This Nuevo León bear went viral after casually interrupting a marriage proposal, to the bemusement of the participants. Twitter screenshot
A marriage proposal in Monterrey, Nuevo León, was interrupted by a bear that calmly walked by between the couple and the recording camera. “What a good story!” the man recording the video said between laughs. The clip went viral on social media in the first days of October.
Yet this is certainly not the first time a bear has been caught on video in Monterrey. For about fifteen years, bear sightings have been common in the city. These omnivorous animals come down from the wooded area in Cumbres de Monterrey National Park with one purpose only: to look for food.
In an interview for Reporte Índigo, bear behavior specialist Rogelio Carrera explained that a bear’s diet is not available all year round, which makes the bears look beyond their natural habitat for food.
Having to move outside their natural habitat, the bears find it more energy-efficient to look for organic food in the trash rather than hunting down a deer, says Carrera.
Interrumpe 🐻 romántica propuesta de matrimonio 💍 de una pareja en un restaurante en zona de Chipinque en #SanPedro. Los novios 👰♀️ 🤵 se sorprendieron al ver al 🐻 que por fortuna solo iba de paso 😅😅… pic.twitter.com/ogo7m1WJwj
“What we’ve seen through the years is that we have generations of bears that started to have contact with food from human origin, either because people gave them food or because they found food in the garbage […] there are even some bears that since they were cubs, were taken by their mothers to the trash to look for food,” he said, adding that there is now a problem with multiple generations of animals adapting to the city.
Over time, it has become more common for bears to move further from their homes in Cumbres de Monterrey National Park and deeper into the city. One of the most recent visits happened in Real de San Pedro, a neighborhood in the Zuazua borough far from the park.
These behaviors have made the bears more “humanized” in that they get more comfortable near people. There are reports of bears wandering on streets and footage that show bears looking for food on rooftops or outside people’s garages.
There is also the story of a woman who took a selfie with a bear on the mountain of Chipinque, and reports of a bear that was found asleep in the streets of the prestigious neighborhood of San Pedro.
To prevent the bears from continuing to come down to the city, Carrera suggests that those living close to Cumbres de Monterrey National Park must pay attention to proper management of their solid waste.
“We can’t leave solid waste out on the street all night because that’s when the bears are the most active. All waste should be taken out, preferably, when the garbage truck arrives,” said Carrera.
The expert also advised people to avoid feeding the bears, emphasizing that even if done out of compassion, “it is the worst thing we can do for them”.
Military arrive in Acapulco to provide more law enforcement support. Galo Cañas Rodríguez/Cuartoscuro
You have to hand it to those Guacamaya hackers, whoever they are. They knew exactly which government body to go after and precisely when to release their plunder.
The millions of exposed Defense Ministry (Sedena) documents you’ve been hearing so much about come at a time when the military is taking control of domestic law enforcement at the federal level.
That radical changing of the guard needed no hack to become known; the administration has promoted the move proudly, and federal lawmakers have gone along with it.
But now we have cold, hard documents exposing just what kind of organization we’re talking about.
Defense Ministry head Luis Cresencio Sandoval at the president’s daily press conference last month giving a report on how many arrests the military made of criminals in the preceding week. Galo Cañas Rodríguez/Cuartoscuro
Confirmed are all the ongoing suspicions of sexual abuse, domestic spying, corruption, protection of lawbreaking military members and tracking of civilian government officials, including the U.S. ambassador.
No doubt, plenty more irregularities remain to be uncovered from the trove of documents still incompletely sifted.
And that’s not the worst of it. After all, that list of sins hardly comes as a surprise. What’s new is the hitherto unsuspected reach of military incursion into civilian life. Indeed, it’s not unreasonable to suspect that President López Obrador (AMLO) is handing over an outsized chunk of privilege to the military.
The Defense Ministry certainly thinks so, and delights in it. A telling quote culled by the press from a July 2021 Sedena document boasts that the president “has placed his trust in the armed forces to materialize some of the projects that will define the course of the nation.”
Sedena recently got what some see as a power upgrade: control of Mexico’s federal police force, the National Guard, seen here patrolling a Xochimilco neighborhood. National Guard/Twitter
I’m not aware of any polls on the topic, but it’s a good bet that most people in Mexico don’t want the military to “define the course of the nation.”
However, we may have to get used to it. It’s already taken for granted that Sedena has leap-frogged over the Interior Ministry as the top entity in the executive branch, that is, the one closest to AMLO’s ear.
Perhaps not coincidentally, according to the New York Times, Sedena officials have accused Interior Minister Adán Augusto López, who is considered a possible 2024 presidential candidate, of hiring narco-related underlings when he was governor of Tabasco.
Palace intrigue, a la mexicana.
Beyond the political, we’re looking at the beginning of inroads by the military into the national economy. When AMLO put the army in charge of building a new international airport to serve Mexico City and a major rail line around the Yucatán Peninsula, it seemed unusual but hardly unprecedented.
In the U.S., for example, the Army Corps of Engineers has been constructing major public works projects almost since the dawn of that republic.
But now we find out that the Mexican military has not only built the airport but also plans to create and operate a commercial passenger airline to use it. That is unprecedented.
One’s initial reaction is bafflement: why in the world is the army planning to run an airline? If the supposedly leftist administration wants to use government resources to provide additional air service (such as to underserved areas), isn’t there some more suited entity to head it up, like, for example, the federal Transportation Ministry, under which the Civil Aeronautics Agency regulates aviation?
But it’s not just an airline. The military appears to be going all in on the tourism business. The press has discovered via the Guacamaya hack that Sedena plans to run a tourist agency, complete with hotels, parks and museums, a fact that puts into context the government’s announcement last month that it was giving control of the former island prison at Las Islas Marías to the Navy to turn it into a tourism site.
What’s next? Soldiers dancing in the Guelaguetza?
It seems like madness, but there’s method in it. The Mexican tourist industry is a cash cow. The military can get in on the action, investing only public funds for a lucrative source of income far into the future. One more step toward autonomy.
The winner in all this, in terms of prestige, is Luis Cresencio Sandoval, who as head of Sedena will also run the national police force and, presumably, the Army’s proposed tourist empire. Not so long ago, few knew who he was. Now he’s all over the news.
The journalist Carlos Loret de Mola, who first broke the Sedena Leaks story in Mexico. Carlos Loret de Mola/Twitter
He may or may not be a candidate for future strongman – AMLO, who appointed him, has the inside track on that hopefully never-to-exist title, assuming his health holds up — but he’s certainly feeling his oats.
To wit: Carlos Loret de Mola, the journalist who broke the hacking scoop (if only by virtue of being the first one that Guacamaya uploaded the documents to), tells a story about Sandoval’s reaction to the administration’s version of what happened to the 43 disappeared Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers College students in 2014. You may remember that the report released last August, the result of an extensive investigation led by Deputy Interior Minister Alejandro Encinas, implicated former federal Attorney General Jesús Murillo and led to arrest warrants for some 21 members of the military.
Sandoval would have none of it. He apparently had no problem with Murillo’s fate but wasn’t about to let his soldiers be implicated, innocent or not.
“If you keep staining the army,” Sandoval told Encinas, according to Loret de Mola, “I’ll withdraw the military from the streets, and then let’s see what you do.”
Word of the threat found its way to AMLO, after which — miraculously— the charges were eventually dropped for all but four of the soldiers. So much for accountability. (As an aside, one can’t help but wonder about Encinas’s future in the administration.)
Guacamaya’s hack of 4.4 million emails also revealed what the military was not doing: Sedena received intelligence in 2020 that a Pacific Cartel leader would be attacking a rival criminal group in Caborca, Sonora, and did nothing with the information. Four days later, the city erupted in cartel violence. Screen Capture
If Sandoval is the winner in all this, the losers are the everyday people who find themselves living under an increasingly powerful military that can spy on you and then arrest you if they don’t like what they see. It doesn’t help matters that much of the administration seems more threatened by human rights defenders than human rights violators.
I came across a message the other day from a university student here in the state of San Luis Potosí for whom Guacamaya’s exposure of Sedena’s surveillance of human rights activists and feminist groups hits close to home:
“Seeing my name, personal data, and those of other compañeras on that list, on a par with organized crime groups and guerrilla movements, considering us as ‘threats to the national security and image,’ not only puts our safety at risk and violates our integrity, it is also a threat to the defense work that we do . . .”
No way any of them knuckles under to that threat. But they have more to think about now. We all do.
Kelly Arthur Garrett has been writing from Mexico since 1992. He lives in San Luis Potosí.
Luis Cresencio Sandoval, right, canceled the meeting with the National Defense Committee in the Chamber of Deputies. Daniel Augusto Sánchez Moreno/Cuartoscuro
A planned meeting between lawmakers and the Minister of National Defense to discuss a recent hacking incident was canceled because the latter received a “disrespectful” letter from one of the
former, Interior Minister Adán Augusto López said Monday.
López said that the meeting between members of the lower house of Congress’ National Defense Committee and Luis Cresencio Sandoval scheduled for Tuesday October 18 was scrapped due to a letter sent to the army chief by a deputy with the Citizens Movement (MC) party, Sergio Barrera.
The interior minister said that lawmakers and Sandoval were slated to analyze the need to increase he budget of the Ministry of National Defense (Sedena) as part of efforts to avoid future hacking events such as that in which the Guacamaya hacking group stole a massive quantity of emails and documents from Sedena’s IT system.
Speaking at a meeting with Mexico City lawmakers, López said that the defense minister agreed to the meeting but asked that it be held at Sedena offices rather than the Congress. The lawmakers agreed and a date was set, he added.
Deputy Sergio Barrera, right, seen at an event on Oct. 12, said the public could form their own opinions about his letter and posted it on Twitter. Presidencia/Cuartoscuro
However, Barrera – secretary of the National Defense Committee – subsequently sent a letter to Sandoval saying that he wouldn’t go to the Sedena offices under any circumstances, the interior minister claimed.
“What has been suggested – that the defense minister didn’t want to be accountable [for the hacking incident] isn’t exactly true,” López said.
He said that Barrera’s letter set out his opposition to going to Sandoval’s workplace in “disrespectful” terms and that as a result, the meeting will not go ahead.
The MC deputy posted the letter in question to his Twitter account Monday afternoon, saying that citizens could consequently form their own opinion about it.
A copy of the letter Barrera sent to Sandoval. Barrera challenged Interior Minister Lopéz to explain what was found disrespectful in his missive. ChecoBarrera/Twitter
“The members of this committee are grateful that you have responded in a timely manner to our request to have a meeting with you but, on a personal note, I can’t let the opportunity pass to say to you with complete respect that the main idea of this work meeting was to … [have] an open exercise that is accountable to citizens,” Barrera wrote in his October 11 missive to Sandoval.
The objective wasn’t to hold “a closed meeting” at Sedena offices, he added.
Barrera wrote that he and other MC deputies didn’t agree with the “format” of the planned meeting because they believe that an “open and transparent” exercise in the Chamber of Deputies is needed “given the seriousness of the regrettable events caused by the hacking of Sedena servers and the risk that implies.”
Despite his opposition to the meeting being held at Sedena offices, the deputy said he “agreed to go … without hesitation because I believe we can’t allow more time to pass … [without] tackling these issues of national importance.”
“No matter the place where we hold this meeting we have to work to find solutions to these [cybersecurity] problems,” Barrera wrote.
His letter contradicts López’s claim that he refused to go to Sedena’s offices.
The media has recently obtained and reported on a wide range of emails and documents stolen by Guacamaya, which extracted six terabytes of data from Sedena computers.
There have been reports about President López Obrador’s health problems, the government’s plan to create an army-run commercial airline, a soldier’s sale of weapons to a criminal organization and the Mexican military’s planning and operational shortcomings, among other revelations.
Doctors heading into the Sante Fe Convention Center in Mexico City to take the ENARM exam, required to apply for a position as a medical resident and training as a specialist. Only 20% of applicants get a residency position due to the limited number available. CARLOS ALBERTO CARBAJAL/CUARTOSCURO.COM
A good friend of mine who’s part of Mexico’s Bienestar system (the public health system aimed at those who do not qualify for care through IMSS or ISSSTE or some employment-tied insurance system), recently had a health scare. A lump had formed in her breast, and it was hurting her more every day.
A mammogram revealed something that worried the doctor enough to send her for a biopsy. When she went to her designated hospital to make an appointment, she was told that there were no available appointments until January.
“January?!” I said, while I thought to myself, “If that’s what they think it is, she could be well past the point of no return by then.”
In the news last week was an article about how Mexico will be recruiting international medical specialists to fill open positions at IMSS hospitals, after having already planned to bring 500 Cuban doctors to fill positions earlier this year. We have a shortage of qualified Mexican doctors, the government claims.
Not so, doctors all over Mexico have responded. “We’re trying to find work and we can’t.”
So what’s going on here?
To find out, I spoke with several doctors throughout the country about what they were seeing “up close and personal” when it comes to hospitals and the public health system.
And like all things in life, the situation is more nuanced and complicated that it seems.
First, let’s talk about who gets to be a doctor in Mexico in the first place.
It’s competitive. University students can study medicine the way they study for any other major, and when they graduate, they’re officially “doctors.” This doesn’t mean that they can hang out their shingle right away, though. They must also complete a year of social service as well as other requirements to earn their right to legally practice as a “general doctor,” which is what the majority of the doctors in Mexico are.
The competition to become a specialist is even fiercer. For each medical specialty there are a certain number of residency program positions opened each year, for which there are thousands of applicants, who must take an exam known by its abbreviation, ENARM. The best scorers get a residency spot, but whether or not you “pass” the exam in any particular year depends on how many residency spots are available.
And as IMSS chief Zoé Robledo has said, 80% of applicants are rejected (luckily, the number of residency positions has recently improved).
A lack of interest among doctors in Mexico becoming specialists, there is not. But without participating in one of these residency programs, one cannot certify and practice as a specialist.
The logical conclusion? There can’t be enough specialists if you don’t let people through the gate in order to become specialists. And one of the major reasons that more residency positions are not open is because they’re expensive: residency students must all receive a scholarship while they’re practicing so that they can actually survive during that time.
I asked one doctor if he thought many of those rejected were qualified to enter residency programs. “Oh, certainly,” he said.
So the first issue is simply of supply and demand: lots of doctors want to specialize, and few are able to, meaning that most are relegated to continuing as general practitioners. Because of the nature of healthcare, we need “general practitioners” to be the biggest group anyway, but the “shortage” of specialists is directly linked to government-level decisions about how many Mexico can actually turn out each year.
Once doctors graduate from their residency programs, it’s time to find a job. If you are friends with any Mexican doctors, you have probably heard that the “holy grail” is a plaza (a permanent position not unlike tenure for a college professor) with Mexican Social Security (IMSS).
The number of plazas needed at any given hospital around the country, and for which specialties they’re for, is determined by the government rather than by individual hospitals. This means that while there might be truly urgent on-the-ground needs, there are not enough plaza positions available to fill the needs.
Most hospitals try to solve this issue by hiring low-paid contractors with promises of a plaza later on.
The issue is further complicated by, depending on the place, a lack of equipment and medicine to ensure that health professionals can actually perform their jobs, not to mention a lack of safety where these jobs are performed. This especially is the case in remote areas.
In a follow-up article, I’ll take a closer look at this system.
As for my friend, she’s going to be okay. After some major pain, she decided to go to the emergency room, where it was determined that it was an abscess, after all. Whew.
Sarah DeVries is a writer and translator based in Xalapa, Veracruz. She can be reached through her website, sdevrieswritingandtranslating.com
The Museo de Arte Popular’s annual Alebrije Parade in Mexico City is on Oct. 22 this year. It’s been a fixture here for over 15 years. Sec of Tourism CDMX/flickr
So, you’re visiting here, or recently moved to Mexico, and you finally have the chance to experience Day of the Dead in the country where it originated, but what if you don’t know where to find the celebrations?
Firstly, you should know that there are actually different kinds of celebrations of Day of the Dead. The most important distinction is between those that are traditional, based on centuries and even millennia of tradition, and those done for entertainment.
Many of the latter have gained popularity and even were invented in only the past decades. The situation can be compared to Christmas in the United States, where you have religious celebrations of the birth of Christ – and Santa Claus marching in parades.
Because of the variety, let me go out on a limb here and recommend Mexico City as a template for Day of the Dead celebrations. Why? Because you can find both kinds of Day of the Dead celebrations in abundance in the nation’s capital.
A woman dressed up for festivities in Mexico City’s zócalo. Fili Santillan/Unsplash
Tradition is not only found in homes, businesses and local cemeteries but also in museums, cultural centers and more, where representations of Day of the Dead traditions from other parts of Mexico can be found.
The public entertainment side is huge and widely varied.
The iconic family altars (ofrendas) traditionally made for dead loved ones are everywhere in Mexico City. Every plaza, public building and even many businesses have at least one that you can easily visit and take pictures of. They range from the purely traditional (check out the ones in local markets) to massive displays, often with themes or social messages.
The most important of the monumental ofrendas are located in the zócalo and another in Santo Domingo just to the north. Set up by the city and the National Autonomous University respectively, both take over their respective plazas entirely.
The Calaveras parade passes in front of the main cathedral in Aguascalientes city. La Noticias Ya
Most of Mexico City’s cemeteries are located on the periphery, with the one in Mixquic being the most famous for Day of the Dead. Because of Mixquic’s distance (and Mexico’s City’s infamous traffic), you may wish instead to visit San Fernando or Dolores, which have the resting places of many of Mexico’s historic figures.
Thanks to the 2015 James Bond film Spectre, Mexico City’s popularity as a Day of the Dead destination has exploded. The parade in the movie’s opening scene was fictitious at the time, but city authorities made sure that there would be a real one for 2016. That move generated some controversy, but the city had already been creating new and larger Day of the Dead events for many years.
Mexico City’s Day of the Dead “season” kicks off with the annual Alebrije Parade and the Mega Catrina Procession about a week before, both of which fill Reforma avenue with gigantic colorful monsters and people in elaborate makeup and 19th-century costumes respectively.
The canals in the south of the city also host a unique theater production of La Llorona, the legend of the wailing woman who drowned her children and as a ghost forever wandered Mexico looking for them.
Mexico City’s colorful, extravagant Day of the Dead parade draws a huge number of spectators.
Just about all of the many museums and cultural centers in Mexico City do something related to the holiday that will range from educational to pure entertainment. Recommended places to check out include the Museum of Anthropology, the Frida Kahlo Museum, the National Museum of Popular Cultures, Folk Art Museum (Museo de Arte Popular) and the Dolores Olmedo Museum for its highly-regarded monumental altar.
Mexico City has the advantage of having the infrastructure for the huge crowds that show up for the city’s annual events. Even at this late date, there are some accommodations available, but make absolutely sure you have reservations before you go because Mexico City is now one of the country’s main Day of the Dead destinations. Don’t count on just finding a hotel once you get there.
If you’re not located in Mexico City or inclined to travel there, all of Mexico’s other sizable cities will also offer traditional Day of the Dead events and public entertainment. You can see altars and skeletal figures and eat traditional pan de muerto (literally, bread of the dead).
Most of these events will have a local or regional flair to them. This is especially true in places like Oaxaca and San Cristobal de las Casas. One very large Day of the Dead celebration often overlooked in English-language articles is the Festival de Calaveras (Festival of the Skulls) in the city of Aguascalientes. It has a massive parade that existed long before the Bond movie.
An organ grinder is honored in part of the mega-ofrenda set up by the Dolores Olmedo Museum in Xochimilco. Manuel Borbolla/Flickr
Those looking for a folkloric experience generally migrate to smaller towns in more rural areas. The most famous is, by far, on and around Lake Pátzcuaro in the state of Michoacán. Welcoming the dead on candlelight boats and all-night vigils brings tens of thousands of visitors to the municipalities of Pátzcuaro, Janitzio and other communities on the lake.
Although Pátzcuaro is no stranger to tourism, the accommodations infrastructure there is currently stretched to the maximum for the holiday, and the streets are filled to the brim. As of this date, I found only a handful of places with availability, and at exorbitant prices, so again, plan before you go.
This is, in fact, a good policy to follow if you’re going to travel to visit any of the most popular of Mexico’s Day of the Dead events. Also, a good idea is booking a tour to see the most popular of the events. Many other small towns near larger cities like San Cristóbal, in the state of Chiapas, have similarly ancient rites. Just investigate what the restrictions may be.
A tour is often your best bet to find out where you can go and when, since Mexico is typically not very good at publicizing event calendars, usually because planning is often not finalized until very close to the event.
An all-night vigil in San José Tenango Oaxaca. Candlelight vigils are common in small traditional communities. Valeria Orea
Research what you can online in local newspapers and tour advertisements, and local city and town Facebook groups can also be your friend if you can read Spanish. Your best bet is to come several days before Nov. 2 (although this year, many places — but not all — are holding festivities on Oct. 29 because of the weekend). Nov. 2 is normally when most, if not all, events will occur.
Ask around for event information in places like tourism stands and hotels, especially if you don’t know Spanish.
Below are some suggestions to get you started. Be aware that as noted above, the planning of events is finalized late and may be subject to last-minute changes, so it’s a good idea to check the site you got your information from again on the day before.
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.
Ken Salazar prepares to speak at a Monday press conference in Mexico City. Daniel Augusto Sánchez Moreno / Cuartoscuro.com
U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Ken Salazar confirmed during a press conference on Monday that USMCA consultations over energy policy are ongoing.
President López Obrador painted a rosy picture of the situationon Oct. 14, saying that both Mexico and the U.S. want to avoid resorting to convening a dispute panel and expressing confidence that the U.S. would not request the panel’s intervention.
However, according to the newspaper Reforma, the Office of the United States Trade Representative denied any such intention and still considers invoking the panel a possibility.
If the energy policy complaint first presented in July by the U.S. and Canada under the USMCA agreement is unresolved by December, the issue will be addressed at the North American Leaders’ Summit, according to a statement by the Mexican ambassador to the U.S., Esteban Moctezuma.
Mexican Ambassador to the U.S. Esteban Moctezuma speaks at a panel in Mexico City with his American counterpart earlier this week. Twitter @amoctezumab
The U.S. has argued that the Mexican government’s energy policies undermine U.S. stakeholders and privately produced energy in favor of Mexico’s two state-owned energy companies: the Federal Electricity Commission, or CFE, and Pemex.
Under USMCA rules, the three countries had until Oct. 3 to resolve the complaint. Talks, however, were extended past the initial consultation period by mutual agreement, rather than sending the case to a panel of experts to review.
Meanwhile, Mexico’s Economy Ministry has experienced a reshuffling in the midst of these trilateral negotiations.
Tatiana Clouthier resigned as Economy Minister on Oct. 6 and was replaced with the former head of the federal tax agency (SAT), Raquel Buenrostro. Deputy Economy Minister for International Trade Luz María de la Mora was also replaced by Alejandro Encinas Nájera, who previously worked at the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare (STPS), where he “was in charge of all the USMCA rapid response procedures” according to the head of the ministry, Luisa María Alcalde Luján.
The private sector appeared to welcome the appointment of Encinas Nájera. As pointed out by José Abugaber, the president of the Confederation of Industrial Chambers of Mexico (Concamin), the main responsibility for Encinas Nájera will be to ensure a dispute panel is not convened.
If such a panel ruled in favor of the U.S. and Canada, punitive tariffs could be imposed on Mexican exports.
On Twitter, the Mexican Business Coordinating Council (the highest representative body of the private sector in Mexico) said that they were ready to start dialogue and cooperation with Encinas Nájera and with the new Deputy Minister for Commerce and Industry, Luis Abel Romero López.
Ambassador Moctezuma noted in his appearance at a manufacturing industry convention on Saturday that the U.S. and Mexico will celebrate 200 years of diplomatic relations in December.
“We’ve made sure that our bilateral mechanisms are as solid as possible and that there is a constant and institutionalized dialogue. That is what we achieved with the approval of the USMCA.”
Cashews can replace dairy in a myriad of recipes, and they’re high in protein and healthy fats!
The first time I had a chicken curry with cashews, I didn’t expect to like them — I hate nuts in ice cream, for example — and was leery of what the mouthfeel would be after they’d been cooked and simmered.
It was an unexpected and completely delicious revelation, though; swimming in a coconut milk broth with spinach, carrots, onion and chicken, with a touch of fresh basil, chiles and a few spices, the tender crunchiness and slightly sweet, nutty flavor of the cashews was just marvelous.
Come to find out cashews play a big part in vegan diets and are the secret to replacing dairy in a myriad of recipes, from savory and sweet sauces and creams to curries, soups and salad dressings, to cheeses and ice creams, dairy-free fettucine Alfredo and butternut squash soup. cashew butter (recipe below) is delicious, high in protein and healthy fats and easy to make.
I can hear some of you protesting: but they’re so expensive! There’s good reason for that, though.
Why are cashews so expensive? Each “fruit” on the cashew tree produces only one nut!
Each cashew fruit — called a drupe — produces only one cashew seed, or nut. It takes two to three months for that to happen. The tree itself is slow-growing too and, depending on the variety, takes three to eight years before the first harvest. To make things even more difficult, the shell around the nut contains a toxic oil — the same as in poison ivy — that causes skin and respiratory irritation. Sorting and processing cashews is hazardous and labor intensive.
And then there’s their popularity: with an impressive array of beneficial effects and nutritional values, international demand exceeds their availability.
Cashews have been shown to help boost the immune system, lower harmful cholesterol, boost HDL and fortify muscles and nerves. They’re full of antioxidants and fiber, unsaturated fats and plant proteins and act as a preventative factor against the development of type 2 diabetes.
The good thing is that just a handful of cashews goes a long way!
I buy one of those tiny cellophane bags of roasted, salted cashews in the mercado to have on hand to throw into that favorite curry, a salad, to make nut butter or just for snacking. (Would it be better to buy raw ones and roast them myself? Probably. We do what we can.)
Creamy Coconut Chicken with Rice
1½ lbs. boneless, skinless chicken thighs, each cut into 2 equal-size pieces
¼ cup coconut, olive or neutral oil (safflower, canola)
2 tsp. salt
½ tsp. black pepper
2 Tbsp. minced fresh ginger
1 Tbsp. minced garlic
1½ cups Basmati or short-grain white rice, rinsed until water runs clear
1¾ cups chicken/veggie broth
1 (13.5-ounce) can full-fat coconut milk
1 yellow bell pepper, chopped
½ cup roasted cashews, coarsely chopped
½-1 medium white onion, minced
2 Tbsp. chopped cilantro
1½ cups chopped bok choy, spinach or other mild green leafy veggie
Heat oven to 375 F (190 C). Drizzle chicken with 1 Tbsp. oil. Season with salt and pepper.
In large Dutch oven, heat 2 Tbsp. oil over medium. Brown chicken, turning halfway, until no longer pink, around 10 minutes. Transfer to paper-towel-lined plate.
Add remaining 1 Tbsp. oil, ginger and garlic to empty pot; cook and stir 30 seconds. Stir in rice to coat with oil.
Add broth, coconut milk, bell pepper, cashews, onions, 1 tsp. salt and ¼ tsp. pepper. Stir to get browned bits from bottom of pot. Arrange chicken on top; bring to a boil over high.
Turn off heat, cover and bake until all liquid is absorbed, rice is tender and chicken is cooked through, 25 minutes. Scatter greens over top of pot; cover and let sit for 10–15 minutes till tender-crisp. Sprinkle with cilantro and serve.
Cashew butter: easy to make and very spreadable!
Easy Roasted Cashew Butter
1 lb. raw cashews (about 3 cups)
Salt (optional)
Heat oven to 350 F (177 C). Spread nuts evenly on rimmed baking sheet. Bake until golden and toasted, about 20 minutes, stirring halfway through.
Remove from oven; cool completely.
In a food processor, purée nuts until smooth, scraping sides and bottom as needed (mixture may clump, but will eventually become creamy). Season with salt, if desired.
Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator up to three weeks. Yield: 1¾ cups
Cashew “Whipped Cream”
2 cups whole raw cashews
1 cup apple or white grape juice
½ tsp. vanilla
Pinch salt
Rinse cashews in cold water; drain. Place all ingredients in blender or food processor. Pulse until mixture gets creamy and a bit fluffy, 6–8 minutes. Refrigerate at least one hour. Serve atop your favorite dessert.
Cashew Romesco Sauce
Great over grilled chicken and veggies!
¼ cup roasted unsalted cashews
¼ cup olive oil
2 cloves garlic
3 jarred roasted red peppers, drained
1 tsp. smoked paprika
½ tsp. ground coriander
½ tsp. cumin
1 Tbsp. sherry vinegar, plus more to taste
Salt to taste
In food processor, pulse cashews and garlic until finely chopped. Add red peppers, paprika, coriander, cumin, vinegar and ½ tsp. salt; pulse to mix. With motor running, drizzle in oil. Turn off and taste; add more salt and vinegar if necessary. Sauce should be thick but spreadable.
Cashew-Chipotle Sauce
4 Tbsp. olive oil
1 cup cashews
2 tsp. minced garlic
½ tsp. cumin
½ cup vegetable/chicken stock
3 whole chipotles in adobo sauce, chopped
1 tsp. red wine vinegar
1 tsp. sugar
Salt and pepper
Heat 2 Tbsp. olive oil in small saucepan over medium heat until shimmering. Add cashews and cook, stirring, until lightly browned, about 2 minutes. Add garlic and cumin and cook another 30 seconds, stirring constantly, until fragrant.
Add stock, chipotles, vinegar and sugar; bring to a simmer. Transfer to blender and process on high speed until smooth, about 2 minutes Season with salt and pepper. Serve atop grilled veggies, chicken or fish or with stuffed poblano peppers.
One of Romero's installations at Kew Royal Botanic Gardens
The 120-hectare Kew Royal Botanic Gardens in London is hosting horticultural and art installations this month to “reflect the beauty and color” of Mexican culture, including two installations by well-known Mexico City artist Betsabée Romero.
“Flores de luz y canto” (Flowers of Light and Song) is a 10-meter tall hanging lamp made of thousands of flowers created by hand with recycled-synthetic materials.
“[Flowers] form a part of universal culture and in Mexico, they are integrated into our daily and spiritual life,” said Romero, quoted in El Economista newspaper.
The artist is dedicating her monumental work to those who died from COVID-19 around the world, noting that “celebrating the dead is something that brings us together, creates a bond, fortifies us in our sorrow…celebration is our essence in Mexico. I have always said: I celebrate, therefore I am.”
“Flowers of Light and Song” installation by artist Betsabée Romero at Kew Gardens Mexican Embassy UK
“There are many artisanal elements,” said Betsabée about her second installation, a Day of the Dead ofrenda (offering), which is an homage to the diversity of traditions in the country.
“I integrated them together as part of a special homage to the Mayan altars. Day of the Dead is a multifaceted tradition in Mexico.”
Romero’s altar draws inspiration from traditions involved in Hanal Pixán, a variation of Day of the Dead celebrated in Mexico’s Yucatán peninsula.
Visitors to the exhibit will get a chance to add the names of their own loved ones to the altar, allowing for reflection on this important Mexican ritual.
Opening event held at Kew Gardens, with Romero’s altar installation in the background Mexican Embassy UK Twitter @Embamexru
The exhibit will be up through Oct. 31 at the Kew Gardens in the Temperate House and also includes pieces from artists Fernando Laposse and Jon Wheatley, the latter inspired by the surrealist gardens of Las Pozas in Xilitla, San Luis Potosí.
Lines of military vehicles rode into Acapulco, Guerrero, on Friday as part of an effort to bolster security in that area. Carlos Alberto Carbajal
The Mexican military is incapable of planning and executing special forces operations with the United States army, according to a leaked document.
Neither the Mexican army nor the navy has that capacity, the Ministry of National Defense (Sedena), the Ministry of the Navy (Semar) and the United States Northern Command said in an analysis prepared in January.
The report was stolen from Sedena’s IT system by the Guacamaya hacking group and obtained and reviewed by the media outlet Latinus.
The Mexican armed forces lack the “codified roles and responsibilities” needed to carry out joint tasks with the U.S. military, the report said.
The document also said that there is limited capacity for Mexican and U.S. special forces to communicate with each other in a secure way during operations and training exercises.
The Northern Command, one of 11 unified combatant commands of the United States military, is concerned about the limitations of the Mexican army and navy and believes that their members need immediate training to raise their standards to U.S. levels, the report indicated.
The document paints a different picture to that presented by Mexican and U.S. officials at high-level security talks in Washington last week. Officials including Mexico’s Foreign Affairs Minister Marcelo Ebrard and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken sang the praises of the bilateral security collaboration since a new security pact formally called the Bicentennial Framework took effect late last year, although they did acknowledge that challenges remain and more needs to be done to enhance the partnership.
The leaked document outlines solutions and proposals so that “level 1” units of the Mexican army and navy have the capacity to successfully plan and execute joint special forces missions by 2029, Latinus said.
Foreign Affairs Minister Marcelo Ebrard speaks at the high-level security talks in Washington last week. Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores
Among the capacities Mexican special forces are slated to develop is the ability to “neutralize weapons of mass destruction.”
Another leaked document among the six terabytes of data stolen from Sedena servers indicates that the United States wants Mexico’s military to strengthen its cybersecurity in order to better detect and respond to such threats.
“By the year 2028, Sedena and Semar will have advanced capacities … to monitor, detect, respond to and recover from cyber-threats,” states a document jointly prepared by the Mexican and U.S. military.
If the Mexican military had such capacities now, the massive data theft committed by “hacktivist” group Guacamaya could have perhaps been prevented.
President López Obrador has downplayed the seriousness of the security breach, asserting that he didn’t expect any negative consequences from it.
However, the hacking incident itself is a major embarrassment for the government, and security analyst Alejandro Hope warned in an opinion article that “it’s possible that there is highly sensitive information among the extracted documents – national security information that isn’t and shouldn’t be in the public domain.”
The apparent planning and operational deficiencies of the Mexican military would appear to fit into that category.
President Lopez Obrador said at his daily press conference on Monday ANDREA MURCIA /CUARTOSCURO.COM
The construction of a stretch of the Maya Train railroad in Quintana Roo and Campeche is in doubt due to the opposition of local landowners, President López Obrador said Monday.
The president told his morning news conference that the section between Chetumal, Quintana Roo, and Xpujil, Campeche, might not be built if an agreement can’t be reached with the leaders of five ejidos, or communal parcels of land.
“Along the stretch from Xpujil to Chetumal, there are five ejidos where the leaders, not the campesinos … don’t want the train to pass,” López Obrador said.
“Or they do want it, but they’re conditioning [construction of the railroad] on the Ministry of Communications and Transportation paying them compensation from when the Escárcega-Chetumal highway was built,” he said.
A map of the under-construction Maya Train. The section being opposed is located along the beige horizontal line running across the bottom half of the map.
The president raised doubts about their claim because the highway was built in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
“It’s a claim from more than 50 years ago, half a century ago. We’ll have to see whether the ejidos were already established then,” López Obrador said. “We have to see whether [the ejido leaders] are right.”
López Obrador indicated that the government wouldn’t meet the ejido leaders’ demand if it determined their claim wasn’t valid.
“The maxim that a problem that is resolved with money isn’t a problem used to prevail … because the budget wasn’t considered money of the people, it was thought to be the government’s money. No, the budget is the people’s money, and it’s sacred money that has to be looked after,” Lopez Obrador said. “ None of this ‘you’re not going through here if you don’t give me this much,’ that can’t be done, that’s corruption, let it be clear.”
López Obrador questioned the morality of the ejido leaders, asserting that they’re attempting to personally profit from the situation.
“It’s not … our adversaries [causing the problem] here; it’s another kind of thing. It’s part of the entrenched corruption, and we have to put an end to it, we have to banish corruption,” he said.
López Obrador also said that if compensation is owed due to the construction of the highway it will be paid accordingly but not to the ejido leaders. The money could be used to make improvements to the five parcels of land in question, he said.
If an agreement isn’t reached and blockades that impede construction are erected, there will be no railroad between Xpujil and Chetumal, López Obrador bluntly declared.
If an agreement isn’t reached and blockades impeding construction are erected by opponents, there will be no railroad between Xpujil and Chetumal, López Obrador said.
“It will be known who was responsible for stopping the project; it’s as clear as that,” he added.
Earlier in his press conference, the president noted that the government has overcome other challenges to the US $10 billion railroad, which will link cities and towns in five southeastern states and is slated to open in 2023.
“We already freed up about 1,000 kilomters, it’s known as right of way,” López Obrador said.
“We have already freed up Palenque, Escárcega, Campeche, Mérida, Cancún, Tulum – we already resolved [problems with] the most difficult stretch, the Cancún-Tulum stretch, where they wanted to strike us out because there are a lot of interests,” he said.
There was – and is – significant opposition to the Cancún-Tulum stretch of the railroad because the government’s decision earlier this year to reroute it means that large swaths of Mayan jungle have to be cut down.
Opponents of the project – dubbed pseudoenvironmentalists by the president – also say that the the tourism, commuter and freight railroad’s construction and operation poses risks to wildlife, the Yucatán Peninsula’s subterranean waterways and the area’s many archaeological assets.
