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In Mexico, even I get to be extra fancy

By
Sarah DeVries
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Mexico city salon
A customer gets a haircut at an estetica (beauty salon) in Mexico City. Moisés Pablo Nava/Cuartoscuro

Last weekend, I got a pedicure … and a manicure!

My sister and I had taken advantage of the fact that I was in Texas to visit my other dad in Waxahachie, about 60 miles north of Waco. Both funnily and sweetly, getting pedicures is something that the two of them always do together when she visits. This time, I went along for the ride.

I’m a little squeamish about people touching my sensitive feet (every touch seems to tickle or hurt), but a bit of a massage after a week and a half of constantly being on my them sounded like a pretty good idea even to me.

We went to a place in a strip mall that was apparently very popular. The space was lined with massage chairs and foot tubs — surely over 50 of them — and was staffed exclusively by Asian women, with a few men who seemed to be administering things. The pedicure was nice, but the massage chair was what I was really there for. I decided to get their most basic manicure as well, which is basically cuticle removal.

It wasn’t a bad experience, but I can’t wait to get back to my regular place in Xalapa, Veracruz. It’s small, they know me and we can both understand and hear each other without too much background noise.

Now that I live in Mexico, I’m extra fancy.

You wouldn’t know that, seeing me around other women here in Xalapa, though: most of them are extra fancy as a matter of course. My fanciness is mostly just noticeable when I come to the U.S.

I normally get my nails done every two to three weeks and go to the hair salon every two to three months. I’m in the process of as-of-yet not-very-effective laser hair removal – how I dream of not spending precious minutes shaving my legs in the shower! Once or twice a month, I get a massage from someone who comes to my house for about US $30. The most expensive treatment I’ve done is Botox, which was about US $300 for everything from the neck up. The effect was cool, but even at that price, the four months it stuck around wasn’t quite enough (to me) to justify maintenance. Guess I’ll just look my age.

I can get my hair cut and styled at a fairly fancy salon for under US $25, and I can get my nails done, even with cool designs and acrylic extensions, for under 20 bucks. For a while, I had those mink eyelashes put on, my justification being – aside from them just looking super pretty – that if I didn’t need to apply makeup for work (this was during my days of teaching Chinese kids online at four in the morning), I could sleep a bit later. I stopped when I realized that combing and caring for them each morning would take about the same amount of time it would take to just put on mascara.

Prices vary from city to city, but in the non-touristy area of Mexico where I live, all kinds of beauty services are fairly accessible for someone like me, who enjoys being pampered and fussed over but would 100% forgo the same services in the U.S. — where they cost upward of US $100.

And there’s plenty of demand. For those earning pesos, the prices are likely closer to what percentage of our incomes we’d pay in the U.S. Even so, women in Mexico seem to value physical beauty to a high degree, and prices stay reasonably accessible for many because there is a lot of supply to meet that demand. A good friend of mine might not have any going-out-for-coffee money by the end of the week, but she never misses a facial.

For those of you in the U.S. already booking your tickets for a week of inexpensive beauty treatments, an important caveat: like many things south of the border, a lot of these businesses are a bit informal, which is the trade-off for services that aren’t super expensive.

While many of the places will be decorated fairly nicely and mostly have people who know exactly what they’re doing, there won’t always be much in the way of an avenue to complain if things don’t turn out the way you want. And if you’re in a non-touristy area, you’re going to need to be able to explain exactly what you want in Spanish. (Do y’all know how long it took me to figure out how to ask for “choppy” ends? Never, that’s how long – I still haven’t figured it out!).

So if you’re going for treatments in these places, don’t forget your spirit of adventure and a willingness to accept something that’s mostly what you wanted. Make sure you’ve got some time on your hands too: I don’t think I’ve ever made it out of the nail salon in less than two and a half hours, even when I was the only customer!

But I know them, and they know me and what I like. The salon is in walking distance from my house. If something needs to be fixed, I can just walk back.

Besides, they give me free coffee.

Shortly after I get back to Mexico, I’m heading straight to the nail salon for some fancy extensions and lovely, sparkly fall colors. There’s nothing essential about it for my life; it’s just one of those nice, small pleasures that fortunately doesn’t resemble a major purchase.

But whenever someone in the U.S. suggests we go for a massage or a pedicure, my answer is (almost) always the same — “No thanks, I’ll just wait until I get back to Mexico.”

Sarah DeVries is a writer and translator based in Xalapa, Veracruz. She can be reached through her website, sdevrieswritingandtranslating.com

‘Tis the season for…pistachios!

By
Janet Blaser
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pistachios
The U.S. is the world’s top producer of pistachios, but Sonora and Chihuahua grow them as well.

It seems that suddenly, at every stoplight in Mazatlán, where I live, someone is selling cellophane bags of pistachios. Is it harvest season for these nuts, I wondered?

Turns out, it is. Pistachios are harvested in early fall, and in Mexico, the desert climates of Chihuahua and Sonora are where they’re grown. The trees need long, hot, dry summers; and while it takes seven to 10 years for pistachios to begin bearing fruit and producing nuts, modern grafting techniques have shortened that time. Pistachio trees can live up to 300 years (!), and in Iran and Turkey, which have the tastiest and most popular varieties, old (dare we say “ancient”?) orchards abound. The southwest United States is the world’s biggest producer of pistachios, though.

Like cashews, pistachios grow inside an odd-looking fruit called a drupe. The distinctive half-open shell occurs naturally, once they ripen, with a perceptible pop. The nuts are then hulled, dried and sorted as “open-mouth” or “closed-mouth.” Harvesting and processing is time-consuming and labor-intensive, hence pistachio’s relatively high cost. Like blueberries and beets, they’re full of antioxidants.

In Mexican cuisine, pistachios are used in sweets like polvorones (the real Mexican wedding cookies), nut brittle and a variety of other candies. They can also be ground with cilantro to make flavorful sauces for chicken and pork. In other countries, pistachios are used in a wide variety of dishes, from Sicilian cakes, cookies and pasta sauces to Middle Eastern baklava, layered cakes and couscous. In China, pistachios are a traditional New Year’s gift, and their “smiling” shell represents happiness, health and good fortune.

Pistachio mole shrimp
Pumpkin seeds are usually the star ingredient in green mole sauce, but pistachios add another flavor profile.

Green Mole

  • 3-4 zucchini or any summer squash, cut into 1-inch pieces
  • Extra-virgin olive oil, for drizzling
  • Salt and pepper
  • 4 Tbsp. canola, vegetable or grapeseed oil
  • ¼ small white onion, chopped
  • 1 garlic clove, sliced
  • 1 poblano chile, sliced
  • 1 güero, jabanero or serrano chile, sliced
  • 1 cup finely diced tomatillos
  • 1 cup roasted, shelled pistachios
  • 1 cup fresh cilantro
  • 2 fresh or dried hoja santa leaves
  • ½ cup baby spinach

Heat oven to 350 F (177 C). Place squash on a baking sheet; drizzle with olive oil, season with salt and pepper. Toss to coat. Roast until lightly brown, 15–25 minutes.

In a pot, heat canola/vegetable/grapeseed oil over medium heat. Add onion and garlic; cook, stirring, 5 minutes. Add chiles and cook, stirring, until soft, about 5 minutes. Add tomatillos and cook, stirring, until soft, 5-8 minutes more. Add ⅔ cup water and pistachios. Simmer 5 minutes. Remove from heat; transfer to blender (or use an immersion blender) along with cilantro, hoja santa and spinach. Blend until smooth. Add salt to taste.

Serve warm with the roasted zucchini. Serve topped with greens (e.g., cilantro, verdolaga, baby spinach), with rice and tortillas.

Mint, Pistachio and Feta Pesto

Serve with pasta, poultry, potatoes, pork or roasted veggies.

  • ¼ cup unsalted shelled pistachios
  • 1 clove garlic
  • Salt
  • ½ cup plus 2 Tbsp. olive oil, divided
  • 5-6 sprigs fresh mint leaves
  • ¼ cup packed fresh parsley
  • 2½ Tbsp. grated Parmesan cheese
  • 1-2Tbsp. feta cheese

Using food processor or immersion blender, pulse pistachios, garlic, pinch of salt and 2 Tbsp. oil until nuts and garlic are finely ground. Add herbs, cheeses and remaining oil; pulse until finely minced. Add salt to taste.

Pistachio Milk

  • 1 cup raw shelled pistachios, covered with water by 2 inches and soaked overnight at room temperature
  • 4 cups hot (not boiling) water
  • 5 tsp. agave syrup or other sweetener
  • ¼ tsp. salt
  • ¼ tsp. ground cardamom
  • ½ tsp. vanilla

Line a fine-meshed sieve with a double layer of cheesecloth; set over a deep bowl. Drain pistachios, discarding liquid, and add soaked nuts to blender. Add hot water; blend on high for 2 minutes. Carefully pour blended nut mixture through cheesecloth-lined sieve; squeezing out as much liquid as possible. (Ground pistachios can be reserved for another use). Whisk in agave syrup/sweetener, salt, cardamom and vanilla to pistachio milk. Cool completely, then transfer to bottle or container. Store in refrigerator for up to one week.

Pistachio beet salad
This salad’s bright flavors include crunchy pistachios, succulent roasted beets and juicy citrus wedges.

Roasted Pistachios

Preheat oven to 350 F (177 C). Place shelled pistachios in single layer on baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil and seasoning to your preference. Roast 10–12 minutes, tossing occasionally. Remove from oven, sprinkle with salt if desired and cool.

Coconut Nut Macaroons

  • 1 cup sugar
  • 3 cups shredded unsweetened coconut
  • ½ cup chopped pistachios
  • 3 egg whites, lightly beaten until just foamy
  • 1 tsp. vanilla
  • Pinch salt

Heat oven to 350 F (177 C). Whisk together egg whites, sugar and vanilla in large bowl. Add coconut and pistachios. Using a spatula, mix well.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Wet your hands and make small mounds (1–2 Tbsp.) of mixture on pan about an inch apart. Bake until firm to touch and lightly browned on edges, about 15 minutes. Remove from oven; cool on a rack at least 30 minutes before eating.

Roasted Beet, Citrus and Ricotta Salad

  • 2 pounds beets, roasted or steamed, peeled and cut into ½ -inch chunks
  • ¼ cup olive oil, divided
  • Salt and pepper
  • ¼ cup toasted shelled pistachios
  • 1 grapefruit, cut into wedges, 1 Tbsp. juice reserved separately
  • 1 orange, cut into wedges, 1 Tbsp. juice reserved separately
  • 2 tsp. fresh lemon juice
  • 1 small shallot, minced
  • 2 Tbsp. minced fresh parsley
  • 1 Tbsp. honey
  • ½ cup ricotta or requesón
  • Optional: 2 sprigs thyme or rosemary

Crush pistachios in a mortar and pestle or chop with a knife until lightly crushed but not pulverized. Transfer half of nuts to large bowl. (Reserve remainder for garnish.) Whisk in citrus juices, shallot, herbs, and honey. Drizzle in remaining 3 Tbsp. olive oil while whisking constantly. Season with salt and pepper.

Toss beets and citrus with vinaigrette in large bowl. Season with salt and pepper. Spread half of ricotta/requesón over a serving platter, place dressed beets/citrus on top, dollop with remaining ricotta/ requesón, sprinkle with reserved pistachios and fresh herbs if using, and serve.

Janet Blaser is the author of the best-selling book, Why We Left: An Anthology of American Women Expats, featured on CNBC and MarketWatch. She has lived in Mexico since 2006. You can find her on Facebook.

Pancho Villa: the man who attacked the United States and got away with it

By
Leigh Thelmadatter
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Pancho Villa
U.S. newsreel footage from 1914 of Pancho Villa in action, filmed by the Mutual Film Company. The Smithsonian

He was the only Latin American to execute a military raid on the United States.

Best known as Pancho Villa, the Mexican Revolution general was born Doroteo Arango in 1878 in Durango. His life of violence and flight began early, after killing an hacienda owner who had assaulted his sister. 

Villa joined the fledgling Mexican Revolution in 1910. Well-known in the mountain backcountry of Durango and Chihuahua, he recruited rebels and formed his own army, the División del Norte, which rose to national prominence, allied with other revolutionaries such as Emilio Zapata, Venustiano Carranza and Álvaro Obregón against the Victoriano Huerta regime in 1913. 

But the alliance quickly split into two factions, with Villa and Zapata pitted against Carranza and Obregon. At one point, Villa and Zapata took Mexico City. 

Pancho Villa
The iconic image of Pancho Villa in a bandolier.

But in 1915, Carranza pushed the two out of the capital, beginning a long retreat northwest for Villa. This pushed him out of the national spotlight, but he remained a major force to contend with in the north. 

Carranza painted Villa as a violent, crazy bandit in both Mexico and the U.S. — with some basis in reality when it came to highway robbery and cattle rustling. The depiction was one reason why U.S. president Woodrow Wilson decided to back Carranza and deny arms and other support to Villa. 

This shift of allegiance by Wilson was the reason behind Villa’s actions against the United States. They were not the acts of a madman; Villa’s aim was to draw the U.S. into the civil war that had engulfed Mexico post-Revolution, and make the Mexican people think of Carranza as a U.S. puppet. 

Villa’s plan began with an attack on a train in northern Mexico in January 1916, executing 16 U.S. businessmen onboard. It ended with small raids on the Texas towns of Glen Springs and Boquillas in May. But it was his attack on Columbus, New Mexico  in that same year that would cement him in U.S. consciousness.

Columbus, New Mexico after 1916 raid by Pancho Villa
An image of Columbus, New Mexico, after Villa’s raid. Creative Commons

In this attack on March 9, more than 600 soldiers entered the border town, killing dozens of Americans and setting the town on fire. The actions had the desired effect: widespread anger in the U.S, even calls for another wholesale invasion of Mexico. 

Wilson’s answer was the Punitive Expedition, two waves of forces under General Pershing that spent 11 months scouring northern Mexico to capture Villa. 

But no one knew the backcountry of northwest Mexico like Villa did, plus the people of the region were solidly behind him and hostile to the foreigners. While Carranza had given reluctant permission for the Punitive Expedition, he refused to help them, although he definitely wanted Villa out of the picture. 

The Punitive Expedition put both Carranza and Wilson in a bind, especially as it wore on with no results except for a few skirmishes. Eventually Pershing was recalled in January 1916, with Villa still at large.

Gen. John Pershing
Less than a week after Villa’s raid on Columbus, New Mexico, in 1916, U.S. Brigadier General John Pershing was sent with 14,000 soldiers on a mission to find him, an 11-month operation known as the Punitive Expedition. US military

Villa turned to guerrilla tactics, harassing the federal government for as long as his enemy Carranza remained in power. Neither he nor Zapata became president, like many other generals of the revolution did, but their constituencies could not be ignored. Many of the social reforms in Mexico’s constitution, drawn up in 1917, are due to their influence. 

More than 100 years before the term was coined, information warfare played an important role in Villa’s rise and fall, as well as his legacy after the war.

Newspapers on both sides of the border alternatingly painted Villa as a violent madman or a Robin Hood figure. Newsreels had recently become available to the general public and were often faked for propaganda purposes, or simply for increased dramatic effect. Villa himself worked with camera crews from the U.S. on several occasions, even wearing uniforms provided to him. He may have also recreated images of fighting for the cameras. 

In Mexico, Villa’s military fall gave him a lower status in the country’s history, but he remains extremely popular in the north, especially in Chihuahua and Durango. His popularity there is not only because he is their native son but also because norteño culture is more affected by Mexico-U.S. relations. He is a hero in part because he challenged the mighty United States and kept his life. 

And Starring Pancho Villa As Himself (Trailer)
The 2003 HBO film “And Starring Pancho Villa As Himself” depicts how Villa and a U.S. newsreel film company used each other to create an enduring myth around the Mexican general by staging battles. There was much speculation at the time that Villa staged such scenes for the cameras, although a surviving copy of Villa’s contract with the Mutual Film Company does not mention it.

Villa is one of few Mexican historical figures known to many in the U.S. Despite their country’s involvement in WWI, citizens of the time were fascinated by the chaos of the Mexican Revolution. This fascination sparked a demand for cinematic and other depictions that remains to this day. Villa himself appeared in various U.S. films from 1912 to 1916 and has been portrayed by many Mexican and American actors since.

Despite his wild and brash reputation, Villa ended his animosity against Mexico City with a negotiated settlement that had him “retire” from politics on a large hacienda in Canutillo, Durango. That retirement lasted only three years, however, before he was assassinated in Parral, Chihuahua — not by anyone from the U.S. government but rather domestic political enemies.

It is worthwhile to note that Columbus, New Mexico, has a Cabalgata Binacional (Binational Horse Riding Event) each year on the anniversary of the attack on its city. Perhaps one reason why Villa’s story resonates on the U.S. side of the border is begrudging respect for a man willing to grab the tiger by the tail. 

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.

‘Original’ fashion show and expo opens in Mexico City

By
MND Staff
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Opening night of the Original fashion show at Los Pinos, Mexico City. FOTO: GRACIELA LÓPEZ / CUARTOSCURO.COM

The second edition of Original, a free fashion event organized by Mexico’s Ministry of Culture, kicked off on Thursday to promote designs by local artists and to fight cultural appropriation.

Running until Nov. 20 in Los Pinos – former presidential residence now turned cultural center – the fashion show will have seven runway shows displaying designs by local and international artists. The guest countries include Argentina, Bolivia, Ivory Coast, Palestine, Peru, Canada and Colombia.

“This is what we are celebrating here: Mexican cultural diversity, which is our greatest wealth,” Secretary of Culture Alejandra Frausto said during her opening speech.

She also remembered those “voracious characters who have appropriated” local designs with the sole intention of making a profit, inviting the audience to “[…] dress with dignity, buy original and never ever haggle with craftsmen.”

Since taking office, Frausto has promoted actions against cultural appropriation in the fashion industry, with the Original fashion show a highlight of her strategy. She has sent letters of protest to brands such as Zara, Mango, Levi’s, Oysho, Shein, Nike, Rapsodia, Louis Vuitton, Isabel Marant and Carolina Herrera accusing them of copying creations made by Mexican indigenous communities.

Finally, Frausto emphasized during her speech that Mexico is open to ethically collaborate with big brands so long as the original creators allow it.

With reports from El País

US State Dep’t announces efforts to reduce wait times for visitor visas

By
MND Staff
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US Consulate in Mexico City
The US Consulate in Mexico City. (National Museum of American Diplomacy)

The U.S. State Department has reduced wait times for visitor visas, officials announced during a press briefing Thursday.

The agency doubled the number of U.S. Foreign Service personnel to meet the backlog of visa applications and conduct in-person interviews. 

“We’ve seen a tremendous drop in wait times today. We have a median global wait time of seven weeks for visitor visa interviews and only seven days for students and temporary workers. That’s down significantly from just a few months ago,” said Julie Stufft, an official from the State Department’s Bureau of Consular Affairs. 

The press release also notes that the State Department is waiving in-person interviews where possible, processing more visas with smaller staffs, processing visas remotely and providing greater transparency in the visa application process. 

US Consulate appointment screenshot
The Mexico City consulate’s wait time for student visa interviews is better than the current global average, but other types still take weeks to years to schedule, as this screenshot taken Friday afternoon shows. travel.state.gov

The processing of visa requests faced extensive delays during the COVID-19 pandemic due to health restrictions preventing in-person interviews. 

While the U.S. government states that the median global wait time for a tourist visa is seven weeks, and that it expects to return to pre-pandemic processing numbers in 2023, wait times for a U.S. visa vary significantly throughout the world, with several countries still facing delays.

As recently as last month, the wait to schedule an interview at a U.S. consulate in Mexico reached up to 746 days, depending on the city in which it was scheduled. The wait time for an appointment in Mexico City was 647 days. 

According to the U.S. Travel Association, visa processing delays were on track to cause the loss of 6.6 million international travelers, amounting to an economic cost of $11.6 billion by 2023. 

Mexico is among the three largest U.S. tourist markets in the world. 

With reports from La Jornada, El Heraldo, and VOA News

Preliminary statistics show Mexico’s economy grew 5% in October; now nearly back to pre-COVID levels

By
MND Staff
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Buen Fin 2022 in Toluca, Mexico state
The latest economic news could be a good omen for this weekend's Buen Fin discount shopping event: the sector with the most growth was the services sector, at 5.6%. Crisanta Espinosa Aguilar/Cuartoscuro

Mexico’s economy was 5% larger in October compared to the same month of 2021, but month-over-month growth was just 0.1%, according to preliminary statistics published Friday.

The annual growth was the best in 15 months but the month-over-month result was the worst in four months.

INEGI, the national statistics agency, reported that the tertiary, or services, sector grew 5.6% annually in seasonally adjusted terms in October while the secondary, or manufacturing, sector grew 3.5%. It didn’t provide preliminary data for the primary sector, which is industry related to exploiting natural resources, such as mining and agriculture.

The services sector did its best since July 2021, when annual growth was 8.25%. The anticipated 0.1% growth in October compared to September brought the number of consecutive month-over-month expansions to four.

Mexico's Former Finance Minister Carlos Urzúa
Former Finance Minister Carlos Urzúa raised concerns that Mexico’s growth will be much lower in 2023, given that the global economy is slowing. File photo/Creative Commons

If the statistics published by INEGI on Friday are confirmed in final economic data to be released later this year, Mexico’s economy at the end of October was just 0.01% short of reaching the pre-pandemic level of January 2020, the newspaper El Universal reported.

The pandemic and associated restrictions devastated the economy in 2020, causing GDP to plummet by over 8% – the worst decline in almost 90 years. In a speech earlier this week, Bank of México Deputy Governor Galia Borja Gómez described the slump as Mexico’s worst ever economic crisis, but also noted that economic activity has almost returned to pre-pandemic levels.

The federal Finance Ministry is forecasting GDP growth of 2.4% this year and 3% in 2023. Former finance minister Carlos Urzúa – who resigned in 2019 after just seven months in the job – said Thursday that he agreed with the ministry’s outlook for this year but anticipated that growth will be much lower than 3% in 2023, given that the global economy is slowing.

“I wish it were true [that the economy will grow by 3% next year] but almost no one is predicting that. … Forecasts vary between 1% and 1.5%,” he said.

The former finance minister predicted that growth will strengthen to 2.2% in 2024, noting that Mexico’s trade relationship with the United States and the growing nearshoring phenomenon are among factors that will benefit the economy.

With reports from Reforma, El Universal and Milenio

Mexican artists recognized at Latin Grammy Awards

By
MND Staff
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Mexican singer Marco Antonio Solís was honored as "Person of the Year" at the awards. Latin Grammy Awards Twitter

Las Vegas, Nevada, hosted the 23rd Latin Grammy Awards on Thursday night. Spanish singer Rosalía took home the most important award of the night (best album), and Uruguayan singer Jorge Drexler won the most awards, taking home six.

Mexican artists also received their share of awards. Marco Antonio Solís, known as El Buki, was recognized as Person of the Year owing to his “talent and perseverance,” and to his globally recognized songs.

“What can I say? My heart is filled with gratitude […] ¡Viva México!” El Buki said after accepting the prize.

Mexican Silvana Estrada, 25, also took home the Best New Artist Award, which she shared with Ángela Álvarez, a 95 year-0ld Cuban artist who fulfilled her lifelong dream of becoming a singer.

Mexican pop star Thalia (right) performed with Luis Fonsi and Laura Pausini at the awards ceremony. Thalia Twitter

The category of Best Regional Mexican song was given to Edgar Barrera, Matisse and Carin León for the track “Como lo hice yo.”

Among the Mexican artists that performed, Christian Nodal sang alongside Christina Aguilera, pop star Thalia sang one of Marco Antonio Solís’s songs with Luis Fonsi and Laura Pausini and Ángela Aguilar, famous for bringing Regional Mexican Music to youth, also performed the song “En realidad“.

Finally, Chiquis Rivera, daughter of the late Mexican singer Jenni Rivera, performed along Banda Los Recoditos.

With reports from CNN and Infobae

Citizens protest gentrification and housing inequality in Mexico City

By
MND Staff
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The crowd gathered outside the Ministry of Urban Development and Housing, holding signs like this one: "less housing to invest in, more housing to live in". Gatitos contra la Desigualdad Twitter

“Housing is a right not an investment” and “No more gentrification or there will be a revolution” were among the battle cries of protesters who gathered outside the Mexico City Ministry of Urban Development and Housing (Seduvi) on Thursday.

Members of housing rights collectives and other citizens descended on the Seduvi headquarters in the del Valle neighborhood to denounce the recently-announced partnership between the Mexico City government and the accommodation booking platform Airbnb and to demand more equitable access to housing.

“The straw that broke the camel’s back was the agreement with Airbnb, but it’s not the only reason [we’re protesting],” Carla Escoffié, a lawyer and housing rights activist, told the newspaper Reforma.

“We see people here who were displaced before the pandemic, people from precarious settlements, indigenous people from Mexico City [who don’t have adequate housing],” she said.

The protesters demanded that the Mexico City government formulate a policy that guarantees citizens’ right to adequate and accessible housing. Such a policy should have measures to prevent disproportionate rent rises, they said. The protesters also demanded the creation of a tenants law that strikes a balance between the rights of renters and landlords, and urged the government to provide rent support to the city’s most vulnerable residents.

Led by Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum, the Mexico City government currently favors large real estate investors and corporations such as Airbnb over ordinary residents, Escoffié and other protesters asserted.

Máximo Ernesto Jaramillo, a housing rights activist and one of the organizers of Thursday’s protest, declared in an address to attendees that “fulfillment of the right to adequate housing is in crisis” in Mexico City.

For years people have been made to believe that their inability or difficulty to find and afford adequate housing is their own fault, he said, reading from a document submitted to Seduvi.

A street in the popular Navarte neighborhood in Mexico City. Wikipedia

“But the reality is that Mexico City is experiencing a financialization of housing. For large companies, supported by the authorities, housing is no longer important as a place to live but as a financial asset,” Jaramillo said.

In the same document, activists claimed that 99% of revenue generated by rental properties goes to the richest 10% of the population, who are earning “historic profits” while less well-off residents are being forcibly evicted from their homes.

Some Mexico City residents have expressed concerns about the influx of foreigners including digital nomads to certain parts of the capital during the pandemic, asserting that their presence has pushed up rents – a claim backed up by data compiled by the real estate website propiedades.com – and driven locals out of desirable neighborhoods.

Those who attended Thursday’s protest believe that the agreement between the Mexico City government and Airbnb – under which they will collaborate to attract even more digital nomads to the city – will only exacerbate the problem.

Among other slogans that the protesters chanted were “Digital nomadism is structural racism” and “Multinationals, get out of our cities.”

They argued that stricter regulation should apply to Airbnb and similar companies, and asserted that the government’s agreement with Airbnb should be suspended while an analysis of Mexico City’s housing situation is carried out.

In Mexico City’s historic center, investors have bought up entire buildings to turn them into short term accommodation and forcibly evicted residents, one activist told the news website Animal Politico.

In an opinion piece published by Animal Político on Wednesday, Jaramillo said that rents have risen by 235% on average in Mexico City since 2005, an increase well above the inflation rate for the same period. Citing government data, he also wrote that 50% of dwellings in the Mexico City metropolitan area cost more than 3.2 million pesos (US $164,250) to buy, but only 4.7% of citizens could service a mortgage on such a property.

In addition, he wrote that the poorest 10% of Mexico City residents were spending 51% of their income on rent in 2020, up from 42% just two years earlier.

Back at the protest, a resident of Navarte – a neighborhood that is becoming increasingly popular with foreigners living or visiting Mexico City – told Reforma it shouldn’t be forgotten that gentrification affects the elderly as well as younger people.

“What about pensioners who live alone? Who will support us [when we need help]? The foreigners come to spend their dollars, but they leave us without neighbors, without community because they don’t mix with us,” said the woman, who was only identified as María Elena.

Escoffié, the lawyer and activist, said that the housing crisis extends well beyond the capital, asserting that there are problems “from Tijuana to Chetumal,” cities located at Mexico’s northwestern and southeastern extremities.

“… What we’re seeing are the cracks of a housing policy in Mexico that is in reality a real estate policy,” she said, claiming that the interests of real estate developers and investors take precedent over those of regular Mexicans who need a place to live.

Escoffié stressed at the conclusion of the protest that the fight for accessible, affordable housing and against current housing policies and authorities’ allegedly favorable treatment of companies such as Airbnb will go on.

“Let it be clear to the authorities that we’re going to continue … [fighting] until they stop fucking up the city. Mexico City isn’t a mall, Mexico City isn’t a hotel, Mexico City is … [people’s] home,” she said.

With reports from Reforma and Animal Político

AMLO discusses border control with governors of Oaxaca, Chiapas and Veracruz

By
Cat Rainsford
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migrants in Tapachula, Chiapas
Mexico's migration situation continues to be chaotic as backlogs keep increasing in cities like Tapachula, Chiapas, where many migrants live on the streets. Damian Sánchez Jesús/Cuartoscuro

In an effort to gain control of migration over Mexico’s southern border, President López Obrador has met with the governors of Oaxaca, Chiapas and Veracruz .

Governors Alejandro Murat, Rutilio Escandón and Cuitláhuac García visited the National Palace on Thursday, where they discussed coordination between state and federal authorities to advance plans for migration and development on Mexico’s border with Guatemala and Belize.

“We emphasize the commitment of the Government of Chiapas to continue working with the Federal Government to address this social phenomenon,” Chiapas Governor Escandón said in a tweet.

Immigration and security authorities in southern Mexico have stepped up border enforcement operations in recent weeks after months of the federal government seeming to tacitly encourage migrants to leave the border town of Tapachula, most likely to relieve pressures in the area due to a backlog of migrants waiting to process applications with Mexico.

INM at job fair in Morelos
INM emphasizes the positive, such as this moment captured at a Morelos employment fair, where personnel offered work visa information to migrants. But NGOs on the ground and migrants say processing wait times are increasing. INM

Now migrants are reporting to multiple media sources more activist measures to block their passage north. Highway patrols, checkpoints and raids have all increased, and a number of small migrant caravans have been broken up.

“[For] two consecutive days, the Guard and immigration have come to run off the people because a caravan was supposedly going to form,” one Honduran migrant in Tapachula told the Associated Press (AP) on Wednesday.

There have even been violent clashes between migrants and officials from the National Migration Institute (INM). Last week, a group of migrants attacked an INM vehicle transporting foreigners in Pijijiapan, Chiapas, and a riot broke out in early November among migrants demanding release from the Siglo 21 detention center in Tapachula.

Meanwhile, an estimated 12,000 to 17,000 migrants remain waiting for temporary documents at the immigration center in San Pedro Tapanatepec, Oaxaca, according to the United States-based Migrant Rights and Justice Program at the Women’s Refugee Commission. The organization’s Senior Policy Advisor Savi Arvey told AP that there are lengthening waits at the facility, with migrants sleeping on the streets or on rented floor space in town. She also said that the INM has no presence at the camp and that nongovernmental organizations do not have access to the government tents.

It’s the third time in as many months that AMLO has convened meetings with governors about migration policy. On Sept. 27, Oaxaca Governor Alejandro Murat tweeted about a similar meeting he attended with the same three governors at the National Palace.

“There needs to be a much greater humanitarian presence, especially given how long this has persisted,” she said. “It seems like people are spending longer and longer there.”

“The camp is the worst thing ever, because there’s sickness and there’s filth,” said José María López, a Venezuelan migrant who is currently in the camp for a second time, told Reuters. “It’s uninhabitable.”

Although Mexican authorities have not stated the reason for the tightened border enforcement, it appears to follow a policy shift in October in which the U.S. is now expelling Venezuelan migrants to Mexico under Title 42 public health regulations. Expulsions were already allowed for Guatemalan, Honduran and Salvadoran nationals, as well as Mexicans — the latter having the highest percentage of Title 42 expulsions in FY 2022 by country of origin, according to the Migration Policy Institute.

A further shake-up came on Tuesday, when a U.S. federal judge blocked all Title 42 expulsions, although the U.S. government was given a five-week stay of the court order to prepare for the change. In the wake of the ruling, municipal authorities in San Pedro Tapanatepec threatened to organize mass caravans out of the camp unless the federal government dismantles it soon.

Migration over Mexico’s southern border has been increasing for some time, partly driven by the coronavirus pandemic and deteriorating conditions in countries like Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua. Asylum applications increased a hundredfold between 2013 and 2021, according to the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA).

With reports from Associated Press, Reuters, Excelsior and Latin US

Ornament fairs open in Mexico’s ‘Christmas towns’

By
MND Staff
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Santa Claus Village in Tlalpujahua, Michoacán
Santa Claus Village, built by one of Tlalpujahua, Michoacán's ornament-making businesses, a popular tourist stop during the town's ornament fair, which ends Dec. 18. Creative Commons

If you thought Mexico didn’t have Christmas towns, think again.

In Tlalpujahua and Chignahuapan, the Christmas spirit is present year-round since these two magical towns are Mexico’s top producers of Christmas ornaments. And once again this year, both will host their traditional ornaments fairs to attract shoppers to hundreds of stalls selling hand-blown glass ornaments.

Located in the Sierra Norte of the state of Puebla and a three-hour drive from Mexico City, Chignahuapan is the largest producer of Christmas ornaments in the country. With more than 300 manufacturing shops in town, this industry provides a living to around 80% of the community’s families. It produces around 50 million pieces per year, sold in Mexico and abroad.

Chignahuapan’s ornaments fair starts on Nov. 25 and runs for 10 days in the town’s city center until Dec. 4. Besides the artisanal baubles, people will also be able to buy real pine Christmas trees, hence its name, The Christmas Tree and Ornaments Fair.

Tlalpujahua
Held in the downtowns of these Pueblos Mágicos, the fairs encourage browsing among hundreds of stalls with hand-blown glass ornaments. Sectur Michoacán

The fair will also host cultural, artistic and sporting activities, along with food stalls and other types of seasonal decorations. Half a million visitors are expected to attend.

As for Tlalpujahua, in the state of Michoacán, a two-and-a-half-hour drive from Mexico City, its ornaments fair already started on Sept. 28 and runs until Dec. 18.

With the town’s annual production estimated at 40 million pieces, 70% of Tlalpujahua inhabitants work in the industry. More than half of items produced here are sold internationally to the United States, Canada, Europe and Japan and Malaysia, according to a 2021 Reuters report.

Since the pandemic, many of the stores in Tlalpujahua also now sell online to consumers, with shipping costs ranging from 100 to 200 pesos (US $5-$10).

With reports from Forbes México and El Financiero and MSN Noticias

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