Ten Yaqui men remain missing after disappearing last week in southern Sonora, home to one of the world’s most violent cities.
The men, members of the Yaqui community in Loma de Bacúm, were last seen on July 14 traveling on dirt roads between ranches in the municipality of Bacúm, which borders Cajeme (Ciudad Obregón), Guaymas and San Ignacio Río Muerto.
The man are aged between 27 and 65 and were transporting cattle when they disappeared, Televisa News reported. Five other men also disappeared but were subsequently released after being kidnapped.
Sonora authorities and members of a Yaqui security group are searching for those still missing.
“… We don’t know if they’re drinking water or eating, if they’re being beaten. We don’t know anything and that hurts,” said the mother of Heladio Molina Zavala, one of the missing men.
The abduction follows the recent murders of two Yaqui leaders and the deployment of soldiers and National Guard troops to the area.
“They’re trying to terrify us. They’re trying to make us afraid,” said Yaqui man and security group member Guadalupe Flores Maldonado, referring to unnamed criminal groups.
The deployment of the military to Yaqui territory angered members of the community, who claim that the federal government is planning to expropriate land and grant mining concessions to private companies. Yaqui representatives said in a statement that some soldiers were forced to leave their land by members of the community.
Flores claimed that almost 500 kilograms of methamphetamine seized by the army earlier this month in Bacúm was planted on residents.
“It’s always the same strategy. They come and plant drugs to try to accuse us and justify their repression,” he said “… The state itself promotes and protects criminals. They’re the same.”
The Yaquis have historically mistrusted authorities, and held numerous protests last year to demand that the federal government compensate them for ceding land for a range of infrastructure projects and to fulfill social development commitments.
The city, Sonora’s second largest after Hermosillo, had a homicide rate of 101.1 per 100,000 people last year, the fourth highest in the world after Celaya, Guanajuato; Tijuana, Baja California; and Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua. In the first five months of this year, Cajeme was the fourth most violent municipality in the country with 225 homicides, federal data shows.
Abel Murrieta Gutiérrez, a former Sonora attorney general who was running for mayor of Cajeme, was murdered in broad daylight in the city in May.
Later in May, Tomás Rojo Valencia, a community leader and water rights activist, disappeared and his body was found half buried in a rural area near the Yaqui town of Vícam in mid-June.
Also in June, Yaqui environmental activist Luis Urbano was shot dead in downtown Ciudad Obregón.
Sonora was home to six of the 50 most violent municipalities in Mexico between January and May of this year. In addition to Cajeme, Hermosillo, Guaymas, Nogales, Caborca and San Luis Río Colorado made a list of those municipalities presented by the federal government earlier this week.
An acclaimed sculptor who represented Mexico on the international stage at numerous ice and snow sculpture competitions passed away this week at the age of 78.
Abel Ramírez Aguilar, born in Mexico City in 1943, died on Monday, the National Institute of Fine Arts and Literature (INBAL) said in a statement.
Ramírez, profiled in Mexico News Daily earlier this year, had a long and distinguished career working with bronze, stone and wood but will be best remembered internationally for his skill at sculpting ice and snow.
During a 20-year career, he competed in ice and snow sculpture events in various parts of North America, Europe and Asia.
His love of art, and the medium of sculpture in particular, began at an early age.
Pueblito Azul, an ice sculpture by Abel Ramírez.
Ramírez began studying at INBAL’s School of Artistic Initiation No. 2 in Mexico City while still in the third grade at primary school. A couple of years later, a teacher introduced him to clay, an event that played a “defining” role in his future, INBAL said.
At the age of 15, Ramírez began studying at the prestigious National School of Painting, Sculpture and Printmaking, known as La Esmeralda, in Mexico City and also completed courses at the School of Design and Crafts, which is today the INBAL Design School.
The sculptor later won a Dutch government scholarship to study at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague, which he attended from 1979 to 1981.
“… Abel Ramírez considered himself a neo-figurative sculptor with cubist and surrealist influences within a magic and cosmological world nourished by pre-Hispanic creations,” INBAL said. “Arte popular [Mexican folk art] also played an important role in his work.”
The institute noted that Ramírez represented Mexico at more than 40 wood, stone, metal, snow and ice events and competitions in Sweden, Norway, Finland, Canada, the United States, Japan, Colombia, Argentina, Scotland, Poland, Hungary, Bangladesh, Cuba and Germany.
His work was also exhibited extensively in Mexico, including at a 2019 retrospective which included more than 30 pieces.
He was a member of the Salón de la Plástica Mexicana, an institution dedicated to the promotion of Mexican art, and received a prestigious national award for his oeuvre from the Ministry of Public Education. Ramírez also taught at La Esmeralda for more than 30 years.
“The National School of Painting, Sculpture and Printmaking ‘La Esmeralda’ … bids farewell with great sorrow our beloved teacher, sculptor and ceramist Abel Ramírez. R.I.P.,” the school said on Twitter.
Santiago Nieto: an embezzlement scheme involved the use of front companies.
The governments led by former presidents Felipe Calderón and Enrique Peña Nieto spent approximately US $300 million between 2012 and 2018 to purchase spyware from the Israeli company NSO group, the head of the Finance Ministry’s Financial Intelligence Unit (UIF) said Wednesday.
The outlay on spyware programs such as the Pegasus suite, which can infiltrate mobile telephones, apparently included payments that were funneled back to ex-government officials as kickbacks.
UIF chief Santiago Nieto told President López Obrador’s regular news conference that information about the alleged kickback scheme is being forwarded to the Attorney General’s Office (FGR).
The amounts paid for spyware programs and the way in which they were paid suggests the presence of corruption in the form of an embezzlement scheme involving front companies, he said.
“This implies or at least presumes the existence of acts of corruption, by selling [the spyware] at inflated prices to the government between the years 2012 and 2018,” Nieto said.
All told, “more than 15,000 individuals [were] selected as possible targets for surveillance between 2016 and 2017,” the newspaper The Guardianreported this week.
“… Mexico was the first country in the world to buy Pegasusfrom NSO and became something of a laboratory for the spy technology, which at the time was in its infancy.”
Nieto said that no spyware transactions have been detected during the administration of López Obrador, who described spying that may have targeted him and his close associates as “shameful.”
He has vowed not to use spyware or spy in any other way on government opponents, but some journalists claimed last month they have been targeted by his administration. In addition, the newspaper El País reported in April that the FGR spent at least US $5.6 million during the past two years on software that allowed it to conduct cell phone and internet espionage on a massive scale.
Among the government departments that bought and/or operated Pegasus during the previous two governments were the Defense Ministry, the federal Attorney General’s Office (when it was known as the PGR) and the now-defunct Center for Investigation and National Security.
PGR purchase contracts were signed by Tomás Zerón, who headed up the now-defunct Criminal Investigation Agency in the Peña Nieto administration, the FGR said in a statement this week. Zerón is accused of abduction, torture and tampering with evidence in the investigation into the disappearance of 43 students in Guerrero in 2014 but is currently in Israel.
Israel’s ambassador to Mexico, Zvi Tal, said Tuesday that Mexico’s application for his extradition was moving forward after reports indicated that the process was delayed due to a strained relationship between the two countries.
The FGR also said that a Mexican company, KBH Track, had used Pegasus.
“… Said manufacturing company carried out telephone espionage for different applicants that have not yet been fully identified,” it said. The FGR said that prominent journalist Carmen Aristegui, a target of spying herself, assisted it with its investigations into the use of Pegasus by KBH Track.
It said the telephone of former national security commissioner Manuel Mondragón was confirmed to have been infiltrated and his conversations with Interior Ministry and security officials, among others, were recorded.
The FGR added that it hoped that other people potentially targeted with Pegasus would provide their telephones to determine if they were in fact victims of espionage.
If Pegasus successfully infiltrates a phone by getting its owner to click on a link contained in a message it can monitor calls, texts, email and contacts and use the device’s microphone and camera for surveillance.
“Mexico’s capacity to spy on its citizens is immense. [And] it’s extremely easy for the technology and the information obtained through the spyware to fall into private hands – be it organized crime or commercial,” Mexico City security consultant Jorge Robelledo told The Guardian. “What we know about is only the tip of the iceberg.”
Pan American Health Organization warns that social distancing and other measures will be important during the summer vacation period.
Active coronavirus cases increased 44% over the past week, according to federal Health Ministry estimates, while on Wednesday Mexico recorded its highest single day case tally since January.
There are currently 92,738 estimated active cases, the Health Ministry reported Wednesday as it announced 15,198 new infections, the highest daily tally since January 30, when Mexico was amid the second – and worst – wave of the pandemic.
The highly contagious Delta strain of the virus is driving a third wave but while case numbers have risen quickly, hospitalizations and deaths remain, for now, well below the levels seen during the first and second waves, indicating that Mexico’s vaccine rollout is achieving its goal.
Almost one-third of the active cases – 29,945 – are in Mexico City, which has retained the unenviable title of the nation’s coronavirus epicenter since the beginning of the pandemic.
México state ranks second for estimated active cases with 8,451, while Jalisco, Sinaloa and Nuevo León rank third, fourth and fifth, respectively, with more than 4,000 each.
Coronavirus cases and deaths in Mexico as reported by day. milenio
The Health Ministry also reported 397 additional Covid-19 fatalities on Wednesday, lifting the accumulated death toll to 237,207, a figure considered a vast undercount. The accumulated case tally stands at 2.69 million, the 16th highest total in the world.
The occupancy rate of general care hospital beds for Covid patients rose 1% on Wednesday to 35% while 29% of beds with ventilators are in use. Most hospitalized patients are younger than 50 and unvaccinated.
Just under 800,000 vaccine doses were administered on Tuesday, the Health Ministry reported, increasing the total number of shots given since December 24 to just over 55.9 million. Forty-four percent of Mexican adults have received at least one vaccine shot.
The director of health emergencies at the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) warned Wednesday that “the significant increase” in case numbers requires the continued observance of virus mitigation measures over the summer months as the economy opens up and large numbers of tourists arrive.
A safe reactivation of the economy – which slumped 8.5% last year – is a “shared responsibility” of authorities and citizens, Ciro Ugarte said, while acknowledging that a busier economy will make social distancing more difficult.
“We hope that this increase in cases can be controlled in relation to the capacity of health services. Mexico still has capacity and … [we hope] the economic reopening doesn’t have a major impact [on the health system],” Ugarte said.
The PAHO official acknowledged the progress Mexico has made in inoculating its adult population but said a much higher level of vaccination is desirable. The majority of the population below 50 is still not fully vaccinated against Covid-19, and most people younger than 30 have not yet had the opportunity to get a first shot.
At least 70% of the population needs to be vaccinated in order to achieve herd immunity, according to World Health Organization chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan.
Some countries with high vaccination rates, such as the United States and United Kingdom, are currently recording high case numbers as the coronavirus– and in particular the Delta strain – finds vulnerable (and in some cases even vaccinated) people to infect.
Visitors observe the popular murals in Mexico City's Palace of Fine Arts.
Museums in Mexico face a crisis precipitated by the coronavirus pandemic, the preliminary results of a National Autonomous University (UNAM) study indicate, and the situation is only going to get worse, warns an academic.
Entitled Museums and Cultural Spaces in Pandemic Times, the study found that 40% of museums in Mexico haven’t reopened since closing early last year due to the pandemic. It also found that the resources available to museums have decreased by 32–45% in comparison with the period before the coronavirus began. Museums will also be forced to operate with up to 80% fewer staff.
UNAM academic Graciela de la Torre, an art historian and director of the University Museum of Contemporary Art, or MUAC, told the newspaper El Universal that the full results of the study — conducted in conjunction with the Museum Leadership Institute and the polling firm Buendía y Laredo, among others — will be published in approximately two months.
The study found that most museums intend to modify the way in which they operate in response to the pandemic, she said, explaining that they intend to offer open-air activities to reduce the risk of transmission of the coronavirus. De la Torre also said that 86% of museums are planning for their employees to continue working online where possible.
The institutions are being forced to adapt at a time when they have lower budgets, a reduced capacity to generate their own income and fewer members of staff, she said.
Graciela de la Torre, director of the University Museum of Contemporary Art.
The economic impact of the pandemic on museums is “serious” but the possibility that pre-pandemic attendance levels won’t return and the lack of well-ventilated spaces in museums are equally concerning, de la Torre said.
“… [Museums’] self-generated income has been enormously reduced, so they’ll find themselves with a lack of resources,” she said. “The situation … is going to get worse,” the academic added.
In light of the difficult situation these institutions face, the non-governmental organization Interactividad Cultural y Desarrollo (Cultural Interactivity and Development), along with museum curators and directors, have proposed the creation of a funding scheme similar to those used to support the arts and cinema sectors.
Under an efimuseos scheme (efi comes from estímulos fiscales, or fiscal stimuli, while museos means museums), private citizens would be able to make donations to museums that are 100% tax-deductible.
However, the federal Culture Ministry has not expressed any willingness to consider the establishment of such a scheme.
Carlos Villaseñor, the head of Interactividad Cultural y Desarrollo, said that museums need a new funding source because their revenue has decreased due to the pandemic, public trusts that provided support have been abolished and federal government resources for culture are largely earmarked for other projects in the next two years.
Funds obtained via an efimuseos scheme — whose viability is dependent on a tax law change — could be used to finance exhibitions as well as museum maintenance and restoration projects and to acquire new additions to collections, among other uses, he said.
Donations received would amount to an “investment with a social benefit,” Villaseñor said.
A 500-million-peso (US $24.8 million) scheme is being proposed, which would be the total amount of tax deductions available to people who make donations to museums.
“It’s not a lot, [especially considering that] there are about 1,100 museums in the country, according to [national statistics agency] Inegi,” Villaseñor said.
De la Torre described efimuseos as a “very laudable” initiative but a “perfectible” one, although she didn’t specify how it could be improved.
“It could be an alternative for the administration of museums,” she said. “They don’t have [the] technological tools [they need], they … haven’t been upgraded. They’re extremely fragile — not just in the capital [Mexico City] but in the states as well.”
“The money they are capable of generating is right down because there are few visitors,” she also said. “They’re not capable of generating their own resources, nor do they have substantial income via the ticket office. The [funding] measures at hand are not sufficient. We’ll need to think of a patronage law. A tax reform, a legislative reform, is needed.”
“But there’s no [government] encouragement for organized civil-society participation [in finding a solution]. There is mistrust, not to mention repudiation.”
Supporters of decriminalization celebrate the vote in Veracruz.
Mexico‘s southeastern state of Veracruz will become the fourth state in the predominantly Roman Catholic country to clear away criminal penalties for elective abortion after lawmakers on Tuesday voted to decriminalize the procedure.
The initiative to allow abortions by choice passed in a 25-13 vote with one abstention, Veracruz’s Congress said in a statement.
“We thought this day was so far off that we’re in shock, in the best way possible,” said a tweet from Brujas del Mar, a Veracruz feminist group, while noting that most of Mexico‘s states have yet to follow suit.
“Let’s go after the 28 (states) that are left.”
Veracruz is one of just three statesthat does not mandate jail time for women who have unauthorized abortions, according to data from advocacy group GIRE, in a region where traditional anti-abortion attitudes have only recently started to shift.
Even as Argentina legalized the procedure in December, several of more than 20 Latin American nations still ban abortion outright, including El Salvador, which has sentenced some women to up to 40 years in prison.
Veracruz became a focal point in Mexico‘s abortion debate last year when the Supreme Court ruled against a proposal to decriminalize abortion in the state, a move condemned by women’s rights activists.
Two destinations in Mexico have made Time magazine’s third annual list of the World’s Greatest Places, which features 100 urban and nature spots from around the globe, presented in no particular order.
La Paz, Baja California Sur, and Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca, are the two destinations featured. Both are coastal tourist destinations with their natural landscapes largely intact, and still have a moderate tourist industry compared to commercial beach heavyweights such as Cancún, Acapulco or Los Cabos.
Time said La Paz is just two hours north of Cabo San Lucas “but with its laid-back vibe, it might as well be a world away.”
“Visitors can take a relaxed stroll on the malecón, a three-mile-long pedestrian walkway right along the Sea of Cortés, lined with ocean-inspired sculptures and open-air cafes. The newly opened Baja Club Hotel, by boutique Mexico City developer Grupo Habita, occupies a colonial-era former private mansion. Epic marine-life encounters are the main draw to La Paz and its surrounds — these are the waters Jacques Cousteau referred to as ‘the world’s aquarium —and there are plenty of boat excursions to choose from.”
Farther south, the magazine wrote, is Puerto Escondido, “a small surf town known for its mix of laid-back chic and untamed oceanfront [that] is quickly transforming into a design hub.”
Puerto Escondido, ‘rising design destination.’ Jaime Navarro
‘In May, Puerto Escondido attracted the attention of international curators and collectors with its inaugural Mexican Design Fair — a buzzy event showcasing the work of an array of creators including designer Liliana Ovalle and architect Pablo Kobayashi. Recent openings in the area include two boutique beachfront properties: Casona Sforza, a hotel whose exterior is defined by a series of clustered brick arches, and Hotel Escondido, a minimalist enclave with 16 thatched-roof bungalows.”
New restaurants and bars are also appearing “such as Espacio Cometa, an unfussy outdoor sand-floored cafe that serves contemporary breakfast specialties like avocado toast and açai bowls, as well as cocktails and dinner at night. Later this year, celebrated local chef Alejandro Ruiz will open Casa Oaxaca del Mar, a new seaside outpost of his Oaxaca city restaurant focusing on locally caught seafood.”
Other destinations on Time’s list included Arouca, a town in Portugal where the world’s largest pedestrian suspension bridge has been built, Antarctica, the Faroe Islands, New Orleans, the Uyuni salt flats in Bolivia and Tokyo.
To compile the list, the magazine solicited nominations from its international network of correspondents and contributors, “including countries, regions, cities and towns … with an eye toward those offering new and exciting experiences.”
The first two lists in 2018 and 2019 took a slightly different form. Three Mexican hotels were included in the inaugural list in the “To Stay” section. They were Viceroy Los Cabos in San José del Cabo, Casa Teo in Mexico City and Hotel Xcaret in Playa del Carmen.
On the 2019 list, Tulum, Quintana Roo, was featured as a city on the “To Visit” section and Masala y Maíz restaurant in Mexico City was included under “To Eat & Drink.”
The vaquita porpoise doesn't have a lot to smile about these days.
The federal government’s decision to scrap a no-fishing zone in the upper Gulf of California will likely lead to the extinction of the critically endangered vaquita marina porpoise, according to two environmental sector professionals.
The “zero tolerance” zone has been replaced with a sliding scale of sanctions if more than 60 boats are repeatedly seen in the area — where totoaba, a fish whose swim bladder is a delicacy in China and sells for thousands of dollars per kilogram, coexist with the vaquitas.
Many of the latter, the world’s smallest porpoise, have died after becoming entangled in nets set to catch the lucrative totoaba.
Kate O’Connell, marine consultant at the Washington D.C.-based Animal Welfare Institute (AWI), told the environmental news website Mongabay she feared the decision to abandon enforcement of the “zero tolerance” zone could be “the death knell” for the vaquita.
Vaquita in the Gulf of California are killed by gillnets laid for the lucrative totoaba, pictured, whose swim bladders sell for thousands of dollars a kilo in China.
“… The plan that has been proposed by Mexico will convert what should be a straightforward ‘no-go’ zone into a complex enforcement area with varying levels of monitoring and deterrence, depending on the amount of illegal fishing taking place in the area,” she said.
“The vaquita are being mismanaged to death,” O’Connell declared.
She said that gillnet fishing is technically still banned in the upper Gulf of California — the only place in the world vaquitas live — but predicted that it would nevertheless take place in the abandoned protected zone.
“Mexico’s fisheries authorities are indicating that they are either unable or unwilling to do all that is necessary to save the vaquita and are willing to accept a certain level of gillnet fishing activity,” O’Connell said.
“One hundred percent monitoring and enforcement of the fishing ban only kicks in once more than 50 illegal vessels are seen, or more than 200 meters of illegal gillnets are found in the area,” she said.
Despite her overall pessimism about the vaquita’s outlook, O’Connell said there was a “slight glimmer of hope” for the marine mammal “if an actual complete shutdown of gillnet activity in the area can be achieved.”
The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society’s boat Farley Mowat. The group plans to resume patrols soon to remove gillnets in the Upper Gulf of California.
“The few remaining vaquita appear healthy, and a number of calves have been spotted in recent years by researchers,” she said.
The executive director of Earth League International, a non-profit organization that has investigated totoaba trafficking, told Mongabay that the porpoises stand no chance of survival unless the Mexican government succeeds in eliminating totoaba cartels.
The move to abandon zero-tolerance enforcement could benefit local fishermen, but international totoaba traders — most of whom are Chinese nationals — will reap the biggest rewards, Andrea Crosta said.
“[They] will make a ton of money with even less risks than before,” he said.
Crosta charged that the abolishment of the no-fishing area is politically motivated, although the move won’t win the government any support from environmentally minded Mexicans.
“I think that the current populist administration in Mexico is concerned only about voters — certainly not about environmental protection and endangered species if this gets in the way of political gain,” he said. “And if the vaquita will go extinct, I am sure the current administration in Mexico will blame the administration before.”
The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, which has carried out patrols in the Gulf of California since 2015, told Mongabay that it “remains committed to preventing the extinction of the vaquita” and planned to return to the area as soon as possible to resume gillnet removal efforts.
The Sea Shepherd vessel the Farley Mowat has been attacked on repeated occasions, including in January this year, when fishermen aboard at least five pangas threw lead weights and Molotov cocktails at both the crew and military officials on board. A fisherman whose boat broke apart upon colliding with the Farley Mowatdied after sustaining serious injuries.
O’Connell said that AWI, the Center for Biological Diversity, the Environmental Investigation Agency and the Natural Resources Defense Council have all made urgent pleas to the international community to “both provide logistical and financial support to Mexico and to put pressure on the government by means of trade sanctions and other actions to ensure that the vaquita is saved.”
President López Obrador said in late June that sanctions against Mexico wouldn’t affect his government’s decisions on environmental issues because “we [already] have sufficient convictions for there to be justice and to truly defend the environment, not in a simulated or pretend way.”
But just weeks later, his government changed Upper Gulf of California fishing rules in a move that appears to doom the vaquita to extinction and calls such convictions into doubt.
Three of the pups that were born in April at the Mexico City zoo.
The birth of five gray wolf pups at Mexico City’s Chapultepec Zoo in early April marked another step in the efforts to reintroduce the endangered species back into the wild.
The three males and two females are part of a four-decade, bi-national breeding program between the United States and Mexico.
The endangered species has been limited to captivity for decades, and breeding for genetic diversity is essential for them to regain their independence.
The Mexican gray wolf is North America’s rarest subspecies of gray wolf. It was listed as endangered in 1976 after being hunted, trapped and poisoned to the brink of extinction. From the 1960s to the 1980s, seven gray wolves — believed to be the last of their kind — were captured and the captive breeding program began.
Wolves started being released back into the wild in the late 1990s. The population has nearly doubled over the last five years, with the latest annual census finding about 186 Mexican wolves in the wild in New Mexico and Arizona.
However, in northern Mexico, the other part of the wolves’ historic range, reintroduction initially stumbled. An effort to reintroduce them to the wild in Sonora in 2011 ended in tragedy when all five wolves were poisoned. Another release was carried out in 2012 in Chihuahua, and those wolves now number around 40, most born in the wild.
In fact, their classification as “endangered” is a sign of progress: two years ago the species’ status was promoted from “probably extinct in the wild” to “endangered” due to the success of the breeding program. The program has brought the species’ population to around 540, of which 323 live in zoos.
Back at Chapultepec Zoo, Rhi, the father of the pups, signals them to the arrival of breakfast, which takes the form of chicken and quail meat.
Zookeeper Jorge Gutiérrez, 58, is the man who feeds them. He has cared for Rhi since the wolf was born and has seen him form a pack with mother Seje. He watches as the five wolf pups stumble out of their den to eat. “It’s marvelous. What I am experiencing is something unique,” he said.
Fernando Gual, a veterinarian who serves as director of Mexico City’s zoos, said the Chapultepec Zoo also has a sperm and egg bank that provides backup for genetic material, from which Rhi was born, but that females like Seje are the best possible recourse. “This is our jewel … Every litter of pups is hope for the life of this species,” he said.
Yakoe Nicol Tablado of Cava de Quesos Bocanegro, a Querétaro cheese producer. Photos by Joseph Sorrentino
Mexico’s north-central state of Querétaro is finally starting to get some well-deserved notice for its wines.
The state’s vineyards have usually been overshadowed by Baja California, which currently accounts for about 90% of Mexico’s wine production, but they are expanding and more Mexicans are learning to enjoy the alcoholic beverage. It also doesn’t hurt that its artisanal cheese industry is also growing.
It’s actually a little surprising that Mexico doesn’t have a major wine industry, given that it’s the oldest winemaking region in the Americas. It dates back to 1524, when conquistador Hernán Cortés ordered grapevines to be planted.
One story — probably apocryphal — claims that Cortés wanted them because in celebrating their victory over the Aztecs, he and his soldiers had drunk all the wine they’d brought from Spain. Whatever the reason, Spaniards obeyed his orders, and the resulting vineyards did so well that wine imports from Spain fell off sharply.
This miffed the Spanish king, Charles II, and in 1699, he banned winemaking in Mexico, exempting only the Catholic Church’s sacramental wine. Although the ban was lifted after the Mexican War of Independence in 1821, Mexico’s wine industry continued to lag far behind its beer, tequila and mezcal industries.
A worker tends vines at the Vinaltura vineyard in Querétaro.
But the number of wineries sprouting up in Querétaro these days is a testament to an increased interest in Mexican wines.
The first modern vineyards in the state were founded in the 1970s when the Redonda and Freixenet wineries — two of the largest in the state — planted their grapevines. They did this despite the challenges faced when trying to establish vineyards here.
For one, there’s the rain that arrives during the harvest season, which allows mildew to grow on the grapes.
“The mildew will poke through the grapes and ruin them,” said Tom Pence. He and his wife Tiffany have a total of 37 years experience in the wine industry.
They moved to Querétaro just over three years ago and have spent much of that time learning about the state’s wineries. Tiffany has her own blog in which she shares inside information about vineyards, creameries and what else Querétaro has to offer.
Some years, as much as 30% of the harvest can be lost to mildew. Hail, which also arrives during the harvest season, can destroy grapes.
To avoid such losses, Pence said, “The focus is on [growing] thick-skinned varieties — early ripening ones too.”
Another issue is the presence of large volcanic rocks, which are prevalent across the area.
“The vines struggle to grow, and the grapes will be smaller,” said Pence. However, he added that smaller grapes will lead to wines that are more what he calls “classically European” wines that are “more elegant, have nicer acidity.”
Despite the challenges, Querétaro now boasts more than 40 wineries.
Andrea Morena Durán has worked in some capacity in the wine industry for seven years and has been a manager at the Vinaltura winery for a little over a year.
Vinaltura’s first vines were planted in 2014. Its first production was in 2017, and they now turn out about 40,000 bottles of wine a year.
“We have a number of whites,” said Durán, “including sauvignon blanc, chenin blanc, and riesling. White wines and sparkling wines do the best because of the rain and the acidity of the soil.
“We do small fermentations for higher quality. We have three or four harvests of whites; we ferment them separately, then combine them.”
Doing this allows Vinaltura to produce the best white wines possible despite the challenges. “We have extreme weather and high acidity [in the soil],” she said, “and this is what gives Querétaro wines their specialness.”
Vinaltura also sells two rosés and six red wines but, like other wineries, in a more limited supply. Richard Hernández Jiménez, the sommelier at Puerta del Lobo winery for the last three years, pointed out why that’s probably the case.
For reds like cabernet, he said, “… the growing season is so long and the chance of hail is great. It has a thick skin — so that is good. But it takes too long to grow.”
Hernández sees part of his job as educating Mexicans about wine. “It is very difficult to change Mexicans’ minds,” he said. “Wines are dry, and the Mexican palate is accustomed to sweet things, to sodas or strong things like tequila.”
Workers at Queso La Biquette in Querétaro prepare goat cheese for sale.
He brings newcomers along slowly. “We start with whites, the gentlest ones like sauvignon blanc, which is quite floral. Then we’ll move to rosés made from malbec or syrah.”
Eventually, he may even be able to get them to try a red like cabernet sauvignon.
Querétaro’s artisanal cheese producers nicely complement the state’s vineyards, and they are also introducing Mexicans to something new. Cava de Quesos Bocanegro opened eight years ago and at first sold only fresh cheeses.
“Basic Mexican cheeses like quesillo, manchego, queso fresco,” said Yakoe Nicol Tablado, son of the business’s founder and manager. Then, six years ago, they built a cava (cave) and began selling aged cheeses.
“It is hard in Mexico to sell [them],” he said. “We are trying to introduce Mexicans … to the flavors that Europeans really like. I think we are being successful.”
Bocanegro offers a tasting that includes several of their cheeses, ranging from mild to strong flavors, and includes some vegetables and bread. Local wines and beer are also available.
Isabel Esteve Denaives is a veterinarian who has a soft spot for certain animals. “I like goats,” she admitted. She must because she now has a herd of 75.
She’d been selling goat milk for years but struggled to make enough money to continue. So she decided to start making and selling cheese. A person of French Mexican heritage, she spent a year in France learning how to make goat cheese.
Three years ago, she opened Queso La Biquette (biquette is French for “small goat”), introducing Mexicans to something new.
“It is not typical in Mexico to have this type of cheese,” Esteve said. “Cheese made from cows is a part of Mexican gastronomy; people cook with those cheeses. This cheese is more for the table. We try to educate Mexicans on how to eat this cheese and enjoy it.”
Although not certified as organic, Esteve said she doesn’t use antibiotics or preservatives. “Our production is all manual,” she said. “No machines.”
La Biquette also offers tastings with six types of goat cheese. The mildest, and what most people think of when they think of goat cheese, is queso fresco and the strongest is one called tomme, which has a sharp, earthy flavor.
As the wineries have expanded, so have their offerings.
“Wine bars, restaurants and tours of the vineyards and creameries started about four years ago,” said Tiffany Pence. They also have tastings.
• Querétaro has its official art, wine and cheese route that you can follow on your own, but there are also a number of companies that offer tours. More information about its wineries may be found at www.avq.com.mx.
