Temporary marriages: a surprising proposal from a ‘conservative’ place
I’ve always been a romantic.
Even as a young child I would daydream about the boys I thought were cute. We’d fall in love, even at the tender age of 13, stay in love — naturally — and get married once we were grown-ups. Every time we looked into each other’s eyes for the rest of our lives, sparks would fly. I was 100% sure of it.
When you’re young and love is new, the prospect of one’s feelings changing toward someone you’re infatuated with feels downright absurd. “Me? Not love him? That is literally impossible.”
The new feelings of romantic love are intoxicating; they absolutely bewitch us. No one but our beloved is as lovely, as interesting, as deep, and we basically become addicted to them. Such are our feelings of connection that we’ve invented the concept of the “soul mate,” which, if you think about for more than 10 seconds, is a mathematical probability so low that it might as well be an impossibility (I guess I’m a little less romantic now than I was.)
This is not by accident, but is, rather, a biological fact. Nature is trying to get enough of us to fall in love with each other to keep the species going. Human babies need more care for more time than any other baby creature on earth, after all. So nature doesn’t just have to get us to have sex with each other; it’s got to get us to cooperate enough to raise live children through adulthood. No wonder our brains get so pumped full of dopamine. “Nature’s shrooms,” I call it.
Anyway. Here we are, a bunch of lovey-dovey dopes who can’t predict future feelings or commitment. Even bad, sometimes horrible experiences aren’t enough to discourage us. Freddy Mercury said it best: “I’ve fallen in love for the first time / This time I know it’s for real.”
All this lead-up is to bring me to the surprising subject at hand: Jalisco’s proposal for temporary marriage contract.
Why the proposal?
Well, apparently their family courts are 90% stuffed with divorce proceedings. Yikes.
As someone who has been married and divorced in Mexico, I can attest to the difficulty of getting it done here, besides the regular run-of-the-mill difficulty already inherent in the process. It’s long, it’s expensive, it’s dramatic in the most unpleasant ways possible. I mean, you literally have to sue the other party if you don’t go through some sort of “alternative justice” mediation.
Could there possibly be a less pleasant way to kick things off?
That’s why I read about Jalisco’s proposal with excitement. Of course! Temporary marriage contracts. Brilliant.
While I know some conservative groups are against this — and there are certainly things to be said about how seriously we take marriage — I’m all for it. It’s a clear-eyed view of the on-the-ground reality of modern relationships. It proposes real solutions. And also, honestly, I’d love to simply be married without going through all the stress of an expensive wedding. Spending all my savings on one day where I have to be both the star and the host? Well, when you put it that way…
This is a proposal that recognizes the way people really live.
Most modern humans, for the most part, are what we call in sociology “serially monogamous.” We pair off, and we stay in those pairs for a while. We do our best to love and support each other, in good times and bad. Most of the relationships in our lifetimes simply don’t last…a lifetime.
This fact, to me, does not make them any less special. Is my friendship with my fifth-grade bestie less special because we don’t keep in touch? Of course not.
Romantic relationships, of course, are in a slightly more fraught category. They have to be, because the emotions are so much more intense.
But as any psychologist will tell you, those feelings of infatuation have a shelf life. And once they’ve faded back into the comfort of the everyday, you’ve got to actually like being constantly around who you’re with as a person. Marrying your best friend? Befriend your lover, I say.
So back to the proposal. Just because something isn’t forever doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be official. Contracts, as un-romantic as they sound, I’d argue are one of the most loving things you can draw up with another person. And a temporary marriage contract is extra romantic.
Why?
Because you’re actively looking out for a person who, in the future, you might not like very much.
People grow, people change. People fall out of love. Very unfortunately, being married and even in love doesn’t stop our eyes from wandering, and, well… some people have more self-control than others.
Whatever the reason, some relationships just aren’t meant to go the distance.
So when the tears are flowing and the emotions are all over the place, a contract is something that can save you. It’s a time machine from your former, in-love selves: they, the people who love each other, have already made the tough decisions for you.
First, the most important: what will happen to any children from the relationship?
What will happen to property you acquired together?
How will you relate to each other and set boundaries after the breakup?
And after the number of years you’ve established in the contract are up, how will you decide whether or not you want to continue or go your separate ways?
It’s had me wondering how things might have been different had my ex-husband and I had such a contract. If we had decided on all the “what-if”s when we were deeply in love. Chances are, a legal “check-in” every few years with a set, pre-established checklist might have even strengthened the relationship. At this point, there’s no way to know.
So good for Jalisco. I hope it passes because, ironically, I think getting people to sit down and really think about their future selves is a great way to set them up for marital success. Maybe even a lifetime of it.
Sarah DeVries is a writer and translator based in Xalapa, Veracruz. She can be reached through her website, sarahedevries.substack.com.
Meet the man who made Los Cabos an international success story
The reason Los Cabos has become such a popular travel destination isn’t solely because of its creative and progressive tourism board (FITURCA), nor is it necessarily the reason why there are so many five-star rated luxury resorts and Michelin Guide recognized restaurants. After all, Los Cabos is a beautiful place with abundant natural attractions and plenty of resorts and restaurants that are savvy marketers.
But it has certainly helped (a lot) that the Los Cabos Tourism Board is so good at its appointed task of promoting the area and has willingly embraced innovative ideas, from a private tourism trust and an office in Los Angeles to award-winning digital design and laying the groundwork for Michelin Guide visits. I recently sat down with Rodrigo Esponda Cascajares, Managing Director of the Los Cabos Tourism Board, to find out how the organization has managed the most successful period in Los Cabos tourism history.
How did you become the Managing Director of the Los Cabos Tourism Board?
I have been lucky to be head of the Los Cabos Tourism Board for eight and a half years (it will be nine in October). Previously, I spent over 16 years at the Mexico Tourism Board, in New York, Chicago, Toronto, and then back to New York, the last four years as the Regional Director of North America.
After so many years in that job, I needed a different challenge, a new chapter in my life. So, I decided to resign, and then, the next day, I got a phone call from the private sector in Los Cabos, inviting me to come in for an interview to be the new head of the Los Cabos Tourism Board.
It was a good opportunity and a good way to aggregate all that I had been learning during the previous years. So on October 1, 2016, I started as the head of the Los Cabos Tourism Board, and it has been a true pleasure to be here and see so many different things. Los Cabos has a bright future as a destination.
Can you explain the Los Cabos Tourism Board to our readers and how it works, including the role of FIPROTUR, the private tourism trust?
The Los Cabos Tourism Board was created in 1997 and has been around for 28 years. The trust is administered from the hotel tax. The hotel tax is public funding. It started at 2%, then 3%, now it’s 4%.
There have been different formulas along the way. However, it was only four years ago that it was decided that only the tourism board would have a budget out of the 4% of the hotel tax, and from that, we would be proposing a calendar of activities, some objectives, key performance indicators, and so on.
The Private Trust Fund for the Promotion of Los Cabos (FIPROTUR) began because the private sector was concerned that only hotels were participating. Since the destination was evolving, it was believed that some new voices were needed. I told them we didn’t need to invent the wheel because in some parts of the world, the kind of private support they were talking about exists.
So, I explained that it was a formula where there would be some contributions from other sectors besides the hotel [sector] and that New York City, is funded by a government grant and a membership-based contribution of many organizations looking to participate and to have a voice in what New York City is going to do. Several models globally are similar, with slight differences depending on the destination. We decided it was a good idea to create a private organization that would complement the efforts being done with the public fund.
We have been truly transparent in how the public funding is being used. If you go through FITURCA’s website and the minutes of the meetings, I report to a board that is composed of the private and public sectors, including the state government and the private hotel association. Every two months, we have a board meeting where we present the initiatives, present the budget, and even small elements are adjusted. So it’s completely transparent.
At the beginning, it was a little bit challenging for the industry to understand the model because there was nothing like that in Mexico or Latin America. However, the disappearance of the Mexico Tourism Board (defunded in 2019) also helped to raise the awareness that we needed to work together. So by 2019, we had created and instituted the trust.
We started with the hotels, and then different members joined along the way. It’s not only in the tourism sector. Currently, we have almost 100 companies. Fifty of them are hotels, but we also have banks, restaurants, and other companies participating and having a voice in the positioning of the destination. We don’t go out trying to sell it to everybody. It’s more understanding of what we’re trying to do.
We do training for free for different companies and their employees who participate. So we have created a formula. We have an office in Los Angeles that is paid for by the private sector and can be used by private sector companies for free. It’s based in Los Angeles. That is our number one market. There’s a huge network in the California region with different channels of commerce, with different associations and organizations.
The office is very active in different activities, promotions, fan trips, and media outreach. And then, many of the partners in the destination also have offices in Los Angeles, so they actively participate with our office and coordinate throughout the year. It’s important because so many of our travelers come from California. So you can imagine the need to be in touch with travel advisors, with airlines, with meeting planners, and different companies.
So that formula has been optimized throughout the years. We are still doing some interesting additions because the industry continues to evolve. The two of them, the Los Cabos Tourism Board and FIPROTUR, complement each other in a very nice way because both of them are not-for-profit.
Have there been any instances where FIPROTUR has been particularly valuable?
One initiative that I would like to highlight for FIPROTUR involves the Michelin Guide, which, as you know, came to Mexico last year. However, we found out about the process very late. It wasn’t until 2023 that they came to us saying that the country and the Michelin Guide were working with different states to participate. So we had just two weeks to commit to them because they needed to come and evaluate and do the restaurant assessments.
We didn’t have it in the budget, either through the Los Cabos Tourism Board or FIPROTUR. We hadn’t planned for the funding, either publicly or privately. So we did an outreach process to the FIPROTUR members, telling them we have this opportunity, but we need to work fast.
If we commit, this is the timeline that we need, this is the budget that we need to accomplish, and this is extra because it’s a one-off opportunity. And let us know what you think, and then we will discuss it. And in one week, we had the additional funding contributed by the private sector in addition to their annual memberships, because they understood the big opportunity that this would be for the destination.
But to put it in perspective, we got like a four-year lead by embarking on the Michelin Guide because any destination that couldn’t commit in 2023 would not be able to be included until 2026 or 2027. And we had that lead ahead just by being able to work together.
What new markets are you trying to add for Los Cabos, not only from traditional tourism areas like the U.S. and Canada, but also from Europe, Asia, or South America?
When I started nine years ago, it was a priority to diversify inside the United States because we were fully concentrated on the West Coast. Now, that continues to be our primary market, but at that time, we didn’t even have a nonstop flight from New York. So I had to talk to the airlines, meet with them several times throughout the year to show them the numbers and show them that it would make a lot of sense to have a nonstop from New York.
It wasn’t easy, but flights from New York have now been a total success. We’ve been going through the different outbound markets to see where we need to focus and where we need to concentrate to get additional connectivity. And we meet regularly with all the airlines.
So with that in mind, it’s also a priority to diversify outside the United States, because this is a beautiful destination. And to be competitive and to keep up with changes in the tourism industry, we need to make sure that other markets can reach us.
We have a nonstop flight from Germany (Frankfurt), which took us several years to set up, and the numbers show that it’s not only bringing people from Germany, but also Italy, France, Spain, Switzerland, and even the U.K. So we’re continuing to make efforts in Europe, in terms of the conversations we’re having with airlines, and we’re just about to confirm a flight from South America.
It makes a difference, not only for Los Cabos but the entire Baja California Sur region, which is like an island. We don’t have manufacturing, we don’t have industrial fishing, we don’t have mining, we don’t have anything but tourism. Tourism is the main source of income for the community. The household income of families here is much higher than the national level because of tourism and all the travelers who are coming to the destination. So we have a big responsibility to continue increasing connectivity to transfer those benefits to the community.
During your tenure, Los Cabos has seen record numbers of tourists, doubling from two million to four million annually. Do you think those numbers can go higher, or are you happy with where they’re at right now?
We have almost doubled the numbers. However, in the last three years, we have not doubled. In 2023, in 2024, and in 2025, we’re going to have almost a flat performance in terms of the travelers, which is good because the destination grew very fast in the recovery process of COVID-19 due to all the dynamics that were generated. And we, the destination, took advantage of that recovery, the conditions, the fact of working very closely all together in all the associations.
But that generated a lot of situations internally in terms of the infrastructure, the resources, housing, energy, and many, many, many things that the destination needs to address. So it is an opportunity to keep the same number of travelers in three years, to adjust, to maximize, and to focus on the quality, not the quantity. We need to change the mindset in that.
Fortunately, we’ve been mentioning this in the last three years to the associations, and nobody’s complaining that the destination is not having double-digit growth. By contrast, everybody’s very happy that the number of travelers coming to the destination is not decreasing, especially among international travelers, because that is happening in other destinations in Mexico. Here, the average spending rate per traveler is increasing.
So it’s the best scenario in that you have the same number of visitors who are spending more, and forty percent of the travelers who are coming to the destination are repeat travelers. That’s super high if you compare it to many other destinations around the world.
Do you monitor people’s feedback from their Los Cabos vacation? What do you think they respond to most positively, and what would they like to see improved?
We conduct an exit survey of travelers every day, and we also survey the community, because it’s equally important to understand what the community is saying as what the travelers are telling us.
The satisfaction level is 95%. Of course, the natural beauty of Los Cabos is the most important factor [for] traveler satisfaction. They love the place, they love its beauty. The quality of the services and hospitality is the second favorite thing, then food.
We use a technique called net promoter score to score positive, negative, and neutral impressions from travelers, and we measure it into 15 elements. Yes, some things need to be improved. Traffic is one of them. We’re also monitoring the relationship between cost and quality. We need to make sure that travelers perceive that what they are paying is the right price for the quality of services that they are getting.
We pass this information to the different hotel associations, to the authorities, for them to understand the feedback that the travelers are providing to us, and the responsibility that we have to build up and finish some infrastructure projects that are needed in the destination, including the airport, roads, housing, energy, water, and many others.
Your website is interactive, and I know you have virtual reality options, too, so people can explore the destination before they decide to visit. Can you talk about why this was so important?
A few years back, when I started, we checked the website and the digital assets, and they were not good. So we started evaluating in 2016 and 2017, and what we needed to do was start from scratch. It was a little bit controversial internally, especially with the hotels. So it was one of those battles that you have, because some people are saying no, don’t invest in the digital assets.
Once we decided that we would do it, we started from scratch, we invested, and thus were able to get to the place where we are now, where we’ve added so many innovative tools that they’ve even been acknowledged as exceptional by tourism industry standards internationally.
It’s a process that started eight years ago. It didn’t happen overnight, because even if you wanted to do it that fast, you couldn’t. For example, on our website, we have 1,200 companies that update their information. So it’s not that our team is updating because there’s just no way we could stay on top of 300 restaurants, plus all the hotels and other companies.
We also have an artificial intelligence chatbot that scrolls around. Things To Do is one of the most visited sections, with a 95% click-through rate, so that travelers looking to find attractions or activities start interacting with the artificial intelligence and find what they’re looking for.
And then we have a virtual reality experience that can be accessed through Apple or Google, for example. We announced it and launched it two months ago. We’ve already been working on the new version that is coming next year. We have to, because the technology advances so fast!
Chris Sands is the Cabo San Lucas local expert for the USA Today travel website 10 Best, writer of Fodor’s Los Cabos travel guidebook and a contributor to numerous websites and publications, including Tasting Table, Marriott Bonvoy Traveler, Forbes Travel Guide, Porthole Cruise, Cabo Living and Mexico News Daily. His specialty is travel-related content and lifestyle features focused on food, wine and golf.
Sheinbaum’s take on what Mexico needs from the cruise industry: Friday’s mañanera recapped
Cruise ship tourism and private and public investment were among the topics President Claudia Sheinbaum spoke about at her Friday morning press conference.
Here is a recap of the president’s July 4 mañanera.
Sheinbaum decries scant onshore spending by cruise ship passengers
Asked about the on-again, off-again project to build a fourth cruise ship dock in Cozumel, Sheinbaum took the opportunity to speak more broadly about cruise ship tourism in Mexico.
“Cruise ship tourism is important for the country … but part of what we want is” for passengers to “buy things in Mexico” while they are in the country, she said.
Sheinbaum said that Mexico is seeking a much greater economic benefit from the docking of cruise ships at the nation’s ports.
The president said that cruise ships, and their passengers, “normally bring practically everything” with them and consequently spend little while onshore in Mexico.
“There is little economic spillover in our country,” she said.
“They get off for a few hours and they get on [the ship] again and leave, in some cases,” Sheinbaum said.
Former tourism minister Miguel Torruco said last year that the average cruise ship tourist expenditure in Mexico was US $83.90 per person.
Sheinbaum said that authorities would like cruise ship passengers to spend more time in Mexico and to purchase more Mexican products, such as arts and crafts. She said that her tourism and culture ministers are working on a project with the National Fund for the Development of Arts and Crafts (Fonart) to make authentic artesanías more accessible to cruise ship passengers.
Her remarks came just three days after Mexico began imposing a US $5 tax on cruise ship tourists, finally implementing a compromise between the government and the cruise ship companies that had lobbied fiercely against the originally proposed $42 levy.
Sheinbaum: Economic impact of Cozumel dock project has to be reviewed
Sheinbaum said that she had spoken to Quintana Roo Governor Mara Lezama about the proposal to build a fourth cruise ship dock in Cozumel, a Caribbean island off the coast of Playa del Carmen.
She said they agreed that the project needs to be reviewed (once again) to determine the “environmental impacts it might have.”
Mexico News Daily reported last month that “advocates for Cozumel’s coral reefs were stunned in April when the federal Environment Ministry greenlit the project to expand a cruise ship port that would allegedly damage the Villa Blanca Reef.”
On Friday morning, Sheinbaum appeared to indicate that she was not in favor of the fourth dock project, at least in its currently proposed location.
“The appeal of Cozumel has a lot to do with the reefs,” she said, adding that conserving them was a matter of “principle.”
“… They’re going to end up destroying the tourism appeal of Cozumel if [the proposed dock] goes over a reef,” Sheinbaum said.
“So it was agreed to review it again and also to speak to the community,” she said.
‘The economy is doing well, the peso is strong,’ Sheinbaum says after meeting with business leaders
A reporter asked the president about her meeting on Thursday with business leaders including Carlos Slim, Mexico’s richest person.
The leader of Mexico’s influential Business Coordinating Council, Francisco Cervantes, was among the other business representatives that attended the meeting with Sheinbaum and other officials, including Altagracia Gómez, head of the government’s Business Advisory Council.
Sheinbaum said that the meeting was “very good” and noted that the business people raised their “different concerns,” including ones about delays in the issuance of permits for projects.
“And what we proposed to them is to invest,” said the president, who said that her government would work “within the framework of the law” to expedite the issuance of permits.
Recibimos en Palacio Nacional a empresarias y empresarios; están optimistas por la situación económica de México y comprometidos con nuestro país. pic.twitter.com/PYm6U3emBS
— Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo (@Claudiashein) July 4, 2025
Slim, via his various companies, is one of the biggest investors and employers in Mexico. In a report last month, Bloomberg described him as Mexico’s “most important oil baron” given his interests in the sector, including as a partner to state oil company Pemex.
Sheinbaum noted that the business people she met with on Thursday, including the CEOs of breadmaker Bimbo and supermarket chain Chedraui, already have investments in many sectors of the economy.
“But there are other areas … where it’s important that they generate value chains with small and medium-sized businesses,” she said.
“The well-being hubs are coming … so what we proposed to them is to invest in the country,” Sheinbaum said.
Her meeting with the business people came a week after she signed agreements with 14 governors to establish the first 15 Economic Development Hubs for Well-being, a key facet of the government’s flagship Plan México industrial policy. The meeting took place the same day that four Mexican pharmaceutical companies announced major investment projects at the president’s morning press conference.
Sheinbaum acknowledged that the United States’ tariffs on Mexican goods, including steel, aluminum and vehicles, “have an impact on our economy.”
Nevertheless, she declared that “the economy is doing well” and “the peso is strong.”
“In macroeconomic terms, we’re doing well,” she added.
In addition to private investment, Sheinbaum stressed that public investment is also “important.”
“We have that,” she said.
“Public investment this year, counting everything, is around 800 billion pesos [US $42.9 billion],” Sheinbaum said, adding that the outlay on government welfare programs in 2025 will also be about 800 billion pesos.
By Mexico News Daily chief staff writer Peter Davies ([email protected])
Boxer Julio César Chávez Jr., facing organized crime charges in Mexico, is detained by ICE
Julio César Chávez Jr., former world middleweight champion and son of Mexican boxing legend Julio César Chávez, was detained by U.S. immigration agents on Wednesday in the Studio City neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, just days after losing a fight to Jake Paul in Anaheim.
The agents detained Chávez outside his home, on claims that he overstayed his visa and lied on a green card application. He will likely be deported to Mexico, where he faces organized crime charges, including trafficking of arms, ammunition and explosives.
President Claudia Sheinbaum confirmed during her morning press conference on Friday, that the Mexican government will seek the deportation of the boxer so he can serve in Mexico any sentence resulting from the charges.
“We expect that he will be deported and could serve his sentence in Mexico,” Sheinbaum said. “The Attorney General’s Office is working on that process.”
Sheinbaum added that she hadn’t known that Chávez faced charges in Mexico.
“No, I personally wasn’t aware of it,” she said. “Yesterday, as soon as the news came out, we contacted the prosecutor’s office, who told me ‘Yes, there is an arrest warrant in Mexico.'”
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) had said there are suspicions about Chávez Jr.’s ties to the Sinaloa Cartel. His defense has denied such accusations, calling them unfounded and sensationalist.
In Mexico, the boxer is accused of connections to a Nogales, Sonora, arms trafficking cell affiliated with Los Chapitos, a faction of the Sinaloa Cartel. U.S. agencies identified the arms trafficking group in 2018, according to the newspaper Reforma.
In 2019, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Department of Homeland Security filed a complaint against the group with the Mexican Attorney General’s Office. Following the complaint, the Attorney General’s Office tapped the suspects’ phones.
Based on the wiretaps, authorities learned that when fellow Sinaloa Cartel associates made mistakes, Chávez Jr. allegedly beat them as punishment.
With this information, in January 2023, a federal judge in Hermosillo issued 13 arrest warrants, one of them for the boxer.
On July 2, ICE arrested Mexican boxer and criminal illegal alien Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.
He is now being processed for expedited removal from the United States. This Sinaloa Cartel affiliate has an active arrest warrant in Mexico for his involvement in organized crime and… pic.twitter.com/c4QeRVpCEr
— Homeland Security (@DHSgov) July 3, 2025
In a statement, the Chávez Jr. family expressed their dismay and asked the public not to make any premature judgments.
“Julio is, above all, a son, a father, and a human being who has faced multiple challenges in his personal and professional life,” the family said. “As a family, we respectfully ask that due process be guaranteed.”
Who is Julio César Chávez Jr.?
Julio César Chávez Jr. was born in 1986 in Culiacán, Sinaloa. He started his boxing career at 17. His greatest achievement was becoming the WBC world middleweight champion in June 2011, a title he successfully defended three times before losing it in 2012.
Throughout his career, he has faced several problems, including doping suspensions (furosemide in 2009 and marijuana in 2012), and criticism for a perceived lack of discipline. In 2012, he was convicted of drunken driving in Los Angeles and sentenced to 13 days in jail. In January 2024, he was again arrested in Los Angeles for possession of an illegal AR-style “ghost rifle.”
With reports from CBS News, El Nacional, Reforma and El Universal
With 12 million clients enrolled, fintech Nu Mexico closes in on acheiving bank status
Nubank, Latin America’s biggest financial technology (fintech) company, has grown to 12 million customers in its six years in Mexico and is on its way to achieving bank status, the fintech announced on Wednesday.
Nu was founded in Brazil in 2013 and entered the Mexican market in 2019. It has become one of Mexico’s largest financial institutions, providing services to 9% of the population and 25% of those with banking services.
Romina Benvenuti, Nu Mexico’s director of public, regulatory, and legal affairs, said that the figure represents a growth of one million customers in just one quarter.
“This represents a major milestone for us because, first of all, it means that more Mexicans continue to trust our financial services offering and … understand that our products are simple, intuitive, embedded in financial education, and valuable and they are using them,” Benvenuti told the news siteEl Economista.
Nubank began by offering consumers a no-fee credit card, backed by investors that included Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway firm. This approach has appealed to customers across Latin America who could not gain access to conventional banking services.
Approximately 22% of Nu Mexico customers accessed the financial system with Nu, and 36% reported having been rejected by other institutions, according to a recent Nu impact study.
Around 50% of Mexico’s 130 million population does not currently hold a bank account.
Roughly 45% of Nu’s customers are women, and 50% reported earning less than 10,000 pesos (US $540) per month. Meanwhile, four out of 10 customers who were granted a secured card with Nu received a financing offer in their first year as a user, and 60% of customers reported using less cash.
Many of Nu’s customers also reported having greater stability and control, as well as better financial habits.
“This is confirmation that our value proposition, our digital services, are of interest,” said Benvenuti. “There is demand, and we are solving our clients’ financial needs.”
By the end of the first quarter of 2025, Nubank had almost 119 million users across three countries, with 104 million in Brazil, 12 million in Mexico and three million in Colombia.
Nu Mexico operates as a popular financial society (Sofipo), a kind of financial institution which operates with the approval of Mexico’s national bank commission, CNBV.
In October 2023, Nu applied for a banking license from the CNBV to transform into a commercial bank and in April this year, it received its banking license, becoming the first Sofipo in Mexico to do so.
Nu Mexico will continue to operate as a Sofipo as it undergoes a rigorous audit process by regulators to earn the final authorization needed to begin operations as a bank.
With reports from El Economista and Global Finance
An unusually rainy June brings drought relief and flooding to Mexico
Rainfall in Mexico in June was 51.3% higher than the average for the month in recent decades, the National Meteorological Service (SMN) reported this week.
The 30 days between May 31 and June 29 constituted “quite a rainy period,” particularly along the Gulf of Mexico coast and in the south and southeast of the country, Alejandro Jair García Jiménez, an SMN official, reported on Tuesday.
During an SMN “informative session” broadcast online, he said that accumulated rainfall totaled 148.1 millimeters in the 30 days to June 29, 51.3% higher than the average for the same period between 1991 and 2020.
Rain brought by Hurricane Erick, which made landfall in Oaxaca last month, and other recent storms, contributed to the high levels of precipitation in Mexico in June. The rain helped ease drought conditions.
On June 15, the percentage of the country experiencing moderate to exceptional drought conditions was 37.5%, well below the 73.79% recorded on the same date in 2024.
García also reported that accumulated rainfall in Mexico between January 1 and June 29 was 10.9% higher than the annual average for the same period between 1991 and 2020.
He said that 233.9 millimeters of rain was recorded in the first six months of the year, 22.9 millimeters more than the average in recent decades.
CDMX records rainiest June since 1968
Mexico City Mayor Clara Brugada reported earlier this week that accumulated rainfall in the capital in June amounted to 337 million cubic meters of water. That made last month the rainiest June in 57 years.
If 337 million cubic meters of water sounds like a lot, that’s because it is. That amount of water could fill up Mexico City’s cavernous Estadio Azteca (Aztec Stadium) 176 times, the Reforma newspaper reported.
Given the heavy rainfall — almost double the historic average for June in Mexico City — it’s no surprise that flooding in the capital was a problem last month.
Brugada attributed the immense precipitation to climate change and asserted that such rainfall can no longer be considered atypical.
Torrential rain was recorded in Mexico City on various days last month, including June 29, with 38 million cubic meters of water falling on the capital.
Reservoir levels up 24% compared to June 2024
According to National Water Commission (Conagua) data, the largest 210 reservoirs in Mexico were collectively holding 56.9 million cubic meters of water at the end of June. That figure represents 45% of the maximum capacity of the reservoirs.
Compared to June 30, 2024, the quantity of water in the 210 principal reservoirs in Mexico was 24.4% higher. However, the 56.9 million cubic meters of water the reservoirs held at the end of June was 5.2% below the historical average.
The quantity of water in the reservoirs increased 3.4% between June 23 and June 30.
Data presented by Conagua official Daniel Arriaga Fuentes on Tuesday showed that 19 of Mexico’s 210 largest reservoirs were at full capacity at the end of June, up from just five at the same time last year.
Thirty-one reservoirs were at least 75% full, while 63 were 50%-75% full.
Almost half of the 210 principal reservoirs — 97 — were less than 50% full. While the high number is a concern, it is significantly lower than the 158 reservoirs that were less than 50% full a year ago.
A Conagua map shows that the reservoirs that are currently less than half full are concentrated in northern and central Mexico.
The reservoirs that make up the Cutzamala system, which supplies water to the Mexico City metropolitan area, were at 52% capacity at the end of June, up from just 26.7% a year earlier.
“Since May 25, the Cutzamala system has had contributions [of water from rainfall] and its storage is on the rise,” said Citlali Peraza Camacho, director of the Conagua department responsible for the Valley of Mexico water basin.
Water supply is a major concern in Mexico City, making the recent rain especially welcome, despite the flooding and other problems it has caused in the capital.
36 deaths attributed to recent rainfall
The newspaper La Jornada reported on Wednesday that there have been 36 deaths in Mexico related to rain since the rainy season began on May 15.
Citing data from state authorities, La Jornada said that 10 fatalities in the southern state of Oaxaca were related to heavy rainfall.
It also reported six rain-related fatalities in Guanajuato; five in Chihuahua; four in each of Jalisco and San Luis Potosí; three in Morelos; and one in each of Guerrero, Hidalgo, Tamaulipas and Colima.
A one-year-old baby boy died in a swollen river in the municipality of San Marcos, Guerrero, after Hurricane Erick made landfall in the neighboring state of Oaxaca on June 19.
La Jornada also reported that rainy and stormy conditions in recent weeks have damaged thousands of homes as well as hundreds of roads and bridges.
Oaxaca and Guerrero, which bore the brunt of Hurricane Erick, are the worst affected states, but flooding has also recently caused damage to homes in other states, including México state and Hidalgo.
With reports from Reforma, La Jornada, El Economista and Milenio
Peso hits its strongest point so far this year
The Mexican peso made new gains against the dollar on Thursday after recovering from a brief pause in its seven-day winning streak.
The Mexican currency closed at 18.66 pesos per U.S. dollar Thursday, its strongest level since August 15, 2024. The per-dollar rate broke the 19 barrier in June.
The peso continued to gain on Friday, coming in at 18.63 to the dollar shortly after 1 p.m. Mexican Central Standard Time.
The peso’s rise comes at a time when markets appear to have temporarily set aside concerns over the geopolitical situation in the Middle East. Meanwhile, concerns about tariff negotiations between Mexico and the U.S. are resurfacing, El Economista reported.
Even as the peso rose against it, the dollar strengthened after the release of better-than-expected U.S. employment data, with job creation figures surpassing the consensus. The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s performance against six international currencies, rose 0.35% to 96.77.
Despite persisting trade and fiscal uncertainties in the U.S., the upbeat jobs report helped lift the dollar off recent lows.
Far from confirming the slowdown that analysts had forecast, U.S. job creation rose to 147,000 — significantly higher than the forecast of 110,000. This rise contributed to an unexpected decline in the unemployment rate, dropping from 4.2% to 4.1%. Analysts had anticipated it would rise to 4.3%.
With reports from La Jornada and El Economista
Oaxaca mayor marries a caiman: It’s a centuries-old tradition
Daniel Gutiérrez Peña, mayor of the municipality of San Pedro Huamelula in the southern state of Oaxaca, married a female caiman in a symbolic ceremony known as the Wedding of the Caiman.
The ritual, which dates back 230 years, symbolizes respect and unity among the Chontal and Huave Indigenous communities of the region. It has its origins in a legend of a royal marriage uniting the Chontal with the Huave to seal peace and brotherhood between their peoples.
In the ceremony, the mayor represents the Chontal king and the caiman a Huave princess. Caimans are scaly lizards similar to small alligators.
Since then, the ritual has been practiced as a means to keep the connections between these original communities of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec alive.
“This is a historic moment that happens every year,” Mayor Gutiérrez told the press. “It’s a celebration that unites two peoples, two cultures, two brotherhoods.”
As part of the ritual, the caiman is dressed in a white wedding dress and for safety reasons, its snout is tied. The community, dressed up in festive costumes, accompanies the symbolic union with processions, dances, and offerings as the “princess bride” parades through the town visiting homes.
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The festivity spans three days of vibrant cultural traditions. The reptile is dressed by a woman known as the godmother in three different traditional garments, one a colorful Zoque dress complete with a skirt and floral headdresses.
This year’s reptile bride was named by locals Miguelana Estela del Mar Zavaleta Ramírez.
Beyond its social symbolism, the ritual is also a spiritual offering. Indigenous peoples believe that the wedding serves as a prayer for abundant harvests, as well as blessings from Mother Earth and the Creator.
“For us, it’s a ritual in which we ask mother earth and our creator for abundance in our harvests, fishing, and every product our region can offer,” Luis Manuel López, a resident of the town, told Reuters.
In a religious syncretism combining pre-Columbian traditions with Catholic beliefs, the symbolic ceremony marks the end of the patron saint festivities in honor of San Pedro Apostol.
The blend of cultures has enriched the ritual, which today is a source of pride and celebration for the inhabitants of San Pedro Huamelula.
“Huamelula is so rich in tradition and culture that today, like every year, Huamelula is in the eyes of the world,” Mayor Gutiérrez said.
