World Boxing Council 2021 boxer of the year Saúl "Canelo" Álvarez, left, with his manager Eddy Reynoso. Eddy Reynoso/Twitter
Boxing champion Saúl “Canelo” Álvarez added to his accolades of a stellar 2021 on Tuesday when he was named the boxer of the year by the World Boxing Council (WBC).
The event of the year also went to Canelo, for his knockout victory over the American, Caleb Plant, in November. The Guadalajara-born Álvarez became the first undisputed super middleweight champion when he stopped Plant in the 11th round.
“He made history, and now he’s boxer of the year,” the WBC tweeted to congratulate the red-headed athlete.
His other fights in 2021 were knockout victories against Turk Avni Yildirim in February and Briton Billy Joe Saunders in May.
Eddy Reynoso, his trainer, won the award for Coach of the Year. Reynoso also guided American Andy Ruiz and Mexican Óscar Valdez to triumph this year.
“With an extraordinary job in 2021. With multiple champions in his camp, Eddy Reynoso is the trainer of the year,” read the WBC’s congratulatory tweet.
The men’s fight of the year, a separate category, was given to Briton Tyson Fury and American Deontay Wilder III for their heavyweight bout in October, which Fury won.
Children enjoy a piñata at a posada celebration in Mexico City. Yavidaxiu/Creative Commons
Few things evoke Mexico in our minds as does the traditional star-shaped piñata.
Piñatas are extremely important to Mexican popular culture. They are ubiquitous at birthdays, for example, but the most traditional ones are associated with Christmas.
But did they originate in Mexico? The answer is mostly yes …. and a little no.
Modern Mexican piñatas are a combination of two cultural lineages: the breaking of a container with something special inside was part of various Mesoamerican cultures. The Mayan version even had a blindfolded participant hit the pot. But the direct ancestor of the modern piñata was the Aztec version.
It honored the birth of Huitzilopochtli, the god of the sun and of war and the principal deity on the winter solstice, considered to be his day of birth. This date was also the first day of the new year, as the sun returned from the longest night of the year.
Statue of a monk hitting a piñata at the town of Acolman, México state, considered the home of the piñata. Alejandro Linares García
For this version of the piñata, an old clay pot was decorated with feathers to represent the god. Feathers were important because Huitzilopochtli was said to have been conceived due to his mother absorbing a ball of feathers into her abdomen, and so he was born with feathers on his body. In the ritual, the pot was broken and the fruits of the season and other edibles were shared.
Way over on the other side of the world, the Chinese had developed a similar tradition to mark their new year, celebrated in the early spring. Their version made a vessel in the shape of a cow or ox decorated with symbols and colors meant to bring luck for the coming growing season.
It was filled with seeds and hit with a stick. After being broken, the remains were burned and the ashes kept for good luck.
By the time the Spanish had reached the Americas, Europeans had brought the Chinese tradition west and were breaking decorated clay pots filled with edibles. They had adapted it culturally by making it a tradition for the first Sunday of Lent. So, where does the name piñata come from?
It has its origins in the Italian pignatta, which means “clay cooking pot.” The Spanish version used a plain clay vessel and decorated it with ribbons, tinsel and colored paper.
One of the first undertakings after the conquest was to convert the indigenous Mexica (Aztecs) to Catholicism. As was the case in Europe centuries earlier, this was achieved with a combination of force, political maneuvering and, at times, co-opting native traditions and symbolism to the conquerors’ religion.
The star version of the piñata has evolved into a general Christmas decoration like this one in Tlaxcala. Isaacvp/Creative Commons
Because of the importance of Huitzilopochtli and his birthday, the last option was taken. Evangelists at the monastery in Acolman, México state — today considered the home of the piñata — are credited with mixing the two clay pot traditions and adding some new elements.
European piñata making and breaking was moved to the days before Christmas to coincide with the indigenous festival. But the innovation came with the “new” piñata’s design and symbolism.
Seven cones or points were added onto the pot, along with the colored paper. These represented the seven deadly sins of Catholicism, and the piñata itself represented evil.
The blindfolded person represented faith in God, and the hitting of the piñata with the stick the struggle of man against evil. Breaking the piñata and the release of the edibles inside represented the success and rewards of winning this battle.
In some early traditions, the blindfolded person was turned 33 times, once for each year that Jesus is said to have lived.
Piñatas were the main event in a series of pre-Christmas get-togethers called posadas (lodgings), which today are still done to reenact the biblical story of Mary and Joseph looking for a place to stay before Jesus was born. Originally, the purpose of the posada tradition was to overwrite the whole Huitzilopochtli festival.
An image of Huitzilopochtli as depicted in the Borgia Codex.
Now, if you thought that breaking a piñata by some kid wielding a stick while blindfolded was dangerous enough, can you imagine what it was like to scramble among other greedy little ones among shards of pottery?
In very few places, Christmas piñatas are still made with clay pots. Piñatas are made all over Mexico, in almost any shape, but now mostly use papier-mâché for the hollow container. While paper piñatas are certainly safer, the change is more likely due to economics than concerns about injury.
It is unknown how, when or why the piñata broke its temporal confines of the December holidays to become part of one of the most often performed party rituals. I suspect that it has a lot to do with the strong appeal to the human psyche in scrambling against others for stuff.
The original star-shaped piñata, today with anywhere from five to nine points, is still found almost exclusively in December. These same ones can also have “feather-like” tissue paper streamers as decorations.
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.
Three of the four sons of El Chapo for whom rewards were announced.
The United States government has announced rewards of up to US $5 million each for information leading to the arrest and/or conviction of four sons of imprisoned drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán Loera.
The Department of State announced the rewards Wednesday for the arrest of Ovidio Guzmán López, Ivan Archivaldo Guzmán Salazar, Jesús Alfredo Guzmán Salazar and Joaquín Guzmán López, also known as Los Chapitos.
“All four are high-ranking members of the Sinaloa Cartel and are each subject to a federal indictment for their involvement in the illicit drug trade,” the Department of State said in a press release.
It provided details on how information about the four men can be forwarded to authorities, including by telephone, email and encrypted messaging services.
The Department of State said its new reward announcements complement the Department of Treasury’s designation of 25 individuals and entities under a new executive order (E.O.) – Imposing Sanctions on Foreign Persons Involved in the Global Illicit Drug Trade – signed by United States President Joe Biden on Wednesday.
“Under the new E.O. … the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) today designated 25 actors (10 individuals and 15 entities) in four countries for having engaged in, or attempted to engage in, activities or transactions that have materially contributed to, or pose a significant risk of materially contributing to, the international proliferation of illicit drugs or their means of production,” the Department of Treasury said.
In Mexico, Treasury designated Los Rojos and the Guerreros Unidos for the first time, and added additional designations to 12 individuals and entities that had already been designated under the Kingpin Act and/or a 2011 E.O.
“Los Rojos DTO [drug trafficking organization] is a splinter group of the Beltrán Leyva Organization (BLO), which in recent years has risen to become one of Mexico’s most powerful criminal organizations. In addition to driving violence in Mexico, the Los Rojos DTO is responsible for trafficking numerous illicit drugs, including heroin, into the United States,” Treasury said.
“Guerreros Unidos (GU), a DTO based in Guerrero, Mexico, was originally a splinter group from BLO and through violence expanded its role in the heroin trade. GU collaborates with the Mexican narcotics trafficking organization, Jalisco New Generation Cartel, and shares the same transportation networks to move drug shipments into the United States and to return drug proceeds to Mexico.”
The Guerreros Unidos is also implicated in the abduction of the 43 students who disappeared in Guerrero in 2014.
The Mexican entities and individuals that received an additional designation under the new E.O. were:
• Fausto Isidro Meza Flores, a BLO operator in northern Sinaloa.
• The Gulf Cartel.
• The Juárez Cartel.
• Los Zetas drug cartel.
• Miguel Treviño Morales, who the DEA considers the head of Los Zetas.
• Omar Treviño Morales, Miguel’s brother and a leader of Los Zetas.
• La Familia Michoacana drug cartel.
“As a result of today’s action, all property and interests in property of the designated individuals that are in the United States or in the possession or control of U.S. persons must be blocked and reported to OFAC,” Treasury said.
The proposed bridge, whose plans will have to be scaled back, according to the governor.
The government is set to invest 10 billion pesos (about US $470 million) in Cancún, Quintana Roo, to upgrade infrastructure in the tourist destination, President López Obrador announced this week.
The Caribbean city will receive funds for the Nichupté Bridge, a new 8.7 kilometer road connection over the Nichupté Lagoon linking the city to the hotel zone, and for renovations to the Luis Donaldo Colosio avenue, which connects the hotel zone to the airport and the city.
The president said it was high time the avenue was attended to, and explained how it would be funded: “We are going to improve that avenue, Colosio, which is the principal one and is in very bad condition, totally destroyed. We have already made the commitment to redo it … with hydraulic concrete, taking care that the drainage and water systems are also reconstructed. It is a project that we are going to do jointly between the state government and the federal government,” he said.
The government’s financial commitment to the Nichupté Bridge means a previous funding plan, a public private partnership, will be scrapped.
Governor Carlos Manuel Joaquín said the change in funding for the bridge would reduce the investment and force the project to be scaled back. “It is an issue that we are going to present in the next visit that the president makes; it will no longer be a public private partnership. The bridge had very broad goals. In addition to vehicle lanes, it included bicycle lanes, and maintenance schemes during the years of the concession, but now, faced with the possibility of being a public project, they will be lost. The goals of the project will have to be reduced,” he said.
The president also announced a 300 hectare recreational park in Tulum called The Park of the Jaguar, near an archaeological reserve, through which he aims to protect the area from over-development.
Quintana Roo has benefited from high levels of government investment. A new airport is under construction in Tulum, and it is one of five states where the $8-billion Maya Train project will run once completed, which is scheduled to start operating in 2023.
La Baláhna will be part of the short film program at Sundance. It premieres at the festival and online on January 20. Imcine.gob.mx
A short film that explores the tradition of wedding night virginity testing in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec region of Oaxaca will be shown at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival.
Called La Baláhna, or Maidenhood in English, the 15-minute Spanish and Zapotec language film was written and directed by Xóchitl Enríquez Mendoza, a 30-year-old Isthmus of Tehuantepec native.
According to the Sundance synopsis, the film’s main character, Catalina, “submits to the tradition of her people to demonstrate her purity and worth as a woman to her beloved, but her body betrays her and she fails to demonstrate her chastity.”
In an interview with the newspaper El Universal, Enríquez said she was excited and happy that her film was chosen to represent Mexico at the Sundance Film Festival, which will take place in Utah next January. It will compete in the international short film category.
The short, Enríquez’s fifth, was filmed last year in the Isthmus municipalities of Santo Domingo Tehuantepec and El Barrio de La Soledad.
La Baláhna’s writer and director Xóchitl Enríquez Mendoza is an Isthmus of Tehuantepec native and made the film there. Sundance Film festival
The filmmaker said that La Baláhna — the film takes its name from the Zapotec term for the virginity ritual — is inspired by an experience a female member of her family had 30 years ago. Like Catalina, Enríquez’s relative didn’t bleed on her wedding night and was unable to prove her virginity.
Failing to prove their chastity — even though they were apparently virgins — was a shameful experience for both the film character and the real-life woman. If a woman “passes” the virginity test, the friends of an Isthmus region couple typically wear a red tulip on their clothes the day after the wedding.
Enríquez said that her aim was not to criticize the virginity ritual, which continues to take place in some communities, but to generate a discussion about it.
“It’s a delicate issue, and that was always my concern. I’m not here to attack a custom, I want to question it, start a discussion and reflect about the effects it can have,” she said.
“In this short film … [Catalina] didn’t bleed because she has an elastic hymen. By not bleeding, the character’s love [for her husband] is placed in doubt. Despite that, [Catalina’s husband] Donato stays with her, but the atmosphere of tragedy grows. The relationship is destroyed from the wedding night because she didn’t bleed,” Enríquez said.
The actors and everyone else who worked on the film are locals of the Isthmus region, she said. The film will premiere on January 20 and will be available for streaming on the Sundance Film Festival website until January 31.
Supporters of same-sex marriage share a quiet moment in the Zacatecas Congress. @FueraCloset_AC/Twitter
Zacatecas lawmakers approved same-sex marriage on Tuesday, making it the 25th state in the country where two people of the same gender can legally marry.
The bill passed with 18 votes in favor, 10 against and one abstention, and reformed family law in the Morena-governed state. Immediately after the vote passed, supporters of the reform observing the vote in the gallery broke out into applause and cheers and began a chant of “Si se pudo!” or “Yes, we could!”
The state’s first transgender candidate for governor, Fernanda Salomé Perera, who ran in the June 6 elections for the Redes Sociales Progresistas Party (RSP), expressed joy at the bill’s approval and criticized lawmakers who voted against it.
“We’re very happy that in this legislature, finally … it was achieved. I’m overjoyed at the large number of deputies who joined. I was very sad that some who we thought were going to be in favor of the [LGBT] community voted against. What a shame and what a pity for those types of deputies, but the good news is that equal marriage is approved in Zacatecas,” she said.
Meanwhile, the Catholic Diocese of Zacatecas expressed its disapproval in a statement.
Supporters react to the Zacatecas legislature voting to legalize same-sex marriage.
“Their vote in favor is a hard blow to the family, a fundamental institution of society and does nothing to contribute to the search for solutions to the real problems of Zacatecans,” the statement said. “It is worrying that in the discourse there is talk of values, of rebuilding the social fabric, but with these actions, the basic unit of society is attacked.”
The state Congress voted two years ago on the question of reforming state marriage laws, but the vote failed by a close vote of 13 to 11, with two abstentions.
The Supreme Court ruled in 2015 that civil codes defining marriage as between a man and a woman or for the sole purpose of procreation were unconstitutional, but some states have still not changed their laws, meaning that in order to get married within their borders same-sex couples must apply for a marriage license with their local civil registry, be rejected and then file for an injunction and wait for their case to move through the system.
Mexico City was the first entity to recognize gay marriage, doing so in 2010. The states where same-sex marriage has not been fully legalized are Durango, México state, Guanajuato, Guerrero, Tabasco, Tamaulipas and Veracruz.
Party leaders Zambrano, Cortés and Moreno announce their plans to field candidates for governor next year.
A three-party right-left coalition that was established to contest this year’s midterm elections will run on a joint ticket in at least four state elections in 2022.
The conservative National Action Party (PAN), the center-right Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and the leftist Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) have reached an agreement to contest elections in Aguascalientes, Durango, Hidalgo and Tamaulipas under the Va por México (Go for Mexico) banner.
The leaders of the three parties told a press conference Tuesday that the alliance could also contest next year’s elections in Oaxaca and Quintana Roo, although no pact for those states has yet been reached.
Voters in the six states will elect new governors next June. The PAN currently holds office in Aguascalientes, Durango and Tamaulipas, Hidalgo and Oaxaca have PRI governors and the PRD is in power in Quintana Roo.
PAN national president Marko Cortés said the aim of the alliance is to stop Mexico’s ruling Morena party from seizing more governorships. It is currently in power in 16 of the country’s 32 states.
“We will be joining forces … in Aguascalientes, Durango, Hidalgo and Tamaulipas. … What we’re seeking is to avoid the bad Morena government from arriving … and destroying these federal entities,” Cortés said.
PRI chief Alejandro Moreno said that voters will face a stark choice at next year’s state elections.
Morena is “a disaster for this country” and hasn’t achieved anything, while Va por México is a “powerful coalition” capable of solving problems and achieving results for the wellbeing of society, he said.
“It will depend on how the talks progress,” he said before floating the possibility that an alliance could be struck between just two of the three Va por México members and local political forces.
“… We have full confidence that we can win and we’re going to work to win the majority of these elections in 2022 and to remove the [federal] government in 2024 as well,” Zambrano said.
The López Obrador administration is responsible for the “national nightmare” Mexico is currently going through, he added.
The three leaders said that each party will put forward potential gubernatorial candidates and a coalition flag bearer for each state will be chosen from among them in the coming months. They ruled out any possibility of the Citizens Movement party – currently in power in Jalisco and Nuevo León – joining their alliance.
“… Citizens Movement is not on Mexico’s side, it doesn’t want change,” Moreno said.
A Canadian Pacific locomotive in Banff, Alberta. Serjio74 / Shutterstock.com
Railway giant Canadian Pacific (CP) closed a US $31 billion deal including the assumption of $3.8 billion of debt for United States railroad Kansas City Southern (KCS) on Tuesday, a sale that was originally agreed upon in September.
The landmark deal creates Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC), an approximately 32,000 kilometer railroad that connects Canada, the United States and Mexico and will generate an estimated $8.7 billion annually.
CPKC will offer a direct link between Vancouver, Montreal, New York, Texas and large parts of Mexico, currently operated under KCS’ wholly-owned subsidiary Kansas City Southern de México, which carries freight from the Pacific port of Lázaro Cárdenas, Michoacán; ports in Tampico and Altamira in Tamaulipas; the port of Veracruz; and the Valley of México and the El Bajío industrial region to the U.S. via Texas.
The combination will capitalize on the North America trade agreement (USMCA), particularly in the automotive and agriculture industries, which are together worth almost $190 billion, according to the Economy Ministry.
However, the deal isn’t quite finalized yet: KCS shares have been placed in a voting trust while U.S. regulators review it. The companies expect approval in the fourth quarter of 2022, and will operate independently until then.
The acquisition was given the green light by Mexican regulators in November.
Completion will bring an end to a bidding war between CP and its domestic rival Canadian National (CN), which was previously in line to take over KCS.
The president of CP, Keith Creel, said the deal would benefit North American economies: “Today is an historic day for our two iconic companies … CPKC will become the backbone connecting our customers to new markets, enhancing competition in the U.S. rail network, and driving economic growth across North America while delivering significant environmental benefits,” he said.
President of KCS, Patrick Ottensmeyer, said the agreement will be beneficial for clients, shareholders and workers: “The CP-KCS combination will not only benefit customers, partners, labor and shareholders through new single line transportation services, attractive synergies and complementary routes, but will also benefit KCS and our employees by enabling us to be part of a growing corporate enterprise on the North American continent,” he said.
CP began operating in 1881 and has approximately 20,100 kilometers of track in the United States and Canada.
KCS is the smallest of the major freight railroads in the U.S, with 10,800 kilometers of track in the U.S. and Mexico.
Angélica and her family had to flee the town of Joya Real fearing for their safety.
A 15-year-old girl who was sold into marriage at the age of 11 and jailed after fleeing the home of her allegedly abusive father-in-law cannot live in her hometown in Guerrero due to the hostility of residents.
Angélica, who has accused her father-in-law Rutillo Julián Moreno of attempting to rape her on repeated occasions, returned Monday with her parents to Joya Real, a community in Cochoapa el Grande, with the intention of moving back into their home.
But doing so proved impossible due to residents’ harassment of Angélica, the newspaper Reforma reported.
The sale of girls for marriage is common in the Montaña region of Guerrero, where young wives and would-be wives are stigmatized if they push back against the practice.
The Montaña Tlachinollan Human Rights Center said that Angélica and her family couldn’t stay in Joya Real due to safety concerns.
Rutillo Julián Moreno allegedly raped his daughter-in-law.
Neil Arias Vitinio, a lawyer with the rights center, said the wooden door of the family’s home had been damaged with a machete.
“The girl’s parents were happy because they had the expectation of [being able] to return to their community, but due to the risky conditions they decided not to stay,” he said.
The youth, who was sold into marriage for 120,000 pesos (US $5,650 at today’s exchange rate), was living with Moreno because her husband had emigrated to the United States in search of work.
She was jailed for 10 days after fleeing his home, and her three little sisters and grandmother were also detained. Angélica’s mother, who was pregnant with triplets, suffered a miscarriage after allegedly being punched by one of the officers at the police lockup where her daughters were being held.
Moreno is currently in prison facing charges of raping Angélica.
The rising cost of things like cooking fuel and ingredients is getting untenable, owners of taco stands in Mexico City say. morotoson/Shutterstock
High inflation rates have hit the taco. The cost of cooking fuel is largely to blame, but a bump in the cost of essential ingredients has also contributed to a rise in the price of the popular street food.
Inflation hit 7.37% in November, its highest level in more than 20 years. Costs for small restaurants like taquerías were up 0.74% in monthly terms and — given general price trends — they are likely to continue their climb.
The national statistics agency INEGI reported a 17.8% annual increase in the price of fruit and vegetables in 2021 and said meat prices went up 11.44%.
In monthly terms, green tomatoes rose 71.85% in November and red tomatoes jumped 25.38%; some fresh chiles climbed 30.66%.
While the cost of LP gas receded 1.4% in November, it did so from a very high level: prices skyrocketed in February due to a supply shortage caused by adverse weather in Texas.
Eduardo, the owner of La Esquinita in the north end of Mexico City, complained that almost all of his taquería’s costs had risen. “It’s all gone up: the meat, vegetables, practically everything; disposable [plates and cutlery] rose almost double. The costs are really high right now.”
The price of tortillas, Eduardo said, had risen by 7 pesos since the start of the pandemic, and their green chile sauce was now five times more expensive to produce.
La Esquinita subsequently raised the price of a “pastor” pork taco from 12–13 pesos, while the lengua (tongue) and sesos (brains) tacos have gone from 18–20 pesos. Eduardo added that demand had remained steady despite the increases.
In the neighborhood of San Pedro, in the southeast of Mexico City, Doña Leo and her husband Timoteo have had a small taquería for 45 years. They said their production costs had only gone one way: “Everything that is used in a taquería went up a lot … the gas for example, as the stove has to be lit at all times whether there are people here or not … the vegetables have gone up a lot, lime is expensive, cilantro is expensive … everything is expensive. Meat has been going up for about eight days.”
The couple has been forced to raise the price of their tacos from 10–11 pesos. However, they no longer consider their taquería a business, since they are finding it so hard to make money. “Sometimes we are left with [no money], just satisfaction and the tradition of talking to customers …”
