From Canada to Cabo: A family’s journey

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February 18, 2023

Christina Whiteley and family — This family from Vancouver Island made the move to Mexico in 2021 and couldn't be happier with their decision. (Courtesy)

As a young girl I dreamed of traveling the world and having a family. I also dreamed of living somewhere with a warm breeze and palm trees, but I had no idea how on earth this small town girl, a hairstylist, would ever be able to afford that lifestyle or create it. Over the past 7 years I’ve learned, if you want something bad enough, the “how” shows up, you just have to be willing to work for it.

I’m a 39-year-old entrepreneur, and my husband, Ryan and I have an animated, almost 7-year-old daughter, Isabella. We moved our family from Vancouver Island, BC, Canada in October of 2021 to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. Although, at the time, we shocked our family and friends, we knew it was the next right move for us.

This world has changed a lot over the past few years. We knew that to stay true to who we are, how we wanted to raise our family, and to put our mental health and well-being first, it was time to take a break from the life we were living in Canada, and instead choose to create one that served our family better here.

My husband and I were married 10 years ago at the Secret Silversands resort, near Puerto Morelos. We fell in love with Mexico; the culture, the people, the food, the weather and the lifestyle. We have been coming down here to vacation and explore, a couple of times a year, since we met 14 years ago.

At one point, before we had our daughter, we took a couple of months off work and bought an old 1985, 24ft motor home and drove from Vancouver Island down the west coast of Washington, Oregon, California all the way down the Baja peninsula, to just south of Mulegé. That year we had planned to drive to Cabo, but there was a really bad hurricane and it washed out a lot of the roads, so we ended up staying south of Mulegé on Santispac beach (with our solar powered RV) for 2 weeks before driving home. It was that trip that the seed was planted.

One day, this young surfer-looking couple drove up and parked next to us in their camper van. The couple said we are heading to Cabo San Lucas to see if we like it, and if we do we might live there. I was shocked. They were the original digital nomads. I thought we had made it in life, taking 2 months off work to travel?! I didn’t have any friends that had that kind of freedom or flexibility. I owned a salon and wedding business and my husband was managing a rock and roll bar for 18 years.

This encounter was almost 10 years ago. No one at that time was building businesses online. My mind went to work. That night we were sitting around the campfire and Ryan’s dad said to me, Christina, the problem with your business, as successful as you are, is that you are the commodity…and he was right. I had to work 14 hour days for two weeks straight to make that 2 month trip, it was exhausting and my body was a wreck… so was I really as free as I thought I was? That night Ryan and I agreed that we needed to change our lifestyle.

The crazy thing is I didn’t do anything about it for almost 4 years! It wasn’t until I was 7 months pregnant, and an excruciating shoulder injury prevented me from working. I knew I wanted a different lifestyle, but I just didn’t know how to get it. I was exhausted, frustrated at the growing cost of doing business and never being able to clear the balance on my business credit card. What I really wanted to do was to be there for my new baby and that is when I realized that I had to find another way. But then I saw this girl at the beach making 5 figures a month from her phone, while she played with her kids. I knew instantly that I wanted that life. So I learned from her how and I went to work.

What’s interesting is that back then, I didn’t have the experience, education or skill set necessary to build a successful online business, I simply had the drive and determination to learn. I really believe that we control our destiny and are capable of so much more than we give ourselves credit for. Over the next few years I built a successful and sustainable online business that gave us options. During COVID, we watched the middle class get destroyed and knew there would be long-term consequences to our economy.

I look back now and see that as the single biggest blessing we had because it gave us the courage to do something different, and we had the income and ability to pick up and move, when many didn’t.

Even though my on-line business was growing at a rapid rate, 2021 proved to be a very difficult year for our family. As we tried to grow our family and give our daughter a sibling, I suffered 2 miscarriages with very little medical support because of COVID. With each one, my postpartum depression got worse. The COVID lockdowns as well as divisiveness within our family, friends and community, weighed heavily on our mental health.

In October 2021, my husband and I decided to pull our (then) 5 year old daughter from school. We had put her in French immersion for her first year in Kindergarten, and with the mask mandates it made it really hard and stressful for her to try and learn another language. A week went by, and my husband proposed that we take that paid work trip to Cabo and we could homeschool our daughter on the beach!

I now realize that this suggested beach adventure was a beautiful and desperate attempt by my husband to try and make me happy, but at the time I couldn’t believe my ears. I almost fell over. We packed up our house in two weeks and agreed we would talk about listing it on Airbnb once we got to Cabo. We booked a vacation rental for a week before and a week after the free company trip, and figured it out, step by step, from there. We thought we would go to Cabo for 3 months and get a balcony view of our lives, then decide what we wanted to do from there. Within a month, we decided that we wanted to stay for 6 months and then we could get our daughter into school for the rest of the year, so she could start learning Spanish. That was the beginning of our new chapter as a family here in Mexico.

All I can say now is that you have to hold on to that vision of your dream because you are the creator of your life. The faster you realize that, the faster you will race to take action and create it.

To read Part 2 of writer Christina Whiteley’s story, click here.

Christina Whiteley, founder of Life Transformed, is a best selling author, speaker and business strategist who leads the 6 Figure Profit Plan Mastermind and hosts corporate retreats where she resides in Cabo San Lucas. She and her husband Ryan, who is a realtor, live for road trips and weekend adventures with their daughter and their dog, Larry.

Bird sanctuary has big plans to release macaws into Jalisco’s skies

By

John Pint

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February 17, 2023

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Txori Ornithological Foundation and macaw sanctuary — Txori Director Victor Busteros feeding some of his resident birds.

At the Txori Ornithological Foundation, a nonprofit NGO just 20 kilometers northwest of Guadalajara, there’s generally a lot of squawking going on.

“Here we breed Mexican macaws, parrots and parakeets,” Txori Director Victor Busteros told me, “and we also rehabilitate rescued birds, all with the aim of reintroducing them back into the wild.”

poached macaws — Txori breeds macaws and also helps poached birds like these. (Photo: Victor Busteros)

That dream is finally coming to fruition soon: Txori plans to do its first release of military macaws.

Txori (pronounced “Chori”) is Basque for “bird.” Victor’s father, Cándido Busteros, who started the organization, also gave the organization its name. He was a Spaniard who fled his home country to France during the Spanish Civil War.

“Then the Nazis took control of France, and he escaped to Mexico,” says Victor.

While Cándido Busteros lived in Mexico City upon his arrival here, he eventually took a horseback tour from Guadalajara through the Sierra Occidental.

“He was utterly amazed at the beauty of those mountains, woods and jungles, but what fascinated him most were the parrots, in particular the guacamayas, which were plentiful in those days,” says Victor.

Cándido returned to Mexico City but never forgot those guacamayas. When he moved to Guadalajara in the 1970s, the first thing he wanted to do was to repeat his ride to Tomatlán.

“Unfortunately,” says Victor, “in those days the government was hell-bent on ‘development,’ convincing the campesinos to burn the woods and plant corn. So, the great flocks of parrots and macaws were all gone.”

As a result, Candido Busteros started a small bird rescue center in his home. It may have been the first Animal Rescue Center of any kind in Guadalajara, but it was exclusively for parrots. In the 1990s, the center, now named Txori, was given legal status.

It was at this point that Busteros decided not only to rescue sick or unwanted birds but also to start raising macaws with the idea of eventually returning them to the wild in places where their populations had dropped drastically.

“Some university ‘experts’ said my father was crazy,” says Victor Busteros, “and that a macaw raised in captivity would never stand a chance in the wild, but my father began to distance himself from these people and started working with ornithologists in Costa Rica and Honduras who were already doing exactly what he had in mind.”

These ornithologists were liberating macaws left and right — even scarlet macaws raised right here in Mexico at the Xcaret resort in Playa del Carmen. People were saying that the birds were surely going to die.

“Instead they survived. It’s been documented!” Victor says. “And, finally, the ‘experts’ in Mexico began to change their minds. So, based on these results, we’re working on our plan for releasing green macaws (Ara militaris) for the first time, and for this species, we will be the pioneers.”

Txori presently has 20 habitation units, 10 of which are for breeding pairs. They also have a bird hospital, incubators, hatchers, a maternity ward with closed-circuit TV, a warehouse, gray-water treatment plant, solar cells, a garden and quarters for the caretakers, some of whom are volunteers.

“Among our other guests, we have 20 green military macaws here,” says Victor. “We have three reproducing couples and, of the 20, nine are ready for release.”

“We feed all our birds a well-balanced diet; we create activities for them and we care for their mental health as well. If parrots are mentally and physically in good shape, it means whoever is raising them is doing a great job,” he said.

Txori plans to do its first release of military macaws at Rancho el Mexicano, located north of Guadalajara at the top of the 500-meter-high Santiago River Canyon. The area already has a healthy population of macaws.

It is hoped that the site will become a popular spot for parrot-watching tourism. Two monitoring points will also be set up for parrot-watching and to keep tabs on the released birds.

“Local people are very involved in the project,” says Victor, “and will benefit from it economically.”

Txori ran into serious problems when COVID-19 struck. Its financing came from a trust, which, in turn, depended on the earnings of two businesses in Guadalajara.

El Buho a.k.a. Robin Perkins — Robin Perkins, a.k.a. El Búho, blends the songs of endangered birds with electronic music. His album helped Txori economically survive the pandemic, when their business funders couldn’t support them.

“Because of the pandemic,” says Busteros, “one of the businesses was shut down and the other was severely impacted. So there was suddenly no money, and we were on our own, trying to figure out how to survive.”

Curiously, the aviary was saved by an owl that also happens to be a robin — an English man with whom Victor once worked in Greenpeace and who now lives in France.

The Englishman is Robin Perkins, a musician whose professional name is El Búho (The Owl). El Búho specializes in electronic music that incorporates the rhythms, traditions and melodies of Latin American folk music and the the organic sound of waterfalls, bird songs and crackling leaves.

“The result,” says his webpage, “is a dreamy, deep, melodic journey that entrances as much through headphones as it does on the dance floor.”

Under the label Shika Shika, Perkins created “A Guide to the Birdsong of Mexico, Central America & the Caribbean.” an album of electronic music incorporating the songs of endangered birds.

The sample track linked above features the song of Mexico’s black catbird. You can listen to the entire album on Spotify.

“I have always firmly believed in the power of art and music as a tool for change, to deliver a message and raise awareness,” says Perkins. “My hope is that this project can go some way towards supporting those [organizations] doing an incredible job in preserving birds, their habitats and their songs for the generations to come.”

Victor Busteros of Txori Ornithological Foundation and macaw sanctuary — Victor Busteros talks parrots.

Thanks to El Búho’s help, one of those organizations, Txori, is alive and well and working hard to save some of Mexico’s most lovable endangered birds.

If you’d like to see Txori’s work in person, they welcome visitors, but you must contact them in advance at [email protected].

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 his blog.

Government plans to convert Fonatur lands into protected areas

By

Cat Rainsford

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February 17, 2023

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Natural protected area Cozumel — The country currently has 185 natural protected areas (ANP) over land and sea. (Conanp)

More than 16,000 hectares of land belonging to the National Fund for Tourism Development (Fonatur) could be converted into protected nature reserves, President López Obrador said at his Thursday morning press conference.

The president elaborated on an agreement between Fonatur and the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (Semarnat) that he first announced last week. The agreement would see 16,414 hectares of Fonatur’s properties re-designated as Natural Protected Areas (ANP), following a consultation process.

A map of the natural protected areas (ANPs) of Mexico. — The natural protected areas of Mexico.
Conanp (full size: https://www.biodiversidad.gob.mx/media/1/region/images/areas-naturales-protegidas-mx.jpg)

The Director General of Fonatur, Javier May, explained that the affected areas were spread across six states: Baja California (67), Baja California Sur (8,065), Guerrero (982), Oaxaca (5,263), Quintana Roo (116) and Sinaloa (1,922).

May said the move was necessary to protect endemic species from predatory, sometimes corrupt, tourism development and to guarantee the Mexican population free enjoyment of natural spaces.

“For a long time, the areas in Fonatur’s care went from use to abuse and became privileges at the cost of the people,” May said. “Land sales practically put an end to public beaches, and the tourist business advanced without solving the poverty of the people. We do not want more private beaches; we never want a tourist development at the expense of the people’s suffering.”

The head of the National Commission of Natural Protected Areas (Conanp), Humberto Peña Fuentes, said the conversion would protect between eight and 15 endangered species, including jaguars, the green macaw and the olive ridley sea turtle.

Olive ridley sea turtle hatchling — An olive ridley sea turtle hatchling. (Wikimedia Commons)

“We will establish these ANPs as one of the most effective measures for the biological conservation of ecosystems, many of which are pristine and in which species that are only found in these areas live,” he said.

However, some business leaders expressed alarm at the decision.

“It seems very negative to me,” Eduardo Martínez González, president of the Caribbean Business Coordinating Council, told La Jornada Maya newspaper. “Fonatur was designed to generate successful tourist developments and to generate community and obviously wealth for the state.”

He argued that Cancún — a planned tourism project created in 1974 – was a successful example of how well-regulated tourist development can go alongside nature conservation while bringing wealth to an area.

“It is a project that generated surplus value and that resulted in better properties, better taxes for more infrastructure, and obviously there are countless direct and indirect jobs,” he argued. “We have to look for how to replicate these stories.”

Mexico has several such planned tourism projects, in areas including Los Cabos, Huatulco, Puerto Vallarta and Riviera Nayarit. It also currently has 185 ANPs, covering nearly 91 million hectares of land and sea across the national territory.

Although the ANPs are a key mechanism to protect Mexico’s rich biodiversity, the Conanp has seen its budget slashed during AMLO’s administration and has sometimes struggled to enforce species protection measures within the reserves.

The Conanp now has 180 days to complete the conversion of Fonatur’s territories. The process involves preparing a prior assessment study and carrying out public and expert impact consultations, before the final decree is published in the National Gazette.

With reports from Aristegui Noticias and La Jornada Maya

Peso at strongest level against the dollar since 2018

By

MND Staff

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February 17, 2023

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Mexican pesos — Steady remittances from the U.S. and nearshoring have been highlighted as some of the reasons for the currency's appreciation against the U.S. dollar. (Stock image)

In a continuation of the currency’s strong performance this year, the Mexican peso appreciated on Friday to its highest level against the U.S. dollar in almost five years.

The value of one greenback dipped to 18.33 pesos on international markets, according to data from Bloomberg.

The peso hadn’t been so strong since April 19, 2018, when the exchange rate reached 18.06 pesos to one U.S. dollar.

The newspaper El Universal reported that the peso had appreciated 1.69% against the greenback this week and 5.87% since the beginning of 2023.

It cited higher inflows of money from export revenue, remittances and foreign investment as a factor in the strengthening of the peso.

Janneth Quiroz, chief economist with the Monex financial group, said on Twitter on Friday that the Mexican peso had benefited from “improved projections” from the national statistics agency INEGI vis a vis the Mexican economy.

Bank of Mexico — The Bank of México set a record high benchmark rate of 11% earlier this month. (File photo)

Luis Miguel Altamirano, a financial advisor and educator, said on the same social media site that “the main factor that is driving the appreciation of the peso with respect to the dollar is the difference in interest rates between the Bank of México and the Fed in the United States.”

The Bank of México’s benchmark rate is currently set at a record high of 11% as it attempts to combat high inflation, while the Federal Reserve’s official rate is 4.5% to 4.75%.

“Is such a cheap dollar good for the [Mexican] economy?” Altamirano asked in another Twitter post.

“Maybe at the moment yes as Mexico had a trade deficit of US $27 billion at the end of 2022 (it imports more than it exports), and this exchange rate benefits imports as they are cheaper,” he wrote.

“However, there is also the flip side, where credit in Mexico becomes expensive (practically impossible to get a loan [with an interest rate] below 11%), and the revenue from tourism, exports, remittances and foreign direct investment is affected.”

President López Obrador considers the strength of the peso an achievement of his government, claiming that sound economic management has allowed the currency to prosper, although it suffered a sharp drop in value at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic.

However, academic and columnist Sergio Negrete Cárdenas wrote in the El Financiero newspaper last month that the president was wrong to take claim for the so-called super peso.

The central bank’s monetary policy, rather than the government’s economic policies, is the main reason behind the strength of the peso, he wrote.

“The central bank is autonomous and its decisions are taken without consulting the president,” Negrete said. “AMLO can’t take credit for them. On the contrary, he has criticized the Bank of México several times for increasing the [key interest] rate so much.”

Baja California Governor Marina del Pilar Ávila, a representative of Mexico’s ruling Morena party, expressed a different view on Friday, writing on Twitter that “the Mexican super peso is continuing to gain strength” and that “the economic policy of the federal government is yielding excellent results for the benefit of all.”

With reports from El Universal

Dutch company to build US $1.5B fertilizer plant in Durango

By

MND Staff

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February 17, 2023

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Government fertilizer distribution in Puebla, Mexico — Annual government fertilizer distribution to farmers in Santiago Miahuatlan, Puebla. Virtually all fertilizer in Mexico is imported and thus a big expense for farms. The Durango plant is supposed to change that. (Photo: Government of Santiago Miahuatlan)

A Dutch company is investing US $1.5 billion to build a fertilizer plant in Durango that is expected to drastically reduce Mexico’s reliance on foreign imports.

Durango Governor Esteban Villegas Villareal and federal Interior Minister Adán Augusto López announced the investment by fertilizer producer Tarafert earlier this month. The plant, which will be capable of producing approximately 1 million metric tonnes per year of the substance, is slated to begin operations in 2026.

Durango Governor Esteban Villegas and Mexico's Interior Minister Adan López — Durango Governor Esteban Villegas and Interior Minister Adan Augusto López at an event in Durango announcing the fertilizer plant. (Photo: Government of Durango)

The ammonia and urea plant will be built in the municipality of Lerdo and could produce enough fertilizer to cover 50% of Mexico’s demand for the substance, Tarafert says on its website.

At a business event in Durango on Thursday, Villegas highlighted that there are currently no fertilizer manufacturers in Mexico and that the cost of the imported product has increased significantly due to the Russia-Ukraine war.

Announcing the investment on Feb. 1, Villegas thanked Tarafert “for showing confidence in this government and Durango.”

“I cannot thank the government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador enough for its invaluable support,” he added.

Lerdo, Durango Gov. Homero Martinez and Mexico Interior Minister Adan Lopez — Lerdo Mayor Homero Martínez Cabrera, left, said at an event announcing the plant in Durango that he’s excited that the plant will bring good-paying jobs to town. (Photo: Government of Durango)

Thomas Berkvens, director of project development for Tarafert, expressed the company’s “excitement” at having the support of federal and state authorities, according to a Durango government statement.

Villegas said Thursday that construction of the plant will generate 3,000 jobs and that the facility will employ 400–500 people in “very well paid” jobs once it begins operations.

The municipal government of Lerdo will sell treated wastewater to the plant, meaning that it won’t deplete drinking water supplies, according to Gov. Villegas.

Jesús Castrillón Jiménez, Lerdo’s director of economic development, said earlier this month that Tarafert’s plant complies with environmental requirements and posed no threat to the Nazas River, which runs through Durango and Coahuila.

The $1.5 billion investment is a new record for the municipality, located in the Comarca Lagunera region of Durango and Coahuila.

“Tarafert will be the anchor company that will bring five other supply companies [to Lerdo]. They will be the base of the first industrial park … in this municipality, thanks to the intervention of the Caxxor group, which has dedicated itself to the design and construction of the park,” Castrillón said.

He said that one factor that convinced Tarafert to build its plant in Lerdo is the municipality’s proximity to railroad tracks and highways, including the Gómez Palacio-Durango City freeway. Another is the proximity of the El Encino-La Laguna gas pipeline.

At Thursday’s “Invest in La Laguna” business event, Villegas said that several other companies are close to announcing nearshoring investments in Durango.

The “Invest in La Laguna” website says the region is at “the center of North America’s most dynamic economic corridor.”

High productivity and the availability of industrial space and specialized labor are among the reasons why the Comarca Lagunera region is an attractive place to invest, the site says.

With reports from Milenio and El Economista

NFT by Mazatlán artist part of a NASA mission to the Moon

By

MND Staff

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February 17, 2023

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Artist from Mazatlán Guille Blancarte — Blancarte was a winner in CryptoArt for Impact and Innovation at Bitbasel (@Guilleblancarte Twitter)

Guille Blancarte, an artist from Mazatlán, Sinaloa, has been selected along with over 200 other artists to send her artwork “I Wonder” to the moon.

Blancarte, one of the winners of the CryptoArt for Impact and Innovation at Bitbasel – a platform that helps creators launch their first NFT collection – will be included in the Lunaprise Moon Museum.

GN, I won’t be able to sleep!
This is “I wonder” my NFT going to the moon with @bitbaselhub!!#ToTheMoon Lunaprice Moon Museum! ✨🚀🌙 pic.twitter.com/GyJ6FnrtPx

— guilleblancartebook (@guilleblancarte) February 1, 2023

The museum will be a payload aboard Intuitive Machine’s Nova-C Lunar Lander, which is scheduled to launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida via a SpaceX Falcon 9 Rocket in early to mid 2023, according to NASA.

The mission, called IM-1, is NASA’s first return to the lunar surface since 1972.

The museum’s collection is etched onto indestructible nano fiche disks made from pure nickel, an element that can survive the harsh conditions of outer space. The museum will have information about humanity including music by Grammy winners, famous speeches, collectibles from sports stars, works of art from the most famous artists in history, film scripts, NFT collections and more.

The information will be readable on the Lunaprise disk via a microscope, and a replica of the disk will be on display at the Smithsonian Museum in Washington DC.

Promotional image for Lunaprise Moon Museum (BitBasel)

Blancarte’s work of art is an homage to sunsets in her hometown of Mazatlán. According to the artist, it “represents duality, cycles, beginnings and endings, sunrise and sunset.”

She added that her artwork tries to “raise awareness of the profound danger we face if we do not do something now to restore the balance of the ocean,” as she hopes that future generations can enjoy “the sea in all its splendor.”

A series of events are being planned around the IM-1 SpaceX launch, including a post-launch celebration at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.

With reports from Bitbasel Medium and Noroeste

Feds giving states 10% increase in security funding for 2023

By

MND Staff

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February 17, 2023

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Mexico's Security Minister Rosa Icela Rodriguez and Interior Minister Adan Augusto Lopez — Security Minister Rosa Icela Rodríguez and Interior Minister Adán Augusto López preside over a meeting with governors in Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Chiapas, to formally grant federal security funding to states for 2023. (Rosa Icela Rodríguez/Twitter)

The federal government has set aside almost 9 billion pesos to fund security spending by Mexico’s 32 federal entities in 2023.

At a meeting with state governors in Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Chiapas, on Wednesday, Security Minister Rosa Icela Rodríguez said the government will allocate just under 8.8 billion pesos (US $475 million) from the public security fund known as FASP.

The total funding is 10% higher than last year, Rodríguez said at a meeting in Monterrey last week with 10 governors of northern states. The FASP money is allocated to states to address security issues in areas with high levels of crime.

Of the 21 states for which funding has been announced, Jalisco will receive the largest allotment. The western state will get just under 344 million pesos (US $18.5 million) in 2023.

The other states with allotments above 300 million pesos are Chihuahua, Nuevo León, Veracruz and Guanajuato, which has been Mexico’s most violent state in recent years in terms of homicide numbers.

Funding for 11 entities, including Mexico City, México state, Puebla and Querétaro has not yet been announced.

Mexico's President Lopez Obrador — President López Obrador’s “hugs not bullets” strategy promotes investment in social welfare programs as a way to both reduce crime and boost the economy. (Photo: Presidencia)

At the meeting with northern state governors, Rodríguez stressed that security work is a shared responsibility of the three levels of government.

On Wednesday, she said that the federal government has made it a priority to address the root causes of violence. The government’s so-called “hugs, not bullets” security strategy aims to prevent crime via the delivery of social programs that provide work and study opportunities to Mexicans, particularly young people.

“At the same time,” Rodríguez said, “we use intelligence and operational planning to strike decisive blows against [organized] crime.”

One recent example of that work is the arrest in January of Ovidio “El Ratón” Guzmán, son of incarcerated Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, and leader of the “Los Chapitos” faction of the Sinaloa Cartel.

Interior Minister Adán Augusto López declared Wednesday that the battle against organized crime is being won. The incidence of crimes such as kidnappings, home burglaries and vehicle theft has declined significantly, he said at the Tuxtla Gutiérrez meeting.

López noted that homicide numbers have also declined but conceded they haven’t gone down as much as the government would like. There were 30,968 homicides in 2022, according to data presented by Rodríguez last month, a 7.1% decline compared to the previous year.

With reports from El Economista and La Jornada

Mata Ortiz: a tiny town with a big reputation for its pottery

By

Joseph Sorrentino

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February 16, 2023

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potter from Mata Ortiz, Chihuahua, Mexico — Ana Trillo uses fine human hair in the brush she uses to paint her pots. (Photos by Joseph Sorrentino)

Mata Ortiz may be a tiny village in northwestern Chihuahua, but it’s world-famous for its pottery, featuring intricate designs that are inspired by pre-Hispanic symbols or art from the ruins at the ancient city of Paquimé.

The civilization at Paquimé — which bears both Mesoamerican and Southwestern traits, flourished in the area from around A.D. 700 until the mid-1400s. The Spanish renamed Paquimé Casas Grandes, or “big houses,” because the structures there stood several stories high. You can still visit the ancient city site just outside Mata Ortiz.

Modern residents of Mata Ortiz often found (and still find) ancient pottery shards. But the techniques used to make this beautiful, intricately painted pottery were lost for over 500 years until one resident named Juan Quezada painstakingly worked to rediscover the lost art.

As a boy, Quezada was intrigued by the shards he’d find in the hills near his hometown. One day, more than 60 years ago, he came across an undisturbed, likely pre-Hispanic burial cave and found three intact pots. So taken was he by their beauty that he vowed to learn how to make them.

It took him 16 years of trial and error before he finally succeeded in making a pot he found satisfactory.

At first, Quezada either traded his pots for goods or sold them for a few dollars. Some of his pots made their way to the United States, where they were discovered by Spencer MacCallum, who had purchased a 14th-century pot from Paquimé he’d found at a yard sale in the early 1970s.

pottery from Mata Ortiz, Chihuahua, Mexico — Mata Ortiz pottery exists today because of one man, Juan Quezada, who became fascinated by the ancient remains of pottery from the Paquimé ruins near his village and decided to recreate it.

Several years later, when he saw Quezada’s pots in a store in New Mexico, he knew they had their roots in the ancient culture from Paquimé. But when he asked where the pots were from, he was told simply, “Mexico.”

He took photographs of the pots with him to Mexico and somehow found Quezada after searching for only two days. He bought some of Quezada’s pots and soon afterward, the quality of the pots improved and began selling for significantly more money. Many of Quezada’s pots are now in collections in Mexican and U.S. museums.

Quezada taught relatives and neighbors how to make the pots and his basic techniques are still used today, although each potter has tweaked the process a bit. As a result, the town has several potters making these beautiful pots.

An unusual feature of Mata Ortiz’s pottery is that its artisans don’t use a potter’s wheel. Instead, pots are made by first flattening a piece of clay into what they call a “tortilla,” and then pressed into a bowl.

From there, there are two options: in the single-coil method, additional clay is rolled out into a coil, which is then connected to the tortilla. The coil is then pinched, drawing the clay upward to make the pot’s walls.

Once the walls are made, the outside of the pot is smoothed with a hacksaw blade.

Once formed, the pots are allowed to dry for about three days. “After that, I sand them,” said artisan Monico Corona. They are then polished with a small stone and after that, it’s time to add the designs.

Artisan Ana Trillo sits at her kitchen table, preparing to paint a pot.

“It took me two to three years to make pots that were good enough to sell,” she said. “A friend taught me how to make [them].”

Trillo uses a small brush made from human hair, sometimes her own, sometimes a relative’s. “My nephew has finer hair,” she said, adding that some people prefer using cat hair.

“Many designs are from Paquimé. Others, we invented. Some are ones we copied.”

Before painting the pots, Trillo marks the quadrants with light lines of a pen or pencil. But she doesn’t draw any figures first; it’s all painted freehand, a task requiring intense concentration. But conversation and jokes help lighten the work.

And when it was time to prepare a meal, Trillo simply cleared the kitchen table and used it. Once the meal was over, she cleared the plates and returned to painting her pot.

When the painting is done, pots are often placed in an ordinary kitchen oven for preheating before they’re fired. At this stage, there are two options for the fuel: cow chips are the traditional fuel, but artisan Luís López Corona uses bark from the Alamo tree. He said the bark burns very hot.

To fire his pots, López places them on a small grill, covers them with a metal tub and then piles on the bark. He liberally applies lighter fluid and lights the bark, releasing a sweet smell, and plenty of smoke and heat. He checks on the progress by using a mirror to shine some light through a small hole. When he determines the pots are ready, he removes them with a long pair of tongs and sets them aside to cool.

Mata Ortiz pottery may be black, white or red, the color determined by the clay used and the firing. Each potter has their favorite clays and will often keep its location a closely guarded secret.

Pre-Hispanic city of Paquimé — The ancient site of Paquimé near Mata Ortiz, Chihuahua, that inspired Juan Quezada to recreate the pre-Hispanic city’s pottery style.

Mata Ortiz pots are now available online but it’s definitely worth a trip to the village to make a purchase. There are several galleries in the pueblo but many homes have signs out front announcing that a potter lives there.

It’s possible to just knock on a door and view the pottery for sale and potters are always happy to share information. Although pots from master potters fetch several thousand dollars, it’s still possible to buy beautiful pieces from lesser-known potters for a reasonable price.

Another reason to visit Mata Ortiz is the Paquimé site, in nearby Casas Grandes. Although none of the extant structures are several stories high — as they were when they were built — it’s still a fascinating site.

Sadly, MacCallum died in December, 2020 and Quezada two years later, but their legacy lives on in tiny Mata Ortiz.

Joseph Sorrentino, a writer, photographer and author of the book San Gregorio Atlapulco: Cosmvisiones and of Stinky Island Tales: Some Stories from an Italian-American Childhood, is a regular contributor to Mexico News Daily. More examples of his photographs and links to other articles may be found at www.sorrentinophotography.com He currently lives in Chipilo, Puebla.

Archaeologists discover 16th-century cemetery in Chapultepec Park

By

Cat Rainsford

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February 16, 2023

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16th-century remains found in Chapultepec Park, Mexico City in 2023 — Dig coordinator Maria de Lourdes López Camacho said that the burial corresponds to a cemetery of the early Spanish viceroyalty (A.D. 1521–1620) and shows the transition from pre-Hispanic funeral customs to Catholic ones. (INAH)

Archaeologists have found a cemetery in Mexico City’s Chapultepec Park that dates from less than 100 years after the Spanish conquest of Tenochtitlán.

The cemetery was discovered in an archaeological rescue process during building work on the Chapultepec gardens and scenic pavilion. After an initial sounding pit revealed evidence of human remains, a full dig was organized to excavate the burial ground.

The National Institute of Archaeology and History (INAH) said that 21 skeletons were found in the cemetery, including two infants. The bodies had been buried at three different times, all after Tenochtitlán’s fall in 1535.

Some were buried in the Catholic style and others according to Mesoamerican traditions, the researchers said.

“We propose that this collective burial corresponds to a cemetery of the early viceroyalty (A.D. 1521–1620) because it shows the transition from pre-Hispanic funeral customs to those implemented with the arrival of the Spaniards and their religious system,” said dig coordinator, María de Lourdes López Camacho.

She explained that most of the skeletons were found facing east, likely alluding to the Christian belief in resurrection. But two were buried in a bent and lateral position, as in Mesoamerican rituals, and another two were found carrying obsidian objects of pre-Hispanic origin.

This led the archaeologists to believe that some of the dead were European and others Mexica. Tests revealed they had suffered from various conditions, including malnutrition, infection and inflammation in the bones.

This is not the first time that human remains of this period have been found in Chapultepec Park. In 2005, archaeologist María Guadalupe Espinosa Rodríguez excavated a 16th-century burial ground near the Garden of the Lions — an area previously occupied by the church of the indigenous village of San Miguel Chapultepec.

Excavations are continuing to the south and east of the newly discovered site.

With reports from El País

Mexican army dismantles large ‘narco lab’ in Culiacán

By

Cat Rainsford

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February 16, 2023

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narco lab found in Culiacan, Mexico — The laboratory had the greatest synthetic drug production capacity ever found in Mexico, Sedena officials said. (Cuartoscuro)

The Mexican army has dismantled one of the largest synthetic drug laboratories yet seen in the country in the municipality of Culiacán, Sinaloa.

The operation took place on Feb. 14 near the village of Pueblos Unidos. Soldiers found a building used as a fentanyl pill production center, where they seized nearly 630,000 fentanyl pills, 128 kilograms of loose fentanyl and 100 kilograms of methamphetamine.

narco lab seized in Culiacan, Sinaloa, Mexico — On the premises, authorities found 630,000 fentanyl pills, 128 kg of loose fentanyl and 100 kilograms of methamphetamine. (Photo: Sedena)

They also found a laboratory on a nearby plot of land, which contained more than a metric ton of precursor chemicals and 28 organic synthesis reactors used to produce the drugs.

A statement by the Defense Ministry (Sedena) said: “Due to the number of reactors, the laboratory has the greatest synthetic drug production capacity that has been recorded historically and during the present administration.”

In a security meeting on Wednesday, President López Obrador showed two videos of the facilities and said their destruction would have cost their criminal owners more than 12 billion pesos (US $665 million).

“If necessary, I’m going to be talking about this daily,” he said. “This [drug] is the most harmful, destructive thing there can be, this completely alters any organism.”

President Lopez Obrador of Mexico — As deaths pile up from the opioid crisis in the United States, AMLO is facing greater pressure from the U.S. government to tackle fentanyl production in Mexico. (Photo: Government of Mexico)

AMLO is under growing pressure from the United States to tackle the fentanyl trade. The U.S. counted more than 108,000 opioid deaths during 2021, the last year on record. This was largely due to the rise of the highly potent heroin substitute fentanyl, which is mostly produced in Mexico.

“We believe Mexico needs to do more to stop the damage this is causing,” Anne Milgram, head of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) told the U.S. Senate on Wednesday.

She said Mexico’s two largest criminal organizations – the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco New Generation cartel (CJNG) – dominate the fentanyl trade. They import precursor chemicals from China and set up clandestine laboratories to produce the drug, which is often sold in the U.S. in the form of fake prescription pills such as OxyContin or Percocet.

Milgram criticized Mexico for the rapid growth of this trade, arguing that Mexican authorities must do more to share information with their U.S. counterparts, dismantle drug labs and extradite accused drug traffickers to the U.S.

DEA map of fentanyl production trade — According to a 2020 U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration report, Mexico’s role in the fentanyl trade is mainly manufacturing the drug with precursors that are shipped via mail services from Asia. (Illustration: DEA)

Several Republican and Democratic senators agreed with Milgram, although Todd Robinson, undersecretary of the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, was more restrained.

“I would say that in the conversations we have had, Mexico is willing to do more,” he said.

AMLO was elected on a promise of a “hugs, not bullets,” policy toward crime and the problem of Mexico’s cartels, meaning that he would prioritize social investment in poor areas over drug war policies. However, rising violence and the opioid crisis have pushed him toward a more hardline stance.

During the North American Leaders Summit in January, Defense Minister Luis Cresencio Sandoval told the leaders of the U.S. and Canada that fentanyl seizures had increased by more than 1000% during AMLO’s administration, and meth seizures by 93%.

With reports from La Jornada Maya, Diario de México and El País