Puerto Vallarta Regional Hospital. Gobierno de Jalisco
Authorities in Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, are looking for the family members or next of kin for a Canadian man who died in the Puerto Vallarta Regional Hospital on Wednesday, apparently of natural causes.
The deceased was identified as Bob Leonard Mondey, a 63-year-old Canadian national. Hospital workers informed local authorities on Wednesday morning that Mondey had arrived sick at the hospital. During his stay his sickness worsened and he died. There were no family members or friends who came to take responsibility for the body and so he is currently in the hospital’s morgue awaiting further information.
Local police determined that the responsibility to find next of kin would fall on the hospital’s social service staff, who were told to reach out to the Canadian Embassy for help in their search.
The attempted murder suspect who objected to the neighbor's loud music.
A Jalisco man will stand trial for attempted murder after allegedly attacking his neighbor with a machete because he was playing loud music in his apartment.
The Jalisco Attorney General’s Office (FE) said in a statement Wednesday that it had presented evidence to a court that showed that José Luis G. was the “probable culprit” in an attack motivated by “differences related to the high volume of music” in the neighbor’s apartment. A judge consequently ordered the accused to stand trial.
“The events that motivated the present investigation occurred June 9 in an apartment located in the Los Molinos neighborhood in the municipality of Zapopan,” the FE said.
It said that two men – presumably father and son – were drinking alcohol in the apartment and listening to music to celebrate Father’s Day. (It appears that the FE got the date wrong because Father’s Day was on June 19.)
The statement said their celebration was interrupted by the sudden appearance of an angry José Luis, who ordered them to turn the music off. One of the men tried to calm him down and discuss his demand but José Luis couldn’t be pacified, according to the FE. He subsequently produced a machete and proceeded to attack one of the men, the statement said, adding that he warned the other man not to intervene because he would attack him as well if he did.
After the attack, José Luis left the apartment and the victim was taken to hospital. The FE said he was in “delicate” condition. Police attended the crime scene and arrested José Luis a short time later.
The Attorney General’s Office said that a judge ruled there was sufficient evidence to commit José Luis to trial on the charge of attempted murder. The accused “will remain in pre-trial detention for a year as a preventative measure,” it added.
“The state Attorney General’s Office is continuing with the complementary investigations for the case and reaffirms its commitment to work in coordination with other authorities to investigate crimes … [and] avoid impunity.”
Alejandro "Alito" Moreno, president of the PRI, proposed easing access to high-caliber weapons at a press conference on Tuesday. Twitter @alitomorenoc
Four congressional leaders have rejected an Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) proposal to relax gun controls so that Mexican families can defend themselves with powerful weapons.
PRI national president Alejandro Moreno, who is also a federal deputy, made the proposal Tuesday, asserting that Mexicans should be able to defend themselves if the federal government can’t guarantee their safety amid the current high levels of violence.
“We’re going to propose a modification to the firearms law so that Mexican families can gain access to larger caliber weapons with greater ease,” he told a press conference. The aim is for Mexicans to be able to protect their homes, businesses and lives, Moreno said.
“People are defenseless. [Criminals] arrive at homes and businesses and they murder women [and] men – Mexicans who can’t defend themselves because there is not a proper control and registry so that they can have” access to powerful weapons, he said.
“… Criminals should know that people will defend themselves. Our priority must be honest people,” Moreno said. “… The … [federal] government has no security plan and isn’t interested in drawing one up. That’s why violence … is the main concern of Mexicans. … There are more murders than in all previous six-year periods of government,” he said.
Mexicans already have a constitutional right to own guns with the exception of those prohibited by federal law and those reserved for the exclusive use of the military. Guns can only be purchased legally at one store operated by the army in Mexico City, but they are widely available on the black market. To buy a gun legally, citizens must have a firearms license, which can be obtained after people justify their need for a weapon and satisfy authorities that they are not involved in criminal activity and don’t use drugs. Most licenses limit possession of guns to people’s homes.
Congressional leaders with the ruling Morena party, the National Action Party (PAN), the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) and the Citizens Movement (MC) party rejected the proposal put forward by Moreno, who acknowledged that it would generate controversy.
Senator Ricardo Monreal, Morena’s leader in the upper house, said there are better ways to guarantee people’s safety than arming citizens. Allowing citizens to have greater access to guns has never been an effective strategy, he said in an interview.
Morena’s leader in the Senate, Ricardo Monreal, answers reporters’ questions on Wednesday. Twitter @RicardoMonrealA
“I don’t believe it’s the best option. I respect the opinion of the PRI president, but establishing laws … that allow citizens to arm themselves is the beginning of chaos. I couldn’t accept that,” Monreal said.
What is needed is to have more effective security forces, the senator said, noting that they, rather than everyday citizens, are ultimately responsible for combating crime. The state has an obligation to provide public security that protects people and their assets, Monreal added.
Senator Julen Rementería, PAN’s leader in the upper house, also poured cold water on Moreno’s proposal, although he observed that the right to defend oneself is a “delicate issue.”
Instead of giving people access to powerful weapons, the government should be obliged to fulfill its responsibility to guarantee public security, he said. “[The government] has a monopoly on force or should have,” Rementería said, apparently acknowledging that armed criminal organizations hold sway in many parts of the country.
“Today it seems it has lost that, but the government should have it in this country. Unfortunately we see that’s not the case,” he said. “That’s why people start to think about … [giving citizens greater access to guns]. … I believe that arming the public, seeking to combat crime in that way, is a very bad idea.”
PRD lower house leader Luis Espinosa Cházaro said that Moreno hadn’t raised his proposal with the PRI’s electoral partners – the PRD and PAN – and his party wouldn’t support it.
“It’s not a proposal that was discussed inside the Va por México [coalition]. I respect the position of the PRI president, but I don’t share … [the view] that arming people is the solution,” he said.
The deputy agreed that the state has the responsibility to guarantee citizens’ safety and expressed his opposition to the government’s non-confrontational security strategy. “I fervently believe that the ‘hugs, not bullets’ strategy isn’t working. The president has to reconsider, the country is flooded with blood, he has to change the strategy,” Espinosa said.
Weapons seized by the Defense Ministry from criminal organizations in Sonora earlier this year. FGR
MC Senate leader Clemente Castañeda said it was unbelievable that the leader of a party that was in power before the current government took office could propose facilitating access to powerful weapons. He said such “bright ideas” have had a negative impact on Mexico and caused people to turn their backs on PRI, which ruled the country for most of the 20th century before losing power to PAN in 2000.
In addition to proposing that citizens be allowed to buy high-caliber weapons, the PRI leader – a former Campeche governor who is no stranger to controversy and faces accusations of corruption – suggested that senior members of the armed forces and the National Guard should be allowed to take their weapons home so they can defend themselves and combat organized crime.
Sisal resident Don Zurdo with his granddaughters. Unsustainable overexpansion is bulldozing through his beloved hometown, he says.
For Mexican towns, getting designated as a Pueblo Mágico (Magical Town) is often seen as a boon.
Getting to call yourself one makes your town more attractive to tourists and gives it federal money for things like the renovation of historic districts, beautification of homes and businesses and free promotion by the federal government.
More tourism dollars coming in mean more employment and business opportunities for residents and more development investment — and thus more tax revenues.
So why would residents say no to an offer to be a Magical Town?
A labyrinth of canals in the El Palmar state nature reserve. Sisal is located wholly within the nearly 48,000-hectare reserve, a Ramsar site.
But that’s exactly what happened in Sisal, Yucatán, a colonial port that became a quiet fishing village when Progreso was built in 1844. When the federal government awarded it Magical Town status in 2020 in response to applications by the Yucatán state government, which would like to expand Sisal’s tourism profile, most residents wholeheartedly rejected their town’s new title, saying that they would lose their homes and be reduced to workers for foreign investors. By the end of that year, residents began circulating petitions against the designation. By July 2021, they were staging protests.
Many locals who oppose the designation say that the construction of luxury hotels and reclamation projects already here — as developers and the tourism industry look for the next Cancún — have destroyed large sections of important mangroves crucial to preserving the area’s rich ecosystem.
Sisal also lies within the dense El Palmar state nature reserve, 47,931 hectares of dense jungle and swamp with mangroves protecting hundreds of birds and aquatic life.
Most opponents say they don’t object to tourism. Sisal already attracts plenty of tourists annually, mainly during Easter Week. But these residents say they desire a more measured approach to the state’s large-scale tourism plans.
However, their pleas have gone largely unanswered, and so activists are making their point by example — promoting ecologically sustainable tourism as an alternative to what they consider the pursuit of rapid capitalistic gain — at any cost.
Don José, 67 — or Don Zurdo as he is known locally — is one of those fighting against the “unsustainable overexpansion” that he says is recklessly bulldozing through his beloved hometown.
“It’s horrible, and it makes us feel as though there is nothing we can do about it,” he says. “We have been fighting for many years to convince the government to do things in a different way that respects our way of life, but to no avail.”
Don Zurdo belongs to the Ziz-Ha cooperative, a group that promotes ecotourism in Sisal by offering guided tours of the mangroves and the beaches here. He considers himself a “man of nature” who has spent more than 50 years maintaining the unique cultural heritage of barely 2,000 residents.
The veteran guide by no means rejects the arrival of more tourism and investment in Sisal, so long as it is ecologically sustainable and protects local tradition. The closest thing to his heart, and what gives him the youthful exuberance that drives him forward, he says, is his love for the ciénega (swamplands).
“What I like the most about my job is this, the ciénega, going on tours, duck hunting and fishing. I know most of the land like the back of my hand, and I am a person who appreciates nature, I love it, especially the work I do in tourism,” he says. “I do it with the most pleasure imaginable, and do you know why that is? Because I like to watch the birds and the fish that live in the cenotes.”
Don Zurdo recalls his childhood when his father would take him into the swamp to hunt lagartos, the local name for Morelet’s crocodiles, and other exotic game, a legal activity in those days. Today, he’s limited to the annual quota for the migratory pato canadiense (lesser scaup), a quota never exceeded due to the vast numbers of birds and small numbers of skilled hunters here.
The view of the ciénega (swamplands) at sunset from Don Zurdo’s palapa.
This brings high-end niche tourism and international export sales, which he believes works in tandem with the natural surroundings and is a strong lure for tourists.
“I started fishing when I was about 13 years old,” he says. “I was a rather restless boy, and I didn’t really like school, so I learned how to fish from my father and my grandparents.”
“Things were very different back then. My father could live solely off fishing in good times, during July and August,” he explained. “When bad weather came around December, he dedicated himself to hunting… That’s where I took all my knowledge from.”
I just hope the next generation can take my work and that of others into the future,” he says, “and we can avoid becoming like the Port of Progreso, which has been completely paved with concrete.”
Hugo Antonio Curiel Durán, 38, originally from Guadalajara, works for Don Zurdo as a tour guide. He sees the pros and the cons in Sisal’s recent developments.
“This increase in construction can be viewed as good and bad in some ways,” he says. “There is less space for people to build their new homes, and those who are not dedicated to tourism inevitably suffer.”
“The village is converting into a touristic town, and people from outside arrive with their riches, which makes local properties more unaffordable for sisaleños (people from Sisal). The richer class can buy large plots of land, while locals are forced to live over four generations in the same humble space.”
Curiel’s huge admiration for Yucatan’s coastal culture convinced him to enroll in the Autonomous University of Sisal. He then decided to settle in the area. “They know how to preserve their traditions [here], but sometimes too much external touristic influence doesn’t help,” he admitted. “The loss of local culture is an interesting question.”
“The people love the annual Carnival [celebration],” he added. “They dress up and have fiestas; this will not be lost, I hope. The fishing festival is also unique to Sisal and its traditions. I believe this is still strong here, and it is truly beautiful. It certainly helps to preserve cultural identity.”
Curiel wants the Yucatán government to listen to residents’ demands and warns that if cultural spaces fall into the hands of unsympathetic investors, it could eventually obliterate valued traditions.
“I hope this does not happen,” he says. “They are trying to preserve these [traditions] with the help of the church to put on these festivals. I am not from here, but I have seen many other villages grow into towns and towns grow into cities, all through the medium of tourism. Some will be in favor, and others may not be, but those in favor will surely take advantage.”
Sisal has been a tourist attraction for many years, Curiel says, perhaps historically for even longer than Progresso, but in a very different way, “one that has always incorporated sisaleño customs.”
“Most locals prefer their cultural way of life, but others by the same measure want more investment in their forgotten town,” he adds.
Both can work together, Curiel believes.
“But tourism is coming whether people like it or not,” he says. “We just need it to be done in the right way.”
Skull analysis showed that the oldest Mexica child died of an illness related to anemia, disease and dietary imbalance. INAH
Archaeologists in Mexico City have discovered the remains of four Mexica children buried in the early years of Spanish colonial rule.
National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) archaeologists found a burial site with skeletons inside what they believe was a traditional four-room Mexica home. Located in what is now the Lagunilla neighborhood in Mexico City’s historical center, the burial site has been dated to between 1521 and 1620, a period that corresponds to the first century of Spanish colonial rule.
Juan Carlos Campos Varela, the archaeologist who led the excavation project, said the sex of the four minors hasn’t been determined and doing so is difficult, but researchers believe they died of illness during a period of crisis before being buried in a traditional pre-Hispanic style. There is no evidence that the children were killed as part of a ritual sacrifice, Campos said.
Based on the size of the bones and teeth, INAH believes the oldest child died between the ages of six and eight. An analysis of the skull suggested that the child suffered “an illness directly associated with anemia, infectious processes, parasitic disease and dietary imbalance,” INAH said in a statement.
Lead archaeologist Juan Carlos Campos Varela at the burial site. INAH
The youngest child may have been a baby “spontaneously aborted due to a dietary deficiency or maternal stress,” the institute said.
Campos said the offerings buried with two of the children are of special interest. “Two didn’t have offerings … [but] the probable aborted baby was accompanied by two tripod ceramic bowls and was lying in a globular pot of 35 centimeters diameter and a height of 50 centimeters,” he said.
“This speaks of the survival of a funerary practice that sought to return [the baby] to the mother’s womb, represented by the pot.”
The oldest child was buried with five small pots, two winches for yarn and a figurine that shows a woman holding a young girl, INAH said. The figurine offering suggests that the skeletal remains are of a girl, it said.
One of the children was buried with a figurine of a woman holding a young girl. INAH
INAH also noted that “a blue-pigmented vessel” containing the bones of a bird was found in a separate location on the site of the Mexica home. “Although it lacks the attributes of Tláloc, god of rain, its coloring could associate it with the aquatic world, still revered in the pre-Hispanic way,” the institute said.
Campos said the Mexica people faced harsh conditions after the arrival of the Spanish in their capital, Tenochtitlán, and were unable to escape during the siege and after the fall of the city.
The discovery of the skeletons of the four children came three years after archaeologists found seven graves from the early colonial period near the site of the Mexica home.
“Three years ago we excavated in front of the property we’re working on now and we found three adult graves and four children’s graves, also from the early colonial period,” Campos said.
“If we add those children to those we have today, the evidence indicates that at least in this neighborhood … those who were dying the most were infants,” he said.
The discovery of remnants of the Mexica culture is fairly common in Mexico City. Last December, INAH announced the discovery of a post-conquest Mexica altar at a property near Plaza Garibaldi, Mexico City’s home of mariachi music, while archaeologists in 2020 found 119 human skulls in a circular skull tower on a street behind the metropolitan cathedral and next to the Templo Mayor, the main temple of Tenochtitlán.
Volunteers in Manzanillo, Colima, are gearing up for a busy season collecting turtles eggs on the beaches in the area. The yearly nesting season runs from July to December and during that period in 2021 the Tortugario Manzanillo (Manzanillo Turtle Sanctuary) collected 108,000 eggs from 1,660 nests. This year they expect similar collection numbers.
The center has about 30 volunteers, according its director, Sonia Quijano, who will begin night watches along the beach starting this weekend. In 2021 they expanded the extension of beach that they are watching and protecting, which has led to even greater number of eggs retrieved and turtles hatched at their facilities.
Scientists have shown that sea turtles are important in many ways for healthy oceans, performing roles as varied as maintaining delicate coral reefs to transporting nutrients from the oceans to beaches. Every year thousands of sea turtles come to the shores of Mexico to lay their eggs and then head back into the water to continue their global migration.
Of the world’s seven species of sea turtles, the most common species on the Manzanillo beaches are the Olive Ridley sea turtles as well as leatherbacks and green sea turtles.
Long threatened by poachers, many organizations along Mexico’s Pacific coast work to protect turtles and their eggs. Even with the assistance of their human partners, there is only a 1 in 1,000 chance that sea turtles released back into the ocean will survival the perils of their adolescence in the ocean (but if they make it they can live up to 150 years).
It appears someone has already begun to dismantle the small, overgrown pyramid, which could be more than 1,000 years old.
The only remaining pre-Hispanic pyramid in a community near the city of Zacatlán, Puebla, is at risk of being demolished by a private citizen who reportedly plans to appropriate the land on which it stands.
The approximately 6-meter-high structure is located on a piece of cultivated land in San Pedro Atmatla, a community about 2 kilometers from Zacatlán in northern Puebla. The pyramid, which looks more like a hillock as it is covered with dirt, grass and other vegetation, was likely built between the 10th and 16th centuries, according to a report by El Solde Puebla.
The newspaper reported that a local plans to appropriate the land where the pre-Hispanic ceremonial temple stands. Residents who spoke with El Sol de Puebla said a man is planning to demolish the pyramid.
There is already evidence that the structure has been recently damaged, apparently “by the hand of man,” the newspaper said. Some of the stones used to built it have been removed and now lie beside the structure’s side. It was unclear whether local authorities planned to intervene to stop the destruction of the pyramid.
The land where Zacatlán is located was inhabited by the Chichimeca people early in the second millennium of the Common Era, but local historian Sergio Ramos González believes the pyramid may have been part of an Olmec settlement.
There are three other pyramids in the broader local area but they are not in San Pedro Atmatla. Five others have been lost over the years.
The famous British clock of Pachuca, built by miners from Cornwall. Diego Delso
If you have ever seen promotional materials about the city of Pachuca, Hidalgo, you have seen an image of its bright, white monumental clock dominating the main square. The clock tower is the pride of the city and the main symbol of its British heritage. So, where did it come from?
In the 19th century, British companies took over the area’s silver and other mines as Mexican companies had tapped them out with the technology previously available. Along with new techniques and machinery, the British companies brought over Cornish miners, who settled in Pachuca and the surrounding communities.
They also brought soccer, but that is another story.
Integrating themselves into their new town and country, the British community decided to build the clock in 1904 for Mexico’s upcoming 1910 independence centennial. Francis Rule, a mining magnate, provided the initial funding, and other area companies pitched in.
The now eye-catching monumental clock of Jacala, thanks to recent mural work. OrgullosamenteHidalguense
The resulting edifice was a 40-meter tall Neoclassical building in white stone. On the third level, there are marble statues related to the history of Mexico, but the clockworks were made in Europe to be an exact replica of those of London’s Big Ben.
Pachuca is not the only place in Hidalgo to boast of a monumental clock. As is common in Mexico, smaller communities follow the lead of those with economic, political and or social power. At least 10 exist in the state.
But the Pachuca clock was part of a first “wave” of clock towers in the state, which was prompted by a federal decree requiring cities and ports to construct some kind of monument for the independence centennial.
These clocks are made from tuff, an extremely common volcanic stone that has been used in monumental construction in central Mexico for centuries. The colors of this stone vary, depending on where it is mined.
In the north of the state, the small city of Huejutla constructed a clock at the same time as Pachuca. Inaugurated in 1908, it is technically the first monumental clock, but it is only half the height of Pachuca’s. Some sources say that the clock was inaugurated on the date of the centennial, September 15, 1910, but the municipality insists on the 1908 date.
Given their original patriotic purpose, both the Pachuca and Huejutla clocks play the Mexican national anthem at 6 p.m.
The clock tower in Tecozautla began construction around the same time, but because of the Revolution, the project was not completed until 1921. Interestingly enough, the Porfirian eagle, a symbol of the pre-Revolution regime, survived the turmoil and is still prominently displayed.
Similarly, the towns of Cuautepec de Hinojosa and Metzquititlán finished their clock towers in the 1920s. The Metzquititlán one is distinguished by a large bronze eagle cast in Mexico City.
Pachuca’s newly built clock tower circa 1915.
These clocks became popular and symbolic of the towns in which they were constructed. The design and materials of these clocks also reflect the decades in which they were built.
The clock in Acaxochitlán is Art Deco in design with a mixed construction of brick, steel and cement. Locally mined tuff was used for the facade.
Due to a lack of records, it is not known when construction started or finished nor where or when the clockworks were purchased. The style and what little information exists point to a completion date of the early 1930s.
Most of the rest are of more recent construction. For Mexico’s independence bicentennial, the town of Atlapexco decided to build its own clock tower, finishing it in 2012. It is a very modern structure of block and cement, listing the names of all the communities in the municipality.
The clock towers of Tecozautla and Pachuquilla, Hidalgo. Limo 5 & Rube HM
More recent additions include the clock built in 2017 in La Lagunilla, a small community outside the city of Tulancingo. Yet another was constructed in Pachuquilla, the municipal seal of Mineral de la Reforma, located just outside of Pachuca.
And then there’s the monumental clock of Jacala, a tiny town in Hidalgo’s portion of the Sierra Gorda Biosphere Reserve. It didn’t turn that many heads. It is of a simple, square design with a tile roof. Until recently it was painted in a drab two-tone color.
In 2020, the municipality decided to liven up the structure by doing something very Mexican: painting murals on the large, flat surfaces. Today, it is the first thing by far that draws the eye in the main square, presenting images of the town’s founder, its agriculture, its food and the local huapango dance. At 6 p.m., instead of the national anthem, a huapango song is played.
All these clocks were constructed in the main squares of their towns, with the express purpose of becoming community focal points; they are often the scene of civic and cultural events. For example, one of the highlights of Huejutla’s Xantolo festival is the lighting of hundreds of candles in front of the clock tower in the main plaza.
In most cases, these clock towers have also become symbols of their communities, regions and even the entire state of Hidalgo.
That said, the clocks do sometimes have problems with maintenance and the need for restoration. Just about all the older clocks have recently had work done — or are in need of it — on the facades, the clockworks or both.
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.
Margaret Domínguez: 'We aren't geniuses, we are just people who like to research.'
Margaret Domínguez didn’t know it but her life was about to change when Jonathan P. Gardner from the Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) came to a physics conference she organized at the Universidad de las Américas Puebla (UDLAP) in 2008.
Gardner encouraged the young physics student to apply for a summer internship at NASA and her acceptance took her career down a new path that has led to forming a part of a team of scientists and engineers building some of the world’s largest and most advanced telescopes at NASA.
Now an optical engineer, Domínguez grew up in rural Puebla state in the municipality of Tecamachalco, in a country where only 12% of engineers nationwide are women. She went on to obtain a Masters at the University of Arizona, but even in the United States she was a minority in her field: only 13% of engineers are women in the U.S.
At this week’s Woman + Science Week 2.0 at the Monterrey Tec university, Domínguez encouraged other women with a passion for science and math to follow in her footsteps.
“’Life is not easy for any of us. We must have perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves.’ That’s a quote by Marie Curie, the first person to win Nobel prizes in both physics and chemistry. If she could do it, we all can,” said Domínguez addressing the conference.
Domínguez seems to have been blessed with those qualities. She was part of the team that launched the James Webb Space Telescope in 2018 and is now helping to design what was the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST), renamed the Nancy Grace Roman Telescope after the American astronomer and first female executive of NASA.
Following some delays due to COVID, the Roman Telescope is set to launch some time before 2027 and will study dark matter, exoplanets, and the formation of the universe. The telescope will have 100 times the visual field of the Hubble, which will allow it to study up to 10,000 galaxies at the same time.
At 31, Domínguez has become an example for young women interested in the sciences and is often asked to speak at events dedicated to women in science as well as at a Ted Talk in 2018. But despite her growing celebrity she insists that her feet are on the ground even if her eyes are in the heavens.
“Normal people work at NASA, we aren’t geniuses, we are just people who like to research and work hard.”
Festival organizers and guests serve up ant-centric local specialties.
The nucú flying ant, a beloved Chiapas delicacy, was the star attraction at the Feria Gastronómica del Nucú (Edible Ant Culinary Festival) in the capital city of Tuxtla Gutiérrez last weekend.
Hosted by the city government and the Tuxtla Institute of Art and Culture (ITAC), the gastronomy fair presented 50 unique dishes developed by 40 traditional cooks and chefs, all including nucú edible ants (also known as chicatana ants).
More than just good eating, the fair included presentations about edible ants as a gourmet delicacy, as well as workshops on how to prepare them, and even a book dedicated to the topic. An important part of the regional Zoque cuisine, the edible ant is only one of six insect species that are consumed in Chiapas and 35 nationwide, said Omar Velázquez Toledo, a chef and the director ITAC.
“This is a custom of ancient cultures,” said Velázquez about the use of edible insects. Historical information dates their use back at least as far as the 1920s as a primary ingredient in regional cooking. Though the most traditional way to consume ants has long been boiled or toasted with salt, nowadays you will find them incorporated into flour for baked goods, as an ingredient in mole, in tamales, salads, sweets, and ice cream.
A nucú ant
A seasonal delicacy, the nucú, or flying ants of the area, fly from their nests at the beginning of the rainy season when they are “hunted” by local families, many who have spent generations collecting insects in the area. The nucú, also called zompopo, nacasmá, tzim tzim and cocosh by the native peoples of Chiapas, are known most commonly as chicatana ants in the rest of the country. The labor required to collect just a few grams of ants or their eggs (another gourmet delicacy), means your next ant omelet won’t be cheap: they can sell for almost 1,500 pesos (US $75) a kilo in markets across Mexico.
The last decade has seen many international organizations, including the United Nations, calling on countries to incorporate more bugs into their national diets to fight world hunger. The slightly crunchy, peanut-flavored chicatanas are certainly high in protein and nutrients, and can provide many benefits for humans, including improving the digestive system. But while chefs and diners ooh and ahh over ants as a gourmet ingredient, scientists warn that ant populations are decreasing, partly due to over-collection by humans and partly to loss of habitat.
