Maribel Domínguez talks with a team member. Facebook / MiSeleccionMX
The coach of the Mexican under-20 women’s soccer team has broken her silence after being placed on leave on the eve of the World Cup, amid allegations of sexual harassment against her and her backroom staff.
Maribel Domínguez, 43, was placed on leave on Wednesday and the national soccer federation (FMF) announced the following day that her staff had also been placed on leave after it received undisclosed complaints.
The sports newspaper Cancha quoted anonymous players who alleged Domínguez requested kisses and would invite players to her room and on dates. Domínguez allegedly persisted despite refusals. The newspaper Proceso reported that a member of the coaching staff was previously dismissed by the FMF after a separate complaint.
However, Domínguez rejected the accusations. “What I will not allow, under any circumstances is non-material damage to my person and my family, which have been caused by alleged accusations that impact my values, integrity, honesty and transparency that have characterized me throughout my career as a footballer and coach,” she said in a statement.
Domínguez added that she would “proceed legally … if the opinions and distorted, malicious and unsubstantiated assertions are maintained, since this trial has been held on social media.”
FMF President Yon de Luisa said the federation wouldn’t be commenting further during the investigation. Ana Galindo has been put in temporary charge of the team, just weeks before the U-20 Women’s World Cup starts in Costa Rica on August 10.
Domínguez played in Mexico, Spain and the U.S. in her career and represented the national team 116 times, more than any other female player. She scored 82 goals for the team — more than any Mexican player in the men’s or women’s game at the national level — and earned the nickname “Marigol” for her propensity to find the back of the net.
Domínguez coached the under-15 girls’ national team before taking over as under-20 women’s coach in January last year.
Sea cucumber fishing was banned off the coast of the Yucatán Peninsula in early 2013, but almost 10 years later the marine animals are still being removed from the sea, leading to concerns that they could go extinct.
A Noticias Telemundo report examines the precarious situation faced by the sea cucumber, which is a sought-after commodity in Asia — especially China — and also exported to the United States.
“The sea cucumber was not something special, until the prices began to rise a lot,” Ricardo Domínguez Cano, a Yucatán-based fisherman and diver, told Noticias Telemundo.
“Many people then came from other states and settled in Yucatán for the cucumber. And they continued fishing, despite the ban,” he said. “The sea cucumber could be finished,” the third-generation fisherman added forlornly.
He’s far from the only person concerned about the future of the invertebrate animals, whose population off the Yucatán coast declined so much due to overfishing that the federal government enacted a ban on their removal from the sea in February 2013. Other fishermen, conservationists, scientists and scholars are also sounding the alarm, according to Cuauhtémoc Ruiz Pineda, a researcher at the National Institute of Fishing (Inapesca).
Although numbers remain low and the ban remains in place, sea cucumbers — known for “cleaning” the seabed by eating the organic detritus in the sand — are still being fished off the Gulf of Mexico coast of the Yucatán Peninsula. In 2020 alone, almost 1,600 tonnes of sea cucumber were fished in Mexico, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. Mexican government data shows that 100% of sea cucumbers are exported, primarily to China, but the second largest export market is the United States.
In Hong Kong and other Chinese cities, a kilo of large, well-processed sea cucumbers can sell for over US $3,500, Noticias Telemundo said. The lucrativeness of the product — used in sauces, soups and traditional Chinese medicines — only encourages its illegal fishing.
Alicia Virginia Poot Salazar, a biologist and Inapesca representative in Yucatán, told Noticias Telemundo that sea cucumber fishing off the coast of the Yucatán Peninsula has been spurred by Chinese demand.
An unspecified quantity of this “Mexican baby sea cucumber” goes for US $490 on eBay.
“Chinese businessmen came … [and] encouraged local fishermen to extract it when they saw the great value it has,” she said.
However, not all illegally extracted sea cucumbers are reaching their intended destination. A recent academic study found that Mexican and U.S. authorities seized over 100 tonnes of sea cucumber worth an estimated US $29.5 million between 2011 and 2021.
“The 97 incidents analyzed revealed 125 arrests, with an average of 1.29 arrests and 1037 kg of sea cucumbers seized per incident,” the paper said.
“… A qualitative review of these incidents reveals a number of key practices, including false identification, mislabelling, misreporting, stockpiling and invoice manipulation and fraud as means of laundering illicit catches. Also documented is corruption, the use of clandestine drying sites, and private vehicles for transportation. Media coverage of sea cucumber poaching and smuggling operations in Mexico frame the crime as being organized and conspicuous for its association with armed violence.”
Teale N. Phelps Bondaroff — the paper’s lead author, an illegal fishing expert and co-founder of the OceansAsia organization — said in a recent interview that “illegal fishing undermines conservation efforts, destroys wildlife populations and ecosystems, harms legal fishermen, steals dollars from governments, undermines good governance and social order, and fuels organized crime.”
Ruiz Pineda, the Inapesca researcher, said that without the sea cucumber, the ocean floor is changed as the animal’s cleaning of the seabed remineralizes and oxygenates it, which benefits other marine creatures.
The academic study found that Mexican authorities — despite the seizures and arrests — have been unable to stop the illegal fishing and trafficking of sea cucumbers.
Wherever the opportunity for fat profits exist in Mexico, the presence of organized crime groups can be expected, and illegal fishing — including that of sea cucumbers — is no exception. Cartels’ involvement in the lucrative totoaba trade — the fish’s swim bladder is considered a delicacy in China — has received significant attention, but there has been less focus on organized crime’s sea cucumber interests.
“[The] direct connection between Chinese traders and Mexican fishers is now being altered by Mexican criminal groups. The Mexican criminal groups have pushed out Chinese traders from direct purchases from local fishermen in an effort to monopolize the illegal and legal fishing industries,” the think tank report said.
“The totoaba and abalone poachers are now compelled to sell to Mexican criminal groups who then sell to the Chinese brokers. This insertion of criminal groups into the seafood chains also developed in Yucatán sea cucumber harvesting. Although the sea cucumber has not recovered and ongoing poaching produces only a small harvest, Mexican organized crime groups in Yucatán now buy from local fishers and themselves sell to Chinese brokers, who are no longer allowed to buy directly from the fishers,” it said.
“… Mexican organized crime groups now operate from the get-go and deal with Chinese brokers to capitalize on new seafood commodities highly desired in Chinese markets.”
Among the crime groups that operate within Mexico’s illegal fishing industry are the Jalisco New Generation Cartel and the Sinaloa Cartel, the report said.
Written by security expert Vanda Felbab-Brown, the report also acknowledged the decimation of Yucatán sea cucumber stocks due to overfishing.
“Promoted by the Mexican government in the early 2000s, the commercial fishing of the several sea cucumber species took off in Yucatán and the offshore Campeche Bank about a decade ago when Chinese brokers started organizing the harvesting for Chinese markets, where sea cucumber is a pricey, sought-after delicacy, with putative traditional Chinese medicine qualities,” it said.
“But regulatory management and law enforcement measures could not keep pace and the harvesting turned into a gold-rush madness that ignored quotas and seasonal bans. … The harvesting also set off violent conflict among fishing communities, maritime banditry, and piracy as rival groups of fishermen sought to steal each other’s increasingly rare catch, and gave rise to village self-defense groups among the indigenous populations. The fishing led to the collapse of the ecologically vital species, which filters organic debris from oceans,” the report said.
“The sea cucumber population in the Campeche Bank went from 20,000 tonnes in 2009 to 1,900 tonnes in 2013, and fewer since. Bans imposed to allow the species to recover were ignored, with some 1,000 sea cucumber poachers operating in the Campeche Bank in 2018.”
The report said that legal and illegal fishing of several sea cucumber species for export to China also takes place along Mexico’s Pacific coast, where crime groups are also involved in the illicit seafood trade.
“In the Gulf of California, illegal sea cucumber harvesting has become rampant. Some of the species are gravely depleted, and in these highly protected species only very small quantities are permitted to be harvested. However, illegal harvesting over the quota and by unlicensed fishers continues to take place,” it said.
A crane moves one of the confiscated armored vehicles. FGR
Federal authorities on Sunday destroyed 23 makeshift armored vehicles that were confiscated from organized crime groups.
The federal Attorney General’s Office (FGR) collaborated with the army to destroy the improvised fighting vehicles, or narco-tanks, at FGR facilities in Reynosa, Tamaulipas.
The FGR said the destruction of the so-called monstruos (monsters) occurred in accordance with the National Criminal Procedures Code, which specifies that “objects that are instruments of crime” can be destroyed.
“The destruction event … is related to 13 [criminal investigation] files drawn up in the period between March and June of the current year,” the FGR said in a statement, adding that the 23 vehicles had “handcrafted armor-plating” and were “monstruos allegedly used by people belonging to organized crime.”
Confiscated armored vehicles. FGR
The army has seized a total of 630 armored vehicles from organized crime since 2018, including 66 with blindaje artesanal, or improvised armor-plating.
A National Defense Ministry (Sedena) report shows that such confiscations have increased in recent years, reaching 184 in 2020 — a 130% increase compared to 2018 — before declining slightly to 172 last year.
Over one-third of the 630 vehicles — 231 — were seized in Tamaulipas, where the Gulf Cartel and the Zetas are involved in a turf war. Michoacán — currently Mexico’s second most violent state in terms of homicides — ranks second with 88 seizures of armored vehicles from organized crime since 2018. Most confiscations in that state occurred in the Tierra Caliente region, especially the municipality of Tecalcatepec.
Jalisco ranks third for armored vehicle seizures with 27 in the past 4 1/2 years, including five with blindaje artesanal. The National Guard confiscated one monstruo in the municipality of Jamay in April after finding it in a semi-trailer.
In July last year, authorities located a factory in Tuxpan, Jalisco, where vehicles were converted into narco-tanks by armoring them with bulletproof steel plates. Authorities also confiscated weapons and ammunition at the factory, which was allegedly operated by the CJNG.
The cartel’s armoring efforts have apparently been assisted by three employees of a vehicle armoring company who were kidnapped by armed men in Tlaquepaque last year. According to Jalisco officials cited by the newspaper Milenio, the victims were released after a period of three days during which they gave armoring tutorials to cartel members. The company at which the men worked later closed after receiving a series of threats, Milenio said.
Asylum seekers in April protest conditions and the slow application process in Tapachula, in imitation of the biblical story of the Stations of the Cross.
Solutions to the humanitarian migrant crisis in Tapachula, a city on the southern border, are being overlooked due to the divergent priorities of the governments of Mexico and the United States, the Mexico director of the advocacy organization The Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) said.
Mexico received a record-breaking number of asylum applications in 2021 — over 130,000 — 100 times more than in 2013. Ninety percent of those were made in Tapachula, according to WOLA’s data.
The refugee agency COMAR only resolved 38,054 applications last year, 72% of which were approved, the newspaper Milenio reported.
WOLA’s Mexico director Stephanie Brewer said that Mexican officials were reluctant to provide migrants with visas due to U.S. pressure.
Ninety percent of Mexico’s asylum applications in 2021 were made in Tapachula, Chiapas.
“I would say that there is a humanitarian crisis for migrants in Tapachula and that the crisis can be avoided … it’s understood that the resistance of the Mexican authorities to facilitate [migrants with] access to legal channels and visas can be explained by the United States government. Because for [the U.S. government], a migrant with legal status is a person who would have the opportunity to go to their border,” she said.
Brewer added that the Mexican government had the resources to process the migrants, but that racism and institutional incompetence had created obstructions.
“As a country, it certainly can respond to demand. It’s a big country, with a large population, but a single city like Tapachula can’t. It’s not logical to think it can meet the demand.”
“[Migrants] experience different types of racism, both with authorities and members of the population and different types of xenophobia … The system has not evolved in terms of human resources … to meet the situation,” she said.
Washington Office on Latin America Mexico director Stephanie Brewer believes that Mexican officials are reluctant to provide migrants with visas because of U.S. pressure. President López Obrador Twitter
Migrants from Haiti, who make up a large part of the migrant population in Tapachula, were having a harder time gaining legal status in Mexico, Brewer said.
“Certain nationalities, notably Venezuelans, Hondurans and Salvadorans, have a fairly high rate of gaining asylum, compared to Haitians for example,” she said.
Brewer added that the militarized strategy to combat undocumented migrants was inappropriate.
“The National Guard, it must be said, is an organization of military force … focused on confronting enemy forces. It is not the right institution to be the first points of contact with the refugee population, [which] is mainly families,” she said.
The military is not the right institution to be the first point of contact with the refugee population, says Brewer.
WOLA is calling on the government to stop containing migrants in Tapachula, end migrant detentions, provide visas and increase COMAR’s budget. It argues that the U.S. government should prioritize migrant protection and should provide refuge for unaccompanied minors.
Carlos Nava at Don Tomás Solares' farm just outside of San Luis Potosí city. The Navas' interest in promoting Mexican-made liquor started with mezcal and with Solares' pulque.
Tomás and Carlos Nava just might be the future of alcoholic beverages in San Luis Potosí, and it all started by reviving one of their old hangouts.
La Piquería calls itself a pulque and mezcal bar, but it is really a full-service establishment, with all kinds of beverages and bar food. Located in an old mansion in the historic center of San Luis Potosí, its backstory makes the place special.
Twenty or so years ago, they frequented a bar called El Delirio Azul (Blue Delirium). It was an alternative kind of place, with a large portrait of Che Guevara and frequented by people wanting to change the world.
The bar ran into problems when one owner became involved with resistance to the opening of a mine on San Pedro Mountain by a Canadian company. In the end, this owner became a political refugee, ironically in Canada, and the business withered and disappeared.
Germinating 300 kilos of cacahuatzintle, a Mexican corn variety used to make pozole. The Navas are searching for the best native variety to make whiskey.
The building came up for rent in 2010. The brothers’ fond memories of Delirio Azul prompted them to reestablish a bar in the building, which opened in 2011. At first, the bar was mostly a beer joint, but that would soon change. The business was successful enough, but they wanted to do something distinctive, so they looked to mezcal, which had been very traditional in San Luis Potosí but had fallen out of favor many years ago. Even as late as the early 2010s, it was considered far inferior to vodka and whiskey.
They researched local mezcal as well as those from Oaxaca and Durango. Their city was a little behind the times, but when mezcal’s popularity saw a resurgence, the Navas were ready.
Success with mezcal inspired them to try yet another out-of-favor alcoholic beverage — pulque. San Luis Potosí’s pulque is made from the maguey plant that Mesoamericans brought here in the early colonial period, but the flavor is a bit different than other pulques elsewhere, likely because of the local soils and more arid conditions.
“If we were considered insane for selling mezcal, we were considered raving mad for selling pulque.” Carlos says. The beverage was considered to be something only for the lowest of the low classes, served in places that rival any dive bar in the world.
Undeterred, the brothers found a good, authentic source for pulque in one Tomás Solares, who at nearly 80 still makes it how he learned as a small child on the land he grew up on.
It took a little time, but in a couple of years, the bar went from selling 5 liters a week to over 200 before the pandemic. It’s back up again to over 100 now.
The Navas’ success is not in making or improving mezcal or pulque but rather in offering a bit of the area’s history in an environment that is more comfortable for more kinds of people. Carlos admits it is a kind of “gentrification,” but they are proud that their establishment attracts everyone from the guy who needs bodyguards to the guy working construction.
Going on year 12, La Piquería is now the brothers’ bread and butter, and just the start of their entrepreneurship.
Carlos and Tomás Nava’s mezcalería in San Luis Potosí.
Research into mezcal and pulque has inspired Tomás to try his hand at production. A local family, the Navarros, was instrumental in helping him get a feel for their method of making mezcal, which is distilled in large, heavy clay pots.
But he also gained an appreciation for the values behind their work. For that reason, he did not try to take on mezcal production with them.
In 2019, a friend in the fruit export business found that a client in California was distilling alcohol from prickly pears and asked Tomás if he could do that. He told him, “Give me six months” and bought a small still the next day. This was the start of El Gran Tunal (The Great Prickly Pear Fruit), what he calls an experimental distillery.
Quickly, his attention also turned to Mexico’s heirloom corn varieties. He has joined with other craft and experimental Mexican whiskey makers to not only figure out which corn varieties are best for distilling but also how to define and protect a new and rapidly growing industry.
Nava wants people like him to define what “Mexican whiskey” is before some large international concern does it.
Thanks to an Australian mother, the Navas are native English speakers. This has allowed him to contact and get mentored by craft whisky and moonshine makers in the United States, who are more than happy to work with someone south of the border. From them, Tomás has gained access to new technology and techniques, such as electric coils for heating, which he integrates with what knowledge he has acquired in Mexico.
I learned a LOT about the process of turning Mexican corn into whiskey. Mexican corn holds many promises, especially in flavor profiles, as well as challenges. One challenge is its low alcohol-by-volume (ABV) content. For this reason, 300 kilos of corn at most produces 90 liters of whiskey.
Tomás’ experimentation is not limited to corn. While I was there, his first still was pumping out a delicious gin variant flavored with cardón cactus fruit instead of using juniper berries. He also had batches of spirits made with mango, beetroot and sugar cane. He no longer distills pulque, however, as it produces too little distillate and ruins a lot of pulque in the process.
Old-fashioned clay distilling pots sit near newer metal ones. Both types of pots have their advantages and disadvantages.
The Navas are modern businessmen, but both have the social consciousness that drew them to the original bar. They worry about balancing the economic needs of producers with preserving Mexico’s beverage traditions and the threats posed by the modern world.
With two years and a lot of money invested in his small distillery, the concern is not simply altruistic. He says that at any time, someone could come to his door to “ask him what his price is,” and he knows he needs an answer.
Leigh Thelmadatter arrived in Mexico 18 years ago and fell in love with the land and the culture in particular its handcrafts and art. She is the author of Mexican Cartonería: Paper, Paste and Fiesta (Schiffer 2019). Her culture column appears regularly on Mexico News Daily.
Chorizo on the grill — it doesn't get any better than this.
Chorizo is essentially an unassuming pork sausage. But all you need is one bite to taste its spicy Hispanic roots and realize the world of possibilities for using it in the kitchen.
Chorizo’s bold, zesty chile flavor is complemented by the warmth of cinnamon and cloves and balanced by herbs and spices like oregano, paprika and garlic. And pork — ahhh, pork! — imparts its unparalleled richness and depth of flavor.
First things first: there’s Mexican chorizo and Spanish chorizo, and they’re completely different things: Mexican chorizo is raw, made with fresh pork, herbs and spices. It must be cooked before eating. On the other hand, Spanish chorizo is smoked and can be eaten as-is, sliced like salami and often sold chilled. This is an important distinction, so be sure you know what you’re buying.
(The spicing is different too.) We’ll be talking about Mexican chorizo here.
Tacos with chorizo is a classic dish for a reason — because it’s delicious!
Mexican chorizo is sold in sausage-like tubes or links; they can be sauteed or grilled whole, like any other sausage, but another more versatile option is to cut open one end, squeeze out the filling and sauté it. Then the crispy, zesty crumbles can be used in a myriad of ways: mixed into any pasta dish or sauce where you usually use ground beef — like lasagna, Bolognese or Carbonara; added to scrambled eggs, omelets or frittata; crumbled atop papas locas(ask your local street food vendor) or nachos; added to quesadillas or tacos; or mixed into chili.
Chorizo is a simple “secret” ingredient that adds pizazz to any dish and turns “ho-hum” into “wow!” And it’s easy to keep in the fridge so you always have some on hand.
In the grocery store or market, you’ll find many brands of chorizo, all with different spicing. It may take some trial and error to find a couple that work for you. Butcher shops will often make their own as well. You’ll also find vegetarian chorizo, made with soy protein and traditional flavorings and even lower-fat chicken or turkey chorizo.
Feel like making chorizo yourself? Check out this recipe, head to the butcher and have at it. Let me know how it turns out!
Black Bean-Chorizo-Sweet Potato Tacos
Substitute regular white potatoes if you like.
1 Tbsp. olive oil
1 medium sweet potato, peeled, in ¼-inch dice
1 lb. fresh Mexican chorizo, removed from casing
1 (15-oz.) can black beans, drained
Salt and pepper
For serving: corn tortillas, crema, pickled red onions, cilantro, queso fresco, salsa
Heat olive oil over medium heat in large skillet. Add sweet potato. Cook, stirring, 4–5 minutes. Push sweet potatoes to edges of the skillet; add chorizo.
Brown chorizo for 4–5 minutes, breaking it into bite-sized crumbles as it cooks. Once the chorizo is browned, mix with sweet potatoes. Add black beans to skillet, stirring to combine with chorizo/sweet potato mixture. Cook until heated through, about 2 minutes. Taste and season with salt or pepper as needed. Spoon into tortillas, add toppings and serve.
Rachel Ray’s Chorizo Sloppy Joes (meat and veggie versions)
For Sauce:
1 (8-oz.) can tomato paste
½ cup beef stock
2 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
2 Tbsp. hot sauce
2 Tbsp. cider vinegar
2 Tbsp. brown sugar or grated piloncillo
Who knew you could make a Sloppy Joe sandwich with chorizo?
½ lb. fresh beef or pork chorizo (or soy-based chorizo substitute)
For serving: Soft burger rolls, chopped white onion, pickles
Heat oil in cast-iron skillet or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add onions, peppers and celery, season with salt and pepper; stir and cook a few minutes. Stir in garlic.
Add beef and chorizo. Cook till browned and crumbly.
Stir in the sauce, reduce heat to low. Simmer a few minutes to combine flavors. Serve with rolls and toppings.
1 large red onion, cut into 1/2-inch rounds, skewered horizontally
2 avocados, cut into ½-inch slices
6 oz. Oaxaca, Chihuahua or Mozzarella cheese, thinly sliced or grated
4 bolillos (sandwich rolls)
1/3 cup chipotle mayonnaise
For grill cooking: 4 bricks wrapped in heavy-duty aluminum foil
If using a grill, prepare the fire and grate for cooking. (If using a griddle, follow same instructions for chorizo; char poblanos over an open flame using tongs; sauté onions in skillet or on griddle.)
Place chorizo, poblanos and onions on grill. Cook chorizo until browned all over, about 8 minutes; transfer to cutting board. Cook poblanos until charred all over, about 10 minutes; transfer to bowl, cover with plastic wrap. Let rest until cooled.
Cook onions until softened and charred on both sides, about 5 minutes per side; transfer to cutting board, remove skewers. Place bricks on grill and cover.
Remove charred skin from poblanos; stem, seed and cut peppers into long strips. Halve chorizo lengthwise.
Place 1 chorizo link on bottom half of bolillo, top with poblano strips, onions, avocados and cheese. Spread chipotle mayonnaise on other side of roll; place on top of sandwich. Repeat with remaining rolls.
Regular sandwiches don’t hold a candle to tortas stuffed with chorizo and all the fixings.
On grill: place prepared sandwiches on grill. Wearing well-insulated grilling gloves, carefully place one brick on top of each sandwich, gently pushing down to press. Cover grill and cook until sandwich has flattened and bread has crisped, 5–10 minutes.
On griddle or skillet: place prepared sandwiches on preheated griddle sprayed with cooking oil. Use foil-covered bricks, cast-iron pan or other heavy, heatproof object to press down sandwich, cooking at medium-high heat until cheese melts and bread crisps, 5–10 minutes.
I first came to Mexico almost exactly 20 years ago, and I’ve been here, off and on (mostly on), ever since.
Leigh Thelmadatter’s piece on those of us who would count ourselves long-time immigrants (intentional or not) — as well as Mexico News Daily’s recent survey asking people why they’ve moved their families to Mexico — has got me thinking about these past 20 years of my life that I’ve been a permanent immigrant in this country.
With this 20-year milestone upon me, I’d like to take this week’s column space as an opportunity to reflect on my time here so far, which now (officially) accounts for half of my life.
That summer of 2002, before I left for Mexico in my junior year of college through a program called Brethren Colleges Abroad, my mom was worried: “You’ll fall in love and not want to come back!” she said.
“Oh, come on,” I responded, sure that I would return to the United States for good after my year in Mexico.
Alas, she was right: I fell in love with Mexico, and I fell hard.
The first couple of months were tough: our small group of study-abroad students spent the first month at an intensive language school in Cuernavaca, which involved a homestay with several children who thought it was hilarious to speak to me as rapidly as possible and then ask if I’d understood what they said. My Spanish was barely recognizable as Spanish in those days, and it would take me about 10 seconds to get out a four-word sentence — even so, it was usually incorrect.
I did a lot of crying that first month — it’s a humiliating experience as an adult to not be able to speak any better than a two-year-old — but by the end of the month, I was finally getting by. The immersive experience without the benefit of cell phones or easily-accessible internet (trips to the internet cafe happened maybe once a week) meant that I had no choice but to use Spanish constantly, and I got good at it quickly.
By the end of the academic year, I didn’t want to leave. Though I had assured my mother it absolutely would not happen, I had a serious boyfriend by then that I didn’t want to break up with. I returned to finish my degree in the U.S. and then went straight back to Mexico, where I started working as an ESL teacher at an English institute.
As most people my age know, life as a student and life as an adult worker are very different. That first year was quite lonely for me: even though I lived with my boyfriend, we had trouble getting our schedules to match.
Most English institutes (this was before they were online and “computers” were a major feature) were split-schedule in those days, so I typically worked from 7 a.m. to 12 p.m. and then again from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m., meaning much of my free time was spent alone while everyone else was at work. But in those days, there wasn’t much of a way to earn a living in Mexico as a foreigner unless you were a teacher, so that’s what I did.
Eventually, I got another job at a high school that I enjoyed much more, and that had a more normal schedule. An international school in Querétaro, it meant that I got to know people from all over the world.
Suddenly, Mexico had a more international feel: I had a cell phone and internet at my house and access to other foreigners.
In 2011, I married my longtime boyfriend, and we moved to Xalapa, where I got my first online job with Open English. Since then, I’ve only worked online and imagine I will keep doing so for the foreseeable future. We had our daughter in 2013, and a couple of years ago made the difficult decision to separate.
Even after that painful period (which happened to coincide with the beginning of the pandemic – oh, boy!), I’ve never thought of returning to the United States to live permanently. The obvious reason is that I would not ever want to separate my daughter from her dad. But even if we hadn’t had a child, I might have stayed.
Mexico is my home now. This is where I’ve “grown up” into a grown-up, and I often say that at this point, I have no idea even how to be a grown-up in the U.S.
I’m also very aware that the kind of lifestyle I have is one that would likely not be possible in the United States, which now seems to me from down here a somewhat strange and scary place. I appreciate the (remote) job opportunities made possible by U.S. citizenship; I very much don’t appreciate having to continue paying taxes to the U.S. as if I lived there, but what are you going to do?
Tomorrow, I board a plane to visit my country for the first time in two and a half years. It will be good to see my family and to speak English with a few more people than usual. But I won’t be staying.
We do a lot for love, and I’m more in love now — with my partner, with my daughter, with my adopted home, with my life — than I ever was before.
President López Obrador at his Tuesday press conference. Presidencia de la República
President López Obrador demonstrated his capitalist credentials last weekend, inaugurating a Nestlé coffee factory in Veracruz.
Monday
AMLO opened the week with a dedication to “the best president in the history of Mexico,” referring to Benito Juárez and announced a post-conference ceremony to commemorate 150 years since the death of Mexico’s first indigenous leader.
“These autonomous bodies were created in the neoliberal period … they came up like mushrooms in the rain,” said the president, responding to a journalist’s charge that judges on an independent court were earning vast sums. “A kind of golden bureaucracy was created with very high salaries and all kinds of privileges,” the president continued, before pledging a one-off “Who’s who in the salaries” section, to reveal the earnings of public servants.
The president paid tribute to former leader Benito Juárez on Monday. Presidencia de la República
Fresh from his visit to Washington, D.C., López Obrador said the arrest of cartel leader Rafael Caro Quintero was unrelated to his meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden and insisted that U.S. security forces played no part in the arrest, despite their claims to the contrary.
However, the tabasqueño was ardent that another criminal case had been addressed: “I left a letter to President Biden about [Julian] Assange … explaining to him that Assange did not commit any serious crime, he did not cause the death of anyone, he did not violate any rights. He exercised his freedom, and that stopping him was going to mean a permanent affront to freedom of expression … I explained that Mexico is offering protection and asylum to Julian Assange,” he said of the long-imprisoned WikiLeaks founder, who is fighting extradition from the U.K. to the U.S.
Tuesday
The president confirmed a trade deal was in the making with Ecuador, but assured that shrimp and banana sellers in Mexico wouldn’t be compromised. He complimented the country’s center-right leader, Guillermo Lasso, before noting “it hasn’t been easy for him … facing protests and violence in prisons.” Another deadly prison riot in Ecuador left 13 inmates dead on Monday.
The safety of citizens was top of mind for the president, who endorsed an all inclusive strategy on the domestic security front. “It’s been decided that it is a matter of national security,” he said of section 5 of the Maya Train, adding that construction had resumed a week previously, despite a definitive suspension order from the courts. With the definitional change, responsibility for construction has passed to the Interior Ministry and the Security Ministry, although it is being managed by the National Tourism Promotion Fund (Fonatur).
It is not entirely clear what security threat emanates from a lack of train tracks in the country’s southeast.
“Doesn’t that argument have to be formally presented before the judges?” a journalist inquired, only to be met with a highly effective combination of denial and ambiguity.
Wednesday
Security Minister Rosa Icela Rodríguez emphasized the downward trend in homicides in her report on Wednesday. Presidencia de la República
In the monthly security report, the corresponding minister, Rosa Icela Rodríguez, celebrated only 15,400 murders in the first five months of the year, which she said was a 9.1% decrease in annual terms.
Tipping discourse in favor of truth, Ana Elizabeth García Vilchis addressed media wrongdoing in her “Who’s who in the lies of the week” section. García falsified a story “sung in chorus” by journalists that claimed U.S. President Joe Biden ordered AMLO to put up US $1.5 billion for security on the northern border. García also assured that the president wasn’t informed of the location of Caro Quintero by U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris.
Later in the conference, López Obrador found a novel way to demonstrate that Mexico wasn’t taking orders from the U.S. Responding to criticism that his energy policy violates the USMCA trade agreement, he ordered a song. “We can explain the energy policy of our country … Let’s see if you can find my countryman, Chico Che,” he said. Chico Che’s song “¡Uy, que miedo!” (“Ooh, how scary!”) was played for journalists and viewers.
Thursday
The USMCA returned to the conference on Thursday after U.S. and Canadian officials announced they were seeking trade dispute talks over the government’s favoring of state energy companies. “There is no violation of the treaty … our policies are defined in Mexico and have to do with our Constitution and laws,” the president said.
López Obrador added that separate dispute proceedings related to USMCA were previously initiated against the U.S. and Canada, and that Mexico had 70 days to respond before the matter would be referred to an international tribunal.
“What is our agenda? It’s not to privatize education or health, nor to privatize oil … our agenda is the well-being of the people,” the president insisted.
Later in the conference, another conflict surfaced. A journalist complained in a lengthy speech that she hadn’t been granted access to the conferences and accused the president of preferring flattery to hard questions. When another reporter interrupted the tirade, he was swiftly dismissed. “Shut up, palero … Sorry, when you have your moment, I don’t interrupt. You’re a palero,” she said, accusing him of being a pawn of the government.
The press corps at Thursday’s conference. Presidencia de la República
“Love and peace, love and peace,” the tabasqueño implored, raising a peace sign with both hands.
Friday
The president was in the tourist city Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, on Friday. He wished President Biden a speedy recovery from COVID-19.
López Obrador presented his evidence from the text of the USMCA to prove there had been no violation of the treaty. Reading from chapter 8, which he said was inserted as a revision at the government’s insistence, he cited: “‘Mexicohasthedirect,inalienable, and imprescriptibleownershipof all hydrocarbons … in the subsoil of the national territory.'”
The president added that the previous agreement was tantamount to treachery and blamed “the conservatives” for ceding more than half of Mexico’s territory to the U.S. in 1848. He later called out U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken for criticizing Mexico’s record for violence against journalists, amid the U.S. pursuit of Assange, whom he called “one of the best, if not the best journalist of our times.”
Before signing off on another week of conferences, AMLO conceded that security in Mexico was no piece of cake. “Of course it is complicated, it is difficult. It’s not tortas ahogadas or tamalitos de chipilín, but we have to address the causes where the violence originates,” he said, naming a couple of Mexican dishes to stress the futility of simplistic solutions.
The president at his Friday morning conference in Puerto Vallarta. Official Website of López Obrador
Inflation – which rose to 8.16% in the first half of July – will start coming down in three or four months, President López Obrador predicted Friday.
National statistics agency INEGI reported Friday that inflation increased 0.43% in the first 15 days of July compared to the second half of June, leaving the annual rate at a level not seen in more than two decades.
Prices for potatoes, eggs and oranges all rose by more than 6% in the space of just two weeks, while onions were 5.9% more expensive in the first half of July. The cost of air travel also increased, going up by more than 6%, tourism packages were up 4.4% and electricity rose 1.4%.
In annual terms, inflation — currently the product of a range of factors including pandemic-related supply chain problems, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, coronavirus restrictions in China and drought — was more than 17% for fruit and vegetables, over 16% for meat, almost 12% for processed food, beverages and tobacco, almost 8% for non-food goods, nearly 5% for energy products and 3% for housing and school fees.
Items in the canasta básica— a collection of basic foodstuffs and household items — rose 8.86% over the past year, a figure 0.7% higher than the annual headline rate, which is well over double the central bank’s 3% target.
The high inflation rate will give the central bank added incentive to raise interest rates again when its board meets on August 11. The Bank of México raised its benchmark interest rate by 75 basis points to 7.75% in late June. It was the first time since the introduction of a new monetary policy regime in 2008 that the bank had lifted its key rate by three-quarters of a percentage point.
Speaking in Puerto Vallarta at his regular news conference, López Obrador predicted that inflation will begin to ease in October or November. “That’s my forecast because international conditions are going to start to change,” he said.
The president highlighted that inflation in Mexico is lower than that in the United States, where it reached 9.1% in June, and the European Union, where it hit 9.6% last month. The federal government subsidizes gasoline, helping to keep energy prices down, but López Obrador acknowledged that authorities are struggling to keep a lid on food prices – despite the announcement in May of an agreement with the private sector to ensure fair prices for 24 products in the canasta básica.
The price of the canasta básica, an index that includes a variety of basic food items, has registered even higher inflation than the economy as a whole.
“That’s why we’re now promoting all productive activity because the formula is to be self-sufficient in energy and self-sufficient in food,” he said. “That’s what we’ve proposed for many years, in contrast with the neoliberal model,” López Obrador said.
“… We’re now strongly promoting production for one’s own consumption, the production of corn, beans. And we’re strengthening our fertilizer production plants and the plan we have is to distribute free fertilizer to 2 million producers starting this year.”
López Obrador declared that the government is doing its bit so that high inflation is brought under control soon. “With optimism, without falling into triumphalism, I can tell you that we’re going to be fine, we’re going to control inflation soon,” he said.
“… We’ve endured two calamities that have brought us a lot of pain [and] suffering: the pandemic and this inflation, which is global, … exacerbated by the war in Ukraine, because the economy was already in bad shape, it was complicated by the pandemic and ended up worse with the war. They’re external factors that could improve, could change. … There may be opportunities for a fix, that’s what I believe,” López Obrador said.
Governor Alejandro Murat and his wife (center) at the opening festivities of the Gastronomic Center of Oaxaca. Twitter @alejandromurat
Oaxaca Governor Alejandro Murat officially opened on Thursday a new culinary center that will promote the traditional food and cooking methods of the southern state and educate new generations of local chefs.
Located in a former convent in the historic center of Oaxaca city, the Gastronomic Center of Oaxaca (CGO) has 12 establishments that will sell and promote the traditional cuisine of the state’s eight regions, Murat said.
An initiative of the state government, the center will also function as a cooking school affiliated with the Technological University of the Central Valleys of Oaxaca.
In addition to 12 different businesses that will offer typical food from regions such as the Isthmus of Tehuantepec and the Sierra Sur and host culinary events, the 69.8-million-peso (US $3.4 million) CGO has an events hall and an area where aguas y nieves oaxaqueñas (fruit-flavored beverages and shaved-ice treats) as well as mezcal cocktails, craft beer and coffee will be sold.
Chefs prepare to serve food at the CGO on Thursday.
“This gastronomic center is a gift all the oaxaqueños are giving ourselves because it’s a project that was carried out collectively to celebrate the greatness of our state and also to continue writing the best pages of the history of a Oaxaca with well-being, governability and development,” Murat said.
The governor predicted that the CGO will directly and indirectly generate revenue of 50 million pesos (US $2.4 million) a year. It is expected to attract locals as well as domestic and international tourists.
Alejandro Ruiz, a renowned local chef, said the idea for the CGO came from a visit Oaxaca chefs and officials made to the Basque Culinary Center in San Sebastián, Spain.
“That project had an impact on us,” Ruiz said, adding that it was used as a reference to develop the CGO, in which “local cuisine will be the protagonist.”
He described the building where the CGO is housed – the Convento del Carmen Alto – as a “unique and emblematic space.”
The director of the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) also attended the opening ceremony, during which he remarked that the project had helped to rescue one of the historic edifices of the Oaxaca capital. Diego Prieto also said that the CGO, via its culinary offerings, will promote the customs and traditions of Oaxaca’s different indigenous communities.
“This is a great event because Oaxaca now has another space to celebrate the local food culture,” he said of a state famous for its moles, chapulines (grasshoppers), tlayudas, chocolate, coffee and mezcal, among many other foods and beverages.
“… It’s an honor for me to be present at the inauguration of the center, which without a doubt will become one of the most important [culinary hubs] in the country,” Prieto said. INAH will move into new offices in the convent precinct once additional restoration has been completed, he added.
