Firefighters begin their race at the Torre Reforma on Saturday.
Climbing over 1,400 stairs as fast as possible was the goal for some 250 firefighters who participated in a tower running race in Mexico City’s second highest skyscraper on Saturday.
Weighed down with protective gear and equipment weighing 25 kilograms, firefighters from the capital, several states and even the United States participated in the carrera vertical, or vertical race, held at Torre Reforma, a 246-meter-high skyscraper on Paseo de la Reforma, Mexico City’s most emblematic boulevard.
To complete the course, firefighters had to ascend 53 floors by climbing an exhausting total of 1,421 stairs.
Some impressive times were recorded but no one was able to break the existing record of 11 minutes, the newspaper El Universal reported.
The women’s champion for a second consecutive year was Citlalli Ramírez, who finished in 18 minutes and 42 seconds. “In an emergency, our real work starts after going up the 53 floors, that’s when the hard part starts,” she said.
The men’s champion was Agustín Herrera, who completed the course in 13 minutes and five seconds, meaning that he climbed an average of 1.8 stairs per second.
Another competitor was Diego Méndez, the sole participant from México state. After completing the ascent in 15 minutes, he told El Universal he didn’t feel tired as he had been training for months.
“In the course of the race I felt good, calm,” Méndez said. “… It was a very good race.”
Édgar Ramírez, who crossed the finish line in 18 minutes, described the race as an “unforgettable experience” that really got his adrenaline pumping.
“You want to give everything,” he said, adding that his training included running and doing weights.
Juan Manuel Pérez, director of the Heroico Cuerpo de Bomberos, as the Mexico City fire department is called, described firefighters as high-performance athletes who are accustomed to going up stairs at a rapid pace. “The everyday life of a firefighter is to climb,” he said.
Now, José de Jesús González, who took over from Rangel last month, is determined to carry on the tradition.
In an interview with the newspaper Milenio, he said he hoped to cultivate a friendship with criminal groups and indicated that he would be prepared to give his life while mediating between feuding narcos.
González – who was previously a suffragan (assistant) bishop in the Archdiocese of Guadalajara – said he hasn’t yet met with organized crime operatives in the troubled state, but he plans to travel to the mountainous region of his diocese with a view to initiating dialogue.
González’s predecessor is Salvador Rangel, who was seen as an expert on Guerrero’s cartels and someone accepted by them as a mediator.
“I believe they’re looking at me to see if I have … [the right] profile” to liaise with them, he told Milenio.
“I’m going to go and do my work [in the diocese] and if they also want to become my friends they’ll come out to meet me,” González said.
The bishop said he hoped to go to the “sierra” next week, although he conceded he didn’t know whether he would find any narcos there.
“I don’t know if they’re there. One thinks they’re there but they’re everywhere! I’m just going to go and see, I’m going to visit the communities, the priests there, the religious and the faithful,” González said.
“If … [the narcos] believe it’s advisable to find me – they rule the land, not me – … we’ll talk,” he said.
González said he would advise gang members that he has replaced Rangel as bishop and ask them to allow him to do his work and not confuse him for an antagonist, such as a rival criminal.
“They hunt you, like deer hunters, but I’m not a deer, I’m a person,” he said.
“[I’ll] introduce myself, tell them ‘I’m going to be driving this kind of truck, … getting in and out,’” González said.
“… A good shepherd doesn’t flee, he gives his life for his sheep,” González said.
“… Let’s see if they accept me, … they already had a previous [Catholic Church] friend [in Rangel], now [let’s see if they want] to make a friend of me,” he said.
The bishop admitted he’s afraid of what lies ahead, telling Milenio that firearms make him nervous.
“They have weapons, if they see a strange movement they have to shoot, … they’re in a situation of anxiety day and night,” he said. “… These people are indoctrinated to distrust everyone and perhaps to do evil if they’re obliged.”
Despite the dangers, González said he wants to be a mediator between criminal groups in Guerrero, Mexico’s ninth most violent state in 2021 with over 1,350 homicides. His predecessor said in December that such groups have diversified their activities well beyond the trafficking of narcotics and now have interests in mining, logging and even the distribution of beer and soft drinks.
“The pope says it’s better to be a mediator and not an intermediary. Do you know the difference? An intermediary receives a payment and is happy with his payment. A mediator has both sides in his heart and doesn’t want disputes,” González said, adding that the latter would give his life in exchange for enemies extending their hands to each other.
“… A good shepherd doesn’t flee, he gives his life for his sheep. If we also want to be good, [we also have to] give our lives for our sheep and … [narcos] are also sheep,” he said, making a remark similar to that made last week by President López Obrador, who declared that the government looks after criminals because they’re people too.
Asked whether he would be prepared to give his own life while advocating peace through mediation between criminal groups, the bishop responded:
“Maybe yes. Maybe it is what is needed. Martyrs! Although we already have several, another wouldn’t be bad for the church, but only God grants that [designation]. If the Lord grants it, it would be great!”
Above-average hurricane activity is predicted this year for both the Pacific and the Atlantic.
One hundred and seventy-four temporary shelters have been installed in Baja California Sur in preparation for the hurricane season.
At least 65,000 people live in areas classified as vulnerable and susceptible to flooding in the state’s five municipalities, according to state authorities.
Baja California Sur Civil Protection has classified at-risk areas into high, medium and low risk.
Deputy Civil Protection Minister Benjamín García Meza said that according to the historic average of hurricanes in the region, there could be up to 13 this year, but he added that an official prediction would be released on May 17 at the National Civil Protection Conference.
“This [hurricane] season is expected to see normal to slightly above-normal cyclonic activity,” García said, before adding that Baja California Sur has one of the highest rates of hurricane activity due to its geographical situation, and that the tourist destinations of La Paz and Los Cabos are usually the most affected.
García added that areas with stream beds face a heightened risk in the rainy season (June-October) and that 18,000 tonnes of debris had been cleared from them to help keep water levels down.
García instructed people in Baja California Sur to stay informed and to follow official guidance in case of a hurricane. Most of the 174 shelters are located in schools.
The Pacific hurricane season runs from mid-May to November 30. Last September almost 200,000 electricity customers lost power due to Hurricane Olaf, while Hurricane Nora killed at least one person in Jalisco in August and Hurricane Enrique killed at least two in Guerrero in June.
The Atlantic hurricane season, which begins June 1, is also predicted to bring above-average hurricane activity this year.
In many cultures there exists a myth that the moon is made of cheese.
People from those cultures had some of the citizens of Yucatán to thank on Sunday who, according to their own local legend, saved the moon from being devoured by an aggressive celestial creature.
Repeating an age-old tradition, children from the southeastern state steeped in Mayan culture took the lids from kitchen pots to bang them together during an eclipse. The story goes that the noisy performance helps the moon, considered a deity in pre-Hispanic times, free itself from a sinister creature that would otherwise make it disappear.
The tradition has become less common, but some families still encourage their children to continue it. It is unclear when the practice began to involve household kitchenware.
“Louder, louder, so the moon doesn’t get eaten!” one father can be heard saying to his daughter in a video, who bangs two pot lids together with measured enthusiasm.
🌒#EclipseLunar | ¿Recuerdas que antes se golpeaban las ollas cuándo había eclipses en Yucatán? La tradición sigue en algunas familias mientras disfrutan del espectáculo 🤩 pic.twitter.com/Y3RiUuEMYs
The lunar eclipse last night included the rare sighting of a super blood moon, where for several minutes Earth was positioned directly between the sun and the moon. In that time the moon fell completely into Earth’s shadow, temporarily making it appear dark orange.
Vehicles under 4 tonnes would have been subject to inspections. shutterstock
A new inspection requirement for light vehicles that was set to take effect in November appears doomed after President López Obrador rejected it due to the cost it would entail for motorists.
The Economy Ministry (SE) announced earlier this month that vehicles weighing less than about 4 tonnes would have to pass semi-regular checks of things such as their bodywork, seatbelts, lights, brakes, wheel alignment, suspension and engine. It didn’t say how much the inspections would cost.
The new regulations followed international standards developed to promote road safety in the interest of public health.
López Obrador told reporters at his regular news conference on Monday that the requirement announced by the SE would be reviewed.
“I had no knowledge [about it]. There are decisions taken by the ministries without consultation,” he said.
“Now we’re making sure that everything that is detrimental to people’s finances is consulted. The government was a mess before because each ministry did what it thought was its role or responsibility [without consulting],” López Obrador said.
“… Establishing this new form of government takes time, … we have to educate the public servants.”
Referring to his intention to scrap the planned inspection requirement, the president said his government wouldn’t “pick people’s pockets” as its predecessors did.
“That was the mentality that prevailed and it hasn’t died yet,” he said.
“They’re processes of change, of transition. We’ve made a lot of progress but … we still have a part of the technocratic conservative thought [in the bureaucracy] that we have to put to one side, not by imposing [our way of thinking] but by persuading, convincing,” López Obrador said.
The rising cost of living is a major concern for the president, with headline inflation hitting a two-decade high of 7.68% in April.
He said late last month that his main concern as president was to control inflation because of the impact it has on family budgets.
The government subsequently announced a six-month plan to curb inflation, the centerpiece of which is an agreement with the private sector to ensure fair prices for 24 products in the canasta básica, a selection of basic foodstuffs including beans, rice, eggs and sugar.
The incident left four tourists injured and the vessel severely damaged.
A breaching whale landed on a boat in Sinaloa on Saturday injuring tourists and doing severe damage to the vessel.
The large mammal leapt in the air to perform one of its characteristic acrobatic jumps at around 6 p.m. in Topolobampo bay in the Gulf of California, 235 kilometers northwest of Culiacán, but crashed into the back end of the small boat on its descent, causing it to almost capsize.
Two men and two women traveling on board were injured and and taken to hospital in Los Mochis and at least one of the men, a former councilor on the Ahome municipal government, was seriously injured.
The vessel’s roof had collapsed and some of the railing were mangled.
The whale had entered the bay a few days earlier. The coordinator of Civil Protection in Ahome, Omar Mendoza Silva, said the whale felt harassed by the proximity of the boat and the port authority in Topolobampo ordered boat captains to keep a prudent distance from the mammals.
The mayor of Ahome, Gerardo Vargas, asked people to respect the whales. “Please do not get too close to the whales. We can enjoy their beauty, but at a distance, prudently,” he said.
The tourism authority of Ahome also called on operators to be more careful near the mammals. “For your safety we ask the maritime community of the Port of Topolobampo to take precautions in the waters of the bay to avoid accidents like the one that occurred this afternoon …” it said in a statement released on Saturday.
The area is well known as a place for whalewatching. Pacific gray, humpback and blue whales migrate to Mexican territorial waters to breed from mid-December to the end of March, depending on the location. In some areas, the season doesn’t end until May.
This was the first incident of its kind recorded in the bay. Three weeks earlier, a boat accidentally collided with a whale in La Paz, Baja California Sur, also in the Gulf of California, injuring five of the six people on board.
Security forces secure a narco-lab in Acuitzio in March 2021.
The army has shut down 23 narco-labs in Michoacán since 2018, over half of which were found in the state’s notoriously violent Tierra Caliente region.
The detection and seizure of the synthetic drug laboratories occurred in a period of almost 4 1/2 years to April 30, 2022, according to information from the Ministry of National Defense (Sedena).
The newspaper Milenio, which obtained the Sedena data via a freedom of information request, reported that most of the dismantled labs were making fentanyl, a potent synthetic opioid that Mexican criminal groups make with precursor chemicals from Asia that are smuggled into the country via Pacific coast ports.
It also said that the people who operate the labs have usually fled by the time the authorities arrive.
Five of the 23 labs were located in Buenavista Tomatlán, a Tierra Caliente municipality on the border with Jalisco.
The Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), one of Mexico’s most powerful criminal organizations, and the Cárteles Unidos, a criminal alliance led by Los Viagras, are engaged in a war over control of Michoacán’s Tierra Caliente region, which is made up of 17 municipalities. Other criminal organizations, such as the Nueva Familia Michoacana, also operate in the state.
After Buenavista – one of several Tierra Caliente municipalities where improvised explosive devices laid by the CJNG have been detected in recent months – the highest number of narco-lab seizures occurred in Parácuaro, with four.
A narco-lab seized in Peribán de Ramos, Michoacán in 2020.
Sedena data also shows that the army shut down one lab in each of the Tierra Caliente municipalities of Huetamo, Coalcomán, Turicato and Apatzingán.
Milenio reported that the manufacture of illicit drugs also occurs in urban areas of Michoacán, one of Mexico’s most violent states. A narco-lab was detected in March 2021 in Acuitzio, a municipality that borders the state capital Morelia. Some 230 kilograms of chemicals used to manufacture synthetic drugs as well as drug-making paraphernalia were seized at the lab, which was located in the town of Páramo.
Illegal drugs have also been made in Uruapan, Michoacán’s second largest city.
The only state where more narco-labs have been dismantled in recent years is Sinaloa, home to the powerful Sinaloa Cartel.
Milenio reported that 53 labs where drugs such as fentanyl and methamphetamine were made have been shut down since 2018 in the northern state.
Citing Sedena data, the newspaper reported last December that the army dismantled 113 synthetic drug laboratories in the first 34 months after President López Obrador took office in late 2018 – a 70% decrease compared to the same period of Enrique Peña Nieto’s presidency.
It said Sunday that Jalisco ranked third for narco-lab seizures, adding that most were detected in two municipalities that border Michoacán’s Tierra Caliente.
Sinaloa, Michoacán and Jalisco are all Pacific coast states, meaning that precursor chemicals don’t have to travel far to reach clandestine fentanyl and meth factories. After manufacture, large quantities of the drugs are shipped to the Mexico-United States border via states such as Durango and Zacatecas, which has been described as a fentanyl nexus.
The synthetic opioid causes tens of thousands of overdose deaths annually in the United States.
A recent organized crime study that determined that Mexico has the fourth highest levels of criminality in the world acknowledged that Mexican cartels are involved in the production and transportation of drugs such as methamphetamine and fentanyl.
The Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, a Switzerland-based nongovernmental organization, also said that Mexico’s drug-trafficking organizations are among the most sophisticated mafia-style groups in the world.
Hermosillo, Sonora, teacher Reyna Durazo poses for a Teachers' Day selfie with her students.
The concept of a teacher’s day is not unique to Mexico. Various countries have something like it on various days, and World Teachers’ Day was established on October 5 by UNESCO.
Teachers’ Day caught my attention when I first came to Mexico because neither as a student, a parent or in my initial years as a teacher did I encounter any kind of celebration of the profession — which is officially on May 3 in the United States. In Mexico, it was the first time in any job that I had that anyone thought to honor the work I do.
Here, Teachers’ Day (Día de Maestro) is celebrated on May 15. It was established as delegates negotiated the 1917 Constitution — the current one — as more than a few worked in the profession.
It is not exactly clear why that date was selected. It is the feast day of educator and priest Jean-Baptiste de La Salle, but he was not canonized as the patron saint of teachers by the Vatican until 1950.
The date also commemorates the Battle of Querétaro, an important event in the ousting of the second emperor of Mexico, Maximilian I.
Teachers’ Day festivities organized for educators by a Morelos chapter of the national teachers’ union in 2019.
The establishment of free, public and secular education was extremely important to the framers of the 1917 Constitution. Despite previous reformation attempts, education remained in the hands of the Catholic Church, with little to no opportunities for the poor.
The framers not only sought to diminish the power of the church but also to promote their own values of the new government.
Article 3 of the Constitution specifically refers to public education, tying it, and teachers, to the economic and social development of the country. The importance of the Education Ministry — and the resulting teachers’ unions — was such that until very recently all federal cultural programs were under its purview. The first education minister, José Vasconcelos, established the muralism program in the 1920s, seen as a way to teach a population that was still largely illiterate.
If you have taught in Mexico, you have experienced the near-veneration of being called a maestro/a, always called that even at the supermarket and even if you stop teaching. This attitude is nearly universal today, but teachers’ work was not always so appreciated.
One of the public schools’ main roles was to promote the government’s idea of mexicanismo, or la raza, the idea that everyone is equally Mexican. It resulted in strong pressure for traditional communities to abandon their traditional Catholic practices, leading to a backlash called the Cristero War.
It also led to pushing indigenous communities to forego their languages and traditions to assimilate. Such efforts have waned, but they have not disappeared completely.
Jose Vasconcelos, Mexico’s first education minister after the Mexican Revolution, recruited artists to teach illiterate Mexicans their nation’s history. Creative Commons
As of the 2018–2019 school year, the Education Ministry (SEP) states that there are 2,100,277 teachers, about 60% of whom work in the primary grades. Like many in the public sector, public school teachers receive small salaries but have important benefits.
Like in other countries, teachers can have issues with receiving sufficient support. One recent problem highlighting this was the lack of computers and training for teachers and students during the pandemic when schools were closed. It is also not unusual for teachers to protest on or near this day.
Teachers’ Day is a highly political holiday both because of this history and the power of the national public school teachers’ union, the SNTE. Politicians may visit schools on this day to show their support for both teachers and education, especially if many parents attend school events.
The day is observed in some shape or form at most schools in Mexico, but exactly how depends on the grade level, the local community and the culture of the given school.
The largest celebrations tend to be in the primary grades, especially in more rural areas. Most Mexicans get at least a primary education, and in rural Mexico teachers are promoted as community leaders.
In urban areas, the day remains important in the primary grades, but they tend to be more abstract.
Detail of Diego Rivera’s mural “Exploitation of Mexico by Spanish Conquistadors.” Begun in 1928, it was meant to teach Mexicans history and inspire pride. Creative Commons
At least some classes and/or other work is suspended to celebrate, either through a meal or even day-long parties and cultural events. Celebrations can be only for teachers or involve the entire local community. The giving of small gifts by individual students or larger ones bought with collected money is also common.
I was a teacher here for 15 years and have some connections with teachers’ groups online. Not scientific by any means, but I did get some feedback from foreign teachers and parents as to their impressions about the celebrations.
The vast majority of foreign teachers and parents strongly support a day to recognize the work of teachers. The idea is best summed up by a comment by Yasuko Azuma:
“It is not only an opportunity to have some rest from a difficult job but also a reminder to society in general that teachers are the most important of all to social, knowledge and cultural development. After the family [and] parents, teachers are the most important …”
Perhaps a little more cynical is a comment by respondent Deborah Harting.
“It’s the one day a year that parents don’t get mad with teachers and show some appreciation.”
Teachers’ Day celebration in Mexico City. Government of Mexico City
However, a few teachers and parents did express some reservations about aspects of the day. A couple of teachers mentioned that it seemed “fake” to get congratulations from parents and students who generally do not respect them the rest of the year. Some found gift-giving to be problematic, sometimes used as a way to curry favor with a teacher as the school year nears its end. In some private schools, the gift-giving can be more than trinkets, even including jewelry.
Such gift-giving is never officially required, but there can be social pressure, even on the parents. However, the likelihood of gifts lessens in the higher grades as students have multiple teachers, which makes the practice more expensive.
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.
Your ginger-soy dipping sauce gets a serious upgrade with traditional Japanese soy sauce.
It’s not often that I have to stop working to go eat what I’m writing about. After you watch the video below you’ll understand, and you’ll never look at soy sauce the same way either.
On a trip to Portland, Oregon, last year, I experienced Japanese food and ingredients in ways I’d never imagined before; it was quite an education.
While most of it isn’t relevant to my life in Mexico, some things are. That’s why I brought back a US $30 quart of high-quality, organic, unpasteurized soy sauce, aged two years in 150-year-old cedarwood kegs — with no regrets.
Obviously, it’s a far cry from the colored, sweetened, flavored water sold under the misnomer of “soy sauce.”
Food science writer Harold McGee describes commercially made soy sauce like this: “Defatted soy meal, the residue of soybean oil production, is broken down — hydrolyzed — into amino acids and sugars with concentrated hydrochloric acid. This caustic mixture is then neutralized with alkaline sodium carbonate and flavored and colored with corn syrup, caramel, water and salt.” Ugh.
How Soy Sauce Has Been Made in Japan for Over 220 Years — Handmade
I hate being the “food police,” but sometimes it’s sadly necessary. With soy sauce, label-reading is essential.
Maybe you’re thinking that you don’t eat much Asian food, so who cares? What you don’t know is what you’re missing: that elusive umami bomb that’s packed into every drop of authentic soy sauce, adding a rich complexity to everything it touches.
Traditional soy sauce is made from spring water and fermented soybeans and wheat berries — not wheat flour — aged for two to three years in wood barrels. That’s it.
The best brands are aged in barrels more than 100 years old, full of koji — a type of mold — and other yeasts that create flavor and aroma. The resulting unpasteurized (i.e., uncooked) liquid is enzyme- and lactobacillus-rich, full of umami.
China is credited with first brewing soy sauce; the Japanese modified the recipe to include an equal portion of wheat for a sweeter flavor profile. (Korean soy sauce is altogether different.)
The label of a real Japanese-style soy sauce will say nama shoyu, meaning raw/unpasteurized soy sauce. That’s what you’re looking for.
If you’re fortunate — as we are here in Mazatlán — you might find an Asian food store that carries more reputable brands of actual soy sauce. Amazon México offers some, but they’re pricey. Get someone to bring you a bottle next time you have a visitor come from the States.
In the meantime, read labels! The best you’ll probably be able to find are Kikkoman soy sauces, made with only four ingredients — water, soybeans, wheat and salt — and aged for six months. Don’t be fooled by Japanese-sounding names (Satoru, Kaporo); those are full of coloring, sugar, chemical MSG, flour and additives.
A few other things: “light” soy sauce (usukuchi shoyu) is really a type of soy sauce; it doesn’t mean low in sodium. Again, read the label. Traditionally, it has a stronger, saltier flavor, either from the brewing method or from the addition of rice vinegar, mirin or corn syrup.
And tamari isn’t a soy sauce at all; it’s the liquid left after making miso and is 100% soybeans. Those avoiding gluten often choose tamari as a soy sauce substitute to avoid wheat in traditional Japanese soy sauce.
Once you have real soy sauce, you’ll see how versatile it is. The real stuff won’t add an overwhelming “Asian flavor” to foods; instead, it’s natural flavor-enhancing glutamates take flavors to another, richer and more complex level.
Add a teaspoon to gravies, sauces, marinades, chilis and soups and meats of all kinds, from chicken to pork ribs to carne asada and fajitas. Mushrooms taste meatier, store-bought barbecue sauces and soups taste richer, and even that Sunday morning standby, the Bloody Mary, benefits from a splash of salsa de soya.
How can this glazed salmon take so little time yet be so good? Don’t ask, just eat!
Soy-Ginger Sauce
Use for dipping or pour over noodles or rice.
¼ cup soy sauce
2 tsp. minced fresh ginger
Pinch black pepper
2 Tbsp. minced cilantro
Sesame oil to taste
Combine all ingredients and use.
Honey-Soy Sauce Glazed Salmon
1 lb. fresh salmon, cut into 4 filets
Salt and pepper
1 Tbsp. olive oil
2 Tbsp. butter, divided
¼ cup soy sauce
¼ cup honey, heated
Pinch garlic powder
½ Tbsp. cornstarch
Fresh lime/lemon juice to taste
Pat salmon dry with a paper towel. Season with salt and pepper. Whisk soy sauce, garlic powder and cornstarch in medium bowl; add honey, mix well and set aside.
In a skillet set to medium-high, heat olive oil and 1 Tbsp. butter. Cook salmon skin-side down 5 minutes; reduce heat to medium, flip and cook another 2–3 minutes till almost cooked through. Add remaining 1 Tbsp. butter to skillet.
When melted, pour in sauce between salmon pieces. Cook about 30 seconds, then remove from heat and flip salmon. Spoon sauce over top. Squeeze lemon/lime juice over fish. Serve immediately.
Soy-Glazed Chicken with Cucumbers
1 English or Persian cucumber, thinly sliced
1 shallot, thinly sliced lengthwise
¼ cup rice vinegar
Salt and pepper
¼ cup soy sauce
2 Tbsp. honey or maple syrup
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (1½-2 lbs.)
2 Tbsp. vegetable oil
2 garlic cloves, smashed
1 tsp. ground coriander
For serving: Chopped fresh cilantro and rice
In medium bowl, toss cucumber, shallot, vinegar, 1 tsp. salt and ¼ tsp. pepper; set aside. In a shallow dish, make a marinade of soy sauce and honey/maple syrup; add chicken, turn to coat.
Good quality soy sauce plus honey or maple syrup is the wow factor in this chicken glaze.
In large skillet, heat oil over medium-high. Stir in garlic and coriander. Add chicken (reserving marinade); cook until browned on both sides, about 3 minutes per side. Add reserved marinade and ¼ cup water. Bring to a simmer, reduce heat to medium-low and cook, covered, 4–5 minutes more per side until cooked through.
Uncover skillet, increase heat to medium-high and cook, turning chicken occasionally, until liquid is reduced and chicken is glazed, about 5 minutes. If necessary, whisk in more water one tablespoon at a time until it’s back to a shiny sauce that can be drizzled.)
Serve over rice with cucumber salad and cilantro, drizzled with any leftover glaze, or as a taco or burrito filling.
It’s been over two years since the pandemic started, and it finally seems that — at least in Mexico — we’re looking at the end of it.
For now, at least.
By most accounts, pretty much everyone in Mexico has either had COVID-19, been inoculated against it or both. My kid had it, as did her father. Somehow my partner and I seemed to have escaped it, though who really knows?
A doctor acquaintance of mine asserted that during this last omicron-fueled wave, everybody has definitely had it whether they knew it or not.
This is a tempting theory (I’m really tired of wearing a mask, y’all), though I’m not sure what he based his assertion on. And it doesn’t mean that we’re out of the woods.
Still, I’m cautiously optimistic.
The playground that my kid and I used to go to that’s been closed for two years (which is objectively the best one in the city), finally opened back up. Most schools are open again most of the time (with masks).
People are still wearing masks indoors, but outside, where there aren’t crowds, many are starting to feel comfortable about taking them off. There’s a temperature checker and gel at the door of every indoor establishment, but most places no longer have a person standing there to make sure we comply. It’s not necessary, really: we all do it naturally now.
You still have to make appointments with government services for things that were previously available for walk-in attention, but at least there are appointments. They’re hard to get; the appointments I was finally able to make after weeks of attempting to do so for my child’s two passports had to be made months in advance.
Many government offices seem to be holding on to the pandemic as a reason they cannot fully restaff, the United States Embassy included. But I have a feeling that governments have simply realized that they can still get by spending much less money on overworked personnel. I believe they’re totally OK with just inconveniencing people (though I do feel the need to say that the people at the Mexican passport office were extremely nice and organized).
Entire offices remain closed, meaning that many people are simply not being served or must travel great distances (and spend a lot of money) for what was previously available across the street. And good luck trying to see your kids for supervised visitation at the courthouse, a service that has been unavailable for 26 months and counting in my experience.
Still, things are starting to feel a bit like they used to.
Many states have decided that we’re “back to normal.” In Mexico City and Tamaulipas, face masks are no longer required outside. Quintana Roo has also dropped its requirement, as has Jalisco.
Many people, of course, have had to be “back to normal” from the beginning — in the absence of any economic help from the government. (OK, fine: there was like a 20,000-peso loan offered to a handful of people.)
At least most everyone who wanted a vaccine was able to get one. Children 12 and up are finally getting theirs, and while it was said that children aged five years old and up were also going to get them, there’s still no official news on the timing of when that might be.
I’m finally planning on traveling home this summer for the first time in two and a half years and will get a vaccine for my daughter when I do.
It’s been a rough couple of years. I remember hearing “spring/summer of 2022” as a likely ending point for the “emergency” nature of COVID (though not of COVID altogether, which at best seems set to follow the path of the Spanish flu, which is still with us today). When I first heard that, I remember thinking we’d never make it.
But we have “made it” — in Mexico, though with over 600,000 fewer of us. That’s close to half a percentage of the Mexican population, which sounds small, but it’s easily one person every few blocks.
We lost a lot of people and a lot of livelihoods. Let’s do our best to not lose more, OK?
