An MND health announcement, in conjunction with Sarah DeVries: Think before you deworm.(Danilo Alvesd/Unsplash)
Disclaimer: Y’all know that I’m not a doctor, right? Be sure to talk to an actual one before taking any action.
Even if you’ve lived here for a while, there’s something you might not know: lots and lots of Mexicans “de-worm” themselves periodically.
Not like this, though. (JL Zavala)
That’s right. Plenty of people just kind of expect to get parasites in their gastrointestinal systems. But that’s not to say that they take it sitting down! Many families, once or twice a year and together, take a one or two-dose “deworming” chewable to get rid of them, and then just move on with their normal lives.
When I first found out about this, I’ll admit I found it…odd. “Say what you will about the American food system,” I’d joke, “but we don’t all take de-worming as a matter of course.”
If Moctezuma’s Revenge has ever fallen upon you here in Mexico, it’s very possible that a “de-worming” pill was part of what the doctor ordered for your treatment. Why? Because intestinal parasites — especially if you’re accustomed to eating “on the street” — are prolific. That’s what the companies that sell de-worming pills say, anyway.
Then again,that’s what the IMSS says, too. It’s always struck me as strange, though, that a practice so prevalent in one country can be nearly unheard of in its neighbor. So what gives?
Much of the reason that de-worming is encouraged here is because of a fairly large variety of food and water sanitation. You know how everyone says, “Don’t drink the water” in Mexico? Well, there’s a reason for that. While water sanitation plants in Mexico do their best, the pipes that they flow through can’t necessarily be trusted, for example:
Everyone seems to have different levels of comfort with the risks they take. I don’t drink water straight from the tap myself, but I do drink it boiled in tea or coffee. I also brush my teeth with it. So far, so good!
For most of us reading this, it’s a matter of choice. But for the millions of Mexicans who don’t haveaccess to properly sanitized water, the risk is higher.
There’s also the question of keeping one’s food free of contamination. Some of this is simply cultural; you cook food, and then you leave it out during the day because you’re going to have some more later. Eggs don’t get stored in the refrigerator, and often mayo doesn’t either — even after opening.
Contrast this to my childhood, where almost any food that sat out on the counter for more than an hour had to be thrown away, deemed by my mother as officially no longer safe. I’m guessing others had similar experiences. We also tend to eat much more processed food in the US, which means more preservatives, which are what they sound like — they “preserve” the food.
But here in Mexico, we’re closer to nature. And when you’re closer to nature, you’re, well, closer to nature. And parasites are part of nature. At least in my case, that reminds me to not get too romantic about it all. “Nature” is not all frolicking through the forest as sunlight dapples on the soft mossy ground, after all. It’s also ticks and mosquitos. And parasites.
Caution: May contain extra protein. (depositphoto)
As I’ve written before, Mexicans areperfectly okay with getting away from nature. Take their cleaning practices: nothing is truly clean if it hasn’t been doused in bleach, and the fewer “uncontrolled weeds” you have on your property, the better. I’m not saying Mexicans hate plants. They just want to be able to control them to a certain degree if they can afford to.
In a way, Mexicans “de-worm” everything they can, whenever they can. Do you know anyone in your home country who washes their bathroom and kitchen with bleach at least every two days? It’s all about the cleanliness around here.
I myself have never been known as the queen of hygiene. I’ve never bathed more than twice a week (except after a visit to the gym). I grew up in a home that was pretty much always not just messy, but dirty; any self-respecting Mexican would have fainted to see it. Nowadays, my home is always neat and orderly (natural inclination or trauma response? We may never know.) But truly clean and disinfected, a la mexicana? That only happens once a week, when the lady who helps me with the house comes.
She may not worry about the food sitting out after breakfast, but boy does she make sure the floor is spotless.
In the end, I think de-worming is an extension of this tendency to keep the “bad” parts of nature at bay. Their presence is inevitable, but that doesn’t mean we should let them defeat us! Especially for people who live in more rural areas. Or those too poor to have access to clean water or be choosy about how clean the food they ultimately consume is kept — I’ve known even city dwellers without refrigerators — those little de-worming pills can be a literal life-saver. You can’t stop eating or drinking water, but you can fight against any unwelcome guest that makes it in with them!
As for myself, it’s not often that I rush out to the pharmacy for one. But I could if I wanted to — they’re available without a prescription. Still, I wouldn’t recommend diving in without input from a doctor and perhaps a laboratory. Why take something you don’t need, after all?
Medical treatment can be, in the end, just like anything else:there are cultural components. Just ask the doctor who offered to have someone rub an egg on me to draw out an infection.
In the meantime, keep clean and when in doubt, ask a doctor!
FIFA President Gianni Infantino presents President Sheinbaum with a mockup of the first ticket to the opening match of the World Cup, set for June 11, 2026, in Mexico City. She also got a real ticket. (Presidencia/Cuartoscuro.com)
President Claudia Sheinbaum said on Friday that she will give away the complimentary ticket she received for the opening match of the 2026 World Cup in Mexico City.
Sheinbaum welcomed Gianni Infantino, the president of the global governing body of soccer known as FIFA, to the National Palace on Thursday to discuss the preparations for the prestigious international soccer tournament. Mexico will be the site of 13 World Cup matches as it serves as joint host alongside Canada and the United States.
Estadio Banorte, a remodeled version of the Mexico CIty stadium long known as Estadio Azteca, will host the opening match and ceremonies of World Cup 2026. (Rogelio Morales/Cuartoscuro)
While the pair discussed match locations, economic impact and infrastructure plans, Infantino supplemented his gift by presenting Sheinbaum with a giant replica of the front-row ticket for the inaugural match, labeled Row 1, Seat 1, Ticket No. 00001.
During her Friday morning press conference, Sheinbaum said she will be giving away the real opening match ticket. That first match will be held at Mexico City’s Estadio Banorte (formerly Estadio Azteca) on June 11, 2026, along with the Opening Ceremonies
“I’m thinking of giving the ticket to a young girl who likes soccer and wouldn’t have an opportunity to come to the stadium,” Sheinbaum said.
Estimates of the number of viewers of the match have run as high as 6 billion.
In a Thursday social media post, Sheinbaum expressed appreciation for Infantino’s visit, while also recognizing the historic role Mexico will play in the quadrennial tournament.
Mexico will become the first nation to host three different World Cup tournaments after serving as lone host of the 1970 and 1986 events.
“It’s going to be a very important moment for Mexico,” she said on Friday. “The eyes of the world will be upon us and, as always, Mexico’s people will be generous and filled with joy.”
In addition to the ticket, Infantino presented Sheinbaum with a replica of the coveted World Cup trophy.
The Mexican Soccer Federation has said the tournament is expected to generate a US $3 billion economic windfall for Mexico and create roughly 24,000 jobs. Tourism revenues are projected to surpass US $1 billion from an estimated 5.5 million visitors.
In addition to Mexico City, Guadalajara and Monterrey will serve as host cities for the matches in Mexico.
Residents in certain parts of northern Mexico might want to prepare to bundle up as the first cold front of the season is on its way. (Fernando Carranza García/Cuartoscuro.com)
Mexico’s first cold front of the season is expected to arrive this weekend, primarily affecting the northeastern states of the country, according to the National Meteorological Service (SMN).
In the northeast, temperatures are expected to drop to between 0 and 5 degrees Celsius (32-41 F) during the early morning hours accompanied by heavy rains and potential hail.
Parts of the north can expect cold weather while much of the rest of Mexico will feel the heat. But rain is a threat everywhere over the next few days. (X)
On Monday, when children in Mexico go back to school, heavy rains are expected in the states of Nuevo León and Tamaulipas. Meanwhile, whirlwinds or tornadoes are expected in the state of Coahuila on Sunday, spreading to areas of Nuevo León and Tamaulipas on Monday.
Other states such as Puebla, Durango, and México state could see low temperatures and rain. The forecast predicts the rainy season will continue until Sept. 30, before the full onset of autumn.
While the northeast experiences the effects of the late-summer cold fronts, the rest of the country will see warm temperatures and rainfall. Over the weekend, a low-pressure zone with the potential for cyclonic development is expected to form south of the Guerrero coast, with occasional heavy rains in Veracruz, Guerrero, Oaxaca, Chiapas and Tabasco.
Hot to very hot weather (35 to 40 degrees C, or 95-104 degrees F) will persist over states along the Pacific and southern Gulf of Mexico coasts, the Yucatán Peninsula, and further south in parts of Jalisco, Colima, Michoacán, Guerrero and Oaxaca.
The cold front season will officially run from Sept. 15 to May 15, 2026, bringing between 51 and 56 cold front systems throughout the country.
Here’s the latest rain by state for Friday:
Very heavy to intense rainfall (75 to 150 millimeters): Oaxaca (southwest), Chiapas (east and south) and Tabasco (east and south).
Heavy to very heavy rainfall (50 to 75 millimeters): Baja California Sur, Sonora, Chihuahua, Sinaloa, Durango, Nayarit, Jalisco, Michoacán, Guerrero, Veracruz, Campeche and Yucatán.
Showers with heavy rainfall (25 to 50 millimeters): Baja California, Zacatecas, Colima, Guanajuato, Querétaro, Mexico state, Mexico City, Morelos, Puebla and Quintana Roo.
Intervals of showers (5 to 25 millimeters): Coahuila, Nuevo León, Tamaulipas, San Luis Potosí, Aguascalientes, Hidalgo and Tlaxcala.
The predicted rain may bring lightning and hail, causing rising river and stream levels, landslides, and flooding in low-lying areas. Weather authorities have advised residents in affected areas to exercise caution.
Next week's security talks with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio dominated President Sheinbaum's last mañanera of the week. (Presidencia)
The upcoming visit to Mexico of United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio was a key focus of President Claudia Sheinbaum’s Friday morning press conference.
It will be Rubio’s first trip to Mexico since he became the United States’ top diplomat.
Sheinbaum was asked about the agenda for her meeting with the 54-year-old Trump administration official as well as the new bilateral security agreement (or “understanding”) that Mexico and the United States have been negotiating in recent months.
As usual, the president’s mañanera was held at the National Palace, where the meeting with Rubio will take place next week.
Sheinbaum will meet with Marco Rubio in CDMX on Sept. 3
Sheinbaum told reporters that Rubio is coming to Mexico next Wednesday Sept. 3.
Sheinbaum confirmed Rubio would visit Mexico on Wednesday, Sept. 3. (Michael Vadon/Flickr)
Sheinbaum said on Friday that the agreement — or “understanding” as she is now calling it on the advice of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs — wouldn’t necessarily be signed during the secretary of state’s visit.
The U.S. Department of State announced on Thursday that Rubio would travel to Mexico and Ecuador between Sept. 2 and 4 “to advance key U.S. priorities.”
A statement from a Department of State spokesperson said those priorities include “swift and decisive action to dismantle cartels, halt fentanyl trafficking, end illegal immigration, reduce the trade deficit, and promote economic prosperity and counter malign extra continental actors.”
“The Secretary’s fourth trip to our hemisphere demonstrates the United States’ unwavering commitment to protect its borders, neutralize narco-terrorist threats to our homeland, and ensure a level playing field for American businesses,” the statement said.
“Secretary Rubio’s engagements will deepen bilateral ties with Mexico and Ecuador and foster broader burden sharing across our region,” it concluded.
Asked about the agenda for her meeting with the Miami-born former senator, Sheinbaum said that the secretary of state is coming to Mexico to conclude talks related to the new security “understanding.”
“And we’re going to take the opportunity to show him everything we’re doing in Mexico in many areas, and in particular on the issue of security,” she said.
Sheinbaum said that the new security pact “wouldn’t necessarily be signed” next week because “everything that has to do with bilateral relations has its protocols.”
She said that there is nothing “very new” in the “understanding,” apart from “some things that have to do with joint investigations into fentanyl precursors.”
The understanding includes new provisions related to joint investigations to trace fentanyl precursors, Sheinbaum said. (DEA)
“How do fentanyl precursors arrive? For example,” Sheinbaum said.
She also said there are “some other [new] frameworks for collaboration and coordination, within the framework of respect for our sovereignty.”
Sheinbaum indicated that the new Mexico-U.S. security “understanding” acknowledges the importance of campaigns to prevent drug use, and notes that the U.S. government has to work to “avoid the trafficking of weapons” to Mexico.
The president previously revealed that the bilateral pact is “fundamentally” based on “sovereignty, mutual trust, territorial respect … and coordination without subordination.”
Agreement? Understanding? ‘It’s the same thing,’ says Sheinbaum
A reporter asked the president what the difference is between a security agreement and a security understanding.
“It’s the same thing,” Sheinbaum responded.
“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs made the clarification,” she said, explaining that there are a variety of “categories” of bilateral pacts, each with a different name.
“Some even need approval from the [respective] senates, like the USMCA, for example,” Sheinbaum said.
The new understanding is similar to the Bicentennial Framework, a bilateral security agreement signed in 2021, the president said. (Presidencia)
“The Foreign Affairs Ministry just clarified what its name is,” Sheinbaum said.
“Let’s see if you can ask the foreign affairs minister for the exact name of this agreement, this understanding that we’ve been negotiating for several months,” she said.
Asked what is the difference between the new, soon-to-be signed “understanding” and the Bicentennial Framework that took effect in 2021, Sheinbaum said the former is “very similar” to the latter.
“They are high-level agreements for security issues and other issues,” she said.
‘They proposed greater intervention in our country and we said no’
Sheinbaum said that the United States asked for things “that weren’t acceptable for us” during the negotiations for the new security understanding.
She said that her government also proposed things that the United States thought “shouldn’t be in this document.”
Pushed as to what U.S. proposals were unacceptable for Mexico, Sheinbaum said:
“They proposed greater intervention in our country and we said no.”
On Friday, Sheinbaum said that her government will “never sign anything that, from our perspective, violates our sovereignty or our territory.”
“They can have the intention to do it, but we told them no,” she said.
“It’s the same as in the calls I’ve had with President Trump, where he says: ‘Don’t you want us to help you with the U.S. army?’ And I tell him, ‘No President Trump, that are many other forms of collaboration and cooperation, but not that.”
President Sheinbaum has proven to be highly popular since early in her term. She will give her first State of the Nation Address (Informe) on Monday, Sept. 1. (Presidencia/Cuartoscuro.com)
As Claudia Sheinbaum prepares to deliver her first State of the Nation Address (Informe) on Monday, a new poll indicates she is the most popular Mexican president at this stage of her incumbency in decades.
Eleven months into Sheinbaum’s six-year term, a public opinion survey conducted by the Mitofsky Group for the newspaper El Economista reveals that 71.4% of those polled support the president’s management of the country.
This result places Sheinbaum comfortably ahead of her predecessor and mentor Andrés Manuel López Obrador (62% in 2019), as well as Vicente Fox (62% in 2001), Felipe Calderón (66% in 2007) and Enrique Peña Nieto (56% in 2013).
Her approval rating soared early in her term, reaching 78% near the 100-day mark. That it’s still in the 70s near her one-year anniversary shows the December rating was not just a honeymoon effect.
Additionally, nearly 66% said Mexico is better off than when Sheinbaum took office last October and 58% said she has exceeded their expectations.
Those surveyed identified her top achievements as social welfare programs (8.9%), scholarships for students (8.8%), support for senior citizens (8.2%) and support for women (3.4%). Sheinbaum’s management of foreign policy came in sixth at 3.3%, while 4% said they believe she is successfully fighting crime.
However, nearly 46% of those surveyed identified the lack of security as the primary problem the country faces, though only 9.7% indicated that Sheinbaum’s biggest shortcoming thus far was failing to adequately combat crime.
Other primary issues of concern were the economy (9%), corruption (8.1%) and unemployment (5.6%).
The Mitofsky results are in line with a Buendía & Márquez poll conducted for the newspaper El Universal released on Monday which found 70% support for Sheinbaum.
Interior Minister Rosa Icela Rodríguez will present the printed version of the constitutionally mandated annual report to Congress on Monday morning, while Sheinbaum will deliver an address from the National Palace at 11 a.m.
The improved terminal at the Ciudad Juárez International Airport more than doubles the facility’s surface area and its per-year passenger capacity. (Nacho Ruiz/Cuartoscuro.com)
Ciudad Juárez International Airport (CJS) has opened a new terminal to streamline its operations in the latest phase of a major expansion that will continue through 2030, aimed at turning the border city into a key node in international connectivity.
Ricardo Dueñas, general director of Grupo Aeroportuario del Centro Norte (OMA) — the Juárez airport’s operator that has developed 13 airports in Mexico — attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony earlier this week along with Chihuahua Governor Maru Campos.
Chihuahua Governor Maru Campos and OMA general director Ricardo Dueñas (to her left) were on hand at the ribbon cutting ceremony for the new terminal at the Ciudad Juárez Interntional Airport, also known as the Abraham González International Airport. (Gobierno de Chihuahua)
“Today marks the arrival of a new, modern face for this airport, which contributes to our goal of generating trust, certainty, and competitiveness,” Governor Campos said.
With an investment of 828.4 million pesos (US $44 million), the renovation more than doubles the facility’s surface area from 6,210 square meters to 13,857, and its per-year passenger capacity (from 960,000 to 2.6 million).
The work created over 380 direct jobs as it refurbished the waiting rooms and restrooms, installed new furniture and more air conditioning, created three new boarding gates, improved the baggage handling system, added automatic doors and upgraded the communication and lighting systems.
The renovation also added automatic doors and fire vehicles. An innovative storm drainage system, electrical substations, backup power systems, and a redesigned parking area were also incorporated, in addition to expanding the concourse.
The upgraded airport is expected to strengthen the network of 14 domestic destinations served by airlines such as Viva, Volaris, Aeroméxico, and TAR, in addition to cargo operations with DHL and Aeronaves TSM. The new infrastructure streamlines logistics and supports bilateral trade while boosting tourism and business in the border region.
However, the most ambitious CJS expansion is yet to come. OMA has announced plans to invest approximately $1.1 billion pesos (US $58.9 million) between 2026 and 2030 on further expansion of the terminal to serve 2.9 million passengers and increase accessibility for people with disabilities.
The airport’s renovation is part of OMA and Vinci Airports’ global strategy to develop airports that meet high international standards of safety, efficiency, sustainability and accessibility.
Vinci Airports, a French subsidiary of the Vinci Group, is one of OMA’s largest shareholders. In 2022, Vinci Airports purchased 29.9% of the share capital of OMA. The move allowed Vinci to enter the Mexican market, adding the operation and management of 13 international airports across nine states mostly in the northern and central regions of the country.
Delegations from Brazil and Mexico, Latin America's largest economies, met this week in Mexico City to revamp a decade-old trade deal. (Presidencia)
Mexico and Brazil signed a plethora of agreements on agriculture, health and biofuels on Thursday, part of a plan to strengthen a trade framework inked more than two decades ago. However, the deals falls short of the trade pact the South American nation hoped to reach.
President Claudia Sheinbaum hosted Brazil’s Vice President Geraldo Alckmin and a contingent of cabinet ministers and business leaders at the National Palace, where the sides negotiated cooperation and regulatory updates.
In a social media post, Sheinbaum praised the “very productive meetings … held between Mexican and Brazilian authorities and businesspeople to strengthen cooperation in scientific, economic and environmental development.”
Sheinbaum had made clear that Mexico could not extend Brazil any arrangement comparable to the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), while Alckmin admitted that Brazil is not free to negotiate a broader free trade agreement without going through the Mercosur trade bloc.
In 2002, Mexico and Brazil signed the Economic Complementation Agreement No. 55, which serves as a free trade agreement between Mexico and the Mercosur countries. Though focused on the automotive sector, it aims to foster economic integration and bilateral trade despite the two countries’ separate trade bloc memberships.
Where’s the beef?
Alckmin said Brazil — the world’s largest beef exporter — hopes to ship more cattle meat to Mexico after the U.S. President Donald Trump hit Latin America’s biggest economy with tariffs.
“What we want is for the sale of Brazilian products not to be interrupted while Brazil moves towards traceability, something we agreed on,” Alckmin said, according to the news agency Reuters.
Mexico recently surpassed the U.S. as the No. 2 importer of Brazil’s beef. Between Aug. 1-25, Brazil exported 10,200 metric tons of beef to Mexico worth US $58.8 million, Reuters reported.
Even before the tariffs were imposed, beef shipments to Mexico were growing, according to the Brazilian Beef Exporters Associations (ABIEC). In the first seven months of 2025, Brazil exported 67,659 tons of beef to Mexico, nearly triple the volume from the same period last year.
Luis Rua, secretary of trade at Brazil’s Agriculture Ministry, said Brazilian beef can help keep Mexican inflation in check.
Mexico has replaced the U.S. as the second-biggest buyer of Brazilian beef after the U.S. placed tariffs on Brazilian products. China remains the No. 1 buyer. (File photo)
The importation of so much beef begs the question of whether or not Mexico will re-export the meat.
Mauricio Nogueira, director of Brazilian livestock consultancy Athenagro, told Reuters that if Mexico starts sending beef to the U.S., it will likely have to buy Brazilian beef to meet domestic demand. Nogueira suggested Mexico could even triangulate Brazilian beef to the U.S. market.
“We send it to Mexico, but we don’t know exactly what Mexico will do with the meat,” Rua told Reuters.
Additional areas of agreement
While Brazil was focused on beef, Sheinbaum expressed interest in Brazil’s biofuel mandate, which orders more biofuels mixed into fossil fuels. Brazil is renowned for its achievements in the development of bioethanol, sustainable aviation fuels (SAF), biodiesel and sustainable marine fuels.
The result was a declaration of intent to increase cooperation in the production, use, regulation and certification of biofuels, with the goal of growing Mexico’s biofuel sector.
Additionally, Mexico’s Economy Minister Marcelo Ebrard highlighted plans to modernize automotive rules of origin, align sanitary regulations, and explore cooperation in deep-water energy and agriculture.
He also stressed Mexico’s interest in smoother regulatory cooperation and access for Mexican manufactured goods.
The countries signed memorandums of understanding (MOU) on health regulation and science, the latter being a cooperation agreement between Mexico’s Biologicals and Reagents Laboratories and Brazil’s Oswaldo Cruz Foundation.
Trade between the two countries totaled US $13.6 billion in 2024, according to the newspaper The Rio Times, with Mexican exports to Brazil reaching US $5.8 billion.
A Wixárika woman surveys the view from atop the Cerro del Quemado at sunrise. The Wirikuta route is now UNESCO-recognized but it still requires government intervention to protect it from exploitation. (Tracy L. Barnett)
Dawn takes its time in the Chihuahuan desert. By the time the first light brushes the hills above Wirikuta, Wixárika pilgrims are already moving, with gourd bowls and candles in hand, and stories carried in footsteps along a 500-kilometer thread of sacred sites that ties mountains to springs, desert to sea, and families to their ancestors. Last month, UNESCO wove that thread into World Heritage.
The next chapter is less poetic: governance, access agreements and enforcement where fences, factory farms and mining concessions have eroded the landscape, strained aquifers and frayed a living tradition.
The Wixárika Route became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in July 2025. (Tracy L. Barnett)
The trail to the semi-desert reserve known as Wirikuta — to the Wixárika, the Birthplace of the Sun — stretches across five states, marked by sacred springs and hills and shrines. The designation is the first such honor in Latin America for a living Indigenous tradition. What that recognition means on the ground and how an ancient ceremony meets modern Mexico’s laws, land uses and pressures, has been the focus of much discussion since the decision was announced.
The many threats to Wirikuta
Wixárika land defenders and their allies have long fought an onslaught of threats to their sacred sites, from mining to industrial agriculture to illegal peyote extraction. They hope the international recognition will take protection efforts to the next level.
But the desert is already under siege, with explosive growth in industrial agriculture, and government response has been inadequate. In a desert where aquifers are already at the red line, unchecked expansion undercuts the very values UNESCO just recognized.
An even bigger threat looms, too. Nearly 80 mining concessions have been granted that cover more than two-thirds of the Wirikuta Natural Protected Area, and while a court order has put them on hold, the injunction is provisional. The titles remain on the books, and because Mexico’s 2023 mining reform did not revoke existing concessions, operations could resume.
Who are the Wixárika?
The Wixárika (or Huichol) are an Indigenous people of the Western Sierra Madre in Jalisco, Nayarit and Durango. They maintain their language, communal governance and a rigorous ceremonial calendar led by mara’akate (spiritual guides). Each year, pilgrims travel the well-worn paths, leaving offerings at sacred sites along the way and culminating in Wirikuta, one of the most biodiverse desert landscapes in the world. Wirikuta is their most sacred temple, the place where they pray with their sacred plant, the “hikuri” or peyote cactus, for guidance and for the well-being of all life on Earth.
For the Wixárika, the stakes are both spiritual and practical. “By keeping these sacred places alive, we keep the culture alive,” says Aukwe Mijares of the Wixárika Regional Council in Defense of Wirikuta.
The Wixárika Route is home to a plethora of desert flora and fauna. (Tracy L. Barnett)
UNESCO’s vote recognized that places like mountains, springs and even footpaths can have Outstanding Universal Value. Meaning, the same cultural weight as a cathedral.
“People said, ‘Why rescue the right-of-way, the traditional route? People can just take a car,’” says Humberto Fernández, founder of Conservación Humana and a lead architect of the nomination. “But this was also a demand from the elders — they told us, between the Sierra and Wirikuta there are many important sacred places. And the old walking routes are also very important to us.”
He compared the route with Spain’s Camino de Santiago, the first UNESCO-designated pilgrimage path, which the Wixárika Route now joins as the latest in a small family of inscribed cultural routes.
What UNESCO recognition does — and doesn’t do
Recognition brings attention and obligations. Mexico must set up a representative oversight committee, approve a workable safeguarding plan, and file regular reports on the route’s condition. The spotlight also adds outside scrutiny. UNESCO can ask for follow-up and publicly flag backsliding, which can stiffen enforcement of protections that already exist.
Mexico is a party to the legally binding Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage. “The inscription obligates the government to safeguard the route’s Outstanding Universal Value, stating that each State Party should use all its legal framework and institutional capacity to protect the Outstanding Universal Value of each site,” said Fernández. UNESCO sets the standards and monitors compliance through periodic and reactive reports, advisory missions, and, if needed, even delisting.
What it does not do is override Mexican law or cancel mining titles, greenhouses or other permits; nor does it replace day-to-day enforcement by federal, state and municipal authorities. It doesn’t, by itself, protect every place that matters. And while UNESCO can provide technical support and very limited funds, the budget and day-to-day management must come from the Mexican government.
From Cerro Quemado, the sacred heart of Wirikuta, the desert below is carved into vast agricultural plots — industrial development that drains fragile aquifers and encroaches on Indigenous pilgrimage lands. (Tracy L. Barnett)
Observers say real change will come from how authorities apply Mexican law, administering protected-area decrees, environmental impact statements, and water and land-use rules, and from cooperation with landowners and communities. To date, enforcement has been thin. The hope is that the added leverage of international attention helps tip the balance.
“In UNESCO’s recommendation, the very first point is that there must be no mining concessions,” notes Wixárika spokesperson Aukwe Mijares. “That gives us hope — so protection actually happens on the ground.”
What the UNESCO listing requires now
The UNESCO designation comes with concrete obligations that Mexico must fulfill to maintain the route’s World Heritage status. The detailed action plan touches everything from an oversight committee to on-the-ground enforcement.
Seat a real governance structure with Indigenous participation. The Mexican government must finalize a coordinating body that ensures Wixárika participation and protects the route’s Outstanding Universal Value and key attributes.
Establish a Management Unit and deliver a workable plan. Mexico must establish the Management Unit and implement an Integrated plan that covers conservation, safeguarding, access, and enforce strict, culturally appropriate visitor management where it comes into contact with tourists.
Mexico should name exactly what’s protected (sites, crossings, the living pilgrimage) and align cultural-heritage, environmental, land-use and water rules.
Secure right-of-way and manage access through private lands. The evaluation flags fences and property demarcations that block pilgrims; it urges negotiated access agreements and consistent enforcement.
Address key threats with monitoring and enforcement. Mining (including new interest near San Luis Potosí), vast expanses of greenhouses for tomato production, factory farms, peyote extraction and urban growth are cited as the main pressures.
What Wixárika leaders are asking for
While UNESCO’s requirements provide a framework, Wixárika leaders have their own priorities, many of which go beyond what the international body mandates. Their demands, shared through a statement released by the Wixárika Regional Council, reflect decades of struggle against encroachment on sacred lands and a clear vision for what meaningful protection looks like.
Make the mining suspension permanent. Wixárika authorities and the Wixárika Regional Council have repeatedly demanded cancellation of the 78 concessions affecting Wirikuta.
Elevate protection to the federal level. Leaders want the Wirikuta Natural Protected Area — currently state-level in San Luis Potosí — to be moved to federal status to close loopholes and strengthen enforcement.
Tie UNESCO to real alternatives for locals. Provide dignified, sustainable livelihoods for residents so they aren’t pushed into agribusiness or extractive projects on sacred lands.
Strengthen protection of hikuri (peyote). Increase enforcement against harvest and trafficking by non-Wixárika groups, and support public education that peyote is sacred and slow-growing.
Adopt a general policy to protect cultural and natural heritage in regional planning and development programs, developed with the participation of local residents and the Wixárika people.
Fund science and monitoring. Carry out adequate scientific and technical studies to identify risks to sacred places (e.g., spring/aquifer baselines, peyote population surveys, impact assessments) and use those findings to guide action.
Back it with tools and money. Adopt the legal, scientific, technical, administrative and financial measures needed to conserve the sites — e.g., aligned decrees and access agreements, a staffed site manager/management unit, clear procedures and a dedicated budget.
What longtime observers and defenders say to watch
The Wixárika have many more religious sites that fall outside of the UNESCO-recognized trail. (Tracy L. Barnett)
Beyond official requirements and community demands lies the question of implementation. The nitty-gritty details that will determine success or failure. Environmental researchers, legal advocates and those who’ve spent years defending these lands point to specific pressure points that will reveal whether Mexico is serious about protection.
Follow the water (and the basins). Researchers are seeing large water demands for industrial agriculture and link dried springs and lagoons to cumulative pumping, greenhouse expansion and road cuts. Mining, if allowed, would require vast water inputs. Impacts must be measured at the watershed scale, they say, not just as dots on a map.
Point-by-point work at all 20 inscribed places. The International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) recommends transparent, site-specific actions and public updates so communities can track progress in each of the disparate areas identified on the route.
Enforce existing decrees and stop illegal land uses. Calls include halting destructive agro-industrial practices, removing illegal barriers on communal lands and upholding the right-of-way to sacred sites.
Access, fencing, and fragmentation. On-the-ground defenders cite illegal fencing and road grading that dry soils, block wildlife (including white-tailed deer, the most sacred animal for the Wixárika people), and cut historic passages — in particular, a 4-kilometer illegal fence in Las Margaritas that could prove a litmus test for whether the inscription has teeth.
Set up a process to add additional sites that were not included in the current list. The inscription covers 20 places, but key sites remain outside. Most notably, Xapawiyemeta (Scorpion Island) in Lake Chapala, one of the Wixárika’s five sacred directions.
Get the commission right. Scholars emphasize that the listing only works if a representative commission is seated, and the management plan truly reflects a living route, not a static monument.
What happens next
After the applause, making World Heritage real is mostly about process. Who sits at the table? How are decisions made? Do the protections written on paper show up on the land as open trails and flowing springs?
The Wixárika have kept this tradition alive across centuries of change. UNESCO’s inscription gives them one more tool. Whether it works will be evident not in a plaque, but in the landscape. It will be in a route that remains passable, a desert that continues to bloom, waters that continue to flow, and a people that can keep walking toward the sun.
Tracy L. Barnett is a freelance writer based in Guadalajara. She is the founder of The Esperanza Project, a bilingual magazine covering social change movements in the Americas.
Wresters, nuns and anthropologists: Here are 5 more Mexico City legends. (Canva)
Welcome back to our deep dive into Mexico City’s most influential cultural figures! In part one, we covered the entertainment legends and sports icons who shaped Mexican society — from Cantinflas creating his own verb to Hugo Sánchez’s “divorce of the decade.” Now, in part two, we’re diving into more artists, rebels, and boundary-breakers who challenged conventions and redefined what it meant to be Mexican. As a reminder, this list was compiled with the help of three born-and-raised capitalinos who helped me identify the cultural phenoms that every foreigner should know to truly understand Mexico. Ready for more chisme? Let’s continue with figures that are sure to come up at your next neighborhood get-together.
Actor Eugenio Derbez is one of the most influential figures born in Mexico City. (X, formerly Twitter)
The controversial Eugenio Derbez achieved his fame through hit television comedies, subsequently breaking ground in Hollywood in the early 2010s. He wrote, directed and starred in the 2013 film “Instructions Not Included,” the highest-grossing Spanish-language film ever released in North America. Surprisingly, despite his showbiz heritage (he was the son of actress Silvia Derbez), Eugenio endured intense workplace bullying for years and was painfully shy before making it big. Known for his vibrant characters and advocacy for greater Latino representation in media, his personal life was equally screen-worthy. Derbez’s real-life “boda falsa” created a media circus and long-standing animosity with the public, fueling years of headlines and jabs. In 1992, Derbez and his pregnant girlfriend, actress Victoria Ruffo, staged a symbolic fake wedding to quiet the press.
However, the event wasn’t legally binding and later caused feelings of betrayal when it surfaced that Ruffo believed it was real. This misunderstanding sparked feuds, custody battles and family rifts. He was estranged from his son, José Eduardo, for years due to the breakup. The relationship thawed only recently, with the birth of his granddaughter. Some colleagues and fans see him as arrogant and “difficult.” Numerous public beefs were sparked by his sharp humor and pointed social media posts.
7. Miguel Covarrubias (Artist and Anthropologist, 1904–1957)
Miguel Covarrubias with his first wife, Rosa. (Gobierno de Mexico)
Known for his bold, colorful art that fused modern styles with Mexican indigenous themes, Covarrubias’ multifaceted career included illustration, cultural critique, and museum exhibitions. He lived a magnetic double life between Mexico and New York City. In the latter, for instance, he became a prodigy by his early 20s as a caricaturist for The New Yorker and Vanity Fair. Regardless of his success, Covarrubias was infamous for his chronic unreliability, which was so bad that he failed to respond to urgent work for the Rockefellers and Whitneys. First married to dancer and photographer Rosa Rolanda, their marriage became strained over his political activism with Diego Rivera and other leftists.
Those associations that would eventually bar him from re-entering the U.S. during the McCarthy era. With the end of his career in the U.S. came the end of his first marriage. He left Rosa in the early ’50s for a much younger student, Rocío Sagaón (with whom he had a 29-year age difference). Later, he married her to kick off his new chapter back in Mexico. The relationship ignited high emotion. Rosa Rolanda reportedly threatened Sagaón with a kitchen knife and then a pistol when the affair came to light, but was stopped by others before anything tragic happened. He died five years after marrying Sagaón, leaving behind a legacy of artistic brilliance shadowed by personal chaos.
8. Nahui Olín (Artist and Feminist Icon, 1893–1978)
Born and raised in Mexico, Nahui Olín was a scandalous figure in Mexican culture. (La Esmerelda)
Born in Mexico City’s Tacubaya neighborhood, Nahui Olín was a bold, scandalous force in Mexican art and culture. A painter, poet and muse, she defied the country’s conservative norms with her unapologetic sensuality. She did things that were otherwise unthinkable for a respectable woman at the time. Like posing nude for renowned artists and creating provocative self-portraits.
Her passionate, tumultuous relationships, notably with muralist Dr. Atl, were marked by outlandish public outbursts. Once, upon discovering two women in the home she shared with Atl, Olín flew into a fit of rage and tried to push both women off the balcony. On another occasion, Atl woke up to find his lover, naked and furious, pointing a revolver directly at his chest. After a struggle, she fired five rounds into the floor, sparing him his life. Not one to endure such experiences in silence, Olín let the world know about her anger. She once hung a handwritten note on Atl’s front door, denouncing his affairs for the entire neighborhood to see.
In her younger years, she was a celebrated figure in Mexico City’s elite circles. But Olín’s later years were marked by tragedy. Eventually, she was ostracized, impoverished and forced to sell nude photos to survive. Despite dying in relative obscurity, she has since been rediscovered as a pioneering feminist icon and fearless artist who blazed a path for feminist expression in Mexican art and society.
9. Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (Intellectual, Poet and Feminist, 1648 or 1651–1695)
Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz was eventually forced to sell her beloved library. (Public Domain)
Born illegitimate but precocious, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz stunned colonial society with her genius. As a teenager, she proved her intellect in a public debate at the viceroy’s court. She famously rejected marriage and its subsequent loss of independence. Instead, she joined a convent where her cell became a literary salon for the colony’s elite. Known for razor-sharp wit, Sor Juana challenged church misogyny and male hypocrisy through her writing. Her secret critique, “Carta Atenagórica,” triggered backlash from religious authorities. Thanks to the Bishop of Puebla, who published her private letter without her consent, Sor Juana was pressured to renounce her studies.
She sold her beloved library and, as legend has it, signed her final convent pledge in her own blood. Rumors swirled about the true nature of her close friendships with female patrons and nuns, fueling speculation that her affections crossed boundaries between spiritual and romantic. At the end of her life, Sor Juana devoted herself to charity, taking on the role of nurse during a plague outbreak. Her defiance and intellect endure as powerful symbols of female rebellion and brilliance in Mexican history.
10. El Santo (Lucha Libre Legend, 1917–1984)
Famous wrestler El Santo was rarely seen without his mask. (Gobierno de CDMX)
Rodolfo Guzmán Huerta was Mexico’s first legendary masked wrestler. He starred in numerous popular films that mythologized his persona. But he maintained his masked identity at all times, building an enduring mystique and cultural symbol that represents Mexican folklore, justice and the spectacle of lucha libre wrestling. He maintained his mask in public even after death, and only twice in his life did he reveal his face. The first was in a film with a body double. His second reveal was on television, just weeks before he died. It was as if he were giving a final curtain call to the nation.
El Santo’s funeral was unprecedented, with 10,000 mourners and traffic in Mexico City grinding to a halt as his masked body was interred. He was buried wearing his iconic silver mask, so that even in death, he remained the character that had captivated millions. His son, El Hijo del Santo (Jorge Ernesto Guzmán Rodríguez), also became a lucha legend. However, he faced his own scandals and threats to sue over photos of his father, proving that even legendary legacies come with family drama.
Bethany Platanella is a travel planner and lifestyle writer based in Mexico City. She lives for the dopamine hit that comes directly after booking a plane ticket, exploring local markets, practicing yoga and munching on fresh tortillas. Sign up to receive her Sunday Love Letters to your inbox, peruse her blog or follow her on Instagram.
