The "king of fruits" is a Mexican favorite and lends itself to endless recipes. From chutneys to galettes, here's how to turn mangos into (culinary) gold. (Wikimedia Commons)
Summer is here, which means it’s hot as heck, mosquitos are biting and my roof is leaking due to all the rain. But if there’s one thing I’m grateful for this time of year, it’s mangoes. These sweet, juicy gifts of summer almost make up for the heaviness of the season. Such a typically Mexican bounty of course, also deserves some incredible mango-based recipes to go along with it.
It’s my ninth summer living in Chacala, a small community on the coast of Nayarit. While most foreigners take off for cooler climes during this time of year, I stick it out for most of the season. Despite the heat, rain and bugs, it’s actually one of my favorite times of the year. There are fewer tourists, everything is green and lush, the ocean is warm and flowers and fruit are exploding everywhere.
Mexico produces 2 million tons of mango every year, making it one of the nation’s staple crops. (Sader)
Chacala is surrounded by mango groves and wild mango trees. Starting around the end of May, the fruit develops into fist-sized gold, pink, red and fuchsia bulbs that hang from branches like gaudy earrings. When ripe, they fall to the ground for the birds, bugs and iguanas to gorge on and for humans to collect.
“Scrumping” for fruit is one of my favorite pastimes living in the tropics of Mexico. It’s not uncommon for me to return home from my daily walk with a bag full of passionfruit (maracuyá), limes, guavas, mangoes and more.
Mangoes are the family favorite by far. We each eat two to three a day. Á la Harry Styles, we’re on a mango sugar high. At 45 grams of sugar and 200 calories a piece, it’s an indulgence that takes a toll on our waistlines, but it’s worth every bite when you taste a tree-ripened mango.
Despite being sugar bombs, mangoes are a great source of vitamins C, A and B6, and more than a dozen other nutrients and minerals that benefit the immune system and heart and digestive health. I like to remind myself of this when I go for my fourth mango of the day.
Move over Harry Style, this is much better than watermelon. (Vivekpat30/Wikimedia Commons)
We buy them by the crateful: for about US $7, you can get about 50 mangoes. I’m often up to my elbows in mango juice slicing and storing the fruits for the winter months and turning them into salsas, desserts, jams and more to share with family and friends.
If you’ve got a few extra mangoes hanging around this summer, here are some of my most requested recipes. Enjoy!
Mango salsa
Ingredients
2 mangoes finely diced ¼ cup finely diced red onion ½ cup chopped cilantro ½ cup finely chopped poblano pepper ½ of a finely chopped serrano pepper Juice of 1 lime A few pinches of sea salt
Mix all ingredients in a bowl and let rest for 10 to 15 minutes to integrate the flavors. Add more salt or serrano if you like your salsa saltier or spicier. Mango salsa tastes great on fish and shrimp, as a dip for tortilla chips or on top of fresh greens for a sweet and spicy salad.
Mango chutney
Ingredients
2-3 diced mangoes 1 clove minced garlic ¼ cup white vinegar 2 tbsp grated fresh ginger 1 tbsp sugar ½ tsp ground cloves 1 tsp cinnamon ½ tsp cayenne pepper ½ tsp ground cardamom 1 tsp turmeric 2 tbsp lemon juice
Instructions
Combine all ingredients except the lemon juice into a small saucepan and bring the mixture to a boil.
Lower the heat and simmer for 30 minutes, stirring often.
Remove from heat, add the lemon juice and blend with a wand blender or regular blender once cooled. Mango chutney is delicious with curries, grilled fish or just spread on toast!
Mango galette
I have my friend Karen to thank for introducing me to galettes, an easy way to make a fruit pie without bothering with making a fancy crust. It’s like an open-faced empanada!
Ingredients
Crust 1 ½ cups flour ¼ tsp salt 1 tbsp sugar 1 stick grated cold butter 2-4 tbsp ice water
In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar and salt. Add cold grated butter and mix with your hands until pea-sized chunks start to form. Add ice water, 1 tablespoon at a time, until the chunks start to come together to form a dough.
Shape the dough into a ball, wrap it in plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for 1 hour. In a separate bowl, combine mangoes, sugar, flour and vanilla and mix until well integrated. In a separate small bowl, beat the egg.
After the dough is done chilling, preheat your oven to 400 F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Roll out the dough onto a floured surface into a small pizza shape: about 12 inches in circumference and ¼-⅛ inch thick. Transfer it to the parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Add the mango mixture to the center and fold up and pleat the edges of the dough to make a nice little round basket for your fruit.
Brush the crust with the egg and sprinkle with the cinnamon-sugar mixture. Bake until the crust is golden, about 40 minutes. Cool for 10 minutes before slicing. Pro tip: top with vanilla ice cream!
Debbie Slobe is a writer and communications strategist based in Chacala, Nayarit. She blogs at Mexpatmama.com and is a senior program director at Resource Media. Find her on Instagram and Facebook.
Marcelo Ebrard and Juan Ramón de la Fuente characterized the judicial reform as a strictly domestic issue. (Graciela López/Cuartoscuro)
“The Mexican people are capable of judging what is in their own best interest. The United States should not disenfranchise them by suggesting otherwise.”
Those two sentences form part of the response from incoming foreign affairs minister Juan Ramón de la Fuente and soon-to-be economy minister Marcelo Ebrard to remarks made by United States Ambassador to Mexico Ken Salazar and The Washington Post about the federal government’s judicial reform proposal.
The lower house of Congress approved the judicial reform bill on Wednesday, with 359 votes in favor and 135 votes against. (Mario Jasso/Cuartoscuro)
In his statement, Salazar said he believed that the “popular direct election of judges is a major risk to the functioning of Mexico’s democracy.”
He also said that “the debate over the direct election of judges … as well as the fierce politics if the elections for judges in 2025 and 2027 were to be approved, will threaten the historic trade relationship we have built, which relies on investors’ confidence in Mexico’s legal framework.”
It said that the “mutual interests” of Mexico and the United States “in issues spanning commerce, migration, organized crime and national security … justify Mr. Salazar’s concern that Mr. López Obrador’s ‘reform’ lacks the ‘safeguards that will ensure the judicial branch will be strengthened and not subject to the corruption of politics.'”
The editorial board also said that claims from López Obrador and President-elect Claudia Sheinbaum that the objective of the reform is to eliminate corruption in the judiciary are a “smokescreen.”
“Mexico’s judiciary often dared to resist Mr. López Obrador’s more capricious policies, and those of his party. He wants to defeat it once and for all,” the Post said.
The editorial board also said that “it would be a shame if judicial independence in Mexico died because Ms. Sheinbaum lacks political independence from Mr. López Obrador.”
President-elect Sheinbaum has so far held closely to the platforms of her political mentor, President López Obrador. (Cuartoscuro)
Sheinbaum, a political protégé of the president, fully supports the reform and this week declared that it won’t “affect our trade relationships or private national and foreign investment.”
In their letter to the Post, De la Fuente, a former federal health minister who recently served as Mexico’s U.N. representative, and Ebrard, a former foreign affairs minister and Mexico City mayor, wrote that “Mexico is undergoing an internal process to address much-needed reform of its justice system, with the purpose of strengthening and reinforcing its transparency and efficiency.”
“These are values both the United States and Mexico share,” they said.
In their letter, published under the headline “The U.S. doesn’t have standing to criticize Mexico’s judicial reforms,” the two incoming ministers described claims by Salazar and the Post that the direct election of judges “somehow threatens Mexico’s democracy” as “both worrisome and puzzling.”
“Contrary to The Post’s argument that Mexico’s domestic affairs are a matter of hemispheric concern, such interference is contrary to the U.N.-recognized principle that nations have a duty not to intervene in matters within the internal jurisdiction of any state,” they wrote.
“And the specific nature of the argument made by The Post and Mr. Salazar suggests a double standard: What is virtue in the United States is vice in Mexico,” De la Fuente and Ebrard added.
They argued that Americans “seem to consider” the practice of electing judges in many states of the U.S. “reliable” (no U.S. federal judges are elected), and asserted that “Mexico has never suggested that U.S. democracy is in peril because of this.”
The incoming officials said that “a comprehensive judicial reform deserves a broad domestic debate,” but charged that such a debate occurred “in Mexico during the recent electoral process” — a process that culminated in comprehensive victories for Sheinbaum and the ruling Morena party that put lawmakers in a strong position to approve the constitutional bill.
“… Just as Mexico respects America’s right to self-determination through its political processes, even when the results might not favor Mexican interests, the United States must show the same respect for Mexico’s sovereign quest for a more transparent, accountable and independent judiciary, conducted through our internal constitutional legal procedures,” De la Fuente and Ebrard wrote.
Under the proposed reform, low-level judges and Supreme Court justices would all be elected from a pre-selected pool of candidates. (SCJN)
Their next two sentences were those that appear at the top of this article.
De la Fuente and Ebrard also said that Sheinbaum — who will be sworn in as Mexico’s first female president on Oct. 1 — “could simply fill the Mexican Supreme Court with loyalists, as leaders do in many other countries,” given the majority Morena obtained in the June 2 elections.
“Her support for direct elections of the judiciary is an expression of support for Mexican democracy and for judicial independence from any one administration or leader,” they added.
They also said that “Mexico will remain open to any constructive engagement and exchange of ideas in line with our democratic values as long as those conversations are rooted in the deep respect Mexico and the United States have for each other and their sovereignty.”
After earning a rebuke from López Obrador over his remarks, Salazar said that “the concerns” he expressed about the direct election of judges were made in the “spirit of collaboration” and that “as partners we seek honest and open dialogue to continue with the great democratic and economic progress we have achieved.”
At the conclusion of their strongly-worded letter, De la Fuente and Ebrard seemed to dismiss Salazar’s concern that the trade relationship between Mexico and the United States was at risk.
“We are neighbors, we are friends and we are partners in growth, building prosperity for our common future,” they wrote.
As the judicial reform bill nears approval, business leaders are reflecting on how the changes will affect foreign investment in Mexico. (Shutterstock)
Will the federal government’s proposed judicial reform kill or critically harm Mexico’s nearshoring opportunity?
He said that some U.S. companies are looking at investing in Texas rather than Mexico.
Larry Rubin, president of the American Society of Mexico, speaks at the AmSoc convention in Mexico City on Tuesday. (Moisés Pablo Nava/Cuartoscuro)
The Lone Star state is seen as an “alternative because uncertainty is one of the main deterrents to investment,” Rubin said.
In Mexico at the moment, he added, there is no certainty that the Mexican justice system won’t be politicized as a result of the ruling Morena party’s plan to allow citizens to directly elect Supreme Court justices and other judges from candidates nominated by the president, the Congress and the judiciary.
Rubin also said that there is no certainty that corruption won’t increase in the justice system, and that judges will have the necessary experience to be “equitable” in their delivery of justice.
He said that “all investors” are “very attentive” to what is happening with the judicial reform.
Court workers, judges and even Supreme Court justices have joined a national strike in protest of the proposed judicial reform. (Mario Jasso/Cuartoscuro)
The AmSoc president — a leading representative of the American community in Mexico and an advocate for positive bilateral relations — also expressed concern about the government’s proposal to disband a number of autonomous government agencies, including the National Institute for Transparency, Access to Information and Protection of Personal Data (INAI) and the Energy Regulatory Commission (CRE).
He said that “one of the two presidential campaigns in the United States expressed great concern to us about the impact” of the proposed judicial reform as well as the constitutional bill that seeks to eliminate autonomous agencies.
“It’s essential that any reform of this magnitude be carried out with great care, that it be thoroughly studied, that legislation isn’t made on the fly and that all actors are truly involved [in the process],” Rubin said a day before deputies approved the judicial reform bill in a single marathon session held at a Mexico City sports center because entrances to the Chamber of Deputies were blocked by protesting court workers.
“… That’s why we ask Congress to take into consideration the voice of the most important investment in the country, which is United States investment,” he said.
Rubin said that U.S. investors want to participate in “active discussions” with Mexican decision-makers and help Mexico achieve “a strengthened rule of law for United States companies.”
The United States: Mexico’s main rival for investment?
Rubin said earlier this year that if Mexico “doesn’t offer a competitive framework” for investment, “a lot of investment that could have come to Mexico will remain in the United States.”
The federal government announced tax incentives to promote nearshoring last October, but has faced criticism for implementing and pursuing policies seen as unfriendly to foreign investment.
U.S. President Biden tours a Samsung factory in South Korea, after the company decided to build its new semiconductor factory in Texas rather than Mexico. (Joe Biden/Facebook)
At this week’s AmSoc event, former Mexican ambassador to the United States Gerónimo Gutiérrez Fernández said that Mexico’s main competitor for investment is the U.S.
“Our main competition for investment is not necessarily other developing countries or intermediate economies, but rather the United States, which is promoting an an industrial policy to attract investment,” he said.
NPR reported in April that the Biden administration was “giving Samsung $6.4 billion to help build massive new semiconductor chip plants in central Texas.”
In comparison, Mexico’s incentives can only be described as minuscule.
Judicial reform’s impact on Mexican democracy
In a “commentary” article published on Tuesday, the director of the Americas Program at the Washington D.C.-based Center for Strategic and International Studies expressed concern about the judicial reform and the bill that “could abet the dissolution of independent regulatory bodies.”
Dissolving agencies such as INAI, CRE and the Federal Economic Competition Commission “or folding them into the presidency would not only violate myriad provisions of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) but also paralyze key economic sectors in a moment of deep uncertainty,” wrote Ryan C. Berg.
“This would be highly prejudicial to Mexico’s ability to remain a strategic partner in the nearshoring and supply chain security goals of the United States,” he asserted.
“In the worst-case scenario, it could prompt a reconsideration of Mexico’s role in the North American bloc, forcing U.S. policymakers to consider Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, and Panama as geographically proximate alternatives in Latin America with greater democratic bona fides,” Berg said.
The judicial reform could drive a wedge between Mexico and its partners in the USMCA trade agreement, undermining nearshoring-style investment. (Cuartoscuro)
The U.S. State Department said in March that the U.S.-Mexico chip partnership will “help create a more resilient, secure, and sustainable global semiconductor value chain,” while the CEO of the American Chamber of Commerce of Mexico, Pedro Casas, told Mexico News Daily in July that he was very optimistic about the future of semiconductor manufacturing in Mexico.
However, investment from the United States — home to chip manufacturers such as Intel and Texas Instruments — and other “democratic countries” is at risk from López Obrador’s proposed reforms, according to Berg.
“In a world where capital and investment have an orientation and some worth is attached to political and values alignment, it is not difficult to imagine how AMLO’s reforms could drive away further investment from democratic countries and invite greater investment from autocratic or authoritarian countries,” he wrote.
“China, for instance, is well accustomed to doing business in environments with highly politicized judiciaries and less certain rule of law.”
However, new investment only accounted for 13% of FDI last year, with 74% of the $36 billion total coming from reinvestment of profits by companies that already operate in Mexico. The new investment percentage in the first six months of 2024 was even lower at just 3%.
At the AmSoc event, the Latin America head of S&P Global Ratings pointed out that new FDI last year accounted for less than 0.3% of Mexico’s GDP.
“The investment of new companies in Mexico is very low in relation to … GDP, … the lowest since 2012,” said María Consuelo Pérez.
Overall FDI as a percentage of GDP also declined to an 11-year low in 2023 at around 2%.
“AMLO’s reforms could further erode investor confidence, damaging the conditions essential for growth in the country,” wrote Wilson Center scholar Diego Marroquín Bitar in a post to X above a Bank of America graph that shows FDI in Mexico as a percentage of the country’s GDP since 2000.
Foreign investment in Mexico as a share of GDP dropped to an 11-year low last year, with the majority coming from reinvested earnings rather than new commitments. AMLO’s reforms could further erode investor confidence, damaging the conditions essential for growth in the country. pic.twitter.com/XQ5BvfdgtD
For their part, López Obrador and President-elect Claudia Sheinbaum have rejected assertions that the reform agenda will affect foreign investment.
The latter said in a post to X this week that “the reform to the judicial power doesn’t affect our trade relationships or private national and foreign investment.”
While disappointed about the low levels of new investment in Mexico, Pérez was upbeat about foreign companies’ reinvestment of profits in the country.
“That gives us a sign that companies want to continue being here,” she said.
Still, “the evidence we have” shows that nearshoring to Mexico “has been slow,” the S&P executive said.
Will nearshoring accelerate or fizzle in the years ahead?
The federal Economy Ministry frequently highlights the numerous investment announcements made by foreign and domestic private companies, with current and incoming officials asserting that they are indicative of the good conditions for business in Mexico and confidence in the government.
The announcements could be seen as proof that nearshoring is indeed happening.
If the majority of the investment announcements do become reality, the government, in time, will be able to say that it did indeed seize the nearshoring opportunity. If the opposite turns out to be the case, there will no doubt be much talk about Mexico having squandered a golden opportunity.
Pérez said at this week’s AmSoc event that the government needs to promote the generation of clean energy, address the water crisis and ensure that Mexico has sufficient trained personnel in order to attract foreign companies and capitalize on the nearshoring opportunity.
Other experts have made similar remarks, also pointing out that concerns over security, the rule of law and insufficient infrastructure are barriers to greater foreign investment.
“The collection of government blunders to seize the trend, and the approval of the reform to the judicial power, allow us to understand [what will be] the next stage of nearshoring: the farewell,” he wrote.
Can Mexico provide the life support he and other experts suggest that the nearshoring trend needs?
Will nearshoring in Mexico flourish, or will it become a forgotten phenomenon that never really was?
In July, the Mexico City Congress hosted a children's parliament where the kids got to be city lawmakers for a day. (Congreso CDMX)
This summer, this idea — letting children be in charge of Mexico City’s legislature for a day — became a reality.
Over 30 children, ages eight to 12, flooded into Mexico City’s Congress, dressed in suits and formal wear, and took the seats of city legislators.
Children from ages eight to 12 years old participated in the one-day parliament in Mexico City. (Polimnia Romana/X)
Polimnia Romana, president of the city’s congressional board of directors and member of the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD), hosted the annual Children’s Parliament on July 22.
Uplifting children’s issues is a priority for Romana, who chairs the Commission on Child Development Affairs. In addition to the Children’s Parliament, Mexico City holds parliaments for teenagers, women, people with disabilities, and people who identify as LGBTQ+.
Studies of children participating in these parliaments around the world have shown benefits in children’s confidence, self-esteem and personal skills, as well as in their encouragement to engage in future civic roles and initiatives.
Some are skeptical of the impact that such parliaments have to shape policy outcomes, but the importance of creating a space for children to make their voices heard cannot be overstated.
🎉👧🏽👦🏻¡Las niñas y los niños se convirtieron en diputadas y diputados por un día en el Congreso de la Ciudad de México! 🌟
Durante el Parlamento de la Niñez 2024, compartieron sus propuestas para garantizar los derechos de la infancia.
— Congreso de la Ciudad de México (@Congreso_CdMex) July 23, 2024
This short video shows moments from the Mexico City Congress Children’s Parliament in July.
The children participating seemed to share Romana’s values of uplifting young people’s voices.
In her campaign speech for a position on the congressional board of directors, María José (or Majo), age 11, proclaimed, “I want to hear everyone’s opinions and try to consolidate them into a single voice so that everyone can share what we are striving for, because often children are not listened to. But together, we can do it.”
She received the most votes and was elected to serve as the president of the board of directors for a day, taking Romana’s usual seat overlooking the congressional chambers.
Once the board of directors called the session to order, one by one the children came before the parliament and delivered proposals, before placing their folded speeches in a “treasure box” below the pulpit.
The children spoke about proposals on a range of issues, including migration and climate change. (Polimnia Romana/X)
The children’s ideas spanned issues from migration, gender equality and cybersafety to climate change. Their range and ingenuity show that the youngest citizens have some creative solutions for the city’s future.
The children’s proposals not only focused on solving problems but also engaging in community building and addressing financial sustainability.
Sebastián, age 10, delivered a proposal to revamp public libraries arguing, “Children would enjoy libraries much more if they had more recently published books, couches, tablets, computers, learning platforms, screens, exclusive bathrooms for children, and robotics equipment.”
Sebastián offered concrete ways to realize his vision: “I propose that cafes be allowed next to libraries and that part of the profits be used for the libraries, and the spending for libraries be decided in a council with children and neighbors.”
The press, adult lawmakers and parents all seemed surprised to hear this level of strategic thinking — addressing not only how to build community buy-in around places of learning but also how to generate sustained income for a community resource.
Several children presented proposals to address the climate crisis. Alessa offered strategies to tackle the city’s water shortage. She explained that “the Rainwater Harvesting Program in Mexico City only benefits some of … [the] people, and more than 22 million people live here.”
The children discussed various proposals and elected a president, María José, or Majo (far right). (Photo courtesy of Becki Marcus)
To address the huge gap, she proposed “that all schools have a rainwater harvesting system and that we are also taught how to build them, fix them if they fail, and repair minor leaks.”
She further called for “shopping centers to have a rainwater harvesting system and to donate some of their water to schools and hospitals. New buildings should have rainwater harvesting systems to use for irrigation, washing floors, and cleaning windows.”
Like Sebastián, Alessa wanted to educate and empower other children as agents of change. She saw her solutions for addressing the climate crisis as part of building a thriving society.
The students modeled compassionate leadership by empathizing with other children on issues such as migration.
Erin explained that there are “700 migrants, including many children, living in a camp on the streets where I live, in the Vallejo neighborhood.”
She called on the city government to ensure that “programs and services promote the human rights of migrant children” and “ensure the prevention of child labor exploitation.”
In addition to protecting migrant children’s human rights,Erin also called on the city to “install new playground equipment” to protect the children’s right to enjoy being kids.
Finally, children shared personal experiences on issues such as conditions in foster care.
One child, age 12, said “I live in a vulnerable situation. Many times, people from social services come to my home. They are supposed to help children in street situations, but instead of helping us, they separate us from our moms and dads. When we are taken to foster homes, we are bathed with cold water, given spoiled food, and mistreated. We find ways to escape so we can return to our parents.”
He made a powerful request: “Today, I’m here because I wish the government could provide us with a home, food, and jobs for our parents so that we can live better.”
The only way to understand how to truly build brighter futures for children is to honor their experiences and uplift their dreams.
Not many adults in power create powerful platforms for children as young as eight to make their voices heard.
In her closing message, Romana proclaimed, “You have the right to be free, to live a life free of violence, to live in a healthy environment, to have your opinions heard and taken into account, to have your ideas respected — in short, you have the wonderful right to be absolutely happy.”
The Mexico City Children’s Parliament shows that children are ready to assert their roles as active participants in democracy. The voices of the youngest visionaries seed hope for a thriving city, where children’s dreams could invite new possibilities for happiness.
Becki Marcus is a freelance journalist and video producer based in Mexico City, reporting on issues such as feminism, public health, and democracy. Her articles have been featured in Ms. Magazine and North American Congress to Latin America.
The director of Guanajuato public media channel TV4 and other officials celebrated on Thursday the creation of the Mineral de Pozos-based production studio TV4 Cine y Series. (TV4)
The state of Guanajuato is taking steps to complete the transformation of Mineral de Pozos from a ghost town into a movie-making mecca.
Guanajuato’s Tourism Ministry is teaming up with the state’s public media agency to build state-of-the-art audiovisual production studios in the former ghost town.
🎬 Guanajuato lanza TV4 Cine y Series ✨ con nuevos estudios audiovisuales en Mineral de Pozos, un proyecto que impulsará el desarrollo local y atraerá talento global 🌍 🎥#LoViEnTV4pic.twitter.com/Osuvh3e0JA
According to the newspaper El Economista, the studios are being designed with the aim of stoking the region’s economy, generating new employment and promoting the city’s thriving cultural tourism sector.
Once a bustling mining town, Mineral de Pozos suffered near desolation as a result of the 1910-1920 Mexican Revolution. Since being declared a Pueblo Mágico in 2012, however, San Pedro de los Pozos (the municipality within which Mineral de Pozos is located) has enjoyed a cultural renaissance.
With a population of no more than 3,000 residents, Mineral de Pozos boasts numerous can’t-miss historical sites while also playing host to the International Mariachi Festival, an International Blues Festival and the Pozos International Independent Film Festival.
The film festival’s stated goal is to promote new talent in the face of challenges in accessing commercial cinema. Held each October, the festival provides an open platform for filmmakers to present a variety of works, with no restrictions on the length or number of submissions, attracting cinema enthusiasts from around the world.
Historic buildings like the abandoned 16th century Hacienda Santa Brígida helped Mineral de Pozos earn its Pueblo Mágico status. (Mineral de Santa Brígada/Facebook)
According to the newspaper El Sol de León, the studios will be built on a 3-hectare plot of land donated to the state public media agency by Mineral de Pozos resident Ignacio Soto Borja.
“I feel very proud. My family is guanajuatense. I believe in the vision expressed by the state government and [state public television network] TV4,” Soto Borja told El Sol de León. “The important thing is the people who can learn to work and support the future growth of the state.”
With its own production studios, Guanajuato hopes to attract filmmaking ventures with the help of its public television network, TV4. The network has fashioned an alliance with the audiovisual department of Spain’s University of Valencia.
“We are looking to cultivate and nourish local talent as well as draw in professional [filmmakers] from Mexico and around the world,” said Juan Aguilera Cid, director of TV4. “But we don’t just want to be a production center, we are eager to play a role in improving the conditions of the industry.”
TV4 is also preparing to establish a training ground that will include landscapes that have featured in more than 50 movies and television series.
Aguilera Cid told El Economista that the network and the state already have seed money of between 20 million and 30 million pesos to build the infrastructure and acquire the technology needed to establish the school.
Frontera Comalapa Mayor-elect Anibal Roblero, left, was elected on June 2 and is scheduled to take office on Oct. 1. (Anibal Roblero/Facebook)
The mayor-elect of a Chiapas municipality near the Guatemala border was kidnapped from a cafe in Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Chiapas, on Tuesday, becoming the third politician from the mayor-elect’s besieged municipality to be disappear since last December.
Security video published on social media shows Aníbal Roblero Castillo, mayor-elect of Frontera Comalapa, Chiapas, and at least one companion being forcibly shoved into a vehicle by masked gunmen outside a cafe in the western Tuxtla Gutiérrez neighborhood of San José Terán just before 5 p.m. on Tuesday afternoon.
Roblero’s family posted this law enforcement missing persons poster on Roblero’s Facebook Thursday. (Facebook)
Roblero won Frontera Comalapa’s mayoral race for the Ecological Green Party of Mexico (PVEM) on June 2 with 28,776 votes (65%) and is due to be sworn in on Oct. 1.
For at least three years now, residents of the municipality of Frontera Comalapa — population 81,000 — have been victimized by rival criminal organizations battling to control human trafficking and drug routes through southern Mexico. The violence has spiked recently, forcing residents to leave their homes, some forcibly removed by cartels, according to various local and national media reports.
Roblero is the third politician from the same Chiapas municipality to be kidnapped since December. Roblero’s opponent in the June 2 election, Rey David Gutiérrez, left, was kidnapped in April from his home. Former Frontera Comalapa mayor Irán Mérida Matamoros, right, was kidnapped from his ranch in December. Neither have been found. (Facebook/MND)
Although Roblero owns a home in downtown Frontera Comalapa, he — like many Chiapas politicians in municipalities affected by organized crime — has sought refuge in the state capital of Tuxtla Gutiérrez, according to the newspaper El Universal.
Roblero is the third Frontera Comalapa politician to be targeted by alleged drug gangs since December.
On Dec. 14, armed men kidnapped former mayor Irán Mérida Matamoros just outside of his ranch, Santa Polonia, along the border with Guatemala. Mérida was said to be headed for Tuxtla Gutiérrez, where he was the director of Chiapas’ Agriculture and Livestock Development Fund.
Four months later, a video showing Mérida being interrogated by an unidentified man was made public. The former mayor has not been seen since.
On April 27, Rey David Gutiérrez — one of Roblero’s opponents in the mayoral election — was kidnapped from his home in Frontera Comalapa after reports that he had been receiving threats. On May 1, his captors released a video of Gutiérrez, but he has yet to be found.
Despite being disappeared, Gutiérrez came in second in the June 2 election, receiving 8,550 votes.
The Mexican peso fell to 20.15 to the US dollar on Thursday morning following the approval of AMLO's controversial judicial reform bill in the Chamber of Deputies on Wednesday. (Shutterstock)
The Mexican peso depreciated to over 20 to the US dollar on Thursday morning, weighed down by the controversial judicial reform proposal that was approved by the lower house of Congress on Wednesday.
Compared to its closing position on Wednesday, the peso fell more than 1% to reach 20.15 to the greenback early Thursday.
Lawmakers from the Morena party and its coalition celebrated the approval of the reform on Wednesday. (Cuartoscuro)
It subsequently recouped some of its losses and was trading at 19.99 to the dollar at 10 a.m. Mexico City time.
It was the first time since October 2022 that the peso broke the 20-to-the-dollar barrier.
Much of the decline has occurred after Claudia Sheinbaum and the ruling Morena party won comprehensive victories in the June 2 presidential and congressional elections, putting Morena lawmakers in a strong position to approve a raft of constitutional reform proposals that President Andrés Manuel López Obrador sent to Congress in February.
The president of the Senate, Morena party Senator Gerardo Fernández Noroña, speaks to the press about the upcoming Senate review of the judicial reform bill on Wednesday. (Cuartoscuro)
Investors have been especially spooked by the plan to allow Mexican citizens to directly elect Supreme Court justices and other judges. That proposal is now one step closer to reality after lawmakers in the Chamber of Deputies approved it on Wednesday morning.
López Obrador and President-elect Sheinbaum have defended the reform as the peso lost ground over the past two months, asserting that investors have nothing to worry about and that the reform will strengthen — not weaken — Mexico’s justice system and democracy.
President-elect Sheinbaum, here showing polling on the popularity of the judicial reform proposal, supports the bill but has also urged “caution” from lawmakers. (Cuartoscuro)
Foreign exchange news website FX Street reported Thursday that “the peso is being sold because investors are fretting about the Mexican parliament passing a controversial bill of reforms that critics say will compromise the independence of the judiciary, undermine democracy and damage international trade and foreign investment.”
“… From a financial perspective, the reforms run the risk of leading to a decline in foreign investment. This, in turn, would reduce demand for the peso, leading to a further depreciation of the currency,” FX Street said.
Financial news website Market Watch reported Thursday that investors have “dumped carry trades” involving the peso “amid concerns about political upheaval” in Mexico, and after an interest rate cut in Mexico last month.
The peso “has been buffeted by the prospect of passage of Mexico’s judicial reform…which has overtaken monetary policies and U.S. politics as a source of consternation in recent weeks,” said Thierry Wizman, a foreign exchange strategist at the investment bank Macquarie.
“It is likely to remain a source of worry throughout September,” he added.
Gabriela Siller, director of economic analysis at Banco Base, said on X that it is possible that the peso will trade at 20.50 to the dollar in September due to “greater risk aversion about Mexico and lower attractiveness for carry trades.”
This graph posted to X by Gabriela Siller shows the Mexican peso has depreciated the most of any major currency against the US dollar this year. (Gabriela Siller/X)
She also posted a graph to X that showed that the peso has depreciated more against the US dollar this year than any other major currency.
The peso had been one of the world’s best performing currencies, supported by the significant difference between the Bank of Mexico’s official interest rate and that of the United States Federal Reserve.
Beyond the judicial reform, other factors that could affect the peso in the coming months are monetary policy in Mexico and the United States, the U.S. presidential election, economic growth rates and global geopolitical events.
Why is Mexico always yellow on film? For a more authentic selection of great movies set in the country, try this list by Mexico City filmmaker Bettine Mackenzie. (AMC)
In the early 2000s, Mexico turned yellow on screen. From Guadalajaran parking lots to Sonoran deserts, any scene in which tropical heat, air pregnant with danger and lurking baddies congregated got a sepia sheen. Notoriously nicknamed “The Mexican filter”, the wash dominated Steven Soderbergh’s “Traffic” and later appeared in “Breaking Bad” whenever chemist-turned-drug-baron Walter White crossed the border to expand his criminal empire. Mexicans duly added Hollywood’s new favorite trick to their ever-lengthening list of movie clichés, alongside gold-toothed thugs, meek domestic help and live-wire dealers. Movies about Mexico became, in effect, filtered through a strange, yellow lens that dominated the country.
For a place often creatively sieved through a foreign lens, it’s unsurprising that art carves out elements of this vast and varied country and offers a distorted taste of Mexico. But screen entertainment, so easily consumed as an alternate version of reality, should perhaps be held more accountable for its portrayals.
It looks grittier this way, right? (María Ruiz)
So how accurately is the foreigner-in-Mexico character depicted? Do we have the subtle expat equivalents of Sofia Coppola’s “Lost in Translation” or Wong Kar-wai’s “Happy Together”? Certain characters might have lodged in our minds like beloved, unbudgeable roommates, including the tequila-fuelled clowns of “The Three Amigos,” lovesick sirens a-la-”Night of the Iguana” and “Under the Volcano”-style doomed dreamers.
With Luca Guadagnino’s adaptation of William S. Burroughs’ “Queer” now primed for release, I’ve been contemplating lesser-known examples. Here’s a non-exhaustive list of films from the last decade in which Mexico is the loyal host, incomers are troublesome guests and the usual tropes have been disinvited, even if they occasionally gatecrash.
Rotting in the Sun (2023, dir. Sebastián Silva)
ROTTING IN THE SUN | Official Trailer | Now Streaming on MUBI
One to avoid watching with your great-aunt, pet parrot, or anybody who might accidentally relay what they saw at a lunch party, “Rotting in the Sun” sees director Sebastián Silva playing a barely fictionalized version of himself lounging around Mexico City with post-pandemic fatigue and a drug-fueled death wish.
After accidentally rescuing real-life Instagram star Jordan Firstman in a “Baywatch”-style meet-cute in Zicatela, the much paler, more nihilistic protagonists return to the capital, where Jordan relentlessly pursues Sebastián to make him ‘actually famous’ by collaborating on a film. Black comedy morphs into a nudity-filled thriller as Sebastián vanishes, leaving Jordan to play the lead in his own detective noir, assisted and obstructed by scenester friends, a nervous whippet and a paranoid maid.
Savage and explicit, this is Lars Von Trier on a Hitchcockian odyssey loose pun intended). Go to the filming location in La Roma and you might just see the film’s extras wandering around with lattes in hand and dogs on leashes, calling their friends about existential dread.
On MUBI, with a subscription.
Sundown (2021, dir. Michel Franco)
SUNDOWN Trailer (2022) Tim Roth, Charlotte Gainsbourg
Flashing past with the dramatic subtlety of a sunset, “Sundown” is one of Mexican auteur Michel Franco’s best. Tim Roth, with blissful disassociation, plays Neil Bennet, a Brit whose holiday in Acapulco with his sister Alice (Charlotte Gainsbourg) is disrupted by their mother’s death. Pretending to lose his passport to avoid returning to reality, Neil embraces inertia by joining those who, as Robert Frost described, “turn their back on the land.”
Migrating between grimy hotel room and grimy beach with lover Berenice, Neil stares at the ocean while Alice single-handedly manages their family fortune made in pig slaughterhouses. The drama is masterfully underscored by complex undercurrents as everyman Neil suffers the extraordinary, visceral effects of the lineage of traumas that founded his inheritance. Eerie and moving, “Sundown” is like that final hour on the beach, when tan and beer have morphed into burn and dread and evening has arrived far too soon.
On Amazon Prime US, or with a Now subscription.
Sundowners (2017, dir. Pavan Moondi)
Sundowners Trailer #1 (2017) | Movieclips Indie
Discovered, admittedly, while searching for the last film, it’s maybe telling that this low-budget Canadian flick didn’t put Franco off his title choice nor threaten to knock shoulders with the 1960 Western of the same name. “Sundowners” follows thirty-something Alex, a down-and-out photographer sent to Mexico to shoot a wedding, who ropes in equally down-and-out friend Nick to pose as his assistant.
The film meanders as the men navigate the doomed wedding, doomed romances, doomed finances and a slightly doomed plot. But there is something curiously watchable about this indie, with its pretty handheld visuals, improvised dialogue and cast of non-actors. An off-kilter bromance becomes a warming Sunday night watch you don’t turn off, even if you realize halfway through you’ve got the wrong film. There’s something strange, though, about the Cancún-like setting and the taxi driver’s accent. This mystery is swiftly solved when a Google search reveals it was all filmed in Colombia.
$5-9 on Amazon Prime, Apple TV+, YouTube and more.
Eisenstein in Guanajuato (2015, dir. Peter Greenaway)
Eisenstein In Guanajuato - Official Trailer
A film about filmmaking, another with unblinking nudity and — finally — one without the word “sun” in the title. Don’t let that put you off this wacky tale about the godfather of auteur filmmakers, Russian practitioner Sergei Eisenstein, attempting to make his ultimately abandoned 1930 revolution flick “Que Viva Mexico!” It’s got all the flamboyant, motor-mouth hallmarks of British director Peter Greenaway, which prove to be fitting bedfellows alongside Mexican surrealism and Russian zaniness.
Eisenstein, played by Elmer Bäck, is having his first love affair at the age of 33 in this paradisical country that has driven him wild with passion, having been shunned by Hollywood. The film doles out delicious dollops of 19th-century architecture, peering up at Porfirian buildings as though dropped into the middle of a birthday cake, making a great advert for Guanajuato, where the whole film was shot. Like its sometimes-forgotten protagonist, this is a film worth keeping in mind for its risk-taking eccentricity.
$5.99 on Amazon Prime or with a BFI Player subscription.
499 (2020, dir. Rodrigo Reyes)
499 - Official Trailer
Very much a voyage across an unknown land, though whether seen through the eyes of a foreigner is debatable. 500 years after the first Spaniard set foot on Yucatán’s shores, a 16th-century Spanish conquistador makes a pilgrimage through modern-day Mexico. He meets broken families of murdered activists, visits schools where children march uniformly, witnesses clandestine deals in clubs downtown and observes a damaged landscape.
As the blank-faced Spaniard, mustached and armor-clad, paces across the paradise his counterparts crossed half a millennium before, he absorbs the resentment and confusion of its living descendants. Half documentary, half fiction, Reyes infuses his film with beauty and anger in equal measure and plays with our understanding of time and trauma, debating whether the two can ever really be separately processed.
$3-9 on Amazon Prime or Apple TV+, or with a Criterion Channel subscription.
Bettine is from the Highlands of Scotland and now lives in Mexico City, working in film development at The Lift, Mexico’s leading independent audiovisual production company.
Canadian expat Nick Dubeski has spent the last 25 years running the equivalent of the entire equator - from the comfort of his home in Ixtapa, Guerrero. (All photos by Elisa Ashe)
In 1995, Canadian Nick Dubeski took a bus to Mexico on the first of three occasions and instantly fell in love with the country. On one of his visits to Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo, Dubeski met his now life partner, Nancy Seeley, under a palm tree on a beach on a star-studded night and decided to stay indefinitely.
It was a love story that unfolded under the Mexican stars. I vividly remember watching Nick and Nancy’s romance blossom from the beginning. Now, 25 years and eight months later, they still celebrate their anniversary on the 23rd of every month, a testament to their enduring love.
Wearing his favorite shirt, Dubeski runs towards his goal of running around the equator.
Seeley, a seasoned runner with 47 marathons, planned to run the prestigious 1999 42.2 km marathon in Athens, Greece. Dubeski decided to train and enter alongside her for the very first time.
The pair moved to Mazatlan in 2012, and their love for running continued. Over the years, Dubeski has completed 40 marathons while Nancy, who completed 50, retired from competitive running due to knee issues.
Despite the challenges of age and speed, Nick’s love for running never waned. At 55, he made a bold decision to switch to half marathons, a testament to his perseverance and dedication to the sport.
To date, Dubeski has run 40 full marathons and 40 half marathons. “Most of my runs have been in Mexico, Canada and the USA, while 32 out of 40 of my half marathons are in Mexico. One of my favourite places to run is in Ixtapa, and one of my favourite places to compete is in Guadalajara, where most of the events take place. My fastest time was three hours and twenty minutes in Leon, Guanajuato,” Dubeski explains.
Dubeski is a veteran of the Mexican marathon scene, having run 32 of his 40 marathons in the country.
When COVID-19 hit worldwide in 2020, Dubeski had to find an alternative way to keep up his momentum. Interestingly, from the beginning of his running career, he meticulously logged every time and distance he had ever run. His record-keeping would work to his advantage because it was then that he learned about the virtual marathon movement. Despite COVID restrictions, he could run much as he always had, and it was during this time that he decided to set a goal for himself.
“I already knew that I had run 35,000 km and so I began to research what landmark I could run to. I realized that running to the sun would be impossible, but I saw that I only had 5,075 km left to go to completely run around the equator.”
A lofty goal, but running around the equator takes stamina and perseverance and is not for the faint-hearted. “I used to run six days a week, but now, at 69 years old, I only run two,” he said.
Despite this sheer toll on his body and the dedication and discipline it would take to accomplish such a feat, on July 1, 2024 — which was, appropriately, Canada Day, — Dubeski completed what he set out to do four years ago and ran around the equator. To the cheers of family, friends, and supporters at Deborah’s restaurant in Ixtapa, Dubeski crossed the finish line.
Nick Dubeski celebraing his victory with long-time partnerr, Nancy Seeley.
When asked how it felt to run around the middle of the world, albeit virtually, he said, “It feels wonderful to complete what I set out to do.” So what’s next?
“Well I figure that I have only 10,190 kms left to run to the moon,” Nick says. “All things considered, and if my health continues, I anticipate I’ll be 77 or 78 years old by that time. So that’s my next goal.”
Elisabeth Ashe is a Canadian who has lived and worked in Mexico for many years.
A snacks vendor in Mexico City's Bosque de Chapultepec park awaits customers. According to government data, Mexico saw a historic low last quarter in the percentage of citizens whose income was not enough to feed their families at a minimum level. (Alice Moritz Nigro/Cuartoscuro)
The percentage of Mexicans classed as “the working poor” has declined to the lowest level on record, falling almost six points during the term of the current government.
In the second quarter of 2024, the monthly income of 35% of the working-age population was insufficient to purchase a basic food basket for each member of a worker’s family, according to labor poverty data published Tuesday by the National Council for the Evaluation of Social Development Policy (Coneval).
In the second quarter of 2024, only 35% of Mexicans’ incomes weren’t enough to afford the nation’s basic food basket for each member of their family. That percentage is the lowest it’s ever been since records began in 2008. (Coneval)
The percentage has declined 5.7 points since President Andrés Manuel López Obrador took office in December 2018.
Between the second quarter of last year and the second quarter of 2024, the percentage fell 2.8 points to reach its lowest level since comparable records began in 2008.
The López Obrador administration has provided ample monetary support to Mexico’s most disadvantaged people through welfare and employment programs.
The average “real work income” of people in jobs was 7,441 pesos (US $373) per month in the second quarter of 2024.
The average income for men was 8,138 pesos (US $408), while the average for women was 6,450 pesos (US $323). Men earned 8.1% more on average than a year earlier, while women’s salaries rose 8.7%.
The average salary in the formal sector (10,514 pesos per month) was more than double the average in Mexico’s vast informal sector (5,119 pesos).
Coneval also reported that the average “real work income per capita” increased 8.9% annually to reach 3,351 pesos (US $168) per month in the second quarter of 2024.
The number of people in employment increased by 805,200 between the second quarters of 2023 and 2024.
Although Mexico’s overall statistics for the working poor have improved in AMLO’s six-year presidency, the nation still struggles with sharp economic divides: Coneval data found that half of workers living in rural areas were part of the working poor while the percentage of workers living in urban areas who couldn’t afford a family’s basic food basket was just over 30%. (Elizabeth Ruiz/Cuartoscuro)
The urban/rural divide
Just over 30% of the working-age population in urban areas is part of “the working poor” while almost half of those who live in rural parts of Mexico fit into that category.
Between the second quarters of 2023 and 2024, the percentage of “working poor” urban residents declined three points to 30.9%. The percentage of “working poor” rural residents decreased 2.6 points to 47.6%.
Poverty declined in majority of Mexico’s states
The percentage of the population classed as “the working poor” fell in 27 of Mexico’s 32 federal entities between the first and second quarters of 2024.
Durango (-4.3 points), Querétaro (-2.8 points) and Yucatán (-2.8 points) recorded the biggest quarter-over-quarter declines.
Among the five states where labor poverty rose, Guanajuato (+2.9 points), Tabasco (+2.7 points) and San Luis Potosí (+1.7 points) recorded the biggest increases.
The percentage of “working poor” people also increased in Colima and Jalisco.
Despite Guanajuato being in the news repeatedly for attracting foreign investment and thus new jobs to the state, it saw the highest increase in labor poverty in Coneval’s data at 2.9 points. (Diego Sinhue Rodríguez/Twitter)
On an annual basis, unemployment declined 0.2 percentage points.
INEGI said that 1.8 million people out of an economically active population of 62.1 million were unemployed in July.
An additional 4.9 million people — 8.1% of those in jobs — were underemployed in July, INEGI said.
Tabasco had the highest unemployment rate in the country in July (4.5%), while Oaxaca had the lowest (0.6%).
More than half of Mexico’s workers — 54.5% — were employed in the informal sector in July, according to INEGI. That figure declined 1.2 points compared to the same month of 2023.
