The artist performed a show to tens of thousands of fans at Foro Sol, Mexico City. (@Biltracking/Twitter)
Pop sensation Billie Eilish gave an electrifying performance at her rescheduled Mexico City concert in Foro Sol stadium on Thursday.
The 21-year-old was forced to postpone her concert on Wednesday after a severe rain and hail storm in the city, although she and her brother Finneas provided an intimate 20-minute acoustic set to thank fans who braved the weather.
Billie Eilish and her brother Finneas entertained the crowd after the cancellation of the concert on Wednesday night. (@CesarTheSecond/Twitter)
The Mexico City date of her “Happier Than Ever” world tour was canceled as a precautionary measure.
Some fans to the general admission show had reportedly camped outside the entrance to the circuit for up to 48 hours to ensure that they would be in the front row.
The 51,000 people who packed into the stadium Thursday night for the rescheduled show were treated to Eilish’s signature whispers and ethereal vocals that made her the first 21st-century artist to score a No. 1 single.
Draped in a Mexican flag, the Californian said she was exhausted from the rigors of touring but felt happy to be back performing in Mexico.
“I feel familiar. I’ve only been here once, but I feel like I know them, that we’re old friends and we’ve met again,” she told the crowd.
As is tradition, she ended her set with her multi-platinum selling hit “Bad Guy”.
Eilish will appear at the Pa’l Norte festival in Monterrey later Friday before heading to Arena VFG, Guadalajara on April 2.
The protests caused traffic blockages for much of the morning on Friday. (Twitter)
Protesters blockaded a number of key roads from Mexico City earlier today, affecting traffic leaving for the Semana Santa (Easter) holidays on the Mexico-Querétaro, Mexico-Pachuca, and Toluca-Atlacomulco highways.
The organization had originally said that the blockades would be canceled, but traffic reports this morning showed that the action had gone ahead at the last minute.
Protestors were upset about extortion by members of the police. (Twitter)
The protesters are from the Organization of Merchants, Carriers and Civil Associations of México state. Members are concerned about working rights and extortion by local police.
“What we ask for is justice, that they take care of us as carriers, that our rights not be trampled on,” said one.
According to federal highways agency Capufe, the protesters gathered at kilometer 20 of the Mexico-Cuernavaca highway, the El Dorado toll booth on the Toluca-Atlacomulco highway, and at the Tepotzotlán toll booth on the Mexico-Querétaro highway. Authorities said that traffic on at least two lanes of the Mexico-Queretaro highway was flowing freely as of Friday morning.
Protesters told the newspaper El Universal that they were prepared to open up access to all the roads they had blocked, and they claimed that it was only through the blockades that they got the attention of authorities.
It is believed that the blockades will be fully dismantled before the end of the day, though there are delays as a result of the protests. Police say they are working to resolve the dispute.
A Chinese cargo flight departs Felipe Ángeles International Airport earlier this month. (Mario Jasso/Cuartoscuro)
Despite only beginning to receive cargo earlier this month, operations at the new Felipe Ángeles International Airport (AIFA) have reached a level of moving 2,000 tonnes and 12 aircraft per week.
The figure is equivalent to 624 flights and 104,000 tonnes of cargo per year, as the México state airport establishes itself as the primary cargo destination for imports in the capital.
The first cargo flight to land at AIFA, was a DHL plane from Cincinnati, Ohio. The logistics company will run the route six days a week, DHL Express México officials said. (Photo: Mario Jasso/Cuartoscuro)
The enormous facilities – which have capacity for up to 300,000 tonnes of cargo per year – measure the same as 48 soccer fields. There is also space for an additional 36 warehouses, which officials are optimistic will be required when AIFA is designated as the primary cargo terminus later this year.
Airport officials anticipate to be prepared for this change in June – when cargo operations are expected to cease at the Benito Juárez International Airport (AICM), Mexico City’s main airport and the busiest one in the country, according to the Ministry of Infrastructure, Communications, and Transport.
The new customs facilities – the first built in Mexico for 12 years – are now operational, allowing the military (who are tasked with customs and excise at ports of entry) to quickly process arrivals.
DHL, AeroUnion, and Awesome Cargo became the first cargo airlines to officially announce operations from AIFA at the end of 2022, and all three are now regularly scheduling flights between Mexico City and the north of Mexico. U.S.-Canadian hauler Cargojet recently joined the list of operators.
The airport, in the town of Zumpango, in northern México state, is taking advantage of new transport links designed to accommodate large numbers of passengers and cargo more comfortably than at AICM.
“In the AICM, we already have a load saturation that may not be seen right now; perhaps we will endure it until 2024, but in a few years, it would no longer be manageable,” said Carmen Sánchez, commercial director at Aaacesa, the construction specialists tasked with building the infrastructure that will facilitate the move from Benito Juárez to AIFA.
AIFA’s location — near Pachucha, the state capital of Hidalgo — allows for better haulage once cargo arrives when compared to the congested roads in the center of the capital, says the government. Recent upgrades to existing ring roads also mean that the México state capital Toluca is easily accessible by road.
A striking hallway leads to a swimming pool inside Luis Barragán's Gilardi House, built in Mexico City between 1975 and 1977. (Luis Barragán Foundation)
A friend of mine and I recently visited Casa Gilardi in Mexico City’s leafy and tranquil San Miguel de Chapultepec section. Casa Gilardi was the final project of Mexico’s lauded architect, Luis Barragán. He completed it when he was 80 years old.
The house is hard to miss, with its bright pink facade contrasting greatly with the otherwise muted pastel dwellings that line the street. A giant jacaranda in full blossom erupts from what appears to be the roof, which, upon further inspection, is actually a courtyard separating the living quarters from the indoor pool.
Luis Barragán, was the first Latin American to be awarded the Pritzker Prize, considered by many to be the “Nobel Prize for architecture.” (Wikimedia Commons)
In the true style of Barragan, colors play an important role, and their shades dramatically shift according to the dancing rays of the sun. It’s a true masterpiece, and this is coming from someone with little to no appreciation or understanding of architectural genius.
More memorable was the passing comment that my friend, Mexican through and through, made as we entered the house with a group of about 18 rather trendy and noticeably eager visitors.
“I’m the only Mexican here.”
I didn’t even need to scan the crowd before nodding my head in agreement. That undeniably perky North American accent pierced my eardrums from every single angle. We’re simply everywhere,front row and center.
Even pop star Dua Lipa has been hit by Barragan fever; she visited the Museo Luis Barragán last year while doing concerts in Mexico City. (Dua Lipa/Instagram)
But I knew this would be the case. Because…Barragán.
When did Barragán fever sweep the expat art nation?
Aside from the architect’s celebrity status within Mexico itself, he was the first Latino to win the Pritzker Prize in 1980. And a quick Google search reveals a long-term love affair between the New York Times and Barragán’s revered role in contemporary architecture.
The artist Jill Magid’s tenacious and ongoing attempt to access his archives (held under lock and key by the Swiss furniture company Vitria) was chronicled in her documentary “The Proposal,” released in 2018 at the Camden International Film Festival, .
And with the country’s surge in expat popularity during the pandemic, it’s no surprise that the foreign creative crowd would flock to the doors of what has effectively come to be known to internationals as Mexico’s version of Frank Lloyd Wright.
And for good reason. His work, like all good art, gets you thinking. By toying with varying hues, light, angles and the flirtatious interplay between design and nature, Barragan’s masterpieces promote a lifestyle threaded with intimacy and tranquility, one that must have had an especially high appeal to people fleeing the chaos of Covid-19.
Barragán also designed public spaces, like the Faro del Comercio in Monterrey, Nuevo León. (Wikimedia Commons)
Nor is his clear and obvious respect for the surrounding nature lost on the viewer. Like the aforementioned jacaranda, he worked boldly with Mother Nature’s elements by incorporating them into his projects, and often used her geography as his focal point.
So who is the mysterious man behind Mexico’s structural gems?
Barragán was born in Guadalajara in 1902. He earned a civil engineering degree but bolstered his knowledge with the skills he needed to dive into an architectural career. Throughout his 20s and early 30s, Barragán traveled throughout France, Spain and Morocco, where his penchant for Mediterranean and North African design would make a lasting impact.
In 1936, he moved to Mexico City, where he stayed until his death in 1988. Considering himself a landscape architect, Barragán’s draw to nature and landscapes stemmed from a deep devotion to religion and beauty.
His private life is just that, private, and while there are speculations as to his sexuality, it’s difficult to track down concrete evidence of any value.
And perhaps that’s apropos for an introverted man whose life was seemingly dedicated to the honing of his untouchable craft.
The Torres de Satelite in Naucalpan, México state. (Wikimedia Commons)
If you find yourself in the World Design Organization’s World Design Capital of 2018, here is a list of Luis Barragán’s properties that are open for public perusal:
Casa Pedregal (formally Casa Prieto Lopez, designed in tandem with Diego Rivera): Av. de Las Fuentes 180, Jardines del Pedregal, CDMX. To set up an appointment, email [email protected]
Jardines del Pedregal: Calle Fuentes, Agua y Cráter, Pedregal, CDMX. Entry is free during the park’s opening hours.
Casa Barragán (his former house and studio): Gral. Francisco Ramírez 12–14, Ampliación Daniel Garza, Miguel Hidalgo, CDMX. Reserve entry ticket ahead of time on the website.
Casa Gilardi: General León #82 entre Rafael Rebollar y Tiburcio Montiel, Ampliación Daniel Garza, Miguel Hidalgo, CDMX. Reserve entry ahead of time on the website. Cash payment only.
Casa Cuadra San Cristóbal: Look familiar? This sweeping private ranch hosted a Louis Vuitton photoshoot in 2016. Located at Cda. Manantial Ote. 20, Mayorazgos de los Gigantes, 52957 Cd López Mateos, Municipio Atizapán de Zaragoza, México state. Accessible only by private tour. To schedule, contact The Traveling Beetle at [email protected]
Capilla de las Capuchinas: Miguel Hidalgo 43, Tlalpan Centro I, 14000, Tlalpan, CDMX. Call for opening hours: +525555732395
Bethany Platanella is a travel and lifestyle writer based in Mexico City. With her company, Active Escapes International, she plans and leads private and small-group active retreats. She loves Mexico’s local markets, Mexican slang, practicing yoga and fresh tortillas. Sign up for her (almost) weekly love letters or follow her Instagram account, @a.e.i.wellness.
Inflation has gone down since February, but the central bank isn't yet ready to end its fight against rising consumer prices. (Mario Jasso/Cuartoscuro)
The Bank of Mexico (Banxico) has voted to raise its benchmark interest rate by 25 basis points to a record high of 11.25% as it continues its fight against inflation.
The central bank’s key rate has now risen 725 basis points in the current tightening cycle, which began in June 2021.
Banxico has raised its benchmark rate at its last 15 monetary policy meetings. (Wikimedia Commons)
Thursday’s unanimous vote by the five members of Banxico’s governing board comes a week after the national statistics agency INEGI reported that annual headline inflation was 7.12% in the first half of March, down from 7.62% in February.
While inflation also declined in February, the headline rate, or raw inflation rate, is still well above the central bank’s target of 3%, with tolerance of one percentage point in either direction.
Banxico has raised its benchmark rate at its last 15 monetary policy meetings, with Thursday’s increase being the smallest since November 2021.
In a statement announcing the 25-basis-point hike, the bank said that global inflation “remains at high levels” and noted that most central banks, including the United States Federal Reserve, have “continued raising their reference rates.”
A Banxico table released Thursday showing the central bank’s predictions for headline and core inflation through the first quarter of 2025. (Banxico)
However, the statement said, since Banxico’s last monetary policy meeting in February – at which the bank’s board members voted unanimously for a 50-basis-point hike – annual headline inflation in Mexico “has decreased more than expected.”
That decrease led most economists to correctly predict that the central bank would only lift its key rate by 25 basis points today.
Banxico said that “inflation is still projected to converge to the 3% target in the fourth quarter of 2024” but noted that the forecast is subject to a range of risks, including persistence of core inflation at high levels, foreign exchange depreciation due to volatility in international financial markets and pressures on energy prices or on agricultural and livestock product prices.
For its next monetary policy decision on May 18, Banxico said its board members “will take into account the inflation outlook, considering the monetary policy stance already attained.”
In contrast to previous statements, the bank didn’t specifically mention the possibility of a rate hike at its next monetary policy meeting, suggesting that the 11.25% rate could remain unchanged through May.
Several banks, including Banorte and Scotiabank, predict that the benchmark rate at the end of 2023 will be 11.75%. Interest rate cuts are expected in 2024, provided that inflation is declining toward Banxico’s target rate.
The central bank is currently forecasting that annual headline inflation will decline to 4.8% in the fourth quarter of 2023. It predicts the headline rate will continue to fall through next year to reach 3.1% in Q4 of 2024.
Beekeepers reported combined losses of 12 million pesos. (Facebook / Colectivo Maya de los Chenes)
Beekeepers in Campeche are blaming agrochemical testing linked to Bayer-Monsanto for the deaths of more than 300,000 bees in their apiaries.
The mass bee death affected around 100 apiaries and up to 2,500 hives in San Francisco Suctuc and Crucero Oxá, in the municipality of Hopelchén. Beekeepers report combined economic losses of up to 12 million pesos (US $663,000).
#URGENTE#Pronunciamiento#apicultores#abejas
Compartimos nuestro posicionamiento ante la actual situación que enfrentan compañerxs apicultorxs de la comunidad de San Francisco, Suc-Tuc con la muerte masiva de sus colmenas por el uso excesivo de agrotóxicos. pic.twitter.com/PgLua7Hxkm
— Colectivo de Comunidades Mayas (@ColectivoMayas) March 28, 2023
The beekeepers’ collective denounced the mass bee death on Twitter.
The cause of the incident is unconfirmed until laboratory tests are concluded. But some farmers allege it is linked to aerial fumigation of corn, sorghum and soy crops at the Zenit ranch near Crucero Oxá, which they say is operated by agrochemical giant Bayer-Monsanto.
“One of Bayer’s engineers or technicians allowed us to take samples from one of their crops after the bees started to die,” José Manuel Poot Chan, one of the affected beekeepers, told the newspaper La Jornada Maya.
“We are exhausting all possible legal instances, while members of the Welfare Ministry already came to offer humanitarian social aid to cover part of the damages,” he added.
Poot Chan said that the 50-hectare Zenit ranch is on loan to Bayer Monsanto from a local businessman. The beekeepers suspect the multinational is using it to test new agrochemical products.
Beekeepers allege that their bees’ deaths were caused by aerial fumigation at the Zenit ranch, which they say is being used by Bayer-Monsanto. (Wikimedia Commons / Jenni Jones)
However, the Collective of Maya Communities of the Chenes, a nongovernmental organization in Hopelchén, has also reported chemical fumigation by local Mennonite communities. A 2016 study by the Autonomous University of Campeche (UAC) found agrochemicals in the groundwater of 17 Hopelchén communities near Mennonite fields.
The study found traces of the herbicide glyphosate – which is produced by Bayer-Monsanto – in the urine of local farmers. It also reported that Mennonite communities were illegally fumigating with the highly toxic herbicides carbofuran, imidacloprid, chlorphyrifos and atrazine.
“I see no hope; on the contrary, the use of these products has worsened while [also] affecting those of us who are dedicated to beekeeping, and [it’s] harming our bees,” Leydy Pech, a beekeeper and longtime activist leader for Maya beekeepers in Hopelchén who received the international Goldman environmental prize in 2020, told La Jornada Maya following the mass bee death.
In December 2020, President López Obrador announced that glyphosate would bephased out in Mexico by 2024. The move has been praised by many environmental groups, but resisted by Bayer-Monsanto, who argue that the product is safer than its alternatives.
Head of the Defense Ministry (Sedena), Luis Cresencio Sandoval at a January press conference. (Cuartoscuro)
An army officer has reportedly been arrested in connection with a cyberattack in which a huge trove of emails and documents was stolen from the IT system of the Ministry of National Defense (Sedena).
Citing federal security cabinet sources, the El Universal newspaper reported Tuesday that Jesús “N,” a lieutenant colonel who worked in Sedena’s IT department, was detained in connection with the 2022 hack perpetrated by the Guacamaya hacking group. The federal government hasn’t publicly confirmed the arrest.
Hacker collective Guacamaya has represented itself with this artwork. (Guacamaya via Vice)
El Universal said that Jesús “N” is accused by the Military Justice Prosecutor’s Office of a “breach of military duties” – specifically the “loss of military information.”
The Military Justice Code stipulates a minimum jail sentence of one year for a breach of military duties, although a sentence of just four months imprisonment can be handed down if the breach was the result of “clumsiness or carelessness.”
The maximum jail sentence for the crime is 60 years.
López Obrador has closely aligned with the military during his presidency and has defended the Defense Ministry against allegations of misconduct. (Gob MX)
Jesús “N” is being held in a prison at a Mexico City military facility, El Universal said. The information engineer is the first military leader to be detained in connection with the Guacamaya cyberattack, but more officials are expected to be arrested, the newspaper said.
The Military Justice Prosecutor’s Office began an investigation “to detect possible omissions” by Sedena IT personnel months ago even though López Obrador ruled out a probe last October, El Universal said.
Sedena has tightened IT security to protect against future cyberattacks and strengthened checks of IT and cybersecurity employees as a safeguard against leaks of sensitive information.
National Defense Minister Luis Cresencio Sandoval said in February that Mexico’s national security wasn’t compromised despite the theft of six terabytes of confidential information.
López Obrador also played down the seriousness of the hack, saying late last year that he didn’t expect any negative consequences from it.
The president has recently been questioned about leaked Sedena documents that appear to confirm that the Defense Ministry has spied on citizens during the term of his government. López Obrador denies that is the case, saying earlier this month that the army does intelligence work but doesn’t spy on anyone.
Last week he said he suspected that the Guacamaya hacking group – which has also stolen information from the Chilean and Peruvian governments – is made up of “international agencies linked to the conservative group headed by [businessman and government critic] Claudio X. González.”
Mexico's Security Minister Rosa Icela Rodríguez called for cooperation and closer intelligence ties between Mexico and the U.S. (@rosaicela_/Twitter)
A senior official with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (SRE) has urged the United States to acknowledge Mexico’s efforts to seize illegal drugs, including the synthetic opioid fentanyl.
“We demand respect for the work that has been done,” Roberto Velasco, head of the SRE’s North America department, said Wednesday during the first day of the U.S.-Mexico Synthetic Drug Conference (SDC) in Mexico City.
Mexico’s Foreign Ministry and U.S. politicians clashed over efforts to prevent drug trafficking. Foreign Ministry official Roberto Velasco said U.S. officials needed to acknowledge Mexico’s achievements. (@r_velascoa/Twitter)
Without referring to a specific time period, he claimed that Mexican authorities have seized enough fentanyl “to kill the population of Mexico and the United States.”
Other federal officials, including President López Obrador, have recently highlighted that authorities have seized over 6 tonnes of fentanyl since the current government took office in Dec. 2018.
In what appeared to be a veiled criticism of United States authorities, Velasco said that the fight against fentanyl must focus on reducing demand as well as supply.
“If supply was the only factor, Mexico would have an overdose death problem comparable to that of the United States. We have to deal with the entire supply chain, not just supply but also demand,” he said.
Many Mexican representatives highlighted the López Obrador administration’s work to take fentanyl off Mexico’s streets. (US CBP)
Velasco’s remarks came as some Republican Party lawmakers criticize Mexico for not doing enough to combat drug cartels and the flow of narcotics across the northern border and advocate the use of the U.S. military on Mexican soil against such criminal organizations, a proposition López Obrador has categorically rejected.
On Wednesday, six Republican senators introduced legislation to designate nine Mexican cartels, including the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, as foreign terrorist organizations (FTOs).
“Despite what the president of Mexico says, drug cartels are in control of large parts of Mexico,” Senator Lindsey Graham said.
“They are making billions of dollars sending fentanyl and illicit drugs into the United States, where it is killing our citizens by the thousands. Designating these cartels as foreign terrorist organizations will be a game-changer. We will put the cartels in our crosshairs and go after those who provide material support to them, including the Chinese entities who send them chemicals to produce these poisons,” he said.
Some Republican politicians, including Lindsey Graham, have called for stronger action against Mexico. (@GrahamBlog/Twitter)
“The designation of Mexican drug cartels as FTOs is a first step in the major policy changes we need to combat this evil,” Graham said.
United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who spoke via video link at the SDC, said last week that it was not “clear” to him that “we would get additional tools or authorities” to combat Mexican cartels by declaring them FTOs.
However, in response to a question put to him by Graham, Blinken said that the U.S. government would “certainly consider” making the designation.
In her address at the bilateral conference, Mexico’s Security Minister Rosa Icela Rodríguez said that Mexico and the United States need to work as a “single front” against synthetic drugs such as fentanyl and methamphetamine.
“Both consumer and transit countries must assume the responsibility of working together to build peace,” she said.
Rodríguez stressed that the precursor chemicals used to make drugs such as fentanyl are not made in Mexico, but rather shipped here from Asia. She portrayed Mexico as merely a “transit country,” although there is evidence fentanyl pills are pressed here, a reality López Obrador acknowledged earlier this month.
Although she advocated closer bilateral cooperation to combat drugs, the security minister noted that Mexico and the U.S. already share information that enables seizures of both narcotics and weapons and the arrest of criminals.
United States Ambassador to Mexico Ken Salazar agreed that the fentanyl crisis is a shared problem that must be jointly addressed.
“To get results, the problem requires [the attention] of both nations,” he said at the SDC.
In his opening remarks, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Todd Robinson said that the two countries must be “more ambitious” in the fight against fentanyl.
Robinson, the State Department’s international narcotics point man, said that the production of synthetic drugs is increasing and asserted that drug overdose deaths are on the rise in Mexico. He said that the aim in the U.S. is to reduce overdose deaths by 13% by 2025.
Fentanyl poses a grave risk to us all. The United States and Mexico are updating our long-standing partnership to forge a comprehensive, agile, and effective approach to synthetic drugs like fentanyl. pic.twitter.com/UtjdVtJTJb
In his virtual conference address, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken described Mexico as one of his nation’s “closest partners” in the fight against synthetic drugs.
López Obrador has questioned the United States’ commitment to combating the distribution of fentanyl in that country, but Robinson highlighted that hundreds of individuals were arrested for that crime in the U.S. last year.
In his address, Blinken said that “illicit synthetic drugs” are “one of the most important challenges facing our people” and noted that over 100,000 Americans died from overdoses in 2021.
“Seventy percent of those were from synthetic opioids like fentanyl. And synthetic drugs are threatening lives around the world, including in Mexico,” he said.
Blinken described Mexico as one of the United States’ “closest partners” in the fight against synthetic drugs and said the two nations are “working to forge a comprehensive, agile, and effective approach” to combat them.
“Under President Biden and President López Obrador, the United States and Mexico are acting to disrupt illicit supply chains and curb the production and distribution of legal chemicals used to make drugs, including through exchanges of forensic scientists,” he said.
“We’re targeting organized crime and drug traffickers, and intercepting drug shipments. In the last year alone, we used U.S. technology to seize over 1.3 million fentanyl pills together, at borders, ports and other checkpoints. And that’s on top of the work our countries did individually to get drugs off our streets.”
Blinken also noted that the United States and Canada have “committed to build a new global coalition against synthetic drugs” that “will launch this summer and bring together countries from around the world to develop and implement solutions to this crisis.”
The SDC, which concludes Thursday, is an initiative of the wide-ranging Mexico-United States Bicentennial Framework for Security, Public Health and Safe Communities, which took effect in late 2021.
Among its objectives is to disrupt and dismantle narcotics production; reduce the capacity of transnational criminal organizations to distribute and sell controlled substances; and strengthen and expand regulatory and law enforcement capacity to address the trafficking of synthetic drugs and precursors.
In that vein, the Mexican navy announced Wednesday that in recent days, eight clandestine laboratories where synthetic drugs were made were dismantled in Sinaloa.
Despite efforts to integrate them into social security programs, domestic workers still face uncertain employment and lack of access to healthcare. (Mario Jasso/Cuartoscuro)
Despite high-profile increases in the minimum wage and the number of days of annual vacations for employees, 95% of domestic workers in Mexico still have not been enrolled in social security programs, according to unions.
Despite a law in 2022 mandating the enrollment of domestic staff, little has changed for workers. (Mario Jasso/Cuartoscuro)
Healthcare in Mexico is provided by the government, but workers must be officially enrolled and make regular contributions to the scheme via taxes in order to receive assistance. Private healthcare options are unaffordable for the majority of domestic workers.
March 30 is the National Day of Domestic Workers — but in 2023, an estimated 70% of workers are paid below minimum wage, between 239 pesos (US $13.20) and 312 (US $17.23) pesos per day (for workers on the U.S. border).
Mexico has around 2.5 million domestic workers, the vast majority (2.25 million) of them female, and usually working as cleaners and carers, according to statistics from the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI).
So far, only around 56,000 workers in this field have been successfully enrolled in IMSS, according to the National Center for the Professional Training and Leadership of Domestic Workers. This number represents less than 2.3% of eligible workers.
The reality for many domestic workers is a lack of job security and low pay. (Magdalena Montiel/Cuartoscuro)
Many domestic workers also have multiple employers — working in three or four different homes over a week, meaning that it is unclear which employer should shoulder the cost of paying their social security contributions.
This situation is further complicated by the fact that many employers do not want to pay the cost or deal with the bureaucratic requirements of being registered as employers in the IMSS system — and many workers would rather see the extra money that would go to IMSS contributions in their pockets. They are also often paid in cash, without any receipts or official payment documentation to demonstrate that they are employed.
This has created an environment where despite some pay increases, domestic staff are still left in the cold when it comes to social security benefits.
The National Union of Domestic Workers in Mexico (Sinactraho) has been fighting hard for members, trying to enroll and assist where possible, but the informal nature of the sector means that it can be hard to measure the true scale of the problem.
Sinactraho also notes that many workers lack employment protections and contracts, meaning that their precarious situation is made worse by the fact that they can be dismissed at any time, which would eliminate their eligibility for IMSS.
There is a battle for higher pay now looming on the horizon — but before winning new concessions, it will be necessary to make sure that workers can enjoy the benefits of the battles that they have already won.
Perhaps no other neighborhood is as associated with 21st-century Mexico City as La Roma is. (Cody Copeland)
Purple is the color of spring in Mexico, thanks to the jacaranda tree.
Every spring, millions of residents in Mexico City and beyond are charmed by the purple canopies of this beloved tree. Although it has become a staple of the season for nearly a century, did you know it isn’t native to Mexico?
In fact, it is originally from South America.
Despite it’s association with Mexico City, the jacaranda is actually from Brazil! (João Medieros/Wikimedia)
1. The jacaranda tree arrived from Brazil
Jacarandas are native to a region known as Gran Chaco that spans Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil and Paraguay. They were brought to Mexico by Japanese immigrant Tatsugoro Matsumoto in the 1930s.
Matsumoro, who worked as a gardener in the Chapultepec Castle — the former presidential residence — advised President Pascual Ortiz Rubio to plant jacarandas instead of cherry trees, as they would better adapt to the city’s climate.
Clearly, he was right!
2. Its purple flower blossoms during the spring
Blossoming from February through March, the jacaranda grows an abundance of lilac and violet flowers in bunches that completely cover the tree. Due to their vibrant purple color, they have become ornamental trees all across Mexico City (and most states in the country).
The New York Times described the jacaranda blossoming season as “an explosion of purple flowers.” When the flowers fall, “the sky blooms on the ground,” wrote Alberto Ruy Sánchez in his book “Dicen las Jacarandas” (“What the Jacarandas Say”).
Many jacarandas are found in upscale neighborhoods throughout the capital. (ANDREA MURCIA /CUARTOSCURO.COM)
3. There are more found in wealthy neighborhoods
According to an analysis by the newspaper Expansión, although the jacaranda tree can be found in most areas of Mexico City, they’re particularly prominent in the wealthiest neighborhoods.
Based on data from real estate websites like Propiedades.com and VivaAnuncios.com, the study argues that the abundance of jacarandas in these areas raises the price of neighborhoods, including the exclusive areas of Polanco, Juárez, Del Valle, Condesa, and Cuahutémoc.
4. They grow quickly
Jacarandas can vary from 6 to 25 meters and grow at an average of 1.5 meters per year. It only takes jacarandas about three to five years to become an “adult tree” and to start blossoming flowers.
5. Its name has different meanings and symbolisms
The original name is pronounced “jacarandá,” with the stress on the last syllable. It comes from the Guaraní language spoken in Brazil and Paraguay, and some experts consider it to mean “fragrant” (which is odd because the jacaranda flower doesn’t have a scent) or “strong wood.”
Since the jacaranda blossoms in spring, it is associated with rebirth and the “magic” of the season.
In the Amazon, the jacaranda is associated with the goddess of the moon and is also considered a sign of good fortune. According to legend, if a jacaranda flower falls on your head, it will bring you good luck.
So, next time you’re standing under a jacaranda tree, don’t move and you might end up a lucky fellow!
