Lorena has been the happy proprietress for 36 years at her little abarrotes store in Mazatlán. (Photos by Janet Blaser)
Today we introduce, “Field Trip,” a new monthly series by Janet Blaser that explores the everyday adventures of shopping in Mexico.
Need a Band-Aid? Ten pesos worth of Chihuahua cheese? One big black garbage bag for some extra clean-up?
Head to your neighborhood abarrotes store, where you’ll find all of these things — and so much more.
Dog kibble and eggs by the kilo, batteries, fresh-baked pan dulce, produce and cleaning supplies and much more! Your corner abarrotes store is most likely owned by someone in your neighborhood who pays close attention to what locals want.
My favorite is Lorena’s, a little tienda (mom-and-pop store) in the neighborhood where I used to live. Even if I don’t see what I’m looking for, chances are it’s back there behind the counter somewhere and Lorena knows exactly where to find it.
Queso fresco, paper towels, a baggie of home-cooked frijoles…you name it, chances are she’s got it.
And, miracle of miracles, and oh-so-convenient (and surprising!): you can buy just one. One ibuprofen or aspirin, one egg, one disposable diaper, or even one cigarette.
You might wonder what the difference is between these abarrotes stores and an OXXO, Kiosko or even a big farmacia (pharmacy). For starters, they’re privately owned, not part of a big national chain like OXXO is, and they’re often connected to the owner’s house.
Don’t be fooled by a building’s humble appearance — your local abarrotes store is a wealth of produce and products.
The people working behind the counter are usually the owners or family members, not employees, so they have a vested interest in your being a satisfied customer who will return again and again. Prices will be competitive or often lower than a bigger chain, or even the mercado (neighborhood open-air market).
They’ll also have more products and more local handmade products than those aforementioned other options. Fresh produce, delivered once or twice a week; pan dulce, tortillas and bolillos fresh every morning; tortas — either made on the spot and grilled (the best!) or, again, brought fresh every day or so from a local person making them at home.
Often small stores like this still source their goods from local producers. At Lorena’s, a dairy farmer delivers twice a week, unloading fresh cheeses and yogurt from big coolers in the back of his beat-up blue pickup. Still-warm, fresh-made corn tortillas from the tortillería a few blocks away arrive each morning too, to be wrapped in cloth towels and stored in a cooler. Where? Behind the counter, of course.
You’ll also find pay de queso, flan and bolis — plastic bags filled with agua fresca and frozen. Yes, you’ll also find the requisite bottles of Coke in every size, bags and bags of chips, commercial dairy products, canned goods and cleaning supplies.
And, when you go to pay, the counters are often overflowing with a mélange of completely unrelated items: a few fragrant, ready-to-eat mangoes, packages of flour tortillas, a couple of small containers of spicy-looking salsa roja, open bags of candy clipped shut so kids can use their pesos to buy just one of their favorites, a stack of conchas inside a big plastic bag. It’s impulse buying at its most basic!
These small grocery stores are found in every neighborhood and town throughout Mexico.
One caveat is that sometimes these stores are, well, not the cleanest. Do the ceiling-high shelves full of canned goods ever get dusted? Is the scale calibrated properly? Hmmm. Look past what you can and just remember to disinfect!
Lorena offers informal credit to regulars, writing the day’s total on a tiny square of neon-colored poster board. This has come in handy when I’ve run in intending to just get a handful of cilantro but then decided I needed/wanted some tortillas, that perfectly ripe papaya on the counter, a new purple broom and — hey, why not? — one of the still-warm tamales de pollo.
She’s run the tiny, two-room store for 36 years and lives with her family in the attached house that extends out the back. She knows all the locals — her neighbors — by name and has watched many of them grow up and start their own families.
And she remembers your eating habits — that you seem to eat a lot of bananas and like to try new things, for example. It was because of Lorena that I discovered Suaves, Mazatlán’s iconic coconut marshmallows that remain an addictive favorite of mine to this day. Her tiendita (little store) is open seven days a week for more than 10 hours a day, and although sometimes her husband or daughter are behind the counter, most often it’s Lorena. She loves what she does, and it shows. When you enter, there’s always a smile on her face and a happy greeting by name.
The Mexican government’s official statistics for 2022 say there are 987,616 tiendas de abarrotesin the country. So it’s safe to say there’s an abarrotes store on almost every street corner in Mexico, in every state, city, town and pueblo, and you owe it to yourself to scout out the ones nearest you, then become a regular.
The World Health Organization (headquarters in Geneva pictured) has been asked to declare a public health emergency in order to better coordinate international efforts to handle the outbreak. (WHO/Flickr)
Mexican and United States authorities have asked the World Health Organization (WHO) to declare a public health emergency over a deadly fungal meningitis outbreak linked to two clinics in Matamoros, Tamaulipas.
The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said Friday that two people in the U.S. with probable cases of meningitis linked to the outbreak had died.
Centro Médico K-3 in Matamoros is one of the clinics that was shut down following the outbreak. (Clínica K-3/Facebook)
President López Obrador said Thursday that meningitis cases among people who underwent surgical procedures at the River Side Surgical Center and Clínica K-3 in Matamoros were caused by contaminated medication.
“A substance, a medication used as an anesthetic for plastic surgery, was contaminated. It was discovered that it was in a bad state,” he said.
The CDC said there were 11 probable meningitis cases in the U.S. linked to “procedures performed under epidural anesthesia” in Matamoros, 14 suspected cases and 195 people under investigation.
Both the River Side Surgical Center and Clínica K-3 were shut down by Mexican authorities on May 13.
Authorities suspect contaminated medication used in epidural anesthesia procedures caused the outbreak. (Shutterstock)
The federal Health Ministry said Thursday that health authorities in Matamoros had identified 547 people who underwent surgical procedures at the two private clinics between Jan. 1 and May 13. It said there are five confirmed cases of fungal meningitis in Mexico, four suspected cases and five probable cases.
CDC epidemiologist Dallas Smith said Friday that Mexican and United States authorities had asked the WHO to declare a public health emergency of international concern because people in Canada and Colombia – in addition to Mexican and U.S. Citizens – were at risk of developing meningitis, an infection of the protective membranes that surround the brain and spinal cord.
“Because patients in Mexico, the United States, Canada, and Colombia were on the exposed list, we wanted to make sure these countries were aware, and provide such situational awareness, through a public health emergency of international concern,” Smith said during a webinar for scientists and medical providers.
It was unclear whether the WHO would make such a declaration, which would require a committee to first be convened.
Dr. Harris has said the WHO will review the request to declare a public health emergency. (United Nations News)
“[We] are notified of hundreds of events every day and assess each one,” WHO spokesperson Margaret Ann Harris told CBS news.
Most of the U.S. residents potentially exposed to meningitis are women who traveled to Matamoros to undergo procedures including liposuction, breast augmentation and Brazilian butt lifts.
Smith said that medications used in the epidural for anesthetic purposes or complementary drugs such as morphine could have been contaminated.
“There’s a shortage currently in Mexico, and there could be potential for a black market that could have contaminated medicine,” he said.
The epidemiologist said that the current meningitis outbreak is “pretty similar” to that in Durango last year that claimed 39 lives among 80 people confirmed as infected.
“It has the capacity to have this high mortality rate, and just devastate families and communities,” Smith said.
Mexico’s Health Ministry said that the confirmation of five cases of fungal meningitis in Mexico came via the detection of the fungus Fusarium solani, which also sickened patients who underwent procedures in four private hospitals in Durango last year. Most of the victims in the Durango outbreak were pregnant women who received epidurals during childbirth.
The CDC advises anyone who had epidural anesthesia at the River Side Surgical Center or Clínica K-3 between Jan 1. and May 13 to go to their nearest health care facility to be evaluated for fungal meningitis, even if they don’t currently have symptoms. MRI scans and spinal taps are commonly used to diagnose fungal meningitis, a non-contagious illness treated with anti-fungal medicines.
Symptoms of fungal meningitis include fever, headache, stiff neck, nausea, vomiting, sensitivity to light, and confusion, the CDC said.
“It can take weeks for symptoms to develop, and they may be very mild or absent at first,” the public health agency said.
“However, once symptoms start, they can quickly become severe and life-threatening. Early testing and treatment can save lives.”
Pedro's sculptures in barro negro clay faced initial struggles to be accepted in Mexico's fine art world because of prejudices against handcrafts. (Friends of Oaxacan Folk Art)
Mexico’s handcraft tradition is so much more than eye-catching wares displayed for sale on the street. Rather, it is a testament to millennia of both history and aesthetic evolution.
Mexico’s best artisans do not simply have impeccable craftsmanship, but they are artists in their own right.
Various members of Pedro’s family are noted artisans, such as Adelina Pedro Martínez, pictured here at the family’s home and workshop. (Alejandro Linares García)
Artists need a nurturing environment, and the central valleys of Oaxaca certainly fit the bill. The region is home to multiple cultures, along with outstanding handcraft and fine art traditions. It also has a large cultural tourism industry, providing a perfect marketplace for creators.
Among Oaxaca’s many notable creators, Carlomagno Pedro deserves recognition for a lifetime dedicated to breaking the barrier between handcrafts and fine art.
Pedro, born in 1965, is from the town of San Bartolo Coyotepec, made famous in the mid-20th century by Rosa Real Mateo, or Doña Rosa, as she was better known.
She put the town on the map internationally, by learning to burnish the local clay to a shiny black and creating decorative objects called barro negro.
Although his figures lack faces, Pedro’s works evoke strong emotions (Alejandro Linares García)
Born in 1965, Pedro is the son of Coyotepec potters, but rather than a biological son of the doña, he is more her artistic heir.
His name means Charlemagne, like the French emperor. Despite his grand name, Pedro is a quiet, unassuming man, happiest when he works with, and talks about clay.
I had the pleasure of meeting him for the first time in 2016 at his workshop in Coyotepec. When I told him that my students and I had created an article about him on Wikipedia, he responded “That was you? I did not know what Wikipedia was, but my grandchildren found the article and were very impressed that I was in it.”
But underneath his humble demeanor is a fire. Leading Mexican folk art expert Marta Turok recounts that he was “a precocious child,” always asking questions and learning about the culture of his region’s culture.
His early training in barro negro was traditional, although his father made (and still makes) figurines. As a child, he began to experiment with the possibilities that the clay represented, and convinced that it had potential, decided to study fine art at the Rufino Tamayo Workshop in Oaxaca city.
That training, along with his innate talent, has resulted in the interpretation of traditional themes of Oaxacan life and death in a much more nuanced way. Many of his works are skeletal figures, but these are not mere Day of the Dead decorations; they are expressions of how Pedro sees the world.
Pedro with a skull cross mural that can be seen at the museum he directs. (Friends of Oaxacan Folk Art)
But working with clay did not open doors among Mexico’s artistic elite, certainly not early on in his career. Turok met him around this time and notes that his attempts to participate in fine arts events were rejected until the highly regarded abstract artist Manuel Felguérez chastised his fellow artists for their narrow-mindedness.
Once recognition began, the honors came quickly. By age 25, he was regularly winning awards, including the National Presidency Youth Award, and his work was praised by Francisco Toledo, a fellow Oaxacan and one of Mexico’s greatest sculptors.
In 2014, Pedro received Mexico’s highest honor for artisans, the National Arts Prize (Popular Traditions category), for his work “elevating” Zapotec and Mixtec indigenous cultures. Pedro says that winning the award vindicated all the struggles that he suffered throughout his decades as an artist.
Pedro regularly creates works for museums, fine art galleries and major art collections, but his magnum opus is a 3-by-5-meter mural for the exterior of Oaxaca’s Baseball Academy in Coyotepec, depicting the Mixtec version of the Mesoamerican ballgame, the history of Coyotepec and a portrait of Babe Ruth.
Pedro’s contributions to Oaxacan culture do not stop with pottery. When the state decided to open a folk art museum almost 20 years ago, Coyotepec was chosen as the site and Pedro as its founding (and current) director. The Museo Estatal de Arte Popular de Oaxaca has since sponsored hundreds of exhibitions, cultural events and workshops.
Although the workshop is much larger than that of his parents, it is still a simple affair — four cinder block walls and a roof under which to create the magic, using nothing but his hands and a rudimentary potter’s wheel, consisting of a plate balanced over a bowl, a Mesoamerican technique unique to the region.
Pedro’s magnum opus, a tribute the role of baseball in modern Oaxacan culture at the Baseball Academy in the state capital. (Academia de Beisbol Alfredo Harp Helú)
Turok sees Pedro’s work and legacy as invaluable to the barro negro tradition of Coyotepec.
“He portrays tradition but in a unique way, one that gives the clay a spirit, showing his fellow artisans another path, that there are many paths to develop the art form.”
Leigh Thelmadatter arrived in Mexico over 20 years ago and fell in love with the land and the culture in particular its handcrafts and art. She is the author of Mexican Cartonería: Paper, Paste and Fiesta (Schiffer 2019). Her culture column appears regularly on Mexico News Daily.
"¡Que Viva Mexico!" is the latest film by veteran director Luis Estrada, known for making biting satires of Mexico's government and society. (Bandidos Films)
There’s a popular and cynical joke told often in Mexico, and it goes like this:
A man goes to the market to buy some live crabs. At the first stall, he finds them stored in a tall basket with a slab of wood laid over it.
“What’s the wood for?” he asks the vendor.
“Those are gringo crabs,” the vendor replies. “They’ll climb their way out one by one if I don’t keep it covered.”
The man goes to the next stall and finds another tall basket, this one with an extra heavy slab of wood and a couple of bricks on top.
“What’s all this for?” he asks the vendor.
“These are Japanese crabs,” he says. “If I don’t keep them covered, they’ll pool all their strength and work as a team to all escape together.”
At the third stall, he finds a short crab-filled basket with no lid at all.
“Why aren’t these covered?” he asks.
“These are Mexican crabs,” says the vendor. “If one tries to get out, the others pull it right back in.”
The joke is not at all flattering. But it’s so popular that when someone refers to cangrejos mexicanos (Mexican crabs), most people know exactly what they’re referring to and nod their heads vigorously: “Oh yes, that is what we do. It really is a shame.”
Mexicans might fall all over themselves to be polite and display all the niceties they’re famous for, but I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that most are deeply suspicious of each other, a natural consequence of a stratified society in which so many of the ways to get ahead involve “special favors” of dubious legality.
“Cangrejos mexicanos…” my partner muttered as we watched Luis Estrada’s new film, “¡Que Viva México!”Honestly, it might as well have been the name of the movie.
The film’s a long one, clocking in at over three hours. Like all of Estrada’s films (that I’ve seen, anyway), it’s visceral, bleak and darkly funny.
I’ve been a fan of Estrada’s work for a while now, which is as easily recognizable stylistically as any movie by Quentin Tarantino. The first movie I saw of his was “La Ley de Herodes” (“Herod’s Law”), a biting critique of the PRI’s long and corrupt rule over Mexico.
The next one was “Infierno” (“Hell”), a story set during Felipe Calderón’s bloody reign. The others in the saga are “Un Mundo Maravilloso” and “La Dictadura Perfecta.” All are satire, and the same actors star in most of them.
“La Ley de Herodes” and “Infierno” in particular do a brilliant job of getting you to sympathize and root for the main character until the bitter end, even after he’s clearly become one of the “bad guys,” kind of in the same way we kept hoping Walter White of “Breaking Bad” would finally come out on top.
Estrada is a candid and creative chronicler of various Mexican “moments,” and this film was the latest in the saga. He has an innate understanding of how cultural norms play out when framed in the politics of the time and just knows how to weave a great, many-layered story.
In a lot of ways, the film itself is simply a different telling of the crab joke: everyone in the film is self-serving, jealous and hypocritical, preferring for others to fail than to share good fortune when it comes up — unless someone else is picking up the tab, of course.
Without spoiling the ending, here’s a quick synopsis: Pancho, the film’s protagonist, is a man who left his small, humble town named La Prosperidad (Prosperity) and found success in business in the big city.
When his grandfather dies, his family convinces him to travel back home for the burial and reading of the will, after he’s been away for 20 years. He does so with his wife, his two children and their housekeeper/cook/nanny/generally abused and oft-insulted servant in tow.
The impoverished town, made up almost exclusively of Pancho’s family, is full of colorful, dirt-poor, ethically questionable characters (“caricatures” is more like it, actually). When the will is finally read and Pancho learns he’s inherited the entirety of his grandfather’s much-greater-than-expected estate, pandemonium ensues, ultimately leading to the kind of ending typical in a Luis Estrada film.
The movie is not flattering to anyone. Nobody is morally righteous, and many of the scenes seem tailor-made to elicit feelings of disgust and contempt for all these foolish and selfish humans. Who’s worse: the ones pretending to be good people or the openly self-interested ones? It is truly hard to decide which character to hate the most.
It’s not flattering to the upper-class bourgeois couple (portrayed by Alfonso Herrera and Ana de la Reguera), and it’s not flattering to the husband’s poor relatives.
And it’s certainly not flattering to AMLO and his “Fourth Transformation.”
The film borrows much of the president’s own rhetoric: the couple are accused several times of being fifis (a derogatory term for elites), and the extended family often refer to themselves as “the wise and good poor.”
AMLO himself — the real one — was not amused by the film, calling it a flop made for “conservative consumption.” This is not surprising, of course, as he’s well-known for taking criticism very personally.
And while Estrada’s previous films were all at least partially financed by the very governments he was satirizing, that support was predictably withheld for this one as this presidential administration has stopped supporting the Mexican film industry in general.
In “¡Que Viva México!,” no one is morally upstanding: it’s all villains and no heroes, soliciting, for the most part, only the most cynical of laughs. Like I said, bleak.
That said, I highly recommend it. Aside from being a great film, it’s a brilliant, absurd distillation of some big aspects of the culture.
Estrada, for his part, seems fine with the criticism he’s received as a result, even from the president.
“If you dish it out, you’ve got to be able to take it too,” he says.
Sarah DeVries is a writer and translator based in Xalapa, Veracruz. She can be reached through her website, sarahedevries.substack.com
Exotic dragon fruit, or pitaya, will be the talk of the table, however it’s served!
Even after so many years, I still love going to the mercado and wandering the aisles looking at everything and everyone. There are a handful of vendors I shop with regularly, and they smile and wave when they see me or hold up something new or different they think I might be interested in.
Such was the case with dragon fruit. Of the several varieties available, the torpedo-shaped type with bright red and neon green “scales” are the most exotic looking. The scaled skin can also be luminous yellow-gold or matte red, and each kind will taste slightly different. In some parts of Mexico, pitaya, another variety, is more common, and although it tastes similar, it is rounder in shape, comes in a rainbow of colors inside and out and is covered with spiky spines that are usually removed before they go to market.
Pitaya is unusual in almost every way, from how it grows to what the fruit looks like and how it tastes.
Turns out they are deliciously edible, and you owe it to yourself to try ‘em. This unusual tropical fruit is native to Asia, Central America, Hawaii and Mexico, and grows on the Hylocereus cactus, hanging from the plant’s long spiky fronds like prehistoric Christmas ornaments. The plant, also known as the “Honolulu Queen,” only blooms at night, and once the flowers die, the fruits form. A mature plant can bear fruit four to six times a year, so they may come and go and then suddenly appear again in your local market. Pitayas, though, have a much shorter season and produce for only 6–8 weeks, so buy ‘em when you see ‘em!
Dragon fruit’s unusual bright red skin with chartreuse “scales” are what gives it its name. Inside, the crisp flesh is either white speckled with tiny, crunchy black seeds or a deep, dark pink with the same seeds. Both types are beautiful added to a fruit salad or smoothie, and also work well eaten alongside something salty and savory or as a palate cleanser between courses. Dragon fruit’s mild flavor is a sweet mix of watermelon and pear, with a delicate, tantalizing floral aroma. Commercial growers cultivate big fields of dragon fruit, but it’s also possible to grow the plant at home, in the ground or in large pots. Dragon fruit is high in antiinflammatory antioxidants, low in calories and naturally contains probiotic bacteria that promote gut health.
Ripe dragon fruit will be firm but give slightly when squeezed, like an almost-ready avocado. They’ll also have a sweet aroma, like a ripe peach. Store ripe fruit in the refrigerator until eating or using. Wash carefully, then simply slice it in half lengthwise; there’s no pit, and the crunchy black seeds are edible and fun. Next, either scoop out the flesh to use in a recipe or eat as-is with a spoon. If you like, save the shell to use as a dish for guacamole, fruit salad, etc. The deep pink-fleshed variety will have the most “wow” in a recipe, but the white-fleshed type is just as delicious and makes almost as unusual a presentation. You’ll be happy to add dragon fruit to your roster of regulars in the kitchen!
Dragon Fruit Margarita
1 dragon fruit (with pink flesh if possible)
¼ cup fresh lime juice
1 shot of honey or simple syrup
2 shots tequila
1 cup ice
Slice dragon fruit in half, scoop out the flesh and add to a blender with lime juice, honey/syrup, tequila and ice. Blend on high until combined, divide between 2 glasses and serve.
Dragon Fruit Salsa
1 cup dragon fruit, cubed
½ red or white onion, chopped
5 sprigs cilantro, minced
1 Tbsp. fresh lime or lemon juice
Combine all ingredients and mix gently. Let stand an hour or so to blend flavors.
Dragon Fruit Guacamole
For a striking presentation, add chunks of dragon fruit to your next batch of guacamole—and use the skins for serving.
3 medium avocados
½ cup diced dragon fruit
½ cup chopped fresh cilantro
1/3 cup chopped red onion
2½ Tbsp. fresh lemon or lime juice
Salt to taste
Using a fork, mash avocados in a bowl. Add lime/lemon juice, cilantro, onion and salt to taste. Fold in dragon fruit. Serve immediately with tortilla chips.
Berry Dragon Fruit Salad
Pretty, flavorful and aromatic, dragon fruit is a delicious addition to any fruit salad.
2 dragon fruits, white or red, scooped with a melon baller
1 pint strawberries, halved
1 pint blackberries or raspberries
1 pint blueberries
6 mint leaves, minced
Combine fruit in a medium bowl and stir gently. Top with mint leaves and serve.
Asian Shrimp & Dragon Fruit Salad
1 dragon fruit
8 large shrimp, deveined and skins removed
3 cups spring salad mix or other lettuces
Dressing:
3 Tbsp. plum or hoisin sauce*
2 tsp. apple cider or rice vinegar
1 Tbsp. honey
1 tsp. water
Small bunch of fresh cilantro leaves roughly chopped
¼ red onion, thinly sliced
Toppings: 1 Tbsp. sesame seeds, ¼ cup roasted peanuts unsalted
Prepare dressing by mixing the ingredients in a bowl; set aside. Cut dragon fruit in half, peel off the skin and cut flesh into large cubes; set aside in refrigerator.
Steam the shrimp over high heat for about 2 minutes or until pinkish and cooked through. Cool.
Place greens in large bowl. Add onions, cilantro, cooked shrimp and dragon fruit. Drizzle with dressing just before serving and sprinkle with sesame seeds and peanuts.
* If plum or hoisin sauce are not available, try teriyaki sauce or, in a pinch, apricot or peach jam mixed with 1 tsp. minced fresh ginger.
Hércules Cervecera is a craft brewery in Querétaro City, also known for its popular beer garden. (Courtesy)
Compañía Cervecera Hércules is an independent brewery in Querétaro City that makes a wide range of lagers and ales that are poured fresh at its on-site beer garden.
The brewery, which also sells canned and bottled beer online for direct delivery to homes in Querétaro and Mexico City, has built a reputation as one of Mexico’s best producers of craft beer.
Head brewer of Hércules, Josh Brengle, originally from the U.S., moved to Mexico in 2016. (Courtesy)
A big part of Hércules’ success today is head brewer Josh Brengle, who moved to Mexico from the United States in 2016. I recently chatted with him via email for this interview, which has been lightly edited for clarity and length.
Peter Davies:
Hi Josh, thanks for speaking to Mexico News Daily. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and your career as a brewer?
Josh Brengle:
Hey Peter, thanks for the opportunity. I’m a Florida native and started brewing at a pretty young age. I brewed at home a lot in my early 20s and helped out in some Orlando brewpubs while I had a non-beer related day job. I was also heavily involved in entering and organizing beer competitions.
By my mid 20s I was working at Cigar City Brewing in Tampa, where I started as a night shift brewer, later became lead brewer and finally worked as production manager. I spent about six years there until I met my future wife and moved to Mexico and started at Hércules in 2016.
PD:
I had the chance to spend a few hours in Hércules’ beer garden a few years ago. The beer and food was great, and the brewery/beer garden site, an old textiles factory, was equally impressive. What’s the history of Cervecera Hércules and its unique location?
An old textile factory is now the site of Hércules brewery and beer garden in Querétaro. (Courtesy)
JB:
Hércules is one of the oldest neighborhoods in the city of Querétaro. It has pre-Hispanic roots and the property we’re on was once the property of Conín, an indigenous Otomí conquistador, and his sons. His sons had a mill here … and it was a convent for a while as well.
The textile plant itself was opened by Cayetano Rubio in 1846 and continued to operate until 2019. I am told it had around 8,000 employees at its peak and that it was the second biggest industrial textile plant in all of Latin America.
There is a ton of history here and it’s definitely one of the most interesting places I’ve ever been.
The brewery was founded in 2011 while the textile plant was still operational and placed inside one of the big production spaces that was no longer in use. Sales were slow but steady until 2016 when the beer garden opened. That created an avenue to get the freshest beer to our customers.
The brewery makes between 70-80 styles of beer each year. (Courtesy)
PD:
Hércules brews some very interesting beers including a Mexican porter with black corn, a cerveza de jamaica (hibiscus beer) and several spontaneous fermentation beers. Can you give us an overview of the brewery’s range of beers and what inspires you and your team to make them?
JB:
We make between 70 and 80 styles per year. We get tons of inspiration from local agriculture and our culinary surroundings here in Mexico, but we also try to base ourselves well within the idea of ‘beer flavored beer’.
Josh Brengle at work. (Courtesy)
So we make a ton of traditional European styles such as lagers, pale ales and saisons.
When we brew conceptual beers, we try to make sure the base beer or base style shines.
Aside from all of the ‘clean’ beers we make we also have a program called Cervezas Salvajes Hércules (Hércules Wild Beers), which consists of spontaneously fermented beers (think Mexican lambic/gueuze/kriek) and other beers with alternative yeasts and local fruits and spices. All of those beers are fermented and aged in wooden barrels and/or foeders.
PD:
Can you recommend a couple of your beers that are especially good to drink during the hotter months of the year?
The beer garden at Hércules is a popular place – for beer and food – in the city. (Courtesy)
JB:
Wow, there are a lot! At the top of my list would be Faro, a helles (traditional German pale lager), our summer ale Caballo Blanco, Lagermaíz, a lager with local corn, Buen Chofer, a witbier and Ráfaga, an American pale ale.
I guess any beer can be a hot weather beer if you are thirsty enough!
PD:
Craft beer is becoming increasingly popular in Mexico with independent breweries located across much of the country. What’s your view of the industry and what changes, if any, do you expect to see in the next few years?
JB:
I think it’s similar to other countries, it’s very regional. The beer culture in Monterrey is a lot different than say, Chiapas. In our part of the country we see people opening up more and more … to new styles and many people embracing fresh local beer.
Hércules is part of a growing craft beer industry in Mexico. (Courtesy)
But in general it’s still a pretty conservative area and beer consumption per capita is much lower than further north.
The trends are confusing as our best-selling beer in Querétaro is Macanuda, a brown ale. I can’t think of anywhere else in the world where a brown ale could be a brewery’s flagship beer.
In Mexico City, Súper Lupe, an IPA (India Pale Ale), is our top seller, which shows that the customer base is very different.
Trying to understand the market has been one of my goals since I arrived here in 2016. We spent time making many different styles – close to 100 unique beers some years – so that we could see which did well.
There were many styles that we adored but just didn’t sell, and vice versa. During the past two years we’ve reduced the list … to styles that sell well and that we like to make.
I think in the next few years I expect to see something similar to where the U.S. is now – more locality, more tied houses and [the opening of] new locations from existing breweries, (such as Hércules’ Lagerbar in Mexico City).
PD:
The craft beer industry seems to be quite collaborative with breweries often working together on limited edition beers. Has Hércules produced any beers with other breweries?
And, finally, could you recommend two or three beers made by other independent Mexican breweries?
JB:
We’re big fans of collaborations as they’re an opportunity to learn and make new friends, and sometimes revisit old ones. I think we’ve done close to 100 collaborations since 2017 or so.
This includes working with breweries in Europe, the U.S., Canada, South America and, of course, Mexico. The collaborations have sometimes influenced us to change a process or recipe, or even build a new brand from scratch.
There are a ton of great breweries in Mexico and plenty of great beers so picking three is tough! Here are five.
This interview is the first in a new series called “The Saturday Six”: six-question interviews to be published in upcoming Saturday editions of Mexico News Daily.
The president addressed the takeover of a section of Veracruz railway by his government from Ferrosur, the latest polls, the Peruvian government and much more this week. (Gob MX)
As part of his duties this week, President López Obrador received letters of credence from the ambassadors of seven countries: The Philippines, South Korea, the (partially recognized) Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, Portugal, China, Colombia and Russia.
AMLO’s conversations with the diplomats of South Korea and China could have conceivably touched on fentanyl, as the president revealed at his final press conference of the week that the government would enter into agreements with those two Asian countries to cooperate on the fight against the trafficking of the synthetic opioid and associated precursor chemicals to Mexico.
China’s ambassador to Mexico, Zhang Run, with President López Obrador on Thursday. (AMLO/Twitter)
Among the other issues discussed at López Obrador’s morning press conferences, or mañaneras, this week were the government’s takeover of a section of railroad in Veracruz, alleged spying on a senior federal official, per-capita homicide rates and a meningitis outbreak linked to two clinics in the border city of Matamoros, Tamaulipas.
Monday
“The Maya Train is a priority project of the Mexican government that will generate development with justice and allow the archaeological wealth, natural beauty and human grandeur of Mexico’s southeast to be appreciated,” said Javier May, director of the National Tourism Promotion Fund (Fonatur), which is overseeing construction of the ambitious – and controversial – railroad project.
Forty-two “modern, comfortable and safe” passenger trains will travel along the 1,554-kilometer-long railroad, which will have 20 stations and 14 more modest paraderos (stops), he said.
Contradicting the claims of some activists, the Fonatur chief asserted that the project is environmentally responsible because it is complemented by the planting of 500 million saplings in Mexico’s southeast.
In addition, existing protected areas will be expanded to together form “the largest natural reserve in Mexico,” said May, who was one of several speakers during the first hour of AMLO’s Monday presser.
Among the others were the government’s Financial Intelligence Unit chief Pablo Gómez, who expounded on corruption within the now-defunct Federal Police, and Chiapas Governor Rutilio Escandón Cadenas, who declared that residents of the southern state are “very excited” and “very happy” about the upcoming inauguration of the Maya Train.
Head of the Financial Intelligence Unit, Pablo Gómez, at the morning press conference. (Gob MX)
As loquacious as ever, López Obrador dedicated some 100 minutes to responding to reporters’ questions.
“There are those who maintain that it’s more reassuring when there are eruptions than when [the volcano] is silent. In any case, there is surveillance of the behavior of the volcano 24 hours [a day],” he said.
López Obrador said that authorities were ready to evacuate people if necessary, but stressed that the “traffic light” volcanic alert system still showed yellow rather than the more alarming red.
The president later denied that his government expropriated a section of railroad operated by Grupo México subsidiary Ferrosur in Veracruz, asserting that it simply “recovered a concession” that belongs to the nation when the navy took over a stretch of railroad between Medias Aguas and Coatzacoalcos on May 19.
A decree he issued that paved the way for the government’s “temporary occupation” of three sections of railroad said that “market-value” compensation would be paid to Ferrosur, but López Obrador complained that Grupo México had proposed 9.5 billion pesos.
“It’s not a fair price but rather an abuse,” he said, adding that an appraisal will be carried out to determine an appropriate compensation amount.
AMLO highlighted that trains are still running along the section occupied by the navy, and stressed that the takeover was not related to Grupo México’s planned purchase of Citibanamex, which ultimately didn’t go ahead.
The president shows the planned Isthmus of Tehuantepec railway project. (Gob MX)
Among other remarks, López Obrador announced that the government would offer one-year temporary visas to Central Americans that will allow them to work on public infrastructure projects.
“We need labor for the projects. … We need a lot of blacksmiths, welders, even engineers,” he said.
AMLO said that jobs are available on all government infrastructure projects, including the Maya Train railroad, the Olmeca Refinery on the Tabasco coast and the Isthmus of Tehuantepec trade corridor, which includes the modernization of a railroad between Salina Cruz and Coatzacoalcos and the construction of 10 industrial parks.
Tuesday
Introducing the government’s recurring “Pulso de la Salud” (Health Pulse) segment, AMLO noted that 700 specialist doctors from Cuba are now working in Mexican hospitals.
“And we’re still recruiting. … There are jobs, there is work … for general doctors and specialists because what we want is to leave the public health system working [optimally] before our government ends [in 2024],” he said.
Speaking again about the dangers of drug addiction, Deputy Health Minister Hugo López-Gatell stressed that people can get hooked on narcotics regardless of their social and financial situation.
“Last week we spoke about cocaine and crack and we displayed several real images … [that showed] the situations that people who consume drugs end up in. … All the images were of dispossessed people, poor people, highly-marginalized people and that can give the impression that the consumption of drugs is exclusive to people in situations of great poverty,” he said.
“So we want to emphasize [that] across the entire social and economic spectrum there can be problems of addiction,” said López-Gatell, the government’s newly-designated addiction prevention czar.
Later in the presser, a reporter noted that the Supreme Court on Monday invalidated the entirety of a 2021 decree that protected government infrastructure projects from legal challenges and scrutiny and asked the president whether a new similar decree he published last week would nullify the court’s decision.
“Yes, we brought [the new decree] forward because we knew that the court had the intention of stopping the projects we’re carrying out in the southeast – the Maya Train, the [trans-] isthmus [corridor] and other important projects,” López Obrador said.
“As is colloquially said, we lost the Supreme Court. I believe that it has always been far from the people and close to power, but now in a shameless way … [the justices] are at the service of the magnates, the minority, … the oligarchy,” he said.
The president was also probed about a report by The New York Times that claimed that Deputy Interior Minister Alejandro Encinas has been a victim of espionage.
Deputy Interior Minister, Alejandro Encinas, was reportedly a victim of espionage using Pegasus spyware. (Presidencia)
AMLO said that that Encinas had spoken to him about the espionage allegation, and that he told him to not “attach importance” to it because “there was no intention [of the government] to spy on anyone.”
He said he didn’t know whether the deputy minister had actually been spied on before repeating his assertion that his government doesn’t spy on anyone, a claim at odds with an investigation published late last year that found that the Defense Ministry used Pegasus spyware against journalists and human rights defenders in 2019, 2020 and 2021.
Speaking a day before Citigroup announced it would pursue an initial public offering to offload Banamex, AMLO said that the government could buy a majority stake in the bank and wouldn’t stand to lose anything because banking is a “perfect business.”
“… Why can we do this? Because we have strong public finances. Why do we have strong public finances? Because there is no corruption, because theft isn’t allowed, because there is no superfluous spending,” he said.
Before bringing his presser to a close, López Obrador spoke briefly about the Popocatépetl volcano situation. He noted that the intensity of the volcano’s activity had declined and observed that it was emitting less ash.
“Reviews of evacuation routes were already carried out, there is no problem. We’re working on all the preventative measures, but there should be no alarm,” AMLO said.
Wednesday
“It’s the season of many, many lies,” López Obrador declared at the beginning of his presser.
“It’s raining lies. Yesterday I read a tweet about an Uber [driver] listening to a news bulletin on the radio and it was completely against us,” he said.
AMLO claimed that all radio stations in Mexico City are opposed to his government, and asserted that the hostility has only increased in recent days.
“The only logical explanation,” he said, is that they want to influence the election in México state, where citizens will elect a new governor on June 4.
Ana García Vilchis at the Wednesday press conference. (Gob MX)
Ana García Vilchis continued the government’ denunciation of the media in her “Who’s Who in the Lies of the Week” segment. Among her targets was José Antonio Crespo, a political scientist and columnist for the El Universal newspaper.
“As … the government that President López Obrador leads is doing so well, now they’re attacking the people,” García said before highlighting a tweet in which Crespo asserted that if an El Universal poll that found 65% support for the government “faithfully reflects what the people think, the country is lost.”
“They’re the ones who are lost,” she said, presumably referring to anyone opposed to AMLO and his government.
“… Es un honor estar con Obrador,” García added, using a popular slogan among AMLOvers that translates as “It’s an honor to be with Obrador.”
López Obrador acknowledged that there are millions of Mexicans who think like Crespo, but asserted that the El Universal poll – which found just 6% opposition to the government and 26% neutrality – showed that there is “no polarization” in Mexico.
“Polarization would be … 55-45 or 45-55 or 50-50,” he said.
“But if the poll faithfully reflects what the people think, as this conservative intellectual says, there is no polarization. What there is here is a minority [of people opposed to the government], an elite. Imagine a pyramid or a hill. At the top, there might be dissent, but below … the people are happy, they support the transformation,” AMLO said.
While responding to a question about security problems in San Luis Potosí later in his press conference, López Obrador called for per-capita homicide data to be displayed.
The data showed that Colima has the highest homicide rate among the 32 federal entities during the term of the current government, with 360 murders per 100,000 residents between December 2018 and March 2023. Baja California, Chihuahua, Zacatecas and Morelos ranked second to fifth, while San Luis Potosí ranked 14th.
“San Luis Potosí is below the average, 84 [homicides per 100,000 residents]. … I say to the people of San Luis that security is a basic priority for us, … that’s why we have a security meeting every day,” López Obrador said.
The president noted later in the mañanera that he had been informed that negotiations between Grupo México and Citigroup over the latter’s sale of Banamex had been suspended, and reiterated that the government could buy a majority stake in the bank.
“I’m going to speak with the finance minister … because we could do it,” AMLO said.
Thursday
The head of the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) noted in an address to reporters that an ancient Olmec sculpture known as Portal al inframundo (Portal to the Underworld) had been returned to Mexico from the United States more than 50 years after its removal from an archaeological site in Morelos.
“It truly is a very impressive piece. The historical importance of this archaeological piece of over 2,500 years of age compares with the iconic colossal heads of the Olmec culture,” Diego Prieto Hernández said.
The “portal to the underworld” Olmec artifact in its new display in Cuernavaca, Morelos. (INAH)
“… Thanks to the efforts of the Mexican government, this piece, this national treasure, has returned to our country, and after a period of exhibition at the Regional Museum of the People of Morelos … it will return to the Chalcatzingo archaeological site in Morelos, from where it never should have left.”
During his Q & A session with the press corps, López Obrador said that cases of meningitis among people who underwent surgical procedures at two clinics in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, were caused by contaminated medication.
“A substance, a medication used as an anesthetic for plastic surgery, was contaminated. It was discovered that it was in a bad state,” he said.
AMLO at the Thursday morning press conference with the head of INAH, Diego Prieto Hernández. (INAH/Cuartoscuro.com)
“… Unfortunately there are deaths due to this situation,” AMLO said. “… I’m going to ask the doctor Hugo López-Gatell to issue a report about what’s happening.”
Later in his press conference, the president made it clear that he is no fan of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who announced on Wednesday that he would seek the Republican Party’s nomination for the 2024 presidential election in the United States. He took aim at the governor for his anti-immigration policies, and called on Hispanics to “wake up” and not give him a single vote.
“They shouldn’t vote for those who go after migrants, those who don’t respect migrants, because a migrant, as the Bible says, deserves respect,” López Obrador said.
Responding to another question, AMLO insinuated that he has little respect for Ricardo Mejía, a former deputy security minister who is contesting the upcoming gubernatorial election in Coahuila on a Labor Party (PT) ticket after failing to secure the nomination for Mexico’s ruling party Morena, which is allied with PT at the federal level.
“I don’t have a relationship with Ricardo Mejía. He was here with us and he left without saying goodbye,” López Obrador said in response to a reporter who sought his opinion on the use of his image and name to promote the PT candidate.
“… I don’t want my name to be used because I don’t have a relationship with him, it’s as clear as that. It seems to me to be an act of dishonesty to use my name for a campaign when I don’t have a relationship [with the candidate],” he said.
“They’re my brothers and sister,” he said, referring to the aspirants to Morena’s candidacy, namely Foreign Affairs Minister Marcelo Ebrard, Interior Minister Adán Augusto López, Senator Ricardo Monreal and Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum.
“But whoever wins the survey, that’s who I’m going to support,” AMLO said.
Friday
In an introduction to his last mañanera of the week, López Obrador noted that inflation is declining (6% in the first half of May), the economy is growing (3.7% annually in the first quarter) and the peso remains strong (about 17.6 to the US dollar on Friday afternoon).
Another positive, he said, is that Carlos Slim’s Grupo Carso consortium agreed to buy just under half of the Mexican subsidiary of United States company Talos Energy, which has a 17.4% stake in a large Gulf of Mexico oil field.
“We’re pleased that this agreement was reached yesterday, that it’s a Mexican company,” AMLO said before noting that Grupo Carso will partner with Talos, two European firms and state oil company Pemex to develop the Zama oil field.
During his engagement with reporters, López Obrador revealed that the government was on the verge of entering into an agreement with China to combat fentanyl trafficking.
“[United States lawmakers] asked me to intervene so that fentanyl wouldn’t be transported to Mexico from China. I sent a letter to the president of China. … The first thing they said is that … fentanyl wasn’t exported from China. Shortly afterwards a shipment of fentanyl from China was found at the port of Lázaro Cárdenas and now the government of China is acting,” he said.
“We’re about to establish an agreement between the government of China and the government of Mexico … to avoid the entry to Mexico of fentanyl from China. We’re going to do the same thing with South Korea. There is willingness on their part to help. In that way we can guarantee that fentanyl and precursors that arrive from Asia are combated,” López Obrador said.
He later reaffirmed that he would file a lawsuit against a United States-based lawyer for allegedly slandering him at the New York trial of former federal security minister Genaro García Luna, who in February was found guilty of collaborating with the Sinaloa Cartel in its drug trafficking activities.
“I’m waiting for the right time but I’m going to do it because for political purposes and in a biased way he tried to involve me in the case of García Luna,” López Obrador said, referring to defense lawyer César de Castro’s insinuation that his 2006 presidential campaign was partially funded by drug money.
“We’re going to ask for compensation because it’s not about Andrés Manuel, … it’s about the president of Mexico, and not just anyone, least of all a foreigner, can call into question the integrity and honesty of the president of Mexico,” he said.
Any compensation received would go to orphans, “children of parents who lost their lives when there was this criminal association between government and crime,” said AMLO.
AMLO does not recognize Peruvian president Dina Boluarte’s government and granted asylum to ousted president Pedro Castillo’s family in Mexico. (@PresidenciaPeru Twitter)
“I’m not going to hand it over to the lady that is usurping the presidency,” AMLO said in reference to Peruvian President Dina Boluarte.
“While there is no normality, no democracy in Peru we don’t want economic or trade relations with them,” he said before ruling out a breakup of the Pacific Alliance, which also includes Colombia and Chile.
The bloc, which was established 11 years ago, is just “on pause,” AMLO said.
Before bringing another week of mañaneras to an an end, López Obrador said that suspects in the murder of a journalist in Tehuacán, Puebla, on Tuesday had been identified, but offered few other details.
“It seems it’s not related to his recent journalistic activity, he said, adding that further information will be provided soon.
By Mexico News Daily chief staff writer Peter Davies ([email protected])
Ten-year-old Daniela Zoé proudly displays a certificate placing her third in the Beginners category, for her app that teaches pre-pubescent girls about menstruation. (Photos by John Pint)
I’m on the campus of the Universidad Marista de Guadalajara (Marist University of Guadalajara) and the place is buzzing with activity. In just about every classroom, corridor and auditorium, teams of girls ranging in age from eight to 18 are talking to members of the general public, including members of their own families and communities.
These girls have spent the last few months developing their own smartphone applications and are now happily explaining how they work to anyone who approaches them.
The Busca y Encuentra app (Seek and Find) helps locate victims of forced disappearances, a crime which claims eight victims in Jalisco every day, the app’s developers say.
Every one of these apps, I discover, has been developed in response to a perceived problem. At the beginning of the project, all the girls were given the same challenge: to identify an issue in their community and develop an app that can help resolve it.
This is all happening through the Jalisco chapter of Technovation, a tech education nonprofit based in Los Angeles, California. Through Technovation Girls, its free global, free, technology education program for girls ages 8 to 18, Technovation has helped 350,000 girls and young women in 120 countries become technology leaders and entrepreneurs.
Every year, thousands of girls who work in teams of up to five and are assisted by 19,000 volunteer mentors participate in Technovation’s 12-week program, developing a working prototype for an app meant to solve a real-world problem in their communities.
Along the way, they develop their computer, design, collaboration, problem-solving, marketing and leadership skills.
Milu is an app that helps manage sadness and emotions.
At each display, I can get an idea of what young Mexican girls see as problems in their country or region.
Not surprisingly, many of the apps deal with nutrition, unemployment, security or stress, but some offer help for depression or even for the nationwide problem of enforced disappearances.
When I walk up to a stand labeled Work Now, I find five girls from the little town of Cocula, whose claim to fame is being as “the birthplace of mariachi.”
“What does your app do?” I ask them.
Girls from Cocula, Jalisco tell visitors all about their Work Now app, Girls from Cocula, Jalisco tell visitors all about their Work Now app, which helps people in rural areas connect with employers.
“As the name implies, Work Now gets you a job,” says Anay Camacho. “We live out in the country, where unemployment is one of the biggest problems — which is why so many country people go looking for work in the U.S.
The whole problem got a lot worse after COVID-19 came along, said Camacho.
“So we created this app, which simply connects people looking for a job with businesses looking for workers.”
At the other end of the room, I saw a big houseplant beneath the words Proyecto Maceta Inteligente (Project Smart Flowerpot).
The Smart Flowerpot app connects your phone to a sensor that monitors the needs of your favorite plant via your Wi-Fi system.
The developers of this app explained that it allows users’ phones to communicate with an inexpensive sensor in the flowerpot, telling the owner when the plant needs watering.
“There is a commercial version of this already on the market that does the same thing,” the girls told me, “but it costs 2,000 pesos. Our app does the exact same job, but it’s inexpensive and very easy to use.”
As I learn how an app could benefit my favorite houseplant, a voice rings out: “Everyone head for the auditorium — the Pitch Event is about to start!”
This is the part of the program that separates the wheat from the chaff. Each of the 87 teams must now get up on stage in front of a panel of jurors from tech companies like Oracle and HP. They have only four minutes to explain their apps.
The team Changing World P8 pitches their app, Magic 21C, which helps kids with Down Syndrome cope in the modern world, to executives from Fortune 500 technology companies.
The jurors’ questions are no-nonsense and can be tough: “How do you plan to finance this? What’s your competition like?”
The event I’m watching tests only participants from Jalisco, but parallel events have been held this month in Mexico City, Hermosillo, Mérida, León and Veracruz.
From here, Jalisco’s winners will compete nationally, and then the finalists from Mexico will go to San Francisco for the Technovation World Summit event in October. According to Technovation Girls, 76 percent of their program’s alumnae pursue STEM degrees.
This program in Mexico is coordinated by María Makarova, who was born in Novosibirsk, Russia, and originally volunteered as a Technovation mentor in the U.S. before moving to Mexico and taking charge of the project here.
María Makarova, coordinator of the program, founded the nonprofit Mentoralia in 2020 to manage the mentors.
The program has been so successful in Mexico that the number of participants and volunteer mentors grew too unwieldy for one person to handle, inspiring Makarova to found a nonprofit organization called Mentoralia, which now works in the background and keeps things running smoothly.
I asked Makarova to pick out one of today’s winners and tell me her story.
“I’d like to tell you about a girl named Daniela Zoé, who is 10 years old,” she replied. “Daniela joined our program at a community center called Kokone, in an economically depressed part of greater Guadalajara called San Juan de Ocotán. Today, she won third place in the Beginners category for an app called Días del Mes, which she designed to educate girls about menstruation.”
Alexa Guadarrama, one of Daniela’s mentors, told me how Daniela came up with her idea.
The Hearted Investment app makes it easy for people to donate food, clothes, toys or money to worthy causes.
“One of Daniela’s cousins had just gotten her period,” Guadarrama said. “She was 12 years old, and she had become really scared because no one had explained what was happening to her body. When we asked Daniela to think of a problem that she’d like to solve with an app, she told us this story and we helped her.
“She came up with the idea of a kind of roulette wheel. You would spin it every day, and it would give you an interesting fact about the body, or maybe an informational video that she wants to make in collaboration with a gynecologist, using non-technical terms that girls could understand.”
“The Technovation program encourages girls to study,” Makarova said. “It shows them what they are capable of and proves that they will really be able to do amazing things when they grow up. That’s my main motivation.”
The writer has lived near Guadalajara, Jalisco, since 1985. His most recent book is Outdoors in Western Mexico, Volume Three. More of his writing can be found on hisblog.
At his biannual literary festival in Guadalajara, the Peruvian novelist criticized the rise in populist governments across the region and warned of threats to freedom in Mexico. (Daniel Augusto/Cuartoscuro)
Freedom in Mexico “has endured very tough threats and challenges in recent years,” claimed Peruvian novelist Mario Vargas Llosaduring a speech Thursday in Guadalajara at the opening of the literary festival that bears his name.
The fifth edition of the Mario Vargas Llosa Biennial is being held in Guadalajara from May 25 to 28. Under the motto “literature for hard times,” the festival is seeing around 30 writers from across the Spanish-speaking world coming together this year to discuss their work and current events.
The Mario Vargas Llosa Biennial celebrates Spanish-language novelists and awards an annual author prize of US $100,000. This year, three Mexican writers have been named as finalists. (Twitter)
“The Biennial takes place this year in a convulsive, uncertain world, shaken by wars and threatened by various [examples of] authoritarianism, and in a Latin America where populism, demagoguery, statism, intolerance and ideological extremism are causing much damage,” Vargas Llosa said in his speech.
The author referred specifically to his native Peru, arguing that recently ousted president Pedro Castillo had “tried to destroy democracy from power” when he attempted to dissolve Congress ahead of a vote on his impeachment in December last year.
Mexico’s President Lopez Obrador has been a staunch supporter of Castillo, long after Castillo’s ouster, and for more than six months has refused to hand over Mexico’s leadership of the Pacific Alliance to Peru’s current president, Dina Boluarte, whom Lopez Obrador has accused of “usurping” Castillo’s office.
Vargas Llosa also praised efforts to prevent a return to power of Ecuador’s fugitive former president Rafael Correa.
Mario Vargas Llosa, aged 87, is one of Latin America’s most widely read authors, known internationally for the novels “Conversation in the Cathedral” and “The Time of the Dog.” His writing has earned acclaim for its range and political undercurrents.
Although Vargas Llosa didn’t mention President López Obrador by name, AMLO was another clear target of the writer’s anti-populism message. A leftist in his youth, Vargas Llosa later moved towards a liberal view, and in recent years has directed harsh criticism toward populist governments identified with the left.
Vargas Llosa gained international readership with the novel “Conversation in the Cathedral,” which takes place in Peru during the dictatorship of Manuel Odría. (Wikimedia Commons)
“There are many [countries] … in the hands of authoritarian leaders, from whom it will take time and effort to free themselves,” Vargas Llosa said.
“In many cases, this is the fault of voters who did not know how to measure the consequences of their preferences, and in other [cases] because of acts of force or circumstances that twisted the popular will,” he said. “In any case, the reality is that in Latin America, our immediate geographic area, freedom is not having a good moment, and in the face of this, a necessary response is the affirmation of culture.”
The Nobel laureate also used his speech to celebrate the life of Raúl Padilla López, the former rector of Guadalajara University, who died in April. This praise was echoed by current rector Ricardo Villanueva, who described Padilla as “the most brilliant mind in 230 years of history of this university.”
After the opening speeches, Peruvian journalist Rosa María Palacios chaired a panel discussion between the six finalists for the Biennial novel prize, who include:
Héctor Abad Faciolince (Colombia), for Salvo mi corazón, todo está bien
Piedad Bonnett, (Colombia), for Qué hacer con estos pedazos
Brenda Navarro (México), for Ceniza en la boca
Cristina Rivera Garza (México), for El invencible verano de Liliana
Juan Tallón (España), for Obra maestra
David Toscana (México), for El peso de vivir en la tierra
The contest is open to novels originally written in Spanish between January 2021 and December 2022 and awards a top prize of US $100,000. The winner will be announced at the close of the Biennial on May 28.
Mangos may be native to Asia, but Mexican cuisine is full of dishes that incorporate the versatile fruit. (Sader)
Can you guess what is a close botanical cousin to cashews and pistachios? Did you guess walnuts, perhaps almonds? You may be surprised to learn that the mango actually belongs to the same anacardiaceae (sumac) family of plants.
The mango shows up everywhere in Mexican cuisine: from mango salsa, mango tamales, mango empanadas, mango ceviche, mango margaritas, to mango sorbet… you’d be hard-pressed to find a Mexican staple that isn’t elevated by the mighty mango.
Mango season stretches from February to August in Mexico. (Shutterstock)
Believed to be native to South Asia, the cultivation of mangos can be traced back as early as 2000 B.C.E. in India. The mango tree, with its broad evergreen leaves and fragrant flowers, became a symbol of love and fertility in Indian mythology and was often referred to as the “king of fruits.”
Over time, the popularity of mangos spread across different regions of Asia. Indian traders introduced the fruit to Southeast Asia, including Burma (now Myanmar) and Thailand, where it thrived in the tropical climate. From there, it made its way to the Philippines and Malaysia, becoming an integral part of the local cultures and cuisines. You might be wondering, when does Mexico come into the picture?
Mangos arrived in Mexico during the 16th century, brought by the Spanish. It turns out the favorable climate allowed mango cultivation to thrive. Over time, Mexico became a leading producer and exporter of mangos, with diverse varieties that have become integral to Mexican cuisine.
In the United States, mangos were first introduced in Florida in the early 19th century, but it wasn’t until the mid-20th century that commercial cultivation took off.
Sweet, smooth and just a touch sour, mangos are a mainstay of the Mexican diet. (Wikimedia Commons)
The 20th century also saw significant advancements in mango breeding and research.
Scientists developed techniques to improve the quality and yield of mango trees, resulting in new varieties with desirable traits, such as disease resistance and extended shelf life. These advancements have contributed to the global availability and popularity of the fruit throughout the year.
Mangos have been celebrated not only for their taste but also for their cultural significance. The fruit has inspired numerous works of art, literature, and songs in different cultures.
In India, mango festivals and competitions are held to showcase the best varieties, while in other countries, such as the Philippines, the mango is considered a national fruit. In fact, one of the most popular varieties of mango is called Manila, named after the capital of the Philippines. The Manila mango gained popularity for its unique flavor, smooth texture, and lack of fibers, making it a highly sought-after variety in both local and international markets.
The author’s mango habanero hot sauce makes a great marinade for wings. (Photo courtesy of the author)
On to one of my favorite uses of mango in the kitchen – mango habanero hot sauce! The co-stars of this recipe play off of each other exceptionally well.
Mango habanero hot sauce
3/4 lb ripe Manila mangos, peeled and chopped
5 habanero peppers, with their stems and seeds removed
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup raw honey
Salt to taste
Water (as needed for desired consistency)
In a blender or food processor, combine the chopped mangos, habanero peppers, apple cider vinegar, salt and honey. Blend until smooth. If the mixture is too thick, add a little water gradually until you reach the desired consistency. Be cautious not to dilute the flavors too much.
Pour the mixture into a saucepan and bring it to a gentle boil over medium heat. Reduce the heat and let it simmer for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove the saucepan from the heat and let the mixture cool down.
If you’re looking for a milder sauce, add 2-3 peppers instead of 5. Once cooled, transfer the sauce to sterilized bottles or jars. Store in the refrigerator for up to a month.
Stephen Randall has lived in Mexico since 2018 by way of Kentucky, and before that, Germany. He’s an enthusiastic amateur chef who takes inspiration from many different cuisines, with favorites including Mexican and Mediterranean.
