Health authorities have advised to take extra precautions for the elderly and very young in areas experiencing extreme temperatures. (Carolina Jiménez Mariscal / Cuartoscuro.com)
Hot weather was a major factor in 112 deaths in Mexico during the past three months, most of which occurred during the heat wave earlier this month, according to the federal Health Ministry.
The epidemiology department (DGE) of the Health Ministry reported that there were 112 deaths associated with “extreme natural temperatures” between March 19 – the date this year’s “hot season” began – and June 24. The vast majority occurred during Mexico’s third heat wave, during which sweltering conditions were recorded across much of the country between June 1 and June 22.
July is expected to see a number of cyclones in southeastern Mexico, which could contribute to another heat wave. (Mario Jasso/Cuartoscuro)
The northern border state of Nuevo León recorded the highest number of heat-related deaths during the March-June period with 64, according to the DGE report.
Nineteen deaths occurred in Tamaulipas, 15 in Veracruz, five in Tabasco, four in Oaxaca, two in each of Quintana Roo and Sonora and one in Campeche.
The DGE also said that 1,559 cases of illness related to hot weather were reported in the three-month period it assessed. Most of those cases occurred this month.
All but 12 of the 112 deaths occurred during the third heat wave, DGE data shows. Heatstroke was established as the cause of death in 104 of the fatalities, while dehydration was the cause in the other eight.
A nurse shows oral hydration packets at a government clinic. (Crisanta Espinosa Aguilar / Cuartoscuro.com)
There were 89 heat-related deaths among men and 23 among women, while about three-quarters of those who died were aged 65 and above. One child aged between five and 14 died, as did one young person aged between 15 and 24. The other 26 people who succumbed to heat-related illnesses were aged 25 to 64.
The total number of hot weather-related deaths this year is significantly higher than those recorded in each of the past three years. There were 42 last year, 33 in 2021 and 37 in 2020, according to the DGE report, which was published Wednesday.
Scientists and researchers from the National Autonomous University of Mexico said earlier this month that a fourth heat wave could hit the country as soon as early July.
Meanwhile, residents of some parts of Mexico continue to experience uncomfortably hot weather.
The National Meteorological Service said that parts of Baja California, Sonora, Sinaloa, Nuevo León and Tamaulipas would see temperatures between 40 and 45 C (104-113 F) on Thursday, while 14 other states were forecast to reach 35-40 C.
Some traditional Mexican dishes, like chilaquiles served with eggs, make for hearty and delicious vegetarian options. (Shutterstock)
If you think it’s hard to find vegetarian dishes in Mexico, you should have visited back in 1982, when my husband, Barry, and I first did.
Luckily we did eat fish, but otherwise, it was tough. Now, though, it’s much easier. Chefs and waiters won’t think you’re weird when you say, “No como carne.” And you don’t have to be fluent in Spanish to eat vegetarian, although knowing the names of different toppings and foods definitely helps.
It’s not as hard as you might think to find healthy, vegetarian options in Mexico today. (Anna Pelzer/Unsplash)
Here are some ways we have figured out how to eat delicious non-meat dishes both in restaurants and at home (note, we are not vegans, and if you are, that is more of a challenge).
Where to shop
When we first came to Mexico, the only international food I could buy was heavily salted soy sauce, but today it’s completely different, with supermarkets that cater to a diversity of tastes. If you live near an urban area or a tourist town, chances are you’ll find one near you. If you visit La Comer, or City Market, you’ll find Asian condiments, tofu, decent peanut butter, various rices, gluten-free products, organic produce, and other imported items.
Dishes to try for daily meals
A typical Mexican fruit platter with papaya, cantaloupe, watermelon, red and green apples and bananas. (Photo: Deleite)
Breakfast: Mexico has a wealth of egg dishes, which usually come with a side of beans, tortillas and salsa. You can enjoy huevos rancheros (fried egg on a tortilla base, served with salsa); chilaquiles (a breakfast version of nachos, topped with tomato sauce, cheese, beans and a fried egg); and huevos a la Mexicana (scrambled eggs with onion, chile and tomato). Most restaurants also serve granola (with or without yogurt) and fresh fruit.
Snack food:When traveling around Mexico, you can’t miss the puestos (stalls) offering gorditas (pocket sandwiches), tamales, tacos, or tortillas, with their different choice of fillings, including frijoles (beans), queso (cheese), nopales (cactus), papas (potato), cebollas (onion), acelga (chard), champiñones (mushrooms), or huevo (egg). Be sure to use “huevo” in the singular though, since the plural, by itself, is a slang term for a delicate part of the male anatomy! Another popular snack is elote, or corn on the cob, served with different garnishes and found on streets all over Mexico.
Lunch:La comida is the main meal of the day, and is usually eaten around 2 p.m. In restaurants, the comida corrida (fixed-price meal of the day) usually includes meat, but you can ask if they’ll substitute a non-meat dish for the entrée. Barry and I often enjoy tortilla soup, also called sopa azteca, which is tomato soup poured over fried tortilla strips and garnished with an array of toppings, including cheese, avocado, cilantro, fried chiles, onion, and sour cream. If you’re vegan, don’t forget to say, “Sin queso o crema, por favor” (No cheese or cream, please).
Don’t fear the needles: most markets will make nopal (cactus) safe and ready to cook. A great vegetarian option! (Archive)
While many dishes do include meat, Mexico has a long tradition of eating another protein beans! Black beans, gallo (pinto) beans, and frijolesperuanos (not Peruvian beans, as you might think, but a creamy yellow bean), available both cooked whole (enteros) and refried (refritos), can be found at most restaurants. Whatever you’re eating, ask if they can give you frijoles instead of meat, and check, if you’re a purist, if the beans are cooked in pork lard (manteca de cerdo) which is often the cooking fat of choice here in Mexico.
Another vegetarian option to consider is a meatless burrito. Beans and rice are another good bet, along with some pico de gallo (a diced tomato salsa). Or try mole, the thick, smoky, often chocolate-y sauce usually served over chicken, which many Mexicans consider the crowning glory of their national cuisine. In Puebla, I almost wept over my rice and mole.
We’re partial to quesadillas, which traditionally consist of melted cheese tucked into a folded tortilla, but nowadays have all kinds of variations, like the spinach quesadillas with roasted veggies I ate at a café in Querétaro. My all-time favorite quesadilla dish is the one I order at our local corner eatery, Cafe Santo, in Guanajuato, with a filling of portobello mushrooms, though huitlacoche (a fungus that grows on corn) and beans are also popular options.
Enchiladas verdes can be served with a cheese filling instead of typical chicken. (Twitter)
Dinner: Mexican dinner (la cena) is typically light, since the main meal is in the afternoon. Still, if you’re in a city, you can find plenty of restaurants open. International restaurants are more and more common, even in smaller cities. We’ve savored risotto in Zacatecas, tabouli in Guanajuato, and aloo gobi masala in Puebla. You can also find sushi anywhere. Chinese restaurants are everywhere in Mexican cities, but the food tends to be greasy. In Guanajuato, we can choose from Vietnamese, Thai, Mediterranean, and Arabic restaurants.
Mexico City however, is in a league of its own, and offers almost every type of cuisine as well as an array of vegan and vegetarian restaurants.
Cooking at home
Cooking vegetarian food is not much different than in the U.S. or Canada. Buy black or pinto beans in cans or plastic packaging if you’re in a hurry; otherwise buy dried beans and cook in a crock pot. I often cook lentils in my crock pot.
Staying in rentals
All Mexican homes come equipped with a blender since Mexicans have enjoyed licuados (smoothies) long before they became popular in the English-speaking world.
Buy some mangoes, papayas, pineapple, mandarins, and bananas, and blend up a hearty fruit smoothie. Just be sure to disinfect the produce first by soaking it in Microdyn, an antibacterial solution, available everywhere. Add spinach, Mexican zucchini, and other veggies for an even healthier green smoothie.
You may notice that a lot of these dishes are not exactly low-calorie. To avoid weight gain (and protect my heart), I ask for salsa instead of sour cream, cheese or heavy sauces, or order sour cream on the side (“al lado”). Guacamole is fine, but I skip the complimentary deep-fried tortilla chips (yummy as they are), and ask for jicama (a Mexican root vegetable), red pepper, or cucumber sticks instead for dipping.
¡Buen provecho!
Food in Mexico is a sensory pleasure, however you eat it.
You can while away a couple of lazy hours over a meal in an outdoor café, in warm, forgiving weather. No one will hover over you to pay up and leave. Or you can hang out on a park bench in the zócalo (town plaza) and watch the vendors selling their wares and the kids playing and the couples strolling arm-in-arm, while you bite into your tamal.
Whether you’re inside or out, at a table or on a bench, eating a meal in Mexico is delectable experience — and not just because of the food.
Louisa Rogers and her husband Barry Evans divide their lives between Guanajuato and Eureka, on California’s North Coast. Louisa writes articles and essays about expat life, Mexico, travel, physical and psychological health, retirement and spirituality. Her recent articles are on her website, louisarogers.contently.com
Alexa Moreno (right) becomes Mexico's most decorated gymnast with 3 gold medals at the Games, despite missing 2022 due to health problems. (Conade/Twitter)
Mexico has pulled ahead in the 2023 Central American and Caribbean Games, closing Wednesday with136 medals while its closest competitor, Colombia, had 87.
Mexico’s medal tally included 52 gold medals, 47 silver and 37 bronze by the end of the fifth day of the 15-day tournament in San Salvador.
There was also success for Mexico’s cycle team at the Games, with yet another gold medal. (Conade/Twitter)
Gymnast Alexa Moreno was a notable success story, winning three gold medals – in floor, vault, and as a member of Mexico’s winning female team – as well as one silver and one bronze during her events.
The medal haul gives the 28-year-old the best record in Mexican gymnastics history, despite not competing in 2022 for health reasons.
Other Mexican achievements at the Games include:
Mexico dominating theracquetball contests on Thursday, with an individual gold for Paola Longoria and for doubles players Alexandra Herrera and Monserrat Mejía. In the men’s contest, Mexico claimed both gold and silver after Eduardo Portillo beat his compatriot Rodrigo Montoya in the final.
Athletes Emiliano Hernández, Manuel Padilla, Mayran Oliver and Mayan Oliver all taking gold in the modern pentathlon.
Andrea Ibarra and Carlos González winning gold in sport shooting, while fellow Mexicans Alejandra Zavala and Daniel Urquiza secured silver.
Lilian Armenta, Hugo Reyes, Jordy Gutiérrez and Mildred Mercado winning gold in mixed rowing, with a time of 6:24.45.
Mexicos’ synchronized swimming team, seen here at the World Championships in Egypt earlier this year, continued their success by winning gold, amid an ongoing dispute over funding. (Twitter)
The Mexican women’ssynchronized swimming team also took top prize in their discipline.
“It is a great honor to add more medals for my country, because it has been a great job by this group of teammates, who have worked hard to give everything in the water so that our routine was perfect,” swimmer Itzamary González told the press.
The win was the latest in a strong season for the team, which also won three gold medals and one bronze at the synchronized swimming world cup in Egypt last month.
However, the team has also clashed with the National Commission for Physical Culture and Sport (Conade), after complaining about a lack of support from the government. In May, Conade chief Ana Gabriela Guevara denied claims the team was forced to self-fund its trip to Egypt, claiming instead that they had failed to properly account for previously received funding.
Diplomats from the Pacific Alliance countries (Mexico's Bárcena is in the middle) agreed on the temporary presidency of Chile, which will then be handed over to Peru in August. (Chilean Ministry of Foreign Affairs/Twitter)
Chile will temporarily assume the presidency of the Pacific Alliance trade bloc to diffuse the diplomatic tensions that followed Mexico’s refusal to cede the position to Peru.
The agreement was finalized on Wednesday, in a meeting in Santiago de Chile between representatives of the Pacific Alliance countries of Mexico, Chile, Peru and Colombia. Chile will hold the presidency for a month, after which time it will pass to Peru on Aug. 1.
Mexico has been attempting to negotiate over the presidency of the trade bloc for some time. Here, President López Obrador is seen at a summit with Chilean President Gabriel Boric, in late 2022. (Galo Cañas/Cuartoscuro)
“We have always recognized Peru’s right to exercise the pro tempore presidency,” Chile’s Foreign Minister, Alberto van Klaveren, said at a press conference. “We have assumed the responsibility of acting as intermediaries to resolve this situation.”
Mexico was supposed to hand over the rotating presidency to Peru in late 2022 or early 2023 but refused because President López Obrador considered the current Peruvian government under President Dina Boluarte to be illegitimate. Boluarte took over after former president Pedro Castillo attempted to dissolve congress ahead of an impeachment vote in December 2022. Castillo was arrested and remains in state custody.
Castillo’s arrest caused mass protests in Peru which Boluarte’s government repressed forcefully, leaving at least 60 civilians dead between December 2022 and March 2023. Though initially Boluarte said she would move up the scheduling of general elections, she recently stated that she will remain president through 2026.
AMLO does not recognize Peruvian president Dina Boluarte’s government and has granted asylum to ousted president Pedro Castillo’s family in Mexico. (@PresidenciaPeru Twitter)
AMLO was an outspoken supporter of Castillo throughout the crisis, claiming the Peruvian leader was the victim of a conspiracy by Peru’s oligarchy. After Castillo was ousted, AMLO offered asylum to his family and putdiplomatic relations on hold with Peru.
Months of tensions followed in which both countries withdrew their ambassadors and AMLO challenged Boluarte’s legitimacy to hold the Pacific Alliance’s leadership.
“I do not want to hand over [the presidency] to a government that I consider spurious,” AMLOsaid in February. “I don’t want to legitimize a coup.”
The spat threatened to escalate further when Peru’s foreign minister, Ana Cecilia Gervasi,condemned AMLO’s comments as “interventionist, irresponsible and ideological,” and suggested that withholding the presidency could “have consequences in the international legal community.”
The Peruvian Congress went as far to declare AMLO persona non grata for his comments in May, after having done the same to Colombian president Gustavo Petro in February after Petro compared Peru’s national police to “Nazis marching against their own people.”
However, AMLO conceded that he would let the other members of the Pacific Alliance decide the Pacific Alliance question, paving the way for this week’s rapprochement.
Following Wednesday’s agreement, Mexican Foreign Minister Alicia Bárcena passed the bloc’s leadership to Van Klaveren, in a ceremony also attended by Renzo Villa Prrado, chargé d’affaires of Peru in Chile. Van Klaveren stressed that Chile accepted the temporary presidency “in a spirit of brotherhood with the countries and with the consent of all members of the alliance.”
“The agreement reached reflects the political will to continue betting on Latin American integration, which encourages dialogue, economic and commercial exchange,” Peru’s Foreign Ministrysaid in a statement.
“This agreement relaunches the work of the Pacific Alliance and highlights the role of diplomacy as a means to achieve commitments through dialogue.”
According to stories about Martson, Emiliano Zapata (center) planned to execute him, thinking he was a "gringo" (from the U.S.), but a tattoo convinced him to spare his life. (Gob MX/Edher A. Moreno)
The story of Australian Roderick James Marston (at times referred to as Martson) – the photographer who became a Zapatista – was largely unknown until the 1990s, 60 years after his death, when his great granddaughter Erin Reid discovered a box of his journals and photos taken during the Mexican Revolution in the basement of his Vancouver home.
Reid has not yet released the contents to the public but has confirmed that the journals and photographs document his time with the Zapatistas. He has been referenced in Zapata biographies simply as “El Gringo”.
A late 19th-century mine in Puebla not far from where Marston would set up his own mine, with permission from President Porfirio Díaz. (Fototeca Nacional INAH)
Marston was an intrepid traveler and adventurer. From an early age, he began traveling the world in search of adventure and his wealthy parents indulged his wanderlust. He was also a photographer, inventor, miner, and entrepreneur.
His travels eventually took him to Vancouver, Canada where he caught gold fever. His desire to become a prospector took him south to the United States, settling in San Antonio, Texas and acquiring two mining properties.
His scientific skill and intuitive sense of timing led him to invent a method of mining using explosive devices he invented to rip away the hard rock revealing the hidden treasure within – veins of gold to be exploited. His expertise gained him huge profits and gave him an edge over the other gambusinos (prospectors).
Eventually gold mines in the region began to dwindle, so Marston, backpack slung over one shoulder, traveled further south into Mexico to seek new adventures.
He received permission from President Porfirio Díaz to settle in the city of Tehuacán, Puebla to carry out “scientific work” which for Marston meant mining. He immediately acquired a silver mine and once again employing his unique explosive techniques, began making large profits.
Emiliano Zapata and his troops circa 1917. (Archivo Casasola / Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia)
His profits were so immense that he built a large estate and hired twenty people to staff it. For the next six years he spent his time making money, designing new inventions, and indulging in his true passion: photography.
However, the Mexican Revolution of 1910 interrupted this more settled life for Marston.
In the leadup to the war, General Emiliano Zapata’s army dominated the states of Morelos and Puebla. The slogan of the Zapatistas was “Land and Freedom”. Their goal was restitution of the land to the peasants – land currently owned by wealthy landowners. As the Zapatistas advanced through the area, ranches and estates fell one by one – the land then distributed to peasants.
According to the limited accounts available, when they reached Marston’s property, he and his employees put up a fierce defense but they were no match for Zapata’s army – the estate was in ruins, most of his servants killed, and Marston taken prisoner.
The Zapatistas considered him a “gringo” (born in the United States) and Zapata ordered him to be executed by firing squad. Marston, in broken Spanish, tried to explain that he was not a gringo. The story goes that by displaying a tattoo of the British flag on one of his arms, he convinced them he wasn’t an American. According to interviews conducted with his great-granddaughter, he had obtained the tattoo while spending time with the British merchant navy during his earlier travels.
The story may be apocryphal, but Zapata decided to spare him if he agreed to fight with the Zapatistas.
Marston, donning the Zapatista hat and carrying bandoliers on his shoulder, became part of Zapata’s army and was assigned to a battalion in Puebla. Due to his experience with explosives, Zapata put him in charge of blowing up the roads and railways being used by the federal army to fight the Zapatistas.
An attack on a Constitutionalist military train in Sonora in September 1913. According to family lore, Marston was ordered to carry out a similar attack on a hospital. (José Mendoza / Fototeca INAH)
In 1911, Porfirio Díaz was overthrown and revolutionary leader Francisco I. Madero marched triumphantly into Mexico City to claim the presidency. Zapata – as the revolutionary leader of the south – began peace negotiations with him in the hope of sharing power in the new government. However, it quickly became apparent that Madero was not interested. Considering him a traitor to the cause, Zapata restarted the armed struggle for land – this time fighting the federal forces under President Madero.
On one occasion General Zapata himself ordered Marston to blow up a hospital where wounded federal soldiers lay dying. Marston refused, considering this a criminal act. Zapata saw his disobedience as a betrayal of the cause and ordered him to be executed, for a second time. But the Zapatistas had come to like and respect the gringo – even calling him Captain Marston – and intervened to save his life.
Marston did not blow up the hospital, but he continued to fulfill his revolutionary duties until he was eventually captured by the Madero federal army and imprisoned. Madero, who was at the time seeking the support of foreign nations – and believing Marston to be a British citizen – gave him a reprieve on one condition: exile. Once more, the tattoo had saved his life.
Marston was not the only foreigner to fight on one side or another of the Mexican Revolution. Giuseppe Garibaldi II, also born in Australia, served under Francisco I. Madero in the first stage of the revolution, and Mexico City’s Plaza Garibaldi is named in his honor. (Harry Blumenfeld)
He made one last trip to the Zapatista camp where he had spent so much time to say his goodbyes to his comrades, who were by now his friends, and collected his most valuable possessions – his photographic equipment, his photo negatives, and his journals – and departed for the United States.
His days of wandering, however, were not yet over. He traveled around the United States trying his hand at managing land, factory management, and even at one point selling Dr. W. B. Caldwell’s Syrup Pepsin (an early U.S. patented laxative) until he migrated north to Canada – where he finally settled down in Vancouver to start a family.
It is believed that he died there in 1933, at the age of 59. All that remains are his journals and more than 500 photos of Zapata and the Zapatistas. His days of wanderlust had finally come to an end but many of the details of his adventures in Mexico remain shrouded in mystery.
Sheryl Losser is a former public relations executive and professional researcher. She spent 45 years in national politics in the United States. She moved to Mazatlán in 2021 and works part-time doing freelance research and writing.
The front-runner to represent Morena in the 2024 presidential election emphatically responded to some social media speculation about her birthplace. Her parents were also both born in Mexico, though her maternal grandparents came from Bulgaria. (Claudia Sheinbaum/Twitter)
Leading Morena party presidential aspirant Claudia Sheinbaum has rejected claims she wasn’t born in Mexico, and published her birth certificate to prove her point.
Some social media users have asserted in recent days that the former Mexico City mayor was born in Bulgaria, the country from which her maternal grandparents hailed.
Sheinbaum has been on a tour of the country as an aspiring candidate for the Morena presidential candidacy in 2024. (Claudia Sheinbaum/Twitter)
Among the requirements a Mexican citizen must meet to qualify to be president of Mexico is to have been born in Mexico and to have at least one Mexican parent.
Sheinabum took to Twitter on Wednesday to dispel the rumors that she wasn’t born in Mexico.
“I’m more Mexican than mole,” she wrote in a post that included an image of her birth certificate showing she was born in Mexico City in 1962.
Mole is a typical Mexican sauce – and the key ingredient in a dish of the same name – whose origins date back hundreds of years.
Bájenle a sus especulaciones, ahí les va de nuevo mi acta de nacimiento. Soy 100% mexicana, orgullosamente hija de padres mexicanos. pic.twitter.com/wJJKyj2SPy
— Dra. Claudia Sheinbaum (@Claudiashein) June 28, 2023
Sheinbaum, who stepped down as mayor earlier this month to focus on winning the ruling Morena party’s nomination for the 2024 presidential election, deleted her birth certificate post for an unknown reason, but subsequently published a new, similar post on Twitter.
“Stop your speculation, here’s my birth certificate again. I’m 100% Mexican, proudly a daughter of Mexican parents,” she wrote.
Sheinbaum also rejected claims she wasn’t born in Mexico in a video posted to social media. In the same video, she noted that her mother and her father, who is deceased, were also born in Mexico. “I’m pure Mexican,” Sheinbaum declared.
The ex-mayor – Morena’s most favored candidate, according to the results of a recent El Universal newspaper poll – said at a 2018 Jewish community event that paternal grandparents were from Lithuania and her maternal grandparents were from Bulgaria.
“I feel Mexican, I am Mexican, … but I’m proud of my origin,” she said at the time.
Sheinbaum, a physicist and engineer who was a member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007, is one of six aspirants to the Morena party nomination for the June 2, 2024 presidential election.
It is almost cliché that many foreigners find in Mexico the chance to do and be quite different from what we can in our home countries. But when it comes to commitment to personal independence, art and politics, few of us can match the story of Tina Modotti, which is even more amazing given that she arrived in Mexico 100 years ago.
Born in Italy in 1896, Modotti came with her family in 1913, part of a large wave of European immigration to the United States. She began working in a factory in San Francisco, but her interest in theater and her looks brought her acting and modeling work and a bohemian life.
Modotti in “Tiger’s Coat,” a 1920 silent drama.
She married poet and painter Roubix de l’Abrie Richey, but began an affair with photographer Edward Weston in 1921.
Richey went to Mexico City to check out the budding muralism scene. He invited Modotti to join him, but she stayed behind until he became sick with smallpox. Her first visit to Mexico was brief, primarily to bring her husband’s body back home, but she liked what she saw.
She convinced Weston to move there and open a photography studio, setting up shop in the upscale Condesa neighborhood of Mexico City in 1923.
Weston taught Modotti the basics in San Francisco. But renowned Mexican photographer Graciela Iturbide insists that she was “…a Mexican photographer because she developed her art in Mexico.”
Women by Tina Modotti. Long before the modern concept of feminism, a realistic (non-sexualized) image of what life is like for most women. (Tina Modotti)
For seven years, Modotti’s bread and butter was taking portraits of Mexico’s elite. This not only gave her an independent source of income – rare for women at the time – but also contacts with the city’s artists and intellectuals, including Diego Rivera,, writer Antonieta Rivas Mercado and photographer Manuel Álvarez Bravo.
Rivera praised her photography and she began to regularly document his and others’ mural work. She also worked with the magazine Mexican Folkways in 1925 and the book “Idols Behind Altars” in 1929.
But by 1926, her relationship with Weston soured. He returned to the U.S., and she shifted into politics, joining the Mexican Communist Party (PCM) in 1927, and working with El Machete, the party’s newspaper.
Sombrero with Hammer and Sickle 1927 by Tina Modotti – representing the two most important influences on her photography – Mexico and communism. (Tina Modotti)
Modotti was acquitted, but not before the trial made public her life of nude modeling, sexual independence and communist politics. Mexican high society was utterly scandalized and she lost her livelihood. The last straw for the government was when she was accused in a failed plot to kill President Pascual Ortiz Rubio. This event was the pretext for increased suppression of the PCM and the jailing or deportation of many of its activists, including Modotti: after spending 13 days in jail, she was given hours to get out of the country.
She fled to Europe, eventually working for the International Red Aid, a Soviet initiative to aid political prisoners, which took her to Spain to support the Republican fight against fascist Francisco Franco. She may have been a Soviet spy, but this has never been confirmed.
With Franco victorious, Modotti needed to flee again. She first attempted to go to the U.S. but was denied because of false documents and possibly her communist political activity.. Instead, she returned to Mexico in 1939. Despite her earlier deportation, the government of Lázaro Cárdenas was sympathetic to the Republican cause, and President Cárdenas personally annulled her expulsion the following year.
But Modotti did not return to her former life. Portrait photography was probably out of the question, and she became impoverished and reclusive.
“Hands of the Puppeteer” (1929). One of a series of “hands of” photographs representing the working class. (Tina Modotti)
On January 6, 1942, at the age of 45, Modotti died in a Mexico City taxi. Officially, her cause of death was heart disease. However, because of her age and past, speculation that she was murdered, likely because of her political involvement, continues to this day. She was buried in Mexico City’s Panteón de Dolores, with an epitaph composed by Pablo Neruda.
While Modotti’s personal life makes for a tantalizing story, her legacy is in her photographs, which were all but forgotten in the decades after her death. Although she produced about 200 known images with historical and artistic importance, for decades, documentation of her life was mostly found in footnotes in writings about Edward Weston.
That changed with the discovery of a trunk in an Oregon farmhouse in the 1990s containing a cache of about 70 photographs. They went to auction, and the 1925 work “Roses” fetched US $165,000, a record at the time. This, combined with the previous “Fridamania” of the 1980s, spurred book and film projects about Modotti, as well as exhibitions of her work at major international art museums and her life lionized by celebrities such as Madonna.
Exhibitions of her work remained popular in the 1990s but began to wane in the 2000s, with her work again being associated with Weston internationally.
Her photography was nowhere near as scandalous as her private life. She stated that “I try to produce not art but honest photographs, without distortions or manipulations.” But that might not be entirely true.
Over Modotti’s seven years in Mexico, her artistic photography would progress from lighter themes to more serious ones. Despite the success of “Roses” at auction, she is best known for her social and political work, especially photographs taken for El Machete. Many pieces, such as “Worker’s Hand,” focus on the daily lives of peasants and workers. Others have direct political symbolism, such as a series dedicated to the communist hammer and sickle. The abstract works seem to be experiments inspired by contemporary artistic movements and include “Telegraph Wires” and “Staircase and Stadium, Mexico City,” where lines and shadow dominate.
Mujer con Olla (1927). Modotti was part of a movement by photographers to document, advocate for and even glorify Mexico’s working and peasant classes. (Tina Modotti)
Her social-political works are considered to be a precursor to critical photojournalism. Klaudia Prevezanos of the German publication DW says that her work remains relevant and “style defining” 100 years later: “they remain timeless in their simplicity and elegance.”
While she may never have enduring international status, Modotti’s work remains important in Mexico. “She was my early inspiration” says Iturbide, who has carried the torch of socially-conscious photography to the present day.
Leigh Thelmadatter arrived in Mexico over 20 years ago and fell in love with the land and the culture in particular its handcrafts and art. She is the author of Mexican Cartonería: Paper, Paste and Fiesta (Schiffer 2019). Her culture column appears regularly on Mexico News Daily.
The recent heat wave has increased demand for fans and other cooling devices in Mexico. (Delaney Van/Unsplash)
Mexico’s recent heat wave caused a surge in demand for cooling devices that nearly overwhelmed suppliers and caused disruption to the energy supply in some states.
Demand for fans and air conditioners jumped 18.9% in January to April compared to the same period the year before, while their manufacture only increased 14.3%, according to Mexico’s national statistics agency (INEGI). Online retailer Mercado Libre reported that demand for these devices jumped a further 18% between May 29 and June 12.
Online retailer Mercado Libre reported an 18% increase in sales of fans in early June. (@ML_Mexico/Twitter)
In the first 20 days of June, as the third heat wave of the year gripped Mexico, sales of fans, sunscreen, hats and other items to mitigate the heat in Mexico City totaled 3.2 billion pesos (US $190 million) – a 46.6% increase from the year before – according to the National Chamber of Commerce, Services and Tourism (Canaco).
“I have participated in the fan market for seven years and this has not happened before,” Guillermo Freyría, president of the National Association of Manufacturers of Household Appliances (ANFAD), told the El Financiero newspaper. “It is very difficult to be prepared for this,” Freyría said, stressing the “atypical conditions” of present demand.
El Financiero found that many stores have struggled to keep up with this demand, selling out of certain models of fans within hours of the products arriving. Freyría predicts that if these types of heat waves continue, the use of ventilation and air conditioning in Mexican homes will grow by at least 10%.
Several foreign companies in the sector have been relocating their manufacturing to Mexico to better access the U.S. market. These include fan motor manufacturer Taurus, which has relocated a plant from China to Tlaxcala, and Japanese company Daikin, which is investing US $300 million in two factories in San Luis Potosí.
ANFAD president Guillermo Freyría is concerned that increased electric consumption caused by the heatwave will lead to unaffordable bills for many Mexicans. (ANFAD)
“Mexico is a country with a tropical climate that depends greatly on fans; this geographical position is also an advantage to serve various export markets in an agile way,” said Luis Ángel García Pérez, vice president of the ventilators section at ANFAD.
On the other hand, the surge in use of electrical cooling devices during the heat wave increased costs for many Mexican businesses, leaving some with bills they may struggle to pay, according to Canaco president José de Jesús Rodríguez.
“We are asking the authorities that when these bills arrive, if they are very high, they give those who have less [ability to pay] some option to cover these expenses gradually,” he told the newspaper Reforma.
Increased use of cooling devices also increased demand for electricity, putting a strain on Mexico’s energy supplies.
Migrants from other countries, such as Guatemala, also reported paying smugglers to help them cross the Mexican border. (Pedro Anza / Cuartoscuro.com)
People smugglers known as coyotes or polleros are charging Mexicans close to US $7,000 on average to get them across the northern border into the United States, a 2022 survey found.
Conducted in the second half of last year, the Survey on Migration at the Northern Border of Mexico (EMIF Norte) found that Mexicans are paying an average of $6,937 to smugglers to take them into the United States.
The EMIF Norte survey included over 20,000 migrants, many of whom had been deported from the U.S. after trying to illegally cross the border. (CBP/Twitter)
At $7,839, the average price paid by Mexican women is 19% higher than the $6,565 average price paid by Mexican men.
The EMIF Norte – a joint initiative of the Mexican government, the College of the Northern Border and the International Organization for Migration – also found that 45% of surveyed Mexican migrants deported to Mexico from the U.S. used a coyote to cross the northern border.
Of more than 20,000 surveyed migrants heading to the United States, only 8.6% had guaranteed work waiting from them across the border. One-third had relatives in the U.S, while approximately eight in 10 hadn’t migrated previously.
Just over half of the surveyed Mexicans headed to the United States – 53.5% – didn’t have documents that allowed them to legally enter the U.S. or work there. Almost 60% of those surveyed were men while just over 40% were women. Their average age was 30, and only 11.9% had completed studies above high school level.
People found inside this trailer in Chiapas — mostly Guatemalan migrants — wait in line for space in migration institute transport vehicles. (Cuartoscuro.com)
The EMIF Norte’s sister survey, the Survey on Migration at the Southern Border of Mexico (EMIF Sur), found that 15.3% of 13,535 migrants from Guatemala who were deported to that country from Mexico used a coyote to facilitate their entry to and travel through the country. The average cost they paid was $3,894, according to the recently published results of the EMIF Sur, which was also conducted in the second half of last year.
The percentage of Guatemalan migrants who used a people smuggler to avoid detection by authorities as they traveled through Mexico is significantly higher than the 2% figure recorded in the second half of 2019.
Over half of the Guatemalan migrants surveyed reported suffering from extreme heat or cold while traveling in Mexico. About a quarter said they lacked food and/or water, while 2.6% said they were victims of extortion.
The period during which the EMIF Norte and EMIF Sur were conducted – July to November of last year – partially coincided with the United States 2022 fiscal year, during which undocumented immigrant crossings reached a record high of 2.76 million.
The Xalapa museum is considered the second-most significant anthropological collection in the country, after the Museo Nacional de Antropología in Mexico City. (Photo courtesy of the author)
Seeing Olmec colossal heads in photographs is one thing. But when you stand in front of one, it’s not just their size that strikes you. It’s also their presence, one that exudes both calmness and power.
The best place to experience that presence is the Museo de Antropología de Xalapa (MAX) in Xalapa, Veracruz.
On your next trip through Veracruz, make a stop at the Xalapa Anthropology Museum, where you can see an impressive collection of Olmec colossal heads. (MAX)
MAX is considered the second-most important anthropology museum in Mexico (the first being the Museo Nacional de Antropología in Mexico City). The first museum in Xalapa to exhibit pre-Hispanic artifacts to the public, MAX opened in 1943. A larger museum was opened on the current site in 1960, only to be torn down in 1985 to make way for an even larger museum.
The third iteration of the museum, designed by U.S. architect Raymond Gómez, opened on October 29, 1986. All of the 2,500 artifacts on display are from pre-Hispanic Veracruz civilizations: Olmec, Remojadas, Tajín, Zapotal and Huasteca.
The building has one long gallery that connects to nine smaller galleries on one side. Three of these are covered patios where prehispanic figures and altars sit among trees and plants. Beautifully landscaped grounds surround the museum.
Colossal Head Number 8 greets visitors at the entrance to the museum (the numbers signify the order in which the heads were found). Standing just over 7 feet tall, it has the same characteristics found on all of the heads: a flattened nose, thick lips and fleshy cheeks. All also have a helmet, which may have afforded protection in pelota, the ancient Mesoamerican ball game, or in battle.
Three heads (l to r), number 9 (with smile), number 3 (maybe female), number 4. (Photo courtesy of the author)
Believed to be the portraits of rulers, Olmec heads were carved from basalt boulders transported from the Sierra de los Tuxtlas mountains. To date, seventeen heads have been found and seven can be viewed at the MAX. The heads range in height from 1.17 to 3.4 meters (3.8 to 11.2 feet) and weigh between 6 and 40 tons. Although it’s not known with certainty when the heads were carved, information at the museum dates them to between 1,200 and 900 B.C.
Although all of the heads share common characteristics, each one is unique. For example, Number 3, located with two others in a side room, is thought to be the portrait of a woman. To her right is Number 9, who sports a Mona Lisa-like smile, and to her left is Number 4, who looks a little grim.
Although the heads may be the most impressive of the museum’s pieces, there are many others that are also fascinating.
Near the museum’s entrance are exhibits and information about the important role women played in pre-Hispanic cultures in Veracruz.
A sculpture of a prehispanic fertility goddess is pictured with Colossal Head Number 5 gazing from behind. (Photo courtesy of the author)
With 2,500 artifacts in the museum, it’s difficult to choose favorites. But, in addition to the colossal heads, here are a few others that I found particularly interesting.
A sculpture of Tlazolteotl, the fertility goddess and one of the most important gods of all pre-Hispanic cultures, is at the entrance to the main gallery. She sits, cross-legged, gazing serenely while Colossal Head number 5 watches from behind her.
El Señor de Las Limas is a beautiful figure carved from green serpentine with an interesting backstory. It was found by two children in 1965 in Las Limas, Veracruz (hence the name) who were looking for a rock to break open coyoles, the small, hard fruits of a palm tree.
Luckily, the children found a rock sticking out of the ground and used it to break open the fruits. Fortunately, no damage was done. They brought the rock to their home where people realized it was an ancient sculpture. Originally named La Virgen de las Limas, the townspeople placed it in the local church. It was later taken to the MAX where, in 1970, it was stolen and eventually recovered in a San Antonio, Texas motel.
The figure is 55 cm (22 inches) high and depicts an adult, possibly a priest, sitting cross-legged and holding a limp baby in his arms. While it could depict a sleeping baby, it could also represent one that was sacrificed.
A sculpture of rain god Tlaloc in the Anthropology Museum of Xalapa, Veracruz. (Photo courtesy of the author)
Another favorite is the small figure of the Dios del Fuego (Fire God) who appears happy as he rubs his hands together and drops offerings into a brazier. Nearby are Xipe Tótec, the god of agriculture and human sacrifice, whose body is covered in human skin, and Tlaloc, the rain god who looks oddly like a WWI pilot.
One of the more disturbing exhibits is the gallery of deformed skulls, a practice undertaken to show kinship and status, as well as for aesthetic reasons. The deformations were typically performed on infants; the exhibit displays ceramic sculptures depicting children strapped on beds to prevent movement while bands or boards were placed to deform their skulls.
Figure on taking a couple of hours to tour the museum. After that, take advantage of what Xalapa has to offer.
The historic center has lots of restaurants and cafés to check out. A little advice: if you drive to Xalapa, park your car before heading to the city’s center and take taxis, which are reasonably priced – the traffic is brutal. Also, Señor Google kept sending us to the commercial center when we asked the app for directions to the historic center. Either ask someone for directions, or type in Parque Juárez, which is a good starting point within the historic center.
There, you’ll find people selling food, skaters on skateboarders and live music. The park has a huge statue of Quetzalcóatl with an extended tongue that children like to slide down.
For a more tranquil experience, there’s the beautiful Parque de los Tecajetes, which is a short ride from the city’s center. It has gardens and pools filled with fish and turtles and is a nice break from the hustle and bustle of the city.
A waiter serves café lechero in a Veracruz café. (Eneas De Troya/Wikimedia Commons)
Lastly, do not leave Xalapa without trying a hot glass of lechero. A glass of coffee is brought to your table and then a server, in a sort of perfomance art piece, pours in hot milk. Although I prefer my coffee black, I found lechero delicious.
MAX is open Tuesday through Sunday, 9 a.m.to 5 p.m. and costs 60 pesos to enter. The second floor has temporary exhibits.
