On Tuesday, President-elect Claudia Sheinbaum received a symbolic "baton of command" on behalf of Mexican women. (Cuartoscuro)
In September last year, Claudia Sheinbaum accepted a symbolic “baton of command” from President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who she replaced as the leader of the so-called “fourth transformation” political project.
Now the president-elect is also in possession of the “bastón de mando de las mujeres,” or women’s baton of command.
Senator Olga Sánchez Cordero gave the baton to Sheinbaum on behalf of Mexican women. (Cuartoscuro)
On behalf of Mexican women, Senator Olga Sánchez, a former interior minister and Supreme Court justice, presented the handmade symbol of confidence and leadership to Mexico’s soon-to-be first female president at an event in Mexico City on Tuesday.
Sánchez, who served as López Obrador’s interior minister between 2018 and 2021, told Sheinbaum it was an “honor” to present “the women’s baton” to her on behalf of “millions of women who enthusiastically joined our collective cause during these months” and “fought to have this country’s first woman president.”
She noted that the baton was made by artisans from Oaxaca, specifically the southern state’s Mixteca region.
“This baton is an unequivocal sign of the confidence Mexican women place in you — in the woman, politician, mother and grandmother you are,” Sánchez said.
The senator and soon-to-be deputy said the baton is also a symbol of confidence in Sheinbaum’s “vision and commitment to the people of Mexico, especially women.”
Sánchez also read out a list of objectives for the incoming president to pursue in office. They included “guaranteeing a life free of violence for all women,” ensuring equality of opportunities and guaranteeing women’s right to health care.
In an address, the president-elect expressed gratitude for the honor of receiving the “women’s baton of command,” and reiterated her view that she won’t “arrive” in Mexico’s top job on her own, but rather in the company of all Mexican women.
Sheinbaum defeated five men in the internal presidential candidate selection process for Morena in 2023. (Morena/X)
The former Mexico City mayor also said that the “fourth transformation” political project she now leads is a “feminist” movement.
“It always fights for the recognition of all women’s rights. For the good of all, [the nation’s] Indigenous women, Afro-Mexican women and poor women come first,” said Sheinbaum, who will take office Oct. 1.
Sheinbaum said that her government would seek to close the gender pay gap, increase the representation of women in elected positions, and support girls and young women in pursuing their dreams, no matter the field.
She also highlighted that she is committed to providing financial support to women aged 60-64, in recognition of the household and caring work they have done for their families over a long period of time.
Women from a range of fields attended the event, including renowned writer Elena Poniatowska, academic and feminist Marta Lamas and saxophonist María Elena Ríos Ortíz, survivor of a 2019 acid attack. Sheinbaum’s mother, biologist Annie Pardo, also attended the event, held a day after the president-elect turned 62.
The horses were trapped on an islet in the Cerro Prieto dam in Linares, Nuevo León. Before Tropical Storm Alberto, the dam had low levels of water. (Samuel Garcia/X)
On Tuesday, Nuevo León Civil Protection officials rescued at least 40 stranded horses on an islet in the Cerro Prieto dam, according to Governor Samuel García.
Heavy rains brought last week by Tropical Storm Alberto had trapped the horses on the dam’s islet, reportedly for five days, after water levels rapidly rose around them.
A Nuevo León Civil Protection officer tends to a horse rescued from the Cerro Prieto Dam in the municipality of Linares. (Nuevo León Civil Protection)
The Cerro Prieto dam, located in the city of Linares, is Nuevo León’s second largest reservoir.
On social media, García said he had received an alert from residents in Linares regarding the trapped horses, after which he coordinated their rescue with the state’s Civil Protection department.
“After reading your comments about the horses trapped in the Cerro Prieto dam, I immediately contacted @PC_NuevoLeon for their rescue. [The horses] have already been rescued and taken to a safe place,” García wrote on X.
García also shared photographs and videos showing some of the rescue maneuvers carried out.
Linares residents had already tried to save the stranded horses. According to media reports, four horses drowned.
Before Alberto’s arrival — which made landfall in Tamaulipas early Thursday morning and quickly downgraded to a tropical depression — the drought-stricken Cerro Prieto dam’s water levels had been reduced to only 4% of its capacity. As a result, islets began emerging in the dam, which apparently attracted the wild horses to roam new areas in the dam.
Some horses had to be coaxed into walking through the waist-deep waters toward rescue personnel so that they could be guided to safety. (Nuevo León Civil Protection)
Alberto, however, brought heavy, rapid rains to parts of Nuevo León in just hours. Post-Alberto, the dam is now at 58% capacity with 175.38 million cubic meters of stored water.
Throughout the week, García has been updating the water capacity levels of the state’s largest dams, including the Cerro Prieto. According to the latest report on Wednesday by National Water Commission (Conagua), the water levels of Nuevo León’s three largest reservoirs are as follows:
Cerro Prieto at 62.60% capacity
El Cuchillo at 85.92%, and
La Boca at 100.90%
The heavy rains also caused rivers and streams in Nuevo León to overflow, including the Santa Catarina river, which dramatically gushed down the streets of Monterrey.
Jedi Knight Academy is a Mexico City club that teaches members the art of lightsaber dueling as seen in the Star Wars movie franchise. The club holds training practice Wednesday through Saturday nights in the capital's Coyoacán neighborhood. (JKAMX/Facebook)
For five years, the Jedi Knight Academy in Mexico City has been teaching fans of the “Star Wars” movie franchise and others how to properly wield a lightsaber.
Some of the participants want to learn it just for fun.
Mexico City resident and Jedi Knight Academy member Michel Cajigal strikes a pose with her lightsaber. (Jedi Knight Academy Mexico City/Instagram)
And some are sharpening their Jedi techniques in order to compete in lightsaber dueling — an actual sport recognized by the French Fencing Federation in 2019 (as part of an effort to get youngsters up and away from their computer and phone screens, but that’s another story).
“When students arrive, some of them drop the saber,” Jedi Knight Academy instructor Ulises Vázquez told the Associated Press. “They don’t know how to handle it properly. But with the passing of time, you see them grow.”
The three-hour classes generally start with meditation and a warmup, after which the students learn different moves that they perform repeatedly in pursuit of Luke Skywalker-style perfection — or that of his father, Anakin Skywalker (a.k.a Darth Vader). More advanced students wear protective equipment that looks like a galactic fencing uniform.
In Mexico City, Star Wars fans prepare to duel like Jedi knights
Four nights a week, Mexico City’s Jedi Knight Academy holds its lightsaber classes outside in a public space in the capital.
The sabers, which are made of ballistic-grade polycarbonate, are illuminated from within by a rainbow of colors.
Many of the lightsabers being used by Jedi Knight Academy padawans are designed and manufactured nearby at KTSR Sabers, a Mexico City company that sells lightsabers and helmets for cosplay and exhibition combat dueling. KTSR Sabers even does repairs and upgrades.
Some of their products are also used by students at another school teaching lightsaber techniques —and, no, it’s not “in a galaxy far, far away.”
The multidisciplinary Quetzal Combat Academy, founded eight years ago by Ricardo Jocksan Mejía Malvárez, is also in Mexico City. There, students learn the arts of the Jedi Knights or Sith warriors as seen in the 12 movies of the “Star Wars” franchise.
“I started with tae kwon do, then karate, ninjutsu, kenjutsu, HEMA and Olympic fencing,” Jocksan, 33, told the newspaper El País. “Those are the basis of everything we see in Star Wars. For example, the Shii-Cho form [of Jedi combat ] is based on a two-handed sword, be it a katana [a Japanese sword], a Korean saber, a ninjatō [used in feudal Japan] or a two-handed HEMA sword [the moniker for various weapons used in Historical European Martial Arts].”
On Thursday, Quetzal students will be participating in a lightsaber combat exhibition at a Pride Month Diversity Fair at Plaza Manuel Tolsá in central Mexico City (two blocks from the Palacio de Bellas Artes).
Quetzal’s advanced lightsaber students and instructors — including Jocksan dressed in an outfit inspired by the “Star Wars” baddie character Kylo Ren — also performed a choreographed routine for a “Concierto Galáctico” at the Ollin Yoliztli Cultural Center.
The concert occurred last month one day before International Star Wars Day, which is on May 4, of course.
Uh, why hold it on May 4?
Members of the Mexican Garrison of the international Star Wars fan club, the 501st Legion, can certainly tell you why: “May the Fourth be with you.”
Of that number, 255 were classified as victims of homicide, and 80 were classified as victims of femicide, meaning that their gender was a motivating factor in their murders.
Femicide numbers increased 31% in May compared to April, when 61 females were killed on account of their gender.
Intentional homicides of women, as the Executive Secretariat of the National Public Security System (SESNSP) calls the crime, increased 14% in May compared to April.
SESNSP data shows there were 331 femicides in the first five months of 2024, a 7% decline compared to the same period of last year. In 2023, there were 831 femicides.
Friends and family hold a peace march in honor of a woman whose body was found along the Autopista del Sol in December last year. (Cuartoscuro)
In the first five months of the year, there were 1,094 homicides of women, a 0.7% increase compared to the same period of 2023. A total of 2,580 homicides of women were registered last year.
Combining the number of female victims of both homicide and femicide, a total of 1,425 women were killed in the first five months of 2024. On average, 65 women were killed every week between January and May.
Data shows that Nuevo León recorded the highest number of femicides among Mexico’s 32 federal entities in the first five months of the year.
There were 33 femicides in the northern state between January and May; 28 in México state; 24 in each of Mexico City and Veracruz; and 23 in Morelos.
Nuevo León is the state with the most femicides recorded so far this year, followed by México state. (SSPC)
In Ciudad Juárez, a border city in Chihuahua that became notorious for femicides in recent decades, 11 women were killed on account of their gender in the first five months of the year, more than in any other municipality.
Monterrey, the capital of Nuevo León, recorded the second highest number of femicides among Mexico’s almost 2,500 municipalities, with six between January and May.
On a per capita basis, the state of Morelos recorded the highest number of femicides in the first five months of the year with 2.18 per 100,000 women.
Regarding homicides of women, Guanajuato — Mexico’s most violent state in recent years in terms of total murders — recorded the highest number, with 148 between January and May.
Baja California ranked second with 123, followed by México state, 95; Jalisco, 72; Chihuahua, 71; and Guerrero, 71.
Colima, a small Pacific coast state, had the highest per capita rate of homicides of women in the first five months of the year, with 12.99 per 100,000 women.
Apart from homicides and femicides, women and girls were victims of a wide range of other crimes in Mexico between January and May, including physical assault, kidnapping and human trafficking.
Security minister: 12 candidates killed during electoral period
Federal Security Minister Rosa Icela Rodríguez said Tuesday that 12 “officially registered candidates” were murdered during the electoral period leading up to the June 2 federal, state and municipal elections.
“During the [electoral] process we’ve just gone through, … in which more than 70,000 candidates participated, attacks were focused on local candidates,” she told President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s morning press conference.
Security Minister Rosa Icela Rodríguez speaks at one of the president’s morning press conference earlier this month. (Rosa Icela Rodríguez/X)
Non-governmental organizations counted at least 34 murders of candidates and people who aspired to run for public office, whereas Rodríguez was only referring to individuals who had formalized their candidacies with electoral authorities.
The security minister asserted Tuesday that “groups opposed to the current regime” sought to “create alarm and the mistaken idea that Mexico went through its most violent electoral period in recent history.”
“But this is not the case, these are campaigns aimed at discrediting the government,” Rodríguez said.
“… There were no homicides of contenders for federal positions or governorships, as regrettably occurred during other administrations. It should be made clear that all lives are important and homicides of politicians are reprehensible,” she added.
Rodríguez also said that the recent electoral process was closely “monitored” by the armed forces and the National Guard.
One of the candidates murdered this year was Gisela Gaytán, who was shot on her first day of campaigning as Morena’s mayoral candidate in Celaya. (Gisela Gaytán/Facebook)
She said that 645 requests for protection were received from candidates, and that 595 of that number were “attended to.”
Fifty candidates subsequently declined the government protection they were offered, Rodríguez said.
May was the most violent month so far this year
Rodríguez presented data earlier in June that showed there were 2,657 homicides in May, the highest number of any month so far this year.
Official data show May had the most homicides of any month so far this year in Mexico. (Cuartoscuro)
A total of 12,435 homicides were recorded in the first five months of 2024 for an average of 82 murders per day. The daily murder rate increased by 1 compared to all of 2023, but it is down from 91 in 2022 and 100 in 2019, the first full year of President López Obrador’s government.
Just under 45% of all homicides in the first five months of this year occurred in just six states, according to the data Rodríguez presented on June 11.
Guanajuato recorded the highest number of homicides between January and May with 1,217, followed by Baja California, 1,036; México state, 1,013; Chihuahua, 845; Jalisco, 753; and Morelos, 731.
Data shows there have been more than 184,000 homicides during López Obrador’s administration, making his six-year term as president the most violent on record.
However — as Security Minister Rodríguez frequently highlights — murder numbers have trended down during the term of the current government, whereas they increased during the administrations of Mexico’s three most recent ex-presidents.
Guanajuato is the fifth-largest grape producer nationwide and the fourth-largest wine producer in the country. (Christian Serna/Cuartoscuro)
Guanajuato state’s wine region has a rich history of vineyards going back centuries, but with the prestigious wine competition Concours Mondial de Bruxelles choosing to hold its 2024 red and white wines competition in the state’s city of León this month, it seems recently the Guanajuato wine region is truly on track to become the next big thing in Mexican wines.
And it appears that Guanajuato is ready to take on that mantle: the state currently ranks fifth nationwide in the amount of land devoted to vineyards, with 485 hectares devoted to viticulture and as many as 600 new hectares of land in the works to join the Guanajuato wine region. The state is Mexico’s fifth-largest grape producer and fourth-largest wine producer.
Guanajuato winery Dos Buhos’ Grenache Gran Reserva 2019 took home a prestigious Grand Gold Medal at 2024’s Concours Mondial de Bruxelles, held this year in the Guanajuato city of León. It was one of two Guanajuato wines to win Grand Gold Medals. (Dos Buhos)
On average, Guanajuato’s wine region produces more than 1.2 million liters per year from a variety of grapes, including cabernet sauvignon, merlot, Syrah, malbec, cabernet franc, tempranillo, Nebbiolo, sémillon, chardonnay and sauvignon blanc.
Two Grand Gold Medal winners at the 2024 Concours Mondial de Bruxelles in León came from the Guanajuato wine region: Dos Buhos’ Grenache Gran Reserva 2019 and a 2020 red blend from Pájaro Azul. In all, though, the state is home to 46 vineyards, 25 of which offer enotourism experiences ranging from hotels and restaurants onsite, vineyard and cellar tours, pairing dinners, wine tastings and other activities like horseback riding and hot-air balloon rides.
The state advertises five routes for exploring its vineyards: two near San Miguel de Allende, one close to León, one through Salvatierra and another one via the city of Guanajuato.
What climate conditions make Guanajuato a good wine region?
Guanajuato is one of Mexico’s best regions for wine production primarily due to its climate, shaped by the area’s basins and rivers.
Despite being outside the traditional meridian of wine-producing regions like France, Spain or Portugal, Guanajuato benefits from weather conditions, high altitude (2,000 meters above sea level) and soil components that produce quality wine grapes.
Other advantages include a semi-warm and arid climate with a year-round average temperature of 18 degrees Celsius, many hours of sunshine and an average annual precipitation of 650 millimeters.
Tres Raíces vineyard is located along the San Miguel de Allende-Querétaro wine route, one of five enotourism routes in Guanajuato state. (programadestinosmexico.com)
What about water scarcity?
Water scarcity in Guanajuato has prompted all types of farmers to seek ways to increase productivity on their land, and grapes turn out to be a good option as they are not water intensive crops.
A slight reduction in water input to Guanajuato’s vineyards produces brief hydric stress, which concentrates grapes’ natural sugars, producing better wines.
Elías Torres Barrera, head of the Grape and Wine Association in Guanajuato, recently told the newspaper El Sol de León that compared to other crops, the grapes, which use little water, are more sustainable and “an alternative in this season of drought and heat.”
When does the Guanajuato wine region’s harvest season begin?
The harvest season, known as vendimia in Spanish, is expected to begin in July and end in October this year.
During the grape harvest, vineyards in Guanajuato host a plethora of activities, including wine and food tastings, vineyard tours, picnics and opportunities to participate in traditional grape stomping.
Viva Aerobus will start flying to Tijuana and Los Angeles from Mérida International Airport.
(Mauricio Vila/Facebook)
Viva Aerobus announced it will start operating flights to Tijuana, Baja California and Los Angeles, United States, from Mérida International Airport.
With these two new flights, Viva Aerobus will have 16 routes departing from Mérida.
Yucatán’s governor Mauricio Vila was present at the event announcing the routes. (Mauricio Vila/Facebook)
“At Viva, we are committed to investing in Mérida,” said Walfred Castro Novelo, Viva’s director of corporate communications, during the route’s announcement at the Yucatán International Congress Center on Monday. “We recognize the city’s immense potential, along with that of the entire Yucatán region, and we aim to contribute to its development through improved national and international connectivity,” Castro stated.
Mérida is one of Viva Aerobus’ operational bases, operating a weekly average of 100 arrival flights to Yucatán.
The Tijuana route will start on Nov. 3 with four weekly flights on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays. It will depart from Mérida at 8 p.m. and will make quick refueling stops at the Guanajuato International Airport (near the city of León) on the outward journey and in Monterrey on the return journey. Passengers won’t have to leave the aircraft during these stops.
The Los Angeles route will kick off Dec. 18, just in time for the winter holiday season. A seasonal route, it will run once a week on Wednesdays through Jan. 8, 2025.
“[Los Angeles] is a route that we have been pursuing for years,” said Tourism Promotion Minister Michelle Fridman. “It is a complex route because of how long it is. We are going to do the first test in December,” she added.
During the event, Fridman thanked the low-cost airline for their commitment to attracting more tourism from the west coast of the U.S. Starting July, Volaris will also add two new routes departing from Yucatán’s capital: Orlando and Miami in Florida.
Tourism in Mérida has been on the rise. According to government data, the Mérida airport saw over 3.7 million passengers in 2023, the highest number ever recorded. According to Grupo Aeroportuario del Sureste (ASUR), the airport conglomerate in Mexico’s southeast, this means an increase of 19.69% compared to the previous year, which just barely topped 3 million passengers.
Bernardino de Sahagún has done more than perhaps any other person in history to document and save the identity of Mexico's Indigenous peoples. (Bernardino de Sahagún/Wikimedia Commons)
Mexico has several reasons to be grateful to a 16th-century Franciscan missionary named Bernardino de Sahagún. Foremost among them is that his work as a chronicler is invaluable for understanding pre-Columbian Mexican history and culture. Sahagún authored a monumental record of knowledge that might otherwise have been lost forever. Discover the story of a man who set out to change a culture but ended up preserving it forever.
Early life and academic background
Bernardino was born in 1499 in Sahagún, a small town in the León region of Northern Spain. Like many in the country at the time, he was raised in a devoutly Catholic environment. His strong inclination towards religious life from an early age led him to join the Franciscan order and study at the prestigious University of Salamanca, where he was exposed to the humanist ideas of the Renaissance.
Bernardino hailed from the town of Sahagún, in northern Spain. (Expedia)
In 1521, Spanish conquistadores led by Hernán Cortés conquered the Mexica capital of Tenochtitlan. Eight years later, Sahagún was sent as a missionary to New Spain because of his outstanding academic achievements and strong religious devotion.
The Franciscans prioritized evangelizing Indigenous peoples in their native languages. Bernardino de Sahagún quickly learned Nahuatl, the language of the Triple Alliance — better known as the Aztec Empire — to help preachers in New Spain. He translated the Psalms, the Gospels and catechism into Nahuatl.
Deep cultural understanding
In 1536, Bernardino de Sahagún helped establish the Colegio de Santa Cruz de Tlatelolco, the first European school of higher education in the Americas. This institution served as headquarters for his extensive research. Sahagún’s curiosity led him to explore the Nahua worldview, and his linguistic skills enabled a deep understanding.
Sahagún used a methodology that could be considered a precursor to modern anthropological field techniques. His motives were primarily religious: he believed that to convert the natives to Christianity and eradicate their devotion to “false” gods, it was necessary to understand those gods. “The doctor cannot correctly apply medicines to the patient [without] first knowing from what mood, or from what cause, the disease proceeds,” he wrote.
Colegio de Santa Cruz de Tlatelolco (Wikimedia Commons)
Sahagún dedicated himself to the study of Nahua beliefs, culture and history. He constantly questioned elders, wise men and priests about the details that interested him. He asked his disciples to record this information in Nahuatl, which he then translated into Spanish.
Although he was first and foremost a missionary, Sahagún’s approach to gathering information from Indigenous sources and collaborating with local informants laid the groundwork for future ethnographic studies and he has been called the “first anthropologist.”
Knowledge in action
Sahagún applied the Franciscan philosophy of knowledge in action. He didn’t just speculate about Indigenous people; he met with them, conducted interviews and sought to understand their worldview. While others debated whether Indigenous peoples were human and had souls, Sahagún focused on learning about their lives, beliefs and ways of understanding the world. Although he disapproved of practices he interpreted as human sacrifice and idolatry, he dedicated five decades to studying and documenting Nahua culture.
The creation and impact of the Florentine Codex
Sahagún’s magnum opus, The Florentine Codex, is widely regarded as one of the most reliable sources of information on Mexican culture and the impact of the Spanish conquest. A treasure trove of ethnographic, archaeological and historical knowledge, it consists of 12 volumes and 2,500 illustrations, documenting the life and beliefs of the Mexicas and other Nahua peoples.
The Florentine Codex is a sprawling manuscript detailing much of what we understand about pre-Hispanic Mexico. (INAH)
Actually titled The General History of the Things of New Spain, this work was created by Sahagún in collaboration with Nahua elders, scholars and artists over the course of decades. The codex is written in parallel columns of Nahuatl and Spanish, preserving both knowledge and language. Upon its completion in 1577, the manuscript was sent to Europe, where it became part of the Medici family’s library in Florence, hence its name.
Clashes with the Church
Sahagún faced opposition from those who believed that his efforts to document Indigenous cultures were inappropriate, as they could help preserve Indigenous religion. His adversaries tried to stop him in every way possible, resulting in intellectual persecution and frequent transfers from one church to another.
Bernardino de Sahagún’s work often clashed with the Church’s primary goal of eradicating native beliefs. His respectful approach contrasted sharply with the more aggressive methods of conversion favored by missionaries, who sought to quickly replace native beliefs with Christian doctrine.
Some members of the Church believed that Sahagún’s work could inadvertently encourage Indigenous people to cling to their traditional practices. His detailed documentation of Nahua rituals and deities was seen by some as preserving the very idolatry the Church aimed to eradicate.
Huejotzingo’s Carnival celebration perfectly demonstrates the mishmash between Catholic religious and pre-Hispanic seasonal rituals which subsequently developed in Mexico, a testament to the careful and respectful missionary work of Sahagún. (Joseph Sorrentino)
Rediscovery and modern recognition
The Church’s distrust of Sahagún’s work culminated in the confiscation of his manuscripts. Although he had supportive allies, Sahagún never regained control of his original documents. Fortunately, these manuscripts have since been published and translated, revealing the depth of Sahagún’s contributions.
Views of Sahagún’s work, controversial in its own time, continue to change today. While a previous generation of researchers saw him as a proto-anthropologist driven by the search for knowledge, contemporary academics center on the fact that he was a missionary who saw Indigenous religious practices as something to be eradicated. Modern scholars also emphasize the idea that Sahagún’s sources were native elites with their own agendas, giving him information that was likely colored by the circumstances of the Conquest.
Despite these debates, the work of Sahagún and his collaborators is a crucial resource for studying Mexican history. Their detailed records of Nahua culture have provided invaluable insights into the lives and beliefs of the Indigenous people of Mexico before and during Spanish colonialism. Where many of his contemporaries wanted to erase Indigenous culture entirely, through his dedication, Sahagún ensured their stories would be told.
Sandra Gancz Kahan is a Mexican writer and translator based in San Miguel de Allende who specializes in mental health and humanitarian aid. She believes in the power of language to foster compassion and understanding across cultures. She can be reached at: sandragancz@gmail.com
With the full team now announced, who will be the winner of Mexico's 74th Olympic medal? (Olympics)
If you were asked to predict how many medals Mexico will bring back from the upcoming Paris Olympics, then the safe bet would be four. In the last five Olympics, the team has won four medals for Mexico, from 2004 in Athens, 2008 in Beijing and 2020 in Tokyo.
The only Games at which Mexico surpassed this total by a wide margin were at London, where everything seemed to go right, including a dramatic win by the men’s soccer team. That year, the team won eight medals, a performance bettered only by the 1968 team, which came on home soil.
Mexico’s divers seem a safe bet to bring home Olympic glory. (Claudio Reyes/Panam Sports)
You could also safely predict that Mexico’s female athletes will outperform the men: of the last five Olympics, women have won 64% of Mexico’s Olympic medals. Diving and taekwondo are also safe bets for medals in individual sports. In the same twenty-year period, they’ve been the most successful, with six medals each — although half of the taekwondo medals were won by the great María Espinoza, now retired.
A strong start in aquatic sports
Let’s start in the water, where the diving team looks particularly talented this year. Qualification for Paris has been based on results from the last two World Championships, and Mexico is sending a team of ten divers to Paris. The large squad combines experience with young divers who are just reaching their peak.
Leading the way is Osmar Olvera Ibarra. He was the youngest in the team at the Tokyo 2020 games and recently won gold on the 1-meter springboard at the Doha World Championships. In Paris, he will be jumping from the 3-meter board. Here too Ibarra has an impressive record, with bronze and silver medals from the last two World Championships and a gold from the Pan American Games.
High board diverRandal Willarshas come through the youth ranks with a steady determination and is now the Mexican number one at this event. He is small and light in a sport where divers tend to be small and muscular. He might have finished fourth in the recent World Championships but will go to Paris full of confidence having won a bronze medal in the recent Diving World Cup Super Final in Xi’an, China.
Mexico’s Randal Willars (center) is a strong contender for a medal. He recently took the gold at the Pan American games alongside compatriot Kenny Zamudio (right). (Alejando Pagni/Pan American Games)
In the men’s high board event, Mexico has a formidable pair in Willars and Kevin Berlín, himself a top ten ranked diver. The women’s synchronized 10-meterteam could also be in the hunt for medals. The veteranAlejandra Orozco — who made history as the youngest athlete to represent Mexico way back in 2012 — will once again be diving with Gabriela Agúndez; with whom she won a bronze medal at the Tokyo games.
It all looks promising and if Mexico gets a medal early — their first opportunity comes on the second day of competition with the men’s synchronized high board event — then the whole team will be inspired. It will be a disappointment if Mexico brings anything less than two medals home from the diving pool.
Tentative hopes for Mexico’s taekwondo squad
Mexican Taekwondo is in a rebuilding stage after the disappointment of the Tokyo games, where the team failed to win an Olympic medal for the first time since the sport was introduced in 2000. The 2022 World Championship in Guadalajara appeared to have sparked a revival, bringing three titles and six medals. The first opportunity to ensure an Olympic place came at the end of the 2023 season, with finishing in the top five of the world rankings guaranteeing a place in Paris.
While this was technically for the country rather than the individual fighter, only Carlos Sansores and Daniela Souza achieved early qualification, leaving the rest of the team needing to finish in the first two at thePan American Qualifying Tournament. Even World Champion Leslie Soltero failed to qualify via this regional tournament, leaving Mexico with just two contestants in Paris.
Once a powerhouse of the sport, Mexican Taekwondo had a poor games in 2021. (World Taekwondo)
At least this small team has real quality. Sansores’ boyish looks and quiet voice belie his size: he stands a heavily built 1.90 and is going into the games in the best form of his life. He has won medals at the last three major games he has contested and is currently ranked second in the world.
Daniela Souza has been in the sport for a long time, winning a bronze medal in the World Junior Championships way back in 2016. She was one of the three Mexican champions at the 2022 World Championships and is in good shape, recently winning the US Open.
Souza fights in the women’s -49kg section and is a whiplash, dramatic fighter who attacks aggressively and has the nimbleness to avoid counterblows. She is also quite capable of landing big, 3-point scoring blows. However, she faces an outstanding fighter in world number one Panipak Wongpattanakit, competing for Thailand, while Quing Cha Guo looks capable of becoming the next great Chinese fighter at this weight.
Two medals, and possibly a gold, are certainly possible for Mexico, but Taekwondo is an unpredictable sport.
Where else could Mexico pick up a medal?
There are a few sports where Mexico is probably not going to win medals. Certainly not in soccer, where El Tri Feminil, despite an increasingly popular domestic league, have made little progress on the international front and have not qualified for the games. The men’s team, gold medalists in 2012 and bronze medalists in 2020, also failed to reach Paris.
There are no real hopes in the swimming pool, where Mexico’s last medal was in 1968, or on the track, where success is going to be defined by reaching a final.
So, where should we look for further medals? Start with the women’s archery team, where bothAlejandra Valencia and Ana Vázquez are outstanding competitors, with Valencia ranked third in the world at the time of writing. The real medal hope comes in the team event, where Mexico has regularly reached the knock-out stages of the competition only to fall short of a medal.
Much will depend on the form of the third archer, which looks to be 17-year-old Angela Ruiz. Despite her youth, Angela ranks 22nd in the world, and if she can deal with the pressure of her first Olympics, then this is a strong team and a medal looks a real possibility. Gold, however, seems unlikely: South Korea is seeking their 10th consecutive win since archery came to the Olympics back in 1988.
Despite all the country’s professional success at boxing, the Mexican Olympic team has underachieved. This is still a tough working-class sport, with pressure to turn professional and bring in a little money. The last 40 years have only produced four Olympic medals, and we would have to go back to 1968 for a gold.
The team in Paris will be small, with two men and two women. It will be worth keeping an eye on Marco Verde. The Mazatlán native comes from a boxing family, his father having represented Mexico at the 1992 games.
Verde fights at welterweight, a little heavier than most of the successful Mexican Olympic boxers, and will go to Paris as the Pan-American champion. Paris will be much tougher, but nobody — including Verde himself — is quite sure just how good he is and a surprise medal might be in the cards.
The women’s gymnastics team has done well to reach Paris and although there’s little hope of a team or overall medal, there is a good chance that Alexa Moreno will bring something home in the vault. She has survived internet bullying, acquired a degree and come out of retirement for her third Olympics.
Mexico’s Alexa Moreno carries the hopes of the gymnastics team. (Alexa Moreno/X)
There are also a couple of young men from a Mexican-American heritage who have opted to represent Mexico.Roman Bravo-Youngin wrestling and Alan Cleland in surfing could both spring a surprise.
The surfing takes place 15,000 kilometers away in Tahiti, and while Cleland is not a favorite for a medal, he is noted for being at his best when the waves are at their most challenging. Tahiti is a venue that should suit a young man who learned his skill in the notoriously rough waters of Colima: big waves might just bring a big surprise.
When to cheer the Mexican team:
July
26 Opening Ceremony
29 Diving – Men’s 10-meter synchronized platform final
31 Surfing – Men’s final
August
3Gymnastics – Women’s Vault final
7 Taekwondo – Women’s 49kg final
8Diving – Men’s Diving 3-meter final
10 Taekwondo – Mens +80kg final
11 Closing Ceremony
Bob Pateman is a Mexico-based historian, librarian and a life term hasher. He is editor of On On Magazine, the international history magazine of hashing.
The crocodile wandered slowly into traffic on a busy road in downtown Tampico. (Screen capture)
When Tropical Storm Alberto slammed into northeastern Mexico last week, it not only filled up reservoirs and lakes, it brought floodwaters that displaced not only several people around Mexico but also apparently some intrepid crocodiles in Tampico, Tamaulipas.
At least one escapee from an enclosed park of crocodile-populated mangroves in downtown Tampico was captured on video over the weekend, strolling city streets and impeding traffic.
▶️ Enorme cocodrilo sale de laguna de Carpintero de Tampico y detiene el tráfico
The large reptile is believed to have escaped from an enclosed park in the heart of Tampico, known as Laguna del Carpintero, a popular tourist spot.
The video, which was posted on social media, also showed how the Tampico crocodile’s journey came to an abrupt stop in the middle of a busy road, forcing passing cars to slow down and drive around the 3-meter-long reptile.
Tampico has crocodile-populated mangroves at Laguna del Carpintero, a popular park in the heart of the Gulf Coast city. The mangroves there are known to host a hundred or so crocodiles.
As rain continued to fall into the weekend, the water levels in Tampico had risen so much that at least one of the mangroves’ crocs was apparently able to climb out and wander away.
Commuters appear to have notified authorities: the organization Grupo SOS Cocodrilo was alerted, and National Guardsmen arrived to secure the area and prevent any unsuspecting pedestrians from happening upon the stray crocodile.
Three firemen were tasked with capturing the reptile and returning it to its habitat, according to the news website Sin Embargo. The men used rope and a thick fireman’s jacket to wrap up the crocodile. Once it was adequately covered up, one fireman knelt on top of the reptile while his two coworkers tied it up. They then transported it back to the Laguna del Carpintero.
Crocodile sighting in Mexico’s urban areas is not unusual. Similar experiences were reported in Chetumal at the other end of the country on the Yucatán Peninsula, as well as in the state of Sinaloa on the Pacific coast.
One of a hundred or so crocodiles that live in the Laguna del Carpintero Park in Tampico. (Wikimedia Commons)
After a tropical cyclone passed over the peninsula earlier this month, residents of the Caribbean resort town reported seeing crocodiles in the city. Quintana Roo Governor Mara Lezama called on the Army to patrol the streets to protect the public. Two small crocodiles were captured and returned to their habitat in the Chac estuary.
In Sinaloa, Environmental Protection agents were patrolling rivers after receiving reports of crocodiles in public areas. Three people were killed when their car crashed after hitting a crocodile on April 24.
Mexico's men's national soccer team, El Tri, celebrates their win against Jamaica 1-0 in the Copa América on Saturday in Houston. The team takes on Venezuela next on Wednesday in Inglewood, California. (@miseleccionmx/X)
The Mexican men’s national soccer team began the Copa América tournament with an encouraging 1-0 victory over Jamaica on Saturday night.
The Mexican team — also known as “El Tri” for Mexico’s tri-colored flag — play next on Wednesday, against Venezuela.
Mexico beat Jamaica 1-0 on Saturday. Mexico was one of six Conacaf teams invited to compete as guests in the Copa América this year as part of a collaboration between Conacaf and CONMEBOL, the latter of which runs Copa América. As part of the deal, four of CONMEBOL’s women’s teams got to compete in the Conacaf W. Gold Cup. (@miseleccionmx/X)
The quadrennial tournament is traditionally for South American teams, although non-members can be invited as guests. When Ecuador backed out on hosting the 2024 event, the United States stepped up as host country, allowing six additional teams to play: Mexico, U.S., Canada, Costa Rica, Panama and Jamaica.
The 16-team tournament opened last Thursday with Lionel Messi and Argentina beating Canada 2-0 in Atlanta. It’s now in the round-robin phase through July 2. The top two teams from each of four groups will advance to the knockout round, starting July 4.
El Tri, down one spot at 15th in the latest FIFA world rankings, is in Group B with Ecuador (30th), Jamaica (53rd) and Venezuela (54th). Venezuela opened with a 2-1 upset win over Ecuador on Saturday in Santa Clara, California.
Mexico’s slim victory over Jamaica in Houston on Saturday wasn’t as convincing as many had expected, nor was it pain-free.
Midfielder Edson Álvarez, the team’s captain and best playmaker, left the field in the 30th minute with a torn left hamstring. MedioTiempo, a Mexican sports news website, reported Monday that the 26-year-old, who plays for West Ham in England’s Premier League, will be out for the rest of the tournament.
That’s a major blow for El Tri’s head coach Jimmy Lozano, whose scheme relied heavily on Álvarez’s leadership and experience. Moreover, due to tournament rules, no player can replace him.
Lozano is on the hot seat, with a record for El Tri of 10 wins, six losses and three draws. The question is whether he will remain as Mexico’s head man for the next World Cup, which will be jointly hosted by Mexico, the U.S. and Canada in 2026.
Mexico, competing as a guest in Copa América for the 11th time in its history, plays next against Venezuela in Inglewood, California, on Wednesday at 7 p.m. Mexico City time. The team will finish round-robin play against Ecuador in Glendale, Arizona, on Saturday at 6 p.m.
Edson Álvarez, the team’s captain and agurably El Tri’s best playmaker, is out for the rest of the tournament due to a torn left hamstring. (@miseleccionmx/X)
Mexico broke diplomatic relations with Ecuador in April after Ecuadorian police raided the Mexican Embassy in Quito to arrest the country’s former vice president, Jorge Glas. Mexico and Ecuador have both filed suits against each other at the International Court of Justice in The Hague.
Disappointing weekend for F1 racer ‘Checo’ Perez
Mexican Formula 1 driver Sergio “Checo” Pérez continued his less-than-stellar 2024 season with an eighth-place finish in the Spanish Grand Prix in Montmeló, Spain.
The 34-year-old Guadalajara native began the race 11th in the starting grid after another poor qualifying round, plus a three-spot penalty for driving back to the pit area with a significantly damaged car in the Canadian Grand Prix on June 9.
This year, however, Pérez is in fifth place with only four top-three finishes and no wins in 10 races. The Belgian Verstappen is in first place with seven wins, including this past Sunday in Spain.
After doing well in his first five races of 2024 — three second places and one third place — Pérez has gone downhill. In the five races since then, he has one fourth place, two eighth places and two nonfinishes due to accidents.
Pérez signed a new two-year contract in early June that will keep him on the Red Bull team through 2026. There was much speculation that Red Bull would decide to part ways with him, and now maybe team management wishes it did.
Trevor Bauer sets Mexican Baseball League strikeout record
U.S. baseball pitcher Trevor Bauer — who was blackballed from Major League Baseball (MLB) ever since a 194-game suspension from the MLB in 2022 and 2023 — has a new strikeout record to his name.
The 2020 recipient of the National League Cy Young Award for best pitcher, Bauer is playing for the Mexico City Diablos Rojos (Red Devils) this season — and on Friday, he set a Mexican Baseball League record with 19 strikeouts in a nine-inning game.
Pitcher Trevor Bauer, the moment he realized he had set the Mexican Baseball League’s strikeout record on Friday, making 19 strikeouts in a regular nine-inning game. (Horacio de la Vega OLY/X)
Bauer, who played for the Los Angeles Dodgers when he was suspended by MLB in 2022, was reinstated to the league in 2023 but let go by the Dodgers without returning.
MLB handed Bauer the unprecedentedly long suspension in 2022 after accusations surfaced of him allegedly beating and sexually abusing a woman. Bauer denied the accusations, which were investigated by the L.A. District Attorney’s Office and MLB. Bauer was never charged with a crime, and the civil case against him by his accuser was eventually settled out of court, but Bauer has yet to secure another MLB team contract.
In 2023, Bauer played in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball league. He signed with CDMX’s Diablos in March.
