Fatima Bosch of Teapa, Tabasco, had no intent of remining silent after she was insulted by a Thai pageant official in front of her fellow contestants: "No one will ever make me feel small." (Fatima Bosch/Instagram)
More than a dozen Miss Universe 2025 contestants staged a walkout in Bangkok after Miss Mexico — Fátima Bosch of Tabasco — was publicly insulted by a top pageant official two weeks before the Nov. 21 final in Pak Kret, Thailand.
The incident occurred Tuesday at a pre-pageant event, where Nawat Itsaragrisil, national director of Miss Universe Thailand, alluded to Bosch as a “dumbhead” in a speech in front of over 70 contestants dressed in evening gowns and formalwear that was also being livestreamed.
Miss Universe contestants walk out of a formal pre-pageant event in support of Miss Mexico, who had just been insulted publicly by a top Thai contest official. (Miss Universe Thailand/Facebook)
Citing himself as a “businessman” who has a “lot of money,” according to news reports, he blamed her for failing to post promotional content on social media about the host country, in a video that has since gone viral.
“OK, Mexico, where are you?” Itsaragrisil says in English, prompting Bosch to stand up from her chair. “If you follow your order from your national director, you are a dumbhead. No, no, not about you, not about you.”
At that point, Bosch tries to defend herself, saying, “You are not respecting me as a woman.”
“I didn’t give you the opportunity to talk,” Itsaragrisil shoots back. “Keep polite for me … I’m still talking, listen,” he barks, right before calling for security to remove her.
At that point, multiple women stood to leave the room, including current titleholder Victoria Kjær Theilvig of Denmark.
Bosch later addressed the media, emphasizing, “I love Thailand. I respect your people and your culture deeply. But what your director just did was not respectful. He called me dumb because he has issues with the organization. That’s not fair.
“He just attacked me and told me to shut up. The world needs to see this, because we are empowered women, and no one should silence our voices.”
Bosch added. “No one will ever make me feel small.”
The Miss Universe Organization condemned the incident and restricted any more participation by Itsaragrisil. The Great Pageant Community (TGPC) later posted a video of Itsaragrisil in tears at a new conference following the incident.
Miss Universe President Raúl Rocha Cantú said, “Nawat, you need to stop.” Miss Universe Mexico also issued support: “No woman, under any circumstance, deserves to be insulted or humiliated.”
Miss Universe contestants walk out after executive insults Miss Universe Mexico
Additionally, the Mexican Embassy in Thailand said it is offering Bosch assistance and closely monitoring the situation.
Bosch, a 26-year-old from Teapa, a semi-new Pueblo Mágico in southern Tabasco, is aiming to become Mexico’s fourth Miss Universe and first since Chihuahua’s Andrea Meza in 2021. The other Mexican winners were Baja California’s Lupita Jones in 1991 and Jalisco’s Ximena Navarrete in 2010. Sinaloa’s María Fernanda Beltrán was second runner-up last year.
Navarrete, among others, offered support for Bosch and urged a return to the respect, elegance and inspiration of pageants past. She said on social media she has stayed away from recent editions because “things are not being done right” by organizers these days.
For her part, Bosch said she remains committed to competing.
“I just want to let my country know, I’m not afraid to make my voice heard,” she said. “I have a purpose, I have things to say. I’m not a doll to be made up, styled and have my clothes changed. I came here to be a voice for all the women and all the girls who fight for causes.”
President Sheinbaum said she intended to press charges and launch an anti-harassment campaign. She added that groping is classified as a crime in Mexico City, but not in every Mexican state. (Graciela López / Cuartoscuro.com)
A man who inappropriately touched President Claudia Sheinbaum while she was walking in the historic center of Mexico City on Tuesday was arrested, authorities have announced.
On her way to the Ministry of Public Education (SEP) from the National Palace, Sheinbaum stopped in a crowded downtown street to interact with supporters.
The assault occurred while Sheinbaum walked thorugh downtown Mexico City on her way to a meeting, accompanied by a group of aides. (Video screenshot)
Video footage shows that an apparently inebriated man approached her, put his arm around her, leaned in to try and kiss her on the cheek or neck, and placed his hands near or on her breasts.
Sheinbaum gently removed the man’s hands before a presidential aide moved in to assist her. The president subsequently patted the man on his back and said to him: “No te preocupes,” or “don’t worry.”
The man who touched the president was identified as Uriel Rivera Martínez. The 33-year-old was arrested in the historic center of Mexico City on Tuesday, the capital’s Security Ministry (SSC) said in a statement. Rivera allegedly assaulted two other women in downtown Mexico City on Tuesday, according to the SSC.
In its statement, the Security Ministry said that the man detained “is probably related to the assault committed against the president of Mexico, Doctor Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo, while she was walking in the streets of the historic center.”
The SSC said that the suspect was turned over to the Mexico City Attorney General’s Office (FGJ), which will “determine his legal situation and continue with the investigations.”
At her Wednesday morning press conference, Sheinbaum spoke about what she described as a “regrettable episode” she experienced while walking from the National Palace to the nearby Ministry of Public Education.
“Why did I walk? Because it’s shorter, there’s no other explanation,” she said.
Sheinbaum said that she would have arrived late to a meeting at the SEP if she went by car, and she consequently decided to walk with a group of aides.
“Many people greeted us along the way, [there was] no problem, until this completely drunk person came up, and that’s when I experienced this incident of harassment,” she said.
Uriel “N,” whose surname was withheld for privacy, is accused of assaulting Sheinbaum and one other woman in Mexico City’s Historic Center on Tuesday. (SSC-CDMX)
Sheinbaum noted that she was speaking to other people when the incident occurred and consequently didn’t immediately realize what was happening. She said that she became fully aware of what “really happened” only after watching videos of the incident.
“I obviously felt the closeness of this person who was there and who, I repeat, was completely drunk; I don’t know if he was on drugs [as well],” she said.
‘It’s something that shouldn’t happen in our country’
Sheinbaum said that she decided to file a formal complaint with the Mexico City Attorney General’s Office as “this is something I experienced as a woman” and which other women in Mexico experience as well.
“I’ve experienced it before, when I wasn’t president, when I was a student, a young person,” she said.
“… It’s a crime in Mexico City,” Sheinbaum said, referring to inappropriate touching.
“It’s not a crime in all states of the republic, but in Mexico City it is,” she said.
“And my reflection is: If I don’t present a criminal complaint, … what position does that leave … [other] Mexican women in? If this is done to the president, what will happen with all the young women in our country?”
Sheinbaum noted that the man who touched her is accused of sexually harassing other women on Tuesday. She also acknowledged that he was detained.
“It’s something that shouldn’t happen in our country, and I don’t say that as president but as a woman and in representation of Mexican women,” Sheinbaum said.
La presidenta Claudia Sheinbaum presentó una denuncia penal ante el acoso sufrido en el Centro Histórico por un hombre alcoholizado. Dijo que la puso en defensa de todas las mujeres y lamentó que Reforma haya publicado las fotos, medio del cual espera una disculpa pública. pic.twitter.com/cCj1a4MQuM
“It mustn’t occur. No one can violate our personal space, nobody. … No man has the right to violate that space, the only way is under the approval of the woman. So, that can’t occur,” she said.
Sexual assault and harassment, including groping and acts of exhibitionism by men, are common in Mexico, including in public places and on public transport.
According to national statistics agency INEGI, 48% of Mexican women aged 15 and older have been victims of some kind of sexual violence. If female victims of physical and psychological violence are included, the figure increases to above 70%.
Government to review sexual harassment laws and launch anti-harassment campaign
Sheinbaum said that she had asked her Minister for Women, Citlalli Hernández Mora, to lead a review of laws to determine whether inappropriate touching and other forms of sexual assault and harassment are classed as crimes in “all states” of Mexico.
“It should be a punishable criminal offense,” she said.
Sheinbaum also said that the government would carry out an anti-harassment campaign, “not related to the president, but … [for] all Mexican women.”
“There has to be respect for women in all senses,” she said.
“… It’s important that we make visible something that a lot of women experience throughout our lives,” Sheinbaum said regarding to the proposed anti-harassment campaign.
The Ministry of Women released a statement on Tuesday condemning the incident Sheinbaum experienced in the historic center of Mexico City.
Pronunciamiento
Las violencias que vivimos las mujeres provienen de la normalización que tienen algunos hombres acerca de la irrupción a nuestro espacio personal y/o a nuestro cuerpo; son resultado de décadas de una visión machista.
“Unfortunately, no woman is exempt from experiencing sexual harassment in our country [and] that’s why we work daily to combat it,” the statement said.
“… This kind of violence can’t be trivialized. On the contrary, reporting it is fundamental in order to achieve justice and contribute to cultural change,” the ministry said.
“… We reiterate our commitment to continue working daily and to strengthening women’s rights, as well as to eliminating the … machismo and violence we face every day,” said the statement endorsed by Hernández and state-based ministers for women from across Mexico.
Sheinbaum, like her predecessor and political mentor Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO), is happy to get up close and personal with her supporters — she’ll kiss babies, high-five kids, hug grandmothers.
On Wednesday morning, she declared that “we’re not going to change the way we are.”
“We can’t distance ourselves from the people. That would be to deny where we come from and who we are,” Sheinbaum said.
The president said that will continue to be the case, before reiterating that “we have to be close to the people.”
The president spoke about the incident at her Wednesday morning press conference. (Juan Carlos Buenrostro/Presidencia)
She said that there was “no known risk” to her safety or that of other members of her government.
“If there is a risk, obviously the security cabinet informs us, but there is no threat against us,” Sheinbaum said.
“So, we’re going to continue as we have been doing until now. … I’m not thinking about increasing my security.”
Sheinbaum accuses CDMX newspaper of ‘revictimization’
Sheinbaum asserted that “the use” of images of the assault she suffered on Tuesday is also a “crime.”
“… There are things that have limits, and in particular I think that the photos that appear in the Reforma newspaper [constitute] a matter of revictimization,” she said.
Reforma, a Mexico City broadsheet, published two photos of Rivera and Sheinbaum on the front page of its Wednesday edition. One showed the aggressor with his hands on or near Sheinbaum’s breasts and the other showed him attempting to kiss the president.
Sheinbaum accused Reforma of lacking ethics and morality, but said she wouldn’t personally take action against the newspaper, which was a favorite punching bag of López Obrador.
“There are limits for everything. So we have to say it, call it out,” she said.
“And yes I would be expecting at least an apology from the newspaper,” Sheinbaum said.
By Mexico News Daily chief staff writer Peter Davies (peter.davies@mexiconewsdaily.com)
The Morena bloc in the Chamber of Deputies was strong enough to pass the proposed budget without support from the opposition. (Andrea Murcia/Cuartoscuro.com)
Mexico’s lower house of Congress approved on Tuesday the federal government’s 2026 budget proposal, a package that outlines expenditure of almost 10.2 trillion pesos.
The dominance of the ruling Morena party and its allies in the Chamber of Deputies ensured the approval of the spending bill en lo general, or in general broad-brush terms.
National Action Party deputies voiced — and showed — their opposition during debate of the government’s budget proposal on the floor of the lower house. (Andrea Murcia/Cuartoscuro.com)
A total of 358 Morena, Green Party and Labor Party deputies voted in favor of the bill, while 133 opposition lawmakers opposed it.
More than 1,700 individual items in the budget proposal will be considered by deputies on Wednesday and Thursday, and some adjustments to the spending plan are expected. Separate votes will be held on proposed amendments to individual budget items.
In a speech to the lower house of Congress on Sept. 8, Amador said that “the 2026 Economic Package is a roadmap to build a stronger, more competitive, and fairer Mexico.”
“At its center is the conviction that guides our government: ‘For the good of all, the poor come first.’ With this vision, public finances become a tool to reduce inequalities, expand opportunities, and ensure that growth reaches every region,” he said.
The 2026 Economic Package proposes spending of 987.16 billion pesos (US $53 billion) on welfare programs, an increase of 18% compared to this year.
Opposition criticizes spending proposal
Deputies from the National Action Party (PAN), the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and the Citizens Movement (MC) party voted against the proposed 2026 budget.
They claimed that the government is prioritizing handouts to people via welfare programs over their rights to health care, public security, education and water.
Finance Minister Edgar Amador Zamora, shown here with Deputy Minister Maria del Carmen Bonilla, is one of the architects of the Sheinbaum administration’s budget proposal. (Daniel Augusto/Cuartoscuro.com)
PAN Deputy Héctor Saúl Téllez described the proposed budget as “completely insensitive,” criticizing spending cuts in the area of public security at a time when violence remains a major problem in various parts of Mexico, including Michoacán, where the mayor of Uruapan was assassinated last Saturday.
He said that a 10-billion-peso cut to overall security spending — although spending on some security items in the budget will increase — “confirms that there is an absent and inactive state” that is “permissive with insecurity and organized crime.”
Among other remarks, Téllez was critical of “a 5-billion-peso cut” in spending on “free medicines” that are supplied to patients treated in the IMSS-Bienestar public health care system.
Morena Deputy Alfonso Ramírez Cuéllar noted that overall spending on health care will in fact increase in 2026.
PRI Deputy Rubén Moreira asserted that the 2026 budget proposal “doesn’t address the big problems” Mexico faces, but rather “hurts” the country.
He advocated for additional funding to be allocated to municipalities for security, and for the salaries of police officers to be increased.
MC Deputy Eduardo Gahona Domínguez highlighted that a budget deficit of 4.1% of GDP is projected in 2026. But even though government spending will be higher than revenue next year, “there are no incentives for the countryside, or real support for entrepreneurs and small businesses” in the proposed budget, he asserted.
Even though the government is allocating hundreds of billions of pesos to build a range of infrastructure projects, including new railroads, the MC lawmaker claimed that there is no public investment “that creates jobs.”
Owning a home, having a car and being able to take vacations are some of the hallmarks of middle-class life, according to Mexicans interviewed by Peter Davies, Mexico News Daily's chief writer. (Shutterstock)
Trappings of middle-class life are in plain view in various neighborhoods in Mexico City.
Ubiquitous Starbucks cafes — where the coffee and frappuccinos certainly aren’t cheap — are usually busy. Many parents drop their kids off at private schools in new cars. Malls bustle with shoppers looking for a new iPhone or the latest “must-have” fashion item.
Pricey coffee, nice restaurants and upscale malls are common in certain neighborhoods of Mexico City, a sign of Mexican consumers’ spending power. (Moisés Pablo Nava / Cuartoscuro.com)
Mexico City is a huge city with plenty of lower-class neighborhoods and low-paid workers, but it is clear that a significant number of chilangos are doing pretty well for themselves. Of course, that is not surprising given that we’re talking about the capital of one of the 15 largest economies in the world.
After speaking to a number of low-paid Mexico City workers earlier this year and writing about some of the financial challenges they face, my focus shifted to Mexico’s middle class, not just in the capital but in other parts of the country as well.
To increase my understanding about this sector of the population, I did a lot of online research, but I also posed the following questions to more than a dozen Mexicans who live in various parts of Mexico, including Mexico City, Mérida, Pachuca and San Miguel de Allende.
How much does a single person need to earn per month to be part of the middle class in Mexico?
What about a family with two school-aged kids?
What does it mean to belong to the middle class?
What is a middle-class income for one person?
The responses to this question ranged from 12,000 pesos (about US $650) on the low end to 40,000 pesos (about US $2,200) on the high end.
“In my opinion being middle class isn’t just about income,” a respondent in Mérida said.
“There are other codes that we need to take into account. But in money I’ll say 15,000 to 30,000 pesos,” he said.
A respondent in San Miguel de Allende opined that a single person could be considered part of the middle class in a small town like Amealco, Querétaro, with a monthly salary of just 12,000 pesos. However, in cities such as León or Celaya in the state of Guanajuato, a person would need to earn 18,000 to 20,000 pesos, she said.
How much does a middle-class family earn?
The responses to this question ranged from 35,000 pesos (about US $1,900) to 90,000 pesos (about US $4,900).
One respondent in San Miguel de Allende said that a household income of 35,000 to 45,000 pesos per month could be sufficient to qualify a four-person family as middle class. However, she stressed that the income a family needs to live a middle-class life is dependent on where in Mexico they live.
San Miguel de Allende residents interviewed by the writer said a family would need a household income of 35,000 to 60,000 pesos per month to sustain a middle-class lifestyle. (Mark de Jong/Unsplash)
Another respondent in San Miguel de Allende said that a household income of 60,000 pesos per month would make a family “upper middle class” in a small Mexican city. The same income in Mexico City would make the family “lower middle class,” she said.
A respondent in Pachuca said that a family would need household income of 55,000 pesos per month to reach middle-class status in that city, the capital of the state of Hidalgo.
The 90,000-peso figure was cited by a respondent in Mexico City, who noted that a mortgage repayment might be one of the various monthly expenses of a middle-class family. The monthly repayment on a 20-year mortgage on a 4-million-peso (US $217,000) apartment is around 40,000 pesos.
What does it mean to be middle class in Mexico?
There were a wide range of responses to this question, but a common thread was that members of the middle class in Mexico have the capacity to access non-essential goods, services and experiences.
“I think the middle class is a [social] construct,” said a respondent in Mérida.
“In that sense, I think it’s made up of an education, a shared culture and material goods,” he said.
Respondents cited formal education as a part of what it means to be middle class in Mexico. Pictured: Graduates celebrate at the UNAM campus in Mexico City. (Pexels)
Being part of the middle class entails “a formal education — it doesn’t need to be private — being able to work and earn enough money to not just survive but to save as well, and being able to access vacations, social security, transport and culture,” the same respondent said.
Middle-class archetypes
A respondent in San Miguel de Allende described what she considers to be the hallmarks of typical lower-middle-class and upper-middle-class Mexicans.
To be considered lower-middle-class in Mexico, she said, a person or family should own a hatchback or sedan-type car; have a home in “Infonavit areas” (think residential developments with modest tract/cookie cutter housing); be able to regularly buy a good variety of groceries at low-cost supermarkets; take an annual vacation to a beach in Mexico; eat out at a moderately-priced restaurant once a month; and go out to a bar or the movie theater two or three times a month.
A lower-middle-class person doesn’t have private health insurance, and unexpected expenses such as a car repair could throw his or her finances “off balance,” the respondent said.
Similarly, The Economist reported in 2021 that “membership of the middle class in Mexico is far more precarious than in richer places.”
“An economic shock — a family illness or a recession — can send people tumbling back into poverty,” The Economist wrote.
For lower-middle class Mexican families, a surprise medical expense or emergency car repair can push them into poverty. (File photo)
The San Miguel de Allende respondent said that an upper-middle-class person or family has two cars; owns a property that is nicer than “an Infonavit-style home; can regularly buy a good variety of groceries at supermarkets such as H-E-B; sends their children to private schools and can afford after-school activities; goes on vacation within Mexico twice a year; eats out at good restaurants two or three times a month; has private health insurance and car insurance; and buys books and spends “a little more” than most on cultural activities.
Travel, leisure, culture … and money left in the bank
Among the other responses to the question about what it means to belong to the middle class in Mexico were:
Having a membership to a gym or pool.
Having at least two decent cars.
Having a car, medical insurance, a phone, internet and being able to afford to send children to private school.
Having the capacity to save or invest.
Being able to cover basic needs such as housing, health care and education, and having “a certain margin” to save and to do “what makes you happy.”
Having your own business.
Being able to travel abroad two to three times a year.
Being able to eat out at restaurants every weekend.
Being able to go to concerts, museums and the cinema.
Having healthy food at home.
‘Quantifying the Middle Class in Mexico’
As is evident from the responses above, there are a variety of views about how much an individual, or a family, needs to earn to be considered part of the middle class in Mexico.
But are there official income parameters that can help define who is, and who is not, part of the middle class? During my research, I discovered that the answer is “kind of.” Unfortunately those official parameters are now outdated, and new ones aren’t due to be published until the end of the decade.
The 2021 report “Cuantificando la Clase Media en México 2010-2020” (Quantifying the Middle Class in Mexico 2010-2020) by Mexico’s national statistics agency INEGI states that the average monthly income of a middle-class household was 22,297 pesos (about US $1,200), offering an imperfect but at least tangible income threshold for entry to la clase media mexicana. For urban middle-class households, the average income was slightly higher at 23,451 pesos per month, while for rural middle-class households it was somewhat lower at 18,569 pesos.
Considering that inflation in Mexico has been quite high in recent years, and that the minimum wage almost doubled between 2021 and 2025, a family’s household income would now need to be considerably higher in order for that family to be considered part of the middle class.
Still, an average household income of just over 20,000 pesos in 2021 would indicate that INEGI’s threshold for reaching the middle class in Mexico is lower than that of Mexico News Daily’s respondents.
In 2021, INEGI said that the average upper class household income was 77,975 pesos per month, an amount within the range of what MND respondents said a family would need to earn to be considered middle class. With prices having risen considerably in recent years, it would be reasonable to say that such household income in Mexico City and other expensive areas of Mexico would not make a family upper class in 2025.
What percentage of Mexicans belong to the middle class?
In 2020, 42.2% of households* in Mexico and 37.2% of Mexican people belonged to the middle class, according to INEGI. Those percentages declined compared to 2018, mainly due to the impact of the COVID pandemic on the Mexican economy in 2020.
INEGI hasn’t published data on the size of Mexico’s middle class in more recent years, but it would be reasonable to assume that the the middle class is growing again given that the economy has recovered from the pandemic-induced downturn.
In an article published in 2022 in the magazine “ReVista: Harvard Review of Latin America,” Mexican political scientist Viri Ríos wrote that only 12% of Mexicans were middle-class based on a poverty measurement method developed by the Council of Evaluation of Social Development of Mexico City. Ríos contended that said measure — which takes hourly wages and housing conditions, among other factors, into account — was the best way to measure the size of the middle class.
“Mexico is not a country of middle classes,” she wrote.
“It is a country in which to be middle class is the exception, a level of lifestyle to which very few people have access,” Ríos wrote.
Dependiendo tu fuente, la clase media en 🇲🇽 puede ir del 12% al 45% de la población ¿Por qué? 🤔🤔
Todas tus dudas sobre quién es #ClaseMedia las puedes resolver en este texto que escribí para el Harvard Review of Latin America de @HarvardDRCLAS
“In Mexico, many believe they belong to the middle class, but that’s not the case. Sixty-one percent of the population identifies as such, but only 12% actually are. Half the country lives under a serious misunderstanding about their income level — a confusion shared equally by the rich and the poor.”
Whether you agree more with Ríos or more with Moy might be shaped, at least in part, by where you live in Mexico and/or the parts of the country you have visited, as INEGI’s data shows that the prevalence of the middle class varies considerably across the nation.
* Per the 2020 statistics, 56.6% of Mexican households belonged to the lower class, while just 1.2% belonged to the upper class. Social mobility in Mexico is considered to be low, with a strong majority of people remaining in the social class in which they were born.
Mexico’s most and least middle-class states
Almost six in ten households in Mexico City are middle class, while fewer than one in five households are middle class in the southern state of Chiapas.
That data also comes from INEGI’s 2021 “Quantifying the Middle Class” report.
INEGI’s data shows that 15 of Mexico’s 32 federal entities have a higher percentage of middle-class households than the national average of 42.2%.
Mexico City is at the top of the list, with 58.9% of households considered middle class. That data might help explain the apparent frappuccino boom.
More than half of all households in six other states are middle-class, according to the INEGI data. They are Colima (54.6%); Jalisco (53.6%); Baja California (53.1%); Sonora (51.9%); Baja California Sur (51.1%); and Querétaro (50.5%).
The other states where the percentage of middle-class households is higher than the national average are Sinaloa, Nayarit, Aguascalientes, México state, Quintana Roo, Nuevo León, Michoacán and Chihuahua. Again, it is important to stress that perceptions of who belongs to the middle class vary, and INEGI’s threshold for entry to said class is considered low by some.
In Mexico’s three poorest states — Chiapas, Guerrero and Oaxaca — the percentage of middle-class households is significantly lower than the national average.
In Chiapas, just 19.5% of households made the grade in 2020, whereas the figures in Guerrero and Oaxaca were 24% and 25.6%, respectively.
In 2019, human development in certain municipalities in those three states was on par with human development in the African nations of Burundi, Burkina Faso and Ethiopia, according to a United Nations report.
Mexico vs. the United States and Canada
Unsurprisingly, the minimum income level required for a household to qualify as middle class in the United States and Canada is higher than in Mexico.
According to Pew Research Center, middle-income households in the United States — those with an income that is two-thirds to double the U.S. median household income — had incomes ranging from about $56,600 to $169,800 in 2022.
The lower figure is almost four times higher than the average annual middle-class household income in Mexico in 2020, which was around US $14,500 (using the current exchange rate).
Also according to Pew, the share of Americans who were middle-class in 2023 was 51%, almost 14 points higher than in Mexico.
In Canada, households with income between CAD $52,875 to $141,000 (US $37,770 to $100,725) qualify as middle-class, according to an OECD definition.
The lower figure is around 2.5 times higher than the average annual middle-class household income in Mexico.
Living expenses are of course higher in the U.S. and Canada than in Mexico — as are salaries.
Which workers generally belong to Mexico’s middle class?
A majority of Mexican workers — almost 55% in Q2 of 2025 — are employed in the informal economy, and most of those people don’t qualify as members of the middle class based on their income levels.
Among the people in formal sector jobs who would normally qualify as members of Mexico’s middle class are medical doctors, engineers, lawyers, finance sector workers and other tertiary-educated professionals.
Many business owners, including restaurateurs and retail store proprietors, would also be considered part of the middle class, as would well-paid workers in Mexico’s large manufacturing sector.
Skilled manufacturing workers and business owners join educated professionals like doctors and lawyers in Mexico’s middle class. (Josh Beech/Unsplash)
Reducing informality in the labor market — no small challenge — will be key to achieving that.
An increase in foreign investment, along with a more equitable spread of that investment across Mexico — as the federal government is aiming to achieve — could also contribute to the growth of the middle class. A positive outcome from next year’s review of the USMCA free trade pact could provide the certainty required to attract more foreign investment, which in turn would help the Mexican economy grow, support job creation and prop up the government’s ambitious Plan México economic initiative.
“We have everything to be one,” she wrote, citing factors including Mexico’s robust trade relationship with the United States, its large working-age population and the strong work ethic of the Mexican people.
The attractiveness of Mexico as tourism destination, the country’s ample renewable energy potential, a still nascent — albeit not guaranteed — nearshoring boom, stable and responsible governance and possibly even lithium mining, among other factors, could also help Mexico become a more prosperous country with a larger middle class in the years and decades ahead.
By Mexico News Daily chief staff writer Peter Davies (peter.davies@mexiconewsdaily.com)
Before becoming mayor of Uruapan, Grecia Quiroz led the local family services agency (DIF), a common role for a mayor's spouse. (Grecia Quiroz/Facebook)
Grecia Quiroz, the widow of Carlos Manzo Rodríguez, has been appointed by the Michoacán state legislature as substitute mayor of Uruapan following the assassination of her husband, who was the city’s mayor until his assassination Saturday during a Day of the Dead festival.
Quiroz’s swearing-in is scheduled to take place during an extraordinary session of the state legislature on Wednesday, where she will formally assume office for the remainder of the 2024-2027 constitutional term.
After the assassination of the husband, at left, Quiroz will take over the mayorship of Uruapan, Michoacán’s second-largest city and an area long plagued by cartel violence. (Grecia Quiroz/Facebook)
“The legacy that Carlos left will be taken up again. We will continue with the Movimiento del Sombrero [Hat Movement], you can be sure of that,” Quiroz said.
The Hat Movement is an independent political organization founded and led by Manzo in Uruapan, Michoacán. Its name and symbol are a nod to the Sahuayo hat that the late mayor used to wear regularly.
Rumors of Quiroz’s candidacy started circulating on Monday, with her name being mentioned in Michoacán’s political circles even before her nomination was officially announced.
“I will be holding meetings to discuss how to govern the municipality. We will honor Carlos’s memory […] We will move the municipality forward and we will work together, hand in hand,” she declared before the nomination was finalized.
Destrozada, Grecia Quiroz García, esposa del alcalde Carlos Manzo, tomó la palabra durante el homenaje en la plaza principal de Uruapan.
“No mataron al presidente de Uruapan, mataron al mejor presidente de México. El único que se atrevió a decir siempre la verdad, sin temor por… pic.twitter.com/vXTvVFX7zv
On Tuesday, Quiroz held a meeting with President Claudia Sheinbaum at the National Palace in Mexico City, where she arrived around 2:00 p.m. escorted by two National Guard trucks. At the same time, members of the Uruapan City Council presented the proposal for Grecia Quiroz to serve as the alternate mayor in place of her husband.
The president of the Political Coordination Board of the state legislature and coordinator of the majority Morena caucus, Fabiola Alanís Sámano, has confirmed that Quiroz has the support of all political forces and there is no impediment for her to assume office.
“There will be no difficulty, no obstacle, and no one who opposes this decision,” Alanís stated, while ensuring security will be reinforced for Quiroz and her two children.
Amidst displays of grief, the soon-to-be mayor expressed gratitude for the outpouring of support and affection shown to her and her children, and called for honoring her husband’s memory by continuing the protests peacefully.
“Let’s honor his memory,” Quiroz said in a video shared on Manzo’s social media channels following violent protests in Michoacán. “You, his followers, know that his struggle was always a peaceful one. He always stood against violence.”
There's plenty to see and do this month in Puerto Vallarta, from food markets to festivals and special events. (Unsplash/Chris McQueen)
It’s not always sun, sea and sand in Puerto Vallarta! Of course, there is all of that, but the city also bursts at the seams with things to do that don’t involve water shoes.
Let’s delve into what’s happening in the community during the first part of November, shall we? This includes the area’s artisan markets, the opening of the seasonal Art Walk, the Vallarta Grill Festival and the Friends of Puerto Vallarta Animals’ “Raise a Glass Save A Tail” fundraiser.
Artisan markets
Markets featuring everything from fresh produce to arts and crafts are plentiful in Puerto Vallarta and Nuevo Vallarta. (Riviera Farmers Market)
As the high season approaches, Puerto Vallarta welcomes the return of its vibrant artisan crafts markets. These markets offer a delightful mix of local culture and unique souvenirs, catering to both tourists and the returning snowbirds who spend their winters on the Bay.
From now until May, the Sunday market in La Cruz offers a relaxed atmosphere from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Just over the bridge in Nuevo Vallarta, the Tuesday market operates from 8 a.m to 1 p.m. In Marina Vallarta, the Thursday market comes alive in the evening from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. And for those seeking a bustling weekend experience, the ever-popular Olas Atlas Saturday market runs from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
These markets feature a diverse range of handcrafted goods, including exquisite jewelry and artwork, specialty foods and unique clothing. Whether you’re searching for a special gift, a taste of local cuisine or simply a chance to immerse yourself in the community, Puerto Vallarta’s artisan crafts markets provide an enriching and memorable experience.
Art Walk
How many galleries can you visit during the Wednesday night Art Walk in Puerto Vallarta? More than you might think. (Puerto Vallarta Art Walk)
Puerto Vallarta’s Art District is set to host its 29th consecutive Art Walk for the 2025-2026 season, highlighting the city’s vibrant artistic scene. Every Wednesday evening, from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m., the Art Walk comes alive, offering a unique opportunity to immerse yourself in PV’s art scene as 15 of the major galleries in the historic center will open their doors to collectors, art enthusiasts and the general public. The Art Walk continues from now until the end of May 2026.
Participating galleries display their collections, showcasing both Mexican and international artists. Visitors can admire a wide variety of styles and mediums, from traditional figurative paintings and sculptures to contemporary installations and mixed-media creations. In addition to the art itself, many galleries offer complimentary wine and the chance to meet the artists, providing a deeper connection to the creative process.
The Art Walk is free, and the proximity of the galleries makes it easy to visit several in a single evening.
Vallarta Grill Festival
The meaty offerings at the Vallarta Grill Festival will have you licking your chops. (Vallarta Grill Festival)
Get ready to indulge in a culinary showdown at the Vallarta Grill Festival! This event brings together talented grilling teams from across Mexico, along with a few international entries, to compete for the title of Grill Master. You’ll be “hungry” for more, as teams “pit” themselves against each other to see who’s got the best “chops.”
Held at the city’s Convention Center, the festival offers a tantalizing array of grilled delicacies, from classic burgers and ribs to succulent brisket, wings, seafood, pit-roasted pork and artisan sausages. With a wide variety of cuts, preparations and grilling styles on display, there’s something to delight every palate. Even vegetarians will find something to savor, with plenty of veggie options available.
Tickets vary based on the package you choose, and they can be purchased at the door. Beyond the delicious food, the Vallarta Grill Festival provides a lively and festive atmosphere. Enjoy live music, craft vendors, and the opportunity to mingle with fellow food enthusiasts.
Friends of Puerto Vallarta Animals event, ‘Raise a Glass, Save a Tail’
This fundraiser for furry friends features live music and a raffle. (Friends of Puerto Vallarta Animals)
Harmony Hudgens moved from Dallas to Puerto Vallarta with her husband, Brad, in early 2022. She knew she wanted to get involved in volunteering, but wasn’t exactly sure where that road would lead.
She spent her first year volunteering with a few different organizations, and then a conversation with a new friend helped her find her way to Friends of Puerto Vallarta Animals. She’s been devoting her time to the organization since early 2023 and was a 2024 finalist in the Volunteer category of the Best of PV Awards.
Support homeless pets
“For the last 12 years, Friends of Puerto Vallarta Animals has been working tirelessly to support the well-being of homeless pets in the municipal shelter,” she said. “We collaborate closely with the shelter’s incredible veterinarians and caretakers, providing food and medicine to make sure the animals get the care they need. Everything we do is funded entirely by donations, so we rely heavily on events like these.”
Hudgens finds volunteering as easy as holding space for love.
“I see the faces of all the cats, kittens, puppies and dogs, whose lives matter, and I realize how much it also matters to provide them a clean room, fresh food/water and a belly rub or a head scratch. To me, it’s all about telling them how loved they are, and rooting for their happily ever after.”
Volunteers welcome
Hudgens warmly invites everyone to visit their Facebook page to help expand their community of volunteers, as well as to promote fostering and adoption initiatives.
“I encourage everyone who can to please volunteer their time,” she said. “The gift of your time and friendship means so much to these animals while they wait patiently to find their forever homes. You can also donate or sponsor an animal. That really helps us provide the animals with the best possible care until they are adopted. And then there’s the best gift of all, fostering or adopting! You can make one of our animals a beloved member of your family, for just a few months or forever!”
Friends of Puerto Vallarta Animals is hosting a fundraising event, “Raise a Glass, Save a Tail,” to support their efforts in caring for the area’s four-legged residents at the city’s municipal shelter. On November 19, everyone is invited to join them at Whiskey Kitchen for an evening of fun, music and goodwill. By attending, you’ll be contributing to a worthy cause and helping to make a difference in the lives of animals in need.
A 300-peso donation at the door will grant you access to live music, raffles and a warm and welcoming atmosphere. Folks are invited to bring their people-friendly pups as well.
All proceeds from the event will go directly towards providing food, care and shelter for animals in the city’s municipal shelter. Your participation will help ensure that Puerto Vallarta’s animals receive the nourishment, medical attention and love they deserve.
Charlotte Smith is a writer and journalist based in Mexico. Her work focuses on travel, politics, and community. You can follow along with her travel stories at www.salsaandserendipity.com.
Rufino Tamayo left a lasting legacy as one of Mexico's greatest artists. (Secretaría de Educación Guerrero)
Talking about art in Mexico without Rufino Tamayo is almost unthinkable. He
bequeathed us not only a striking museum but a singular example of artistic
independence: the painter who quietly refused the didactic certainties of the great
muralists and, in doing so, reimagined what Mexican art could be.
Tamayo’s world was one of color and form before it was a site for ideology. In the
decades after the Revolution, Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco and David Alfaro
Siqueiros proclaimed muralism the legitimate voice of the nation — public frescoes that
would educate, mobilize and narrate history. Tamayo found this insistence suffocating.
He distrusted doctrine and art as a tool of instruction. Yet his rejection was
not empty of consequence. Even when he turned away from explicitly political
narratives, his choices — palette, subject, shape — carried a quiet politics that helped
steer the next generation. He was a pioneer who preferred the interior life of the canvas
to the podium.
Making Rufino Tamayo
Tamayo’s art fused Mexican influences with the European avant-garde. (Museo Tamayo)
Rufino del Carmen Arellanes Tamayo was born in 1899 in the city of Oaxaca into a modest
artisanal household. His father made shoes. His mother sewed. Orphaned young — his
father gone, his mother dead — he was sent to Mexico City to live with uncles who sold
fruit in La Merced market. The Revolution raged as he arrived, but Tamayo’s revolution
was visual. He fell for the saturated flesh of markets, the watermelon’s deep blush. In
the small observations of daily life, he began, without knowing it, to form a theory of
color.
Pressed by his uncles to study commerce, he chose the only painting school in Mexico
City instead: the Academy of San Carlos, where he trained from 1917 to 1920. His first
professional post, after the Revolution, was head of Ethnographic Drawing at the
National Museum of Archaeology, History and Ethnography. Tamayo later said that
those years taught him more than any school or atelier: how to pare down a line, how to
distill a face. He argued — provocatively — that the muted ochres and slate blues that
recur in his work were the true colors of Mexico: the colors of poverty. Whether you
agree or not, it was his way of seeing the country.
Looking outward
While muralism gathered political energy in the 1920s, Tamayo looked outward. He
studied Van Gogh’s brushwork, flirted with Gauguin’s palette and absorbed the European
avant-garde. By the late 1920s, he followed many compatriots to New York, the cultural
capital for restless artists searching for answers beyond nationalist didacticism. There,
in the restless arc of modern art, Tamayo found the means to mix international forms
with Mexican matter, braiding modernist structures and Indigenous motifs into a new
grammar.
The two world wars had left a tremor in global culture — an anxiety, a collapse of easy
meanings — and Tamayo felt it. By the late 1940s, his canvases grew schematic and
abstract: figures condensed into planes, color deployed as narrative force. His New York
years were formative enough to merit a Smithsonian exhibition decades later. He also
began buying and befriending contemporaries, collecting works that would populate the
museum he and his wife would later found.
Love and business
Olga Flores Rivas entered his life amid paint and music. In 1933, Tamayo was working
on the mural “Music and Song” at the National School of Music when Olga, a young piano
student, brusquely told him, “I don’t like your painting.” He laughed. Three months later,
they married in a church ceremony that surprised acquaintances. Tamayo, the liberal,
the iconoclast, in a sanctuary; Olga scandalizing friends in a gray tailored suit with red
trim. She believed, without equivocation, that his gift outshone her own. She abandoned
a performing career to become his advocate, the tireless force who opened New York
salons and Parisian galleries to his work.
Tamayo, for his part, curated a public myth: the Indigenous Zapotec orphan who had
become an artist. The biography was part persona and part strategy, and it worked.
Olga’s promotion and Tamayo’s self-making won him solo shows in New York,
commissions for public buildings in Mexico, Paris, Puerto Rico and Houston, and a
place at the 1950 Venice Biennale.
Made in Mexico: Rufino Tamayo
Those commissions put him at odds with the muralists’ doctrine. Rivera, Siqueiros and
Orozco had prescribed a single kind of national art: monumental, politicized murals.
Easel painting was suspect, a bourgeois indulgence. But Mexico was changing. As the
state consolidated its institutions, the rhetoric of a unitary national identity — an almost
romantic recovery of pre-Hispanic grandeur — became less binding. The nation faced a
practical contradiction: land reform and agrarian struggle sat beside industrial projects
and a desire to be modern. How to express a Mexico that could honor its past and yet
claim a place on the international stage?
An artistic fusion
Tamayo proposed an elegant compromise. He borrowed elements of the international
avant-garde like expressionist color and cubist simplification, and applied them to Mexican
subjects. The result felt simultaneously provincial and universal, images rooted in local
life that could also travel. His Zapotec heritage and affection for popular and pre-
Hispanic art remained central: watermelons, circus performers, handicrafts, ordinary
animals recur as motifs, not as mere nostalgia but as compressed, potent signifiers of
daily life.
Color was Tamayo’s language. He argued that bright, saturated hues belonged to the
aspirational classes, the palette of what Mexicans desired. The earthy tones — the subdued reds, the heavy blues — that he favored were, to him, the street’s honest hues,
the chroma of everyday survival. He painted the dignity of restraint.
A Mexican universalism
As he aged, Tamayo’s argument broadened. He and a cohort of thinkers saw Mexican
culture as a hybrid of the ancient and the modern, with the sacred and the technological
woven together. For Tamayo, the political act was not a muralized tract. It was the
decision to address universal questions — life, death, existence, the cosmos — through
Mexican eyes. Identity, he believed, need not be sloganized. It could be simple and
human, a universal creative will expressed through local forms.
Museum and collection
Olga and Rufino confessed in different interviews to the private pain of childlessness, but
they soon found their cure in their legacy project. They amassed a remarkable collection
of modern and pre-Hispanic art and founded the Olga and Rufino Tamayo Foundation.
From that impulse rose the Museo Tamayo Arte Contemporáneo, a compact, discerning
institution holding works by Francis Bacon, Jean Dubuffet, Pablo Picasso, Mark Rothko
and Joan Miró alongside contemporary Mexican artists. The building, by Abraham
Zabludovsky and Teodoro González de León reads like a modern archaeological plinth
sitting in Chapultepec, with pre-Hispanic memory refracted through concrete and light.
In Oaxaca, they established a companion museum housing Rufino’s deep collection of
pre-Hispanic pieces, objects he studied and used as a formal reference until the end. His
museums are as much intellectual acts as architectural ones, repositories of the
affinities that shaped his eye.
Where to find Tamayo
National Museum of Anthropology, Mexico City: “Duality” (1964). A mural roughly
12 meters wide, it sets Quetzalcoatl, the feathered serpent, against Tezcatlipoca,
the jaguar — antagonists whose struggle animates Nahua cosmology. It is one of
his great public syntheses.
Tamayo’s “Duality” is exhibited at the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City. (Wikimedia Commons/Nicolás Boullosa)
Palacio de Bellas Artes, Mexico City: “Birth of Our Nationality” (1952) and “Mexico of Today” (1953). The first stages the encounter between Europeanized culture
and pre-Hispanic worlds; the second celebrates art, science and technique as
pillars of modern Mexico.
Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico City: houses 38 works and remains
indispensable to understanding his range.
Dallas Museum of Art: “The Man” (1953). Commissioned to express ties across
the border, Tamayo painted a rooted figure reaching toward the sky — an image of
a person seeking a place in the cosmos. That, for Tamayo, was the universal in
the Mexican. My personal favorite.
Art Institute of Chicago: fifteen works that chart his stylistic evolution.
New York’s MoMA and The Met: substantial holdings (MoMA nearly 40 works,
the Met about 26), though not always on view.
Paris: “Prometheus Bringing Fire to Men” (1958), painted for a UNESCO
conference room, remains a striking statement.
Rufino Tamayo’s reputation has sometimes been reduced to a charming
shorthand — watermelons and earthen palettes — but that shortcut obscures a richer
truth. He loved Mexico with the devotion of someone who reads its streets like scripture:
its colors, its crafts, its everyday rituals. His artistic argument was as much aesthetic as
it was civic. Remain connected to the essentials of your culture, and from that
rootedness, allow your work to speak to the world.
María Meléndez is a Mexico City food blogger and influencer.
There are many differences between the way food is grown in Mexico vs. the U.S. (Gobierno de Mexico)
Why do tomatoes look perfect in the United States but taste better in Mexico? This might sound like the setup to a joke, but it’s sadly not.
Produce in Mexico tastes so much more like itself, even though American fruits and vegetables often look like something out of a commercial. Why is that? Is it the climate? The soil? A closer look at the regulatory policies of both countries gives us some clues.
The U.S. allows many more pesticides and chemicals on its agricultural land than would be permitted in Mexico. (American Farm Bureau Federation)
I’ll say it plainly: Much of the food in the United States is a cesspool of disease-inducing toxicity. American food culture is facing a reckoning. Obesity is at an all-time high, chronic illness is rampant, and cancers that were once rare among younger adults — like colorectal cancer — are now appearing more and more in people in their 30s and 40s.
These ominous trends aren’t random. They’re a result of decades of troublesome food policies that set the United States apart from much of the developed world — indicators of a system that consistently prioritizes corporate profit over public health.
First-world country, third-world practices
Europe and Latin America maintain stronger regulatory safeguards and stricter food-safety standards than the U.S. due to one major difference in policy: The European Union’s regulatory body, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), takes a precautionary approach, so if a food or agricultural product’s safety is not definitively clear, it can be banned or restricted until it’s proven safe. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the United States Department of Agriculture, however, generally take a more risk-based approach, allowing food products on the market until harm is proven. According to the website of the food safety compliance consulting B2B company RDR Global Partners, the USDA allows food manufacturers to determine the safety of certain food additives without FDA preapproval.
The EFSA, for example, bans or refuses approval for hundreds — in some estimates, over a thousand — agricultural products and chemical food additives under this principle, many of which are legal in the U.S. This list includes toxic pesticides, synthetic hormones, growth antibiotics and artificial dyes linked to cancer and hyperactivity in children.
Meanwhile, American grocery shelves remain filled with products that would be pulled from stores in Paris or Berlin.
The case of paraquat
Consider the recent case of paraquat, a pesticide manufactured in China but banned for use there because of its toxicity. Despite clear evidence linking it to Parkinson’s disease and other severe health issues, the U.S. recently ruled it permissible for agricultural use. The logic is not logical: it’s too dangerous for Chinese farmers in the country that exports it, but acceptable for American ones.
The use of paraquat by farmers in the U.S. has been linked to Parkinson’s disease. (Weitz and Luxenberg)
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whether you like him or not, has brought to light many of these alarming truths. Corporate influence has dangerously compromised America’s food-safety system, prioritizing profit margins over public health. It’s broken, and the cracks are showing.
Looking South
So where does Mexico fit into this story? Are its agricultural practices any better than those of its Northern neighbor’s?
The answer is, it’s complicated (and isn’t everything these days).
Mexico’s regulatory framework reflects a different set of priorities. In many respects, it protects public health significantly more than the U.S. does. The country has banned 183 highly hazardous pesticides that remain authorized in the U.S. In 2025, it went further, prohibiting an additional 35 toxic pesticides, including aldicarb, carbofuran, and endosulfan — all of which are still used in American agriculture.
Mexico is also phasing out glyphosate (the controversial herbicide linked to everything from cancer to neurological disorders), though slowly and under pressure from U.S. trade negotiators. Beyond pesticides, Mexico bans recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH), used widely in American dairy; chlorine-washing of chicken, a standard U.S. poultry practice; and several synthetic food dyes linked to behavioral issues in children.
Even preservatives tell a story: BHA and BHT — common in American processed foods despite links to cancer — are banned in Mexico. Potassium bromate, still found in U.S. baked goods, is illegal in Mexican bread.
The organic alternative
Even the farmers seem happier in Mexico, perhaps due to more regulatory oversight and a trend toward organic growth. (Gobierno de Mexico)
Mexico’s commitment to agricultural reform extends beyond just “banning the bad stuff.” The country and its regulatory bodies have embraced organic and agroecological farming with enthusiasm. With 246,899 hectares of certified organic land, Mexico ranks as one of the largest organic food producers in the world. Its organic standards are rated much stronger than American standards in terms of sustainable management.
There is a fundamentally different vision of agriculture in Mexico — one that prioritizes small-scale farming (70% of Mexican farms are only five hectares or less) and sustainable methods over the large-scale industrial operations and corporate mega-farms that dominate American food production. The result is an agricultural culture that values flavor, biodiversity and ecological balance as much as yield.
The American advantage
To be fair, it’s not as if Mexico has “solved agriculture.” Far from it. The country still permits 140 highly hazardous pesticides that are banned elsewhere. Regulatory enforcement can also be inconsistent across regions.
Meanwhile, the U.S. still outperforms Mexico in several areas: consistent monitoring systems, stronger data infrastructure, better farmer training and advanced technology for precision agriculture. American farms are more efficient, more productive and better equipped for large-scale distribution. But efficiency isn’t the same as quality. Producing more food doesn’t mean producing better food.
No-nutrient produce
In fact, these industrial farming practices in the U.S. have led to significant declines in the nutritional value of produce due to soil degradation, monoculture (when only one crop is grown versus a seasonal rotation), heavy synthetic fertilizer use and prioritizing crop yield over nutrient density. For example, U.S.-grown fruits and vegetables today contain less protein, calcium, iron, magnesium and vitamins compared to those grown decades ago, with documented drops in nutrient levels in key crops like broccoli and corn.
However, because a greater proportion of Mexican agriculture uses traditional methods —crop rotation, polyculture, conservation agriculture or organic fertilization — soil health and nutrient density are better sustained. The prevalence of small farms in Mexico means that they often maintain higher organic matter and soil fertility compared to intensive crops due to less stripping of native vegetation and more integrated management.
What we choose to tolerate
Soil health has been degraded in the U.S. over generations, leading to less nutritious food. (Re Soil Foundation)
At its core, this is about priorities. The U.S. can mass grow pristine-looking tomatoes by the ton, but they’re flavorless, lacking in nutrients and chemically saturated.
Mexico’s tomatoes, by contrast, may often look imperfect but taste like the real thing because they are. They’re less engineered for shelf life and more shaped by natural soil, sunlight and microbial balance. They reflect a value system where flavor, nutrition and ecological health matter more than yield, profit and appearance.
For a country that calls itself “the greatest nation on earth,” it’s shocking that the U.S. tolerates standards rejected by much of the developed world. When a developing nation with a fraction of America’s wealth and resources implements stricter food safety standards, it exposes the way American regulatory bodies disregard the safety and well-being of consumers in the name of profit.
“American-made” has become less a guarantee of quality than a warning label for products that wouldn’t pass elsewhere.
Priorities, not perfection
This isn’t about perfection — neither country has achieved that. But it is about priorities. And right now, America’s priorities in food production seem oriented toward every constituency except the people who actually eat the food. Until that changes, we’ll continue producing gorgeous, tasteless tomatoes while rates of diet-related diseases climb. We’ll continue allowing chemicals in our food supply that China won’t permit on its own soil. We’ll continue calling ourselves exceptional while accepting standards that would be considered unacceptable almost anywhere else in the developed world
The evidence is there. The question is whether we’ll demand better before the crisis becomes impossible to ignore.
Monica Belot is a writer, researcher, strategist and adjunct professor at Parsons School of Design in New York City, where she teaches in the Strategic Design & Management Program. Splitting her time between NYC and Mexico City, where she resides with her naughty silver labrador puppy Atlas, Monica writes about topics spanning everything from the human experience to travel and design research. Follow her varied scribbles on Medium at medium.com/@monicabelot.
The president shared the outline of a new security and development plan for Michoacán in light of recent violence and addressed the possibility of U.S. military operations in Mexico on Tuesday. (Gabriel Monroy/Presidencia)
President Claudia Sheinbaum announced at the start of her Tuesday morning press conference that she would read out “a document related to Michoacán.”
“[It’s] a proposal I’m making to … the people of Michoacán and the people of Mexico,” she said.
Protesters who took to the streets of Uruapan, Morelia and other parts of Michoacán after the murder of Mayor Carlos Manzo on Saturday night demanded that authorities act to put an end to the violence that plagues various parts of the state.
In short, they want what Sheinbaum believes — or at least hopes — her proposal can achieve: peace and justice in Michoacán, one of Mexico’s most violent states.
Plan Michoacán
Sheinbaum said that Plan Michoacán will be a “comprehensive strategy based on a deep conviction: that security is not achieved with wars, but with justice, development and respect for life.”
Though her proposal included increasing the presence of federal forces in Michoacán, the president emphasized an approach based on development rather than force in her Tuesday remarks. (Gabriel Monroy/Presidencia)
“Peace is not imposed with force,” said the president, a fierce critic of former President Felipe Calderón’s militarized war on drug cartels that was launched in Michoacán in late 2006.
“It is built with people, with communities, with the daily work of those who love their land,” she said.
This week, Sheinbaum said, “we’re going to listen to the communities, to the traditional authorities, to the churches [and] to the productive and social sectors in order to strengthen the plan with their insight and experience.”
She said that the final version of Plan Michoacán would be presented “in the coming days,” but noted that it will contain “at least three” core tenets:
“Security and justice.”
“Economic development with justice.”
“Education and culture for peace.”
“We are going to restore peace with justice, protect our communities, and we are going to show that peace can be built from the ground up, with dignity and with hope,” Sheinbaum said.
“Peace with justice for Michoacán and for all of Mexico,” she said.
Sheinbaum enumerated “some ideas” her government has for Plan Michoacán.
In the realm of “security and justice,” those ideas include:
Increasing the presence of federal forces in Michoacán.
Presenting a proposal to the Congress of Michoacán and to the state attorney general aimed at strengthening the state Attorney General’s Office via the creation of a “Specialized Prosecutor’s Office for Investigation and Intelligence on High-Impact Crimes.”
Establishing offices of “the presidency of the republic” in various municipalities in Michoacán, “especially Uruapan.”
Holding fortnightly security meetings between Michoacán authorities and members of the federal government’s security cabinet.
In the realm of “economic development with justice” the government’s ideas include:
Guaranteeing social security benefits and “decent salaries” to day laborers on farms and other workers involved in export-oriented agricultural activities. (Michoacán is Mexico’s largest producer of avocados, grown by farmers who work in an export-focused sector that is a top target of extortionists.)
Increasing investment in “rural infrastructure.”
Reaching an agreement with the productive sector in Michoacán “for the development of more well-being hubs.” (The government is establishing Economic Development Hubs for Well-being — essentially industrial corridors — across Mexico.)
In the realm of “education and culture for peace” the government’s ideas include:
Establishing “schools for culture and peace.”
Providing scholarships to university students to help them cover transport expenses.
Establishing new community centers “for sports and well-being.”
Establishing “regional centers for culture and memory.”
Sheinbaum said that her government “shares” the indignation felt by residents of Michoacán — anger that was expressed in no uncertain terms on Monday by protesters who set the Municipal Palace in Apatzingán on fire.
In response to that anger, the president said that her government is presenting “this comprehensive plan, Plan Michoacán.”
Although additional federal forces are set to be deployed to Michoacán, Sheinbaum asserted that there is no similarity between the nascent Plan Michoacán and “the war against el narco” that Calderón launched in Michoacán shortly after he took office in December 2006.
“This is very different, it’s a comprehensive plan,” said Sheinbaum, who asserted that the government has the resources required to fund it.
The president, following in the footsteps of her predecessor Andrés Manuel López Obrador, blames Calderón and the war against cartels he initiated for creating much of the violence that continues to plague Mexico today. Homicides increased sharply during Calderón’s six-year presidency and murder numbers, despite some fluctuations, have remained high ever since.
Sheinbaum responds to a NBC News report on a ‘potential’ US military mission in Mexico
“We will continue working within the framework of this understanding, which has very clear principles,” Sheinbaum said, noting that they include “respect for our sovereignty and our territorial integrity” and “collaboration and coordination without subordination of either state.”
Therefore, a U.S. operation against cartels inside Mexico “won’t happen,” she said.
“We have no report that it will happen. Furthermore, we disagree,” Sheinbaum said, adding that she has conveyed Mexico’s view on U.S. military action south of the border to President Donald Trump.
“In telephone calls, he has said to me: ‘Don’t you need help? We’re willing to send troops and other mechanisms to help you in the fight against organized crime.’ And I’ve always said, ‘Thank you President Trump, but no. Mexico is a free, independent and sovereign country,'” she said.
“… So it’s been made clear that we don’t agree with any process of interference or interventionism. … We collaborate and we coordinate, but we’re a sovereign country,” Sheinbaum said.
By Mexico News Daily chief staff writer Peter Davies (peter.davies@mexiconewsdaily.com)
Joselyn Solis Díaz, Valentina Murrieta and Valeria Alvarado were three of the Mexican squad's stars in their victory over Italy on Sunday that propelled them to the semifinals. (FIFA)
For the second time in seven years, Mexico’s Under-17 women’s team has advanced to the World Cup semifinals, moving into the FIFA Final Four in Morocco after defeating favored Italy in a penalty shootout on Sunday.
The quarterfinal match in Olympic Stadium in Rabat, Morocco’s capital, ended in a scoreless draw although Italy dominated for long stretches of the 90-minute contest. Mexico then proceeded to convert all five of its spot kick attempts, while goalie Valentina Murrieta blocked Italy’s third shot. Defender Laila Ávila converted the decisive kick to send La Tri into the semis where the Netherlands awaits.
“I had so much faith in my teammates [during the shootout],” she said after the win over Italy. “I knew they could do it. I just told myself, ‘If I can stop one, that’s enough’.”
Miguel Gamero’s team actually put the ball in the net in minute 15, but a video review indicated Mexico had committed a foul in its own box before gaining possession.
Not only was Mexico’s goal erased from the scoreboard, but the Europeans were awarded a penalty kick. Murrieta was up to the task, however, blocking the shot by Italy’s Rachele Giudici and collecting the rebound.
The Mexican team is competing in its eighth consecutive U-17 Women’s World Cup. It last appeared in the semifinals in 2018 in Uruguay, where it beat Canada but fell to Spain the final. (FIFA)
The 17-year-old netminder has started all five matches in Morocco for Mexico and has not conceded a single goal since their opening outing against North Korea, a 2-0 setback for El Tri Feminil.
The Netherlands — in their first U-17 World Cup — arrive to the semifinal on the back of two shootout victories in a row. The Dutch reached the knockout stage despite finishing third in Group B, behind leaders North Korea and Mexico.
El Tri Feminil outplayed the Netherlands in their group stage clash back on Oct. 21, outshooting the Dutch 22-8. However, it took a minute 87 goal from Citlalli Reyes to secure the 3 points.
Mexico, competing in its eighth consecutive U-17 Women’s World Cup, have reached the semifinals once before, defeating Canada 1-0 in the Uruguay 2018 tournament. La Tri then fell to Spain 2-1 in the final.
Koo Hyun-bin scored for the Koreans in minute 19, but El Mini-Tri equalized just before halftime when an unmarked Aldo di Nigris nodded home a long centering pass from Luis Gamboa.
Early in the second half, Mexico conceded what would prove to be the winning goal when goalie Santiago López unwisely left the box in a vain attempt to chase down a long ball down the right flank. Nam Ian took advantage of the gaffe, heading into the vacated net at the back post.
