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San Miguel de Allende’s art scene marches to its own drummer

By
Leigh Thelmadatter
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Ezshwan Winding
Ezshwan Winding has worked as an artist for 60 years, in San Miguel for most of them. She's best known for encaustic painting, working with hot colored wax. She welcomes visitors in her home. (Leigh Thelmadatter)

Today, San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato is world-famous for its ambiance. After all, Condé Nast declared it the “world’s best place to live” three times. But one important feature is its artists community, second in Mexico only behind Mexico City despite its small size. 

Without a doubt, the establishment of an art school in the once-almost-deserted town not only revived the pueblo’s fortunes but also made it one of the world’s most unique places to live. 

Art of Karen Lee Dunn
Karen Lee Dunn is one of many classical landscape painters that capture the way many foreigners feel about San Miguel and folkloric Mexico. (Galería San Francisco)

That school, the Instituto Allende, still exists today and still offers an art degree (in English!). Although it was certainly the spark that got things started, it is also fair to say that San Miguel’s reputation as an artist colony — as well as its position as the No. 2 art market in Mexico — has come more from the community that the school inspired over the past decades. 

After getting off to a promising start, the school’s fortunes began to decline, with student strikes, a failed collaboration with legendary muralist David Siqueiros, problems with locals and the opening of other opportunities for foreign artists in Mexico. The campus moved to the edge of the town. 

Today, there are art classes still to be had at the old monastery it originally occupied, but that is now the Centro Cultural Ignacio Ramírez “El Nigromante,” and not the Instituto. 

With the school sidelined, it was up to foreign artists who stayed and later retired in the decades that followed to build San Miguel’s current reputation as an artist’s town. Two important early pioneers in this effort were Leonard and Reva Brooks, who came in the late 1940s, and became promoters of San Miguel as an artistic haven.

Leonard and Reva Brooks in San Miguel de Allende
It could be argued that Canadian couple Leonard and Reva Brooks took over the promotion of art in San Miguel de Allende as the city’s art school began to flounder. (Toronto Public Library)

Their efforts were timely since upcoming Mexican artists in the 1950s sought to leave muralism behind and embrace artistic styles with more international perspectives. The government’s and Mexico City’s near-absolute hold on artistic production loosened, allowing for ideas like abstraction, the establishment of private art galleries and a welcoming of foreign artists as equals rather than as apprentices to artists like Diego Rivera. The result has been a significant number of foreign artists living and working in Mexico since.

Perhaps the best way to describe the art market of San Miguel is to compare it to the No.1 Mexican market: Mexico City. Foreign artists have flocked to both for approximately the same length of time, but the kinds of artists, and their lifestyles, tend to be different. 

Artists are attracted to Mexico City for its environment as one of the world’s largest cities, where one can be part of the next international art movement. Mexico’s avant-garde continues to be based there, but with a few exceptions like the Neo-Mexicanismo genre, the art produced there is part of global trends and tastes. Artists and buyers generally consider folkloric themes and even figurativism as “passé” or even going backwards artistically. The inspiration that artists get from the capital is not its mexicanidad but rather its status as one of the world’s major cities, like Paris or New York.  

San Miguel, however, marches unapologetically to its own drummer. Sometimes derided as home to “artist wannabes” who never picked up a brush before retirement, a closer look reveals that the art scene there is more sophisticated. 

Art by David McDay
Texan David McDay’s themes are traditional Mexico, but his style is influenced by American folk art traditions to evoke a kind of melancholy nostalgia. (Galería San Francisco)

Artists here range from novices and hobbyists to internationally known artists with long careers often both in San Miguel and abroad; one does not preclude the other. There is a cultural environment here that is matched only by much larger cities. San Miguel is able to attract internationally known writers, performing artists and much more, which bolsters the environment for visual artists. 

Artist or not, many who live here couch their decision to settle in poetic terms, as longtime resident Mary Jane Miller states:

“It’s a mecca for people who are lost, who need a break, [who are] a little rough on the edges. It is a place of healing.”

It is also welcoming to a wide range of artistic styles, even those that no longer get a second glance elsewhere. This is because the art culture is embedded in a wider culture  that’s a curious mix of the traditional pueblo (however idealized), tourist attraction, international chic destination and laid-back retirees’ haven. It also attracts others simply looking for something different. 

Arturo Aranda in San Miguel de Allende art studio
Arturo Aranda was one of the first to realize that a niche tour focusing on artists’ homes and workshops in San Miguel would be a sustainable business model. (Leigh Thelmadatter)

The art market includes a significant chunk of people dedicated to depicting San Miguel itself, and rural/traditional Mexico in general, often inspired by the art of more than 100 years ago. Interestingly, this art appeals far more strongly to foreign buyers. 

Art in San Miguel is also changing: some years ago, Mexico City residents began buying weekend homes in San Miguel, not because of its pueblo character but because of its international reputation. They have brought their “big city” art tastes with them, seeking out contemporary art, which galleries here have started to cater to. 

A good example of how galleries are maintaining a balance between these two forces is the Galería San Francisco run by U.S. artist Susan Santiago. It includes a wide range of artistic styles — many appealing to those who wish to take a “piece of San Miguel/Mexico home,” wherever home happens to be. But it also has begun to offer more contemporary art for Mexican clients. Activities at the gallery range from classes for newbies (in multiple media), to judged art competitions registered with organizations such as the International Watercolor Society. 

The historic center remains an important focal point for life in San Miguel, but for art, it has evolved to include a new venue: the Fábrica Aurora, the city’s old textile mill that has been converted to become a new cultural center, essentially a kind of “art mall.” 

Art by Mary Jane Miller
Mary Jane Miller dedicates herself to Byzantine iconography with traditional techniques but her favorite images are that of women, who she says are lacking in both the art and among the artists. (Leigh Thelmadatter)

With traffic becoming horrendous in the downtown and many new developments popping up outside of it, the Fábrica was a stroke of genius: it features ample parking and yet is still walking distance from the historic center. 

Santiago says one of its main appeals for customers is that you can spend a day comfortably under one roof, perusing the various galleries, restaurants and other offerings for an entire day. 

San Miguel’s status as a tourist attraction also affects the art scene. Not only do visitors look for art to take home as a reminder of Mexico, the artists themselves are an attraction. Seven years ago, Arturo Aranda began taking tourists to visit the homes/workshops of selected artists here. The tours give potential buyers a peek behind the curtain, allowing them to meet the artist and see their lifestyle and production process. 

One very successful stop is the workshop of Peruvian Ana Cornejo and Heinz Künzli, who make their own pigments, often from rocks they find biking in the area. 

Poet La Fata Morgana
Poet La Fata Morgana takes a break in front of one of the murals in the El Nigromante Cultural Center. (Lafata Morgana/Wikimedia Commons)

San Miguel’s art scene is unique because San Miguel itself is. It would not be what it is without its residents, both foreign and Mexican. There is no reason for this history not to continue, especially in the digital age when it is easier than ever to promote and sell all over the world. 

Leigh Thelmadatter arrived in Mexico over 20 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.

Don Pepe and the art of calabash pointillism

By
John Pint
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A candle holder
One of Don Pepe’s candle holders spreads its light over a table top. His lamps are all made from natural gourds. (Arte Natural)

Ahualulco de Mercado is a small town in Jalisco, located an hour’s drive west of Guadalajara.

In this small town lives Julio Álvarez, a self-taught ornithologist and highly skilled nature photographer. Every day, I enjoy Álvarez’s photos of birds and animals on his Facebook feed, but last week he turned his camera to a different subject.

Don Pepe and a gourd
Don Pepe working on his latest creation at his Jalisco workshop. (John Pint)

“I’d like you all to meet my neighbor, Don Pepe,” he wrote. “Just take a look at how this man turns a lowly bule (calabash or bottle gourd) into a delightful work of art.”

I had no trouble finding a few friends who agreed with me that Don Pepe and his workshop in Ahualulco deserved a visit.

Ahualulco is located on Jalisco Highway 4, which just happens to be full of interesting places to visit. There are the curious circular pyramids or Guachimontones, followed by the extraordinarily beautiful haciendas of La Labor and El Carmen, both now turned into hotel boutiques.

Then there’s the sprawling obsidian deposit of El Pedernal, the bird sanctuary of Agua Blanca and let’s not forget the natural phenomenon of the Great Stone Balls (Las Piedras Bola), a whole mountaintop covered with around a hundred naturally formed stone spheres up to 3 meters in diameter.

Colorful gourds
Colorful gourd lamps hanging in Don Pepe’s workshop. (John Pint)

There are so many cool things to see along this highway that I’ll leave the topic for another occasion because here we are in Ahualulco, at Calle Pino Suárez 27, and Don Pepe (José Zúñiga Méndez) is welcoming us into his workshop and home.

Everywhere there are calabashes (Lagenaria siceraria), also known as birdhouse gourds and long melons in English. In Mexico, they are commonly called guajes or bules.

In front of me I see gourd bowls, gourd drinking cups, shot glasses, flower pots, ladles, candleholders, tortilla holders… and lots of lamps.

“We have all kinds of lamps,” says Pepe with a big smile, “some that hang from the ceiling, table lamps, desk lamps, nightstand lamps, wall lamps. Gourds were traditionally used to contain water, but I use them to contain light.”

A gourd workshop
In his workshop, Don Pepe fits a bulb into his latest lamp. (John Pint)

Pepe sits down at his worktable and shows us his tools. Most of them are drill bits. Holding a big gourd on his lap, he drills holes — hundreds of holes — with great precision, some of which are very, very tiny. The groups of holes form shapes.

“Now, let me show you how these lamps look in the dark,” says the artist.

And the moment he turns out the light, all of us gasp: the glowing lamps are truly beautiful, quite unlike anything we’ve seen before.

“My lamps have to look good both in the light and in the dark,” Don Pepe says.

He tells us that his technique is called puntillismo, pointillism, but rather than putting dots on a canvas in the style of Georges Seurat, Pepe creates shapes and patterns made of many, many holes of various sizes.

“I’ve gone to expositions all around Mexico,” he says, “in Chihuahua, Oaxaca and Tijuana, for example, and so far I seem to be the only one using a pointillist technique on gourds.”

When asked where he gets the gourds for his workshop, Don Pepe says “The seeds keep popping up all over the place.” (Julio Álvarez)

“This is a family business,” Pepe goes on to explain. “We have a shop in Tlaquepaque called Arte Natural, and my son is the manager of the store. My grandson sells our products, my granddaughter helps me paint them and on top of that, I have employees, all of whom are handicapped. So they work here in wheelchairs. Right now, I am supplying these lamps to two different hotels in Puerto Vallarta.”

I was surprised to learn that Don Pepe spent 30 years working for IBM before he started transforming gourds.

“We’re the ones who brought the PC to Mexico, from Boca Raton,” he told us.

“When I retired from IBM,” he went on, “I started doing this work with guajes as occupational therapy. I wanted to do something that doesn’t harm the environment and at the same time helps to preserve traditions that are starting to fade away. That’s how it started. And now I love what I’m doing!”

Don Pepe’s gourds grow among the agaves. (José Zúñiga)

“Where do you get your guajes?” I asked Don Pepe.

“Bueno,” he said. “We are constantly cleaning out the insides of these gourds, so we have seeds falling on the ground all over the place — and they sprout! Naturally, we take advantage and collect the little seedlings, and at the end of June, when the weather is right, we plant them in a tract of land we have.

“If you start with a seed, 10 days later, you will have a plant. In September, we have gourds, and these will be fully mature in November or December, but we wait all the way until January to pick them. If you try to harvest them earlier, they shrivel up and die.”

After that, they put them out to dry, after which they can finally work them, he says.

The bottle gourd is believed to be one of the first cultivated plants of the world. It was domesticated over 10,000 years ago.

“In Mexico,” commented Don Pepe, “bules were used to store all kinds of ingredients in our grandmothers’ kitchens: corn, wheat, beans. Meanwhile, our grandfathers used them as canteens to carry water to the fields. Then along came plastic, and it was all over for the gourd!”

Not exactly. Don Pepe’s creations have appeared in expositions at various cities in Mexico, and a few have traveled all the way to Germany, France, China, Japan and India.

If you find yourself in Guadalajara, you can see them at his Arte Natural gallery in Tlaquepaque, at Independencia 48 street, in Plaza Pavo Real. The telephone number is 332 655 0802.

The writer has lived near Guadalajara, Jalisco, since 1985. His most recent book is Outdoors in Western Mexico, Volume Three. More of his writing can be found on his blog.

“Barbie” opening weekend brings pink fever to Mexico

By
Cat Rainsford
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Ryan Gosling and Margot Robbie
Stars Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling at the Mexican premier of Barbie, on Reforma Avenue, Mexico City. (Edgar Negrete Lira/Cuartoscuro)

Pink tops, cups and even tacos have swept Mexico, as fans celebrated the national release of the eagerly awaited “Barbie” film on Thursday.

The film, starring Margot Robbie as the iconic doll and Ryan Gosling as her boyfriend Ken, has inspired numerous look-alikes at cinemas across the country.

Barbie family
Moviegoers dressed in pink for the opening weekend. (Daniel Bareto/Twitter)

Fans donned all-pink outfits in homage to the film’s aesthetic, also reflecting the “Barbiecore” trend, which became popular on the catwalks of brands such as Valentino in 2022. 

Pink cups and popcorn containers rapidly sold out at many movie theaters, to the disappointment of many fans.

 It wasn’t only cinemas and the doll’s Mattel brand cashing in on Mexico’s Barbie fever – some enterprising local businesses also found a successful marketing gimmick in dying their products pink.

In the beach resort of Acapulco, Ana Cecilia Ceballos, owner of the “Don Benito” tortillería, started adding beet water to the dough as a natural dye to turn her tortillas pink.

Pink tacos
Pink “Barbie” tacos also proved a hit with hungry Acapulco residents, who paid extra for colored tortillas. (El Guarromantico)

“We started with the idea of offering something different to our customers, in line with the Barbie trend, I love pink and most girls like pink,” she told EFE. “That’s when we started looking for how to pigment the tortilla so that it was that color.”

The innovation was an immediate hit in Acapulco, with local taquerías rushing to buy Ceballos’ pink tortillas, despite them costing an extra two pesos per kilo.

“They just brought us the tortillas and it’s already working really well,” said Julio César, owner of the ‘Taquería Ejido,’ whose business is now selling 150 pink taco orders per night.

“People are accepting it, especially young couples who want to try a different taco. They come already knowing that there is a Barbie taco.”

Ideas for other pink foods such as cheese, bread, cakes and corn have also gone viral on social media. 

The “Barbie” film’s plot explores how the doll’s fantasy life gets interrupted by an existential crisis. It has received largely positive reviews since its release, with an average score of 89% on the review site Rotten Tomatoes. 

With reports from Forbes, El Universal and Expansion

Cultural event attendance has increased, but still below 2019 levels

By
Cat Rainsford
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Ángela Aguilar
The number of attendees at cultural events has increased since the end of the pandemic, says a new survey, but numbers are still well below 2019 prepandemic levels due to what appears to be lower interest. (Diana Valdez/Cuartoscuro)

Public attendance at cultural events in Mexico has grown year-on-year since the pandemic low-point of 2020–2021, but remains 9.1% below 2019 levels, as more people apparently express disinterest in attending such events.

These are the conclusions of the Selected Cultural Events Module (Modecult), part of the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI). Modecult surveyed 2,336 households across the country in May and presented its results on Thursday.

Dance events have been the worst affected by the attendance downturn. (Galo Cañas Rodríguez / Cuartoscuro.com)

Modecult found that 48.7% of respondents attended at least one cultural event in the last 12 months, up from 17.3% in 2021 and 41.2% in 2022. However, the number remained significantly below the 57.8% recorded in 2019.

The gender gap in attendance also widened: in 2019, male attendance of cultural events was 2.9 percentage points higher than female attendance. In 2023, the gap had grown to 7.9 percentage points. Types of cultural events mentioned in the survey included plays, live music and dance performances, art exhibitions and film screenings. 

Although all showed a decrease in attendance since 2019, dance events were the hardest hit. Only 7.5% of people said they had attended a dance performance in the last year, compared to 13% in 2019.

By contrast, cinema was the cultural activity with the greatest attendance, with 42.3% of respondents watching a film in theaters in the last year — although this remained lower than the 51% recorded in 2019.

Mexican film production
Cinema attendance was the highest recorded activity, according to the INEGI survey. (Imcine)

Young people were by far the most likely to attend cultural events, the survey found. In the 18–24 age range, 77% of respondents reported attending a cultural event in the last 12 months, compared to only 20% among people over age 65. Modecult did not survey children.

Disinterest in cultural events increased across all categories. Modecult found that 17.6% of people reported no interest in attending a film screening, compared to 11.6% in 2019. Dance again fared the worst, with 47.4% of people reporting no interest in attending a performance, compared to 39.9% in 2019.

Respondents said that the factors most likely to boost their attendance at cultural events were low-cost tickets (43.2% of respondents), events being close to their homes or workplaces (20.7%) and events taking place on the weekend (18.1%).

One of the strongest predictors of event attendance was encouragement during childhood. Among respondents who said they had participated in extracurricular cultural activities as children, 75.1% reported attending a cultural event in the last year.

With reports from El Economista

Psilocybin in Mexico: personal experiences and therapeutic insights

By
Camila Sánchez Bolaño
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Magic mushrooms
The potential therapeutic benefits of psilocybin are being researched in various countries around the world today, including Mexico. (Wikimedia Commons)

In recent years, psilocybin, a naturally occurring psychedelic compound found in so-called “magic mushrooms,” has gained significant attention worldwide for its potential therapeutic applications. Mexico, with its rich history and cultural ties to psychedelic or hallucinogenic substances, has also witnessed a growing interest in exploring the therapeutic benefits of psilocybin.

Johns Hopkins Medicine describes psilocybin as a compound found in hallucinogenic mushrooms known to cause profound alterations of consciousness and visual and auditory hallucinations. In 2016, researchers at Johns Hopkins made significant strides by discovering that psilocybin, when combined with psychological support, reduced existential anxiety and depression in individuals with a potentially life-threatening cancer diagnosis.

Ana, whose name has been changed to protect her privacy, embarked on her first psilocybin microdosing therapy in San Francisco, she tells me in an interview in Mexico City. Intrigued by the potential benefits — including overcoming depression and anxiety and enhancing creativity — she decided to “open her mind” and give the treatment a try.

Ana’s initial intention was to generally evaluate the effects of psilocybin on her well-being. She shares that her journey with psilocybin microdosing was highly personal. Her treatment spanned 90 days, during which she followed a specific dosage regimen. While individual experiences may vary, Ana emphasizes the importance of clear intentions and focus while consuming psilocybin. It is not unusual for some individuals to initially experience heightened emotions, including sadness and despair, before reaching a positive state.

Ana’s motivations for exploring psilocybin microdosing then extended beyond seeking inner peace. In subsequent treatments in Mexico, she aimed to awaken her creativity for a professional project. The results were gratifying, “with heightened concentration and a surge of creative ideas”, she says. In another instance, Ana utilized psilocybin to address her depression after discontinuing pharmaceutical medications. “The treatment improved my mood, bringing about a sense of enthusiasm and a reduced desire for caffeine and alcohol, which I was consuming all day long”.

A 2021 study conducted on 59 patients with major depression compared the efficacy of the antidepressant escitalopram (Lexapro) with psilocybin. The study revealed that just two doses of psilocybin appeared to be at least as effective as daily escitalopram pills when administered alongside psychological therapy. Patients receiving psilocybin experienced even greater improvement, with double the number achieving remission compared to the antidepressant group. While researchers consider these findings encouraging, they emphasize the importance of further research to understand the role of psilocybin as a therapy for depression. It is strongly advised not to self medicate with psilocybin, as professional psychological therapy is an integral part of the treatment process.

As scientific research continues to shed light on the medicinal properties of psilocybin, the legal status of this substance has become a subject of interest. In Mexico, the legal landscape surrounding psilocybin has undergone significant changes in recent years. Psilocybin mushrooms are classified as a controlled substance here, making it illegal to possess, cultivate, or consume them. However, in April 2021, the Supreme Court of Mexico ruled in favor of an amparo (a Mexican legal protection) allowing a group of individuals to use psilocybin for therapeutic purposes. This landmark decision represented a significant shift in the country’s approach to psychedelic substances, and paved the way for further exploration of psilocybin’s medical potential.

While the Supreme Court’s ruling in Mexico marked a groundbreaking step, it is important to note that it currently applies only to the specific individuals involved in the case. However, it set a precedent and opens the door for others to seek similar legal protections. Advocates are now working toward comprehensive drug policy reform that includes broader access to psilocybin for therapeutic purposes. Efforts are underway to foster dialogue with policymakers and promote evidence-based discussions around the benefits and risks associated with psilocybin-assisted therapies.

Mexico is not alone in exploring the therapeutic applications of psilocybin. Several countries around the world have recognized its potential and have implemented legal frameworks to facilitate its medical use. One notable example is the United States, where several cities — such as Denver, Colorado, and Oakland, California — have decriminalized psilocybin. In addition, in 2020, the state of Oregon passed Measure 109, allowing licensed facilities to administer psilocybin therapy under controlled conditions. This represents a significant milestone in the medical acceptance of psilocybin within the United States.

Canada has granted exemptions for patients with terminal illnesses to access psilocybin therapy, recognizing its potential to alleviate end-of-life distress. Brazil has a longstanding tradition of using ayahuasca, a brew that often contains DMT, another hallucinogenic  compound, in religious ceremonies. The country has recognized the cultural and spiritual significance of these substances, which has opened doors for broader discussions of their potential therapeutic value.

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and should not be considered legal or medical advice. Individuals should always consult with qualified professionals regarding the use of psilocybin or any other substance for medical purposes, taking into account the applicable laws and regulations of their jurisdiction.

Sonora sandstorm causes minor damage but puts on major show

By
MND Staff
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Sandstorm in Sonora Mexico
Scenes like this hit the beaches of San Carlos, 20 km northwest of the municipality of Guaymas. (Social media)

A spectacular sandstorm toppled trees and utility poles in Sonora on Thursday, but no casualties were reported.

The state government said Friday that trees and poles came down in Guaymas and Empalme, municipalities on Sonora’s Gulf of California coast. Authorities also said that parts of the municipality of Hermosillo were affected by the storm.

Sandstorm in Sonora
No casualties were reported, but the storm did damage trees and utility poles, and put on a visceral display of nature’s power in the Guaymas and Empalme municipalities. (Screen capture)

There were electricity outages in both Guaymas and Empalme due to damage caused by the meteorological phenomenon, which was captured in photographs and videos posted to social media.

The government said late Friday morning that power restoration in both municipalities was 55% complete and that full service was expected to resume in the afternoon.

The Sonora Civil Protection authority said on Twitter that its personnel helped to remove obstacles from roads after the storm passed.

Among the locations affected by the sandstorm was San Carlos, a beach town about 20 kilometers northwest of the port city of Guaymas.

 

“It got really apocalyptic,” San Carlos resident and Twitter user @Rada_SC wrote above an image of sand sweeping across the sky.

He said that “extremely strong gusts of wind with dust darkened everything and took … [his] drone,” which he managed to “miraculously recover.”

Governor Alfonso Durazo urged residents in affected areas to not leave their homes unless absolutely necessary and to remain calm.

According to the World Meteorological Organization, “sand and dust storms usually occur when strong winds lift large amounts of sand and dust from bare, dry soils into the atmosphere.”

The United Nations said last week that severe sand and dust storms were becoming “increasingly common, with UN climate experts attributing the rise to human-driven causes such as climate change and unsustainable farming practices.”

“To combat this, the UN has designated 12 July its first-ever International Day of Combating Sand and Dust Storms,” it added.

With reports from Infobae and El Sol de Hermosillo 

AMLO-themed birthday party video takes TikTok by storm

By
MND Staff
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0
Fan of AMLO show in viral video at his AMLO-themed birthday party
The apparent AMLO fan, identified as "Jorge" in the video, is shown with his AMLO-themed cake and a life-sized cardboard cutout of President López Obrador.

Mexico has seen the Donald Trump piñata, and now the AMLO birthday cake has arrived.

A video posted to TikTok this week shows a man celebrating his birthday with a President López Obrador-themed party in his family home.

A life-sized cardboard cutout of López Obrador, a banner featuring the president and the words “Happy Birthday Jorge” and AMLO dolls and figurines all add to the atmosphere for the so-called “AMLOFest.”

But the pièce de résistance is perhaps the birthday cake topped with the familiar buck-toothed cartoon image of the 69-year-old leader wearing a suit and his presidential sash.

President Lopez Obrador-themed came
Those willing to fork over the cash can order their own AMLO-themed cake, complete with a fondant figurine of the president. (Pasteles Increibles)

“Feliz cumpleaños papá!” (Happy birthday, Dad!) reads a message superimposed on the 30-second video, which had been viewed over 325,000 times by midday Friday.

The video was uploaded by TikTok user dra.janis, who identifies herself as Janet Ballesteros. According to a location tag, it was filmed in Ecatepec, México state, where López Obrador’s Morena party won the gubernatorial election in June with its candidate Delfina Gómez.

AMLO will celebrate his 70th birthday on Nov. 13, less than a year before his term as president ends. Should he too want a cake adorned with his likeness, there is at least one for sale online, at the price of 1,430 pesos (US $84).

With reports from El Universal 

Mexico’s estimated economic growth in June up 4% over last year

By
MND Staff
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0
Mexico City restaurant
Preliminary INEGI data indicates a 4.3% growth in the country's tertiary (services) sector for the month of June. (Foto de Regina Victorica en Unsplash)

Final data is expected to show that Mexico’s economy grew 4% in annual terms in June, the national statistics agency INEGI reported Thursday.

If confirmed, that level of year-over-year growth would be the best result since October last year, when GDP expanded 4.8%.

Employees at a Ford Motor Company factory in Chihuahua
Employees at a Ford Motor Company factory in Chihuahua. The manufacturing sector expanded in June by 2.8%. (Government of Mexico)

INEGI said that 4.3% annual growth in the tertiary or services sector was expected in June, while a 2.8% expansion was anticipated in the secondary or manufacturing sector. The statistics agency didn’t provide a forecast for the primary sector.

President López Obrador said Thursday that the 4% growth figure anticipated by INEGI was “good news.”

“The economy of our country is growing, which is very important. There is no economic economic stagnation,” he told reporters at his morning press conference.

INEGI also reported that month-over-month growth in June was expected to be 0.2%. The annual growth anticipated for June is higher than the 3.6% year-over-year expansion forecast for May, but lower than the 0.4% month-over-month growth predicted for that month. INEGI will publish final data for May later this month.

AMLO press conference
The president highlighted economic growth indicators at the Friday morning press conference. (Gob MX)

The Mexican economy grew 3.3% annually in April after a 3.7% expansion in the first quarter of 2023.

The economy grew 3.1% in 2022, while López Obrador has asserted that GDP will expand by 4% this year. The World Bank last month updated its 2023 growth forecast for the Mexican economy to 2.5%, a significant improvement from the 0.9% prediction it made in January.

Meanwhile, the Mexican peso has depreciated this week after reaching its strongest position in almost eight years last Friday. Despite that, the USD-MXN exchange rate remains below 17.

The exchange rate at 11 a.m. Mexico City time Friday was 16.96 pesos to the greenback, according to Bloomberg.

With reports from El Financiero 

Mérida to have its first official Magical Neighborhood

By
MND Staff
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0
Ermita de Santa Isabel, Merida, a yellow church
La Ermita in Mérida will become Mexico's ninth Barrio Mágico, according to the city's mayor. (Mario Morales Rubi/Wikimedia)

The La Ermita neighborhood in Mérida, Yucatán, is set to be the city’s first Barrio Mágico, or Magical Neighborhood — a recognition granted to some of Mexico’s most iconic locations. 

According to Yucatán’s state Tourist Promotion Minister Michelle Fridman, Mexico’s Minister of Tourism Miguel Torruco will travel to the state next week to officially grant the award.

La ermita, Merida
The streets around La Ermita’s church are filled with brightly colored colonial buildings. (Mapio)

While the federal government has not officially named the neighborhood, Mérida Mayor Renán Barrera has previously suggested that it would be La Ermita. 

Located in downtown Mérida, La Ermita is one of the city’s oldest neighborhoods, home to the Ermita de Santa Isabel, a small French-style cobblestone church built in the 18th century. The neighborhood’s quiet streets are framed by colorful colonial-style houses, while the botanical garden adjacent to the church displays a lush array of native greenery. The main plaza sells Mexican antojitos (snacks) at night. 

The Barrio Mágico program was created by Mexico’s Ministry of Tourism in 2022 to promote tourism in Mexico’s major population centers. It’s a similar designation as the Pueblos Mágico (Magical Town), which highlights towns across Mexico with historical and cultural value. The Magical Town program has proven to be an important driver of tourism to its 177 towns in the country. 

Fridman explained that as large cities are ineligible for the Pueblos Mágicos titles, “the Magical Neighborhoods program seeks to give the same benefits to certain locations or spaces within the cities.”

A swimming pool at a luxury hotel
Hotels in La Ermita, such as the Hotel Cigno, will see a tourism boost as a result of the designation. (De Viajeros/Twitter)

The designated neighborhoods will receive funding to renovate buildings and promote its tourism industry. 

While the state’s authorities requested the recognition of eight historical neighborhoods in Mérida, the first stage of the program will only award one per city.  

Excluding La Ermita, there are currently eight Magical Neighborhoods across Mexico, in the cities of Chetumal, Mexicali, Hermosillo, San Luis Potosí, Pachuca, Uruapan, Oaxaca City and Chilpancingo. 

With reports from La Jornada Maya and Entorno Turístico.

Interpol issues red notices for García Luna’s wife and siblings

By
Cat Rainsford
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Interpol police
The international law enforcement body issued a formal request for their arrest after the family members failed to appear in a Mexican court in May. (Interpol/Twitter)

Interpol has issued red notices for the arrest of the wife and two brothers of former Mexican security minister Genaro García Luna, who is currently in prison in the United States on charges of drug trafficking.

The three people are wanted in connection to crimes committed in Mexico that are unrelated to the U.S. drug trafficking charges for which García Luna was convicted in February.

Mexico's former security minister Genaro Garcia Luna
García Luna was convicted by U.S. prosecutors of international cocaine distribution, among other charges. His attorneys have been granted more time to pursue potentially favorable new evidence they say has come to light since the conviction in February. (File photo by Tercero Diaz/Cuartoscuro)

According to the Mexican Attorney General’s Office (FGR), García Luna’s siblings and his wife Cristina Pereyra are suspected of involvement in one of three cases being brought against García Luna in Mexico. 

The case concerns 10 allegedly fraudulent contracts to provide technological services to Mexican federal prisons, amounting to 5.1 billion pesos (US $302 million).

Pereyra is currently living in the U.S., where she accompanied her husband during his trial in New York in March. Justifying her decision to move from Mexico to Miami, she told the court: “We wanted our children to have a normal life.”

A Mexican federal judge ordered the arrest of Pereyra and García Luna’s brothers in May, along with 60 people accused of involvement in the embezzlement scheme. When they failed to appear in court, the FGR requested that Interpol issue red notices for their arrest.

Pablo Gómez Álvarez, head of Mexico’s federal Financial Intelligence Unit, revealed this year that García Luna orchestrated an embezzlement network of 44 international companies. (lopezobrador.org.mx)

Though a red notice may lead to an arrest, it is considered a formal request, and it is ultimately up to the discretion of the Interpol member country whether or not to arrest the person. This distinguishes it from an international warrant. 

After Interpol issued the red notices, President López Obrador called on former President Felipe Calderón to break his silence about the charges against García Luna, who served as security minister in Calderón’s government.

“He should say that it’s all false, that it was an invention of the government, of the U.S. Attorney General’s Office and the Drug Enforcement Administration. [If] what is said about García Luna isn’t true, defend him. Or say ‘I made a mistake,’” AMLO said.

García Luna faces two additional arrest warrants in Mexico. One is for the “Fast and the Furious” case, named after a controversial police operation that allowed 2,500 weapons to be trafficked from the U.S. to Mexico between 2009 and 2011. 

Its stated aim was to use the arms to trace drug traffickers, but the illegal arms trafficking network it created only gave more power to the criminals.

The second warrant is for the fictitious construction and operation of several federal prisons, through which García Luna allegedly embezzled 64.9 billion pesos (US $3.84 billion).

United States authorities have not commented on Interpol’s request. 

With reports from López Doriga and El País

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