Los Cabos, Baja California Sur, was named one of 52 places to travel in 2025 by the New York Times for its culinary and hotel offerings. (Lisa Soots/Unsplash)
Los Cabos could become Mexico’s second nude beach if a proposal by nudist activist Héctor Martínez is approved by the municipal government.
On Instagram, Martínez posted a video in which he says he submitted a request to the Los Cabos municipal government to allow nudity on the beach. “We want to turn Los Cabos into the next international nude destination,” he said. “The economic potential is huge, and I would like the authorities to be open to this possibility,” he remarked.
According to Ana Gabriela Navarro, head of the municipal tourism office of Los Cabos, Martínez submitted the proposal on Feb. 12.
The proposal argues that having a nude beach in Los Cabos would draw international tourists that currently choose to visit nude beaches in Spain, France, Croatia and the United States. In addition, the designation would enhance Los Cabos’ image as an inclusive destination.
“As a department committed to sustainable, inclusive and diverse tourism development in Los Cabos, we keep our doors open to proposals that strengthen the destination,” Navarro said. She added that in this particular case, the proposal requires a comprehensive and multidisciplinary analysis because it is not the exclusive responsibility of her office.
Oaxaca’s Playa Zipolite, a secluded beach town on the Pacific Coast, is Mexico’s only nude beach. In 2023, it was included in CNN’s list of the 20 best nude beaches in the world. In the proposal, Martínez says having a second nude beach in Los Cabos would increase the destination’s visibility in international media.
Zipolite became a nude beach in 2016 and is Mexico’s only legally recognized nude beach. Still, there are other beaches where nudism is tolerated despite not being officially recognized as nude beaches. Mexico’s unofficial nudist beaches are the following:
Saturday Night Live celebrated 50 years of jokes about the state of the world — with news and culture from Mexico making for several hilarious sketches. (Unsplash)
“Saturday Night Live” celebrated its 50th anniversary in epic style over the weekend, which got Mexico News Daily thinking: Over the years, what have been the funniest SNL sketches about Mexico?
The following list spans from comedian Steve Martin playing a Spanish tutor who barges into people’s homes in Season 5 to a couple of parodies of the Latin American television classic “Sábado Gigante” that aired during this past season, the 50th.
The list is aimed at sketches that have Mexico themes, but leeway has been granted to include sketches about the Spanish language or Mexican food. It is presented in chronological order, not as a ranked list. Let us know in the comments if we missed any good ones!
In the Season 5 premiere of SNL on Oct. 13, 1979, Steve Martin plays a man who enters the home of Paul (Bill Murray) and Sharlene (Gilda Radner) uninvited. Once inside, he explains how he was really good in Spanish class as a kid and he offers to teach them for free, but then goes on to make himself at home, including stripping down to take a shower.
This premise was first used in Season 9 on Oct. 15, 1983, with guest host Rhea Perlman playing the overzealous Señora Sanchez, who insists that all conversation in her Spanish class be “en español.” Among the students are Eddie Murphy, Joe Piscopo and Julia Louis-Dreyfus.
A similar premise reappeared in the 48th season on April 15, 2023, with SNL’s Mikey Day as a Spanish teacher who gets flustered when two new students, guest host actress Ana de Armas and SNL’s Marcello Hernández, expose his limited language skills. Almost entirely in Spanish, the sketch included a cameo by musical guest Karol G.
In a sketch that has been referenced and shared by viewers for years, “Enchilada” premiered on Nov. 10, 1990 during Season 16. The skit featured SNL’s Jan Hooks and Phil Hartman and others as NBC News executives whose exuberance in over-pronouncing Latin American names, locations and words is over-the-top funny.
The sketch includes guest host Jimmy Smits and a cameo by sports announcer Bob Costas, whose surname gets pronounced with Latin flair.
In a Season 19 skit that aired Nov. 13, 1993, SNL’s Rob Schneider plays a Mexican man who expresses his excitement for NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement. Dressed in a sombrero and wearing a fuzzy Pancho Villa mustache, Schneider takes a baseball bat labeled NAFTA and smashes a pinata labeled “U.S. Economy.” Then he says with a laugh, “You see, all the goodies fall down south — to Mexico.”
He also posits that there are people against NAFTA, such as 1992 presidential candidate Ross Perot. Says Schneider, as a burro can be seen in the background: “Who are you going to believe? A great patriot like Ross Perot, or me, a crude, Mexican stereotype?”
On a “Weekend Update” during Season 19 in 1994, SNL cast members Chris Farley and David Spade tell some stories about their recent Spring Break trip to Cancún — where Chris was like “Hey,” and David was like “Huh,” and a cop was like “Why,” and a shark was like “Grrrr.”
A parody of Spanish-language telenovelas that uses exaggerated melodrama and over-the-top acting, “Besos Y Lagrimas” (“Kisses and Tears”) debuted during Season 29 on Feb. 21, 2004. The first installment stars singer Christina Aguilera as Elena, a maid who is having torrid affairs with all of the male characters in the sketch.
The premise was used twice again, with guest host Antonio Banderas as the hunky farmer Paolo in 2006 and guest host Jennifer Lopez as a nun who comes between characters played by Fred Armisen and Kristen Wiig in 2010.
In one of the best fake commercials in SNL history, “Taco Town” aired on Oct. 8, 2005 and starred Bill Hader, Jason Sudeikis and Andy Samberg. But the real star of the sketch is the presentation of the restaurant’s new all-beef taco wrapped in half-dozen other foods (such as a crepe, a pizza and a pancake) and then fried in batter and served in a commemorative tote bag filled with veggie chili. “Do tacos get any more kick-butt than this?”
From Jan. 17, 2009 in Season 34, this is a sketch about a hard-scrabble TV cop show with a twist. “Tonight’s episode was written by Ms. Larkin’s fourth-grade Spanish class,” the intro notes, which means everyone in the interrogation room is speaking in hilariously basic Spanish, and flash cards are used to establish the scene of the crime. Even basic cop questions are turned into Spanish lessons.
“Can I go to the bathroom,” the culprit (Bobby Moynihan) asks. “En español!” the cop (Fred Armisen) demands. When El Jefe (Bill Hader) comes into the room at a crucial time, his big contribution is asking, “Que hora es?”
Actress-singer Jennifer Lopez and SNL’s Fred Armisen star as confused Telemundo announcers who are baffled as they try to make sense of the sports played at the Winter Olympics. The sketch aired in Season 35 on Feb. 27, 2010. The announcers express dislike for the cold weather and the “silly” sports on ice and snow, and a field reporter complains about losing fingers to frostbite.
For the Season 41 episode that aired Nov. 7, 2015, the guest host was none other than 2016 presidential candidate Donald J. Trump. In this skit, he portrays himself receiving a check from Mexico’s then president — Enrique Peña Nieto as portrayed by SNL’s Beck Bennett — to help build the border wall.
Peña Nieto, this time played by Alex Moffat, also appears during Season 42, on Feb. 4, 2017 in a sketch in which Trump (played by Alec Baldwin) tries to get him to say “What?” so he can trick him into paying for the wall.
Never seen this one? That’s because it was cut due to time from the Season 45 episode that ran on Nov. 23, 2019. In this sketch, former Saturday Night Live star Will Ferrell, in his fifth appearance as a guest host, plays an emotional wreck who is on vacation in Mexico when his girlfriend breaks up with him.
The former attorney and judge Jeanine Pirro is portrayed by SNL’s Cecily Strong as a boozy conservative who has a lot to say about the border situation in this Weekend Update bit from May 22, 2021 in Season 46. “Have you seen the border?” she says sloshily. “If Joe Biden had his way, we’d let everyone in, from gauchos to banditos, from chicas to chamacos, from El Chapo to Del Taco.” Chamacos generally means “kids” but can also mean something similar to “brats.”
Weekend Update: Jeanine Pirro on the Mexico–United States Border - SNL
SNL’s Ego Nwodim portrays an actress playing a housekeeper on a Spanish soap opera, “El Passión de las Padillas,” during an Oct. 21, 2023 sketch from Season 49. When the director points out she has pronunciation issues, she replies, “Oh, that makes sense. I don’t speak no Spanish.” But wasn’t a Latina supposed to be cast? “Who not Latina?” she replies. “My name is Latina Jefferson.”
The sketch includes Puerto Rican rapper Bad Bunny and a surprise appearance late in the sketch by rock ’n’ roll legend Mick Jagger.
In a spoof of the Spanish-language show “Sábado Gigante” (“Gigantic Saturday”), the comedian Nate Bargatze plays a man who gets picked to compete on the show but doesn’t speak Spanish. The skit aired on Oct. 5, 2024, and came back 11 weeks later with the actor Paul Rudd playing the non-Spanish speaking contestant this time.
Sábado Gigante - SNL
“Sábado Gigante” was a flamboyant and spirited variety game show that was a staple in Mexican households for years and years. It originated in Chile in 1962 but moved its production to Miami in the 1980s and aired on Univision until its demise a decade ago. Its host was named Don Francisco, who was portrayed by SNL’s Marcello Hernández in the SNL skit.
Though Hernández is of Cuban and Dominican Republic descent, the main writer of the sketch, SNL’s Steven Castillo, is a Mexican American.
According to the New York Times, a covert drone program began during Joe Biden's presidency and has been ramped up since Donald Trump took office. (U.S. Air Force photo/Staff Sgt. Brian Ferguson/Wikimedia Commons)
The United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has recently been flying drones over Mexico to spy on drug cartels and hunt for fentanyl labs, CNN and The New York Times reported Tuesday.
Citing unnamed current and former U.S. officials familiar with the missions, CNN reported that the CIA has covertly flown MQ-9 Reaper drones over Mexico to spy on cartels since U.S. President Donald Trump took office on Jan. 20.
New: The CIA has been covertly flying MQ-9 Reaper drones over Mexico to spy on drug cartels, current and former officials familiar with the matter told CNN, part of Trump’s shift to treat cartels like terror orgs. From @NatashaBertrand@ZcohenCNN and me: https://t.co/p16Fj42VEg
Also citing unnamed U.S. officials, The New York Times said that the Trump administration “has stepped up secret drone flights over Mexico to hunt for fentanyl labs.”
The Times said that the covert drone program began during Joe Biden’s presidency.
Citing one of its sources, CNN said that the recent drone flights in Mexico “were communicated to Congress by the Trump administration using a particular notification reserved for new or updated covert programs that the CIA intends either to conceal or deny… suggesting that the flights represent a distinct escalation.”
CNN said that the drones used for the missions in Mexico are not currently armed, but noted that “they can be equipped with payloads to carry out precision strikes.”
The drones could be equipped to strike clandestine drug labs, which are easy to find from the air due to the chemicals they emit. (Semar)
“The U.S. regularly uses them to target suspected terrorists in Syria, Iraq and Somalia,” the news organization added.
Officials who spoke with the NYT said the CIA has not been authorized to use the drones to take lethal action in Mexico. The Times’ sources said they do not see the drones being used to carry out airstrikes against cartel targets in Mexico.
“Conducting an airstrike on fentanyl labs would probably cause catastrophic fatalities, as they are often inside homes in urban areas, a person familiar with the program said, most likely contributing to the reluctance to authorize lethal force,” the Times said.
The NYT said that “for now, CIA officers in Mexico pass information collected by the drones to Mexican officials.”
For its part, CNN reported that “some current and former officials say designating cartels as terrorist groups could potentially lay the groundwork for direct U.S. strikes against the cartels and their drug labs in Mexico.”
The reports on the drone missions come 8 days after CNN reported that the U.S. military had “significantly increased its surveillance of Mexican drug cartels over the past two weeks, with sophisticated spy planes flying at least 18 missions over the southwestern U.S. and in international airspace around the Baja peninsula.”
While the U.S. spy planes didn’t enter Mexican airspace, the drone flights go “well into sovereign Mexico,” one U.S. official told the NYT.
CNN also reported that the MQ-9 Reapers “are being flown inside Mexican airspace.”
The Times said that the drones have proved to be “adept” at identifying clandestine drug labs.
“Fentanyl labs emit chemicals that make them easy to find from the air,” the newspaper reported.
If the CIA is providing information from the drone missions to the Mexican government, local security forces could subsequently shut down the drug labs they detect. Security Minister Omar García Harfuch said last Friday that the Mexican Army and Navy had dismantled six clandestine drug labs in the northern state of Sinaloa, but gave no indication that authorities had first received intelligence from the United States. The synthetic drug labs dismantled by the navy were located thanks to “naval intelligence,” García said.
At her Tuesday morning press conference, President Claudia Sheinbaum gave a somewhat cryptic one-sentence response when asked about the reported CIA drone flights over Mexico.
“It’s also part of this campañita [little campaign],” she said without elaborating.
“Es parte de esta campañita”, respondió la presidenta Claudia Sheinbaum al cuestionamiento sobre los reportes de medios estadounidenses que aseguran que la CIA ha estado volando encubiertamente drones MQ-9 Reaper sobre México para espiar a los cárteles de la droga. pic.twitter.com/OQliVthIjw
The implication was that the president places little faith in the reporting on U.S. drone missions over Mexico, although she didn’t reject it outright.
Sheinbaum has repeatedly stressed that Mexico is willing to collaborate on security issues with the United States, but will never accept subordination or violations of its sovereignty.
The U.S. president is particularly determined to stop the entry of fentanyl to the United States, where the synthetic opioid has fueled an overdose crisis. After signing an executive order on Jan. 20 that laid the groundwork for the designation of Mexican cartels as terrorist organizations, Trump was asked whether he would consider “ordering U.S. special forces into Mexico” to “take out” cartels.
Report: CIA to take larger role in fight against Mexican cartels
Citing “people familiar with the matter,” The Washington Post reported Monday that the CIA “is poised to take a larger, more aggressive role under President Donald Trump in the battle against Mexican-based drug cartels.”
That larger role, the Post said, includes “devising and evaluatingplans to share more intelligence with regional governments, train local counternarcotics units and possibly conduct other covert actions.”
The “expanded focus on cartels … represents a new and potentially risky priority for the spy agency,” the newspaper said, adding that “CIA Director John Ratcliffe intends to shift agency resources to its counternarcotics mission and apply insights from its two decades of tracking, infiltrating and disrupting terrorist networks to fighting the cartels.”
U.S. special forces operations in Mexico are one of six actions that the Trump administration could take in its fight against Mexican drug cartels, according to an anonymous source within the DOJ. (US Special Operations/Twitter)
Citing people familiar with the CIA’s “emerging plan,” The Washington Post said that the emphasis will be on increased U.S. support to anti-drug forces within Mexico and elsewhere in the hemisphere.
“… Less clear is whether armed U.S. personnel, either from the military’s Special Operations forces or the CIA, could be tasked with taking direct action against cartel leaders on Mexican soil, something former intelligence and military officials warn would spark a ferocious backlash and harm U.S.-Mexican relations, including counternarcotics cooperation,” the Post said.
The El Universal newspaper reported Tuesday that it was told by a U.S. Department of Justice source that there are six different actions the U.S. government is taking or could take against Mexican drug cartels.
The six actions mentioned by the unnamed Department of Justice source were:
Intelligence operations — such as the recent U.S. spy plane missions — and satellite surveillance.
The creation of a multinational force against drug trafficking. “A joint task force could be created with countries affected by drug trafficking like Colombia, Guatemala and Mexico,” the source said.
The use of drones inside Mexican territory.
U.S. special forces operations in Mexico “in an extreme case” in which Mexico “doesn’t want to coordinate” with the United States “and hasn’t satisfied the Trump administration’s demands in the fight against fentanyl.”
Cyber warfare against cartels and tracing of criminal organizations’ use of cryptocurrency and money laundering practices. In addition, “artificial intelligence can be used to analyze criminal patterns and put into effect applications that predict the movements of criminal leaders based on big data and satellite intelligence,” said El Universal, citing its Department of Justice source.
“The United States could employ different operational strategies in Mexican territory to locate and neutralize drug cartel leaders, using similar methods to those employed in other parts of the world such as the Middle East, Afghanistan, Central America and South America,” the source said.
If you want a nickname that'll make you laugh crying and cry laughing, get yourself some Mexican acquaintances. (Helena Lopes/Unsplash)
If you’ve spent much time among Mexicans, you’ve probably realized something. They love to give each other — and consistently use — nicknames.
I’m not just talking about diminutives of names, though these are also popular. Guillermo, for example, is Memo for short, the same way Bob is a diminutive of Robert.
If you’re missing a finger or another extremity, you might be nicknamed “El Lincoln,” short for “El Incompleto.” (Hiram Powers / Smithsonian)
There’s Alex for both Alejandro and Alejandra, Chio for Rocío, Lalo for Eduardo, Lola for Dolores and Chava for Salvador. There’s also short versions of double names, like Mafer for María Fernanda, Majo for María José and my favorite, Lucifer for Lucía Fernanda, a name most people do not give their kids. And of course, the classic “-ito” and “-ita” can go at the end of many names. So sometimes people call me Sarita, and my partner Juanito. Careful with using these, though, as they’re often infantilizing, and as you very likely know, some people do not like being infantilized.
So you get the idea: most names here have a shortened version. But Mexicans don’t stop there!
I’ll admit that this makes me very happy. As a kid, I never had a nickname, and I was jealous that I didn’t. Thinking back, it’s probably better; it wouldn’t have necessarily been a nice one, as I was both a crybaby and a showoff. Come to think of it, I might still be both of those things. Thankfully, I don’t currently have any nicknames related to either of those characteristics. Yet.
I do have some other fun ones though. “Sirena polar” — polar mermaid — might be the most creative, given to me by a friend of my ex-husband who was amazed that I insisted on swimming in ice-cold water after a hike. For reasons unknown to me, this same friend also often called me “cara de nutria”: otter face. Maybe because otters swim in cold water, too? Another friend, not quite as creative, simply calls me “mi gringa favorita.” I’d be more flattered if I weren’t one of the only gringos she knows.
Sarah DeVries, apparently. (Envato Elements)
Many nicknames are purposefully funny, and sometimes shocking. And from what I can tell, people don’t seem to be insulted by them. Sometimes I wonder if they actually are bothered but know that trying to fight back against the Mexican urge to make fun of everything is futile.
So when you get a name like “El Frijol” because you’re very dark-skinned, you just… go along with it, I guess?
In this particular case of another acquaintance, the guy was tall and good-looking. He was married, but seemed to have no shortage of women interested in him, or of self-esteem.
I always wanted to ask him if the nickname bothered him, but we were never close, so the opportunity was lost. But I did get to ask my ex-husband, who his friends had nicknamed “el bello camello” — the beautiful camel — supposedly because they thought he looked Arab.
If your friend is bald, they will most likely be called ‘Rapunzel’.(Reddit)
Could this be one of those cultural things that’s dying out with more socially conscious and sensitive younger generations? I don’t think it is, as my daughter, age 11, has several nicknames herself. At school her friends sometimes call her Plana, which means flat. It’s a synonym of her name, Lisa, which means “smooth” in Spanish and is often featured on hair conditioner bottles. And in her Scout troop, every kid has a nickname, each one the name of a bird. She’ll also respond to “Mona,” which is kind of nice. “Mona” is more of a Spanish-from-Spain word for “pretty,” but in this case, of course it’s about the Mona Lisa.
So perhaps the tradition will continue?
After several years of watching the issue of how people address them being taken very, very seriously north of Mexico I’ll admit that I find the ability to joke around with silly nicknames refreshing. Like all humor, though,it’s very culturally specific; there are plenty of unspoken rules regarding when it’s funny and good-humored and when it’s not.
It’s not that I want the freedom to be gratuitously mean, which is something very different. But I do think that it’s always worth it to not take ourselves so seriously all the time, something most of us can agree makes us generally unlikable.
So if you get a nickname here, try to go with it. Because people don’t get nicknames when they’re not an included person of a group. Even if it’s not one you’d have chosen for yourself, it’s a signal that you are part of a community; people know you.
They might be making fun, but it’s affectionate fun. Try to take it that way.
There's a story behind the name of every Mexican state. (Adolfo Felix/Unsplash)
Want to get to know Mexico’s history? One great way to do that is through the names of its states. In the second half of this two-part series, we’re doing just that.
The Mid-Pacific
Nayarit
(Turismo Nayarit/Facebook)
The area that is now Nayarit is the traditional home of the Indigenous Cora people. In the late 15th century, a Cora leader named Na’ayarij united different Cora tribes and founded the kingdom of Xécora, which spanned parts of present-day Nayarit, Durango and Zacatecas. Na’ayarij was king of Xécora when the Spanish arrived in Western Mexico and led his people, allied with neighboring Wixárikas (Huichols), to successfully resist the infamous conquistador Nuño Beltrán de Guzmán. Na’ayarij’s political and military skill kept his people free for generations after his death: the Cora heartland only fell to Spanish control in 1722. Both the name of the state and the word Nayeeri, the Cora’s name for themselves, come from the name of this king.
Colima
(Kyle Petzer/Unsplash)
What Colima’s name means is up for debate, and that’s largely because the Nahuatl word “kol” can mean both “something twisted” and “grandfather.” If we take the first meaning, the state’s name likely means “where the water bends.” This is borne out by the fact that the ancient glyph for the Kingdom of Colliman, Colima’s namesake, is an arm bent at the elbow emerging from water, a visual metaphor for this name. The other leads to interpretations like “place conquered by our grandfathers” and “place of the grandfather,” the latter of which may actually refer to the Volcán de Colima, the volcano that dominates much of the state’s landscape.
Central Mexico
State of México and Mexico City
(Wikimedia Commons)
Most people will tell you that the name Mexico is a combination of the Nahuatl words “metztli” and “xictli”: “moon” and “navel,” respectively. The word therefore means “in the navel of the moon,” a poetic way of referencing the city of Mexico-Tenochtitlán’s location in the center of Lake Texcoco. Another common explanation is that Mexico means “the place of Mextli,” Mextli being another name for Huitzilopochtli, patron god of the Mexicas.
Mexico City was established as the Distrito Federal (Federal District) of the nation in 1824, giving rise to the abbreviation DF and the many variations of “El De Efe” we still hear today. The second half of the 20th century saw the city take steps towards autonomy, getting its own legislature in 1987 and beginning to elect its own mayors in 1996. In 2016, its name was changed to Ciudad de México once again, and it became a federal entity at long last in 2018— the only one of the 32 federal entities that isn’t a state.
The state of México’s name is easier to figure out. In the colonial period, Mexico City was part of the province of Mexico. When the capital was separated as the Federal District in 1824, the old province became a state and kept its name.
Querétaro
(Kyle Petzer/Unsplash)
Querétaro’s name was originally given to Santiago de Querétaro, the state’s capital, and is likely derived from Purepecha, but experts disagree on what Purepecha word was picked up by the Spanish. If you think it was “k’erhiretarhu,” then the name means “great city-state.” If you think it was “k’erendarhu,” then it’s “place of great rocks” or “the crag,” which could refer to an area just outside the modern city. Interestingly, the latter meaning may have been a synonym for the canyon-shaped courts the Mesoamerican ballgame was played on, an interpretation backed up by the fact that the state’s names in Otomi and Nahuatl — Ndamaxei and Tlachco, respectively — both mean ball court as well.
Hidalgo
(Luis Garcés)
If an ATM ever gave you one of those unwieldy 1000-peso bills, you’ve seen his face, and if you’ve ever been in Mexico on the evening of September 15, you’ve seen a mayor or governor or the president reenact the speech he gave on the same day in 1810. Mexico City’s northern neighbor is named for Miguel Gregorio Antonio Ignacio Hidalgo y Costilla Gallaga Mandarte y Villaseñor, better known simply as Miguel Hidalgo, the priest whose call to rebellion kicked off the War of Independence.
Morelos
José María Morelos y Pavón (Wikimedia Commons)
To paraphrase a beloved cartoon villain: If you had a nickel for every Catholic priest who fathered illegitimate children and led the first phase of Mexico’s independence movement, you’d have two nickels, but it’s funny that it happened twice, right? José María Morelos was the second of these rebel priests, and Mexico’s independence was actually declared under his leadership, shortly before his martyrdom at the hands of the colonial authorities.
The East
Veracruz
Port of Veracruz (Héctor Carrera/Unsplash)
According to the laws of Spain, Hernán Cortés was a criminal: the expedition that Cortés led from Cuba to Mexico in 1519 had its charter revoked by Cuban governor Diego Velázquez just before leaving, but Cortés set sail anyway, thus committing mutiny. As a trained lawyer, however, the captain had an ace up his sleeve. On Easter Sunday, 1519, he founded the town of Villa Rica de la Vera Cruz — the Rich Town of the True Cross — and in doing so put himself directly under the authority of King Charles, legalizing his mutiny.
That town eventually became the city we know as Veracruz and gave the future state its name. The state’s full name, Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave, honors the Liberal politician who served as its governor from 1861 to 1862. A military leader in several wars, the Orizaba native died resisting the French invasion during the Siege of Puebla in 1863.
Tlaxcala
Tlaxcalli in nahuatl means tortilla. (Crisanta Espinosa Aguilar/Cuartoscuro)
Many locations in central Mexico have ancient glyphs that represent their names, and Tlaxcala has one of the most curious: a pair of hands coming out of two mountains and clasping a tortilla. That has to do with the fact that its name literally means “place of bread” in Nahuatl, the tortilla being the ancient bread of Mexico. The food is still essential to the state’s identity: whereas the average Mexican is reported to eat 75 kilos of tortillas every year, the average Tlaxcalan eats almost 200.
Puebla
Catedral de Puebla (Aldo González/Unsplash)
There’s a reason it sounds like the word for town, and that’s because “puebla” is an Old Spanish term for a settlement. According to legend, modern-day Puebla city was founded in an area of the Cuetlaxcoapan Valley that Julián Garcés, Dominican friar and first bishop of Tlaxcala, was shown by angels in a dream. Established in 1531, the new town was given the provisional name of Puebla de los Ángles — Settlement of the Angels — while it waited for a royal upgrade to city status that would make it the Ciudad de los Ángeles. It finally got that title in 1558, but it was too late: the name Puebla had stuck.
The Southwest
Guerrero
Mexico’s president Vincente Guerrero was descended from African slaves.
One of three states named for heroes of Mexico’s independence movement, Guerrero’s name honors the Tixtla-born Vicente Guerrero, one of the few major leaders to survive from the outbreak of the War of Independencein 1810 through to the establishment of the First Republic in 1824. A Liberal, he became president in 1829 as the first Afro-descendant president of any country in the Americas.
Oaxaca
(Edgar Anguiano/Unsplash)
Oaxaca’s largest Indigenous ethnicities all speak languages belonging to the Oto-Manguean language family. So why is the state’s name a Nahuatl word? The Mexica, of course. In the mid-15th century, Mexica (Aztec) armies crossed into what is now Oaxaca, taking on the Zapotecs and Mixtecs for control of valuable trade routes. In the 1480s, they established a fort on the hill they called Huaxyacac, “the tip of the guaje tree,” overlooking what was then the Zapotec city of Zaachila, now Oaxaca city. The Spanish wrote the word down as Guajaca and eventually Oaxaca. That hill, now called El Fortin in memory of the Mexica fort, is a focal point and symbol of Oaxaca city, and if you’ve ever been to the Auditorio Guelaguetza, you’ve climbed it yourself.
Chiapas
(Gabriel Tovar/Unsplash)
The Mexica armies that invaded Oaxaca in 1486 also made it down to the Soconusco region, on the coast of present-day Chiapas. One of the region’s major cities was Nandiumé, near modern Chiapa de Corzo, which belonged to the Socton people. For its location next to the Sumidero Canyon and the Grijalva River which runs through it, the Mexicas gave the city the Nahuatl name of Tepetchiapan — which may mean “water beneath the hill” or “river of the sacred chia” — and called its inhabitants the Chiapanecos. When the Spanish invaded the region, they called the city Chiapa. So why is the state’s name plural?
The original Chiapa was left behind by the Spanish to be inhabited by their Indigenous allies and some surviving Chiapanecos. The Spanish themselves went east and founded a new settlement in the Jovel Valley but re-used the name Chiapa: this was the town we know today as San Cristóbal de las Casas. The two cities became known as Chiapa de los Indios and Chiapa de los Españoles — Chiapa of the Indians and Chiapa of the Spaniards — and for generations the region was called the Province of the Chiapas. Upon independence and statehood, it dropped the article.
The Southeast
Tabasco
Tabscoob Monument (Facebook)
When Cortés made landfall in Mexico in 1519, he was fought on arrival by the Chontal Maya of Pontonchán, who were led by a ruler history remembers as Tabscoob. Whether this was his given name or a title is uncertain, but the phrase “tab-uaxac-coh” is translated as “Our Lord of the Eight Lions,” understood as a metaphor for Potonchán’s eight provinces.
Campeche
(Enrique Amaya/Unsplash
In Mexican Spanish, the verb “campechanear” means to mix several things together. That’s appropriate, as Campeche’s name has several intermixed explanations. It doubtlessly comes from the name of one of the Yucatán Peninsula’s chiefdoms at the time of the Spanish invasion, which gave its name to the city of Campeche.
What that chiefdom’s name actually was and what it meant is unclear, although we know that “kaan” means snake in Yucatec Mayan, while “pech” means tick. One straightforward explanation is that the phrase means “place of ticks and snakes,” but another says that it means “where the snake is worshiped.” Pech, however, is also a common Maya surname, and “Ah-Kin” — “He of the Sun” — was a priestly rank among the ancient Maya; if the original place name is rendered as Ah-Kin-Pech, then Campeche may mean “place of Pech, He of the Sun.”
Yucatán
(Visit Merida)
A common version of the story of how the Yucatán Peninsula got its name claims that the word means “I don’t understand” or “I’m not from here,” which is cited as the response of local Maya people upon hearing Spaniards ask what the name of their land was. Given how similar this story is to other tales of contact between Europeans and Indigenous people around the world, however — a folk etymology from Australia gives the same explanation for the meaning of the word “kangaroo” — it seems doubtful. More likely, the word comes from Yokot’an, the Chontal Maya people’s name for their own language.
Quintana Roo
Andrés Quintana Roo (Wikimedia Commons)
Nowadays, the namesake of Mexico’s easternmost state may be best known for being husband to his wife, the independence hero Leona Vicario. But in his own time, Andrés Quintana Roo was famous as a poet, drafter of Mexico’s declaration of independence and holder of several high offices in the national government. Born in Mérida, Yucatán, Quintana Roo lived to see his home state — which at the time encompassed the entire Yucatán Peninsula — declare independence from Mexico in 1840 and was sent to negotiate its return to the republic. If you’re in Mexico City, Quintana Roo is closer than you may think: his remains, as well as Vicario’s, are interred in the Angel of Independence on Paseo de la Reforma.
Curious about the names of Mexico’s other 15 states? Check out the first part of this series below.
Tariffs and Google Maps' Gulf of Mexico name change were topics of discussion at Monday's presidential presser. (Presidencia)
At her Monday morning press conference, President Claudia Sheinbaum said that tariff talks with the United States government are imminent and declared that it was “natural” for companies to put their investment plans on hold while the imposition of U.S. tariffs on Mexican exports remained a possibility.
She also disclosed a letter her government received from Google about its decision to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to “Gulf of America” for people using Google Maps in the United States.
Ebrard to go to Washington for tariff talks
Sheinbaum told reporters that Economy Minister Marcelo Ebrard will soon meet with prospective United States Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick as her government seeks to stop the imposition of 25% tariffs on Mexican steel and aluminum.
At the president’s press conference last Tuesday, Ebrard outlined Mexico’s argument against the 25% tariffs the Trump administration intends to impose on all steel and aluminum imports to the United States starting March 12.
He declared that the tariffs are “not justified” given that the United States has a trade surplus with Mexico on the trade of those metals, and said he would discuss the matter this week with Lutnick and Jamieson Greer, President Donald Trump’s nominee for United States trade representative.
Economy Secretary Marcelo Ebrard discusses Mexico-U.S. auto industry collaboration at an event last month in Detroit. He will soon head to Washington for tariff talks. (Marcelo Ebrard/X)
“Marcelo would go to Washington,” she added.
Sheinbaum said that a bilateral security meeting will also be confirmed shortly, although she noted that her government has not yet been informed who the U.S. participants of said meeting will be. Security Minister Omar García Harfuch will lead the Mexican delegation, she said.
The president said that both the tariff talks and the security meeting are expected to take place this week.
Sheinbaum subsequently highlighted that U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio acknowledged in an interview that her government asked its United States counterpart to do its part to ensure that firearms aren’t smuggled from the U.S. into Mexico, where U.S.-sourced guns are used in the majority of homicides.
“This was acknowledged and it was also acknowledged that the two meetings are happening soon,” she said.
“We hope that this week we reach an agreement,” Sheinbaum said, referring to Mexico’s desire to strike a deal that wards off the proposed steel and aluminum tariffs.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and President Sheinbaum have discussed collaborating on border issues including gun and drug smuggling. (Michael Vadon/Flickr)
“A lot of these cartels, they’re finding ways to buy guns or whatever in the United States and they come back the other way so we’re working on a plan with them, collectively right. We’re going to work together with them on their side of the border, us on our side of the border, so we can take care of their gun-running problem and they can help take care of the fentanyl problem and the mass migration problem and the cartel problem,” he said.
Pausing investment plans in Mexico due to tariff uncertainty is ‘natural,’ Sheinbaum says
Companies planning new investment projects always wait for additional information when tariffs are a possibility, she said.
“That is natural, it’s not a great discovery of these investigations, it’s common sense,” Sheinbaum said, referring to the views of analysts and others that were cited by the reporter.
“… We’re going to wait this week and next. I hope, as always, that we’ll reach a good agreement between the government of the United States and us,” she said, expressing a certain degree of optimism that a deal to keep Mexican exports tariff-free will be made.
President Sheinbaum expressed her hope that Mexico and the U.S. would reach an agreement on tariffs in coming weeks. (Presidencia)
“And, in any case, investment in Mexico will continue, that is something,” Sheinbaum said.
“Not just because of the internal market that is growing in our country but also because of the economic integration [of North America], even with any [adverse] situation that presents itself.”
Sheinbaum once again threatens to sue Google over Gulf of Mexico name change
Sheinbaum displayed a letter Google sent to Foreign Affairs Minister Juan Ramón de la Fuente in response to his missive regarding the tech company’s decision to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America” for United States users of its maps website and app.
Google’s Feb. 10 letter stated that “the United States Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) has officially updated ‘Gulf of Mexico’ to “Gulf of America,” and that “to reflect the update made by the GNIS, beginning today, people in the U.S. will see ‘Gulf of America'” on Google Maps.
Google confirmed that “people using Maps in Mexico will continue to see ‘Gulf of Mexico,'” while users outside the U.S. and Mexico “will see both names.”
Sheinbaum reiterated on Monday that Mexico may file suit against Google over its Gulf of Mexico name change. (Presidencia)
Sheinbaum reiterated her view that Google is wrong to rename the entire Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America” as Trump’s executive order only refers to the U.S. continental shelf area of the body of water, which she said Thursday extends 22 nautical miles off the U.S. coast.
She noted that de la Fuente has written to Google again to direct the company’s attention to the details of the executive order.
“So we’re going to wait for the response from Google,” Sheinbaum said, adding that if the Mexican government isn’t satisfied, “we’ll proceed in the courts.”
She said last Thursday that if necessary, Mexico will “file a civil lawsuit” against Google over the controversial name change.
Donkeys Felipe, Julieta and Canelita were missing from Burrolandia when sanctuary workers arrived Monday morning. (Burrolandia México A.C./Facebook)
A pack animal rescue organization in México state reported the theft of several donkeys and horses on Monday.
Burrolandia México — located in Otumba, México state — published an emotional video on its Facebook page reporting that a hole was cut in a fence at the sanctuary and the culprits made away with three burros and several horses.
In the video, the park identified the missing burros as Felipe, Julieta and Canelita, while also disclosing that a horse named Spirit was among the animals taken, according to the newspaper El Financiero.
Upon arriving at 7 a.m., employees discovered the hole in the fence and immediately checked on the animals, discovering that several were missing.
The organization asked México state Governor Delfina Gómez and local authorities for help, while also asking President Claudia Sheinbaum to turn the case over to federal authorities.
“We don’t know if they took them … to butcher them or if they will care for them properly,” the video stated, adding that they found trails of blood. “We are very concerned, upset and in tears.”
Both donkeys and horses were stolen in the equine heist. (Burrolandia México A.C./Facebook)
Other animal rescue organizations were quick to take up the cause, calling on the public to help return the animals to the shelter in good health.
The shelter, founded by Autonomous Metropolitan University (UAM) professor Michael Schuessler in 2006, is home to more than 80 burros and also features a theme park where visitors can help feed the animals. Many of the animals were abandoned, overworked or otherwise abused before coming to the shelter.
The Burrolandia México project was established with the idea of providing a dignified life to donkeys, an iconic pack animal in Mexico whose numbers have dwindled dramatically such that it is sometimes considered an endangered species.
About 30 years ago, there were 1.5 million burros in Mexico. Data from the national statistics agency INEGI indicates that there are only about 250,000 burros today.
Though not native to Mexico, burros — which were domesticated about 6,000 years ago by the Egyptians — were brought to the country by the Spanish soon after the Conquest.
The hardy animals became indispensable in farming, trade and mining. A burro can carry up to 90 kilograms in weight, but intensive care is required to keep animals that were previously mistreated in good health.
Burrolandia México is not alone among organizations devoted to rescuing pack animals. Cuacolandia in Puebla and Seres Libres in Mexico City are other sanctuaries committed to protecting overworked donkeys and horses.
If applied to Mexico's auto exports, the new tariff would violate the USMCA, which lays out extensive rules of origin for the parts included in vehicles built in North America. (Shutterstock)
On Friday, U.S. President Donald Trump said that tariffs on automobiles could come as soon as April 2.
Trump has so far withheld further details on the automobile tariffs, like how much they might be or which countries could be targeted. However, in an interview with Fox News on Feb. 10, the president threatened “big tariffs on [Mexican] cars.”
In an interview with Fox News on Feb. 10, the U.S. president threatened “big tariffs on [Mexican] cars,” but he has yet to specify which countries would be subject to his new automobile tariff. (Screenshot)The U.S. president has taken a litany of trade actions since taking office on Jan. 20. In early February, he imposed, then delayed, 25% tariffs on goods from Mexico and non-energy imports from Canada.
He then set a March 12 start date for 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, both of which are major inputs for the auto industry, before ordering his economics team to devise plans for reciprocal tariffs on every country that taxes U.S. imports.
At a conference on Tuesday, Ford Motor Company Chief Executive Officer Jim Farley voiced support for Trump’s focus on making the U.S. auto industry stronger but admitted that “so far what we’re seeing is a lot of costs and a lot of chaos.”
Farley was also quoted by the New York Times as saying that a 25% tariff on Canadian and Mexican products would “blow a hole in the U.S. industry that we have never seen.”
Ford CEO Jim Farley voiced support for Trump’s trade policies, though he has acknowledged they will be costly and chaotic. (Ford)
This “hole” likely refers to the integrated automobile supply chain built up over several decades in North America. The New York Times wrote that “tens of billions of dollars’ worth of finished automobiles, engines, transmissions and other components are shipped each week across the U.S. borders with Canada and Mexico.”
Trump’s stance on auto tariffs, according to Reuters, is fueled by his view that the treatment of U.S. automotive exports in foreign markets is unfair. The European Union collects a 10% tariff on vehicle imports, four times the U.S. passenger car tariff rate of 2.5%.
However, the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) — a trade pact negotiated during Trump’s first term — lays out extensive rules of origin for the parts included in vehicles built in the three countries. All vehicles determined to have at least 75% of their parts originating from the three countries are not subject to tariffs.
“The reality is that the North American auto industry has spent decades of collaboration and trade and so much time and money building up these extremely integrated supply chains,” Tu Nguyen, an economist at RSM Canada, a Toronto-based consulting firm, told CBC News. “And there are a lot of car parts that are only made in one country.”
Matt Blunt, president of the American Automotive Policy Council, which represents the interests of Ford, General Motors and Stellantis, told Reuters he believes “that vehicles and auto parts that meet the USMCA requirements should not be subject to additional tariffs.”
The USMCA is scheduled for review in 2026 and, according to Reuters, a number of analysts view Trump’s comments as an opening bid to renegotiate the pact.
Patricio Campillo's new T-shirt design made a splash at New York Fashion Week this year. (X)
Mexican fashion designer Patricio Campillo sported a bold T-shirt displaying the words “El Golfo de México” (The Gulf of Mexico) at his Feb. 7 New York Fashion Week (NYFW) show.
Campillo walked on stage following his “Fictions of Reality” fall-winter 2025 collection show wearing a typical Mexican tourist-style T-shirt displaying the words “The Gulf of Mexico” and a heart made up of eight dolphins, as well as a Mexican flag. He paired it with wide khaki pants and white boots.
It was viewed by many as a form of protest against U.S. President Donald Trump’s signing of an executive order on Jan. 20 directing that the Gulf of Mexico be renamed the Gulf of America.
Trump has since named Feb. 9 as the official Gulf of America Day. The U.S. president released a statement “[calling] upon public officials and all the people of the United States to observe this day with appropriate programs, ceremonies and activities.”
Following the official U.S. name change, Apple and Google responded by altering the name to “Gulf of America” on their U.S. maps services. Those using the maps outside of the U.S. will continue to see it labeled as the Gulf of Mexico.
During her Feb. 13 daily conference, Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum responded by saying her government may file a civil lawsuit against Google over the tech company’s decision to change the body of water’s name.
Campillo’s fashion line draws inspiration from traditional Mexican charrería style. (Cyndepaul/Wikimedia Commons)
Who is Patricio Campillo?
Patricio Campillo grew up in Mexico City but spent time in the town of Zacualpan in México state, which influenced his fashion line, The Pack. Campillo’s pieces are inspired by typical Mexican charrería (horseriding) imagery.
“I’m trying to preserve the proportions, the fit, and the way the jackets are structured in the Charro way of classic tailoring,” Campillo said of his most recent collection in an interview with Paper Magazine.
Campillo’s website states, “The Pack redefines masculinity by integrating historical and contemporary elements, promoting an inclusive and diverse vision of what it means to be a man. With a focus on sustainability and a process of constant evolution, Campillo has transformed his practice by connecting his work with his cultural background.”
It is the second time that Campillo has been invited to hold a show at NYFW. The Mexican designer won fame as a finalist for the LVMH Prize for Young Fashion Designers, where he was recognized for fusing fashion, identity and sustainability.
Campillo’s Gulf of Mexico T-shirt is available for pre-order on his website for US $90 (1,844 pesos), in sizes XS to XXL.
Veracruz, Hidalgo, Oaxaca, Chiapas, Tabasco, Campeche and Quintana Roo can expect heavy rain on Monday. (Yerania Rolón/Cuartoscuro)
Parts of central Mexico woke up to a cloudy Monday today.
According to the National Meteorological Service (SMN), cold front no. 27, combined with humidity from the Pacific Ocean, will bring unseasonal rain to central Mexico this week. The cold air mass will also cause partly cloudy to cloudy skies, with thunder and hailstorms possible.
February, a transitional month between Mexico’s winter and spring, typically brings unstable weather as temperatures gradually rise throughout the country.
Today’s rain forecast by state
Intervals of showers with heavy rain (25 to 50 millimeters): Veracruz, Hidalgo, Oaxaca, Chiapas, Tabasco, Campeche and Quintana Roo.
Intervals of showers (5 to 25 millimeters): Guanajuato, Querétaro, Puebla, Tlaxcala, México state, Mexico City, Morelos, Guerrero and Yucatán.
Isolated showers (0.1 to 5 millimeters): San Luis Potosí and Michoacán.
Meanwhile, hot temperatures are expected in other parts of Mexico. The highest temperatures expected for today are:
Maximums between 35 and 40 degrees Celsius: Sinaloa, Nayarit, Jalisco, Colima, Michoacán, Guerrero, Morelos, southwest Puebla, Oaxaca and Chiapas.
Maximums between 30 and 35 degrees Celsius: Sonora, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo Leon, Tamaulipas, San Luis Potosí, Zacatecas, Guanajuato, Querétaro, southwest México state, Campeche, Yucatán and Quintana Roo.
More cold fronts expected before February ends
The Polar Vortex approaching North America from northern Europe and Asia will lead to a drop in temperatures in some parts of Mexico starting today and through the weekend.
Cold front no. 28 is expected to enter Mexico on Tuesday morning, bringing along more rain and potential hail.
On Wednesday morning, the front will move from Coahuila to southern Tamaulipas, crossing quickly through Veracruz to reach the Valley of Mexico and the Bajío.
Wednesday and Thursday will be cold days in Coahuila, Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas, with maximum temperatures of 5 to 15 °C, minimum temperatures of -5 to 5 °C and sensations of up to -10 °C at the border.
The Huasteca region (primarily Puebla, San Luis Potosí, Veracruz and Tamaulipas) will see maximum temperatures between 10 to 20 °C, while central Mexico will begin to cool down on Wednesday afternoon, reaching 15 to 25 °C in the afternoons.
![In an interview with Fox News on Feb. 10, the U.S. president threatened “big tariffs on [Mexican] cars,” but he has yet to specify which countries would be subject to his new automobile tariff.](https://mexiconewsdaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Trump-Fox.jpg)
