Pablo, with his trademark sandals, and his mother at his graduation.
An indigenous student from a poor region of Oaxaca has been awarded a doctorate in theoretical chemistry by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Ricardo Pablo Pedro, 27, was born to an indigenous Chinantec family in the small town of La Mina, Tuxtepec, where his early years were marked by poverty and discrimination. But those obstacles were never enough to stop from achieving his goal: obtaining a doctorate from a foreign school.
After obtaining a full scholarship and studying for six years at MIT, that dream has come true.
“My mother always told me that education was the only thing that would get me going forward, and I understood there was a reward if you made the effort,” Pablo told the news agency Conacyt Prensa last year.
His mother traveled to the United States for her son’s graduation ceremony in May, where Concepción Pedro proudly wore the traditional huipil, a common garment among the women of the Cuenca region of Oaxaca.
And her son wore his sandals, which had in the past earned him the discriminatory label, “indio huarachudo,” or sandal-wearing Indian.
Pablo plans to dedicate the summer months to finish several research projects, after which he wants to enroll in a post-doctorate course and later, perhaps, teach at MIT.
In 2017 he was awarded the National Youth Prize by the Mexican government.
The capacity to generate geothermal energy is a veritable superpower within Mexico’s enormous energy potential but a significant barrier stands in the way of reaping its rewards: exploiting it is very expensive.
However, a New Zealand company that specializes in developing technologies to overcome earth, environmental and energy challenges is helping Mexico achieve that potential.
Since its creation in 2004, Seequent has developed a close relationship with Mexico and in April this year the company hosted the country’s ambassador to New Zealand at its Christchurch headquarters.
“Mexico is embracing the importance of developing geothermal, not just as an energy replacement source, but to future-proof base load energy needs for the future,” company CEO Shaun Maloney said in a statement issued after José Gerardo Traslosheros’ visit.
“Mexico is one of our fastest growing markets and represents a great opportunity as the world’s 13th largest economy. We’re continuing to invest in people and skills in the region,” the statement said.
Maloney subsequently told the newspaper El Financiero that Mexico has a source of energy under the ground that is “constantly flowing.”
However, he added that “to drill a hole for thermal energy, it costs around US $10 million and if you dig in the wrong place, you lose it all.”
Those high costs have held Mexico back from further exploiting its thermal capacity despite the introduction of the 2014 energy reform which enabled foreign and private companies to enter the Mexican market.
In fact, Mexico slipped from being the world’s fourth largest geothermic energy producer in 2014 — behind only the United States, the Phillipines and Indonesia — to sixth place last year with Turkey and New Zealand moving into fourth and fifth places respectively.
Beyond meeting the high costs, Seequent’s geothermal energy business manager said during the meeting with Ambassador Traslosheros that the biggest challenge for Mexico is to encourage investment by better explaining what geothermal energy involves.
“The resources exist but people need more information in order to support the development of these kinds of projects,” Jeremy O’Brien said.
However, he added that “we’re already working with some of the largest geothermal companies and look forward to supporting the development of new geothermal assets to add capacity in Mexico.”
To identify those assets before the expensive drilling process takes place, Seequent has developed a solution for understanding, visualizing and communicating ground conditions in the form of a 3D subsurface modeling software program called Leapfrog Works.
The software eliminates the risk of undertaking expensive exploratory drilling without reward.
The company’s innovativeness in the geothermal energy sector has translated into collaborations on projects around the world that account for 40% of the planet’s entire capacity to generate the renewable power.
However, in Mexico mining remains the company’s biggest business.
“We have a long link with Mexico. Mining operations in Mexico are great adopters of innovation and were among the first supporters of our software globally,” said Nick Fogarty, Seequent’s general manager for mining and minerals.
The company is already working with a range of private energy and mining companies in Mexico as well as the state-owned Federal Electricity Commission (CFE).
At the April meeting with Sequent, Traslosheros said that “Mexico is responding to global energy challenges by developing new renewable energy sources,” adding that “in terms of geothermal energy, we already have a number of geothermal power stations, and new developments are under way.”
The abandoned building that was to have housed borough headquarters.
A property earmarked to become the main office for the government of the Mexico City borough of Coyoacán continues to lie abandoned 15 years after it was purchased for more than 99 million pesos.
Neither permission to change the permitted land use nor urban development approval to convert the property for its originally intended residential purpose have ever been granted, according to a report published today by the newspaper Milenio.
In addition, residents of the San Lucas neighborhood of Coyoacán — where the property is located — have opposed the project.
The building and land, with an area of more than 10,000 square meters, were bought during the administration of former Coyoacán borough chief María Rojo e Incháustegui for just under 99.4 million pesos (just under US $5 million at today’s exchange rate) in 2003, which Milenio said was more than double the property’s real market value.
Rojo — who is aiming to once again head up the Coyoacán government by contesting Sunday’s election as a Morena party candidate — reportedly sought the assistance of then-Mexico City government secretary, Alejandro Encinas, to speed up the bureaucratic process required to complete the purchase.
According to Milenio, Encinas and former finance undersecretary Gustavo Ponce — who was later jailed for 10 years for embezzlement of government funds — signed off on the allocation of resources and the property was paid for via a cash deposit to a bank.
Shortly after the transaction was completed, the former borough chief, who is also well-known for her career as an actress, took leave from her position to contest the 2003 elections for Mexico City’s legislative assembly.
Both she and Ponce have been accused of pocketing the difference between the property’s purchase price and its actual value, and that Rojo had run for deputy in order to obtain the fuero, or immunity from prosecution.
Raúl Flores, who succeeded Rojo as borough chief, told Milenio that when he took office he had no choice but to scrap the plan to move the government’s offices.
“I had to cancel the project because it didn’t have the neighbors’ approval. In addition, the cost of fitting out the offices and moving everything cost more than what the borough could pay at the time,” he said.
“Money was needed that year to deal with flooding and they took money from us, on the part of Andrés Manuel López Obrador — the then-mayor — for the [elevated road project known as] the second story,” Flores added.
He also said there was a proposal to donate the property to the Hospital of the Blind but the idea was ultimately rejected by the administration of Mexico City mayor Marcelo Ebrard.
Milenio said San Lucas residents also lobbied Rojo before she left office to have the property donated in order to be converted into a cultural center but she declined the proposal.
Milenio sought comment from Rojo about the property and the transaction to acquire it but her campaign team responded that she had a full schedule and would be unable to speak on the matter.
A poll published by the newspaper El Financiero earlier this month showed that the Morena party candidate is on track to win the mayoral election in Coyoacán with 48% voter support.
A community representative from the San Lucas neighborhood said the property is “completely abandoned” and a source of insecurity for both residents and visitors to the borough.
“. . . But to the then-authorities it represented a 52-million-peso profit,” Elvira Rodríguez charged.
A visit to the site by a Milenio reporter confirmed that the property is in a state of complete abandonment with its facade covered with graffiti, 40 broken windows and a leaky roof among other problems.
A foosball tournament in which 1,083 people played has given Mexico another Guinness World Record and the winner a trip to Russia to see the World Cup final, all expenses paid.
The tourney was organized by the government of Mexico City and the tabletop soccer game distributor Minigols México, and more than 2,000 people paid the 500-peso (US $25) subscription fee.
Come Sunday morning, 1,083 participants aged six to 70 turned up at the Mexico City zócalo to compete in the event.
Cheered on by family and friends, Juan Presa Paulino, 55, of Toluca, México state, was the victor after defeating 15 rivals.
“We didn’t really think we were going to make it to the finals, much less win,” Presa told the newspaper El Universal. His idea was to have a fun family outing and enjoy downtown Mexico City on a Sunday.
Presa said friends had told him he was good at foosball. “I always win in the barrio, but one would never imagine winning such a prize at this little game we’ve been playing since we were children. I truly can’t believe it.”
The prize includes round-trip plane tickets, two nights’ accommodation and the tickets for the big game in Moscow on July 15.
The Guinness record was awarded for the most people playing foosball simultaneously.
Mexico’s 20% tariff on apples imported from the United States has translated into a significant decline in sales as consumers turn to cheaper alternatives.
Imported apple sales have dropped by 70% to 80%, said Elías Chavez López, commercial director of the apple distribution firm Grupo MLA, which is also one of the apple suppliers to the Central de Abasto, the main wholesale market for produce and other food products in Mexico City.
The price for a crate of apples has risen between 100 and 120 pesos (US $5 and $6).
But domestic apples have gone up in price too, “as much or even more than United States apples,” Chávez said.
So many people have stopped buying the fruit. Instead they are opting for melons, guavas or other domestic fruit that costs less.
Apple distributors are doubly affected because they have been paying for the difference in prices caused by a devalued peso.
The United States is by far the largest supplier of apples in Mexico. More than 276,000 tonnes were imported last year. Chile was next with a mere 3,812 tonnes.
Chávez says that while Chile could substitute the United States apple imports, it has to comply with several phytosanitary regulations that elevate its price.
That, coupled with shipping costs, raises the price almost to the same level as the U.S. product.
Maru Toledo is an award-winning cook, culinary researcher, radio personality and author of at least 20 cookbooks, typically filled with fascinating anecdotes, interviews and, of course, recipes.
I first met Maru — years ago — beneath a thatched roof in the woods, near Jalisco’s famous circular pyramids, the Guachimontones.
She had invited us to a dinner that would be prepared using pre-Hispanic cooking techniques, which she had learned about both from oral tradition and from the findings of archaeologists with whom she has worked for years. It turned out to be the most unusual meal I have ever eaten.
The first dish on the menu was stone soup. The ingredients were shrimp, both dried and fresh, onions, chiles, epazote (wormseed), cherry tomatoes and jaltomates, western Mexico’s tiny but strongly flavored wild tomato. These ingredients were mixed into cold water inside a bule, a large bowl made from a gourd.
Maru’s helper, Godofredo, then removed a red-hot basalt rock from the fire and dropped it into the bowl. Instantly, the water was steaming and hissing and the soup was cooking.
Naturally, tortillas would go with the soup, but not the sort of tortillas popular today. Maru’s colleague, archaeologist Rodrigo Esparza, had discovered numerous traces of the tortillas eaten in western Mexico by pre-Hispanic people. “They turned out to be made of a mixture of corn and amaranth and were beautifully decorated with grana cochinilla.”
Cochineal is the celebrated red dye which — after gold — was the most sought-after commodity that the conquistadores got their hands on in the new world. This crimson dye is non-toxic and is made from the crushed bodies of tiny insects (Dactylopius coccus) which spend their lives sucking the juices of the prickly-pear cactus (nopal).
Cochineal, it seems, is making a big comeback because it is edible, whereas many synthetic red dyes are now thought to be carcinogenic.
Mesquite mushrooms were the main dish of our pre-Hispanic meal. The ingredients were few: mushrooms, a small amount of chile cora, a little salt and some mesquite pods. The cooking procedure, however, was most interesting, and again based on the discovery by archaeologists of how ancient peoples in Mexico cooked wild turkeys.
The mushroom mix was placed upon a banana leaf nearly a meter long and wrapped up to form a package about the size of a small loaf of bread, which was then tied up with tough agave fibers. Next came a curious step. Godofredo placed the “package” next to a large blob of nearly black mud. This, he told us, was clay from a nearby town famous for its pottery.
Tamales and mushrooms cooking in hot coals.
Carefully, he coated every side of the green bundle with a layer of clay about three centimeters thick until it looked exactly like a loaf of German black bread. He then rubbed ashes all over the outside of it and buried it in the campfire, under hot coals.
In about half an hour the baked mushrooms were ready. When Maru cracked open the now hard casing, the most savory aroma imaginable filled the air.
Our meal also included tamales prepared “the Mayan way” inside a large pot whose lid was sealed with dough. The tamales were tastily flavored with quelite, or amaranth greens, which were cultivated as a food crop here in Mexico some 7,000 years ago.
Once again those ancient Mexicans seem far ahead of us moderns in nutritional knowledge. We discovered that amaranth greens are a very good source of vitamin A, B6, C, riboflavin, iron, calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, copper, zinc and manganese. Popeye would have loved these tamales!
With all of this we drank a mixture of aguamiel (sweet juice from the heart of a living maguey root) and pineapple juice. Yes, pineapples, too, originated on this side of the Atlantic and were probably introduced to Europe by Christopher Columbus. The meal ended with a sweet, peanut-based dessert called coscoatl.
This was quite a delightful experience. Personally, I found the fire-baked mushrooms truly delicious, the shrimp soup wonderful and as for those original tortillas: well, they were okay, but I can see why Mexico switched to the nixtamalized maize tortillas popular today.
Maru Toledo lives in a little ranchito called Teuchiteco, 80 kilometers due west of Guadalajara at the foot of the Cerro de Las Piedras Bola, famed for its extraordinary giant stone balls.
“Welcome to the Smoky School of Gastronomy!” said Maru when I visited, explaining that at her place cooking is done the old way, without benefit of gas or electricity. We entered the kitchen, where Maru´s long-time associate Francisca “Pachita” Flores was making tacos de sol, sunshine tacos.
She was placing extra-large tortillas on a comal over a roaring fire. The masa, or dough, was brick brown in color and had been impregnated with a red chile sauce (and then kneaded on a metate, or grinding stone), Pachita explained.
Once a thick tortilla was ready, Pachita would remove it from the comal and immediately scrape off its entire top layer; this she handed to Maru who then put a large spoonful of picadillo (ground beef and potato plus spices) on top of it, folded it over and hermetically sealed the taco with mere finger pressure. Next, the tacos go out into the hot sun where they “bake” for an hour.
Finally, the sunshine tacos go into your mouth and I tell you these were the tastiest tacos I have ever eaten. The exterior was crispy but nevertheless melted in my mouth. It was so delicious it would have been a great treat all by itself, but in this case it was stuffed with amazingly flavorful picadillo. At that moment I felt that the humble taco had been transformed into a gourmet delicacy worthy of Le Cordon Bleu.
And apparently I was not alone in this assessment. Even celebrated chef Ricardo Muñoz Zurita, who was called by Time magazine “the prophet and preserver of (Mexico’s) culinary tradition,” has visited Maru’s Escuela de Humo.
When I mentioned this to Maru, she said with a laugh, “It’s all because of Ricardo’s diccionario.” She was referring to Muñoz’s Encyclopedic Dictionary of Mexican Gastronomy, aimed at accurately describing every ingredient and technique in Mexican cooking: a labor of love representing decades of research, which he is constantly updating.
She went on to explain that Muñoz came to Guadalajara not long ago trying to sort out the various kinds of chile peppers used in this area, which often have different names in different communities. Culinary experts in the City of Roses told the chef to “Go look for Maru Toledo. She’s the only one who knows.”
Muñoz found Toledo and a new chapter was opened in the culinary history of Jalisco. Within days they agreed to produce — together—an encyclopedic dictionary of Jalisco’s gastronomy which is expected to contain 400 recipes in two volumes and for the first time will contain the botanical names of plants featured in local cuisine.
Not long after this first meeting, Maru Toledo received a phone call from Ricardo Muñoz: “I’ve invited 25 chefs from five countries to come to Jalisco, including Rick Bayless (star of the television series One Plate at a Time). Do you think you could give them a cooking class the day after tomorrow?”
Ah yes, in typical Mexican fashion, Maru Toledo’s Smoky School has been discovered and catapulted to international fame. If you’d like to visit her Smoky Kitchen, better do it soon before somebody whisks her off to Paris or London.
Maru Toledo will cook for and/or teach groups of 25 people or more, but arrangements must be made in advance. For these events, she is assisted by a group she founded called Las Mujeres de Maíz, local women skilled not just in cooking, but also in finding or growing all the herbs and plants needed for making a meal. With their help, even large groups of people can be accommodated.
Maru Toledo can be reached on Facebook or on her web page. Locating her Smoky Kitchen is easy. Just ask Google Maps to take you to “Maru Toledo.”
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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.
Investigators at one of many crime scenes in Juárez.
After 35 homicides in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, between Friday and Sunday, police chiefs and other security officials met yesterday to review the border city’s overall security situation.
State police commissioner Óscar Alberto Aparicio Avendaño called on security forces to redouble efforts to combat crime through coordinated actions aimed at both preventing and prosecuting offenses.
Among the other attendees were a state prosecutor, a Federal Police commissioner, the municipal public security chief, several high-level state police officials and army personnel.
Aparicio said that working to strengthen and improve security strategies at such meetings was stipulated by the Chihuahua government’s State Development Plan, which also seeks to promote cooperation between all three levels of government.
“We have a great responsibility and commitment to Chihuahua society. Every day, they demand more results from us. That’s why it’s important to analyze what we are doing and work on what can be improved,” Aparicio said.
“There are more of us good guys and I’m sure that with effective strategies, coupled with the valuable support of citizens, we will have better surveillance, better results and a reinforcement of the actions implemented by security forces.”
Of the 35 murders in the three-day period, 21 occurred on Saturday, 10 were committed on Friday and four occurred Sunday.
Two separate incidents within the space of a single hour Saturday left 11 people dead.
Six people were murdered in a home in the Los Alcades neighborhood while celebrating Mexico’s victory against South Korea in the team’s second World Cup match in Russia.
Shortly after, five men were killed inside a barber’s shop in the center of the city.
Armed men in two vehicles fired repeatedly at the people inside the business. A sixth person was wounded in the incident and transferred to a city hospital.
Another victim of the wave of violence was a three-year-old boy who was hit by a stray bullet late Sunday night, the state Attorney General’s office said. The boy was rushed to a local medical facility just before midnight but died upon arrival.
Violence continued yesterday in Juárez, where there were reports of several more homicides.
Police officers found the bodies of two men in the neighborhood of Chihuahua and a 22-year-old man was shot and killed in the Villas del Sur district. There were at least seven other murders in different parts of the city.
Narcomantas, or narco signs, also made an appearance at four different points around the city yesterday including a kindergarten, according to media reports.
The signs reportedly accused a criminal group of killing innocent people in the city as well as carrying out extortion activities.
Between January 1 and yesterday, there were 503 homicides in Ciudad Juárez, 45 more than in the same period last year.
Juárez — which is on the opposite side of the border to El Paso, Texas — was ranked the 20th most dangerous city in the world last year, according to a study by a Mexican non-governmental organization.
Municipal police are back on patrol, but many are unarmed.
Municipal police officers are back patrolling the streets of Chilpancingo, Guerrero, just over six months after the entire force was removed from duty on suspicion of being involved in the disappearance of seven people at the end of last year.
But more than half will be unarmed after failing to pass evaluation tests.
Of 125 officers who make up the force, 112 returned to duties last weekend while 12 remain under investigation in connection with the cases of enforced disappearance, which led an Amnesty International researcher to conclude that no one is safe in Chilpancingo.
One other officer has been charged and remains in custody awaiting trial.
State authorities said 77 of the 112 officers haven’t passed control and confidence tests and as a result will only carry out limited duties such as guarding public buildings, and they will be unarmed.
That leaves just 35 officers — or less than a third of the force — who are armed and carrying out full policing duties in the capital of one of Mexico’s most violent states.
State security spokesman Roberto Álvarez Heredia justified the return of the uncertified police officers to the streets of Chilpancingo by saying that “there is a pressing urgency for security in the capital.”
He added that the 77 unqualified officers “will be gradually certified in the coming weeks.”
The president of the Chilpancingo branch of the Mexican Chamber of Commerce (Canaco), however, said that the return of the previously suspended police raises a series of questions.
“Why did they keep the officers locked up for six months and not certify all of them? Why haven’t the 12 [officers] who are still under investigation been accused of any crime?” Víctor Ortega Corona asked.
The Canaco president, who was one of the first people to publicly condemn the police’s alleged involvement in the enforced disappearances, added that the return of the municipal force didn’t provide public security confidence or certainty for residents of the state capital.
“We understand that these 112 [officers] were exonerated of [involvement in] the disappearances but that doesn’t mean that they’re trustworthy. The unarmed police will do little to combat crime in Chilpancingo,” Ortega Corona said.
On January 4, a deployment of 330 soldiers and state and federal police assumed policing and security operations in the Guerrero capital.
The day before, black plastic bags containing the remains of Jorge Arturo Vázquez Campos, 30, and Marco Catalán Cabrera, 34, were found in an abandoned lot on the outskirts of Chilpancingo.
The two men had been arrested in the early hours of December 31 while attending a Christmas fair where they were allegedly involved in a brawl.
After a bond was paid by a third man who had also been arrested and has only been identified as Milton, Vázquez and Catalán were released from police custody but upon leaving the police station, Milton and a police officer forced the two men into a car in which armed men were traveling.
The sole officer who remains in custody, identified only as Nicolás “N,” is the same policeman who allegedly colluded with Milton.
According to the state Attorney General’s office, a municipal police commander witnessed the abduction but didn’t react in any way. The two men are believed to have been killed the same day.
On December 29, another man, Efraín Patrón Ramos, also disappeared after being arrested by municipal police.
Two days before, a 20-year old man and two teenagers were arrested by municipal police after allegedly committing a robbery.
The trio were subsequently taken to Acapulco where, according to Amnesty International, they were tortured for a period of seven days and both Chilpancingo municipal police and state investigative police were complicit in the events.
The three young men appeared back in Chilpancingo on January 3 alive but with “clear signs of torture and bound with tape all over their bodies and eyes.”
The first alleged kidnapping victim at the hands of Chilpancingo municipal police was Abel Aguilar García, who disappeared on December 23 while on his way to work.
Mexico’s American football team won its third consecutive title at the World University Championships Sunday in Harbin, China, winning every game in the round-robin tournament.
No other country has won the event since its inauguration in 2014.
Team Mexico defeated host nation China, the U.S. and South Korea before winning the final 39-3 against Japan.
The Japanese team took a 3-0 lead in the first quarter but Mexico came back in the second with a touchdown and a field goal to end the half at 10-3. Mexico moved into an even higher gear after that and Team Japan was held to its three points.
The United States finished second after beating Korea 69-0.
Mexico won the inaugural World University Championships in Sweden in 2014 and won again in 2016 in Monterrey, Mexico, when it beat Team USA.
The next championships will be held in 2020 in Hungary.
Five campaign workers and a candidate affiliated with the Morena party have been assassinated in Oaxaca and Tamaulipas.
Gunmen ambushed and killed Emigdio López Avendaño and four party workers late yesterday afternoon in San Vicente Coatlán in the Sierra Sur of Oaxaca. Three other other party members were traveling in the group, one of whom was wounded and was reported in serious condition.
López was running for state Congress in the district of Ejutla and was the Morena party’s chief political operator in the state.
He and his associates were traveling on a dirt road between the municipalities of Yogana and San Vicente when armed civilians, hidden in the brush, began firing.
A party spokesman said later that there have been agrarian conflicts for many years in the region in which they were traveling.
Another Morena party worker was assassinated Sunday night in Tamaulipas while returning home from a campaign meeting. Leonardo Díaz was working on the campaign of Jaime Hinojosa Peña, candidate for mayor of Miguel Alemán.
His burned body was found in a bullet-riddled van that had been set on fire.
There have been 46 candidates assassinated since last September.
