begin their quest to perpetuate themselves in power. The National Action Party categorically rejects the terms in which the popular consultation and revocation of mandate proposals were presented . . .”
Politicians from other opposition parties also voted against and criticized the approval of the constitutional reform.
“The next step is re-election,” said Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) Deputy María Alemán Muñoz Castillo, warning that Mexico could head down a path similar to that taken in Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador.
Citizens’ Movement lawmaker Alan Falomir charged that the reform is a political ploy designed to not only perpetuate López Obrador’s power but also to ensure that his Morena party is successful in the 2021 midterm elections.
“They need daddy AMLO” to campaign for the continuation of his rule in order to be swept to power by the tide of the president’s popularity, he contended.
López Obrador today acknowledged the criticism before reasserting his commitment to serve just one term.
“I heard the statements made by PAN lawmakers, saying that it [the revocation of mandate vote] is a rehearsal for re-election,” the president said before outlining details of what he intends to say in his public declaration.
“I will say that I am a supporter of democracy, that I agree with the [revolutionary and former president Francisco Madero’s] maxim of ‘effective suffrage, no re-election,’ that I am a maderista [adherent of Madero], that I’m not overambitious.”
Three and a half months after he was sworn in as president, López Obrador continues to enjoy strong public support, according to recent opinion polls.
Considering the survey results, there appears to be little chance that Mexicans would choose to remove López Obrador from the top job in a referendum on his rule.
Award-winning scientist Sofía Varela in Paris yesterday.
A researcher at the National Autonomous University has been named one of the world’s 15 most promising young scientists by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
Ana Sofía Varela Gasque, a researcher in the university’s chemistry department, was recognized along with 14 others in a ceremony yesterday at the organization’s headquarters in Paris.
Varela said she was singled out for her work on new materials that could allow carbon dioxide to be transformed into non-pollutants.
“What I do is basic science. I am working to understand a chemical process that in the future will help to convert CO2 emissions and reduce its presence in the atmosphere. We work with hydrogen batteries, which is to say that we fuel a battery with hydrogen and transform it using an electrical current. We are looking for materials to make this process as efficient as possible.”
She said the challenge was to find low-cost alternatives to carbon as the catalyst in the reaction. Metals such as copper, gold and silver could be used, for example, but carbon is much more abundant.
Varela said she hoped her research would demonstrate how to best reduce carbon dioxide during the long transition from the burning of fossil fuels to the use of renewable energy sources.
Along with the international exposure to help their professional careers, the young scientists also receive a grant for their research. The awards, which are offered through a partnership with the L’Oréal Foundation, have been presented to 107 promising young scientists since their inauguration.
Another 3,000 scientists have been awarded research scholarships.
The goal of the UNESCO-L’Oréal partnership is to attract more women to a career in science by supporting and recognizing accomplished women researchers, encouraging more young women to enter the profession and to assist them once their careers are in progress.
