Chinese automaker BYD is reportedly considering opening an electric vehicle manufacturing plant in Mexico. (BYD)
Chinese electric vehicle manufacturer BYD is considering opening a plant in Mexico, according to a Nikkei newspaper report that cited the company’s Mexico chief.
The Tokyo-based newspaper said Wednesday that it had spoken to BYD México country manager Zhou Zou, and noted that he expressed eagerness to have a production facility in Mexico. No potential investment amount was mentioned.
BYD manufactures vehicles for Bimbo, Lala, Cemex and FEMSA, as well as for ride-sharing app DiDi. (User3204/Wikimedia)
Nikkei reported that BYD has launched a feasibility study for a plant in Mexico, adding that the automaker is negotiating with federal and state officials over a location and other terms for the facility.
Zou, who spoke with the newspaper’s Mexico City bureau chief, didn’t mention a possible location for the plant, but Nikkei said that “the northern state of Nuevo León and the Bajío region in central Mexico appear to be leading candidates.”
“The Yucatán Peninsula and other places in southern Mexico are also likely options,” it added.
Tesla — BYD’s main competitor in the electric vehicle market — is set to begin construction of a “gigafactory” in Nuevo León this year, and several other automakers have announced plans to make EVs in Mexico.
Rival firm Tesla is set to begin construction this year on an EV plant in Nuevo León (Samuel García, Nuevo León’s governor, seen here). (Samuel García/X)
Zou told Nikkei that overseas production is essential for an international brand and described Mexico as a key market with vast potential.
BYD sold 520,000 EVs in the final quarter of 2023, more than any other company, but the vast majority of its sales are in China. It is opening a plant in Thailand this year and building one in Brazil as it seeks to increase production and sales around the world.
A factory in Mexico would allow the company to get its vehicles into the lucrative U.S. market at a significantly lower cost. Export costs would be much lower and BYD could also benefit from the United States-Mexico-Canada agreement, the free trade pact that replaced NAFTA in 2020.
In addition, the company could benefit from competitive labor costs and the presence of a highly-trained and experienced automotive workforce in Mexico, where numerous carmakers already have plants.
Nikkei’s report noted that “requirements for U.S. tax breaks on EV purchases include assembly of the vehicles in North America, along with restrictions on where batteries can originate.”
“Chinese EV companies that lack a manufacturing hub in North America likely would be at a disadvantage,” the newspaper added.
As part of the growing nearshoring phenomenon, Chinese investment in Mexico has grown in recent years, triggering concern from some United States lawmakers.
A bipartisan group of representatives wrote to U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Katherine Tai late last year in part to request that the U.S. government be ready to “address the coming wave of [Chinese] vehicles that will be exported from our other trading partners, such as Mexico, as [Chinese] automakers look to strategically establish operations outside of [China] to take advantage of preferential access to the U.S. market through our free trade agreements and circumvent any [China]-specific tariffs.”
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai told concerned U.S. lawmakers in January that Chinese efforts to dominate the global EV market are a “priority” for the Biden administration. (Office of the United States Trade Representative)
The four members of the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party including chairman Mike Gallagher also said in their letter that they were “concerned by how the People’s Republic of China (PRC) is preparing to flood the United States and global markets with automobiles, particularly electric vehicles, propped up by massive subsidies and long-standing localization and other discriminatory policies employed by the PRC.”
Tai responded in a letter in January, saying that the issues the lawmakers mentioned were “a priority to the Administration, and we are clear-eyed that China has developed and implemented a plan to target the EV sector for dominance through a wide and evolving range of non-market based policies and practices.”
She said the U.S. government was looking at ways to make existing tariffs “more strategic.”
In December, Mexico and the United States agreed to cooperate on foreign investment screening as a measure to better protect the national security of both countries. That move appeared to be motivated to a large degree by a desire to stop problematic Chinese investment in Mexico. It remains to be seen whether any proposed Chinese investment in Mexico is halted as a result of the bilateral cooperation.
Tesla chief Elon Musk has also expressed concerns about Chinese automakers’ access to the United States and other markets, saying in January that “if there are no trade barriers established, they will pretty much demolish most other car companies in the world.”
The Mexico Open will take place in Puerto Vallarta from Feb. 22 to 25. (Mexico Open at Vidanta/Facebook)
Puerto Vallarta is gearing up for the México Open, a PGA Tour event that will be played on the Vidanta Vallarta Course from Feb. 22 to 25.
A purse of US $8.1 million will be paid out, and the winner will receive 500 FedEx Cup points in addition to the top prize of $1.5 million. Next week’s field is expected to include 144 players from around the world.
The course at the Vidanta Nuevo Vallarta resort was designed by all-time great Greg Norman. (Mexico Open at Vidanta/Facebook)
While the tournament isn’t a marquee event on the PGA Tour, it is the only PGA tournament of the week, so it will draw the interest of golf fans around the world. Broadcast coverage in the U.S. will be on NBC, ESPN+ and the Golf Channel.
The México Open, now in its third edition, is known for giving opportunities to Latin American players. A total of 31 golfers from the region, including six amateurs, have competed in the tournament since it began in 2022.
This year’s México Open will have at least eight Mexican golfers participating including Rodolfo Cazaubón, 34, from Tampico, Tamaulipas and Sebastián Vázquez, 33, from Mexico City. Though there are zero PGA Tour wins among them, Cazaubón has won four PGA Tour Latinoamérica events and was the PGA Tour Latinoamérica Player of the Year in 2015.
Vázquez, who finished in a tie for 55th and shot two rounds of 67, was the Mexican Amateur Champion in 2011 and 2012.
“It was a magical week, knowing that I can be among the best,” Vázquez said in an interview with the newspaper Crónica this week. As for this year, “I hope we celebrate on Sunday [Feb. 25] and it will be a tournament that changes my life … I have been fortunate to be the best in our country, but it is not enough. I always want to be better.”
Last year’s champion Tony Finau. (Mexico Open at Vidanta/Facebook)
Last year’s Mexico Open was won by American Tony Finau, who shot 66 or less each round to earn the $1.39 million championship check.
In the 2022 event, Spaniard Jon Rahm beat Finau by one stroke to pocket $1.31 million. Rahm is one of the sport’s best players, with two titles in two majors (2021 U.S. Open and 2023 Master’s) to his name.
The course at the Vidanta Nuevo Vallarta resort is a par 71 and it was designed by all-time great Greg Norman. The Mexico Open is not to be confused with the Mexican Open, a professional men’s tennis tournament that will return to Acapulco next week despite major damage caused to the stadium by Hurricane Otis.
Zapatista militiamen march at the 30th anniversary of the 1994 uprising in Chiapas. (All photos by Cat Rainsford)
“It is our duty, while inviting you, to discourage you,” the statement read. “Unlike other years, it is not safe.”
There were other unusual things about the Zapatistas’ invitation to the 30th anniversary of their 1994 uprising, part of a statement entitled “Several Necessary Deaths.” The communiqué railed against the “disorganized crime” engulfing Chiapas and announced the dissolution of Zapatismo’s main governance structures — the Zapatista Rebel Autonomous Municipalities (MAREZ) and the Good Government Juntas (JBG).
The entrance to the “caracol” or EZLN community.
Some Mexican media outlets jumped to the same conclusion: On Jan. 1, 1994, the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) had burst out from the Chiapas jungle, taken control of five municipal capitals, and drawn a wave of international solidarity that helped them push the Mexican government into accepting autonomous Indigenous governance systems on redistributed land. Now, it seemed Mexico’s most iconic rebel movement had decided to cede territory to the cartels.
But was that really what had happened? Over the following weeks, the EZLN released a series of 20 enigmatic publications, ranging from political theory to videos of elderly Maya women learning to ride pink bicycles. The last statement announced the location of the anniversary celebration.
It felt too intriguing to miss. In San Cristóbal de las Casas, I joined a disparate bunch of National Indigenous Council (CNI) delegates and European activists, boarding combis for the five-hour drive to the caracol (Zapatista community) where the gathering was to be hosted.
For security, we traveled in a convoy, on a winding road through lush green hills. The mood hovered between festive and tense — we all knew of the war for drug and migrant routes raging between local factions of the Sinaloa and Jalisco Cartels. In recent weeks, clashes between armed groups, local citizens and security forces had displaced hundreds of people in the Guatemalan border region. The violence, combined with stubbornly high poverty levels, was accelerating migration out of Chiapas, including from many Zapatista communities. The EZLN had good reason to be worried.
A sign at left says, “we support all communities of the world suffering from war and we raise our voice against the destructions of capitalist governments.”
“Welcome to no-man’s land,” read an EZLN banner over the road — defiant irony is characteristic of the Zapatistas’ messaging — “Everyone’s land, in fact.”
We arrived in a tree-lined valley, a grassy arena with a wooden stage at its head. Around the arena, woodsmoke rose from communal kitchens – one for each of the twelve Zapatista caracoles. There was a kitchen serving free beef stew and coffee to visitors, and an economical dining hall with a more varied menu. The entrance was flanked with technicolored murals and guarded by balaclava-clad EZLN troops, armed with wooden batons and machetes.
Inside, I found myself eating stew with the Puebla delegation of the CNI, who were still buzzing from their successful campaign to shut down a Bonafont bottling plant that had been draining water from their communities. Later, I spoke with the Michoacán delegation about agrarian reform, then with a Hispanic-American activist who was campaigning against gentrification in Harlem, New York. All had been to several EZLN anniversaries before, seeing them as key events to share experiences with like-minded movements from around the world.
As dusk settled, tentless foreigners were shepherded into pickups to be distributed among sheds in nearby Zapatista communities. In the morning, a group of shy Tzeltal youths brewed us coffee in the ruined house of the former landowner, who fled during the 1994 uprising.
We were told the pickups would be back for us at 9 a.m. This turned out to mean 8 a.m., as the EZLN follows “resistance time,” which is an hour ahead of “bad government time.” The difference caused much confusion throughout the gathering to the amusement of the Zapatistas, who say time is a capitalist construct, anyway.
The theater performance the Zapatistas staged for New Year’s Eve was a similar blend of ideological earnestness and mischief. Act One recounted the Zapatistas’ history of marginalization and rebellion, ending with them overthrowing the abusive master to reclaim their ancestral land. Act Two decried the ravages of capitalism, featuring a confused child narrator, dancing skeletons, and a cardboard Maya Train, which the EZLN fears will displace them from their hard-won territory.
Parade participants hold signs that say: “Africa, Europe” and “Life in Common.”
Act Three laid out the threats now facing Zapatismo — from drug traffickers to manipulative aid programs — and explained the Zapatista restructuring announced weeks before. It insisted the announced dissolution of the overarching governing bodies was not a defeat. Rather, the MAREZ and the JBG had been replaced with hyper-local assemblies called Local Autonomous Governments (GAL), which would make all community decisions via direct democracy. All property would be held in common, all work and services organized collectively, and like-minded migrants welcomed to join the communities. The aim was to invert the pyramidal hierarchy, decentralize power and make decision-making faster. Whether it would also help withstand cartel violence was less clear.
As night fell, masked EZLN militias silently formed ranks on either side of the arena, men facing women. The sight of the uniformed troops sent a hush over the valley, incongruously broken by “17 Años” — a controversial cumbia about dating an underage girl — that blared from the soundsystem. The militia-women opened the parade, clacking their wooden batons to the beat, before peeling off to do joyous skips around the field as the men took up the march. The advancing columns pushed us toward the stage — to the sentimental strains of “Como Te Voy a Olvidar?”
Flanked by empty chairs representing fallen comrades, Subcomandante Moisés — successor to the EZLN’s original spokesman, Subcomandante Marcos — stood to give the midnight address. My watch read 11 p.m. (bad government time).
“We are not here to remember the fall of these comrades 30 years ago,” Moisés said, first in Tzeltal, then Spanish. “We are not trying to be a museum… The people must govern themselves!” He underlined Zapatismo’s new emphasis on communal property — a further step to the political left that, he admitted, was not sure to gain the support of the wider movement.
“We are alone, like 30 years ago,” he concluded. “We have only discovered the path we are going to follow: communally!”
The tone felt more ominous than celebratory. But for the Zapatistas, failure has always seemed guaranteed. The diverse Indigenous communities of Chiapas were once so isolated, they had to learn Spanish even to communicate with each other. In 1994, many faced the Mexican army carrying wooden guns. Their triumph is that somehow, they are still here, an inspiration to political underdogs around the world.
The EZLN honored their fallen comrades but also emphasized they are “not trying to be a museum.”
The EZLN now faces a new crisis, and they don’t know if their strategy is going to work. But their message remains the same: For the underdog, success is never certain. All you can do is try something different, and see what happens. And it helps to have a sense of humor about it.
A burst of fireworks broke the tension, and we spent the first hours of the new year dancing exuberant multi-national cumbias. The next morning, the EZLN militias seemed relaxed and chatty, as the stage was opened to presentations by outsiders. There were revolutionary ballads, interpretive dances, an Indigenous Mexica ceremony and — by far the most popular among the young Zapatistas — a rapper who kept calling to turn the sound system up.
The previous day, I had felt uncomfortable taking part in the sea of camera phones pointed at the Zapatistas. But by now, I realized there were at least as many Zapatistas pointing camera phones at us.
Despite Subcomandante Moisés’ message, the Zapatistas are less alone than they used to be. They can communicate with activists around the world, and watch reggaeton videos on YouTube. We all now have the means to study each other, and perhaps the EZLN’s future really depends on which messaging gains the loyalty of their newly online youth.
Cat Rainsford is a journalist and researcher who has written for InSight Crime, The Guardian, New Lines Magazine and others.
The two quakes occurred around 6:40 a.m. on Wednesday. (Rogelio Morales/Cuartoscuro)
Two minor earthquakes occurred within the space of one minute in Mexico City early Wednesday.
A 2.8 magnitude quake struck at 6:42 a.m. and a 1.8 magnitude one followed 49 seconds later at 6:43 a.m., according to the National Seismological Service (SSN).
The micro-quakes in Mexico City may finally have an identified cause: a newly discovered fault near Mixcoac. (gaceta.unam.mx)
Both micro-quakes had their epicenter three kilometers north of La Magdalena Contreras, the SSN said. La Magdalena Contreras is a borough in the southwest of Mexico City. It is bordered to the north by the borough of Álvaro Obregón.
Residents of several boroughs felt the quakes, but they didn’t cause any damage, Mexico City authorities said. Some residents said they were awoken by the shaking they caused.
Mayor Martí Batrés said in a television interview that the earthquake alarm didn’t go off in Mexico City because the quakes were only minor and had their epicenters in the capital.
The alarm “is activated in advance when the telluric wave comes from afar,” he said.
The alarm, amplified through loudspeakers situated across the capital, sounds up to a minute before a sufficiently powerful earthquake begins to be felt, but it is dependent on sensors outside the capital. It can give residents a brief window of opportunity to evacuate to the safety of the street and thus avoid the risk of being caught in a building that collapses.
In recent times, there have been numerous minor earthquakes in the capital. A total of 23 were recorded between Dec. 3 and Jan. 10.
Scientists have confirmed the presence of a roughly one-kilometer-long seismic fault beneath the ground of a densely populated area on the western side of Mexico City.
Researchers from the National Autonomous University (UNAM) are investigating its relation to the frequent occurrence of micro-quakes in Mexico City.
A Mexican national has been killed in New York, after being caught in crossfire on the city's subway. (Nirmal Rajendharkumar/Unsplash)
A 35-year-old Mexican man was killed in a shooting on the New York City Subway on Monday afternoon, authorities said.
Five other people were wounded in the shooting, which occurred on a train when it was at the Mount Eden Avenue station in the Bronx.
Police have released security footage of the men wanted in connection with the shooting. (NYPD)
On Tuesday morning, New York police identified the man who died as Obed Beltrán-Sánchez. He was shot in the chest and died at the scene, Reuters reported.
“Unfortunately, yesterday afternoon, a compatriot from Tehuacán, Puebla, died from a stray bullet at the Mount Eden subway station,” Jorge Islas wrote.
“… I personally conveyed our condolences to his family and offered the consular support and advice within our reach. RIP.”
Police said that Beltrán-Sánchez had no permanent address. It was unclear how long he had been in the United States or whether he was working in New York.
New York police officials said that the shooting occurred amid a dispute between two groups of young men traveling on the same train. Beltrán-Sánchez was a bystander, according to local reports.
Michael M. Kemper, the Police Department’s chief of transit, told a press conference that a person involved in the dispute fired a shot when the train arrived at the Mount Eden Avenue station. A number of other shots were fired as passengers disembarked the train and ran for cover, Kemper said.
The five wounded people are aged 14 to 71 and were expected to recover, police said.
Reuters reported Tuesday afternoon that police were searching for three men suspected of killing Beltrán-Sánchez and wounding five others.
“Transit officials emphasized this week that shootings [on the New York Subway] are especially uncommon,” the news agency reported.
“In 2022, when a man with a handgun injured 10 people on a train passing through Brooklyn, it was the first mass shooting attack on the subway system since 1984.”
The Mexican magnate said the military is not trained to handle the diversity of tasks assigned during AMLO's term, including running companies.(Graciela López/Cuartoscuro)
Businessman Carlos Slim has added his voice to criticism of the federal government’s heavy reliance on the military, prompting President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to suggest that the octogenarian billionaire is unaware of the five basic “missions” of the military.
Mexico’s richest person held a marathon press conference on Monday, holding forth on a range of issues including the government’s use of the armed forces for a wide-range of non-traditional tasks including the management of ports, airports, customs and public companies, such as those tasked with running the Maya Train railroad and the new state-owned airline.
Slim and President López Obrador have had a cordial relationship during the president’s term, and AMLO said “I very much respect Carlos” at his Tuesday press conference. (Lopezobrador.org.mx)
“They’re in too many things. It’s too much,” said Slim, the owner of companies such as Telcel, Telmex, Sanborns and Carso Infrastructure and Construction.
In a presser that lasted almost four hours, the 84-year-old magnate said that Mexico’s military personnel are “excellent,” but have been given tasks outside their areas of expertise. He predicted that military-run companies will lose money.
The military is starting to “operate a lot of companies and that’s not its specialty,” Slim said. “… They’re going to report losses,” he added.
However, the government’s use of the army on major infrastructure projects such as the Maya Train railroad and the Felipe Ángeles International Airport “was very good because there are good military engineers,” Slim said.
The Defense Ministry has taken over much of Mexico’s infrastructure construction and operation under President López Obrador. (Moisés Pablo/Cuartoscuro)
López Obrador has been heavily criticized for his broad use of the military — including for public security — with much of the criticism focused on the risks to human rights that entails. Slim appeared more concerned about the potential economic cost to the government.
Among other remarks, the businessman said that Telmex — the telecommunications company he bought from the government in 1990 — has been losing money for a decade. However, he ruled out attempting to sell the company.
AMLO responds
López Obrador on Tuesday stressed that Slim has the right to express his views as “we live in a free country.”
On the government’s use of the military, he said that he respects the businessman’s point of view, but doesn’t share it.
“Perhaps he doesn’t know that the army has five missions,” López Obrador said, explaining that one of them is “the construction of projects related to the development of Mexico.”
At his Tuesday morning press conference, López Obrador told reporters that upon becoming president he found “a team of very important military engineers — good, hardworking, honest, first-class professionals.”
López Obrador defended the use of the military for a broad range of government tasks at his Tuesday morning press conference. (Lopezobrador.org.mx)
He didn’t specifically respond to Slim’s criticism of the military’s management of public companies.
“Anyway, I very much respect Carlos. And we always talk and debate. We don’t agree on everything,” he said.
“I respect him a lot because he is a hard working person who invests for the benefit of Mexico, he’s respectful of the power vested in the president,” López Obrador said.
Asked whether his government planned to buy Telmex, the president — a fierce critic of previous government’s privatization of public companies — gave an unequivocal response.
Slim said it’s a “surprise” that Mexico will get a female president for the first time later this year.
Claudia Sheinbaum, the candidate for the ruling Morena party, is the heavy favorite to win the June 2 election. Her main rival is Xóchitl Gálvez, the candidate for a three-party opposition alliance, while Jorge Álvarez will represent the Citizens Movement party.
Slim also shared his views on a number of other topical issues in Mexico, including upcoming elections. (Graciela López/Cuartoscuro)
Slim didn’t express any preference, but asserted that both Sheinbaum and Gálvez appear “very committed” and are enthusiastic about the prospect of governing. “This government [López Obrador’s] was one of transition,” said Slim. “I hope the next government, whoever the winner is, will be of consolidation.”
On the need for more investment
Investment in Mexico has “historically” been “relatively” low, Slim said.
He said that Mexico should aim to reach annual investment equivalent to 28-30% of the country’s GDP.
With that level of public and private investment — approximately US $440 billion per year — “we can transform Mexico very quickly,” Slim said.
He said in late 2022 that increased investment in manufacturing capacity in Mexico could spur annual economic growth of 6% or higher. Growth that high has not been seen since the middle of the 20th century.
On López Obrador’s proposed constitutional reforms
Slim said he liked some of the reforms, but disliked others. He described López Obrador’s minimum wage proposal as “good,” but was less supportive of a plan aimed at lifting retired workers’ pensions so that they are equivalent to 100% of their final salaries.
The Laura Kirar designed interior of Mesón Hidalgo in San Miguel de Allende. (Laura Kirar)
If you want to explore the best of the Mexican interior design scene, you need to know about San Miguel de Allende-based Laura Kirar. While she has Italian roots, Kirar has skillfully interwoven the essence of Mexican culture with contemporary sophistication through her one-of-a-kind creations.
As a prominent figure in the avant-garde interior design scene worldwide, what sets Kirar’s work apart, is the seamless blend of art and interior design. She considers herself an artist who envisions and transforms interior design into sculptural forms. Her style is renowned for its elegance, and she is passionate about crafting spaces that create experiences and moments. Kirar believes that her designs awaken something within people, prompting them to create their own memories.
Despite her Italian roots, Laura Kirar has reinvented Mexican interior design, effortlessly fusing the old and the new. (Laura Kirar/Instagram)
She first made her name by creating conceptual furniture, such as chairs that were intentionally uncomfortable and not meant for sitting, and fragile embroidered threads that disintegrate over time.
More recently, her work has graced major brands, with her freestanding bathtub and mirror for Kallista and Baker Furniture’s lighting projects becoming highly sought-after pieces by collectors across the world.
So who is this contemporary interior designer and artist? How did she come to fall in love with Mexican art and culture? In an exclusive interview with Mexico News Daily, Kirar discusses her personal sources of inspiration and her deep connection to Mexican culture. She also shares her knowledge of the Mexican design scene and much more.
Who is Laura Kirar as an influential creative in contemporary interior design?
I see myself as an artist, designer, and project director. I am very interested in materials, circumstances, and environments and especially in collaborations: in making projects with other creative minds, artisans, craftsmen, filmmakers, designers, and producers.
These chairs for the Vargueño collection are another of Kirar’s designs. (Laura Kirar)
Also, I’m interested in the idea of collaboration between myself as an artist and the people who experience my creations, because the work I make is not necessarily about me. It’s about creating a context where people can experience and create their own memories. It’s like creating moments of clarity, of impact for people who are in my interiors, who use my furniture, and who experience the installations. I want the person who’s interacting with these spaces to be brought into the present, but also to be transported out of the reality of where they are.
What were your creative motivations when you started your career and how do they change as a contemporary interior designer?
When I started studying industrial design, I didn’t really know what I was doing. I went to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and they didn’t have an industrial design department, so I was studying sculpture, and making metal sculptures, and I also had a very strong interest in architecture.
The first thing I did was create installations and spaces that would attract and stimulate the senses. But what I found myself doing was creating sculptures for these spaces: I was thinking a lot about domesticity and how certain objects in a home or a space communicate a use, and I wanted to challenge that.
I also saw the objects within a home or a space, often. I don’t know why, but somehow they also had a gender like a female or a male, and I also wanted to challenge domestic interpretation and domestic roles, so I started making conceptual furniture: like chairs that weren’t comfortable at all and weren’t meant to be sat on, or things that had woven surfaces that I would weave myself but that would intentionally disintegrate over a shorter period.
So there was a level of impermanence in the things I was making. It was kind of through a very conceptual lens that I found my way into making more commercial work and creating functional furniture pieces and designs that would eventually lead me down a very long path of creating collections for larger brands like Holly Hunt, Ralph Lauren, eventually Kohler Company, Baker Furniture, Arteriors Home… So it was a very organic path that led me into making furniture and industrial design.
What are your creative motivations right now as an influential creative in contemporary interior design?
It depends on the project. I’ve always had projects for corporate brands, designing into their brand, designing into their image, but of course, putting my stamp on the collection or the piece. Right now it’s a pivotal point for me because I’m coming full circle to where I was maybe 30 years ago and I’m doing more conceptual pieces again, sculpture and art. I think what I’m trying to do and communicate is about my experience of the world, but I also feel like it’s something in the ether, it’s something in the air that resonates with a lot of people, not just me. I’m very concerned about the environment, pollution, landscape, language and culture, and how all these things intersect and affect people’s lives.
Kirar’s projects have become more diverse as she works on collections with prestigious international brands. (Laura Kirar)
So for the last four years, I’ve been working in ceramics and I created this piece called ‘Forum Glyph’ and the whole purpose is that it’s a big table made out of a material that’s delicate and kind of challenging to create.
And the idea is that this Forum, this table for eight people, immediately puts their minds and their bodies in a certain context of respect and caution. It’s a forum for communication and exchange, a round table, so there’s no head, everybody’s there with an equal distribution of power. So these are things that I think about when I imagine a piece. Maybe if you don’t know the story behind the idea, maybe those things are communicated in a very subliminal way or maybe the pieces are just aesthetic; not everybody knows about the conceptual aspect of the work and I think that’s okay.
You describe your interior designs as a sculpture, could you tell us more about it and how this is special in the contemporary interior design scene?
The way I think about spaces is very much about how the body is going to move through them. So I walk into a space that I’m doing for a new client and usually within 30 seconds know what needs to happen in it; it’s because I can see myself and the client or anybody walking through the space, living it, experiencing it. Then the way I look at it, I think it’s like creating a sculpture or a painting. I call it a sculpture because it’s three-dimensional and of course, it’s an interior. But for me, a great painting is something that has a certain level of balance or intentional imbalance: the eye travels around this two-dimensional plane and then there’s something about it that gives you a sense of the interior architecture of a space. I think about how I would create a sculpture with certain parts being heavier, and some parts being lighter and making the body feel a certain way within that space. You can do that with colors, materials, textures, and objects, all of those things are a palette to put within the volume of the architecture.
What is your creative relationship with Mexico as an artist and interior designer?
Creatively, my relationship with Mexico is very complex. It has a lot to do with being challenged by a very rich history and a deep culture that on many levels is so different from the one I grew up with. And then on other levels, there’s a lot that resonates for me because of my Italian family background. There’s some similarity in the culture, especially in terms of the family, which is very similar to the way I grew up. Then the proportions, colors, the painterly quality, and all the incredible craftsmanship and history of the indigenous cultures for me was something I started a love affair with 20 years ago, and I still haven’t gotten over it.
It’s still an inspiration to me, a mystery, and it’s influenced my work. The collaborative relationships that I’ve had with the best artisans, the most talented craftsmen, and certainly in materials: are so many years doing a deep dive on techniques and materials here.
What’s next in your career as part of the interior design scene and artist?
I think I’ve come full circle and I’m starting to make more art: I just showed a piece at Miami during Art Basel and I’m going to show at Zona Maco. At the same time, I’m still working with clients, doing interiors, designing hotels, homes and my collection with Kallista. I have new collections coming out, and then there’s this other part of me that’s growing, and expanding: I feel like that’s the core of who I am, expanding myself as an artist.
What would you say about San Miguel de Allende, where you have your studio as part of the Mexican design and art scene?
I would say that I feel very fortunate to be living my life as an artist, splitting my time between San Miguel de Allende, Mérida, and also Mexico City: all of these places are so incredibly different and give just a little bit of the diverse cultures of Mexico.
Her work also graces San Miguel de Allende’s Mesón Hidalgo. (Laura Kirar)
Different places have influenced me a lot, and San Miguel was kind of an instrumental place for me to show some of the work that I have been doing with artisans in Mexico and also a platform to express myself and my interpretation of what a contemporary San Miguel looks like that is still rooted in the tradition of Guanajuato. That is Mesón Hidalgo, which has been widely published and was on the cover of Condé Nast Traveler for September: that was a great honor for us because that project celebrated my collaborations with young artists and artisans from Mexico. It’s like a great fusion of the tradition of Mexico with what’s happening now and what’s going to happen in the future in Mexican design. So it’s been a great experience to be in San Miguel.
What would you say about the Mexican design scene as an influential contemporary interior designer?
It’s kind of like a love affair with Mexico, I’m so delighted. It’s hard for me to imagine anything else, but I feel like Mexico is the center of the universe right now and Mexican design is so incredibly strong and influential. I think Mexico is going through a renaissance and the design and art that’s coming out of it right now is kind of unparalleled.
Ana Paula de la Torre is a Mexican journalist and collaborator of various media such as Milenio, Animal Político, Vice, Newsweek en Español, Televisa and Mexico News Daily.
XCMG are one of the world's largest manufacturers of heavy machinery. They plan to open a second manufacturing plant near Monterrey, Nuevo León. (XCMG)
A Chinese company ranked No. 3 in the world among manufacturers of heavy machinery and construction equipment has announced intentions to build a second plant in the state of Nuevo León.
Xuzhou Construction Machinery Group (XCMG), which arrived in Nuevo León in 2022, said its new plant will be in Ciénega de Flores, a municipality near Monterrey that has also had a large Bridgestone tire factory since 2007.
It is hoped the new site will create up to 300 new jobs. (XCMG)
Media reports said the new plan will see investment of US $80 million and create 300 new jobs in the state.
Making the announcement at its annual meeting, XCMG noted that it has already created more than 100 jobs in the state. Its current plant in Escobedo, a section of Monterrey with a big industrial park, makes scissor lifting platforms for the North American market.
Another Chinese company, the Lingong Machinery Group (LGM), announced in September that it, too, will manufacture scissor lifts, vertical lifts and boom lifts starting this year in a new 10-hectare industrial park in Nuevo León. Media reports said the company will invest $5 billion in a formidable, multi-pronged project that will create 7,000 new jobs.
“When a company decides to expand its operations, we [describe] the unique competitive advantages that Nuevo León offers to investors,” said Iván Rivas Rodríguez, the state’s economy minister.
Nuevo León’s Economy Minister Iván Rivas at a press conference announcing the XCMG investment in his state. (Sec de Economía NL/X)
Chinese furniture manufacturer Kuka Home Mexico is on board. Three weeks ago, it announced plans to expand its plant in Nuevo León, which it said is expected to create more than 4,000 jobs.
XCMG ranked as the third largest original equipment manufacturer (OEM) in the world in 2023, by the KHL Yellow Table, an annual ranking of the world’s top 50 OEMs by sales figures.
Its sales in 2023 were $13.41 billion, placing it behind only Texas-based Caterpillar ($37.54 billion) and Japan-based Komatsu ($24.65 billion), but ahead of Illinois-based John Deere ($12.53 billion).
XCMG is headquartered in Xuzhou, a city of more than 9 million in China’s northwestern Jiangsu province. The company has more than 40 plants and six research and development facilities in Germany, the United States, Brazil, India and elsewhere.
It manufactures loader cranes, lifters, excavators, concrete mixer trucks and tractors.
The tourism sector continues to boost the Mexican economy, with revenue reaching new heights in 2023. (Martín Zetina/Cuartoscuro)
International visitors spent a record high of US $30.8 billion in Mexico in 2023, federal Tourism Minister Miguel Torruco reported Monday.
The figure represents a 10% increase compared to 2022 and a 25.4% spike compared to 2019, a year now considered a benchmark because it was the final year of the pre-COVID era.
Tourism revenue is up more than 25% since before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. (Carlos Carbajal/Cuartoscuro)
“The historic result in foreign exchange earnings from international visitors confirms that the tourism policy implemented by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador is the right one,” Torruco said in a statement.
Data published by the Tourism Ministry (Sectur) showed that 75.02 million international visitors came to Mexico last year, a 13.7% increase compared to 2022, but 23% short of the 2019 total.
The term “international visitors” refers to international tourists — foreigners who stay in Mexico for at least one night — as well as cruise ship passenger on shore excursions and day-trippers who enter the country via the borders with the United States, Guatemala and Belize.
International tourists the biggest spenders, numbers up by 10%
Data derived from the International Travelers Surveys conducted by national statistics agency INEGI showed that 42.15 million international tourists spent $28.68 billion in Mexico — a figure equivalent to 93% of the $30.8 billion outlay of all international visitors.
The total number of international tourists rose by 10% compared to 2022 while their collective expenditure increased 8.9%. Tourist numbers were 6.4% below 2019 levels, but their total outlay was 28.3% higher.
Each international tourist spent an average of $680 in Mexico, while the figure for all international visitors was significantly lower at $411.
Around 50% of all international tourists in Mexico arrived via air in 2023. (Unsplash)
Just over half of all international tourists in 2023 — 22.83 million — flew into Mexico. Air arrivals were up 7% compared to 2022 and increased 16.3% compared to 2019.
International tourists who arrived by air collectively spent $25.7 billion while in the country, a 9% increase compared to 2022 and a 30.7% jump compared to 2019. On average, those tourists spent $1,126 dollar each while in the country, a 1.8% increase compared to 2022.
The tourism outlook for 2024
Torruco said that Sectur is forecasting that 42.46 million international tourists will come to Mexico this year, a figure that would exceed last year’s mark by 0.7%. Those who arrive by air are expected to spend an average of $1,155 each, which would be a 2.6% increase compared to 2023.
Total spending of all international visitors is forecast to reach $31.14 billion, which would be a 1.1% annual increase.
Torruco said that 9.33 million cruise ship passengers are expected to visit Mexico this year, which would be a 2.7% increase compared to last year.
Thomas Kole has recreated a virtual Tenochtitlán, the ancient Mexica (Aztec) metropolis that is now Mexico City. (Thomas Kole)
A 29-year-old man from the Netherlands who created a mesmerizing digitized representation of Tenochtitlán, the one-time capital of the Mexica Empire, has finally set foot in Mexico for the first time.
The virtual reconstruction that technical artist Thomas Kole worked on for 18 months in his apartment is “the most faithful portrait to date” of the once-thriving metropolis, says the Mexican newspaper El País.
Koles website allows users to switch between ancient and modern Mexico, and compare the Mexica capital with the city of today. (Thomas Kole)
“It was totally unexplored territory for me,” Kole told the paper. “I don’t even know how I found the topic. There is no catalyst. But I think once you read something about it, you’re hooked.”
Tenochtitlán, upon which Mexico City was built, was founded by the Mexicas, aka the Aztec people, around 1325 on an island in Lake Texcoco.
It was estimated that 200,000 to 400,000 people lived there by 1500, making it one of the most populous cities in the world at the time — four or five times as large as early 1500s London. Among its many features were three major causeways that ran from the “mainland” to the island city.
Kole attempted to recreate the city exactly as it was in 1518 — just before the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire, also known as the Conquest of Tenochtitlán, began in February 1519.
Kole is in Mexico to give a talk on his project. (Thomas Kole)
Kole, who will be giving a presentation on Friday — “I’m finally visiting Mexico City!” he posted late last week on the social media site X — said he first got interested in Tenochtitlán when walking virtually through the streets of Mexico City.
Looking at his computer, he realized that nothing he observed was telling him anything about the city buried beneath. “The idea settled in my head and it was impossible to get it out,” he said.
A history buff, he kept clicking away in an attempt to find out more about Tenochtitlán, part of which is featured on Mexico’s 50-peso note.He then turned to archaeological and historical sources, such as writings and old maps (“I soon realized that no one agrees on anything,” he lamented).
A year and half later, he finished his project — without ever crossing the Atlantic or even leaving home. His painstaking, detailed, colorful work is free for the public to view online. Prints made in Mexico are also available.
Kole’s renderings show the city at different times of day and different seasons. (Thomas Kole)
“Tenochtitlán surprised me in many aspects: its size, its organization, its structure,” he said. “Very beautiful things have been written about her. Its natural condition, on a lake and surrounded by volcanic mountains. Really summons the imagination.”
Kole is employed by a company that develops installations and interactive games for museums and other venues, but he worked on this project in his free time from his home in Amersfoort, Netherlands.
He said his work and his knowledge of video games helped keep things within manageable parameters.
“The result is an impressive journey through time,” writes El País.
Mexico City’s stunning volcanic backdrop is also captured in the renderings. (Thomas Kole)
Images in “A Portrait of Tenochtitlan” include the city and neighborhoods laid out in grids, the causeways, the Sacred Precinct at the center of the city, the imposing Templo Mayor, the palace of Moctezuma, plus other temples, schools, gardens and a zoo.
The volcanoes Popocatépetl and Iztaccíhuatl can be seen clearly, as well, unobstructed by the modern scourge of pollution.
“The year is 1518. Mexico-Tenochtitlan, once an unassuming settlement in the middle of Lake Texcoco, now a bustling metropolis,” Kole writes on the website, which can be accessed in Spanish, English and Nahuatl, an Uto-Aztecan language spoken today by about 1.5 million people in Mexico. “It is the capital of an empire ruling over, and receiving tribute from, more than 5 million people.”
Kole will provide much more insight during his talk at 6 p.m. Friday in the Jaime Torres Bodet auditorium at the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City. Entry is free, but seating is limited to about 350.
