Students should be able to choose what kind of uniform they use based on how they self-identify, Durán says.
A Veracruz lawmaker who identifies as non-binary wants schools in the state to adopt a gender-neutral uniform policy.
Veracruz state Deputy Gonzalo Durán Chincoya said a gender-neutral uniform should be promoted in schools and that students should be able to dress in line with the free development of their personalities.
“Let’s get rid of this prejudice, this prototype, this binarism of man and woman. We are just simply people and as people todas, todos and todes have the right,” Durán said, using the feminine, masculine and non-gendered terms for “everyone.”
“It’s part of the free development of the personality. Schools should work on these issues to keep up with the times and respect identities, [personal] expressions and above all to contribute to the free development of the personality,” the lawmaker added.
Veracruz state Deputy Gonzalo Durán Chincoya.
Durán said the issue shouldn’t generate conflicts as they are rights stipulated in human rights law, calling on students to “Go as you self-identify.”
Durán cited the National Council to Prevent Discrimination (Conapred), which has recommended that schools allow students to choose the uniform and hairstyle that is most comfortable for them, whether that be pants or skirt, long hair or short hair. This month, a new Conapred recommendation also advised that students should be allowed to dye their hair, if they choose.
The Tapachula detention center where migrants are held without recourse to human rights protection.
Mexico News Daily writer Ben Wein reflects on his incarceration last October in a detention center in Chiapas where more than 100 “rescued” migrants are held, some for months on end, under extrajudicial detention.
There was no explaining my way out of it. Once the immigration authorities in Chiapas had demanded my passport, and I was unable to present it, my fate was sealed.
Ciudad Hidalgo, the small town on the Guatemala border, is where most undocumented migrants enter Mexico with their eyes on the United States. Immigration officials dot the road between the border and the nearby city of Tapachula, where I’d safely and regrettably stowed my passport in a hotel room.
Resistance seemed futile, and dangerous. Beside some inattentive immigration agents was a soldier with a very large gun. He looked perfectly well concentrated.
I protested but was promised I’d be taken to an immigration center simply to verify my details in a database. I readily accepted that premise, but truthfully I had another motive: as a journalist recently arrived to cover the migration crisis, I was intrigued to see where it would all lead.
Clarity came swiftly. I was loaded onto a bus by National Guardsmen with some 40 Haitian migrants and a few Central Americans. It was night when we arrived at the Siglo XXI detention center on the outskirts of Tapachula.
Once inside, it was belts and shoelaces off, and there was no way back. The bureaucrat registering my details had no interest in my tale of woe, nor did the half-dozen armed police in our vicinity. On paper, there was nothing to complain about: the bureaucrat helpfully reminded me that, according to the records, I’d been “rescued.”
It was a blessing in disguise. Tapachula is the heart of the American migration crisis, and the sinister Siglo XXI is its Sistine Chapel. In a place where no journalists are invited, there were some lessons that could only be learned from the inside.
1) Migrants are detained and held in Mexico at the threat of force. The government terms their detention as “rescue,” which is not only a misnomer but a lie. I spoke to many hundreds of migrants in Chiapas, and not one wanted the assistance of Mexican immigration authorities. They feared them. Everyone inside Siglo XXI was desperate to leave but not allowed to. They’d been locked up in large halls with more than 100 persons, guarded by armed police officers in watchtowers.
These prisoners weren’t only endangered by state officials but by other migrants, some of whom were members of Central American gangs. Many people inside were physically ill, and many others were suffering mentally. Hygiene was poor, sleep was scarce and the diet was short on vitamins. Mexico may be a risky place, but migrants sent to detention centers are guaranteed danger.
2) A murderer who has been arrested and imprisoned is in many ways better off than a detained migrant. Given that migrants have officially been rescued rather than arrested, they are not granted the rights awarded to criminal suspects. They have no access to legal representation, and there’s no promise of a phone call. Doubtless, the conditions in Mexican penitentiaries are squalid, but the same can be said for Siglo XXI.
Under extrajudicial detention, all possessions are confiscated, including cellphones and money. Migrants receive a mattress not unlike a gymnasium mat and some blankets and are told to find a place to sleep on a crammed floor. They wear the clothes they arrived in for the duration of their stay. Toilets don’t flush, and the stalls don’t have doors.
Ben Wein aboard the bus with migrants after his arrest in Chiapas.
A courtyard area is open during the day, based on the discretion of immigration officials. On my third day, we were forced outside while builders did some heavy construction work inside. I frequently asked immigration officials what the legal capacity of our confines was, but was ignored. Such information was unavailable and no one thought it their duty to answer questions.
Effectively, our rights depended on the whims of disinterested immigration agents. I once asked an immigration official if I could leave Siglo XXI, given that I hadn’t been arrested. “I don’t recommend it,” he replied, gesturing at an armed policeman.
No migrant should have been detained for more than 15 working days, but many had been inside for months. Venezuelans, Cubans and Indians seemed to be confined the longest.
3) The police officers in Siglo XXI wore the uniforms of a police unit that no longer exists. The Policía Federal (Federal Police) was absorbed into the National Guard in 2019, the new security force established by President López Obrador. Why officers from a defunct unit were working in a migrant detention center is a matter for speculation. Some officers worked with Central American gangsters, known as Maras — four boys from Honduras. The Maras tried to break up protests organized by prisoners and they were feared because they were known to work with the police. Many migrants said the police supplied the Maras with cigarettes and marijuana to sell inside.
4) Obedience was a bad strategy in Siglo XXI, but it was adopted by most of the people inside. Immigration authorities seemed too overwhelmed and disinterested to keep close track of who was under their protection, so if a migrant didn’t protest their case, they faced being forgotten.
One Venezuelan journalist, Joel Rondón, repeatedly held demonstrations and managed to attain regular meetings with the center’s ghost like director. Rondón managed to speed up the release of many of his friends. Low on patience after more than a month inside, he feigned an escape one day and was tackled to the ground by police officers who put him in confinement. The next day, he was released. It is unclear why he was released, but making trouble seemed to speed up the process. He is now awaiting an asylum hearing in New York.
My passport was eventually delivered to the detention center by the owner of the hotel I’d been staying at in Tapachula. I was told by officials that my entry stamp was insufficient evidence and that the document had to be “verified” in Mexico City. I spent long periods banging on the locked metal door directly opposite two police officers. I provoked the officers by shouting for an immigration official over and over until they lost their patience and searched for one. It was risky but effective, and getting lost in the system seemed such an awful prospect that it was worth pushing my luck.
Disobedience has also proved effective for migrants outside of detention centers: most of those who have joined migrant caravans, in defiance of Mexican law, have eventually been awarded year-long visas, providing them the right to travel to the U.S. border.
5) The majority of migrants inside Siglo XXI didn’t fit media caricatures. The news media tends to display them as impoverished or dangerous. Firstly, the population was incredibly diverse: while there were many Central Americans and Haitians, I also saw Indians, Ghanaians, Uzbeks, Senegalese people, Cubans, Venezuelans, a Peruvian and even a couple of confused Irish backpackers.
Poverty is only part of the story. Migrants from the Caribbean or from outside the Americas paid for an expensive flight, normally to reach South America. Many of the migrants in Siglo XXI were young, decently educated and pulled by the promise of opportunity.
However, Central Americans, who were a minority in Siglo XXI, did largely fit the profiles discussed on both ends of the political spectrum. Many were fleeing serious hardship and danger, their age range was huge and some were criminals. Most were chancers looking to improve their lives. For them the United States was a couple of bus rides away, and many had worked there before. Given their vicinity and relatively short detention period in Mexico, it seemed logical to take the risk to improve their earnings by some twentyfold.
6) If you’re detained, your embassy may not be of much use. After battling my way to a phone call, there was no answer at the British Embassy in Mexico City. Luckily, I’d been writing to my friend Paulina Martínez Núñez before I was detained. She thought to contact the embassy separately and Vice Consul Andrew Castle was put on the case, apparently from Costa Rica. But the embassy’s assistance was miserly: “Despite numerous calls and emails to the detention center, we received no response,” Castle later wrote to me in an email.
Instead, I owed my release to Martínez. She ingeniously got the head of the National Immigration Institute (INM) in Chiapas on the phone. I was released soon after that call, which had been beyond the capabilities of embassy staff but was possible for a Mexican with the cultural know-how.
7) It wasn’t all bad. Being inside a detention center had its fun side. Sometimes it felt like being back in school, goofing around and playing tricks on the police and immigration officials. There wasn’t much anger at those officials: the migrants and staff were players in a cat-and-mouse game arranged by people in high positions, far from view. The officials were doing their jobs — poorly — and earning their salaries. With a dearth of activities on offer, chitchat was the best entertainment available.
I spoke to migrants from five continents, and everyone had a tale to tell. There was strong rapport between migrants, and unlikely cultural exchanges: Venezuelans bonded with citizens of Burkina Faso. Even the Maras were decent conversationalists.
For people who are down on their luck, the migrants were incredibly trustworthy. Once I had my passport but still couldn’t leave, the document became an object of fascination for the migrants. For them, a passport is everything, and a British passport had the glamour of a Ferrari. Short on entertainment, everyone wanted a look. Naturally, I felt protective of the small but invaluable document. However, the requests kept coming, and I started handing it out.
To their credit, the passport repeatedly disappeared from my view to some other part of the detention center but would invariably return after about 10 minutes, in perfect condition.
Dead fish blanket cover part of the surface of the México lagoon in Mexicali on Friday.
Thousands of fish turned up dead in a lake in a Baja California border city last week and authorities said it could be due to a natural phenomenon provoked by scorching temperatures.
Biblical in appearance, a white sheet of fish carcasses covered the surface of the México lagoon in Mexicali, as seen in a video posted to social media on Friday.
In the video, a blanket of motionless fish are seen across the lake, stretching for hundreds of meters. The fish species have been confirmed as Mayan sardine, gizzard shad, black bass, European common carp and African tilapia.
Temperatures of 45 C (113 F) are thought to have lowered water levels, provoking a reduction in the lake’s oxygenation, leaving the fish vulnerable, the news site Excelsior reported. However, the head of a process control laboratory for the State Comission of Public Services in Mexicali (CESPM), Abraham Castro, said that rain was the causative factor, which he said had disturbed sediments at the bottom of the lake.
Mexicali Mayor Norma Bustamante denied that the deaths had been caused by waste dumping in the lake.
Mexicali’s head of wastewater for the CESPM, Benjamin Carrillo, said the phenomenon occurs twice a year, in August and again in March or April and that it can be sparked by cloudy conditions, causing the lake’s oxygen levels to dive.
National Water Commission (Conagua) personnel collected the bodies of the fish for further analysis.
Vehicle fires and caltrops created traffic blockades on Federal Highway 45. Twitter
At least two major universities, along with an unknown number of schools for younger people, canceled in-person classes in Zacatecas on Monday due to an outbreak of violence around the state.
Army troops from nearby Jalisco have joined the National Guard in patrolling areas that have been affected by roadblocks, shootings and vehicle fires allegedly perpetrated by cartel members in the region. The municipalities most affected have been Fresnillo, Zacatecas city, Jerez and Valparaíso — all within about 100 kilometers of one another.
Among the institutions that called off classes were the Autonomous University of Zacatecas, the National Polytechnic Institute and the Academic Mineral Institute. Primary, junior high and high schools in Valparaíso and Fresnillo also told their students to stay home.
Fresnillo has been plagued since Friday by shootings, roadblocks and at least one house fire. As of Monday, at least one man was reported murdered.
A semi-trailer was set ablaze as part of a blockade in Zacatecas city.
“In order to safeguard the security and integrity of the university community, particularly students … face-to-face academic activities will be suspended this Monday, August 29,” explained UNAM Zacatecas officials, adding that classes would take place virtually. At most of the schools, Monday was to be the first day of classes.
Additionally, 350 medical interns were told to not show up for work Monday by order of the IMSS, the Zacatecas Health Secretariat and UNAM Zacatecas, according to a tweet from journalist Paco Elizondo.
Saúl Monreal, the mayor of Fresnillo and the brother of Zacatecas Governor David Monreal Ávila, urged state and federal authorities to take action against the dispute-fueled violence that is turning the population into “hostages.” Fresnillo was reportedly the municipality most affected by the violence.
On Saturday, there were reports of at least eight blockades with burning vehicles. The violence continued over the weekend and into Monday. On Sunday evening, a spokesperson for the State Peacebuilding Board reported a trailer truck with its cabin on fire in the municipality of Zacatecas. There have also been reports of armed clashes, allegedly involving cartel members. The violence is suspected to be in response to the “alleged arrest of a priority objective,” according to Elizondo.
On Saturday afternoon, Zacatecas Minister of Public Security Gen. Adolfo Marín Marín posted a video to social networks stating that security had been reinforced throughout the region, some 90 arrests had been made and that “everything was under control,” as reported by Infobae.
The news website also reported that citizens were posting on social media networks about armed clashes, though that information was not confirmed. Infobae wrote that the clashes might have been “between members of the Sinaloa Cartel (CDS) and members of the Jalisco Nueva Generación Cartel (CJNG).”
As of Monday morning, Governor Monreal had not issued any statements about the violence.
Just under 24.5 million students begin the new school year in preschools, primary schools and middle schools across Mexico Monday. SEP
After 2 1/2 years of interruptions due to the COVID pandemic, more than 24 million students return to the classroom Monday to begin the 2022–23 academic year.
Just under 24.5 million students will begin the new school year in preschools, primary schools and middle schools across Mexico, according to the Ministry of Public Education (SEP). Over 5.2 million high school students returned to the classroom after summer vacation on August 15.
Basic education students — those from preschool to middle school — will take classes given by some 1.2 million teachers in almost 233,000 schools, according to SEP.
In a statement published Sunday, the Education Ministry urged students to return to in-person classes, stressing that “the necessary conditions” to do so are in place.
Leticia Ramírez becomes Mexico’s new education minister Thursday. She inherits a plan for implementing major curriculum changes from her predecessor, Delfina Gómez. Presidencia
It noted that health authorities are recommending a range of measures to ensure that in-person learning can resume safely amid the ongoing COVID pandemic. Among the recommendations are the use of face masks in enclosed spaces, the frequent washing of hands, and the carrying out of activities in the open air where possible.
Health authorities also advocated vaccination against COVID for both teachers and students. Teachers were among the first people in Mexico offered shots, but the federal government only extended its vaccination program to younger children this year.
Also notable is the fact that Mexico’s schools will have a new Education Minister this week: Delfina Gómez, who shepherded the new curriculum into being, is leaving the position Thursday to become a candidate for the governor of México state in 2023. Her successor, Leticia Ramírez Amaya, who has a degree in education and worked as a primary school teacher, most recently served as the director of citizen attention for the federal government.
The return to school comes as Mexicans face an inflation rate that reached 8.62% in the first half of August, the highest level in over two decades. Prices for school supplies such as pens, pencils and notebooks have increased even more, according to a vendor in the historic center of Mexico City.
“Products here have been affected by [a] 25–30% [price rise], but we try to give [customers] a good price so that they can buy everything they need,” Diego Tejada told CNN.
The ruling Morena party offered students and their families one way to save on school supplies: in a Twitter post on Sunday, it included six printable — and propagandistic — notebook labels with lines for students to write in their name, grade, subject and teacher. Each features an image of President López Obrador, Morena’s founder.
The still-impressive entrance to the eccentric Edward James sculpture gardens in Xilitla, San Luis Potosí.
Salvador Dali reputedly remarked to Sigmund Freud, “Edward James is crazier than all the surrealists put together. They pretend, but he is the real thing.”
Perhaps the best proof of James’s insanity is his sculpture gardens tucked away in a rainforest in San Luis Potosí. Officially called Las Pozas, the compound consists of acres of structures with various levels of utility, creativity, termination, and dilapidation, but it’s why people come to the Pueblo Mágico of Xilitla.
The gardens reflect a life looking for purpose.
James was born in 1907 with multiple silver spoons in his mouth, having American industrialists on his father’s side and royalty on his British mother’s. He never had to worry about earning a living or what he spent, but he did worry about being part of Europe’s artistic and intellectual circles.
James, right, with Surrealist artist Salvador Dali. James was Dali’s patron and a champion of surrealist art, but he was not an artist himself but a poet.
He began as a patron of ballet, wedding a ballerina. When that marriage ended in a scandalous divorce, James left England for the continent. Here, he became involved with surrealist artists such as René Magritte and Pablo Picasso: James commissioned from Dali — for whom he was a patron from 1936–1939 — wild objects such as a lobster-shaped telephone and a sofa based on the lips of Mae West.
World War II pushed him to the United States, but soon afterward, he went to the then-vibrant expat community in Cuernavaca, Morelos. There he met Plutarco Gastelum, who would be his right-hand man for the rest of his life.
Looking for a place for James’s prized orchid collection, the two came to Xilitla in 1947, finding the pristine Las Pozas, named after its natural pools fed by waterfalls.
James’s orchid sanctuary came to a sudden end when frost killed the entire collection of 29,000 in 1956. But he did not abandon Las Pozas, which he called an Eden. Instead, he turned to building his home and other structures there based on surrealist principles. James sketched out what he wanted built; Gasteum and local craftsmen would make it happen.
There are some places in the gardens where the structures do blend in harmoniously with nature.
Over the next decades, 36 buildings, sculptures and other structures would arise in the rainforest, most near the main waterfall. James gave them poetic names such as the House With a Roof Like a Whale and The House with Three Storeys that Could Be Five.
Artists and celebrities came to enjoy the developing complex’s bathing pools, exotic animals and more. British-Mexican surrealist artist Leonora Carrington painted a mural here, and Mexican artist Pedro Friedeberg designed the pair of hands found at the compound’s entrance. Many of the structures were painted in dreamlike colors, hard to imagine today as almost all of the paint is gone.
By the time he died in 1984 while traveling in Europe, he had spent an estimated US $5 million (roughly $18 million today) on the never-completed project.
Despite Gastelum’s family’s efforts, the compound would be abandoned until the 2000s, as James did not provide for its maintenance after his death. Only a few hardy souls would make the trek to see the ruins, which were quickly succumbing to the climate and vegetation growth.
As James’ estate began to take shape, celebrities and artists began to visit, including British surrealist artist Leonora Carrington, second from left.
In 2007, several businessmen and the state government took over the property, investing 600 million pesos to rehabilitate it and make it a protected area. The foundation in charge has done a phenomenal job of promoting it for tourism: thousands have since come to marvel at its structures. Visits are only through tours, which try to keep some control over the crowds constantly stopping to take selfies.
But the compound’s artistic value has been strongly debated.
There was no such thing as surrealist architecture before James came along; the movement was about focusing on what can only be in our minds. James’ devotion to surrealism earns him the moniker of “eccentric” in much literature, but locals in Xilitla bluntly called him a “crazy gringo.”
The structures themselves have invited photography and poetic descriptions, but James himself admitted that the project was “pure megalomania.” His desire was to be seen as something more than a fat checkbook for creatives, but I wonder if he thought he ever really succeeded.
Building the Xilitla compound cost James about US $18 million in today’s dollars, but it was never finished. Bernardo Bolaños/Creative Commons
The rainforest itself has assaulted whatever artistic value the structures have. Almost all of the structures are now so dilapidated that tourists are forbidden to enter everything except a small carpenter’s shop. The site was never meant to host large numbers of people, and it is likely that its popularity is making its deterioration happen faster.
Despite my overall reservations, I found a number of interesting photographs to take. Some are due to the curious shapes among the vegetation and waterfalls, others speak more to the idea of imposing human aesthetics on nature.
Efforts to get the site listed with the federal National Institute for Fine Arts (INBA) as an artistic monument have succeeded, but not to make it a World Heritage Site. Xilitla’s economy is now almost entirely dependent on the gardens. The town is filled with small hotels, and a museum dedicated to Leonora Carrington has opened.
Las Pozas is a conflictive curiosity. It is one man’s effort to see himself as an artist — or at least as something more than some crazy rich guy trying to beat boredom. Its decay and envelopment, despite all the work put into patching it up, just may be Mother Nature’s artistic statement about the futility of dominating her in the long run.
Repair efforts can be seen all over the compound, but it is likely a losing battle due to vegetation growth and the climate.
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.
When it's too hot to cook, a Tortilla Española in the fridge is a quick, easy alternative.
Canicula, Spanish for “the dog days of summer,” may be over, but that doesn’t mean the hot weather is.
Turn on the oven? No way. Stand at the stove with multiple burners blasting? Ugh! Yes, there’s takeout, but sooner or later, you’re going to have to feed yourself. Let’s look at some ways to do that easily, quickly and deliciously.
I’ve actually written quite a bit about the challenge of summertime cooking, most recently this gazpacho story. One of my favorite go-tos is pasta full of fresh veggies, and, of course, full-meal salads. I also find myself getting creative with leftovers, whether it’s using shredded chicken from Sunday night’s roast chicken, turning Basmati rice into an Asian stir-fry or marinating leftover veggies and making them into a salad.
Don’t even get me started on dessert! I definitely have a sweet tooth, and just because it’s hot outside doesn’t mean that goes away.
Ahhhh. mojito. So refreshing.
There’s no reason not to make yourself a mojito first thing; this classic Cuban cocktail is refreshing and easy to make — if you have fresh mint. Bartenders know not to muddle the mint too much or it will get bitter.
Another tip from the pros is to never use tonic water — the quinine will affect the taste. Seltzer or club soda is preferred.
I love eating Tortilla Española but have to admit I’ve never used a recipe; I just sort of wing it (and then wonder what went wrong). That stops now with the recipe below.
Among the several things I did wrong: the potatoes and onions should be slow-fried first; I didn’t beat the eggs enough or mix them with the potatoes/onions before putting them in the pan; and I only flipped the whole kit ‘n’ kaboodle once — if even. All of these things are important parts of what makes an authentic Tortilla Española. Live and learn!
What we have here are recipes for a complete meal, with minimal cooking time and possibly leftovers as well. I’ve included an “adult beverage,” a classic dressing for a simple green salad, an easy hot entrée and a super-simple lime pudding that’s rather fabulous. Provecho!
Mojito
2 oz. white rum
1 oz. lime juice
½ oz. simple syrup or agave syrup
5 fresh mint leaves
Club soda
Mint leaf or sprig for garnish
Gently muddle lime juice, syrup and mint leaves. Shake all ingredients except club soda in a shaker tin with ice. Double strain (so no pieces of mint remain) into a Collins glass. Fill with ice and top with club soda
Classic Vinaigrette
2 Tbsp. finely minced shallot/white onion
½ – 1 tsp. minced garlic
2 tsp. Dijon mustard
3 Tbsp. white wine vinegar
1 Tbsp. water
¾ cup extra-virgin olive oil
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Combine shallot/onion, garlic, mustard, vinegar and water in large bowl. Whisk to combine. Slowly drizzle in olive oil, whisking constantly, then add salt, pepper. Add your salad greens to the ingredients. Toss well.
Alternatively, shake all ingredients vigorously in a jar or shaker until emulsified. Add salt and pepper. Store in refrigerator up to 2 weeks.
A sweet treat to beat the summer heat: fresh lime pudding!
Tortilla Española
This uses lots of olive oil, but it adds unbeatable flavor.
8 large eggs
Salt to taste
2 cups good quality olive oil
1½ lbs. Yukon Gold or white potatoes, peeled, halved and thinly sliced crosswise
In large bowl, beat eggs vigorously with generous pinch of salt until frothy. Set aside.
In 10-inch nonstick or cast-iron skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat until shimmering. Add potatoes and onions; they should gently bubble in the oil. Regulate heat to maintain a gentle bubbling and cook, stirring occasionally, until potatoes/onions are meltingly tender, about 25 minutes.
Using a fine-mesh metal strainer over a heatproof bowl, drain potatoes/onions of excess oil. Reserve oil; set skillet aside to use again.
Transfer potatoes and onions to a bowl, season with salt and stir well. Beat set-aside eggs vigorously to refroth, then scrape potatoes/onions into eggs and stir to mix. Set aside 5 minutes.
Wipe out skillet. Add 3 Tbsp. of reserved frying oil. Set over medium-high heat until shimmering. Scrape egg mixture into skillet and cook, swirling and shaking pan rapidly, until bottom and sides begin to set, about 3 minutes. Using a heatproof spatula, press the edges in to begin forming the tortilla’s puck shape.
Continue cooking, adjusting heat to prevent bottom of tortilla from burning, until edges begin to set, about 3 minutes longer.
Working over a sink or counter, place a large overturned flat plate or lid on top of skillet, set hand on top (use a dish towel if it’s too hot), and, in one quick motion, invert tortilla onto it.
Add 1 more Tbsp. reserved oil to skillet and return to heat. Carefully slide tortilla back into skillet and continue to cook until second side begins to firm up, about 2 minutes. Use a rubber spatula to again press the sides in all around to form a rounded shape.
Continue cooking until lightly browned on second side but still tender in the center when pressed with a finger, about 2 minutes longer. If desired, flip tortilla 2–3 more times during these last minutes of cooking, which helps cook the center more evenly and reinforce the shape.
Carefully slide tortilla out of skillet onto a clean plate. Let stand at least 5 minutes before serving with aioli. Cut into wedges or into cubes for an hors d’oeuvre.
Leftovers can be refrigerated up to 3 days; serve at room temperature.
Lime Pudding
7 eggs
1 cup + 2 Tbsp. sugar
¾ cup fresh lime juice (about 13-15 limes)
1 (250 ml) box media crema
¼ tsp. salt
½-1 tsp. lime zest
Optional: lime zest or wheels
In a heavy-bottomed 3 qt. pot, whisk all ingredients. Cook over medium heat, whisking constantly, until mixture comes to a boil. Pour into shallow glass bowl or individual custard cups; chill at least 3 hours. Garnish with lime zest/wheels if desired.
It seems like I know at least 10 people whose dogs have been poisoned by now.
The reasons behind the poisoning are usually unknown. Maybe they needed the dog out of the way so they could break in. Maybe the dog was annoying and barked all the time and someone just got sick of it because the owners refused to do anything about it. Or maybe they just enjoy the power of showing merciless cruelty.
I’d always assumed that this last possibility was the least likely, but after reading about the bear cub that was tortured before being killed by what amounted to a mob — while smiling local police officers looked on — I’m afraid to admit that it might be more common than we think.
Humans have always had a contentious relationship with their fellow animals, and Mexico today is no exception. Gandhi made waves when he said, “The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.”
If that’s true, we’ve got a long way to go, although the fact that the perpetrator who killed two dogs who basically amounted to national heroes will face actual punishment is at least a step in the right direction.
On one end of the spectrum, we’ve got people who love animals dearly. Sometimes this love is only extended to their pets, and sometimes it extends to, at least in theory, all animals: while I’m not sure if the vegan and vegetarian population is growing here, the offerings for them seem to be, which I think is a pretty good indicator of how many are out there.
And on the other, there are people who seem to have as much contempt for animals as they do for their fellow humans.
Slightly more toward the middle are those who seem to value human life just as much as other people but see animals as beings put here for our pleasure, entertainment and food. Perhaps some animals’ feelings matter (like their pets, for example), but certainly not all of them do; or maybe, animals simply don’t have feelings like we do, which is why it’s fine to condemn one’s dog to a lifetime alone on the roof.
While most people agree that cruelty like torturing and killing animals for fun is pretty straightforwardly wrong, there are plenty of other gray areas when it comes to what we do and do not have the right to do to animals under our control.
Most of us, including myself, fall uncomfortably in the middle of those grey areas. Abject cruelty toward animals? No way. Killing them myself? Certainly not. Teasing them? Perhaps only good-naturedly, but nothing to make them upset. Eating them? Well…
My grandmother was a strict vegetarian most of her life. She tried to get my sister and me on board plenty of times when we were little, but our parents ate and served meat, plus she wasn’t that great of a cook. Her vegetarian concoctions tasted like cardboard to us, which was not a great selling point for a couple of kids. But she was faithful to the end and lived a long and healthy life.
It wasn’t until I was in college that I decided to stop eating meat for the first time. I’d taken an ethics class and read a story about aliens who had come here and were cooking and eating us using our own recipes for cooking animals.
One man had almost convinced an alien not to boil him alive (like lobsters), but hunger eventually overcame the alien. It made its version of a shrug and dropped him into the pot.
I faithfully abstained from meat for a couple years after reading that, and I didn’t miss it. However, when it was time to travel to Mexico for my year abroad, I made a conscious decision to start eating meat again; after all, I didn’t want to be that kind of difficult guest who shows up at a new place and expects everyone to accommodate them. I wanted my host family to like me, and I wanted to fit in.
Once I got here, I realized that I could have easily stayed a vegetarian, at least if I had pretended not to know that there was likely lard and/or chicken stock in most dishes.
It wasn’t until a few years later while teaching an ethics class (these damned ethics classes just don’t let me have any fun!) that I decided to stop eating meat and most other animal products again. This time, it lasted for several more years until after my daughter was born. Once again, I didn’t really miss meat.
But a few years later, with an infant and very little energy, I thought that maybe I needed meat in my diet to get my strength back. It turned out not to make the slightest difference, but I was used to it again and have yet to go back.
Why do I talk about all this? Because I don’t feel great about myself and my secondary treatment of animals.
I don’t torture animals, and I don’t think it’s fun to watch them suffer. But I do eat animals, which I have a moral problem with. Because if I’m going to eat them, I feel I should be willing to kill them, to look my food in the eye, even; and that is definitely not something I’m willing to do.
And while one could make the argument that lots of animals kill and eat other animals, which is true — some animals have even killed and eaten us! – what they don’t do is breed their prey in inhumane conditions and then send them to slaughter factories so that they can have the pleasure of eating hamburgers whenever they feel like it.
Abject cruelty and torture of animals is wrong, and those who participate in it should be punished. But I think it’s time for all of us to admit that our love for animals is selective and that none of us are innocent when it comes to the treatment of and consideration for animals as a whole.
President López Obrador at his Monday press conference. Presidencia de la República
President López Obrador talked security in Baja California and Sonora last weekend. Bullets fly with some regularity in the border states, where homicide rates are high. It’s unclear whether hugs have increased under the government’s security strategy.
Monday
Hope had all but disappeared for the miners in Coahuila, trapped since a collapse on August 3, after the president confirmed more bad luck in the rescue effort.
López Obrador rebutted accusations of nepotism in internal elections for Morena, the party he founded. “I think they are scourges of the politics of the old regime that you have to erase. Cronyism, influence, nepotism … it may be legal, but it’s immoral,” he said, adding that his wife Beatriz Gutiérrez Müller turned down the post of first lady.
Another indisputable scourge was raised later in the conference. A journalist asked if former President Peña Nieto would face arrest for charges related to the Ayotzinapa massacre in 2014, after the former attorney general, Jesús Murillo Karam, was put behind bars. Offering no names, the president insisted there was a cover up in the original investigation. “In one way or another they made an agreement to hide the facts, which is known as the fabrication of the so-called ‘historical truth’ … they were compiling together all this falsehood, torturing people and fabricating statements,” he asserted, before adding that Peña Nieto’s fate would rest with the judiciary.
In fact, the president’s sights were set on even more powerful adversaries. “They owe us $75 million,” he said of a United Nations (UN) vaccine initiative, COVAX, that had failed to deliver 10 million shots. “A renovation of those international bodies is overdue,” he added.
Tuesday
Despite the vaccine deficit, López Obrador was feeling sprightly about the country’s finances on Tuesday. “There is good news: the preliminary results have been announced on foreign investment in Mexico and they are historic … in recent times never has so much foreign investment been received as in the first quarter,” he said. However, not all money was welcome: the president reiterated his ire at Mexican political groups being funded by the U.S. government and confirmed there was still no reply from a letter to U.S. President Joe Biden on the matter.
Deputy Health Minister Hugo López-Gatell lamented the difficulties getting promised vaccines delivered from COVAX. Presidencia de la República
After noting the benefits of global investment, government officials were still irked by global governance and the UN’s failure to fulfill its obligations. The president noted that after Monday’s conference, the World Health Organization (a specialized agency of the UN) had reached out offering to ship a portion of the promised vaccines.
Nonetheless, Deputy Health Minister Hugo López-Gatell said his patience had worn thin. “So far a little more than 24 million doses have been delivered and we have $76 million outstanding. We have been requesting, requesting and requesting for almost a year to be given the doses that correspond to us … there’s been frustration and great dissatisfaction,” he declared.
“The government of Mexico reserves the right to undertake any action, including legal, if this commitment is not fulfilled,” López-Gatell added.
Wednesday
Speaking on behalf of the presidency, Elizabeth García Vilchis refuted several government-related news stories. Presidencia de la República
The government’s media monitor Elizabeth García Vilchis sorted fact from fiction on Wednesday. She said the tax authority, SAT, wasn’t conducting random investigations and “the efficiency of Cofepris is a fact,” assuring that the health regulator isn’t mired in backlog. García added that the new school curriculum wouldn’t force students to memorize the government’s infrastructure projects and insisted that the arrest of the former attorney general for historic foul play around the Ayotzinapa investigation was not politically motivated.
The president extended his field of vision to foreign shores. “There was a whole political lynching … It’s so important to dance. Why shouldn’t she go dancing?” the president posed in support of Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin, whose party antics recently landed her in controversy. Crossing the Atlantic, López Obrador condemned the raid of former U.S. President Donald Trump’s Florida home and expressed concern about corruption charges against Argentine political titan and Vice President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner.
Later in the conference, the tabasqueño lamented the failures of global political bodies. “International bodies, such as the UN, have not wanted to confront the grave problem of inequality and corruption in the world. So that’s why there is migration, that’s why there is violence … governments and the European Parliament, instead of looking for ways to achieve peace between Russia and Ukraine, they are proposing more confrontation,” he said.
Thursday
The president addressed a variety of economic issues on Thursday. Presidencia de la República
“Bad air,” the president said, was to blame for his hoarse voice on Thursday.
However, López Obrador found his voice on the USMCA amid claims by the U.S. and Canada that the government’s favoring of public energy companies had violated the agreement, and provided his own complaint. “With what right can you decide how laws should be in another country? It’s as if I demanded that the U.S. Congress meets an obligation … they have been offering for about 20 years to carry out a reform to regularize our migrant countrymen and they have not done it …. But … [we can’t] demand that they amend their laws,” he said.
On the USMCA, the president assured “no possibility exists” that Mexico would leave the treaty as it would be “very difficult for the U.S. economy to function without Mexico,” before adding that he didn’t plan to meet U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken during his upcoming visit to Mexico.
Later, the president compared another facet of Mexico’s economy, revealing a chart of international public debt. According to the graphic, Mexico owed 46% of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to creditors, while Latin American countries on average owed 72%. Canada, the UK and the U.S. owed more than their respective GDPs, while Japan’s debt was 263% of its GDP.
Friday
“We didn’t torture anyone,” Deputy Interior Minister Alejandro Encinas said of the government’s investigation into the Ayotzinapa massacre, before denying that the 43 students were handed over to narcos and their corpses left in a waste dump, as the previous government’s ‘historic truth’ had concluded.
Encinas added that the students were monitored before their disappearance and that state authorities were involved. “With the ‘historic truth’ they tried to close the Ayotzinapa case, but we continued investigating,” he said.
Still sounding hoarse, López Obrador renewed his criticism of the UN. “The UN is becoming a flower holder,” the president said, using a Mexican expression to highlight the organization’s lack of utility. “It has agencies for everything. They earn a lot of money and don’t change anything,” the president added.
“I don’t have COVID, it’s pharyngitis,” the tabasqueño said of his faltering voice, assuaging the fears of Mexicans, shortly before striding away to attend to the nation.
Speedtest results Friday at Mexico News Daily's office in Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca.
Starlink, the satellite internet company owned by the world’s richest person, Elon Musk, has slashed its monthly service fee by over 50%.
As of Wednesday, Starlink’s customers in Mexico pay 1,100 pesos per month (US $55), a 52% decrease compared to the former fee of 2,299 pesos. Starlink has also reduced the price of its hardware kit, which includes an antenna, to 8,300 pesos (US $414) from 9,896 pesos, a 16% drop.
The hardware kit is now shipped free of charge whereas the previous cost was 1,420 pesos (about US $70). In addition to Mexico, the company lowered its prices in many other countries where it offers satellite internet service.
“The price reduction factors in your local market conditions and is meant to reflect parity in purchasing power across our customers,” Starlink said in an email to customers.
On its website, Starlink says it offers “high-speed, low-latency broadband internet in remote and rural locations across the globe.”
Its service is “made possible via the world’s largest constellation of highly advanced satellites operating in a low orbit around the earth.”
Among the satellite internet services that compete with Starlink in Mexico are Viasat and HughesNet. An analysis conducted late last year – before Starlink was offering its service here – found that Viasat provided Mexico’s fastest satellite internet service for downloads, but speeds were well below the fixed broadband median.
Some Starlink customers in Mexico have reported speeds of 200 Mbps or more with latency between 70 and 100 milliseconds. The latter is far lower than that of other satellite internet service providers.
