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.
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).
Leslie Soltero of Baja California was one of two gold medal winners in the World Taekwondo Championships, held this week in Guadalajara. It gives Mexicans hope for their prospects in the Summer Olympics in 2024. WORLD TAEKWONDO
Buoyed by thunderous crowds in Guadalajara, two Mexican women have won titles in the 2022 World Taekwondo Championships: Leslie Soltero in the 67-kilogram class and Daniela Souza at 49 kilograms.
It’s an eye-popping achievement considering Mexico came into this week’s competition with a grand total of four titles in 24 prior world championships dating back to 1973, and never two in one year. The success of the Mexicans bodes well for medal opportunities in the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. (Taekwondo has been an Olympic sport since 2000.)
“I want to be an Olympic champion in Paris 2024. That is the next call,” Soltero, 21, said. “But before that, we have another world championship next year and we have the Pan Am Games [next October in Santiago, Chile]. But the biggest goal is the Olympics.”
This year’s world championships were scheduled to be held in Wuxi, China, last year, but were moved to 2022 and relocated to Mexico (first to Cancún, then to Guadalajara) due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The regularly scheduled 2023 world championships will be next year in Baku, Azerbaijan.
Souza competed in the flyweight category, which has an upper weight limit of 108 pounds. “I think I’m still small, but that’s how it is,” she said. “It’s perseverance.”
More than 5,000 spectators packed the Centro Acuático CODE Metropolitano in Guadalajara for Monday’s opening ceremonies, which featured acrobats, synchronized swimmers in the diving pool, the unfurling of a huge Mexican flag by Mexican soldiers, a mariachi band, folk dancers and pyrotechnics. Normally used for swimming and diving, the facility was transformed into a venue worthy of hosting 710 athletes and 570 officials from 120 nations (the swimming pool was covered by a surface topped with taekwondo mats).
When the Mexican athletes entered the arena wearing national clothing and sombreros, the crowd went wild.
That same level of electricity returned on Wednesday when Soltero captured her title, beating Serbian Aleksandra Perisic two rounds to one in the final — with the stoked crowd chanting “Mexico! Mexico!” and “Leslie! Leslie!” as a mariachi band played on the second floor of the stands.
“Mexico is a beautiful country, because if you win, all of Mexico wins. They all feel it,” said Soltero, who is from Mexicali, Baja California. “They give me my energy.”
“Mexico is a beautiful country, because if you win, all of Mexico wins. They all feel it,” said Soltero.
Soltero, whose full name is Leslie Xcaret Soltero García, is a two-time medalist in the Pan American Games (bronze in 2021 and silver in 2022) who went to an all-sports camp in 2008 and fell in love with taekwondo. This week marked her biggest win ever, and things got intense when the final went to a third and deciding round.
“I am world champion! I have obtained it!” she exclaimed afterward. “I was crying because I could not believe it. Crying was like breathing after a fight, like a relief.”
At the time, Soltero became Mexico’s fifth world taekwondo champion, joining Óscar Mendiola Cruz (Germany, 1979), Edna Díaz Acevedo (Spain, 2005), Maria del Rosario Espinoza (China, 2007) and Uriel Adriano Avigdor (Puebla, Mexico, 2013).
Less than 24 hours later, another athlete had joined the list: Daniela Paola Souza Naranjo, 23, who was born in Zapopan, Jalisco, but grew up in Tijuana. Souza beat China’s Qing Guo two rounds to one in an intense final, but to get there she pulled off an even bigger win over past Olympic and world champion Panipak Wongpattanakit of Thailand.
“I want to be an Olympic champion in Paris 2024. That is the next call,” Soltero, 21, said. CONADE
“Representing my country in this way and giving this joy in this way, I don’t know how to explain it,” Souza said. “It is an achievement that I share with the people of my nation.”
Souza competed in the flyweight category, which has an upper weight limit of 108 pounds. “I think I’m still small, but that’s how it is,” she said. “It’s perseverance.” Soltero competed as a middleweight, which has an upper limit of 147.7 pounds.
Mexico also claimed another medal in the competition, with 28-year-old Bryan Salazar from Tamaulipas taking bronze in the 87-kilogram (191.8 pounds category). Salazar also has a Pan American gold (2018) to his name and serves as the Mexican national team captain.
In past Summer Olympics, Mexican athletes have claimed two gold medals, two silvers and two bronzes in taekwondo. The golds were both won in 2008 in Beijing, China, by María del Rosario Espinoza from La Brecha, Sinaloa, and Guillermo Pérez from Uruapan Michoacán. Espinoza also won a bronze in London 2012 and a silver in Rio de Janeiro in 2016, tying her with three others for most taekwondo medals in Olympics history.
The U.S. announcement singled out the Hurtado brothers as co-leaders of La Nueva Familia Michoacana criminal organization. U.S. Department of the Treasury graphic
Authorities in the United States made significant announcements Thursday relating to notorious drug trafficker Rafael Caro Quintero and La Nueva Familia Michoacana organized crime group.
The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) said that a Mexican court had authorized a U.S. request for Caro Quintero’s real estate in Mexico to be seized, while the U.S. Department of the Treasury (DOT) announced sanctions against La Nueva Familia Michoacana and its co-leaders.
The DOJ described the court’s upholding of a U.S. forfeiture order as a “landmark ruling,” saying that it invoked Mexico’s new civil forfeiture law for the first time. The properties to be seized are located in and around Guadalajara, the department said in a statement.
“The forfeiture represents the United States’ groundbreaking use of Mexico’s new statute to divest drug cartel leader Rafael Caro Quintero of ill-gotten gains. Caro Quintero is indicted in the Eastern District of New York for leading a continuing criminal enterprise and related crimes. He is currently in custody in Mexico and extradition proceedings are ongoing,” the DOJ said.
Caro Quintero, founder of the now-defunct Guadalajara Cartel and convicted murderer of United States DEA agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena, was arrested in northern Mexico in July.
The DOJ said that “the forfeited properties … were purchased by Rafael Caro Quintero with drug proceeds generated by the Caro Quintero drug trafficking organization, an affiliate of the Mexican organized crime syndicate known as the Sinaloa Cartel.”
“This forfeiture sends a powerful message to drug kingpins in Mexico and elsewhere that there are no boundaries to prosecuting bad actors and locating their ill-gotten assets wherever they are in the world,” said Breon Peace, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York.
Anne Milgram, administrator of the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), said that “for over 30 years, the men and women of the DEA have worked tirelessly to bring Rafael Caro Quintero to justice for his violent and ruthless acts.”
Rafael Caro Quintero’s was re-arrested in Sinaloa in July. Sedena
“Today’s order — authorizing the forfeiture of Caro Quintero’s properties in Mexico — demonstrates that DEA agents will follow the evidence wherever it leads to hold drug traffickers fully accountable for their deadly crimes.”
The 70-year-old drug lord spent 28 years in jail for the 1985 murder of Camarena before his 40-year sentence was cut short in 2013 after it was ruled that he was improperly tried in a federal court when the case should have been heard at the state level. The Supreme Court later upheld the 40-year sentence, but the drug lord had disappeared by then.
Another target of United States law enforcement authorities is La Nueva Familia Michoacana, the drug trafficking successor group to La Familia Michoacana cartel.
The DOT said in a statement that its Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) on Thursday designated that organization, which operates in Guerrero, Michoacán and other states, and its co-leaders, Johnny Hurtado Olascoaga and José Alfredo Hurtado Olascoaga, in accordance with a 2021 executive order — “Imposing Sanctions on Foreign Persons Involved in the Global Illicit Drug Trade.”
The department said that La Nueva Familia Michoacana and the Hurtado brothers have “engaged in, or attempted to engage in, activities or transactions that materially contributed to, or pose a significant risk of materially contributing to, the international proliferation of illicit drugs or their means of production.”
“La Nueva Familia Michoacana smuggles illicit drugs into and throughout the United States. This organization is also behind the increasing U.S. presence of rainbow fentanyl, which, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, appears in the form of pills/powder that come in a variety of bright colors, shapes and sizes and is made to attract children and young users,” the DOT said.
Johnny Hurtado, known as “El Pez” (The Fish) and José Hurtado, known as “El Fresa” (The Strawberry or The Snob), are “two of the most wanted criminals in Mexico,” the department said. It noted that the México state Attorney General’s Office is offering a reward of up to 500,000 pesos (US $25,750) for information leading to their capture.
The DOT also said that La Nueva Familia Michoacana has “demonstrated a willingness to attack government officials and buildings in Mexico, in addition to employing and training multiple assassins.”
The U.S. Department of the treasury linked La Nueva Familia Michoacana to the distribution of rainbow fentanyl and cocaine trafficking. U.S. Department of the Treasury graphic
Brian E. Nelson, DOT’s undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said Thursday that “today’s action targets the leadership of one of the most violent and depraved drug cartels.”
“Not only does this cartel traffic fentanyl, which claimed the lives of more than 71,000 Americans last year, it now markets ‘rainbow fentanyl’ as part of a deliberate effort to drive addiction amongst kids and young adults. Treasury’s partnership with the DEA and the Mexican government has been critical as we take actions to protect our citizens from the harmful effects of these deadly narcotics,” he said.
As a result of Thursday’s designation, “all property and interests in property of the designated individuals and entities that are in the United States or in the possession or control of U.S. persons must be blocked and reported to OFAC,” the DOT said.
Illegal fishers cast their nets in vaquita habitat, in the Gulf of California. Tim Grenard / Sea Shepherd
If Mexico fails to take action to protect the vaquita porpoise from illegal fishing, the country could face trade limits as soon as February, the world’s leading species protection body said on Wednesday.
The vaquita (also known as the vaquita marina) is the world’s tiniest marine mammal and has long teetered on the brink of extinction, with some studies suggesting there are only between 10 and 20 vaquitas left in the wild.
Due to illegal fishing of the coveted totoaba fish — another endangered species that retails in China’s black market for thousands of dollars and that is only found in the Gulf of California — many vaquitas have been found entangled in the gillnets used by local fishers and totoaba poachers.
Mexico’s ineffective conservation measures have brought the committee of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) to consider possible trade restrictions for Mexico if the country fails to come up with an effective conservation plan.
Illegal gillnet fishing has brought the vaquita porpoise to the brink of extinction. WWF
“If they do not submit a plan by February, the recommendation is to suspend all product trade from CITES species,” said a lawyer of the convention to Reuters, citing those are its “strongest measures.”
Blanca Alicia Mendoza Vera, Minister of the Office of the Environmental Prosecutor (Profepa) requested for the issue to be discussed over the next two weeks in Panama City, during the meeting of the CITES members.
In an interview with the Mexican news agency Excelsior, Mendoz Vera argued that every six months, updates to the program to prevent illegal totoaba fishing are submitted to CITES with proven results. A national sustainability agreement focused on the northern part of the Gulf of California already drives actions to comply with international commitments, she said
She also said the Navy uses technology to immediately detect illegal fishers, and that concrete blocks with hooks were placed to trap the gillnets that enter the so-called Vaquita Marina Zero Tolerance Zone.
If there was no other option but to create a new plan, Mendoza said, the United States and China must also be involved as the former is a transit country and the latter, a destination country for the totoaba.
Both China and the U.S. are aware of the threat posed to the vaquita by illegal totoaba fishing and have held meetings to address the problem.
In June 2015, China and the U.S. held their first high-level meeting on the smuggling of totoaba, followed by another summit in 2016 of Mexican, Chinese and U.S. officials in Geneva. In 2018, China prosecuted its first totoaba smuggling case.
The latest advances include the first consultations under the U.S.-Mexico-Canada agreement (USMCA) requested by the U.S. in February, over Mexico’s lack of protection of the vaquita. Later in April, an environmental commission of the USMCA agreement recommended a full investigation into allegations that Mexico has failed to protect the endangered porpoise in the Upper Gulf of California.
The totoaba bladder is believed by many Chinese buyers to have medicinal properties, making trade of the fish more lucrative than cocaine trafficking. The bladder can cost up to US $5,000 in Mexico, between $10,000 and $15,000 in the United States, and up to $60,000 in China.
Coco works with Jalisco's Coco Turtle Rescue sanctuary and her loving owner, Eileen Hoeter. Joseph Sorrentino
Coco sits in my lap in the pre-dawn darkness, shifting anxiously and sniffing the salty air as she waits for her mission to begin. The jacket this dog wears announces the work she does: Turtle Egg Rescue Agent.
Eileen Hoeter, her owner and the person in charge of Coco Turtle Rescue, one of the two turtle sanctuaries in Playa Coco, Jalisco, puts her four-wheel drive jeep in gear, and we start for the beach.
Hoeter and her husband Jed have been running their turtle sanctuary, since they moved to Playa Coco in 2015 and built Villa Star of the Sea, a small resort. “We’d walk on the beach, and we’d see baby turtles or females laying eggs,” she said. “Then ECOBANA, an animal rescue organization in Barra de Navidad, asked us to build a turtle sanctuary.”
Since then, when she’s in Jalisco, she’s out virtually every day before dawn, searching for turtle nests. “You have to be out early to beat the poachers and the dogs,” she said. She is certified by and works under the supervision of the University of Guadalajara.
Coco shows Hoeter a nest she’s found on Playa Coco beach. Joseph Sorrentino
Coco, however, hasn’t had any training. Adopted as a puppy from a friend who’d found Coco’s mother as a pregnant stray, she tagged along on the turtle egg rescue missions. Before Coco, Hoeter was on her own. “I’d get on my hands and knees and dig.” That could take her up to an hour.
Then, one day, without prompting, Coco started digging. “She can smell the eggs and turtles,” Hoeter said.
Coco will dig deep until she is millimeters from the eggs. She’s careful not to damage them and lets the humans take over. She also guards the eggs from strangers until they are safely in the sanctuary, and then again later as the hatchlings make their way to the sea.
Three species of turtles lay eggs on this beach: olive ridley and green turtles are both designated as “vulnerable,” while the third, the leatherback turtle, is critically endangered.
Coco as a puppy. Coco Turtle Rescue
To find nests, Hoeter scans the beach for turtle tracks, which look remarkably like tire tracks, except turtle tracks run perpendicular to the water’s edge while tire tracks mostly run parallel. As we drive out on a mission, Hoeter pointed out holes surrounded by dried egg shells saying, “Those eggs were eaten by dogs.”
She also showed me empty holes. “Those are poachers,” she said. “They aren’t dangerous.”
Despite a five-year jail term for poaching, people steal eggs to sell for their supposed aphrodisiac properties. While she doesn’t condone poaching, she’s understanding. “They sell the eggs for five or eight pesos,” she said. “They’re trying to make some money.”
When Hoeter spied an eagle with a baby turtle in its beak, she knew there was a nest nearby; Coco located it immediately, with six new turtles still inside. With the sun already up, if Coco hadn’t found them, they almost certainly would have dried out and died before reaching the sea, she said.
Once Hoeter extracts the eggs from the sand, Coco makes sure no strangers get too close. Coco Turtle Rescue
Coco located another nest and dug furiously, stopping every few seconds to put her nose deeper in the hole. As soon as she saw white — indicating she’d found the eggs — she stopped digging and backed off, letting Hoeter take over. “You must be very careful,” Hoeter said. “I loosen the eggs and I close my eyes. I do it by touch. I take out some sand—it has the mother’s secretions—and put it in the bucket to cover the eggs.”
When Coco later found yet another nest with 40 or 50 newly hatched turtles, Hoeter placed them in a bucket with some water and took them to the water’s edge.
“You don’t put them directly in the water,” she said. “They pick up something from the sand. Sand here is different from sand in all other places. After three years, females come back here [to lay their eggs]. Males never come back.”
At the turtle sanctuary, Hoeter digs holes the same depth as the original nests, gently places the eggs in and fills them with sand. A stick marks the location. Fifty-five days later, between 75% and 85% of the eggs will hatch, and the babies will be released to the sea.
Hatched turtles make their way across the sand. Joseph Sorrentino
“Eggs that are laid are asexual,” Hoeter said. “The higher the eggs are [in a nest], the warmer they are and they will become females. It’s cooler at the bottom, and they will become males. With the climate warming, there will be more females.” Baby turtles are a study in determination.
After digging out from a nest buried at least two feet deep, the new turtles head to the water, 50 yards away. They use their flippers like paddles, pushing themselves forward, pausing every three or four seconds to gather themselves for another push. A wave comes in and knocks them back, turning them around, but they point themselves toward the ocean and continue. Finally, they disappear into the water, and the ocean takes them on their inevitable journey.
Baby turtles face all kinds of challenges: as they cross the beach, they’ll be eaten by eagles and terns. Crabs drag them into their holes. Even if the turtles reach the water, they become food for a number of predators.
If they live, they soon are required to find food. Babies have a food sac that keeps them nourished for three days, but after that, they begin hunting for a variety of aquatic insects, plants and small fish.
Eileen Hoeter holds a newly-hatched olive ridley turtle about to be released. Joseph Sorrentino
Hoeter said that it’s thought that one out of a 1,000 survive.
She files regular reports on her work with the University of Guadalajara, recording the number of nests destroyed by dogs or taken by poachers and releases an estimated 8,000-20,000 turtles a season — from November through May.
When asked, she says she hasn’t noticed any change in the number of nests she finds but has seen other changes. “I’ve seen some nests with tiny eggs,” she said. “This has only been in the last two years. These are eggs that won’t hatch.”
Most of the sanctuary’s maintenance is footed by the Hoeters, though they do have fundraisers and accept donations.
Hoeter said she loves her work.
“It’s an amazing thrill to help these creatures,” she said. And, she added, “It’s a beautiful way to start your day.”
Tourists enjoy the beach in Acapulco, in July of this year. Carlos Alberto Carbajal/Cuartoscuro.com
The United States could soon change the way it formulates its travel advice for Mexico, the Tourism Ministry (Sectur) has suggested.
Mexico is pushing for the U.S. government’s travel alerts to be more specific than they currently are, arguing that the State Department’s advice against traveling to some destinations is misguided.
Federal Tourism Minister Miguel Torruco, Mexico’s ambassador to the United States, Esteban Moctezuma, and state tourism ministers met virtually with State Department officials to discuss the issue on Wednesday. Sectur subsequently issued a press release with the heading “Mexico and the United States move forward on agreements so that travel alerts are correctly targeted.”
In its current advisory, the State Department warns U.S. citizens not to travel to six states — Colima, Guerrero, Michoacán, Sinaloa, Tamaulipas and Zacatecas — due to crime or crime and kidnapping, and advises Americans to reconsider their need to travel to seven others.
The Sectur statement noted that Torruco, during a trip to Washington, D.C., in May, suggested that U.S. travel alerts should “detail the areas that could represent problems and not generalize, as some isolated cases of insecurity are numerous kilometers from tourism destinations.”
The current alerts for each state do go beyond a one sentence advisory, but the Mexican government is clearly unhappy with the level 4 warnings against travel to some destinations, such as Acapulco and Zihuatanejo in Guerrero, the monarch butterfly reserve in Michoacán and Colima city.
The Sectur statement said that Torruco emphasized the close relationship between Mexico and the United States, and “invited the attendees to continue working in synergy … to find solutions to mutual problems.”
“We live in an era in which the destiny of countries is not built in an individual and isolated way, but jointly with friendly nations. In North America we’ve understood that prosperity and security will be greater and stronger if we work together,” the tourism minister said.
Tourism Minister Miguel Torruco (right) and other officials tune into a virtual meeting with the U.S. State Department. Twitter @SECTUR_mx
Moctezuma, who was education minister in the current government before becoming ambassador to the U.S. in early 2021, “highlighted the importance of the link between U.S. State Department authorities and the ministers and representatives of the entities of Mexico in order to have more nurtured dialogue that allows the situation in each of the country’s tourist destinations to be understood,” according to the Sectur statement.
Federal and state authorities in Mexico are presumably setting out the case for why level 4 (Do not travel), or even level 3 (Reconsider Travel), travel alerts shouldn’t apply to some destinations within states for which such advisories are in force.
Foreign Affairs Minister Marcelo Ebrard said earlier this year that Mexico has “never agreed with the alerts” because they are imposed unilaterally by the United States.
Sectur also made note of the remarks made at Wednesday’s meeting by Angela Kerwin, deputy assistant secretary with the State Department’s Bureau of Consular Affairs. She said that “timely information is the key to promoting tourism … to Mexico,” the ministry’s statement said.
“In this way tourists and United States residents [in Mexico] will know the condition of the destination they’re visiting or where they live in a timely way,” Kerwin said.
Torruco stressed that the U.S. market is extremely important for the Mexican tourism industry, noting that over 10 million Americans flew into the country last year. Tourists from the U.S. and other foreign countries have been affected by crime in Mexico, and even murdered, but the vast majority of visitors have no major problems while they’re here and, as Kerwin noted, enjoy the country’s beaches, cities, food and warm people.
A photographer, a poet, a teacher, a social worker and an activist, all muxes, are the subjects of the documentary. HBO
“Muxes,” a new documentary about the muxe community in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec region of Oaxaca, began streaming Thursday on HBO Max.
Muxes are members of a community of people who are widely considered to be of a third gender. They are born male but usually dress and behave in a typically feminine way from a young age, and take on roles traditionally associated with women once they are adults.
Mexico’s largest muxe community is in the Isthmus of Tehuantepc region of Oaxaca, where most residents — including muxes (pronounced moo-shays) — have indigenous Zapotec blood.
The HBO feature-length documentary follows the lives of five muxes: a photographer, a poet, a teacher, a social worker and an activist. Over the course of the film, they reveal what it means to them to be a muxe, and speak of their desires, joys, sorrows and struggles.
“What is muxiedad [the quality of being a muxe] for muxes? For me it’s a way of life. I was born like this,” says one of the subjects.
“We live, we feel, blood runs through our veins, not stone,” says another. “I’m also a human and I have rights too,” comments one of the other muxes. “And I want to be recognized like everyone else.”
The film also features footage of La Vela — “a festival that emerged as a response to the rejection that the muxe community suffered in Juchitán,” according to one of the muxes. Juchitán, located almost 300 kilometers southeast of Oaxaca city, is the regional hub of the Isthmus.
Kristhal Aquino, the activist featured in the documentary, said her involvement was “exciting” and an experience in which she was “transported” to both her past and future.
“For me it’s an honor to be a spokesperson for my [muxe] colleagues in this project,” Aquino said, before advocating for an end to discrimination against muxes, including that which comes from within the families of members of Mexico’s “third gender.”
“Discrimination comes from home a lot of the time. If we don’t support our children from home, what can we expect of society?”
Pujol, by renowned chef Enrique Olvera, in Mexico City, comes in as the best restaurant in Mexico and the 7th in Latin America. Widely recognized for its stellar Mole Madre, the awards credit chef Enrique Olvera for having put Mexico on the gastronomic map.
Following Pujol is Fauna in Valle de Guadalupe, Baja California. Taking the seat as the 16th best restaurant, the awards recognized it for showcasing the “taste of Baja through experimental menus and good wine.”
Awarded for serving the flavors of Mexico “without boundaries,” Le Chique in Cancún is the third best restaurant in Mexico and the 17th in Latin America.
These are the Mexican restaurants that made the 50 Best list:
The crash occurred in a populated area north of Aguascalientes city. Twitter
The Aguascalientes security minister was one of five people killed in a helicopter crash in the Bajío region state on Thursday morning.
A Security Ministry helicopter plunged to the ground at approximately 8 a.m. and caught fire on a vacant lot in the municipality of Jesús María, which borders Aguascalientes city.
Security Minister Porfirio Javier Sánchez Mendoza is one of the victims, according to state authorities. Four crew members, including two pilots, were in the helicopter and all died, according to reports. The cause of the accident is unknown.
Footage posted to social media showed a blazing wreck in what appeared to be a large parcel of vacant land. Sirens can be heard wailing in the background.
Multiple witnesses shared footage of the accident and its immediate aftermath on Twitter.
State police, the army and paramedics all attended the accident site, located near the IMSS No. 3 hospital, which is about 10 kilometers north of the downtown of Aguascalientes city. The helicopter was carrying out an aerial patrol after an armed attack Wednesday in the municipality of El Llano, according to the newspaper Milenio.
In a press conference at 10:30 a.m. Central Time, Aguascalientes Governor Teresa Jiménez offered her condolences to the affected families and said an investigation into the accident had been opened, though preliminary evidences suggested that the crash was an accident. The investigation is being led by the state attorney general in conjunction with the state civil aviation agency, Jiménez said.
Sánchez Mendoza, who became state security minister in 2018, was arrested by federal authorities in February on charges including torture and abuse of authority. He was dismissed but returned as security minister in the government led by Jiménez, who took office in October. Sánchez Mendoza, who was alleged to have tortured a person while a federal security official, was acquitted in September.
Accidents involving government helicopters are quite common in Mexico. In one recent crash, 14 marines were killed after the helicopter in which they were traveling crashed in Sinaloa. The cause of that accident was determined to be a lack of fuel.
Cathey Cairelli and grateful pup at Help Tulum dogs.
“One of the first things we foreigners notice when we arrive [in Mexico] is that the treatment of animals is different,” says Rebecca Raab of Friends of Megan animal rescue, just outside of Oaxaca city.
Phaedra Barrat of the Balam Foundation puts it more bluntly. “Animal suffering is off the charts here.”
With one of the highest pet ownership rates in Latin America, it seems that Mexicans love animals. Fifty-seven percent of households have at least one, with dogs by far the most popular.
However, the federal Chamber of Deputies estimates that of the more than 18 million dogs in Mexico, only about 30% have an owner. Street animals live short, horrible lives, but those in homes may not fare much better. It also reports that Mexico ranks third in the world for animal cruelty. The federal statistics agency INEGI ranks it first in Latin America.
Luna went from a life of want in the fields outside Oaxaca city to living large in NYC. She was bought from a farmer for 200 pesos. Friends of Megan rescue
Abandonment and neglect is the most common, say representatives at Refugio Animal Alfa in Uriangato, Guanajuato. Dogs are often left chained alone in patios and on roofs with insufficient food, water or shelter, and many find themselves on the street only months after being taken in. We foreigners are not completely innocent either. In communities with snowbirds and other transient populations, rescues report expat residents taking animals off the street but then abandoning them when they go back to their countries of origin.
Even more heartbreaking, says Cathryn Cothran of The Ranch in Chapala, are animals whose owners die and leave no plan for them. They wind up on the street, almost always with zero survival skills.
What animal control exists most everywhere is inadequate at best. In Mexico City, 90% of animals captured on the street are put to sleep within 72 hours for lack of space. Municipal spay/neuter clinics are sporadic. According to Annette Thompson of Bone Voyage, most municipalities do not even have humane ways of euthanizing animals. Raab says it is not uncommon to leave out poison to “clean up the streets.”
Many ignore homeless animals, but not everyone. Some Mexicans and foreigners have stepped up to try and fill the gap. Rescue, sterilization and adoption organizations are almost always local, grassroots efforts, so the exact number is not known, but Avenue Dogs, a website that serves as a directory of animal shelters in all 32 states, lists over 100 groups.
Everyone wants these animals to find a home, and rescues do this whenever possible. Larger programs such as The Ranch and Friends of Megan can rehome dozens of dogs each month while providing shelter in the meantime.
In fact, there are rescues that work wholly or in part with counterparts in the U.S. and Canada to send animals there.
Mexico has an overwhelming number of dogs of all sizes, often more sociable than those from other countries, and volunteer humans fly north to escort the animals to new homes.
“What is really ironic is that these dogs really have no worth in Mexico… [but there,] people are willing to pay the expenses to adopt them,” Cothran says.
Volunteer Michalangelo Leyva with one of the more then 450 dogs that Barb’s Dog Rescue in Puerto Peñasco is trying to rehome.
The cold reality, however, is that there are just too many for this to be the only population reduction strategy. All rescues stress the importance of sterilization. Even those focusing on adoption, like Border Tails of Illinois, will sponsor spay/neuter clinics in Mexico.
“[W]hen you see starving pregnant mothers rummaging through garbage, the need is obvious.” says Cathy Cairelli of Help Tulum Dogs.
Animal care education, especially for children, is also important but gets even less attention than sterilization does. Many still do not realize that dogs have many of the same physical and emotional needs that we do. Cats are at great risk, says Barratt, because they are not considered “useful” and superstitions about them being the “souls of the dead” still exist.
Almost all organizations run on donations. Foreigner-run ones often tap into sources north of the border as well as expat residents. Mexican organizations have it even tougher. Their donors are often poor, especially in cases like Refugio Animal Alfa.
Despite this, the Refugio rehabilitates the worst cases of abuse and neglect. Rita Resendiz rescues dogs in the far southeast of Mexico City, a daunting task, relying on earnings from her ceramic business.
As difficult as animal rescue is during good times, the pandemic complicated the situation further. Many families who lost jobs/income abandoned their pets, and false news reports that animals could transmit COVID-19 did not help.
Sterilization programs were shut to comply with COVID restrictions. Many Mexican organizations’ donations dried up.
But the pandemic had its most surprising effect on international adoptions. Although airlines and countries immediately restricted transporting pets, the demand for dogs grew exponentially as people were working at home. However, as people went back to work, interest plummeted; it’s only now starting to rebound.
Before and after of one of Refugio Animal Alfa’s rescues.
But there are signs of positive change in Mexico.
The first is that attitudes towards companion animals are changing, especially among the young. As these newer generations — like their counterparts around the world — are more frequently waiting longer to have children — or choosing not to have them at all — they have coined the slang terms perrijo and gatijo, meaning “dog son/daughter” and “cat son/daughter” respectively. The terms imply pets who are treated like beloved children.
More families are accepting help in sterilization and vaccination, even in marginalized neighborhoods and remote villages, say Cairelli and Raab.
Animal rescues are in just about all communities, and they heartily welcome volunteers for all kinds of work: physical care of the animals, administrative work, fundraising and more. It is one way for expats to give back to Mexico.
And as Raab says, “Mexicans watch what we foreigners do.”
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.
