De Mexico

A reader writes ...

2006-05-19T23:04:00.000-07:00

"As an American living in what appears to be the non-tourist areas of Mexico, do you feel safe? Or do you just accept the fact that you're living in Third World conditions and go on?''

This question is based on my postings about water shortages and police brutality. Here's the answer, as best I can describe: Mexico by definition is not a Third World country, and I'm not saying that to be part of the P.C. brigade that drove Anthony Sharif out of San Francisco. It's a developing country, and actually has lost foreign aid in some areas in recent years because the economy has developed to a point where it no longer qualifies. Asia and Africa have much poorer countries.

And while I would never condone police brutality or the failure to deliver basic services to the populous, the Mexico I experience as a foreigner is very different from the realities described in my blog postings. Fact is, news organizations take care of their correspondents. So, rather than fear or inconvenience, Mexico offers me a positive break from the American culture of control. In Mexico, you have to go with the flow. You have to accept that things aren't going to go as planned, that people won't return your phone calls and that you won't accomplish whatever you set out to do on your set timetable. Lo que Dios desea ...whatever God wants ... life runs on a different frequency. For me as an American, it's therapeutic.

Life in the Biggest City

2006-05-19T06:06:00.000-07:00

Eighteen million. That’s the latest estimate I’ve seen on how many people live in Mexico City, largest city on Earth, Beijing without the construction cranes. Believe it or not, Beijing (pop. 12-15 million) and Mexico City son parecidos, that is, seem a lot alike. Neither has a central downtown area that defines most American cities, even L.A. and San Jose these days. Rather, you drive and drive and drive, and there is still city for as far as the eye can see. Mid-rise buildings in bland ‘60s and ‘70s architectural styles in states of major disrepair. A highrise here, a highrise there. Leafy green cobblestone tourist sections. Air quality you can almost touch. The sun rarely shines in Mexico City or Beijing because it’s covered by a thick haze of pollution. Imagine being in Mexico and never needing sunglasses. Flying into Mexico City, I watched from the window as we descended into a thick brown fog the likes of which I had never seen – and I lived in Denver in the 1980s.

When I first arrived, I felt I could no longer be true to the mission of my blog, which was to convey the sentiments of everyday people. Mexico City is like New York. You don’t talk to people. You don’t get to know everyday life. Everyone just walks quickly on the crowded streets and or rides the jam-packed Metro in their hermetically sealed bubbles. Who would think you could be so alone with 18 million people?

But in nearly two weeks, I’ve managed to get to know a few people. For example, Anthony Shafi, Italian-born Iranian American who has a degree from UC-Berkeley and nearly 30 years in San Francisco under his belt, now running a restaurant around the corner from my office. It’s called Kababi Steak House, and it’s fusion at its best – Mexican food with Middle Eastern flair. There’s even curry on the menu. Try the Tacos de Cielo (tacos from heaven), which are luleh kabab (beef seasoned with onion, basil and Middle Eastern spices) wrapped in grilled tortillas and served with a yoghurt dip. Muy rico! It’s also the only place in Mexico City, or arguably all of Mexico, where you can get a decent glass of wine without paying an arm and a leg. Wine is not the beverage of choice here. Shafi closes early on Mondays for Monday Night Football (49er fan, of course). Here he’s pictured with mesero extraordinaire Osvaldo Díaz (left) and chef Edán Silva (right).

Shafi came to Mexico City four years ago with his girlfriend, who was transferred from the Italian Embassy in San Francisco to the one here. She eventually left Mexico City but he stayed. He said he doesn’t miss San Francisco, where he grew tired of having to be “P.C.’’ He loves the people in Mexico, he says. “Our personalities are hidden behind our wealth,’’ he says of Americans. “Here, everything is family. People have two last names. That identifies who you are, where you came from, who your mother is.’’ And he seems to have shed that (in)famous American trait of always feeling in control of your destiny. When I asked if he was the owner of the restaurant, he said, “God is the owner. We’re all renting.’’

Then there’s Buzz (pronounced booz en español) Lightyear, aka Luis Carlo, who turned 2 on Sunday with all the fanfare of a Discovery Zone party. (Notice the other toddler sitting in a pool of plastic colored balls in the background.) Mom and grandma, Tania and Margarita Moreno, hosted the event in a popular birthday spot, where Luis’ preschool-mates overran the play structures and enjoyed cracking a Buzz Lightyear piñata and eating Buzz Lightyear cake (a cool concoction made completely out of individual cupcakes for easy serving to children.) Fueled by sugar and massive present opening, little Luis was up past 10 p.m. that night. (And some Americans fear that Mexicans are diluting our culture?)

Due to technical difficulties …

2006-05-13T09:19:00.000-07:00

To my loyal reader(s):

Sorry this blog has gone dark for nearly a week. I was experiencing technical difficulties. It took me four tries to post the item below on water shortages before I was successful. But I’m back.

I’m now in Mexico City, where things are hopping. President Bush is set to propose sending troops to the border, a move likely to rekindle emotions still raw from the hunt for Pancho Villa. And the country is still reeling politically from an attack on the pueblo of San Salvador Atenco more than a week ago. Pictured here is some of the damage riot police inflicted when they carried out a dawn raid May 4 to round up rebels who -- the day before -- kidnapped and slashed local police officers with machetes in a dispute over where flower vendors could sell their goods. Only problem is that riot police took more than 200 people, when only 28 now face real charges. And the Mexico’s own National Human Rights Commission has confirmed sexual abuse and rape of some of the women detainees.

No one knows what the political impact will be. But so far, PAN, conservative party of President Vicente Fox, has succeeded in pulling a Karl Rove on liberal rival Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO). Rather than feeling the heat because Fox ordered a raid that went awry, PAN presidential candidate Felipe Calderon has successfully turned the tables on AMLO, painting him as the presidential candidate who would tolerate violence by peasants armed with machetes.

The whole mess has suddenly raised the profile of masked man Subcommandante Marcos, who became famous in 1994 for the Zapatista rebellion in Chiapas, but who had been dubbed a has-been by the media of late. Now he’s making that talk show circuit, and yesterday appeared at a march of about 5,000 people on Los Pinos, the Mexican presidential residence (like the White House) demanding the unconditional release of the Atenco detainees.

If I were the Wonkette, I would digress here to start a conversation about whether women find the mask hot. Call it the burka effect. What you can’t see is more alluring. But I won’t stoop. There’s serious journalism going on here.

Can't drink the water ...

2006-05-13T08:24:00.000-07:00

For many days, I walked around Oaxaca seeing these large tanker trucks bearing the words “Agua para uso humano’’ (Water for human use) not knowing what they were. Being a good journalist, I didn’t bother to ask. Then one day, I found out the hard way. I awoke in the home where I was staying to find my host, Delia Corres, serving breakfast on paper plates and telling me there was no water for showers.

I had heard the state of Oaxaca suffered from severe water shortages, particularly in the rural areas. What I didn’t know was that at certain times of the year, the municipal water system simply stops sending water. Those who can afford it call the water tankers and buy more to store in pipa, or large tank that’s often found on the roof. The tanker in the photo is replenishing a hotel in the tourist district. Those who can’t afford the water trucks recycle, using the same water to wash dishes, clothes and water plants. And this doesn’t even begin to address the drinking water shortage. Water in the trucks is not “potable,’’ (same word in English) but for washing and household used. More than 25 percent of Oaxaca’s roughly 5 million residents have no access to safe drinking water, one of the highest levels among states in Mexico.

In some rural areas, the only way people get drinking water is by hauling it manually from a main town to their remote mountain villages such as this area near San Simon Zahuatlan in the northern part of the state. (See photo.) In the home where I stayed, the family had money to buy more water. It was more a case of waiting for the cable guy. Delia had been calling for two days straight, and because the tankers were so busy, they failed to show up before she completely ran out of water. So they came on a Saturday, and by afternoon, there was water again.

Cinco de Mayo in Oaxaca

2006-05-07T20:17:00.000-07:00

I have personally confirmed now that Cinco de Mayo is indeed a holiday in Mexico, not one created by Chevy's. However, it is NO BIG DEAL. Some stores close. Some people take the afternoon off. But no one takes to the streets to party or riot. There was more Cinco de Mayo hooliganism in downtown San Jose, Calif., I would venture, than in the entire country of Mexico.

But there was a Cinco de Mayo demonstration in the streets of Oaxaca Friday. The teachers' union and some socialist groups aligned to protest government repression, the police handling of an uprising in San Salvador Atenco on Wednesday, and in the sign pictured above, to have a rechazo (rejection) of neo-liberalism. This is the prevailing economic approach to developing countries for the last 30 or more years by the United States, the World Bank, etc., and -- despite its name -- it's an approach favored by conservatives. This is the economic theory that advocates for free markets, privatization and free trade in developing nations, a theory that many argue in effect has simply fortified the oligarchy in countries such as Mexico, while devasting the poor (the reason, many argue, the United States is being overrun with immigrants in search of living wages.) Some think-tank types are now admitting that neo-liberalism didn't work. Critics say it was never meant to. The plan was meant to concentrate more wealth in the hands of the rich.

But I digress, or perhaps not. While the elected government here is viewed by most people as an entity that works simply to solidify its power, many everyday folks have the same cynicism about the labor unions. According to the local commentary on the teachers' march, liberals and conservatives alike say that teachers in Oaxaca march more than they teach, and the public schools here are a terrible mess. The main purpose of the unions are to solidify a power base, not make conditions better for workers or to, say, improve public education. (I'm just quoting the locals, everyone.) As my host Robert Corres said, "Nobody in Mexico does what they're supposed to.''

Except ... and this brings me to my last point ... the woman pictured with the refreshment cart. She's working the march. The protest went for miles, blocks and blocks of people walking in the hot mid-day sun. Right along side them, vendors pushed or peddled their carts selling soft drinks and chicharrones to the protestors. This is pure Mexican entrepreneurial spirit. You see it everywhere here. Where there's a need, there's a vendor. At the airport, taxis can't wait for passengers at the curb. So they sit outside the airport gates, and there in that spot of gravel, is a vending cart with tables and umbrellas to serve them while they wait. I'm told that in Mexico City, vendors set up shop outside Wal-Mart and undercut the prices in the store. (More to come on that.)

The free-market system hasn't failed for lack of spirit. I'm struck by how hard people work here to earn a dollar. Unfortunately, in many cases, that's about all they earn.

You have questions? We have (some) answers ...

2006-05-04T19:39:00.000-07:00

Some very smart readers of this blog have placed a few questions based on my entries.

First: "What percentage of illegal aliens from Mexico desire to be US citizens and what percentage would rather return to Mexico if they had sufficient work in Mexico?''

The Pew Hispanic Center did a survey last year of 5,000 Mexican migrants who were interviewed while applying for identity cards at Mexican consulates in the United States. The survey says: (the following is directly lifted)

When asked how long they expected to remain in the United States, a majority of respondents picked either “as long as I can” (42%) or “for the rest of my life” (17%). Meanwhile, 27 percent said they expected to stay for five years or less.

By a 4-to-1 margin (71% vs. 18%), survey respondents said they would participate in a program that would allow them to work in the United States and cross the border legally on the condition that they eventually return to Mexico. Respondents who said they had no form of U.S.-issued photo ID were even more positive (79% vs. 16%).

Among respondents who said they intended to stay in the United States for “as long as I can” or for “the rest of my life,” a clear majority—68 percent—said they would participate in a temporary immigration program that would require them to return to Mexico. Acceptance of the idea of a temporary program was even higher—80 percent—among those who stated an intention to return to Mexico within five years.

Click here to read the full report.

Second: "So why is India booming with IT and Mexico isn't?''

This one is not so easy to answer. In fact, it's a question that I hope to devote some attention to in my reporting for the Mercury News. I've posed this question to many people here, using both India and China as examples of developing countries with huge tech explosions. To a person, I get this response: "How many people live in India?''
The population of Mexico is about 10 percent of India's, or 110 million vs. 1 billion. When I answer with this fact, again I get a uniform response: "IT is growing in Mexico, but at one-tenth the rate of India.'' (Not a real statistic, they're just making a point that you can't compare Mexico with mega-population countries.)

Keep those posts and letters coming!

Women’s Work

2006-05-04T18:55:00.000-07:00

“Americans think we’re all poor and trying to get to the United States. They don’t think about the people working to improve themselves here,’’ says Alma Rodriguez, a family lawyer who quit her practice recently to earn a second professional degree in psychology. Since suspending her law career to go back to school, she has been living the life of a poor student. So she rents out rooms in her home, and has set up a little tienda -- like a corner store in the United States before the advent of 7-Eleven -- in her garage to help make ends meet. She also hired a fellow student to work part time, even though she could get by without the help. The other student doesn’t come from a professional family like she does (her father, too, is a lawyer) and needed the money to stay in school.
“I’m not rich,’’ Alma says. “But I can help one person. And then maybe she will be able to help someone else.’’
When she was practicing, Rodriguez, 28, worked in family court, mainly overseeing the distribution of belongings in divorces, which she says are very traumatic, but more common than people think. (The official divorce rate in Mexico was 11 percent in 2004, compared to 3 percent in 1970 and 49 percent in the U.S. today)
But she wants to focus her psychology practice on women who are victims of violence. She says relationship violence is very common in Mexico because most women still accept it as normal. Her thesis is a study of educated women and domestic violence. She’s says there’s little difference between them and their less-educated counterparts because even women with university degrees consider control and abuse by their male partners normal.
Every weekend, Alma returns to her parents' pueblo, where the whole family gathers for Sunday brunch, and she has to listen to her grandparents grouse about the fact that she’s not married. Her father and mother are a little worried, too, because after age 25, if a woman in Mexico is not married, she’s old maid material. “Te quedaste para vestir santos,’’ the saying goes. (“You stayed behind to dress the saints’’ – no real English translation.)
But it was her parents who taught her not to take any guff from a man. Her mother still regrets not finishing her own education. Her father, though traditional in his own marriage, doesn’t want to see his highly educated, successful daughters play servant to anyone. Her older sister, another lawyer, is single as well.
For now, Alma is happy to dress the saints.

But, seriously folks ....

2006-05-03T10:17:00.000-07:00

I wrote somewhat jokingly before about Mexico being more tolerant of gays than the United States, judging from reaction here to the movie “Brokeback Mountain.’’ (posting below for those who missed it the first time.) But what is it really like?
Hugo Mendoza, 43, (left) a Oaxacan who is gay, figures it’s no different from the United States. There are places here where he can be very open about his sexuality, and other places where he chooses to hide it (in many cases not because he’s afraid of offending anyone, rather he’s not in the mood to deal with offensive stuff from others.) As Hugo points out, there are places in Texas where you can be gay (Austin), and places where you best not be.
He’s extra careful about his personal safety after being the victim of hate crime three years ago. Several men attacked and pummeled him for being gay after initially pretending to befriend him. (Sound familiar?) Gay couples here don’t have legal rights when it comes to pension benefits, inheriting property, etc., just like the United States, and companies here are behind the curve in granting domestic partner benefits.
But in last week’s presidential debate here, Hugo saw something truly groundbreaking. Protest candidate Patricia Mercado (who has no chance of winning, but whom many thought was the best spoken of the four) advocated for gay rights in Mexico for the first time ever on national television. He says candidates from the PRD (Democratic Revolutionary Party), party of presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, (who skipped the debate) have spoken about gay rights in local elections. But never before has it come up in a national forum.
What’s more, there was absolutely no reaction to her comments, nothing from the Catholic Church, nothing from the conservatives. Even in the recent past, such talk would have sparked an uproar, he said.
“It shows you that people here have become more open-minded,’’ Hugo said.

¿Quien es mas macho?
Sorry, California. Conservative, Catholic Mexico has you beat when it comes to tolerancia de gays. Well, at least if you judge by the theatergoers at the movie “El Secreto en los Montañas’’, (trans: The Secret in the Mountains) the Mexican title for “Brokeback Mountain.’’On a recent Thursday night, the stadium seats were about two-thirds full with people of all ages, young heterosexual couples on dates, older heterosexual couples, social groups of men and women, all paying about $4.50 for a ticket -- no small change for many Mexicans. As the house lights came up, grown men wiped their eyes, and people left the theater in a somber stupor. In California and most of the United States, there was a clear phenomenon – described deftly by Larry David -- of straight men who simply refused to see the movie. And guys taking women to "Brokeback'' as a date movie? Fuggedaboutit.So, ¿quien es mas macho? The guys who took their wives and girlfriends to the movie, or the guys who shied away? In the words of the (macho) National Football League, "You make the call!''

Boicót …. Not!

2006-05-01T18:26:00.000-07:00

Around Mexico last week, there had been promises of a massive boycott of American goods and services Monday to support protestors fighting for immigrants' rights in the United States. According news reports around the country, not many people participated. Reports were based on folks from, say, Wal-Mart telling reporters that the stores were experiencing business as usual.
But here in Oaxaca, protestors successfully closed Sam’s Club for about an hour and a half after burning a Statue of Liberty bearing the face of President Bush in effigy. (See above.) The store shut its doors quickly when state troopers showed up, anticipating a clash with protestors. But the 300 or so manifestantes took off in their trucks at the sight of the policía. At other American establishments in Oaxaca, including Office Depot, Burger King, Pizza Hut and McDonald’s, managers reported no drop in customers, even though their stores looked exceptionally empty for a holiday. Monday was Dia del Trabajador (Labor Day) in Mexico, a day off from school and work and a day – like in the United States – when everyone normally goes shopping.
Still, there were customers. And they came for the most interesting reasons. Rosario Hernandez, 51, an accountant, was at Sam’s Club to buy Mexico products only, she said, when shoppers were evacuated and the store was closed. She doesn’t like how the U.S. treats Mexican immigrants and their children, but she also doesn’t like protestors burning stuff when she’s trying to shop.
Geiel Gieron Santiago, 21, who is pictured below being interviewed by local media outside the shuttered mega-store, said he too disagreed with the methods of the protestors. “A hit against the United States is a hit against Mexico,’’ said Gieron, an international relations major at the Universidad del Mar in Huatulco. “The two economies are so interdependent.’’
But the people with the best excuses were parents of young children. Sunday was Dia del Niño in Mexico (like Mother’s Day, only for kids), but many families were having late celebrations on Monday. Betsabeé Peñafiel, 30, who’s tying her daughter’s shoe in the photo below, tried to take the kids to McDonald’s Sunday, but it was full. So she and husband Jose Luis Cordova Montes brought them Monday to Kentuky (Mexican translation for Kentucky Fried Chicken), which has a McDonald's-like play structure called “Chickylandia.’’
Eliasa Sosa, 40, worked in Southern California for 14 years as a gardener and a person stuffing the Los Angeles Times with inserts. Both of his children, aged 14 and 12, are U.S. citizens. He returned to Oaxaca three years ago because he had so many problems with employers the U.S. He says he’s better off now owning a party rental store here. But he supports the boycott and demonstrations by his countrymen in the United States. He hopes the results will make things better for his children, who may want to return to their homeland one day to attend school or to work.
So why was he standing in line at McDonald’s Monday? He had to work on Dia del Niño, and his kids wanted McDonald’s to make up for it.
“I almost never come here,’’ he said. “This is for my kids.’’

What do these two products have in common?

2006-04-30T22:08:00.000-07:00

Sunday is truly a day of rest in Mexico. No one is out grocery shopping for the week or roaming the malls or getting the yard work done. It’s a day for extended family to gather and eat a gigantic meal, which someone has spent all day preparing.
Today the topic of table conversation was the boicot (if you can’t translate that … !) tomorrow against all American goods and services here in Mexico in support of immigrants fighting for the right to work legally in the United States. Between chopping vegetables and stirring the caldo de res, a delicious beef soup served with rice, chiles, lime and tortillas, Roberto Corres – my host – checked the news on his laptop in the kitchen, noting that reports were already filing on acts of civil disobedience a day in advance. A group of protesters blocked shoppers entering a Wal-Mart in Monterrey, forcing the store to close for about 10 minutes, according to one newspaper website.
Delia Corres – also my host – showed me a chain e-mail she received from a friend urging people to boycott all products from Kimberly Clark, including Huggies and Kleenex, because James Sensenbrenner, the Wisconsin congressman who authored the bill making illegal entry into the U.S. a felony, is an heir to the Kimberly Clark fortune.
“He wants to build a wall to keep us out of his country. Let’s see how he likes it if we build a wall keeping his products out our country,’’ the e-mail said in Spanish.
The true show of Mexican hospitality came after the meal, when Roberto and his friend, Miguel, who often visits for Sunday dinner, were enjoying whiskey on the rocks and offered me a drink. I said I’d like a beer, but there were none. I said I’d buy some later and forgot about it. Soon Robert and Miguel got in the car and left. I figured the afternoon socializing had ended and went to my room to study my Spanish. Five minutes later, they were back with a six-pack of Modelo.
Miguel explained that Mexico's "beer queen,'' an executive and owner of Grupo Modelo (and one of the richest women in the world) is married to Tony Garza, U.S. ambassador to Mexico. So buying Modelo puts money in the pocket of an American. Thus his urgency.
“You can’t have this tomorrow,’’ he told me. “So you’d better drink it today.’’

The Future is ... where?

2006-04-27T20:18:00.000-07:00

This is Daniel Corres, 19, of Oaxaca, who took a year off between high school (la preparatoria in Mexico) and college to run his own business designing and managing paginas web (web pages, for those of you who totally flunked Spanish.) Check out his work.
Like his computer-whiz counterparts in the United States, he is self-taught, save for one six-month course. The only difference is that while there are thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of American teenagers working on the Internet, he’s still a bit of a rarity in Mexico. He’s the only one of his friends who is into the Internet. But he says that his changing.
According to statistics, Danny is right. Internet users in Mexico, a country of about 100 million people, jumped from under 3 million in 2000 to 17 million last year. DSL subscriptions increased 50 percent in the first half of 2005, according to First Monday, a peer-reviewed journal on the Internet. While home computer users represent less than half of all users in Mexico, there are Internet cafes every few blocks and even in the smallest pueblos.
This is the scene (left) on the road into Tlacolula, a town of about 13,000 that is 19 miles east of Oaxaca. Once you get into town, you find “Cyber’s Café’s,’’ a name only a wordsmith from Silicon Valley could love.
As for Danny, he’s will enter Tecnológico de Monterrey in the fall and is deciding whether to study tecnología informacíon, IT in English, or business or politics. He has lots of interests and doesn’t want to be a web master the rest of his life. He said the market for IT people here is growing as more people have access to the Internet. When I told him there have always been plenty of IT jobs in the United States, even during the tech slump, he was unfazed.
“Isn’t the United States suffering a decline right now?’’ he asked. “The future is in China.’’

Bush vs. Kerry, Mexico style

2006-04-26T17:26:00.000-07:00

Which presidential candidate can save Mexico? Ask here and you get the same answer: "He was assassinated in 1994.’’ People still speak with reverence about Luis Donaldo Colosio, who was gunned down in cold blood in Tijuana during a campaign appearance. Though the gunman is in prison and claims to have worked alone, speculation still abounds that Colosio’s death was ordered by his own party, the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, and even former president Carlos Salinas de Gortari. Colosio had been campaigning about justice and reform and was also considered to be tough with drug cartels. If you look at Mexico’s history with drug lords under Salinas and his successor, Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de Leon, dios mio!
While comparisons have been drawn between Colosio and John F. Kennedy, the election this time is pure Bush vs. Kerry.
Political cynicism is waist-deep. I’ve heard Californians of the left persuasion talk about PRD candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, former president of Mexico City, as the man who will finally help Mexico’s poor. According to conversations over the last three and half weeks in Oaxaca, the country’s second-poorest state, not many here think so.
They don’t like any candidate. And despite massive reforms in the voting system after 1988, when Salinas stole the election from Cuauhtemoc Cárdenas, many wonder if the declared winner of July 2 presidential election will be the person who got the most votes.
There are many debates in living rooms, teachers' lounges and other casual settings. Many hate PRI and say PAN, the party of current President Vicente Fox, who ended PRI’s 71-year rule in 2000, has done nothing. So they support Lopez Obrador. Others say no one can change a country as complicated and corrupt as Mexico in six years and that Fox’s party should be given another term to continue its reforms. Others liked Lopez Obrador as mayor, but are nervous now by the fact that he’s surrounding himself with some of the old-time PRI folks as advisors.
The comment I’ve heard most is that people will go to the polls on July 2 and vote for the “menos peor”, the least dislikable. Some say they will vote with their feet – by not showing up. Some polls indicate a turnout rate of less than 50 percent of eligible voters.
Sound familiar?

Que pequeño es el mundo …

2006-04-22T21:20:00.000-07:00

One reason I wanted to come to Mexico was to help illustrate for readers the intricate connections between this country and the United States. I had no idea I would literally stumble upon examples.
Take Ranulfo Morales Rivera, who runs a food service business in Gilroy. I interviewed him for a story about Mexican nationals abroad being able to vote in the this country's presidential election for the first time in July. But he also told me a little bit about his business, and how, after 30 years in the United States, he wanted to expand into Mexico as a means of aiding the economic development in his homeland. He told me it was a difficult thing to do for many reasons, and I thought his experience would make a good story. I made a note to get back to him when I return from Mexico.
So here I am in Oaxaca, sitting in the kitchen of the Corres family, and I am introduced to Delia Corres' cousin, Gerardo Orozco Rosales and his S.O., Monica Lopez (pictured above) who are in town for the weekend to celebrate their first anniversary.
When Orozco finds out I'm from San Jose, he says he has a friend in Gilroy he's trying to work with. Orozco too is in the food processing business. Thinking of Morales, I ask him the name of his friend, and it is none other than the same guy. The two were introduced to each other through a consultant, and they're trying to develop joint projects across the border. They already had a meeting in Puebla, where Orozco's company is based, and Orozco will travel to Gilroy for the first time in the next couple weeks. He, too, says its hard to make such cross-border ventures work. But he and Morales hit it off in a business kind of way, and he likes the idea of working together. Lots of details to come about their venture. But right now, I'm still marveling at que pequeño es el mundo … It's a small world.

Mesoamerican Bubba

2006-04-19T16:29:00.000-07:00

OK. Couldn't let this one go by: While cruising the Museo Arte Prehispanico de Rufino Tamayo, a riveting collection of pre-Columbian artifacts collected by celebrated Oaxacan painter Rufino Tamayo, I happened upon this prehispanic figure with more than a slight resemblance to former President Bill Clinton. What's more, the figure appears to be holding something that looks like a cigar in its left hand.
In reality, it is a ceramic piece found in the Pacific coastal state of Nayarit and is estimated to have been made sometime between 1250 B.C. and 250 A.D. What's more, it is among a collection entitled "Mujeres Sentadas,'' or women sitting. In other words, the figure depicts a woman. They say turnabout is fair play. Perhaps this means Bubba got his just deserts in a former life.

Forget Iran. Time to Invade Mexico?

2006-04-15T11:07:00.000-07:00

Just to give you an idea how widespread the immigration debate is in the United States, a child wrote a letter to the Albany, N.Y. newspaper last week suggesting that the president should solve the whole problem by buying Mexico.
“That is no more unrealistic than anything else,’’ the paper's editorial page wrote.
Ironically, they may be in agreement with Martin Arturo Castellanos Lopez, a taxista in Oxaca who says it’s time for Mexico to become a colony of the United States. You might not think his view is worth repeating, but he speaks from an experience all too common in Mexico.
I had heard that because of severe underemployment, there are doctors and lawyers who drive cabs for a living, but I wasn’t sure if I should believe it. Then I met Castellano. After earning a law degree from a university here 10 years ago, he went to the United States -- Utah
and Santa Ana to be exact -- to find work. After a year in construction, he returned to Oaxaca and still couldn’t find work as a lawyer. So now he drives a taxi. (I’m not one of those journalists who interviews cabbies for stories. We were just chatting, I swear.)
When I asked him what he thought of the “marchas,’’ protestors in the United States, he said, “They make me angry. How can you demand something of another country that you don’t even ask of your own?’’ He’s talking about work, of course. He says people won’t march and make demands here because they’re afraid of getting killed. In the United States, he says, the protestors are protected. They even bring their kids.
The corruption in Mexico is too great and the progress too slow, he added.
“In the United States, the laws apply. Here, there are no laws,’’ Castellano said. “Why do you think there’s so much drug trafficking? Laws don’t apply here.’’
The only solution, he says, if for the United States to take on Mexico as a colony and impose its system here.
Be careful what you wish for, Martin. We have a president who seems to be shopping for a new country to invade.

The Silent March for Immigrant Rights

2006-04-12T21:57:00.000-07:00

Oaxacan artist Alejandro Santiago decided to do his own take on the immigration debate: 2,501 Migrantes now at the city’s Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Oaxaca. It’s a haunting display, hundreds of abstract clay figures (he’s only completed about 400 of the 2,501) made from the soil of his homeland, filling rooms and lining corridors and stairways. Some are in a hideous pile and others are in coffins. There are men, women, children, all naked and many with their arms crossed in front as if to protect themselves.
No two are alike.
They are Santiago’s metaphor for those who have been forced to abandon their towns and families in search of work, and his manifestation of the reluctance on both sides of the border to work together for a solution.
Santiago himself experienced the effects of migration: first as a child leaving his pueblo, Teococuilco, when his parents moved to the city of Oaxaca for work, and later as an artist trying to understand the phenomenon by hiring a “coyote’’ to help him cross the border into the United States.
According to news reports, Santiago plans to take the 2,501 figures, when completed, to his home village and – reminiscent of the Bulgarian-born environmental artist Christo – stand them in yards and public places to “repopulate’’ a town devastated by the massive move north.

Hermanos incómodos

2006-04-12T19:56:00.000-07:00

In one of those international chats that tend to occur in language schools, a student from the Netherlands turned to one of the Mexican teachers here and said, “The United States and Mexico, brothers, eh?’’ To which she replied without missing a beat, “Hermanos incómodos.’’ Reluctant brothers.

Feelings on both sides of the border are mutual, and right now they’re running high with the immigration debate. Mexicans watched Americans burning the Mexican flag on the evening news Monday and uttered words that can’t be printed in a family blog, even in Spanish. They have a saying here: “México está muy cerca de los Estados Unidos y muy lejos de Dios.’’ Translation: We’re close to the United States and far from heaven. The same teacher told me as she watched her countrymen marching in the streets on the other side of the border, she wished that they could just come back home. Others here echo her sentiments, which ironically are also shared by a large number of people in the United States.

When I have pointed out to the teacher that her countrymen can’t return because there are still no opportunities here, she didn’t have much response. There’s plenty of work, but it pays nothing. The unemployment rate in Mexico is only about 3 percent, but the underemployment rate is 25 percent.

The talk here is almost entirely about how the United States should handle the immigration problem, and nothing about how Mexico should handle it. Meanwhile, when I’ve talked to Mexican immigrants in the United States, job creation in Mexico is issue No. 1. Since I arrived, I’ve asked why people here aren’t marching in the streets here to demand better work, the only reply I’ve heard so far – almost to a person – is “it’s complicated.’’ Translation: Mexico is hard to change.

The Mexican Scott Peterson

2006-04-10T22:37:00.000-07:00

With protestors taking to the streets in the United States to protest immigration proposals, and a presidential election that will likely result in yet another party taking power six years after Vicente Fox broke the 70-year, one-party system, what are Mexicanos talking about?
None of the above. The hot topic of conversation is Diego Santoy Riverol, a 21-year-old student who is accused of murdering the young siblings of his ex-girlfriend, Erika Pena Coss. The Monterrey crime is the Mexican equivalent of Laci and Scott Peterson -- a handsome guy and his pretty girlfriend from a well-to-do family end up in the midst of heinous crime. The story has gripped the entire country.
Some of the twists and turns:
Diego, who originally confessed to killing the 3- and 7-year-olds, later recanted, saying the police beat the confession out of him. He then said Erika set him up, and that he helped her killed her siblings, then injure her so it would appear like an outside attack.
Erika's mother, Tere Coss, is an astrologist and television personality in Monterrey, a modern and prosperous city in northern Mexico. Diego claims he was also having an affair with Tere, something that might have sparked Erika’s rage – and something Tere vehemently denies.
It’s a telenovela – Mexican soap opera – come to life.
My second day here, young Diego granted an exclusive television interview from his jail cell, something that is rare in Mexico, like the United States. He spoke calmly and matter-of-factly and described the events of his alleged framing as if he were talking about what he did in school that day.
There are on-line chats and polls about whether he committed the crimes himself or with his ex-girlfriend. There are psychologists on television analyzing the mannerisms of both Diego and Erika for signs of guilt. There is speculation about why one of Erika’s attorneys quit the case and more speculation about Diego’s family hiring a famous narco-defense attorney, Raquenel Villanueva, to take his case.
The only things missing are Greta van Susteren and Court TV.

Saludos calurosos a mi blog!

2006-04-07T16:51:00.000-07:00

Warm Greetings!

You know you’re headed to Mexico when people are crossing themselves as the plane takes off – and you hope some of their prayers spill over into your seat.

Me encanta Mexico! I love it here. I smell the exhaust fumes and feel the thick, subtropical air the minute I get off the plane, and I am drawn in by the odd intermingling of chaos and calm. You take your life into your hands stepping into a crosswalk. There are many, many problems, social and political. But the people take it in stride. No tengo la vida comprada, the Mexican saying goes. Literally, my life is not bought. Figuratively, nothing in life is certain.

It’s written into the language. While Americans make declarative sentences about the future, Mexicans have a specific grammatical tense to express that things will happen only if God is willing. They have a sentence structure for mishaps that absolves anyone of wrongdoing. “The dish broke on me,’’ never “I broke the dish.’’ Here I get to experience a different reality from the high-pressured existence to the north. Here I get a sense of what it’s like to live close to the ground.

As the Mercury News’ new Latino Affairs writer, I am spending seven weeks here reporting and studying in language school. This is my second Spanish immersion experience. Both have been similar, boarding with Mexican families who rent extra rooms to students from around the world. Both host families have opened their homes generously and seem to enjoy helping foreigners learn their language and culture. They also get a kick out of watching our faces when they tell us the best place to get chapolines (fried grasshoppers) or goat tacos, or hand us dishes of “burnt-milk ice cream.’’ We’re part social work, part entertainment.

Both families are part of the Mexico that Americans rarely see – the middle class. Their lives, too, are intertwined with their neighbors to the north. The first time, I stayed with the matriarch of a very large family who bought her home in Guanajuato with the money her husband made as a bracero in the United States back in the 1940s to 1960s. Her children went to college and became teachers and government bureaucrats. The grandchildren were studying engineering. (More about that later.)

My current hosts, the Corres family, also have a son studying engineering and another who will enter college in the fall to study IT. Roberto Corres is a trained architect but works for the federal government in Oaxaca. They have nieces living in the United States who have studied at Berkeley and Georgetown, and, unlike my first hosts, they have traveled to the U.S. and other countries for vacation. They have Internet sin cable (wireless.)

In this blog, I will share the stories and pensamientos of everyday people like the Corres family. What do they think about the future of their country? What do they think about the immigration debate raging in the United States, the presidential election here? Globalization? You will be surprised. Stay tuned …