Storage in Mexico: An unexpected challenge. (Andrea Piacquadio/Pexels)
There are many awesome things about living in this country. You can walk to lots of places. You can interact with all kinds of people, basically whenever you want. You can get really good, fresh food for non-Whole Foods prices. The list goes on! Storage space, unfortunately, is not Mexico’s fuerte.
At least not for the masses.
The lack of integrated storage options in most Mexican homes can be enough to send you up the wall. (Pixabay/Pexels)
If you rent a typical house or apartment, you should celebrate if you’ve got closets in all the bedrooms. Though they may seem like a basic thing to have, you’d be surprised at how many homes simply do not include them. Other dwellings may have closet spaces, but no doors to cover them, which in my opinion is a grave sin. It’s nothing a college dorm-looking curtain can’t fix, I suppose.
Mosey on over to the bathroom, and the only surface you’re liable to find is the sink itself and the top of the toilet. Do you want a place to put your make-up and towels? No.
Take a peak into the kitchen, and it might look even more bare. While some newer homes will include a “cocina integral” — basically, cabinets and counter space — most older homes will simply feature a room with a sink and a little table or counter space if you’re lucky. You’re going to have to pay handsomely if you want a pantry, and might not ever find a place with a hall closet. No wonder so many people keep their pots and pans inside of the oven.
On the one hand, the lack of storage space in Mexico forces us to think about the possessions we really, truly need. Perhaps we don’t need two sets of dishes or three jumbo packs of toilet paper. Maybe one towel per person is enough.
A “cocina integral” might sound like a luxury to some apartment-renters in Mexico. (Rene Terp/Pexels)
On the other hand, sometimes you just don’t want your place looking junky. What to do?
How to fix your storage issues in Mexico
Have less stuff
This is obvious. But again, it’s an easy way to “solve” a lack of places to put it all. If you’re looking around and realizing that your possessions are spilling all over the place, it might be time to take a page from Marie Kondo and make sure that the things in your space are the things you actually want in your space. If they’re not, perhaps it’s time to say goodbye!
Shelves, shelves and more shelves!
In most cases, shelves do the trick. (Karl Solano/Pexels)
I love shelves. Shelves are the best. I want to marry shelves.
In general, the idea is to use your wall space. Kitchen? Shelves for your dishes and food, and find a place to hang your pots and pans. If there are no cabinets on the bottom, tables with at least two tiers. Bathroom? Larger shelves higher up for your towels — above the toilet is a good spot — smaller ones closer to sink level for your toiletries. Just make sure they’re not in a spot where you’re liable to bump into them with your face. For wet towels in both places, command hooks look great, and nails will do in a pinch!
Baskets
What do you put on those shelves to keep them from looking junky? Baskets! Pretty, rustic woven ones can be found at the market, as can simple bookshelves that you can paint and varnish (or not). Fancier expensive ones can be found at higher-end stores.
Actual storage furniture, like in the “olden days”
Think china cabinets. Stand-alone wardrobes. Dresser drawers. Dining room bars with drawers underneath for the drinks and glasses. How did we build homes before the invention of the spread-out ranch-style model? Think about the furniture pieces you’d find in a historical home, and find their modern versions.
Cheaper versions of storage units
If you’re in a pinch, you can get wooden crates, the kind they sell mangos in, at the market. Mexico’s plethora of Chinese stores and even grocery stores offer plenty of plastic and metal-looking stand-alone cabinets and drawers. If you need something cheap and temporary, there are options!
What else would you all add to this, my experienced Mexico-dwellers?
The plan was a major focus of the president’s mañanera, but Sheinbaum responded to questions on other issues including the decade-old Ayotzinapa case.
Speaking in a city that is home to some of Mexico’s most popular beaches, the president also declared that the nation’s beaches are not private but rather belong to the people.
Resolving Ayotzinapapa case remains a government priority, Sheinbaum says
Sheinbaum told reporters that a “new team” is reviewing the Ayotzinapa case — the abduction and presumed murder of 43 Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers College students in Guerrero in September 2014.
“… It’s good that there is a new team reviewing the case again,” Sheinbaum said.
Parents of the 43 missing Ayotzinapa students continue to advocate for the resolution of the case. (Graciela López/Cuartoscuro)
Just two days after he was sworn in as president in December 2018, Andrés Manuel López Obrador signed a decree to create a super commission to conduct a new investigation into the case. He pledged to get to the bottom of the case and hold those responsible to account. But no one has yet been convicted of the crime and the remains of the vast majority of the students haven’t been found.
“We’re going to continue working,” she said. “This case will continue to be one of our priorities.”
‘The beaches belong to the people’
After Deputy Tourism Minister Sebastián Ramírez Mendoza noted that the government will “rehabilitate” entrances to beaches in Acapulco this year, Sheinbaum highlighted that “the beaches belong to the people.”
Citizens must have access to them, she said, stressing that “beaches are not private.”
Mexico News Daily reported at the time that fines can be issued if fences, barriers or buildings prevent entry to a beach or if property owners, hotel security staff or other hotel personnel block access when there is not an alternative public path.
The government will ‘rehabilitate’ beach access points in Acapulco, Sheinbaum’s deputy tourism minister promised. (File photo)
Sheinbaum noted that she was recently in coastal Nayarit and easy public access to beaches “was one of the demands” of the people she spoke to there.
“There has to be access to the beaches,” she said.
‘Los Chapitos’ and ‘La Mayiza’ have both been weakened, says security minister
A reporter asked Security Minister Omar García Harfuch about the extent to which the federal government has been able to weaken the Sinaloa Cartel since taking office at the start of October.
“More than anything else the criminal cells that generate the most violence have been weakened,” García Harfuch said.
The reporter sought to clarify whether the security minister was saying that the “Los Chapitos” and “La Mayiza” (or “Los Mayos”) factions of the Sinaloa Cartel had been weakened.
“Yes, of course,” García Harfuch said.
Security Minister Omar García Harfuch gave an update on the conflict in Sinaloa. (Presidencia)
A long-running dispute between “Los Chapitos” and “La Mayiza” escalated after the arrest in the United States of Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada last July. Zambada alleges he was kidnapped by Joaquín Guzmán López — one of the leaders of “Los Chapitos” — and forced onto a U.S.-bound plane before his arrest at an airport in New Mexico.
The war between the rival Sinaloa Cartel factions has claimed hundreds of lives in recent months.
García Harfuch said that “almost 50 priority targets” have been arrested in Sinaloa since Oct. 1 and 400 vehicles and over 600 firearms have been seized.
“The number of homicides at the beginning [of this term of government] is not the same as the number now. There have been days in Sinaloa with zero homicides. … Unfortunately there were five yesterday, but the day before yesterday there was only one,” he said.
“… Progress has definitely been made, but … we’re going to continue advancing with the strengthening of the security strategy,” García Harfuch said.
"Phygital" games feature a combination of real-life and online sports competitions. (Games of the Future/Facebook)
The Games of the Future — a competition that combines traditional sports with e-sports played on a computer — have touched down in greater Mexico City for a three-day run.
From Friday through Sunday, professionals and amateurs will be competing in phygital soccer, phygital basketball, dance simulation and tactical combat at Soccer City, a sports complex in the municipality of Tlalnepantla in México state.
Both teams and individuals will be seeking to qualify for the second edition of the Games of the Future, to be held in November in the United Arab Emirates.
Last year, the event made its debut in Kazan, Russia with more than 310 teams from 116 countries, according to Games of the Future CEO Igor Stolyarov. The two-week competition drew 3.2 billion views online, according to the sports website Inside the Games.
“Young people, who were our target audience, enjoyed the format, and we also received positive feedback from around the world,” Stolyarov said last year, when the prize pool totaled US $10 million and the opening ceremony was attended by Russian President Vladimir Putin and leaders from Belarus, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan.
Phygital Games México will feature at least four categories out of the 21 that were contested in Russia. “Phygital” is a mashup of “physical” and “digital,” and the main objective is scoring the most points in the two formats.
A poster advertises the inaugural edition of Phygital Games México. (Phygital Games México)
“Get hyped for the ultimate mash-up of physical skills and digital thrills as the world’s best athletes and gamers collide in what’s shaping up to be an epic, futuristic showdown,” the Games of the Future writes on its website.
In Mexico City, the marquee sport will be phygital soccer, which starts with two three-minute halves of EA Sports video soccer on PlayStation 5; after that, there will be a physical 5-on-5 soccer match lasting 10 minutes.
Two players with experience in Mexico’s top professional league, Liga MX, are expected to be part of the Mexican team, which goes by the nickname Quetzales: Jorge “Burrito” Hernández, 35, and Edy Brambila, 39. Two other Liga MX veterans, Melvin Brown, 45, and Joahan Rodríguez, 49, are slated to be coaches.
Last year in Russia, the Quetzales squad placed third in phygital football behind the Peñarol team from Uruguay and the Lokomotiv squad from Moscow.
Another competition in Mexico City is phygital basketball. It includes a game to 19 points on the NBA 2K video game, and then a 2-on-2 IRL game until 39 points (IRL stands for “in real life”).
The dance competition includes following steps in the arcade video game Just Dance; and tactical combat includes teams facing off in the video game Counter-Strike 2 followed by a physical game of laser tag in which teams seek to defuse a virtual bomb.
Last year’s Games of the Future in Russia also included popular e-sports titles such as Dota 2 and World of Tanks, alongside physical sports such as skateboarding, martial arts and cycling. Drone racing and robot battles were also part of the mix, although phygital soccer and phygital basketball received the bulk of last year’s prize money: US $1.25 million each.
In Mexico City, 250 competitors from throughout the country (and beyond) are expected to participate, and organizers think 2,000 or so spectators will attend. The competitions will be held from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. each day, with finals slated to begin at 6 p.m. Sunday.
The festival is expected to position Mexico as an emerging leader in phygital sports.
In recent years, Russia has taken the reins, showing a high level of interest and investment in both e-sports and phygital sports.
The overwhelming majority of residents told pollsters that living in Mexico City brings joy to their lives. (Juan Luis Alejos/Unsplash)
Mexico City is one of the 10 best cities in the world, according to a survey conducted by Time Out magazine.
Coming in at No. 7 and beating cities like Shanghai (No. 9) Barcelona (No. 17), Paris (No. 19) and Dubai (No. Dubai), Mexico’s capital made it in the list due to its wide cultural and entertainment offerings.
“No matter the neighbourhood you’re in, there’s something in the air that makes everyone feel at home in Mexico City,” the magazine said.
The capital also ranked as one of the top five happiest cities worldwide — a whopping 96% of locals said that “their city makes them happy,” with an equal percentage saying that “they find joy” in the everyday experiences that the city offers.
“There’s always something to do here,” Time Out said, praising the city’s high-profile events like the Formula 1 and Day of the Dead. “All year round is a celebration in CDMX,” it said.
Time Out described Mexico City as a “chaotic metropolis” filled with history, art, culture and incredible street food. (Marie Volkert/Unsplash)
Every year, the magazine surveys thousands of locals about life in their hometowns. This year, more than 18,500 people shared their opinions on everything from food, nightlife and culture to affordability, happiness and the overall city vibe.
“Livability was a key factor in our ranking this year,” the magazine said. “But a great city to live in is, naturally, a great city to visit.”
The ranking is also based on the opinion of Time Out’s global network of city experts, who shared which cities they consider to be the most exciting right now.
“Mexico City is a thriller, a chaotic metropolis of history, culture, art, and all the rest, with some of the best street food imaginable seemingly waiting on every corner,” the magazine wrote in an earlier article published September 2024.
Home to some of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants, the best bar of North America (Handshake Speakeasy), and Mexico’s only taquería with a Michelin star, Mexico City “Mexico City is one of the most exciting places on the planet,” the magazine concluded.
According to Time Out, some of the best things to do in the capital include visiting Frida Kahlo’s house, taking a water ride in the canals of Xochimilco, exploring Chapultepec Park or watch a film at the National Cineteca.
When Sheinbaum entered office, Mexico was already entangled in a human rights crisis caused by "extreme violence by organized crime groups and widespread abuse by state agents," the report found. (Presidencia)
President Claudia Sheinbaum “inherited a human rights crisis” from her predecessor Andrés Manuel López Obrador, according to a new report by the New York-based non-governmental organization Human Rights Watch (HRW).
In the Mexico chapter of its “World Report 2025: Events of 2024,” HRW raised a range of concerns related to issues including criminal violence, judicial independence, arbitrary detention and disappearances.
In 2024, Mexico’s controversial reforms to its judicial branch inspired protests across the country. (Cuartoscuro)
Gerardo Laveaga, a lawyer, writer, academic and former government official, described the report as “not very encouraging.”
The Sheinbaum administration is currently aiming to reduce crime in Mexico with a new security strategy, albeit one that continues to use the military for public security tasks.
In its report, HRW noted that Mexican “soldiers have been implicated in a wide range of serious abuses against civilians, including torture, arbitrary detention, extrajudicial killings, and enforced disappearances.”
Mexico’s ‘human rights crisis’
“President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo, who took office in October, inherited a human rights crisis rooted in extreme violence by organized crime groups and widespread abuse by state agents with near total impunity,” HRW said at the very start of the Mexican chapter of its latest World Report.
“Her predecessor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador (2018-2024) made little progress addressing these challenges,” the NGO added.
HRW noted that last September the Mexican Congress approved constitutional reforms that were put forward by López Obrador, including “an expansion of the military’s role in policing,” as the National Guard was put under army control, and “a sweeping overhaul of the justice system” that includes the staging of judicial elections for the first time ever in Mexico.
Those reforms, HRW said, “could perpetuate abuses and severely undermine the rule of law.”
The expansion of the military’s role in policing is one of the reforms that could lead to more widespread human rights abuses in Mexico, according to the report. (Margarito Pérez Retana/Cuartoscuro)
The NGO also said that “migrants and asylum seekers are routinely targeted by criminal groups and Mexican officials for serious abuses, including sexual assault, armed robbery, kidnapping, and extortion.”
In addition, it said that “Mexico is one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists and human rights defenders,” dozens of whom have been murdered in recent years.
Violence and the criminal justice system
HRW highlighted that “there are extremely high rates of violent crime, including homicide, in many parts of Mexico.”
It also noted that “security analysts estimate that around two-thirds of homicides” in Mexico “are committed by organized crime.”
Mexico recorded just over 30,000 homicides last year, according to preliminary government data, meaning that some 20,000 were likely committed by criminal organizations such as the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel.
As noted by HRW, the majority of homicides in Mexico are committed with firearms, and most of the guns used in high-impact crimes such as murder are smuggled into the country from the United States.
Though gun ownership regulations in Mexico strict on paper, massive numbers of weapons are smuggled in from the U.S. (Saul Lopez/Cuartoscuro)
Combating Mexico’s security problems is a herculean task but Sheinbaum is confident that her strategy — based on four core tenets including attention to the root causes of crime and the strengthening of intelligence and investigation practices — will, in time, yield positive results. The president is open to security cooperation with the United States, but has made it clear that Mexico would not accept any interventionist actions, such as the use of the U.S. military on Mexican soil.
To effectively combat crime, a strong criminal justice system is essential, but HRW said in its report that the system in Mexico is “extremely ineffective.”
“Prosecutors fail to effectively investigate or prosecute or otherwise ensure accountability for the vast majority of crimes and human rights abuses, including abuses by state security forces and serious offenses like homicide and enforced disappearances,” it said.
Judicial independence and arbitrary detention
HRW noted that judicial elections will be held in Mexico in 2025 and again in 2027. Supreme Court justices are among those who will be elected by citizens.
“A new Judicial Disciplinary Tribunal will also be created with broad powers to sanction or remove judges,” HRW highlighted.
“The UN special rapporteur for the independence of judges and lawyers and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights warned that the measure is likely to weaken judicial independence and undermine the right to a fair trial,” the NGO added.
Sheinbaum argues that the judicial reform approved by Congress last year is necessary to rid Mexico’s judiciary of corruption and other ills. She denies claims that the judiciary will lose independence as a result of the popular election of judges.
“We’re going to provide an example to the world with the reform to the judicial power, I’m certain,” Sheinbaum said in October.
President Sheinbaum has argued that the 2024 reforms to Mexico’s judicial branch will reduce corruption without compromising judicial independence. (Rogelio Morales/Cuartoscuro)
With regard to arbitrary detention, HRW highlighted that the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention presented the findings from its 2023 visit to Mexico last September, and expressed concern that “arbitrary detention remains a widespread practice in Mexico and is too often the catalyst for ill-treatment, torture, enforced disappearance and arbitrary executions.”
It also noted that the Mexican Congress in November “approved a constitutional amendment to expand the list of crimes requiring mandatory pre-trial detention, in violation of rulings by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, which had ordered Mexico to eliminate the practice.”
Torture, disappearances and abuses by the military
HRW wrote that Mexican authorities “often use torture to obtain confessions and extract information” from suspects, noting that more than 6,000 criminal complaints of torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment were filed in 2022.
“Only 82 cases that year led to criminal charges and only 10 resulted in a guilty or not-guilty verdict,” HRW said.
The NGO also highlighted that more than 115,000 people were considered as missing last September, with most of that number going missing since 2006.
It said that the government “has been slow to implement many measures required by the 2017 Disappearances Law, such as the creation of the national forensic database,” and that “former president López Obrador repeatedly, falsely claimed the official number of missing people had been exaggerated to harm him politically.”
With regard to abuses committed by the military, HRW said that accusations of wrongdoing “are rarely effectively investigated by civilian authorities.”
“… From 2007 through July 2024, the Army reported killing 5,696 people, whom it claimed were members of criminal groups. These killings are usually not independently investigated by civilian authorities,” the NGO said.
Like her predecessor, Sheinbaum has asserted that abuses committed by the military during previous governments, such as that led by ex-president Felipe Calderón, are no longer tolerated.
The military has killed over 5,000 alleged criminals since 2007, incidents that are rarely investigated by civil authorities, the Human Rights Watch reported. (Cuartoscuro)
“The issue with Calderón was to kill, kill [suspected criminals] in the heat of the moment. What trial? What rule of law?” the president said this week.
“This does damage to any society, and it did a lot of damage to Mexico,” she said.
While the Mexico chapter of the HRW report overwhelmingly depicted a bleak human rights situation in Mexico, it did highlight some positives. Among them:
“The poverty rate fell under López Obrador’s presidency, from 41.9 percent in 2018 to 36.3 percent in 2022, according to the official poverty analysis agency.”
“Access to abortion has expanded significantly,” although “many people still face barriers.”
“Same-sex marriage is available in all 32 states.”
“Mexico has made some advances in protecting the rights of people with physical and psychosocial disabilities in recent years.”
A pair of Acapulco residents make their way through the rain after Hurricane John hit the city in September. (Carlos Alberto Carbajal/Cuartoscuro)
The federal government announced this week that it will invest more than 8 billion pesos (US $386 million) over the next several years as Acapulco enters a new phase of recovery after the passage of two hurricanes in the past 16 months.
President Claudia Sheinbaum visited the Pacific Coast resort on Thursday to present details of the recovery plan, called Transforming Acapulco with You. The plan aims to renovate the port city’s infrastructure, revive tourism and rehabilitate the iconic semicircular bay on which Acapulco is located.
Sheinbaum introduced the most recent hurricane recovery plan on Thursday afternoon in Acapulco. (Presidencia)
Sheinbaum was joined by several members of her Cabinet including Interior Minister Rosa Icela Rodríguez and Economy Minister Marcelo Ebrard, as well as businessmen Carlos Slim (president of Grupo Carso), José Antonio Hernández (president of Mundo Imperial) and Francisco Cervantes (president of the Business Coordinating Council).
The president, who has made seven trips to the beleaguered city since taking office on Oct. 1, 2024, reaffirmed her government’s commitment to the region.
“We can’t come here only when tragedy occurs,” she said. “We must revitalize Acapulco.”
Among the highlights of the plan is the establishment of a new 3,510-hectare district dedicated to tourism that will be developed on the western side of the bay. The district will include parts of Acapulco and neighboring Coyuca, including the Las Playas resort area.
The newly designated tourism district will include the peninsula of Las Playas, visible at the upper right. (Visit Mexico)
The federal government, via the agency Fonatur, will assume responsibility for the provision of services (electricity, water and trash collection) as well as the rehabilitation of the infrastructure in the area, while working with the state and local governments to design this new space.
The government has already spent roughly 740 million pesos (US $36 million) to repair roads and highways in Guerrero since the region was battered by Hurricane Otis in October 2023 and Hurricane John in September 2024. It expects to spend a total of 1.9 billion pesos (US $91 million) to repair state roads and federal highways in Guerrero through the end of this year.
Another 173 million pesos (US $8.3 million) has been spent in supplying potable water to 834,000 residents since last October. Future investments of up to 1.8 billion pesos (US $86.6 million) will be set aside to water pipes and treatment plants.
The Sheinbaum administration has also worked to remove trash and debris, refurbished more than 1,500 schools and spent millions to restore electricity to the region’s 50 municipalities.
The U.S. branch of TransUnion will acquire a majority stake in TransUnion México, giving it control of Mexico's largest credit bureau. (Shutterstock)
U.S. credit reporting agency TransUnion has signed a definitive agreement to acquire majority ownership in the consumer credit business of the largest credit bureau in Mexico, Buró de Crédito.
Mexican banks BBVA, Banorte, Scotiabank, HSBC and Santander announced on Thursday that they will separately sell their respective stakes in TransUnion México, which controls the Buró de Crédito.
The buy-out — estimated at US $560 million — leaves TransUnion’s stake in TransUnion México at around 94%, up from 26%, the news agency Reuters reported.
TransUnion has held seats on TransUnion México’s board of directors for over two decades, and serves as one of its technology providers.
In a statement, TransUnion said it plans to tap into Mexico’s rapidly expanding consumer credit market with the purchase.
“Our expansion in Mexico continues our commitment to making trust possible in global commerce,” Chris Cartwright, president and CEO of TransUnion, said in the statement. “Credit bureaus are a catalyst for financial inclusion, and we are excited for the opportunity to bring the benefits of our state-of-the art technology, innovative solutions and industry expertise to Mexican consumers and businesses.”
The Buró de Crédito is Mexico’s largest credit agency. (Asofich/Facebook)
“We look forward to supporting [Mexico’s] digital transformation objectives to empower consumers with increased economic opportunity,” Cartwright added.
TransUnion said it expects to close the deal — which is subject to regulatory approval — by the end of the year and will fund it through cash and debt.
Carlos Valencia, TransUnion’s Latin America regional president, told Reuters that TransUnion expects to offer alternative credit data and fraud mitigation options, while also expanding into insurance and financial technology.
“We anticipate that our planned acquisition of Buró de Crédito’s consumer credit business will strengthen our leadership position in Latin America and will make TransUnion the largest credit bureau in Spanish-speaking Latin America,” Valencia said.
Consumer credit in Mexico is rapidly expanding, and over half of Mexican adults have at least one financial product, according to financial technology newswire Finextra.
Although credit penetration remains lower in Mexico than other Latin American countries, it increased from 34% to 42% of GDP between 2013 and 2023.
“We anticipate integrating the Buró de Crédito consumer credit business into our strong global operating model as part of our International segment,” Todd Skinner, international director ofTransUnion, said in the company statement. “We expect to deliver strong growth over the long term, supported by favorable market dynamics and execution against our growth playbook.”
The bureau’s commercial credit business is to be excluded from the deal, TransUnion said. That arm of the Buró de Crédito is jointly run with Dun & Bradstreet, Reuters reported.
Thanks to his ownership of companies like Telcel, Telmex and others, Carlos Slim has amassed a net worth of nearly US $100 billion. (Graciela López/Cuartoscuro)
Billionaire businessman Carlos Slim will be among the Mexicans present at the inauguration of Donald Trump as the 47th president of the United States in Washington D.C. on Monday.
Francisco Cervantes, president of Mexico’s influential Business Coordinating Council (CCE), told reporters this week that he will attend the inauguration with Slim, Mexico’s richest person and owner of companies such as Telcel, Telmex, Sanborns and Carso Infrastructure and Construction.
Carlos Slim and Francisco Cervantes, seen here with President Sheinbaum, will be guests at Donald Trump’s inauguration as U.S. president. (Francisco Cervantes/X)
Mexico will officially be represented at the inauguration of Trump by Ambassador to the United States Esteban Moctezuma. Sheinbaum confirmed this week that she hadn’t been invited to the quadrennial event.
The commencement of Trump’s second term as president could have an almost immediate impact on Mexico, as the president-elect has pledged to impose a 25% tariff on all Mexican exports on day one and promptly start his planned mass deportation operation.
CCE chief Cervantes said his organization is negotiating a deal with the U.S. to avoid tariffs on Mexican products. (Camescom/Cuartoscuro)
Cervantes said Wednesday that the CCE has been working with the government on a plan aimed at averting tariffs on Mexican goods.
She has previously said that Mexico would impose a reciprocal tariff on U.S. exports if the Trump administration were to impose a tariff on Mexican exports. Sheinbaum reiterated this week that the federal government’s plan to receive large numbers of deportees from the United States during Trump’s second term as president is “ready.”
Slim confident that Mexico will ‘do well’ during Trump’s second term
In November, Slim asserted that Mexico will “do well” during Trump’s second term as president because the Mexican and U.S. economies are “very complementary.”
Researchers ground corn, sweet potatoes and other foods to better understand the residue they had found on ancient grinding stones. (INAH)
Ancient corn remains found in grinding tools at a Xochimilco archeological site have provided scientists with a new perspective into how agriculture first developed in the Valley of Mexico (also known as the Basin of Mexico).
Today, Xochimilco is a popular tourist destination in Mexico City primarily known for its water canals and trajineras (colorful local boats) and for being the home of the axolotl, an endangered species of salamander. But thousands of years ago, it was home to some of the area’s first permanent residents.
The archaeologists used high-powered microscopes to study the surface of ancient grinding stones from Xochimilco. (INAH)
The new findings come from artifacts dating back 6,000 years that were found at the San Gregorio Atlapulco archeological site, in a former islet in the Xochimilco canals.
“The site of San Gregorio, Atlapulco occupied during this transitional phase towards the development of early villages (6000–3500 BCE), has revealed a rich archaeological record that has allowed us to investigate the subsistence strategies of complex hunter-gatherers in the southern Basin of Mexico,” researchers wrote in an article published in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports.
The artifacts, analyzed by researchers from the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) and the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), revealed residues of sweet potato, beans, corn, tomato, chile and yam.
Researchers used a methodology for the first time in Mexico, based on starch analysis. Using scanning electron microscopy and other techniques, they found traces of wear on these grinding stone tools, confirming grinding activities on their surfaces.
The researchers identified microscopic starch molecules on the stones, allowing them to identify which stones were used to grind corn (Zea mays), chile (Capsicum), tomatillo (Physalis) and other ancient foods. (INAH)
The findings suggest that the diet of these societies was based on gathering plants and resources from the lake plains, supplemented with domesticated plants like corn. Researchers think this diet was practiced during a period of climatic improvement prior to the appearance of the earliest ceramics in what is now central Mexico.
“This discovery helps us define the preceramic period and corroborates the vital role played by lake communities in the development of the first sedentary groups and the adoption of domesticated plants for their diet,” the INAH said in a statement.
“This study reevaluates one of the most poorly understood periods in the archaeology of the Basin of Mexico,” research concluded.
This research project is part of the “Population, Initial Agriculture and Village Societies in the Basin of Mexico,” co-directed by researchers from UNAM and INAH. The study seeks to explore two critical processes in the human settlements in the area of modern-day Mexico City: the initial population and the development of agriculture.
It also seeks to understand how the first residents of the area gave up their nomadic lifestyles to build villages and develop agriculture in the lake communities south of the basin.
Almost a century before the return of Donald Trump, the United States experienced a series of brutal, arbitrary deportations aimed at Mexicans in the country. (The Conversation)
Since his 2016 campaign for U.S. president, Donald Trump’s rhetoric on immigrants has gotten harsher and uglier. Having deported 1.5 million people during his first administration, the American president-elect campaigned on the promise to initiate mass deportations. Many people think this is far-fetched, insisting that it would be impossible to round up and deport millions of people — but it has happened before, as Herbert Hoover decided to launch the deportations of every Mexican in the United States.
In 1931, the United States was in the throes of the Great Depression. Millions were out of work and families were suffering. President Herbert Hoover searched for solutions to turn the economy around, but his approach was piecemeal. He decided on what he felt would be a popular program by white Americans: the mass deportation of Mexican Americans, freeing up their jobs.
As the Great Depression bit, lawmakers searched for a way to reduce the pressure. (U.S. National Archives/Wikimedia Commons)
“American jobs for real Americans”
“Decade of Betrayal: Mexican Repatriation in the 1930s,” the first major work of research on Hoover’s mass deportations, was published by Californian historians Francisco Balderrama and Raymond Rodriguez in 1995. “Decade of Betrayal,” as well as research conducted by Balderrama and Rodriguez in collaboration with California State Senator Joseph Dunn and his staff in the early 2000s, remains an important source of knowledge as to what happened during this campaign of deportation. Dunn’s research has found that 1.8 million people were deported during the Depression.
Hoover’s administration called it a National Program of “American jobs for real Americans” — the implication being that only whites were real Americans. The Republican’s government worked to convince the public that deportation was for the best, a humanitarian act of helping Mexicans rejoin their families in Mexico. The truth is that it was brutal and inhumane. The repatriation program was carried out by Hoover’s Secretary of Labor, William Doak.
Close to two million Mexicans and Mexican Americans — thousands at a time — were rounded up without due process, loaded onto cramped trains, transported to central Mexico and dropped off in rural areas with only the clothes on their backs. Photographic evidence shows the crowds dropped off at railroad stations awaiting their deportation. They included women, children and many who had been born in the United States, were U.S. citizens and didn’t speak Spanish. Many Mexican nationals deported were also U.S. permanent residents. No one was safe if they ‘looked Mexican.’
As part of the program, Doak also appealed to local officials to pass laws preventing Mexicans from holding government jobs, even if they were U.S. citizens. Many major U.S. corporations — among them U.S. Steel, Ford and Southern Pacific Railroad — supported the government’s actions, firing anyone of Mexican descent. The fired workers, Francisco Balderrama told NPR in 2015, were told they “would be better off in Mexico with their own people.”
With the mantra “a Mexican is a Mexican,” work records and government rolls were scoured to search for names that sounded Mexican.
The round-up begins
Nationwide — in the South, North and as far away as Alaska — Mexicans and Mexican Americans were rounded up wherever they congregated: markets, hospitals, social clubs, plazas and public parks. Mexican Americans were being blamed for the bad economy and were filled with fear, not knowing when they or their families might be deported.
California was a primary target due to the number of Mexicans and Mexican Americans who lived in the state. According to historian Francisco Balderrama, Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors member H. M. Blaine proclaimed that “the majority of the Mexicans in the Los Angeles Colonia were either on relief or were public charges.” Political support for the repatriation program was not only found in California. Congressman Martin Dies, a Texas Democrat, wrote in the Chicago Herald-Examiner that the “large alien population is the basic cause of unemployment”.
The most famous round-up happened in downtown Los Angeles’ Placita Olvera in 1931. On a Sunday afternoon on Feb. 26, a time when many Mexicans enjoy a day with family at the local park, a large group of armed plainclothes officers entered La Placita Park and began rounding up everyone who looked Mexican. Dozens of flatbed trucks and police vehicles circled the park, and officers were posted to prevent anyone from fleeing.
Mexicans are rounded up and put into camps awaiting deportation. (Inspired Pencil)
More than 400 people were lined up and asked to show proof of their legal entry to the United States. The crowd panicked. Very few people carried documentation with them to spend a day in the park with their families. The children had no idea what they were supposed to produce. Those without proper documentation were loaded onto the flatbed trucks and taken to the city’s main railroad station where they were ordered onto chartered trains and taken to rural parts of Mexico.
There were however some political leaders who fought back. In 2024, Joseph Dunn told the Washington Post that The Los Angeles City Council told the County Board of Supervisors numerous times in memos to stop their illegal deportations. “This isn’t about constitutional validity,” the supervisors responded. “It’s about the color of their skin.”
The raids were vicious, targeting people using public resources. Francisco Balderrama found cases of Los Angeles hospitals having orderlies gather up Mexicans, put them on stretchers, load them on trucks and transport them to the border, where they were left to die.
Officials justified their actions by saying deportation would free up jobs for non-Mexican Americans and accused Mexicans of overwhelming welfare rolls, draining them of money needed for others. Hoover gained public support by doubling down on his message that deporting Mexicans would free up money for “real Americans” in their time of economic need. The U.S. president continued to describe the deportations as merely repatriating Mexicans to their birthplace, but documentation shows that 60 percent of the deportees were U.S. citizens. Hoover told the public that this would “keep families together” when in reality that was never the intention and deportations in fact tore families apart.
Mexicans in the United States board trains bound for Mexico. (University of Arizona)
The tragedy continues
Many families left in central Mexico had young children who were traumatized by the experience. They were ostracized in school because they didn’t speak Spanish. The United States was the only country they knew. They had always had indoor plumbing and schools, and suffered from a lack of medical care where they found themselves.
Mexicans still in the United States who had not yet been deported found there was no one to help them. With so many deportations, anyone working on public assistance was gone. Trade unions favored mass deportation because they felt it would free up jobs for their white members.
The racist deportations did not stop with Hoover. After Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt took office in January 1933, he never officially revoked the “American jobs for real Americans” program, which was primarily being carried out by local governments. By the beginning of World War II, Mexican labor was back in demand — especially for low-paying agricultural work — and jobs left behind by the men sent to war needed to be filled. The program eventually just faded away and was forgotten.
1954 saw another wave of deportations by the government of Dwight Eisenhower in the form of the so-called “Operation Wetback,” the largest mass deportation in U.S. history, which added military-style tactics to Hoover’s old strategy of leaving people deep in central Mexico. Eisenhower’s government claimed that over a million people were deported or self-deported.
California apologizes, the United States doesn’t
Pressured by State Senator Joseph Dunn, California finally passed the Apology Act in 2005, apologizing for the Mexican Repatriation Program. In front of La Plaza de Culturas y Artes, a memorial was dedicated in 2012, inscribed with an apology to the hundreds of thousands of U.S. citizens who were illegally deported from California during the Great Depression.
Many Mexicans don’t want to talk about the deportations because there of the shame attached to it. But generations were destroyed by the brutality and cruelty of “repatriation.” To this day, Dunn told The Atlantic in 2017, the U.S. Congress refuses to issue a formal apology because the immigration issue is “too volatile.” Everyone wants to sweep the shameful deportations and xenophobia of the 1930s under the rug in the hope that the American people will not take the time to learn more about it. Unfortunately, eliminating that piece of history may mean we have to relive it again in 2025.
