CIASP Diary

CBC I: The Current looks at violence in Tamaulipas Mexico

2010-03-17T18:28:00.000-04:00

From CBC Radio I, The Current.Broadcast March 17, 2010Ana Maria Tremonti is the host

Mexico Drug War - Journalist

We started this segment with a clip of a woman who lives in the state of Tamaulipas in north-eastern Mexico. And she's describing what she is seeing on the side of the road as she drives past. Dozens, perhaps even hundreds of bullet casings. Cars riddled with bullet holes. Signs of the latest shootout in a drug war that is increasing in intensity.

But if you read the local newspaper, or turn on the television or radio, you won't find stories about drug-related crime. That's because many journalists are terrified of the consequences of reporting on the drug cartels. The intimidation has become so effective that Reynosa -- one of the state's largest cities -- has fallen under a de facto news blackout. And that's led to citizen journalism, this woman, and others trying to document what is happening and posting it on-line.

Roberto Lopez knows only too well how dangerous it has become for journalists to work in Reynosa. He is the Editorial Director with Milenio Television in Mexico City. Last month, Milenio sent a crew to Reynosa. But they were kidnapped and beaten trying to work there. We aired a clip in translation.

Franc Contreras is a reporter based in Mexico City. He has been following the situation in Reynosa.

Mexico Drug War - Analyst

It was the Dallas Morning News that originally reported that there was a drug-related news black-out in Reynosa. And the newspaper even pulled one of its reporters after he was approached on the street in Reymosa and told that he didn't have permission to be there. Mark Edgar is the newspaper's Deputy Managing Editor. He says that for security reasons, he won't go into specifics about that incident. But he says it's part of an on-going effort to strike a balance between getting the story and keeping the newspaper's reporters safe.

George Grayson has written several books about Mexico's drug war. He's a Senior Associate at the U.S. Center for Strategic Studies. And he says the situation in Reynosa is likely to get worse before it gets better. George Grayson was in Williamsburg, Virginia.

Listen to Part Two:

KAIROS: CIDA funding cut to Human Rights and Justice Group

2009-12-03T09:53:00.004-05:00

The following e-message raises an issue that should anger CIASP veterans.
First, KAIROS has been one of the few Canadian agencies that consistently works to promote human justice issues and sustainable development in Mexico and Latin America.

Second, KAIROS has played a very active role in documenting the environmental chaos and abusive labour policies of Canadian mining investments in the San Xavier mine located in San Luis Potosi — not far from the CIASP villages and ranchos.

Third, CIDA funding is increasingly and narrowly restricted to projects that reward Canadian Business Interests and Investments. The social justice element of Canadian foreign policy has been specifically targeted for cuts.

Fourth, CIASPer John Dillon has dedicated much of his working life to preparing documents and research reports documenting social justice for KAIROS.

Please read the following message and take a few minutes to act on it. I would also suggest that any CIASPer with a “portofolio” should review their investments to see if they include Canadian Mining projects in Latin America. Canadian mining intersests in Latin America, and in many other places of the world have been linked to unfair labour practices and environmental rape.

More information about the cuts are reported in the Globe and Mail http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/ottawa-ceases-funding-of-overseas-human-rights-group/article1386567/). I’ve also included one news item (from amongst several) reporting on the environmental and labour disruption linked to the San Xavier project in San Luis Potosi ( http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2009/11/26/index.php?section=sociedad&article=043n1soc)

Trabajos de excavación de Minera San Xavier en el Cerro de San Pedro, San Luis Potosí, el pasado día 17Foto María Meléndrez Parada

From: SundayCommunity@yahoogroups.com [mailto:SundayCommunity@yahoogroups.com]
On Behalf Of Patricia Smiley

Sent: December 2, 2009 11:36 PM

To: sundaycommunity@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [SundayCommunity] Fw: Urgent Action: CIDA Cuts KAIROS Funding
   Please read this and send letters.
  Patricia Smiley
  42 Cavell Ave., Apt. 5
  Etobicoke, ON   M8V 1P2
  Phone: removed for privacy reasons
  Email: patriciaUnderscoreSmileyATyahoo.com

--- On Wed, 12/2/09, KAIROS Canada <newmedia@kairoscanada.org> wrote:
From: KAIROS Canada <newmedia@kairoscanada.org>

Subject: Urgent Action: CIDA Cuts KAIROS Funding

To: patriciaUnderscoreSmileyATyahoo.com

Received: Wednesday, December 2, 2009, 4:37 PM

URGENT ACTION:
RESTORE CANADIAN INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT AGENCY (CIDA) FUNDING TO KAIROS

On November 30, KAIROS received notice from the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) that our project proposal for 2009-2013 had been declined. We were not given an explanation for this decision, other than that our program did not fit CIDA priorities.

Our 2009-2013 proposal was developed within two priority sectors of CIDA: promoting good governance (human rights) and advancing ecological sustainability (reducing the impact of climate change and addressing land degradation). It was approved at every level of CIDA before being declined on November 30.

This decision terminates a 35-year history of cooperation between CIDA and KAIROS and its predecessor organizations, and compromises the work of human rights and ecological integrity in the developing world. (For possible impacts on specific partners, please see the background materials below.) This decision also negatively affects the ability of Canadians to develop skills and knowledge in the exercise of their global citizenship.

Please contact your MP to discuss this urgent matter. Please, respectfully and politely,

- Speak about your own positive involvement with KAIROS;
- Express grave concern about this decision;
- Ask that CIDA restore its long-standing relationship with KAIROS;mailto:oda.b@parl.gc.ca
- Emphasize the impacts of this decision on global partners and our work in Canada;
- Ask them to call on CIDA to reverse this decision.

Please also write to:
The Rt. Hon. Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada, mailto:pm@pm.gc.ca
The Hon. Bev Oda, Minister of International Cooperation, mailto:oda.b@parl.gc.ca
Margaret Biggs, President of CIDA, Margaret.Biggs@acdi.gc.ca;
requesting a reversal of the decision.
Please copy your letters to KAIROS at mailto:info@kairoscanada.org

Further Background Material
Situation

- KAIROS submitted a 4-year program proposal to CIDA on human rights and ecological sustainability. The total program cost of the proposal is $9,211,483 over four years (CIDA contributes just over $7 million of that amount). This is consistent with previous levels of CIDA funding to KAIROS.
- On November 30, we received a call from CIDA informing us that our 2009-2013 program proposal had been rejected and that KAIROS would no longer be receiving funding from CIDA. We asked for an explanation and were informed that our program did not fit CIDA’s priorities. This was the last day of an extension to our current proposal. No written explanation has been provided.
- This decision, if not reversed, would cut funds to 21 ecumenical and citizen’s organizations in Latin America, Africa, Asia-Pacific and the Middle East, and cut educational work that helps Canadians across the country to develop skills and knowledge in the exercise of their global citizenship.

Background

- KAIROS and its precursor organizations have been funded by CIDA since 1973.
- The KAIROS-CIDA 2006-2009 program received a positive audit report and an excellent evaluation.
- KAIROS staff worked closely with global partners to develop the 2009-2013 program proposal which focused on human rights and ecological justice.
- It was submitted to CIDA in March 2009 and went fairly quickly through all levels of approval. KAIROS made all adjustments to the program requested by our program officer.
- The proposal arrived on the desk of Bev Oda, the Minister of International Cooperation, in July 2009. It remained on the Minister’s desk for five months.
- In September 2009, when our agreement had still not been signed, we were granted a two-month extension on our previous contribution agreement. During this time we received no communication from the Minister’s office. On November 30, the last day of this extension, we received the phone call from CIDA informing us that KAIROS would not be funded.

CIDA priorities and human rights

- With the support of CIDA staff, and in collaboration with our partners, our proposal was developed within two priority sectors of CIDA: promoting good governance (human rights) and advancing ecological sustainability (reducing the impact of climate change and addressing land degradation). Our proposal was deemed by CIDA staff to be within CIDA criteria and priorities throughout the approval process.
- Our proposal places a strong priority on advancing human rights. States are obliged to protect, respect and ensure fulfillment of human rights. Canada is expected to collaborate to fulfill these rights, including providing international assistance for these efforts. Our proposal is one way in which the government can demonstrate that it is providing support to the fulfillment of rights around the globe.
- Our focus on human rights is completely consistent with the ODA Accountability Act which came into effect in June of 2008. The act requires all Official Development Assistance "to be consistent with international human rights standards."

Impact of the decision

- This decision, if it is not reversed, will have a devastating impact on the work and well-being of our partners overseas, the hundreds of marginalized communities and the thousands of people who have benefited from their programs. Furthermore, it will decimate our education program in Canada, which enhances Canadian’s commitment to international cooperation.
- KAIROS supports partners in countries such as Sudan, the Congo, the Philippines, and Colombia who face extreme human rights and humanitarian crises as well as political repression. Many of our overseas partners risk their lives for the work that they do. KAIROS’ accompaniment, advocacy and education work with partners has saved lives.
- In the Congo, KAIROS funding means a women’s legal clinic to address rampant gender-based violence will be established. Loss of this funding to our critical human rights partner, Héritiers de la Justice, compromises this critical work to fight rape as a weapon of war.
- In Sudan, KAIROS is working with Sudan Council of Churches (SCC) and its members to mobilize greater action for democratic peace. The full implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement in Sudan is essential to ensuring that basic humanitarian, food security, livelihood needs of women and children and their communities will be met. Without KAIROS funding, the SCC will not be able to adequately pressure parties to implement this peace agreement. In a country with very weak civil society networks, SCC has been an essential voice in negotiating and implementing peace.
- In Indonesia, KAIROS, through CIDA, supports KONTRAS: The Commission for Disappearances and Victims of Violence. KONTRAS is highly recognized as a credible human rights organization in Indonesia and internationally, working specifically on human rights monitoring, documentation and advocacy. KONTRAS plays a lead role in ensuring the Indonesian government investigates past military abuses and compensates victims (and the families of victims) of human rights violations and military atrocities. Without KAIROS funding, KONTRAS will lose ground on the achievements made over the years in widening democratic space in Indonesia and will be unable to hold the Indonesian government accountable for national and international human rights covenants.
- In Colombia, KAIROS supports a grassroots women’s human rights organization, Organizacion Femenina Popular (OFP), in Magdela Medio, a region that has experienced some of the worst human rights abuses in Colombia. The OFP now has a membership of 5,000 women in the region of Magdalena Medio and runs 22 women’s centers, offering programs which include integrated community development, human rights of women, health and legal services, and education. In a recent letter the OFP appealed to Minister Oda to continue funding to KAIROS, "so that our sons and daughters grow up without being recruited by armed groups, kidnapped or assassinated - so that they have the right to a dignified life."

This message was sent from KAIROS Canada to Patricia Smiley . It was sent from: KAIROS, 310 Dupont Street Suite 200 , Toronto, ON M5R 1V9, Canada. You can modify/update your subscription via the link below. Email Marketing by <http://www.icontact.com/a.pl/144186

;http://www.icontact.com/a.pl/144186

Dia de Muertos: From NTX/EFE via Noroeste.com.mx

2009-11-02T10:54:00.001-05:00

FESTIVIDAD

Día de muertos link to Noroeste.com.mx

La celebración del Día de Muertos en México es una mezcla entre la cultura prehispánica y el catolicismo, luego de que la Iglesia, a través del tiempo, le ha añadido simbolismos de esa religión

NTX/EFE

01-11-2009



A diferencia de Europa, el Día de Muertos tiene en México un cariz de fiesta, donde se compite por realizar el mejor altar. Fotografía: EFE/NTX.

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MÉXICO (NTX/EFE)._ La celebración del Día de Muertos en México es una mezcla entre la cultura prehispánica y el catolicismo, luego de que la Iglesia, a través del tiempo, le ha añadido simbolismos de esa religión.
Esta fiesta está llena de costumbres como colocar un altar en memoria de los difuntos, ya sea en casa, los panteones, las lápidas o en los templos y celebrar una misa en honor a los fallecidos.
Los altares u ofrendas son adornadas con papel picado de colores, flores de cempasúchil, comida variada, veladoras, dulces, bebidas y fotografías, pero principalmente las cosas que en vida le gustaba a la persona degustar.
El 1 y el 2 de noviembre los feligreses acuden a la mayoría de los templos para solicitar que se rece por sus difuntos, ya sea en forma comunitaria o si las condiciones económicas lo permiten, pagar para que se oficie una misa en su honor.
Notimex realizó un recorrido por dos templos para investigar los precios de las "donaciones" que se solicitan para estos dos días, a fin de que en las misas que se ofician se nombre a los que ya no existen en este mundo.
En el templo de San Hipólito, ubicado en avenida Hidalgo 107, colonia Centro, la petición colectiva por los deudos es de 35 pesos el 1 de noviembre y para las misas individuales es de 250 pesos, pero se solicita con un mes de anticipación.
En la parroquia de San Fernando, en la colonia Guerrero, delegación Cuauhtémoc, la petición colectiva para el 2 de noviembre, se hace mediante donativos que se colocan dentro de un sobre con los nombres de los fallecidos.
En otras fechas el familiar tiene que dar 25 pesos, pero en la celebración de los Fieles Difuntos la solicitud se hace en sobre cerrado, mientras que las misas individuales "rezadas" cuestan 100 pesos y las "cantadas" 250.
La festividad del Día de Muertos es una fusión entre los rituales prehispánicos en su honor y las celebraciones católicas del Día de los Fieles Difuntos y Todos los Santos.
Este festejo se divide en dos partes: la primera es el 1 de noviembre, el día de Todos los Santos, esta fecha se celebra a los santos que tuvieron una vida ejemplar, así como a los niños que murieron.
El 2 de noviembre, Día de los Fieles Difuntos, se celebra a los muertos adultos, esta fiesta es mayor en comparación con la del día primero.
En la antigüedad las fiestas para los muertos se realizaban en julio y agosto, y duraban 20 días y un mes, respectivamente. La celebración de los difuntos niños se llamaba "Miccailhuitontli" y la de los adultos "Xocohuetzi".
Con la llegada de los misioneros y el Evangelio, la costumbre de festejar a los muertos prevaleció mezclada con la doctrina cristiana.
La muerte para los indígenas no tenía las connotaciones de la religión católica, como el cielo y el infierno, se creía que las almas de las personas tenían rumbos determinados según como habían fallecido y no por su comportamiento en la vida.
La ofrenda a los difuntos y todos los ritos que rodean la celebración encierran una riqueza simbólica que constituye un canto a la vida.
La flor de cempasúchil representa al Sol, símbolo de Dios que hace florecer la vida de las almas y la comida es un signo de comunión.
La cruz sobre el altar significa todos los caminos, los cuatro puntos cardinales; los brazos de la cruz llevan a Dios y las velas significan la iluminación del camino para que las almas lleguen a disfrutar de la luz divina.

Niños mexicanos miran a la Muerte entre dulces y calacas
Los niños mexicanos sostienen divertidos la mirada a "La Parca" en una feria que los hace protagonistas del tradicional Día de Muertos y que los sumerge entre calacas sonrientes, dulces y esqueletos de peluches.
Los pequeños son los protagonistas de la novena Feria de las Calacas que, con una muestra artesanal, espectáculos, una instalación artística y, por supuesto, la ofrenda de muertos, organiza este año el Centro Nacional de las Artes mexicano, CENART.
"Es un tema que a veces no se aborda con los niños y que es parte de la vida, ésta es una oportunidad para hablarlo y conocer su propia mirada", indicó Miriam Martínez Garza, coordinadora nacional del programa cultural infantil "Alas y Raíces", eje central de la feria este año.
Por espacio de cinco días, del 29 de octubre al 2 de noviembre, durante las tradicionales celebraciones del Día de Muertos mexicano, el CENART programa una serie de actividades enfocadas a que los más pequeños comprendan el sentido de recordar a los que se fueron.
La parte más divertida de la feria es la instalación del artista sonoro Arcángel Constantini que consiste en una pequeña carpa a oscuras donde cuelgan en cadenas varios esqueletos de peluches, y que reaccionan con un quejido ante la luz.
Los niños, con una vela en la mano, recorren a tientas el espacio para descubrir la presencia de las ánimas de los peluches cuando la luz pasa junto a ellos. "Es una reflexión sobre la vida después de la muerte también para los objetos", explicó la coordinadora.
"Este año estamos iniciando un diálogo de las tradiciones prehispánicas, lo muy mexicano, con el mundo más contemporáneo", explicó Martínez Garza sobre el aire de "innovación" del que se impregna el evento.
También pueden grabar un mensaje para sus muertos más queridos, que luego se escucha en una incesante cacofonía junto a la ofrenda.
Ésta, coronada por las tradicionales calaveras de azúcar y bañada en el humo de incienso, fue construida este año con cerca de 300 cajas de madera.
Conectan sus distintas partes varias cuerdas con pinzas para que quien lo desee pueda llevar las fotografías de sus allegados fallecidos y rendirle homenaje en la ofrenda del Cenart.
Asimismo, hay espectáculos de payasos centrados en la muerte, desde un punto de vista lúdico e irónico, y se celebrará, como cada año en la feria, el Paseo de los Muertos, una escenificación oral con cuentos de terror e historias tradicionales, mecidos por una banda sonora y a lo largo de toda la cañada del centro.
Junto a la ofrenda se sitúan una veintena de artesanos, llegados de varios estados del País, como Estado de México y Oaxaca, que ofrecen productos tradicionales del Día de Muertos: calacas, muñecos de esqueletos vestidos en un sinfín de formas, calaveras de azúcar y chocolate y otros dulces.
"Tardo entre 8 y 10 días en hacer una calaca", explicó Melania, una artesana que achaca al clima la rapidez con la que puede secarse la silicona con la que consolida sus figuras de papel y palitos de madera.
Cerca, varias vendedoras exhiben los coloridos dulces hechos con leche y panes de muerto que dan sabor a esta jornada a medio camino entre un mundo y el otro.
Entre lo más vistoso está toda una amplia gama de golosinas modeladas como coloridas frutas, que combinan el gusto del dulce de leche con el del vegetal que representan.
A diferencia de Europa, la jornada de Difuntos tiene en México un cariz de fiesta: además de visitar las tumbas de los seres queridos fallecidos, se canta, se come y se bebe, y se celebra su recuerdo.
México se cubre de calacas, popularizadas por el grabador José Guadalupe Posada, 1852-1913, que ofrecen una visión menos dramática de "La Catrina" o "La Flaca", nombres que se dan a la muerte.
Es tradicional que se coloquen ofrendas en las casas y en muchas instituciones, que a veces adquieren una dimensión espectacular. Los altares de muertos recuerdan, entre ofrecimientos y fotografías, a los seres queridos.
Según una encuesta reciente, el 83 por ciento de los mexicanos prefiere celebrar esta tradición propia frente al 6 por ciento que se ve más atraído por la anglosajona Halloween y sus disfraces de monstruos.

Mestizaje de dos culturas
El altar del Día de Muertos es el resultado del mestizaje o hibridación que nació luego de la conquista española, señaló Carlos Serrano, director del Instituto de Investigaciones Antropológicas de la UNAM.
Serrano precisó que esta conmemoración data desde hace tres mil años, cuando las culturas azteca, maya, purépecha, náhuatl y totonaca, originarias del centro del territorio mexicano celebraban a los muertos durante todo el noveno mes del calendario azteca.
Con la llegada de los españoles comenzaron las ofrendas tal y como las conocemos hoy en día, se tienen registros que en 1563 el religioso Sebastián de Aparicio, colocó la primera en la Hacienda de Careaga y fue reproducida posteriormente en otras regiones del país.
También fueron introducidos nuevos objetos como el tradicional pan de muerto, que tiene sus orígenes en el siglo XVIII, con la intención de incrementar el consumo de la harina de trigo.
Las tradicionales calaveritas de chocolate y de azúcar que se venden en los mercados de México también tienen su razón de ser en las culturas prehispánicas de quienes conservaban los cráneos como trofeos y para mostrarlos en los rituales que simbolizaban la muerte y el renacimiento.

Patrimonio de la humanidad
La Organización de las Naciones Unidas para la Educación, la Ciencia y la Cultura, Unesco, declaró en 2003 a la festividad indígena del Día de Muertos como Obra Maestra del Patrimonio Cultural de la Humanidad debido a su riqueza cultural.
La proclamación de la Unesco, además de premiar y reconocer la importancia de esta fecha, pretende salvaguardarla como una tradición que debe revitalizarse y permanecer dentro del inventario mundial de ese patrimonio.
También se debe a que la celebración del Día de Muertos ha trascendido más allá de las fiestas populares, abarca áreas del arte como la pintura y la literatura, pues hay creaciones artísticas que músicos, pintores y poetas mexicanos han generado en los últimos siglos.
Ejemplo de ello es "La Catrina", de José Guadalupe Posada, inmortalizada y dada a conocer mundialmente por el muralista Diego Rivera, quien la coloca como personaje central de su fresco "Sueño de una tarde dominical en la Alameda" o por Octavio Paz en su libro, El laberinto de la Soledad, en el que dedica un capítulo a este día.

Xilitla: Las Pozas and Gardens of Edward James

2009-10-14T10:29:00.002-04:00

Las Pozas, Xilitla San Luis Potosi (Mexico)

In 1965, Canadian CIASPers were invited to a day of relaxation at Las Pozas. This happened at the end of the summer and prior to returning to Canada. No one remembers who was responsible for the invitation, or who served as the host. But all students who visited the site for a day of swimming and "barbacoa" have vivid memories of that day.

For more in English, see Margaret Hook's book "Surreal Eden: Edward James and Las Pozas"

(Surreal Eden. Princeton Architectural Press, New York, 2007.)

Surreal Eden: Edward James & Las Pozas traces the trajectory of Edward James, the English surrealist, poet, patron of Dalí and Magritte, who created 'Las Pozas' -a homage to surrealism, on a swathe of rainforest in the mountains of Mexico. The story of how a frustrated artist attempts to build an earthly paradise and ends up creating an outstanding work of art. Photos by Sally Mann, Graciela Iturbide, Chris Rauschenberg & others.

Also published in a Spanish edition: Edward James y Las Pozas

'Surreal Eden' does what many good art biographies and histories do: remind us of what gets forgotten and left out of 'official' canons."

- RainTaxi

"James's architectural art had no use beyond its own fantastic forms. It was both process and spectacle, and inspiration for inspiration."

- The New York Times

"a visually luscious book, the art writer ... Margaret Hooks provides a monument to James's fantastical life and works and a blueprint for his subconscious ..."

- Vogue Living

From Milenio.com.mx http://impreso.milenio.com/print/8656748

En riesgo, el Jardín Escultórico de Xilitla By frodriguez

Created 10/14/2009 - 01:04

“Si en este momento tuviera que enfrentar los estragos de un huracán como Gilberto, desaparecería”: Gerardo Estrada. Foto: Claudia Guadarrama

Junto a la incorporación de este espacio al listado de Monumentos en Peligro 2010, elaborado por World Monuments Fund, Gerardo Estrada lanza una alerta acerca de los problemas que enfrenta.

Consciente de la difícil situación económica del país, pero con la responsabilidad de preservar uno de los monumentos más singulares del país, Gerardo Estrada, secretario técnico del Fondo Xilitla y responsable de haber presentado la candidatura del Jardín Escultórico Las Pozas ante la World Monuments Fund (WMF), lanzó un llamado urgente para que esta obra de arte sea recuperada de inmediato.

Es claro y preciso en su planteamiento. Este monumento localizado en una montaña en el poblado de Xilitla, en el estado de San Luis Potosí, con cerca de 40 hectáreas y aproximadamente 200 esculturas de inspiración surrealista, entre ellas: El palacio de bambú, Homenaje a Max Ernst y Tina de baño con forma de ojo, es un sitio excepcional que conjuga el arte surrealista y la naturaleza, pero que por estar a la intemperie se ha vuelto vulnerable y corre el riesgo de desaparecer.

“Si en este momento tuviera que enfrentar los estragos de un huracán como Gilberto, desaparecería”. Estrada habla de las prioridades de este sitio, que la semana pasada fue incluido en la lista de Monumentos en Peligro de 2010 (World Watch Monuments/WWM) de la la World Monuments Fund.

“Esta lista es una especie de petición de socorro”, es un llamado para la preservación de este monumento que es reconocido por su valor artístico y por su singularidad como parte del patrimonio cultural del mundo”.

De ahí la necesidad de convocar a la sociedad civil, para que contribuya con recursos económicos a la restauración y mantenimiento de Las Pozas.

Por todo lo anterior, Estrada precisa que se debe salvaguardar esta obra de arte que sólo se puede comparar con la obra de Gaudí, en Barcelona, España; el Ideal Palace, de Ferdinand Cheval, ubicado al sur de Francia, o las Watts Towers construidas por el italiano Simón Rodia en California.

Primera Fase
La primera parte del programa de recuperación del Jardín Escultórico Las Pozas, del artista inglés Edward James, se emprendió desde hace dos años bajo la vigilancia del Fondo Xilitla, que encabezan la Fundación Pedro y Elena Hernández, Cemex, el gobierno de San Luis Potosí y la Cámara de Diputados.

Antes de buscar la inscripción en la lista de los 100 monumentos del mundo en peligro, el Fondo Xilitla se propuso comprar los terrenos —valuados en 2 millones de dólares— heredados por James a su amigo Plutarco Gastélum, para poder intervenirlos.

Cuenta la leyenda popular que Edward James era un aristócrata inglés hijo bastardo del rey Eduardo de Inglaterra. Vivía en Estados Unidos, pero al visitar México se enamoró de la Huasteca potosina, decidiendo construir su propio Edén en esta zona.

Luego de recrear esta historia romántica, Estrada explica que para empezar los trabajos de mantenimiento, se procedió a habilitarlo para su recorrido, y se empezaron a señalar algunas veredas por donde ahora puedan caminar los visitantes, para evitar que afecten el entorno.

“Hasta antes de nuestra intervención, quienes lo recorrían lo hacían sin ningún cuidado. En consecuencia, las visitas masivas que en Semana Santa contabilizan una asistencia de alrededor de 8 mil personas, por años contribuyeron a su deterioro.”

Estrada destaca que la restauración y conservación de Las Pozas significa una gran oportunidad para mantener viva una muestra excepcional del surrealismo en el mundo, así como demostrar la riqueza y las infinitas posibilidades de un movimiento artístico que definió los caminos del arte en el siglo XX, mostrando su influencia en un contexto absolutamente diferente del que había surgido.

A los riesgos que la naturaleza plantea a Las Pozas, se vienen a sumar hoy los de carácter social, pues al irse conociendo, crece cada día más la afluencia de visitantes, con las consiguientes amenazas que provoca la presencia de multitudes en sitios artísticos frágiles como este, así como los intereses comerciales que surgen alrededor del lugar y que no consideran la necesidad de mantener en la medida de lo posible las obras y los sitios patrimoniales tal como fueron concebidos.

Sitios amenazados

- Cada dos años la World Monuments Fund (WMF) da a conocer la lista World Monuments Watch de los 100 sitios del patrimonio cultural en peligro.

- Es un llamado de atención ante la amenaza que sufre algún lugar artístico o arquitectónico por deterioro natural o abandono.

- También se incluyeron en la lista: el acueducto de Tembleque que va de Zempoala a Otumba, el templo de San Bartolo Soyaltepec en Oaxaca, el templo de San Felipe Tindaco en Tlaxiaco, así como el templo y convento de los Santos Reyes y el convento de la Comunidad en Meztitlán.

- Entre otros sitios considerados están lugares como Machu Picchu (Perú), el Teatro Colón y el Centro Histórico de Buenos Aires (Argentina) y la Catedral de San Jaime en Jerusalem (Israel).

México. Leticia Sánchez

Xilitla: Las Pozas is Deteriorating

2009-10-08T14:50:00.014-04:00

Un jardín lleno de valor... en riesgo
El conjunto escultórico de "Las Pozas", en San Luis Potosí, fue incluido por la organización World monuments Watch en su lista de sitios en riesgo

NOTIMEX
EL UNIVERSAL
JUEVES 08 DE OCTUBRE DE 2009

La organización internacional World monuments Watch reconoció el valor artístico del Jardín escultórico de "Las Pozas", que construyó el filántropo y artista inglés Edward James en la Huasteca potosina, al incluirlo hoy en su lista de monumentos en peligro de 2010.

De acuerdo con un comunicado, en la última reunión del Consejo de esta organización internacional dedicada a la conservación y preservación del patrimonio artístico y monumental del mundo, se seleccionó a este espacio construido en los años 60.

De México además se incluyeron en la lista el acueducto de Tembleque que va de Zempoala a Otumba, el Templo de San Bartolo Soyaltepec en Oaxaca, el Templo de San Felipe Tindaco en Tlaxiaco, así como el Templo y Convento de los Santos Reyes y el Convento de la Comunidad en Meztitlán.

Estos nombres se suman a los de otros lugares como Machu Picchu (Perú), el Teatro Colón y el Centro Histórico de Buenos Aires (Argentina), la catedral de San Jaime en Jerusalem (Israel), la ruta de Santiago de Compostela, el Templo Expiatorio de la Sagrada Familia en Barcelona y la ciudad vieja de µvila (España).

La World Monuments Fund (WMF) anuncia cada dos años la lista del World Monuments Watch de los 100 sitios del patrimonio cultural en peligro, para llamar la atención de la comunidad internacional ante la amenaza que sufre algún lugar artístico o arquitectónico por el deterioro natural o por el abandono.

Desde hace varios años esta fundación está dedicada a preservar el patrimonio cultural alrededor del mundo, de ahí que esta lista se convierta en un llamado a la acción para el rescate y preservación de los monumentos y sitios en peligro, que constituyen parte del patrimonio cultural del mundo.

Con la selección de Xilitla en la lista del WWM se reconoce el valor artístico de este espacio único en México, que desde hace dos años está a cargo del Fondo Xilitla A.C. Con el apoyo de la Fundación Pedro y Elena Hernández, Cemex, el gobierno de San Luis Potosí y la Cámara de Diputados.

La asociación civil se ha encargado de preservar el jardín escultórico creado por Edward James y proteger la flora de la zona.

Al conocer la noticia, el Fondo Xilitla, que preside Damian Fraser, señaló que la selección del jardín escultórico "Las Pozas" representa un importante y significativo reconocimiento al valor patrimonial y artístico de este espacio, y abre las puertas para que diferentes organizaciones y asociaciones internacionales apoyen su preservación y conservación.

"Esto permitirá que diversos sectores e instituciones confluyan en torno a este importante espacio mediante esfuerzos de cooperación internacional para asegurar la preservación histórica, cultural y social de este jardín escultórico a través de la asistencia técnica y el flujo de recursos que permitan su conservación".

Gerardo Estrada, secretario técnico del Fondo Xilitla, y responsable de presentar la candidatura del jardín escultórico de Xilitla ante la WWM, destacó que el anuncio ayudará a recaudar los fondos necesarios para su preservación, además de que centra la atención sobre este espacio ubicado en la huasteca potosina, que se ha convertido en un icono cultural en la región".

El jardín escultórico "Las Pozas" cuenta con cerca de 40 hectáreas con alrededor de 200 construcciones de inspiración surrealista, entre las que destacan 36 por sus colores y dimensiones, entre ellas "El Palacio de Bambú", "Homenaje a Max Ernst" y "Tina de Baño con forma de ojo".

"Las Pozas" está abierta al turismo, que puede visitar las magnificas esculturas y las nueve albercas que se forman en las cascadas que caen a lo largo del río que cruza la propiedad.

Lesley Margaret Soden

2009-10-08T09:42:00.001-04:00

THURSDAY OCTOBER 8, 2009

LESLEY MARGARET SODEN

Mother, daughter, sister, friend, teacher, artist, seeker. Born July 29, 1953, in Montreal. Died Jan. 11 in Toronto of breast cancer, aged 55.

ANN SODEN

Lesley Soden bounded into the world exuberant and larger than life, engaged in everyone and everything.

At 18, Lesley put her innate charm to work while travelling in Southeast Asia with her sister and brother-in-law. On the flight to Manila, she captivated the president of a large company, who sent his limousine to fetch her and her companions for dinner. There Lesley regaled the guests with a psychological game, then adroitly analyzed everyone's responses and was given an islands tour as a thank you.

Lesley returned to Canada and put her psychology degree from McGill University to work with disadvantaged teens at a community centre in Montreal.

At 40, Lesley was given a party and an incredible quilt. Squares of white cloth were sent all over the globe to be decorated by friends and family aged 7 to 70, many insisting they had no artistic talent. Nevertheless the squares were embroidered, silk screened and painted, then made into a beautiful quilt. This quilt inspired a conference at the University of Toronto's Ontario Institute for Studies in Education on the power of community and purpose to inspire people.

Always a superb teacher, Lesley's professors in the master of art history program at the University of Western Ontario in London recall how she made a copy to scale of one of Piero della Francesca's immense frescoes to share what she had learned while studying in Italy. At her doctoral thesis defence at OISE, she dared to hand out pencils and pads to the examiners and invited them to engage in spontaneous image-making - to help them understand her thesis on spontaneous art as a vehicle for self-awareness.

Later that year, Lesley and her love, Michael Moody, produced her crowning achievement, their son, Jack Moody.

Lesley went on to become an award-winning public speaker, a micro-entrepreneur who helped businesses harness their creativity and a beloved teacher at Seneca College in business ethics and applied communication.

She could be a trying person at times in the best way, calling upon people to really live, question and wonder. She delighted in people's successes no matter how small, shared their pain and was passionate about helping people discover themselves.

But we remember best the down-home Lesley who taught the neighbourhood kids to play guitar, dance and paint; organized school reunions; fashioned elaborate costumes for Jack, who wanted to be an item of food each Halloween; and was vibrant and present for every conversation. When asked about the meaning of life in her final days, she said, "To love and to be loved is all that matters." She had succeeded.

Ann Soden is Lesley's sister.

Phil Little: Memories of El Rayo (Pisaflores), Hidalgo

2009-09-02T16:41:00.000-04:00

Phil Little has posted an account of his time 40 years ago in El Rayo (Pisaflores) Hidalgo. He's managed to dig up some interesting pictures to accompany his remembrance, and all CIASP'ers will greatly appreciate it. The story is posted to another blog, but is easily accessed at the link http://thelittlefarm.blogspot.com/2009/09/chance-encounter-with-our-mexican-past.html

Enjoy this, and consider adding your own pictures and thoughts.

Another reminder about the Facebook site for CIASP. There is a Facebook group named CIASP and anyone can join this. The advantage of the Facebook site is that it will allow everyone to directly contact anyone on the list (without using an intermediary to provide email addresses).

Facebook should be used with caution! If you are just creating an account, you should provide the minimal amount of personal information. You should also make certain that you minimize your "visibility to others" by choosing the preferences that locks out many details to strangers. Finally, do not use the applications and other programs that can be added to your Facebook account. Most privacy issues are associated with the "add-on" applications.

Malverde: the Origin of this Cult

2009-08-10T09:42:00.004-04:00

from Proceso.com.mx 9 de agosto de 2009
Impreso 1710 | reportajes
Malverde: el origen del culto

NIZA RIVERA

Relacionado como el santo de los narcos, Malverde es en la actualidad una figura venerada "mucho antes de que existiera la prohibición de drogas en el país", dice el investigador Luis Astorga Almanzá, cuya línea de trabajo es la sociohistoria del narcotráfico en México.
Although he’s thought of as a narco-saint, in reality Malverde was revered “long before the existence of drug prohibition in Mexico” says researcher Luis Astorga Almanzá, who has studied the sociohistory of narcotraffic in Mexico for many years.

"Se está estigmatizando a una gran cantidad de gente que cree en Malverde y que nada tiene qué ver con el tráfico de drogas. La historia precede a la prohibición de las drogas, era un bandido social en la época del porfiriato cuando no estaban prohibidas algunas plantas que ahora lo están y cuyo comercio era legal", según explica y se puede apreciar mejor en su estudio El siglo de las drogas: El narcotráfico, del porfiriato al nuevo milenio (2005).
“A large group of Malverde worshippers are stigmatized even though they have nothing to do with drug traffic. The history of this worship antedates drug prohibition, and refers to a social bandit during the Pofiriato dictatorship at a time when drugs that are now illegal were not prohibited commerce”, an argument more fully elaborated in his study “The Century of Drugs: Narcotraffic from the Porfiriato to the New Millenium” (2005)
"Lo que hizo más visible la creencia de Malverde fue el poder económico y la ostentación de los traficantes que creen en él, de ahí que medios de comunicación lo hayan calificado de 'narco-santo', pero no toman en cuenta las creencias de gente que nada tiene que ver con el tráfico de drogas, sino con la creencia que se desarrolla de figuras fuera de la Iglesia católica que son veneradas por gente, generalmente de estrato humilde, que le atribuye una serie de milagros.”
“What made the Malverde worship visible was economic power and the blatan observations of traffickers who believed in him, and later by a media effect that validated him as a “narco-saint”. Unfortunately, this doesn’t take into account the belief of people who have nothing to do with drugs, nor the common practice of worshiping figures not acknowledged by the Catholic Church, especially when it involves people in humble circumstances who have attributed miracles to those figures.”
Investigador del Instituto de Investigaciones Sociales de la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), doctorado en sociología por la Universidad de París I y coordinador de la cátedra UNESCO, Transformaciones económicas y sociales relacionadas con el problema internacional, Astorga, de origen sinaloense, realizó uno de sus primeras publicaciones sobre Malverde en Mitología del narcotraficante en México (1995).
Researcher at the Institute of Social Investigation at the Autonomous University of Mexico, with a doctorate in sociology from the University of Paris, and currently coordinator of the UNESCO division “Economic and Social Transformations linked to International problems, Astorga was born in Sinaloa, and first wrote about Malverde in 1995 in “The Mythology of the Narcotrafficker in Mexico”
"En términos sociológicos, relacionar a Malverde sólo con el narcotráfico es privilegiar una parte del fenómeno, la más visible o la más espectacular, la que llama más la atención.”
In sociological terms, to link Malverde only to narcotraffic is to recognize only one part of the phenomenon — the most visible or the most spectacular— that which brings the most attention!”
Jesús Juárez Mazzo, un bandido generoso -como Chucho El Roto-, que robaba a los ricos y cuyo botín repartía a los pobres en la época del porfiriato, según se cuenta, y cuya fecha de muerte se acepta como el 3 de mayo de 1909, día de su fiesta, es descrito así por la investigadora y crítica de arte Ida Rodríguez Prampolini, El culto a Jesús Malverde, editado por Contrapunto en Veracruz:
The history of Jesus Juarez Mazzo, a benevolent bandit — like that of Chucho El Roto—who robbed from the rich and gave to the poor during the Porfiriato period, and whose feast day is the day of his death on May 3rd, 1909 is elaborated more completely by researcher and art critic Ida Rodriguez Prampolini in her book “the Cult of Jesus Malverde” (published by Contrapunto in Veracruz)”
"La leyenda dice que después de muerto su cuerpo permaneció colgado en un mezquite por órdenes del gobernador, y para escarmiento de sus seguidores no debería dársele sepultura. Nadie se atrevía a bajarlo, hasta que un arriero que pasó por el lugar lo hizo, cubriendo los restos con piedras, no sin antes pedir a su espíritu que le ayudara a encontrar una mula cargada de oro que tenía perdida, la encontró y comenzó a difundir el culto de Malverde milagroso."
“Legend says that after his death, his body was hung in a mesquite tree by order of the governor, and he was forbidden burial as a warning to Malverde’s followers. No one dared to take the body down until a passing mule-skinner did so, and covered his remains with rocks, but not before asking Malverde’s spirit to find a missing mule that was loaded with gold. The mule was recovered, and the cult of a miraculous Malverde began to spread.
Ahí mismo se explica que el nombre de "Malverde" no está bien fundamentado, algunos dicen que era porque robaba envuelto en hojas de plátano para perderse entre la naturaleza tropical de la zona; otros más hacen referencia a las supersticiones del lugar, pues al diablo le llaman el "verde", es decir, un mal diablo. O quizá la más acertada en referencia a la hoja de mariguana como "el mal verde".
The same author explains that the origin of Malverde’s name is not well documented, and some say that it came from a practice of disguising himself with banana leaves to elude capture amongst the natural vegetation of the region; others make reference to the superstitions of the place, and the devil was called “the green one” — the bad devil. Or perhaps, it is a reference to the marijuana leaf which was called the “bad green”.
Astorga explica que la creencia común de esta figura se desarrolló porque la mayoría de los traficantes de clases populares lo adoptaron por medio de familiares y generaciones anteriores que compartían la creencia, independientemente del trabajo al que se dedicaban.
Astorga explains that common worship of this figure evolved when a majority of traffickers from popular (lower) classes adopted it through their contact with relatives and earlier generations who had shared the belief, independently of the work they did.
"La gente que lo asocia únicamente con eso (tráfico de drogas) está perdiendo de vista la característica antropológica y la dimensión histórica, que es importante para entender el porqué de la persistencia de la creencia."
People who link this belief only to drug traffic miss the broader anthropological characteristics and historical aspects playing a major part in the persistence of this worship.
La figura completa del santo porta un sombrero, una escuadra colgada en el cuello y una faja de dinero que le sale de los bolsos, y su rostro es una mezcla de Pedro Infante y Jorge Negrete.
A complete image of this saint wears a hat, has a bandana around his neck, and a stack of bills stuffed in his pockets; and his face is a blending of those matinee and musical idols Pedro Infante and Jorge Negrete.
El personaje fue llevado al teatro en Sinaloa y recorrió con éxito varios estados del país, obra célebre del dramaturgo sinaloense Óscar Liera (1946-1990), titulada El jinete de la Divina Providencia, basada precisamente en la leyenda urbana del santo y publicada en 2008 por el Fondo de Cultura Económica (FCE) en Teatro Escogido, Óscar Liera.
The figure of Malverde was brought to the stage in Sinaloa and had a long successful run in several Mexican states, through a play called “The Horseman of Divine Providence” by Sinaloan playwrite Oscar Liera (1946-1990), and which included the urban legends of this saint. The play was also published and distributed in 2008 by the Fondo de Cultura Economica (FCE).

En referencia a la comercialización de imágenes o figuras alusivas al mundo del narco, Astorga dice que "vivimos en una sociedad capitalista, una sociedad de consumo en la que todo es comerciable, no habría por qué ser distinto a otros países, a menos que existieran alguna serie de impedimentos, pero aquí no es posible".
With respect to the commercialization of Malverde’s image and other allusions to the narco world, Astorga says that “we live in a capitalist society just like other countries, and we’re a consumer society where everything is for sale unless roadblocks are put in the way, and that isn’t possible here”
El investigador explica que es erróneo referirse con conceptos académicos al respecto, pues en su opinión son etiquetas mediáticas que construyen un lenguaje especial:
This social researcher explains that it would be a mistake to try to interpret with academic concepts, because in his opinion these ideas are media labels that fit it into their special language.
"No hay mucha imaginación al respecto, con el prefijo de 'narco' se hace referencia a la visión de lo que los medios piensan es el mundo del narcotraficante, pero no hay nada más."
“It’s not very imaginative in that respect, since the prefix “narco” is added to whatever the media wants to link to the narcotraffic world, but it remains little more than a label”
Comenta que la creencia en Malverde, en la Santa Muerte, y en otros santos también asociados al mundo de la delincuencia, dependen del "origen y trayectoria social, del capital cultural y, por supuesto, de la jerarquía que tienen al respecto; en el mundo de los traficantes, mientras más alta es la jerarquía más se acercan a la de los santos oficiales. Los santos o figuras religiosas en las que creen, mientras más alto nivel tienen en el negocio, se van acercando más a la sociedad legal".
He added that belief in Malverde, in Holy Death, and other saints linked to the world of crime, comes from an “origin and social trajectory, from cultural capital, and certainly sits within an established hierarchy of importance; and in the drug-trafficking world, the worship of “official saints” is more important. Even so, saints or religious figures fall further down the scale of importance than does business, and in that respect narcotraffickers share a great deal with a legal society”.
Astorga Almanzá también es miembro del Sistema Nacional de Investigadores y de la Academia Mexicana de Ciencias. Entre sus publicaciones destacan: Drogas sin fronteras (2003) y Seguridad, traficantes y militares (2007), además de diversos artículos en revistas científicas. En abril de 2008, se realizó en Sinaloa el Foro Internacional sobre Drogas Ilícitas, donde participó con una conferencia magistral en referencia a este último libro.
Luis Astorga Almanzá is also a member of the National System of Researchers and of the Mexican Academy of Science. Several of his pubications are widely recognized for their excellence: “Drugs without Borders” (2003) and “Security, traffickers and the military” (2007) and he has also published many studied in distinguished articles in academic journals. In April of 2008, he participated in the International Forum Examining Illegal Drugs, where he was a keynote speaker on themes described in his 2007 book.
Acerca de la Sesión Especial de la Asamblea General de la Organización de las Naciones Unidas (UNGASS) sobre drogas, mediante el Segmento de Alto Nivel de la Comisión de Estupefacientes, donde se discutirán las políticas de control de drogas, según destaca su página web, el investigador comenta:
In speaking about the Special Session of the General United Nations Assembly over drugs, he is chair of a section of the High Commission on Narcotics, where politics of drug control are considered. On his web page, Astorga says:
"Yo creo que aquí se van a plantear varias tendencias sobre drogas y democracia, una posición que pretende tomar medidas adoptadas por países europeos en equilibrar la política con una visión preventiva; por ejemplo, al descriminalizar el consumo de drogas, como la mariguana, hasta cierto tipo de consumo."
“I believe that this is where we can lay a groundwork for examining several trends relating to drugs and democracy, a place that can take into account many measures adopted by European countries to balance politics with their preventive vision; for example, that of decriminalizing consumption of some drugs, for instance marijuana, under some cirumstances”
En referencia a si se pronuncia a favor o en contra de la legalización de esta planta, dice: "Ese tipo de planteamientos son los que están en debate, no tiene sentido decir si estoy a favor o en contra, lo interesante es ver el estado de la discusión y lo que se plantea en los foros internacionales. Eso tiene que ver con la política de salud y un cambio en la percepción de los consumidores de drogas y los grandes traficantes que utilizan la violencia y se confrontan con el Estado."
With respect to whether or not he favours or is opposed to legalization of marijuana, he says: “Those types of proposals are on the table, and I’m not inclined to say whether I personally favour or oppose them; the most important and interesting thing is to get State get involved in a debate and to see what emerges from the international forums. This ought to be about the politics of health and a changing perceptions of drug consumers and the large traffickers using violence to confront the state.”

Translated by J. Creechan

For more information about Malverde in English, see Creechan, James H., and Jorge de la Herran-Garcia. 2005. "Without God or Law: Narcoculture and belief in Jesús Malverde." Religious Studies and Theology 24:53.

Hedging Bets Against the Swine Flu

2009-08-06T10:42:00.003-04:00

The chapel of Jesus Malverde, commonly known as the patron saint of narcotraffickers, sits across from Sinaloa State's Government Centre. The State, like all others in Mexico is planning strategy and creating policies that will minimize the impact of a predicted H1N1 pandemic. As everyone knows, most influenza outbreaks are unusual outside of the winter season — but on a day when the temperature hit 47.5 Celsius in Culiacán there were reports that at least 5,000 people had been diagnosed with an infection of the H1N1. virus.

Malverde faithful are known to hedge their bets and the prayers to this putative saint are cross-referenced to recognized saints and Catholic figures such as the Virgen of Guadalupe, San Judeo de Tadeo (figure in background is San Judeo) and others. But this picture of a visitor to the chapel seems to indicate that it might also be wise to put some faith in science and hygiene.

A report about the swine flu and the picture is from Rio Doce, a weekly periodical in Sinaloa.

Politics and the Catholic Mass

2009-08-04T17:42:00.011-04:00

Tales of 2 Countries:

and profane sacraments.

I'm certain that most Canadians read about the recent controversy involving a report about Stephen Harper and the "alleged pocketing" of Holy Communion during the funeral mass for the Right Honourable former Governor General Romeo LeBlanc. It had serious consequences for the New Brunswick newspaper St. John Telegraph-Journal—including the resignation of a scion of the powerful Irving family clan from the newspaper and an extremely rare front-page apology to the Prime Minister. (picture above from Milenio.com )

Meanwhile, in Mexico, the Mexican SSP working hand in hand with the American DEA raided a Michoacan church during Mass and held everyone at gunpoint. The action is being defended by the government and it has advanced arguments that there was special protection or tradition limits the use of such force. It did lead to 33 arrests, including that of a big fish nicknamed "La Troca" (Truck) who allegedly is the capo in charge of the largest export of synthetic drugs to the United States.

Here's an English language report of what happened last Saturday evening (August 1, 2009) during a mass to celebrate "la quinceañera" of a parishioner's family in the state of Michoacán Mexico. The federal security forces were looking for leaders of one of the 8 cartels currently involved in a bloody battle with the government and with each other. La Familia de Michoacan is a very strange group of drug dealers who specialize in supplying amphetamines and other synthetic drugs like crystal to the United States and to the Federal District. Their leaders have a messianic "bent" and have distributed documents that are treated like "revelations from god". The group became prominent and burst onto the scene when it threw 5 decapitated heads into a bar in Morelia two years ago.

Two weeks ago, it unleashed a wave of terror across Michoacan after one of its chief leaders ("la Tuta") was arrested. They targeted police and executed 16 in a few days, including 12 at one time. Their bodies were dumped in a pile beside a major highway in the State.

http://www.catholicreview.org/subpages/storyworldnew-new.aspx?action=6646

Mexican bishops criticize federal police for drug raid during Mass

By David Agren
Catholic News Service

MEXICO CITY – The Mexican Catholic bishops’ conference has criticized federal police for bursting into a Mass in Mexico’s western Michoacan state to apprehend an alleged drug-cartel lieutenant.

“We make an energetic protest against the lack of respect and the violence exercised on the part of the forces responsible for guaranteeing the security of all persons in our nation - principally in the state of Michoacan - by interrupting a religious act ... at the moment in which holy Mass is celebrated,” the bishops said in an Aug. 3 statement signed by Auxiliary Bishop Jose Gonzalez Gonzalez of Guadalajara, conference secretary-general.

“Nothing explains this kind of action inside a religious place and much less in these moments where Mexico is noted internationally as an insecure and violent country,” the bishops said.

The Aug. 1 raid marked the first time that police officers have burst into a parish to arrest suspects linked to organized crime, said Father Mateo Calvillo Paz, spokesman for the Archdiocese of Morelia, which is in Michoacan.

The raid also highlighted the increasing vulnerability of church officials and the faithful of being caught up - inadvertently or not - in the ongoing federal crackdown on drug cartels.

The raid continued a high-profile crackdown on a cartel known as La Familia Michoacana in President Felipe Calderon’s home state, where some 5,500 federal police and soldiers have been dispatched to fight organized crime. By the end of July, violence from organized crime had claimed more than 250 lives in Michoacan and more than 3,500 lives nationwide, according to the newspaper Reforma.

Mexico’s Secretariat of Public Security announced Aug. 3 that federal police officers arrested 33 alleged La Familia members in the raid. The detainees include Miguel Beraza Villa - known as “La Troca” (the Truck) - a cartel lieutenant that Mexican and U.S. authorities allege was responsible for transporting tractor-trailers full of synthetic drugs such as “ice” and “crystal” from the cartel’s clandestine laboratories to the United States via Tijuana, Mexico.

Federal police, arriving in armored vehicles and accompanied by two Black Hawk helicopters, raided Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish in Apatzingan Aug. 1, interrupting a Mass being celebrated in advance of a quinceanera. Local media reported that an estimated 250 attendees and the priest - identified as Father Vicente Soto by the Michoacan news agency Quadratin - were held in the parish for six hours.

Media photos of the parish showed dislodged furniture and other minor damage to property. Attempts to reach Father Soto through the Diocese of Apatzingan were unsuccessful.

The Secretariat of Public Security said $13,000, 11 luxury vehicles, two assault rifles, 13 fragment grenades and 30 cellular phones were seized. It is uncertain whether any of the weapons were seized inside the parish. Attempts to reach a public security spokesman were unsuccessful.

Father Calvillo said police “took advantage of the Mass to assault a large number of ‘narcos’“ and avoid bloodshed, but showed ignorance of the importance of the Mass.

Mexico’s bishops, he added, “have rejected all types of protection or calls for arming themselves. It would be a false testimony.”

The threat to the well-being of prelates due to the increase in organized crime violence has been the source of some disagreement within the church. Father Hugo Valdemar, spokesman for the Archdiocese of Mexico City, told reporters in July that three bishops in Michoacan had been threatened, but both Father Calvillo and a spokesman for the Diocese of Tacambaro told Catholic News Service that the statement was false.

Both the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency lauded the Aug. 1 arrests as key accomplishments in Calderon’s battle against organized crime.

Security expert Pedro Isnardo de la Cruz of the National Autonomous University of Mexico said La Familia has shown a surprising resilience that “reflects poorly” on the president’s war on organized crime, has demonstrated a “great ability to corrupt” local governments, and also appears to be receiving financing from unknown sources beyond Mexico.

Aug 4, 2009

Curious and Strange Names of Narcotraffickers

2009-07-25T12:15:00.003-04:00

La Barbie	Las Greñas
El Mochomo	El Pozolero
Los curiosos apodos de los narcos. click on link above for original publication	The curious nicknames of narcotraffickers. The AP English language version is available at the link above.
Los apodos de los narcotraficantes pueden ser llamativos y amenazantes o surreales e inocentes; algunos reflejan el rango de un matón, mientras que otros son arrastrados desde la infancia	The nicknames of narcotraffickers can be striking and threatening or surreal and innocent; some reflect the status (rank) of a killer, while others come from their childhood
APODOS. Un caso que estremeció a México fue el del Pozolero del Teo, un sujeto que disolvió, según su confesión 300 cadaveres en sosa, los hacía pozole en argot narco .	NICKNAMES: A case that made Mexico shudder was that of “El Teo’s Soupmaker”, someone who confessed to dissolving 300 bodies in caustic soda, used to soften corn kernels, and referring to the elimination of bodies in narco jargon.
Edgar Valdez Villareal es probablemente el principal sicario de uno de los cárteles de la droga más sanguinarios de México; ¿su apodo? La Barbie.	Edgar Valdez Villareal is one of the most violent killers for one of the most bloodthirsty cartels in Mexico. His nickname? Barbie!
Sí, como la muñequita de Mattel. Sucede que Valdez nació en Estados Unidos y es rubio, con ojos azules.	That’s right, just like the Mattel doll. It happens that Valdez was born in the United States and is fair skinned with blue eyes.
En el sanguinario bajo mundo del crimen organizado La Barbie es uno de tantos personajes tenebrosos, con apodos tan singulares como Mando Conejo, Talibán o Mono.	In the bloody underworld of organized crime, “La Barbie” is one of the many sinister personalities with unique nicknames like Mando Conejo (Boss Rabbit), Taliban or Mono (Monkey, Ape)
Un caso que estremeció a México fue el del Pozolero del Teo, un sujeto que disolvió, según su confesión, 300 cadáveres en sosa: los hacía pozole en argot narco.	A case that made Mexico shudder was that of “El Teo’s Soupmaker”, someone who confessed to dissolving 300 bodies in caustic soda, used to soften corn kernels, and referring to the elimination of bodies in narco jargon.
Los apodos de los narcotraficantes pueden ser llamativos y amenazantes o surreales e inocentes. Algunos reflejan el rango de un matón, mientras que otros vienen de sus épocas de escolares. También pueden aludir a la reputación del individuo, como en el caso de un mafioso conocido como El más loco.	The nicknames of narcotraffickers can be striking and threatening or surreal and innocent; some reflect the status (rank) of a killer, while others come from their schooldays. They can also refer to the individual’s reputation, such as that of the narco known as “Craziest Man”
Los sobrenombres, como en el caso de La Barbie, con frecuencia no tienen nada que ver con la persona que lo porta.	*Many designations, such as Barbie, aren’t very descriptive of the person whom it identifies.*
Y a menudo una misma persona usa varios apodos, lo que dificulta la tarea de las autoridades. No sólo es difícil averiguar la identidad real del delincuente, sino que a veces los delatores conocen a un mafioso únicamente por su apodo.	It’s more common for the same person to use different nicknames, and this makes police work more difficult. Not only is it difficult for authorities to verify the real identity of the criminal, but even in the criminal world other people know them only by their handle.
La policía dice que incluye todos los alias posibles de cada sospechoso y hace notar que hay ciertos apodos muy comunes, usados por mucha gente, como El Gordo.	*Police say that they consider all possible nicknames used by each suspect and they have to include certain common ones used by many people — such as the ubiquitous Fatty.*
No es raro el uso de apodos femeninos, como La Barbie, que generalmente son adosados antes de que una persona demuestre lo que vale, según Homero Aridjis, autor de la novela ''Sicarios''.	It’s not unusual to use feminine nicknames, like "Barbie:, which generally were used before that person demonstrated what he’s really like, says Homero Aridjis (author of the novel “Hitmen:)
''Los apodos son como un segundo bautismo, una incorporación al mundo delictivo'', manifestó.	“The nicknames are like a second baptism, an entry into the criminal world” he believes.
También pueden ser inocentes en una cultura habituada a dar sobrenombres a la gente, incluso desde la infancia, como ocurrió con el asesino a sueldo Israel Nava, conocido toda su vida como El Ostión, hasta que fue asesinado en abril en el norte del país.	They also can be innocent acts in a culture used to giving nicknames to people, even in childhood, just like that which happened with the hired killer Israel Nava who was known all of his life as “Clam”, right up until he was assassinated last April in northern Mexico.
''En teoría, ese debería ser el apodo de alguien que no habla mucho'', comentó Paco Ignacio Taibo II, quien escribe novelas policiales. ''Pero no era así. Lo llamaban Ostión desde la escuela primaria porque su padre tenía un puesto en el que vendía pescados''.	“In theory, this should be the nickname of someone who doesn’t say much” says Paco Ignacio Taibo II who writes crime novels. “But that’s not the case. They've called him this since primary school because his father had a booth where he sold fish”.
Colombia, que produce la mayor parte de la cocaína que pasa por México, también tiene una larga tradición de apodos coloridos. El matón Marco Tulio Moya, muerto en 1999, era tan eficiente en su trabajo que lo llamaban Baygón, por el insecticida del mismo nombre.	Colombia, which produces most of the cocaine that passes through Mexico, also has a long tradition of colourful nicknames. The killer Marco Tulio Moya, killed in 1999, was so good at his job that they called him “By-gone”, after the bug-killer of the same name.
''Si tú vas a un barrio pobre y preguntas por alguien usando su nombre verdadero, nadie sabrá quién es'', manifestó el novelista colombiano Juan José Hoyos.	“If you go to a poor neighbourhood and ask for anyone by the real name, no one will know who that is” says the Columbian novelist Juan José Hoyos.
Muchos de los apodos usados por los colombianos son tan ingenuos como los de los mexicanos. Un hermano del capo Pablo Escobar, Roberto, era llamado Osito porque ese era el nombre de un negocio de bicicletas que tuvo.	Many of the nicknames used by the Colombians are as creative as those used by the Mexicans. Robert, brother of Columbian capo Pablo Escobar, was called “Little Bear” because that was the name of a bicycle business that he owned.
En el caso de Los Zetas, brazo armado del cártel del Golfo, se emplea un estilo militar y asigna a su gente apodos que empiezan con la letra Z, seguida por un número. Z1 al Z10 son miembros fundadores.	In the case of the Zetas, the armed division of the Gulf Cartel, uses a military convention and assigns its people nicknames that begin with the letter Z followed by a number. Z-1 to Z-10 were the founding members.
La letra ''L'', seguida de un número, está reservada para guardaespaldas y ayudantes. Cuanto más alta la cifra, más bajo el rango.	The letter “L”, also followed by a number, is reserved for the body-guards and helpers. The higher the number, the lower the rank.
Algunos conservan su número alto a medida que van escalando posiciones. Otros cambian de apodo, como hizo Iván Velázquez Caballero, que dejó de lado el de L50 y pasó a ser conocido como Talibán.	*Some like to keep their high number even after they move up the ladder. Others change their nickname, like Ivan Velazuez Cabellero, who put aside the handle L–50* and came to be known as Taliban.**
Las autoridades no saben por qué Armando Santiago Orozco, capturado en enero en el estado de Oaxaca, es conocido como Mando Conejo.	*Authorities have no idea why Armando Santiago Orozco, captured last January in Oaxaca is known as “Boss Rabbit”*
El capo Alfredo Beltrán Leyva, arrestado el año pasado, es El Mochomo, nombre de una dañina hormiga del noroeste de México.	*The capo Alfredo Beltran Leyva, arrested last year, is “Red Fire Ant”, the name of avoracious ant in northwest Mexico.*
A menudo los narcotraficantes están encantados con sus apodos.	Most of the time, the narcotraffickers are really attached to their nicknames.
Steve Robertson, veterano agente de la Administración de Lucha contra las Drogas de Estados Unidos (DEA) , dijo que el traficante Gilberto Ontiveros, alias El Greñas, cuando cayó preso en 1989 hizo que otros reclusos confeccionasen pins con cabello artificial parecido al suyo para venderle a los visitantes. *Distributed by AP and published in several places. The link in the title is from El Universal Mexico.*	Steve Robertson, senior agent of the DEA, says that the trafficker Gilberto Ontiveros, also known as Wild Hair, when taken prisoner in 1989, had other prisoners make souvenir pins with artificial hair resembling his to sell to visitors. (translated by J. Creechan)

Cosala, Sinaloa and the legend of Heraclio Bernal

2009-07-14T10:47:00.006-04:00

AQUÍ ESTÁ HERACLIO BERNAL
by Celia Cortés
Lunes 13 de julio de 2009

from Rio Doce (http://www.riodoce.com.mx)

Uno de los primeros corridos que el pueblo aún sigue cantando habla de un bandido que buscaba el Gobierno y fue traicionado por su compadre Crispín. Sí, nos referimos a Heraclio Bernal (1855-1888) a quien, como en vida buscaba el Gobierno para acabar con él y ahora lo buscan los cosaltecos para reivindicar su nombre.
To this day, one of the first corridos sung in Cosala is about a bandit who was hunted by the government and betrayed by his compadre Crispín. Yes, we’re speaking of Heraclio Bernal (1855-1888) whom the government wanted to finish off and the Cosalteco community wants to vindicate.
Mucho se ha hablado de Heraclio Bernal como un asaltante que robaba a los ricos para repartir entre los pobres, que participó en por lo menos 30 asaltos y 10 asesinatos, que lo veían al mismo tiempo en tres lugares distintos, que fue llevado a la cárcel al incriminarlo de robarse unas barras de plata, que lo mismo se vestía de carbonero cuando repartía riqueza entre los pobres, como se vestía de mujer para bailar con el gobernador.
There are many tales of Heraclio Bernal portraying him him as a thief stealing from the rich to share with the poor, and responsible for at least 30 robberies and 10 murders, who was reported to be in three different places at the same time, and who was hauled off to jail after being implicated in a robbery of several bars of silver, or as someone who disguised himself as a charcoal vendor to distribute riches to the poor, and even dressing like a woman to dance with the governor.
Pero además de la figura mítica del bandolero valiente, hoy, en vísperas de festejar el centenario de la Revolución Mexicana, hay una comisión que pretende reivindicar su nombre y buscan que se le reconozca como un visionario precursor de dicha lucha armada, con una visión que anticipó 25 años la decisión de muchos otros de poner fin al gobierno de Porfirio Díaz. Dicha comisión está integrada por miembros de La Crónica de Sinaloa, y son apoyados por el Gobierno del municipio de Cosalá, por ser donde más se ha querido a esta figura histórica.
But more than a mythical and valiant bandit figure, today, on the cusp the centenary celebrations of the Mexican Revolution, there’s a commission aiming to rehabilitate his reputation and honour his role as a 25 year precursor of the revolutionary views that eventually brought down the Porifirio Diaz government. The commission consists of members of the La Cronica de Sinaloa who are joined by members of the municipal government of Cosalá, where this historic figure is much beloved.

Y el caso es que Heraclio Bernal Zazueta, quien nació en Chaco, en el municipio de San Ignacio, y tras estudiar la primaria y en el Seminario, vivió en el pueblo minero de Guadalupe de los Reyes, donde trabajó buen tiempo hasta que lo incriminaron del robo de unas barras de plata, por lo que fue a parar a la cárcel de Mazatlán.
It’s the tale of Heraclio Bernal Zazueta, born in Chaco, in San Ignacio municipality, and who after completing primary studies in a seminary, lived and worked in the mining community of Guadalupe de Los Reyes for a long period until incriminated in the theft of silver bars, and then dumped in the Mazatlan jail.
Ahí, en el presidio, conoció a un español socialista que le facilitó textos de Marx, Backoumine, LaSalle, Saint-Simon, Owen y Proudhon, y fue donde Bernal se convenció de que los ricos eran unos ladrones de la riqueza del pueblo, dejando en la miseria a los trabajadores.
In that presidio, he met up with a Spanish socialist who familiarized him with the works of Marx, Backoumine, LaSalle, Saint-Simon, Owen and Proudhon, and it was here where he became convinced that the rich were stealing people’s wealth and leaving the workers in a miserable plight.
Escapa de prisión y decide vengarse. Regresa a Guadalupe de los Reyes y acaba con quien lo inculpó y luego con ex convictos y campesinos empiezan a asaltar diligencias de los hacendados para luego repartir lo robado entre los pobres.
Escaping from prison, he decided to exact revenge. Returning to Guadalupe de los Reyes, he wiped out those who had implicated him and then, in the company of ex-convicts and campesinos, began a systematic assault on landholders to distribute the booty to the poor.
Con el tiempo se unió primero a Ramírez Terrones, después a García de la Cadena con quien propuso al pueblo que se levantara en armas, primero con el Plan de la Rastra, más tarde con el Plan de Conitaca, lanzado en 1887, donde hablaban de acabar con el gobierno de Porfirio Díaz, instruyendo a las trabajadores para mejorar sus salarios, hablaba en contra del despojo que el Gobierno hacía del pueblo yaqui, a quien prometía que les devolvería sus tierras y hablaba también de la “no reelección”.
Eventually, he joined up with Ramírez Terrones, and then with García de la Cadena with whom he incited people into an armed uprising, first through the Plan de La Rastra, and later by the Plan de Conitaca which was proclaimed in 1887. It spoke of terminating the Porifio Diaz government, taught workers that they should earn more, denounced the pillage sponsored by the government against the Yaqui people, and promised to return lands and even addressed the issue of “no re-election”.
Por supuesto que Porfirio Díaz ordenó su persecución, lo mismo que el gobernador de Sinaloa, y aunque Heraclio Bernal conocía muy bien la sierra, una pulmonía le impidió irse al extranjero como lo tenía planeado, y aunque se indica que su compadre Crispín lo traicionó, la gente en Cosalá indica que fueron órdenes del propio Bernal a su compadre que le diera un balazo y él mismo lo entregara para que la recompensa se la dieran a él y la repartiera al pueblo.
In response, Porfirio Diaz ordered that he be hunted down, and the governor of Sinaloa did the same. Even though Heraclio Bernal knew the mountainous terrain, pneumonia thwarted a plan to flee abroad— and even though some say that his compadre Crispin betrayed him, the people of Cosala say it was Bernal himself who directed his compadre to shoot him and later collect the reward so that it could be distributed to the people.
En el coloquio que el pasado miércoles se organizó en Cosalá, tras varias ponencias de expertos e historiadores, donde se habló de la admiración que Francisco Villa tuvo por este luchador social, escuchamos a Teodora Mendoza, quien indicó que su padre fue colaborador de Heraclio Bernal, y tras su muerte, Crispín le dio las monedas que le correspondían como a muchos otros del pueblo, mismas que ahora ella ha entregado a quienes promueven la reivindicación de su nombre y exposición de imágenes del precursor de ideas revolucionarias.
In a seminar organized last Wednesday in Cosalá, several presentations by historical experts reported Francisco Villa’s admiration for this socal activist, and afterwards Teodora Mendoza said that his father had been a collaborator of Heraclio Bernal. He reported that after Bernal’s death, it was Crispin who distributed coins from the reward to the community. Many of those people and their families are now promoting the vindication of Bernal’s reputation, and supporting the exhibition of the exhibits which are precursors of revolutionary ideas.
Al finalizar el coloquio Aquí Está Heraclio Bernal se hizo una visita al panteón de Cosalá, donde indican descansan los restos del bandolero generoso, aunque hay controversia de si se encuentran en el osario o junto a la pared de la antigua entrada al panteón, de donde lugareños platican que Paquis Corrales, ex presidenta municipal, retiró la cruz que decía Heraclio Bernal, por lo que hoy sigue siendo válida la frase “Se busca a Heraclio Bernal”, pero los que se lo han propuesto lo buscan para llevar sus restos a la Rotonda de los Sinaloenses Ilustres y planean poner su nombre en letras de oro en el Congreso estatal; pero la empresa que se proponen es realizar una estatua ecuestre que se instalará en el pueblo mágico de Cosalá antes de que acabe el año, para lo cual han convocado a personalidades cosaltecas y sinaloenses entre las que se incluye al gobernador Jesús Aguilar Padilla. Es una ardua empresa, pero Heraclio Bernal luchó toda su vida por apoyar a quienes menos tenían y en pro de la justicia social.
At the end of the seminar “Here is Heraclio Bernal”, there was a visit to the cemetery of Cosalá, where the remains of the generous bandit were pointed out. There is controversy about whether he’s in the tomb where locals say a former mayor, Paquis Corrales, removed a cross with the name Heraclio Bernal— or whether he is next to the wall at the entrance to the old cemetery. Even today, the phrase “Wanted: Heraclio Bernal” continues to be meaningful. But there are those who have proposed looking for his remains and bringing them to the Rotunda of Illustrious Sinaloans and putting his name in gold letters there in the State Congress. However, the organization has proposed erecting an equestrian statue in the magical community of Cosalá before the year end, and this is the favoured option of Cosala dignitaries and Sinaloans, including Governor Jesús Aguilar Padilla. It’s an arduous undertaing, but Heraclio Bernal fought his entire life to help those had less and on behalf of social justice.

(translated by J.Creechan)

Link to the Corrido of Heraclio Bernal

Mexicans, Czechs will need visas to visit Canada

2009-07-13T19:08:00.001-04:00

Mexicans, Czechs will need visas to visit Canada

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Facebook Group for CIASP

2009-07-11T23:17:00.004-04:00

A facebook group for CIASP/CEPIA has been created.

Those who have a Facebook account should search for CIASP/CEPIA and join. The group is OPEN.

Others are invited to join facebook and then join the group. If you have concerns about privacy, it's possible to protect yourself in a couple of ways. First, create a new account on gmail.com (google), hotmail.com, yahoo.com etc. Then use this account to create a FACEBOOK account. You can be selective about much of the information you choose to enter, AND you should make certain that most of your information (address, birth year, etc.) are marked as PRIVATE in the Preferences and Settings.

The FACEBOOK account allows a lot more interactive discussion and chatting. It also allows everyone to see your photos and souvenirs from CIASP

Es el mariachi tradicional victima latente de la comercialización\

2009-07-11T22:38:00.003-04:00

An article in Spanish about traditional mariachi groups.

Es el mariachi tradicional victima latente de la comercializacion: especialista | Milenio.com

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Return to Pisaflores: 43 years later

2008-11-30T23:30:00.007-05:00

RETOUR A PISAFLORES 20-21 NOVEMBRE 2008-11-23
Denis LaRose
Croyant que le voyage serait de 4 heures, je suis parti vers 8H30 le vendredi 20 novembre 2008 avec Dave H, un géologue américain en visite à San Miguel de Allende depuis deux mois, dans ma Volkswagon coccinelle 1995.
Nous voguons sans problème vers Quérétaro, que nous évitons grâce à l’autoroute, et allons direction sud passé SAN JUAN DEL RIO, puis nous quittons l’autoroute en direction est sur la route nationale 45 (une fois dans Hidalgo) et ensuite vers la 85.
Après avoir vu le superbe fleuve Moctezuma entouré de cacti variés, de la hauteur d’un superbe pont nous continuons notre chemin. Soudainement le paysage change totalement…. Il y a plein de nuages, de la pluie, du brouillard, et d’immenses montagnes le long desquelles serpentent la route 85 …inlassablement pendant des kilomètres et pendant au moins 3 heures.
Nous arrivons à l’embranchement de la route pour Pisaflores vers 16h30 ….et à tout hasard nous demandons avant de descendre les 18 kilomètres (de 1500 mètres à 250 mètres) vers Pisaflores s’il y avait un hôtel à Pisaflores…. OUI… alors malgré la pluie et l’heure tardive nous descendons sur un chemin pavé vers le village où nous trouvons effectivement un petit hôtel et nous prenons chacun une chambre pour $15 chacune.. un lit une douche ça suffit… Il pleut encore….
La ville a beaucoup grandit depuis 1965 quand j’y suis allé, et quand nous avons ouvert la route vers Pisaflores. En 1969 ils ont construit un imposant pont sur le fleuve Moctezuma et depuis l’électricité, le téléphone ont atteint la petite ville qui compte plusieurs pharmacies, plusieurs médecins (dont un comme maire), plusieurs camions de police (au moins trois), et plusieurs politiciens. Quand j’y suis allé il n’y avait qu’un médecin qui faisait son stage obligatoire avant de pouvoir pratiquer, aucune pharmacie et à peine un magasin général.
Il semble que l’économie soit surtout centrée sur la culture du café (et du maïs). Il y a toujours l’école primaire publique, une école secondaire, mais l’école catholique a été abandonnée (j’avais enseigné une deuxième année….puisqu’ils n’avaient aucun professeur)…. Ils ont construit une très belle et grande église catholique.
Nous avons bien dormi, mais à 6 heures du matin j’étais debout pour prendre des photos… il ne pleuvait plus. J’ai aussi acheté beaucoup de café local.
Puis à 10 heures nous étions sur le chemin du retour. A mi-chemin nous avons pris une route tout à fait différente pour nous rendre à Quérétaro…. Que de paysages et montagnes superbes nous avons pu voir une fois sortis des forêts pluvieuses et montagneuses. Nous avons vu un lac immense créé par un barrage gigantesque et traversé trois très longs tunnels à travers les montagnes…
Nous sommes arrivés à 18h30 à San Miguel. Nous avons été à une réunion aa et j’ai apporté avec moi mon sac à dos contenant mes caméras etc…. Une fois rendu chez moi vers 21 h je me suis rendu compte que je n’avais pas mon sac à dos… j’ai pensé l’avoir oublié au local de la réunion aa… aucun signe du sac dans le local… le lendemain je fais toutes sortes d’investigations, pour apprendre que le sac se trouvait, ouvert, devant le local des aa… Un couple l’a vu et devait le prendre… mais comme j’ai appris ce soir… ils l’ont laissé sur la rue ne sachant pas à qui il pouvait appartenir….
Donc je mets une annonce à la radio locale pour essayer de localiser le sac (récompense de $200)….. j’ai aussi appelé mon assurance maison et fait une réclamation… il semble que soit couvert moins $500…. Je pense avoir perdu une valeur de $4000 et surtout mes très belles photos…
Triste conclusion de voyage… mais je garde en moi les souvenir et ce fut très satisfaisant de voir ce village si perdu et lointain qui a marqué ma vie.
Denis LaRose le 23 novembre 2008

A RETURN TO PISAFLORES 43 YEARS LATER
by Denis LaRose
San Miguel de Allende, November 30th 2008
On November 21st 2008, I left from San Miguel de Allende in the state of Guanajuato in Mexico, to return to the state of Hidalgo, specifically to Pisaflores where I had been with a group of Canadian University students in the summer of 1965.
By the map I figured I could make the trip in about 4 hours with my 1995 Beattle Volkswagon. An American friend, a geologist, was accompanying me.
We drove south, towards Queretaro, passed San Juan del Rio and then headed east, first on the 45, and then on the 85 highways. Once we crossed the mighty Tula river we noticed a definite change in vegetation, from the semi desertic plateau with cacti to the rain forests with pines and lots of greenery as we got closer and closer to the Sierra Madre mountains.
By then we had driven for 4 hours --- little did we know that we still had to drive in the rain, in the fog, and in the curved road in the mountains, at 30 km an hour, for another 4 hours before we reached the road that led to Pisaflores.
Around 4:30 pm we arrived at a junction, 18 kms from Pisaflores, and asked if by any chance there was a hotel in Pisaflores—otherwise given the late hour we would have headed for the close-by CHAPULHUACAN that appeared to have a good hotel.
To our surprise, there was a hotel in Pisaflores with several rooms so we headed down the paved road all the way to the town, after crossing a bridge over the impressive Moctezuma river. The rooms were $15 (150 pesos) and had a bed, sheets, a shower and washroom and toilet paper.
Unfortunately it was raining and it was somewhat foggy but at least the weather was warmer than up above at the level of Highway 85!!!
We explored the town, noticed the many businesses, at least 3 pharmacies, a photographic store, several doctor’s offices, hardly any real restaurants. We headed for the church: a beautiful, modern church and walked along the Rio Blanco that crosses the town and bought some coffee in a shop, where the 80 yo owner remembered the Canadians, in particular a guy called JAIME (JAMES….). We bought all the coffee he had.
After a rest we returned to the town square that now had 3 police trucks and a pharmacy where the General Store used to be. We ate some beef and chicken tacos right there on the square and they were very tasty.
There were lots of happy people, kids, couples walking around. There was electricity, satellite dishes, phones.
The next morning I got up early to take some photos (I would later lose the camera and all the photos on my returning to San Miguel de Allende).
We had breakfast on the town square eating a corn dish with chicken (the corn looked like couscous) –with cinnamon flavoured coffee. It was all very tasty and neither of us were sick.
I asked the lady who was serving breakfast when they had built the bridge,,,, she figured it was completed sometime in 1969. She remembered the Canadians and Father Jesus (Zepeda), who had since passed away she said.
I bought some more coffee from Pisaflores at a different store on the other of the square.
It was time to return (9:30 am).
The visit made a strong impression on me. I recognized the street and the house where we had camped for at least 6 weeks. I have been reflecting on our role in those days. We had built a road at father Jesus’ urging with the campesinos. I had taught grade 2 at the catholic school, which was still there but not used as a school anymore. I had worked as the translator for the nurse, Pauline Proulx, in Pisaflores and in the villages around. Sometimes I could not translate as the patient would speak only an Indian language—but to make him understand that we came from very far, the patient was told that we came from Mexico City!!!
Pisaflores is a beautiful town, and its main activity seems to be the growth of coffee and corn. Its inhabitants look happy and fairly prosperous. Our road had allowed Mexico to reach Pisaflores. It has allowed the establishment of a public health clinic, a high school, health care, electricity, water treatment among other visible changes.
After driving such a long distance I figured I would not return. But I might very well do return, maybe in a less rainy season. In the end it seems that father Zepeda built the road that the government would not build. It seems now that the Hidalgo government is fulfilling its role of serving also the people of Pisaflores.
In my personal history, Pisaflores of 1965 has had a major impact. I realized that philosophy as a profession was not what I wanted to do. I kept on studying philosophy on my return to Canada, and read Marx that said: < It is not important to interpret the world, it is necessary to transform it.>
I ended up studying medicine and psychology and became a cardiologist that practised in Gatineau, Québec, for 23 years until my retirement 3 years ago. At my retirement I headed back to Mexico and settled, at least for 6 months of the year, in San Miguel de Allende.

2008-11-18T13:57:00.003-05:00

OPINIÓN—Malecón
Atentado contra la sociedad
November 18, 2008
Pretenden intimidar el ejercicio periodístico
They hope to deter journalism.
El atentado con granadas contra el periódico El Debate, que afortunadamente no cobró víctimas, es un artero ataque a la libertad de expresión y, como lo dice José Isabel Ramos, su Director General, una intimidación al ejercicio del periodismo sinaloense.

The grenade attack aimed at the newspaper El Debate, which fortunately claimed no victims, is a direct attack on the freedom of expression and, as was stated by its chief executive officer Jose Isabel Ramos, a threat against the practise of Sinaloan journalism.
Manifestamos nuestra solidaridad con los directivos y personal de ese medio, y nuestro más enérgico reclamo a las autoridades de justicia de que se capture y castigue a los responsables.

We are in solidarity with the directors and the personnel of this publication, and we fully support their demand that justice authorities pursue and punish those who were responsible.
Comprendemos el desconcierto, el miedo, la impotencia, el agravio y el coraje contenido de los integrantes de ese medio, porque en Noroeste sufrimos un ataque similar en 1994 (si el Alzheimer no se acuerda de nosotros), cuando manos criminales y jamás castigadas arrojaron una bomba incendiaria en el área de recepción, que por suerte sólo causó daños materiales.

We understand the confusion, the fear, the powerlessness, the disruption and the courage shared by the workers of this newspaper, because Noroeste also suffered a similar attack in 1994 (if Alzheimer’s hasn’t confused us), when criminal elements who were never punished tossed an incendiary bomb in our reception area, and which fortunately only caused physical damage.
El ataque a ese periódico es un lamentable indicador de que ninguna institución ni autoridad de gobierno pone tope a la delincuencia organizada en Sinaloa, que a cada hora avanza con mayor descaro en el terreno que pertenece a los ciudadanos, víctimas del violento despojo.

The attack on that newspaper is a sad indicator that no institution nor government authority can put a stop to organized crime in Sinaloa, which is boldly increasingly and reaching into the private lives of citizens who are become victimized by the violent plunder.
Cuando la sociedad cree que los delincuentes ya llegaron al límite del crimen, el hampa comete una nueva y peor fechoría.

When we think that crime could get not get worse, the underworld commits a new and even worse act.
Cuando el 8 de octubre un comando de 30 gatilleros "tomó" las instalaciones de la Secretaría de Seguridad Pública para rescatar a un detenido, se pudo haber pensado que habíamos llegado al colmo de la delincuencia. Pero no fue así, el 29 del mismo mes un grupo armado rescató un cadáver del Semefo.

When on October 8th an attack unit of 30 shooters “stormed” the headquarters of Public Security to rescue a prisoner, it was possible to think that this criminal act was the last straw. But it wasn’t to be, on the 29th of the same month an armed group recovered a body from Semefo (forensic morgue).
Ni tampoco ahí paró el descaro, el 10 de este mes fueron "levantados" 27 jornaleros agrícolas, cuyos captores los liberaron tres días después, evidenciando la ineficacia de las autoridades, tanto en prevención como en procuración de justicia.

And it didn’t stop there, on the 10th of this month 27 agricultural labourers were abducted only to be released 3 days later by their kidnappers, demonstrating the inefficiency of authorities, not only in terms of prevention but in their fulfillment of justice.
El domingo atentaron contra un periódico y, con ello, contra la sociedad entera, puesto que los medios son los canales de información y expresión de la comunidad; también secuestraron y liberaron al comunicador de Tv Azteca y Máxima 103.3, Nelson Amparán. Hoy no sabemos qué más se atreverá a hacer la delincuencia organizada y desatada; y mañana...

Sunday’s attack against a newspaper and, along with it, was aimed at all of us since the media are channels of information and community expression; there was also the abduction and eventual release of Azteca television and Radio Mazima 103.3 announcer Nelson Amparán. Today, we don’t know what further threats will be coming our way to overcome us: and tomorrow…????
¿Y el Gobernador? And the Governor?
Mientras la sociedad sigue perdiendo espacios, secuestrados por la delincuencia, y el temor se extiende y profundiza, el Gobernador Jesús Aguilar Padilla y su Gabinete de (in)seguridad parecen poseer un ánimo imperturbable ante la violencia, nada los asombra, nada los conmueve, nada los indigna, nada hacen... Todo es "normal".

And while society continues to lose ground, held captive by crime, and while fear spreads in a profound way, the Governor, Jesus Aguilar Padilla and his Cabinet of (in)security appear to have an unbroken spirit in spite of the violence, not for them the shadows, nothing shakes them, nothing makes them indignant, they do nothing… Everything is “normal”.
Ayer el Mandatario estatal no dijo "esta cara y esta boca son mías". El atentado mínimo obligaba a un comunicado público de su parte, como lo hacen los gobernantes en los estados y países donde rigen las instituciones civiles. Pero prefirió ausentarse de las actividades públicas.

Yesterday, the State’s chief executive didn’t say “this face and this mouth are mine too” (“I share your grief?”). The attack merited only a public communiqué on his part, like the ones issued by goernors of states and countries where civil authorities govern. He chose to excuse himself from public activities.
Les dejó a sus funcionarios de seguridad y justicia el paquete explosivo, porque a él le tocan sólo los eventos positivos o bonitos, como la inauguración que encabezará hoy del edificio sede del Poder Judicial de la Federación.

He left this explosive bombshell in the hands of his security and justice functionaries, because he only wants to talk about good and positive things, like today’s dedication of the new headquarters for Federal Judicial Power.
Los secuestradores The Kidnappers
Y a propósito del secuestro del espacio social: Ni el clima sabrosón ni el ambiente siempre festivo de Mazatlán, que relajan hasta al más tieso, propiciaron que la politóloga Denise Dresser fuera condescendiente en el análisis de los grandes problemas del País, que invitada por la Coparmex hizo el viernes en el puerto.

And what of the proposition that our social space has been kidnapped. The festive climate of Mazatlan, which warms even the most rigid person, didn’t stop the political scientist Denise Dresser from cutting to the chafe in her analysis of the big problems of the country at a Coparmex forum last Friday in the port city.
El diagnóstico es demoledor: México está secuestrado por sus élites económicas, políticas, intelectuales, además de la violencia del narco y la apatía ciudadana.

The interpretation is devastating: Mexico is held captive by its economic, political, and intellectual elite, in addition to narco-violence and the apathy of citizens.
Sólo que en el plagio denunciado por la analista nadie pide rescate, y tampoco hay alguna institución que investigue el caso, capture a los plagiarios y libere al secuestrado.

Even during this plague described by this analyst there is no one is asking to be rescued, and no institution is investigate the situation, and there are no arrests the kidnappers nor release for the kidnapped.
La conclusión es poco esperanzadora, porque la periodista considera que para rescatar a la Nación es necesaria la intervención de héroes, y los ciudadanos es hora que no se deciden a ponerse la capa.

This conclusion gives little reason for optimism, because the columnist believes that the nation will be saved only if a hero intervenes, and citizens are not demanding that someone puts on the cape.
Los rehenes The hostages
La columnista describe la atonía de los ciudadanos:

Dresser describes the lethargy of citizens
"Un país desconcertado y cabizbajo donde nadie sabe a quién apelar, dónde acudir, en qué gobierno confiar... un lugar donde existen ciudadanos ya dispuestos a ceder libertades si consiguen seguridad a cambio".

“A country disconcerted and downcast, where noone knows who to call, where there is help, which government to trust…a place with citizens who are ready to give up liberties if it leads to security and change”
Ese trazo de la apatía ciudadana encaja perfectamente en Sinaloa, donde la crisis de inseguridad ha provocado una dejadez social.

This outline of citizen apathy fits Sinaloa perfectly, where the crisis of insecurity has provoked social laziness.
Las palabras de Denise deben haber retumbado en el salón donde ofreció la conferencia: "a quién apelar, dónde acudir, en qué gobierno confiar". Es exactamente el vacío de instituciones y de líderes que padece la entidad.

Denise’s words should have shaken in the room where the conference took place: “who should be called, where is there help, which government should we trust”. It’s exactly this vacuum in institutions that is afflicting our existence.
Los narcopolíticos The Narco politicians
Aunque Dresser habló en general del País, sus opiniones no son ajenas a la realidad de Sinaloa.

Even though Dresser was speaking generally about the country, her opinions are not far from the reality of Sinaloa.
"El narcotráfico y la violencia son otros síntomas de que el sistema no funciona. Muchos critican la violencia que el narcotráfico produce, pero pocos hablan de la estructura social, política y económica que la hace posible. Ese andamiaje de políticos que protegen a narcotraficantes y narcotraficantes que financian a políticos".

“Narcotraffic and violence are sign that the system is not working. Many criticize the violence that narcotraffic has produced, but few mention the social, political and economic structure that makes this possible. This scaffolding of politicians who protect the narcotrafficlers and the narcotraffickers who finance the politicians.
Y en este caso todos somos rabones, los vecinos que hacen fiesta y sientan al narquillo del barrio en la mesa de honor; el político que llega alto porque un capo le puso bajo los pies sendas pacotas de billetes; el malandrín que crea empresas y genera empleo con dinero manchado de sangre y tragedia; y el narco que ávido de poder decide legislar o gobernar, porque fuero y camioneta blindada lo hacen prácticamente invulnerable, intocable.

And in this case we are all like rabid dogs, the neighbours who hold parties and seat the local narco at the table of honour; the politician who gets to the top because a capo is pushing him upwards with bales of money under his feet; the no good who creates business and creates jobs with money tainted with blood and tragedy; and the narco anxious for power who decides to create laws or govern, and behind his truck’s shaded windshield is practically invulnerable and untouchable.
Al igual que Dresser, esta casa editorial ha denunciado el peligro de la narcopolítica, colada hasta el tuétano social y gubernamental, y las advertencias de la politóloga refuerzan nuestra tesis. Parece que no somos los únicos que gritamos en el desierto, las voces de alerta empiezan a multiplicarse.

Along with Dresser, this publishing enterprise has denounced the danger of narcopolitics, deeply engrained in our social life and government, and the warnings of this political scientist reinforce our argument. It appears that we are not the only ones who are shouting in the desert, the voices of warning are beginning and will expand.
Primero los cuates First the buddies.
Y si alguna duda había de que la triste realidad de Sinaloa no es tal como en el resto de país (y en algunos casos peor), leamos a Denise:

If anyone doubts that the sad reality of Sinaloa is different from the rest of the country (and in some cases is worse), we should look to Denise:
"Un Estado depredador, cínico, oportunista, donde el objetivo del Gobierno no es garantizar bienes públicos, como hospitales, clínicas, escuelas, sino producir bienes privados para sus funcionarios y sus amigos". “

"A predatory State, cynical opportunistic, where the objective of Governance is not to bring about public good, like hospitals, clinics, schools, but is instead to generate private wealth for its functionaries and for its friends? "
Con agudo ingenio, la analista bautiza a ese sistema económico como "capitalismo de cuates". ¿A poco no describe exactamente lo que sucede en Sinaloa?

With an piercing wit, this analysis baptized this economic system as a “capitalism de buddy-boys” Does anyone think that this isn’t what is happening in Sinaloa?
Tan cuates que algunos viven juntos en el mismo fraccionamiento privadísimo (inexpugnable hasta para el Ejército), como Corleone y su Familia en su fortaleza de Long Island.

They are such strong buddies that they live together in the same exclusive neighbourhoods (not even penetrable by the army), just like the Corleone family stronghold of Long Island.
Tan cuates como la Generación del Centenario, cuyos integrantes gozan de chamba en el Gobierno por el mérito de haber compartido carrera con Jesús Aguilar Padilla.

So fraternal is this Centenario Generation (the University of Sinaloa class of 1973 – the 100 year of its founding) that its members enjoy the benefits of government for simply sharing the career of Jesus Agular Padilla (the Governor).
Gallina maniada Chickens with a hanging heads
La lista de los grandes problemas de México es cerrada por la apatía de los ciudadanos, en los que paradójicamente radica la solución.

The list of big problems for Mexico is invisible because of citizen apathy, and paradoxically the solution lies with them.
De acuerdo con Dresser, el rescate del País sólo puede ser realizado por los ciudadanos, pero se requiere que decidan dejar la apatía y transformarse en héroes:

According to Dresser, the salvation of the country can only be realized by its citizens, but this means that they have to forget their apathy and transform themselves into heroes.
"Hacen falta los héroes grandes y pequeños..., hacen falta los mexicanos que recogen la basura en lugar de tirarla, los que pagan sus impuestos en lugar de evadirlos, los que se paran en el semáforo en lugar de debatir si lo hará o no, los mexicanos que denuncien la corrupción, los que estén dispuestos a comportarse como dueños de su País y no sólo como inquilinos que lo rentan".

“There’s a shortage of big and little heroes…there are few Mexicans who pick up the garbage instead of throwing it away, who pay their taxes instead of trying to avoid them, those who stop at the stoplight instead of always debating whether they should, Mexicans who denounce corruption, those who are wiling to become owners of their own country and not simply tenants who rent it.”
Aquí en la entidad, con sus honrosas excepciones, la inseguridad tiene a los ciudadanos tan desconcertados y pico caídos como la gallina maniada que utilizaron en sus bailes los indígenas que recién celebraron la Danza por la Tierra en la Isla de Orabá.

Here in this place, with a few honorable exceptions, insecurity has left citizens so disheartened and crestfallen (?translation?) just like those chicken hanging heads used by the Indians who recently celebrated a Dance for the Earth on Oraba Island.
Malecón es columna institucional de esta casa editorial Malecon is a general column appearing regularly in Noroeste.
maleconcul@noroeste.com
Translation by J.CreechanV

2008-09-18T20:08:00.013-04:00

The Mexican tourism office has started a new advertising campaign to promote
tourism from Canada. It’s frightening to think that many of the destinations
promoted are in the middle up in one of the worst waves of violence Mexico has
ever known.

There’s almost no news about Mexico in Canadian newspapers or electronic media.
Even the CBC has not covered the horrific events from the past few months.

Here’s a short overview.

There are 3 “super-cartels” and a number of smaller criminal associations. Two of the biggest cartels are involved in bloody war of attrition. The other gangs and groups are
“used by the two bigger cartels” to complete various tasks AND/OR the lesser groups hope to ally with one or sometimes both of the bigger sides.
The most powerful drug cartels in Mexico (at least a 30 billion dollar per year enterprise) have been “readjusting” since August or September 2004. That’s when one of the most notorious drug lords escalated things by arranging the assassination of the youngest brother of a powerful ally AND simultaneously making a move to control the multilane
crossings at Laredo. That border crossing, expanded to handle NAFTA traffic reaches 80% of the American drug market in the mideast and east.
The most powerful cartel/association has been called the Federation by American intelligence sources. It is an alliance of leaders born in the state of Sinaloa and led by Joaquin “Shorty” Guzman, Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, & Juan Jose“El Azul” Esparragoza: for many years it also developed powerful alliances with the Carrillo Fuente family that
controlled Juarez (El Paso), and a ruthless group of hitmen (sicarios) assembled by the Beltran Leyva brothers.

The Federation is engaged in a bloody battle with the two next-largest
cartels: The association located in the west (Tijuana) is directed by another family from Sinaloa — the Arrellano-Felix clan. The roots of this “turf war” go back to
at least the 1990’s and the break-up of the Guadalajara cartel, and has
elements of a family blood-feud between the members of the Federation.
The roots of the quarrel lay in “turf” battles for control of the American Pacific Coast (California) market. The Arrellano-Felix family refused to “share” turf with the young “Shorty” Guzman after a top-level council meeting in Acapulco had “divided” up the country upon the orders of Miguel Angel “El Padrino” Felix Gallardo. Eventually, the Federation — led by Shorty Guzman— struck back at the Tijuana based
Arrellano-Felix brothers by invading the turf and the feud has been
simmering since then.

The
biggest wars that the Federation currently has are with the Gulf Cartel.
It is primarily located in the northeast (Matamoros-Brownsville), and it
became very strong at the end of the 1990’s under the direction of a man
called “Killer of Friends-MataAmigos” —Osiel Cardenas-Guillen. The
Federation, following the initiative of Shorty Guzman decided to move in
on the turf on either side of Laredo/Nuevo Laredo border region (more
than 8,000 trucks pass through here each day). It started a bloody “turf
war” with Cardenas-Guillen, and he responded by recruiting at least 30
army deserters from an elite Mexican Anti-Terrorism task force. This
group, now led by “El Lazca” Lazcano and Eduardo “El Cos” Costilla
Sanchez began a war that escalated in degrees of brutality and bloodshed.
The Sinaloa based Federation responded by creating its own paramilitary
force headed by Alfredo “El Mochomo” (A
ferocious ant) Beltran-Leyva: El Mochomo recruited, trained and
equipped at least two different gangs of killers counteract the
Zetas— including one called “los pelones” - translated close to the idea of skinheads. The initial
battleground was Laredo and Nuevo Laredo — many of the hitmen were
American born. In fact, Osiel Cardenas Guillen was eventually arrested in
a high profile capture and extraditited to the US because a case can be
made that he is American.

A number of smaller violent
organizations have come into play in the current bloodshed. Some are
looking for work with either of the larger cartels (primarily as
assassins). The Gulf cartel started this “recruitment trend” by seeking
out the Mexican army deserters (GAFES) trained in counter-terrorism
techniques (at the school of the Americas) and who had access to powerful
weaponry. What they didn’t have, Osiel Cardenas Guillen had obtained for
them from the US and from Europe. There is evidence that an elite force of
military from Guatemala— los
Kaibiles have also been recruited and are fighting along side the
Zetas. Other cartels, primarily the Federation, formed counter-defensive
“mercenary armies” and heavily recruited from among the heavily tatooed
Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) and other street gangs in the south. Some
“independent” gangs emerged such as “La Familia” and these appear to be
aligning with the Gulf-Zetas— but this isn’t clear. La Familia has
also migrated to some cities in central Mexico and have begun their own
recruiting campaign; there are suggestions that they sense a power vacuum
and are hoping to take over. In a way, this group seems to play a role
much like the Hell’s Angels.

The main prize at stake in
the current wave of violence and bloody dispute are the control shipping
routes into the lucrative US drug market, especially those at Laredo. But
the battle has also moved to other parts of Mexico where drugs are
“collected” and “produced”. Another part of the turf war focuses on
“manufactured” drugs such as crystal meth, ecstasy etc. After the US
cracked down on crystal meth labs in the US, and the drug lords in Mexico
formed alliances with other groups such as the Amezcua Contreras family
who had been producing them in central Mexico. But after the US closed
down many labs with its borders, the level of production in Mexico jumped
geometrically. The States of Michoacan, Guerrero, Vera Cruz, Yucatan and
Coahuila are particularly vulnerable because they are both centres of
synthetic drug production AND important cross-roads for the transit of
cocaine through Mexico. Mexico is the principle “trampoline” for Colombian
cocaine, and as much as 90% of all cocaine in the US has passed through
Mexico moved by the cartels in Mexico. And shipments of precursor
drugs from China (and supplied by the Triads) have made the manufacture of
drugs relatively easy and profitable — and made several states
important battleground in the drug war (Michoacan and Guerrero in
particular)

President Felipe Calderon responded
to an increase in violence by deploying the army to fight the drug wars
(the army can only be used to “eradicate” crops according to the Mexican
Constitution). This use of the army is recognized by most people as a
major miscalculation and unleashed an even bloodier reaction from the
cartels. Calderon also appointed army-generals to manage “homeland
security” and lead the attorney-general office. These men relied on only a
military strategy for fighting the battle against drugs, and the result
was a bloody increase in violence. For instance, the federal forces made a
high publicity arrest in Culiacan of Alfredo “El Mochomo”
Beltran-Leyva. Prior to his arrest, he walked about the streets with
impunity and was an untouchable. After the arrest, his older brother,
Arturo Beltran Leyva claimed that El Mochomo had been set up and was a
“chivo expiatorio/sacrificial lamb”. In particular, he blamed Shorty
Guzman for “offering up his brother” in return for immunity and freedom to
carry on untouched. Beltran-Leyva made a public and bloody break with his
former allies in the Federation by killing 9 policemen in one day—
all of whom he believed were involved the “conspiracy to protect” Guzman.
Then Arturo arranged to kill the number 3 man (Edgar Millan) in the Federal
Justice department by executing him in his home, and also contracted with
a criminal gang in Mexico city to plant a bomb in the Justice Department
headquarters (the bomb exploded prematurely in downtown Mexico city). The
Beltran-Leyvas have since formed an alliance (of sorts) with the
paramilitary Zetas and have been executing their mutual enemies; their
trade-mark is “beheading”. The Federation has beena fighting back and has
recruited a new generation of hitmen and has supplied them with heavy armaments—
far more powerful than anything that the Mexican army or local police
possess. Most of these armaments are smuggled from the US.

A number of smaller, but very
dangerous gangs have made attempts to ally themselves with one and
sometimes both of the major cartels (i.e. With either/or the
Federation or the Gulf). The two most notorious gangs are the Mara
Salvatrucha in the south of Mexico (and with Los Angeles ties) and another
gang called “La Famila” in the centre of the country. These gangs are the
street-thugs and low level operatives. The most violent gang at the moment
seem to be “La Familia” who have apparently sensed an opportunity to move
into some of the larger cities and establish their presence. All of these
gangs, La Familia, Los Zetas, Los Pelones are actively recruiting young
and unemployed men for the wars. There is some evidence that recruitment
in “mercenary magazines” is taking place.

On a different level, there
is also some evidence that the cartels in Mexico are strengthening their
international connections to other mafias. Today, the DEA announced the
arrest of 175 men who were working closely with the Sicilian N’Drangheta (
http://www.usdoj.gov/dea/pubs/pressrel/pr091708p.html).
Shorty Guzman has worked with Chinese triads (a man named Ye Gong was
connected to him and was arrested in the US), and Guzman has apparently
developed strong connections to synthetic drug manufacturers in Argentina;
last month, three high profile businessmen with shady backgrounds and
links to Guzman were murdered; they have also been connected to the
President and former president (the Kirschners)

These stories and events are not reported are relatively unknown outside of a
few border areas in the US (El Paso, Laredo). And there are clear indications
that things will get worse before they get better. At the end of August, 12
decapitated bodies were discovered in the Yucatan (and the gruesome videos
posted to MiVid.com). On Monday night the 15th, during the traditional Mexican
Independence “grito”, fragment
grenades were tossed into the festive. Seven innocent people were killed and at
least 130 seriously injured. That happened in Morelia, Michoacan, the home-town
of President Calderon and the first State where he sent the army to control
drug crime. The grenade incident has been linked to narco-traffic. It’s alleged
that La Familia carried out the act — although this is still
unconfirmed— and La Familia members are blaming the Zetas.

The attached document is a time-line analysis from El Universal (Sept. 18) that
describes the patterns of escalating violence.

Atentados en
Morelia:

Los narcos tope
otro límite

Explosions in
Morelia:

the narcos break
another barrier

Alejandro Jiménez

El Universal.com,
September 18, 2008

La saña en las ejecuciones perpetradas por grupos de narcotraficantes es ascendente y no parece tener límite.	The brutality of executions by narcotrafickers is rising and appears to have no limits.
En menos de siete años, se pasó de ejecuciones callejeras a plena luz del día —lo que parecía inconcebible— a la costumbre de ver cadáveres encobijados; de ahí, se pasó a las videoejecuciones y a las decapitaciones. El lunes se llegó ya al atentado con granadas contra personas inocentes en una reunión pública y multitudinaria.	In less than seven years, they’ve gone from murdering people in broad daylight — something inconceivable at that time — to routinely of dumping bodies wrapped in blankets; and from they’ve moved on to video-executions and decapitations. And on Monday they exploded grenades among a large crowd of innocent people.
Su fin era intimidar a grupos rivales, atemorizar a la población civil y mandar mensajes de su poderío a los tres niveles de gobierno.	The intent was to intimidate rival groups, terrorize civil society and send a message of narco power to the three levels of government.
La tendencia comenzó a finales de la década de los 90, con ejecuciones callejeras de mandos policiales en el norte del país, que escandalizaron a la opinión pública.	The trend began at the end of 1990’s, when street executions of police in the north of the country scandalized public opinion.
Después siguieron los múltiples casos de personas encajueladas en autos. Se siguió con el encobijamiento de cadáveres. Las víctimas eran, por lo general, miembros de cárteles rivales.	Afterwards they followed up by executing several people and leaving them in car trunks. Dumping “shrouded” bodies came next. Victims, for the most part, were rival cartel members.
En 2001, la suma de ejecuciones ligadas al crimen organizado fue de mil 800. Para 2004, el número ascendió a mil 304. Fue entonces que la violencia y saña se volvieron imparables.	In 2001, the number of executions linked to organized crime were3 1,800. By 2004, the number had risen to 1,304 (sic). It was then that the violence and brutality became unstoppable.
El 1 de diciembre de 2005, la delincuencia cruzó sus propios límites de violencia mediante las videoejecuciones. Ese día, el periódico The Dallas Morning News difundió en su portal un video, en el que se veía la ejecución de cuatro integrantes de Los Zetas, torturados y asesinados ante las cámaras.	By December 1, 2005, crime exceeded its own boundaries of violence with the video-executions. That day, the Dallas Morning News published a video on its website showing the execution of 4 members of Los Zetas, tortured and assassinated in front of cameras.
En 2006 se rompió otra marca: aparecieron las cabezas de dos policías municipales clavadas frente a la representación de la Secretaría de Finanzas.	In 2006 the broke another barrier: the heads of 2 municipal police nailed in front of an office of the Secretary of Finance.
Puesto el ejemplo de las decapitaciones, La Familia de Michoacán arrojó cinco cabezas dentro de un bar de Uruapan, en septiembre de 2006. Desde entonces no han dejado de aparecer cuerpos mutilados.	It unleashed more decapitations, “The Family of Michoacan” rolled 5 heads into a bar in Uruapan in September 2006. Since then, there’s been no end to the appearance of mutilated bodies.
El peor de los videos fue uno llamado “Haz patria, mata a un zeta”, difundido en YouTube durante los primeros días de abril de 2007, en el que se ve la decapitación, con un alambre, de otro presunto integrante de Los Zetas.	The worst of the videos was one called “Save the country, kill a zeta”, uploaded to YouTube during the first days of April 2007. It showed the decapitation with barbed wire of an alleged member of Los Zetas.
En 2008 se han rebasado nuevos límites. El 16 de agosto, en Chihuahua, un comando del cártel de Juárez acribilló a 14 personas — entre ellas un bebé—. Sin más, entraron a masacrar a todos los presentes en un bautizo.	In 2008 they had sunk to new lows. On the 16^th of August, in Chihuahua, a leader of the Juarez Cartel gunned down 14 people — including a baby. Even worse, they invaded and killed them all during a baptism.
El 28 de agosto fueron hallados una docena de cuerpos decapitados en Yucatán.	On the 28^th of August, a dozen decapitated heads were found in the Yucatan.
El viernes pasado fueron halladas en La Marquesa los cadáveres de 24 personas.	Last Friday, the remains of 24 people were discovered in La Marquesa.
El lunes pasado, dos granadas de fragmentación fueron arrojadas en Morelia, durante la ceremonia del grito de Independencia, con saldo de siete personas muertas y 132 de heridos. Ya no sólo se atentó contra elementos de bandas rivales, sino contra la población civil. Rompieron un límite más.	And last Monday, 2 fragmenting grenades were tossed in Morelia during the Independence Day “Call to Freedom” and seven people were left dead and 132 wouned. Now, they’re not only blowing up members of rival bands, but they’re attacking ordinary people. They’ve broken another barrier.
En lo que va del año se han registrado 3 mil 227 ejecuciones, cuando aún faltan tres meses y medio para que termine 2008.	So far this year there have been 3, 227 executions recorded, and there are still 3 ½ months left in the year.

© Queda expresamente
prohibida la republicación o redistribución, parcial o total, de todos los
contenidos de EL UNIVERSAL

Queen of the Pacific

2008-08-28T18:38:00.011-04:00

Violence linked to drug trafficking continues unabated in Mexico. This morning (Aug. 28, 2008), at least 10 people died in a running gun battle on the highways leading north to Zihuatenejo out of Acapulco. Earlier today, another decapitated and dismembered body was thrown onto a main street of Culiacan. Yesterday, at least 24 people died in drug related shootings across Mexico— including 2 more policemen.

The strategy of the Mexican Federal Government has been reduced to a sad farce. Last week, President Calderon finally convened a summit meeting of governors and senior officials in Mexico City. The result was a list of 75 “promises” that are little more than vacuous statements that will have zero impact.

I’ve attached a short article/ book review appearing online at Proceso.com. A soon-to-be-released book by the famous Mexican Journalist Julio Scherer Garcia will go on sale this week in Mexico City. Scherer’s book is based on extensive interviews with Sandra Avila Beltran who has been given the nickname “Queen of the Pacific”. Sandra Avila Beltran is related to the notorious Arrellano Felix brothers who control the drug trade in Baja California (Tijuana) and who have a reputation as being amongst the most unpredictable and violent drug lords in Mexico. She was arrested last year along with her latest companion-husband who was one of the most wanted “drug dealers” from Colombia. The Calderon government believes that Sandra Avila Beltran is one of the chief money launderers for the Arrellano Felix family and that her husband was the principle contact with Colombian cocaine sources. If you understand Spanish, you might enjoy the YouTube of her arraignment at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWvbagSr6BQ or the longer newsreport about this arrest at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3TuBZX0O4bU&NR=1 Even if you don’t understand Spanish, they’re “fun to watch”. Watch and decide for yourself if this woman could possibly be the most important link between Mexico and Colombia!

The nickname “Queen of the Pacific” is an interesting case of Art Imitating Life and Life Imitating Art. A famous narco-corrido about a fictional female drug dealer inspired a best-selling international book by Arturo Perez-Reverte called “Queen of the South— La Reina del Sur”. ( http://www.amazon.com/Queen-South-Arturo-Perez-Reverte/dp/0452286549). The Calderon Government and Mexican media have dubbed Sandra Avila Beltran “Queen of the Pacific” — arguably to convince us that she is one of the most important drug dealers/money-launderers captured in the Calderon initiative in the drug wars.

The attached article also makes reference to a couple of upcoming “marches” and “protests” scheduled for this weekend. One march will be a silent protest march against violence and crime (primarily drugs and kidnapping) and it has been heavily promoted in several newspapers. Another march is scheduled to protest the government plans to “restructure” the national oil monopoly Pemex — basically allow some of it to be privatized and opened up to foreign investment.

Pemex to Mexicans is like “health care” or “the CBC” to Canadians. Pemex has been a source of national pride and a symbol of Mexican independence ever since Presiden Lazaro Cardenas appropriated it in the late 1930’s. Felipe Calderon’s government shares an ideology with Stephen Harper and with George Bush, and has actively worked to turn it over to non-government investors.

The following article was downloaded from

Proceso.com (http://www.proceso.com.mx/analisis_int.html?an=61728)

and translated by J. Creechan

Sociedad narca por josé gil olmos 28 Agosto 2008	Narco Society By José Gil Olmos August 28, 2008
MEXICO, D.F., 27 de agosto (apro).- La “sociedad narca” es un término que pocas veces se ha escuchado pero con mucho tino define una situación y una condición que se vive en todo el país: la integración del poder del narcotráfico como forma de vida en la sociedad y, aún más, como parte del Estado y del sector político.	Mexico,Federal District, 27 of August (approx). The “narco society” is a term heard only a few times recently, but it accurately defines a situation and condition experienced by the entire country: the intrusion of the power of narco-trafficking as a norm of social life, and even worse, as a component of State and the political sector.
En su último libro, La Reina del Pacífico, el periodista Julio Scherer García descubre este término en su larga entrevista con Sandra Ávila Beltrán, bautizada así por el gobierno de Felipe Calderón en un intento por justificar su lucha contra el narcotráfico pretendiendo vestir a esta mujer, nacida en Tijuana, como “el enlace más peligroso” que hay entre los cárteles de México y Colombia, algo que, en realidad, está muy lejos de ser cierto.	In his latest book, The Queen of the Pacific, journalist Julio Scherer Garcia unveils to this term during an extensive interview with Sandra Avila Beltran— baptized with that moniker by Felipe Calderon’s government to validate his struggle against narco-traffic, in hopes of fingering this woman from Tijuana as the “the most dangerous link” between Mexican and Colombian cartels — something far from being true in reality.
A lo largo del libro, el lector puede ir descubriendo el significado profundo de este término que retrata muy bien el enorme poder que el narcotráfico ha alcanzado entre la sociedad civil y política en nuestro país.	Throughout the book, the reader will continually see the deeper significance of this term that perfectly describes the tremendous power that narco-traffic has attained in civil society and the political life of this country.
“En la sociedad narca la riqueza como que brota –describe Sandra Ávila-- un día eres pobre y al siguiente millonario. Pero cómo se hace el dinero sólo lo saben los que lo hacen. Tú no los escuchas a propósito ni averiguas qué tan serias podrían ser las relaciones entre ellos. Pero si adviertes que de pronto lucen brillantes y piedras preciosas, mujeres de alto vuelo, que compran residencias que habitan y abandonan casi al mismo día, que se hacen dueños de edificios u hospitales, como en Guadalajara, o un hotel, como en Mazatlán, lleno de flores. Yo no sé cómo se arreglan con las autoridades, pero se arreglan. Un día cambian de estilo y se vuelven echadores. Te enteras de reuniones discretas, cerca del misterio, pero no más. Vas sabiendo sin saber que vas sabiendo. Y un día sabes. ¿Cómo es eso? No sé. Pero sé que es así”.	“In narco society, wealth flourishes everywhere– says Sandra Ávila — one day you’re poor and the next a millionaire. But how this money is earned is known only to those that earn it. You don’t hear the reasons nor question how it worked, nor do you think about the nature of your involvement with them. But you do know that brilliant and precious rocks will be shining soon, women who are high-flyers, that it’s possible to buy houses that you can occupy or abandon on almost the same day, that you can own buildings or hospitals, such as those in Guadalajara, or a hotel, full of flowers like the one Mazatlán. I don’t know how they arrange it with the authorities, but they do. One day they change their style and come back boastful. You hae discrete encounters, surrounded by mystery, but nothing else. You continue without knowing what you know. And one day you do know. How is this so? I don’t know. But I do know that’s how it is.”
Añade: “La sociedad narca es dura, cruel y en su propio espacio es una sociedad en sí misma. No hay código que valga la pena en la disputa por el poder. Tampoco hay leyes que resuelvan las disputas y no se ve autoridad que pudiera imponerse al caos que va y viene, siempre presente y haciéndose sentir”.	And she adds: “Narco society is hard, cruel, and in its own way is a society unto itself. There’s no code that measures out penalties in power struggles. Nor are there laws to resolve disputes and I don’t see any authority capable of intervening in the chaos that comes and goes, is always present and always on your mind”.
En tanto, Scherer señala: “Escuchando a la señora me he ido haciendo una idea acerca de la sociedad narca: es expansiva y su dinero está por todos lados”.	Meanwhile, Scherer notes: “Listening to this lady made me to think about this idea of a ‘narco society’: it’s widespread and its money is everywhere”.
Visto así, la “sociedad narca” es aquella que está impregnada por el poder de los carteles de la droga, por el dinero de los barones de los estupefacientes, que se hacen presentes en todos los sectores y en todos los niveles de gobierno, sin que nadie los detenga.	Seen as such, the “narco society” was inseminated by the power of the drug cartels, by the money barons of mind-altering drugs, that gives them a presence in all sectors and all levels of government without anyone able reign it in.
La “sociedad narca” está formada por las familias de los capos de la droga, pero también por sus amigos, por los políticos con los que se asocian, por los gobernantes que los protege o que, incluso, se dedican al mismo negocio; por los militares que los solapan detrás de las montañas de dinero que son capaces de amasar en poco tiempo; por los banqueros que cierran los ojos para no ver la entrada de millones de dólares a sus sistemas financieros; por los ediles que compran desde que son candidatos; por algunos periodistas que se emplean como voceros; por algunos empresarios a los que sólo les importan sus negocios, y por los policías y jueces que juegan a la justicia cuando en realidad sirven para legalizar laimpunidad.	The “narco society” consists of the families of drug lords, but also their friends, by politicians they hang around with, by governments that protect them or, even involved themselves in the same business; by the military they corrupt with piles money that they’re capable of amassing on short notice; by bankers who close their eyes and don’t see the millions of dollars entering their financial systems; by town counselors who’ve been bought and paid for beginning with their candidacy; by some journalists who serve as spokesmen; by businessmen to whom they bring their dealings, and by police and judges who play with justice when in reality they’re working to legalize impunity.
El narcotráfico se ha hecho cultura en nuestro país. La “sociedad narca” tiene a sus santos --Malverde y la Santa Muerte--, su propia música, sus ídolos y héroes y su moneda establecida por el precio de la kilo de estupefaciente. Tiene su territorio y sus propias reglas de autogobierno. Tiene a su ejército –Los Zetas--, y a sus propias autoridades. En fin, en medio del Estado mexicano se ha erigido en un pequeño y poderoso estado que controla muchos de los hilos del poder a nivel nacional.	Narco-traffic has emerged as a culture in our country. The “narco-society” has its saints — Jesus Malverde and Most Holy Death—, its own music, its idols and heroes and its money linked to the price of a kilo of narcotics. It has its turf and its own rules of governance. It has its army — Los Zetas—, and its own authorities. In short, in the middle of the Mexican State there has emerged a small and powerful state that pulls many of the strings of power on a national level.
La falta de entendimiento de los alcances del problema por parte del gobierno de Felipe Calderón es lo que lo ha hecho caer derrotado ante el enorme poder del narco y hacer notar el error cometido de utilizar la fuerza militar cuando la propia Constitución lo impide.	Felipe Calderon’s government failure to understand of the widespread nature of this problem explains its defeats at the hands of enormously powerful narco traffickers and emphasizes the mistake made in using military force even though the Constitution does not allow it.
Ya lo hemos dicho: para empezar una verdadera lucha contra este metapoder es necesario tomar acciones que les duela, no deteniendo algunos cabecillas que luego escapan como fue el “Chapo”, sino decomisando el dinero que ganan y que lo meten a lavar en el sistema financiero y bancario.	Now we've said it: to begin a real battle against this “meta-power” it’s necessary to engage in actions that harm them, not just the arrests of some group leaders who can later escape like “Shorty Guzman” did, but by confiscating the money that they’ve earned and that they’ve laundered in the financial and banking system.
Al mismo tiempo, actuando contra los policías y sus jefes que se emplean a los diferentes narcos, a los gobernadores y presidentes municipales que se hacen socios, a los policías y jueces cómplices, a los militares que juegan doble juego.	At the same time, it’s important to strike against the police and its leaders who are in the employ of different narcos, to strike against the governors and municipal mayors who are their buddies, against the police and complicit judges, and against the military who are double agents.
Calderón se engaña a si mismo, no a la sociedad, cuando dice que “ahora si” va con todo para acabar con el crimen organizado –narco, secuestradores, etcétera-- pues al hacerlo a través de los mismos mecanismos policiacos, legales y militares, está repitiendo el mismo error de antes.	Calderon only helps himself, and not society, when he says that “now is the time” to throw everthing at organized crime — narcotics, kidnappings etc. — but to do this be means of the same police mechanisms, legal instruments and military, is repeating the same error made before.
Sólo con la caída de un gobernador o presidente municipal, que los hay, involucrados en el crimen organizado, sólo con la detención de algunos militares o banqueros que solapan, o con la caída de un alto funcionario al servicio de los jefes del narcotráfico, es como la sociedad podrá ver que el combate va en serio.	Only the fall of a governor or a mayor, those linked to organized crime, or only the arrest of some military or bankers who are reaping profits, or the fall of some functionary in the service of the narco chiefs, will be how society can see that the battle is being taken seriously.
Mientras tanto, si no se actúa de fondo, la “sociedad narca” se seguirá reproduciendo y extendiendo cada vez más y con ella su poder será imbatible para cualquier gobierno. Este es el verdadero interés de la sociedad, no la reforma de Pemex. Así lo veremos con claridad el próximo fin de semana cuando se realicen las dos marchas programadas precisamente bajo estos dos temas.	Meanwhile, it no action is taken to get at the roots of the problem, the “narco society” will continue reproducing and extending it’s reach more and more, and with its power will be unstoppable by any government. This is what needs to be done to serve the people, not the restructuring of PEMEX. We will clearly see that this is true at the end of this week when the two issues are protested by the scheduled public marches.

Lucille Mason Family

2008-03-06T11:46:00.001-05:00

Ann Soden received the following message in a New Year's card from Rolanda.

My mother and I appreciate the time you spent preparing the tribute and the information on Lucille Mason's work in Mexico in 1967. Although I was too young to know her, I know that her life was not in vain, Lucille was a wonderful person who touched many lives in her life and her memory will live on. Thank you for keeping her memory alive and God bless you.

Rolanda Taylor is Lucille Mason's niece.

Are Canadians Safe in Mexico?

2007-02-07T13:34:00.000-05:00

Over the past few weeks, there's been a minor "moral panic" regarding the safety of Canadian tourists in Mexico. Are tourists safe? Should Mexico be avoided?

A great deal of information about the current situation in Mexico can be gleaned from reading the Mexico City English language paper El Universal. The paper can be accessed online at http://www.eluniversal.com.mx and then looking for the title bar (1/3 of the way down) called Secciones. The second selection of this drop-down menu is the English language version of this paper.

Generally, Mexico is a safe country for tourists even though the level of violence is very high in some regions. The level of risk is no greater in Mexico when it is compared to other destination countries— including the United States. But even so, tourists should be aware of some important events. The homicide level is as much as 20 times higher than Canada's, but the fact is that the vast majority of these murders involve intranecine battles amongst the cartel members. But there is the possibility that this violence may spread beyond the cartels and drag in more Mexican citizens and possibly tourists.

First, there is currently a major crackdown aimed on drug-cartels. This involved the deployment of Mexican army personnel to a few regions of the country, and it involves major operations in the States of Michoacan, Guerrero, Sinaloa, Durango, Sonora and Chihuahua. There is a heavy army presence in the major cities and remote areas of those states. In some States (e.g. Sinaloa), army personnel have been murdered in cold-blood by narcosicarios (narco hitmen). In Acapulco, 7 police personnel were attacked and shot down in the past few days (Feb. 5 and 6th).

Second, President Felipe Calderón Hinojosa has authorized the extradition of several cartel leaders to the United States. These cartel leaders continued to give orders and run the cartels from within the Mexican prison system. The extradition was a controversial move because it appears to overstep the boundaries of constitutional law, and because there is a great fear in Mexico that the extradition will lead to the Colombianization of Mexico. Most Mexicans are very happy to have turned over the leaders of cartels to the Americans for prosecution of crimes they have been indicted for in the United States, but they are very concerned that this action will lead to a terrorist blow-back by the cartels in Mexico. When Colombia threatened to extradite cartel leaders (e.g. Pablo Escobar), the cartels in Medellin and Cali undertook a terrorist war targeting politicians and ordinary citizens in retaliation. Mexicans are worried that the cartels will imitate this Colombian response and escalate the violence— this time targeting ordinary people.

Furthermore, the removal of some cartel leaders to the USA has created a vacuum in leadership and there is power-struggle amongst the second-tier leaders. This is a brutal and nasty struggle, and there are many "ajustes de cuentas"— settling of accounts.

There is also a major repositioning amongst the competing cartels for "plaza" — turf. Acapulco is a major focus of these battles. In fact, the coastal area from Acapulco north to Ixtapa-Zihuatenjo has been the scene of some particularly grisly battles. Literally, there have been beheadings and torture that are on the scale of Iraq-Afghanistan horror.

Generally, Canadians are safe, but they should be aware that there is this backdrop of violence that is threatening to erupt. Unfortunately, Acapulco is one of the major battle grounds.

Travelers should look to the American sites for travel warnings and follow the advice given there.

On a different level, travelers should always be careful in taking taxis in the larger cities of Mexico. Ask the concierge at hotels to call a taxi from a "sitio" — a fixed taxi-stand or radio-dispatched site. At the major airports, use only the approved taxi services with offices in the airports. Never accept a taxi ride with someone who approaches you in the airport offering to give you a special fare.

People tend to let their guard down on vacation, and the best advice I can offer is to take the same precautions that you would take in any large city — including Toronto or Montreal. If you do this, you will have a safe and enjoyable vacation/trip in Mexico.

Epiphany: Feast of Three Kings in Mexico

2007-01-09T07:44:00.000-05:00

Town appeals to three kings in festival

By David Agren/Special to The Herald Mexico
El Universal

Martes 09 de enero de 2007
http://www.mexiconews.com.mx/miami/vi_22891.html

Eliseo Rojo, 70, has fished for tilapia and charales, a finger-size species, in the Laguna de Cajititlán since he was a teenager, although the father of 14 has seen better days

CAJITITLÁN, Jalisco - Eliseo Rojo, 70, has fished for tilapia and charales, a finger-size species, in the Laguna de Cajititlán since he was a teenager, although the father of 14 has seen better days.

He recalled fondly how he and his colleagues in the fishing village of Cajititlán, a town of approximately 8,000 residents near the Guadalajara airport, used to haul in tons of fish each day. A buyer from Toluca would come regularly for the catch. But nowadays the lake´s water level is around half its normal level and contamination from burgeoning development in the municipality of Tlajomulco is creeping in. On an average day, he now captures around 10 kilograms of fish.

"The lake used to have a lot more water. Lately, it´s been somewhat dry," he commented while waiting for passengers to climb into his boat, which was being used for sight-seeing tours last weekend. "There used to be a lot more fish."

Perhaps in search of divine intervention, the fishermen of Cajititlán took the three mesquite statues of the Santos Reyes (Holy Kings, or three wise men), the town´s patron saints, for a ride on Monday around the 5.5-square-mile lake. The tradition dates back to at least the 1930s in Cajititlán - and even further in Tlajomulco, where the first pastorelas, or live nativity plays, in colonial Mexico were performed in 1587.

But its not just the fishermen who appealed to the three kings.

Over the past nine days, pilgrims from across the region flocked to Cajititlán for the annual Día de los Reyes ("Three Kings´ Day") festivities. Some came to give thanks or receive a blessing; others to simply party or hawk products in the bustling market that filled the town´s main streets.

But the annual celebration - listed as the fourth biggest in Jalisco by local tourism officials - coincides with Jan. 6, the day most Mexicans cap off the Christmas season with family gatherings that include a rosca de reyes (the kings´ ring, a sweet bread) and giving toys to children.

Despite increased globalization and the importation of Santa Claus and Christmas trees, the Día de Reyes tradition is still strong in Mexico, and perhaps nowhere more than in Cajititlán.

"Cajititlán is the place where the tradition and the fiesta is concentrated," said José Hernández Martínez, a folk art historian at ITESO, a Jesuit university in suburban Guadalajara. According to Hernández, the Spanish introduced pastorelas as a means of evangelizing the indigenous population and found the reenactments to be highly effective.

"The images of the Santos Reyes have been well received in Mexico since the 16th century," he said.

Festivities in Cajititlán started in the 18th century and reputedly became notable in the early 1930s, when the statues of the kings suddenly surfaced after mysteriously disappearing. Rumors swirl as to how the ritual was performed, but no one knows for sure.

In the following decades, pilgrims converged on the town, making Cajititlán a major religious destination in Jalisco.

Salvador Alvarado, a former semi-pro soccer player from Guadalajara, journeys to Cajititlán every January. He broke his leg in three places seven years ago, but after asking for intervention, he recovered swiftly, something he attributed to the Santos Reyes.

"(Injuries) happened to other teammates ... but they didn´t end up doing very well," he recalled while sitting outside a tent he pitched next to the Santos Reyes parish.

"I had one operation and afterwards it was as if nothing had happened."

Despite the large number of religious pilgrims descending on Cajititlán, José Hernández Martínez said Día de los Reyes is "no longer a church holiday. It´s a civic holiday."

Octavio Pescador, a researcher at the University of California at Los Angeles concurred, adding, "There´s a sense of pluralism ... it´s a town event."

Mel Gibson and Apocalypto

2007-01-02T12:10:00.000-05:00

Earl Shorris is an astute observers of events in Mexico. He come closer to capturing the very soul of Mexico than any foreign observer since B. Traven's historical novels. In my personal view, his recent book ,"The Life and Times of Mexico", is the most comprehensive and astute English language book about post NAFTA Mexico.

His article about Mel Gibson's film Apocalypto can be found on the web at
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20061218/shorris

Mad Mel and the Maya

by EARL SHORRIS

[from the December 18, 2006 issue of the Nation]

On the Yucatán peninsula, where many of the Maya of Mexico live, there is an often-told story about people like Mel Gibson, whose bloody movie in the Yucatecan Maya language, Apocalypto, will be released December 8. I first heard the story from Miguel Angel May May, a tall man among the Maya, handsome, now in his 40s, with a touch of gray in his hair. He speaks Yucatecan Maya so eloquently that when young people who have begun to lose their language and culture first hear him, they shed tears for what has been and what can be in the Yucatán.

May May tells the story with the kind of rage and pride that Gibson tried to portray with his Scottish heroes in Braveheart and postapocalyptic picaros in Mad Max: "A Maya, of the middle class, like me," May May said, "went into a Ford dealership here in Mérida. He intended to buy a new pickup truck. He was well dressed, but clearly Maya. The dealer offered him ten pesos to wash a truck." It is a common experience for people of color in a white world. The Yucatán is not entirely a white world, yet the Maya suffer the most severe prejudice of any large ethnic group in Mexico. In the language of prejudice in Mexico, the Maya are said to be people with big heads and no brains, too short, too dark and with a strange, laughable Spanish accent. Gibson accepted the stereotype and embellished it.

To grasp what a racist act Gibson has committed in the making of his new film, it is necessary to understand the world of the Maya as it exists today. Perhaps realizing what has been done to the Maya in the film, Gibson has been seeking allies among Latinos and American Indians. He even went so far as to tell Time magazine, "The fear mongering we depict in this film reminds me a little of President Bush and his guys."

In fact, Gibson stepped into a delicate cultural situation and may have shattered much of what has been built by indigenous people, historians and linguists in recent years. Ethnic prejudice is as harsh in the Yucatán as anywhere in the Americas. I have seen it played out in the Maya villages as well as in the cities and on the beaches. When the Clemente Course, which educates indigenous people as well as the poor in seven countries, taught its first class in the Maya language and humanities in the small village of San Antonio Sihó, the students told me that when they took the bus to Mérida (a journey of more than fifty miles) they were afraid to speak Maya, because people would think them stupid Indians (Mayeros). After two years of study, José Chim Kú, the student leader of the class, said, "Now, when I ride on the bus, I speak only Maya." It took two years for the faculty, including May May, to effect the change, for the Maya have internalized their recent history. And like all people who live in the violent mirror of racial and ethnic hatred, they suffer for their suffering. It is the bitterest irony of colonialism.

In the film Apocalypto, which Gibson claims will make the Maya language "cool again," there are many major roles. The lead is a lithe, handsome young man, a dancer from Oklahoma named Rudy Youngblood. He has indigenous ancestors, but he is not Maya, and like most of the other featured players he is not a professional actor. None of the four other major parts went to Maya either. According to Gibson, they are played by people from the United States, and the other featured players are either from Mexico City or Oaxaca. Yet every word spoken in the film is in Yucatecan Maya, a difficult language to learn or even to mimic, because it is both tonal and accented.

It is not as if Gibson had few Mayeros to choose from. There are more than a million Maya in Mexico, and more than 100,000 of them are monolingual Yucatecan Maya speakers. Yet Gibson chose not one Maya for a featured role. In so doing, he has made a film that reinforces the prejudice against the Maya, who have defended their cultural autonomy as fiercely as any people on earth. Twice they repulsed the Spaniard Francisco de Montejo, before he occupied part of the peninsula in 1527. They continued to fight pitched battles against European cultural and political dominance until the end of the Caste War in the early twentieth century. And even now militant organizations deep in the jungles of the state of Quintana Roo practice ancient rituals and resist Occidental cultural and political hegemony, including the Gregorian calendar. But the people have never been attacked by Hollywood.

Like the owners of the resort hotels that line the beautiful beaches of Cancún and Cozumel, Mel Gibson cast no Maya to work on his project, except in the most minor roles. Maya nationalists think the hotels and tourist packages that use the word "Maya" or "Mayaland" (a translation of Mayab) should pay for what they appropriate for their own use. The Maya patrimony, they say, is neither gold nor silver nor vast stretches of rich farmland; they have only their history, their culture, themselves. Like the hotel owners who bring strangers to the Yucatán to do everything but labor in the laundries and maintain the grounds, Gibson has brought in strangers to take the good parts from the Maya. He said in an interview that he chose people who "looked like you imagined they should," but I have seen photographs of Rudy Youngblood, and he does not look like any Maya I ever saw. One can only ascribe the choice of Youngblood and the other non-Maya to stereotypes that Gibson has adopted.

In casting and producing the film Gibson reinforced a colonialist concept of indigenous people that has long existed in Mexico. Ancient Maya culture was extraordinary, as the rest of the world now recognizes. The Maya invented one of the few original systems of phonetic writing (we are familiar with the Chinese system and the one that culminated in Latin script). They worked with the concept of zero long before it was known in Europe. They were superb astronomers. Their art and architecture are now known and studied throughout the world. It is also true that they were warriors and that they engaged in human sacrifice, although not on the grand scale of the Mexica. Their ability to manage large-scale military and civic works was impressive. Maya literature has a long and grand history, from the ancient words incised in stone through the Pop Wuj (Popol Vuh) and the postinvasion books of Chilam Balam to the eighteenth-century poems ("Kay Nicte"--Flower Song--and others) to contemporary works, including brilliant poetry by Briceida Cuevas Cob in Yucatecan Maya and Humberto Ak'abal in Ki'che and Miguel Angel May May's delightful fables.

Culture doesn't sell tickets. Violence does. Gibson has made what he calls "a chase movie." As we saw his Scot disemboweled and his Jesus battered into bloody meat, we will now see a young Maya running through the jungle to escape having his still beating heart torn from his chest. The social philosophy of Jesus found no place in Gibson's Passion of the Christ, and the glory of Maya culture cannot be featured in a "chase movie." "Blood! More blood!" Gibson shouted during the filming.

According to the Maya calendar, the world will end in 2012, but there have already been four creations in the Maya vision of the cosmos, and there is no reason to think they do not expect another. For the title of his movie Gibson chose a Greek word related to the ideas in the Book of Revelation: apocalypse. Gibson has tried to sell the movie as an allegory, using the fall of Maya civilization to limn the war in Iraq. But it is not about Iraq, and the end of the Maya classic period took place many centuries before the period Gibson chose for his film. The only profound meaning one can take away from the film is that there is an intimate connection between racism and violence. The message of the production is that the Maya are unacceptable people; we do not want to look at them as they are now, and we despise them for what they were then.

Oaxaca Christmas tradition

2006-12-28T10:23:00.000-05:00

Snack on ‘buñuelos’ and smash the plates Wire services
El Universal

Jueves 28 de diciembre de 2006

Oaxacans have a unique holiday celebration

OAXACA CITY - Rocked for months by a political conflict that played out in the streets, this southern city is now filled with the sounds of crockery being smashed, not in anger, but as part of Oaxacans´ traditional New Year´s celebration.

Residents serve "buñuelos" on the plates and later smash the china against a wall or the floor, and they make wishes for the next 12 months, which the majority of Oaxacans hope will be better than the past seven.

In May, unionized teachers launched a strike that left more than 1 million students without classes across Oaxaca.

The protests escalated in June when Gov. Ulises Ruiz tried to end the strike by force, a move that radicalized the teachers and led them to join with other grassroots groups.

Between June and November, at least 15 people - almost all of them Ruiz opponents - died in street clashes, dozens were injured and scores arrested, and the state sustained millions of dollars in damage and economic losses.

The buñuelos, which are made from wheat flour, milk and egg yolks, have a diameter of 30 centimeters (11.8 inches) and are sprinkled with sugar or drenched in syrup.

Buñuelos originated in the south of Spain and are yet another example of the Iberian Peninsula´s Arab heritage, Oaxacan historian Rubén Vasconcelos said.

Vasconcelos is an expert on the history and customs of the capital of Oaxaca, which is Mexico´s second-poorest state and also the jurisdiction with the largest indigenous population in terms both of absolute numbers and as a proportion of the total inhabitants.

Buñuelos are served for dessert on both Christmas Eve and New Year´s Eve, and until this year were sold by street vendors around the Oaxaca Cathedral in the Zócalo, or main square, of this picturesque colonial city.

Due to the camps set up by protesters in the square and clashes between activists and police in the surrounding area, tourism suffered this year.

Although arrests - mostly on trumped-up charges - were made of protest leaders in recent weeks, the Zócalo remained under tight security over Christmas, with police preventing protesters from entering.

SHIFT IN LOCALE

To maintain order, officials said, the buñuelos are being sold this year at an open-air market in the Plaza de la Danza, across from city hall and several blocks from the Zócalo.

The "sacrificed" plates are specially made in the potteries of Oaxaca, especially in Santa María Atzompa, where potters work with red clay.

"Before, the leading families of Oaxaca would break their china to welcome the new year with new utensils and throw out or toss the dishes," Miss Florinda, a vendor, told EFE about the tradition.

"You toss it and, when the plate is in the air, make a wish for when it shatters against the wall or floor, and your wish has been made and will come true," her fellow vendor, Sara Vasconcelos, said in front of a man-made wishing well used as a target for plates.

Oaxaca City´s tourism chief, Celestino Gómez, said the market was created to "unite the families of Oaxaca."

"This is an activity in which the city is taking part to present a range of foods and to jump-start the economy of the city and the state," Gómez said.

Enedino Reyes, a Oaxacan who visited the market with his family, was one of those wishing for better times.

"I have a small shoe shop and because of the problems here in the city recently, sales fell a lot, we don´t even have enough to pay the wages, or the rent. So I made a wish, to see what happens," Reyes said after eating a buñuelo and breaking a plate.

Pueblito Canada

2006-12-22T10:14:00.000-05:00

Correo Canadiense is a national newspaper serving the Spanish speaking communities of Canada. An article published in the Dec. 15—21 edition describes an organization named Pueblito Canada.

Pueblito is a voluntary, non-government organization that supports projects to improve the lives of children in Latin America and the Caribbean. For 30 years, it has worked co-operatively with local non-government organizations to implement a variety of intitiatives.

It has supported projects in Mexico, but currently allocates its resources to specific projects in other Latin America and Caribbean countries.

Pueblito Canada is a registered Canadian charity and issues tax receipts for donations. More details about Pueblito are found on its web site (http://www.pueblito.org). The site also includes a direct link to make a donation.

It's also possible to make donate to Pueblito Canada by sending a cheque directly to:

Pueblito Canada
720 Spadina Avenue
Suite 403
Toronto, ON M5S 2T9
(416) 963-8846
P.S. Mention CIASP

Update from Corinne Malloy-Smith

2006-12-22T09:43:00.000-05:00

Many people made a donation to a project described by Corinne Malloy-Smith at reunion 2006. Corinne sent the following update.

We have good news to report to you. Armida and a team from Llamados Para Servir visited the rancho of El Tamarindo on Dec. 9th. This was the earliest they could get in because the road had been closed due to heavy rains and an impassable river. However, once in El Tamarindo the team lost no time in purchasing the land for the school/community building. The municipal government gave consent and the construction will now begin.

The people are all excited and have offered to help by donating their time, labour, wood, tools, et cetera. Others have offered to bring food and drinks to the volunteer workers. Many of the local labourers will be donating their time after a full day (10 to 12 hours) of working in the fields. The man in the El Tamarindo photo on the web was told by Armida that he and his child could be seen by people all over the world. This sparked such an interest that he now wants to come out and help with the roof !

Armida and her team will return to El Tamarindo on December 28th with wood, cement, and other building materials. A school/community buidling will be constructed that will accomodate 50 students, and a smaller room and bathroom for the teacher/pastor. This building will be used during the daytime to teach children and in the evenings adults will be taught basic skills such as reading and writing. During weekends it will be used for church services and community meetings.

The Mexican people are very grateful to CIASP for raising $1600 and GOJI customers for their donations toward this project. Many others have given generously as well. Thank you all for your kindness. With these donations we are able to begin construction of this building. However, a little more is required to purchase desks, books, and teaching materials. If you would like to donate to this cause in memory of a loved one, or to honour someone, or in lieu of gifts you can send donations from now until April to:

Come to the Waters Ministries

c/o Shirley Tye

6 Sparrow Court,
Little Britain, On
K0M 2C0

To God be the glory for He is our faithful provider.

Wishing you a very blessed Christmas and a Happy New Year !

In Memoriam: Lucille Mason

2006-12-11T11:23:00.000-05:00

In Memory of Lucille Mason
December 2006

Lucille spent the last few weeks of her life in Rancho Nuevo — an outlying settlement of the Municipality of Pisaflores (“To Walk Over Flowers”) in the State of Hidalgo Mexico. Pisaflores and its smaller communities called ranchos, dot the interior and eastern edge of two mountain ranges forming the rugged Sierra Madre Oriental. To the west, mountains rise and gradually flatten to form the high altitude central plateau that dominates the interior of Mexico. The Municipality of Pisaflores spreads across a small thumb-print valley stamped into the mountainous region on the southeast edge of the State of San Luis Potosi, and the eastern border of Querétaro State. Even today, this municipio remains a remote location with few access roads — and Rancho Nuevo is the furthest and one of the most isolated satellite communities of Pisaflores.

One Canadian student who spent the summer of 1967 in Rancho Nuevo rememers that the only two visible artifacts of modernity in the settlement were a battery–operated radio and a steel pail used to haul water. (Maureen Kelly) At night, the Canadian students sat outside and marveled at the brilliance of the stars, and were given astronomy lessons by residents who knew the names of all of the constellations of the northern sky.

The rio Moctezuma is the main physical barrier blocking Pisaflores and Rancho Nuevo from the outside world. The western mountains are too rugged for vehicular access, and communities of this northern Hidalgo municipio are accessed from the eastern side. The Rio Moctezuma tumbles east and north from its origin in central Mexico near the archeological ruins at Tula, turns further to the northeast as it rambles around the outskirts of Pisaflores municipality and then makes a near 90º turn to continue around a spit of a mountain and past Rancho Nuevo. Tula is the legendary home of the famed Mexican deity Quetzacoatl, the Plumed Serpent, and the river Moctezuma that defines the limits of Pisaflores to the south and east is named after a great emperor of the Mexica people. Rancho Nuevo also lies on the west bank and the river physically separates it from the modern world and the national highway 85 high carved out of the mountainside a few hundred metres above its east bank.

Rancho Nuevo is situated on the northern Hidalgo and the southeastern San Luis Potosi state borders, a short 2 kilometres from a beautiful city named Tamazunchale in San Luis Potosi state. This is deep in the heart of the Huasteca region, and is famous for beautiful flowers, an abundance of birds and fascinating folk music traditions. Rancho Nuevo sits in a pastoral setting with a large meadow on its south, and has an abundance of tropical flowers and amazing variety of birds that thrive in its remoteness and proximity to water. More than 200 species of birds have been identified in this area, including different species of brilliantly coloured Toucans that nest in the trees and gardens of homes. Later in the summer, the neighbouring fields are filled with mariposas — beautiful blue butterflies that make the tropical sky even more azure in the early morning. Not far from here, in mountains to the west, lies the beautiful town of Xilitla (He-leet-la) where the regional abundance of exotic flowers, butterflies and numerous bird species attracted a wealthy Englishman named James Edwards. He came there to create a garden devoted to orchids in 1961— just a few short years before Lucille would spend the last weeks of her life in Rancho Nuevo.

Lucille spent most of her time living and working near the largest wooden building in Rancho Nuevo. It dominated the west side of the settlement and served as community hall, church, school and then as the dormitory for Canadian visitors. The children of Rancho Nuevo were fascinated by the strangers from Canada and early in the mornings gathered outside of the paneless windows of the building and peeked in with amusement. Canadian students who spent time in Rancho Nuevo remember being awakened by the sound of morning roosters the beautiful faces of smiling children outside of the school anxiously urging them to get the day underway.

It was in this beautiful tropical place that Lucille worked and played with the children, taught them in the school, and eventually fell ill. It was from here that the concerned residents carried her up an impossibly steep incline to the highway on the other side of the river so that her fellow Canadian students could transport her to a small hospital in Tamazunchale. When it was obvious that she was very sick, the doctors in Tamazunchale hoped to save her by sending her to Mexico City in an ambulance. But it wasn’t to be, and she died there on June 4, 1967. Her body was returned to her grieving family and friends in Montreal. She was in her 20th year of life when it tragically ended.

The last few weeks of her life were spent in an absolutely beautiful setting sharing the days with warm and kind people who greatly appreciated her presence, and were attracted to her beautiful and welcoming smile. There must be some consolation in knowing that her last images from this earthly world were filled with birds, butterflies, flowers and the smiling faces of children. Her death was a tragedy that affected everyone that knew her and even those who had not met her personally. It especially affected every Canadian student who traveled to Mexico with CIASP and left a deep and lasting impression that has never faded. I am continually amazed at how many people think of Lucille and remember her after all these years.

Recently, I found a poem called From within the Heavens written by a Mexica poet, and in reading it I couldn’t help but think of Lucille. The Mexica, who later were called the Aztecs, produced many skilled and famous poets, and in their Nahuatl language the term for poetry is a combination of two words — flowers and songs. Mexica poetry often presented sophisticated themes lamenting the transience of life and the meaning of death.

Pisaflores Municipal Glyph
From within the Heavens
by Ayocuan Cuetzpaltzin
(translated by Miguel León-Portilla)

From within the heavens they come,
the beautiful flowers, the beautiful songs,
but our yearning spoils them,
our inventiveness makes them lose their fragrance,
although not those of the Chichimec prince Tecayehuatzin.
With his, rejoice!

Friendship is a shower of precious flowers
White tufts of heron feathers
are woven with precious red flowers,
among the branches of the trees
under which stroll and sip
the lords and nobles

Your beautiful song is a golden wood thrush
most beautiful, you raise it up.
You are in a field of flowers.
Among the flowery bushes you sing.
Are you perchance a precious bird of the Giver of Life?
Perchance you have spoken with God?
As soon as you saw the dawn, you began to sing.
Would that I exert myself, that my heart desire,
the flowers of the shield, the flowers of the Giver of Life.

What can my heart do?
In vain we have come, we have blossomed forth on earth.
Will I have to go alone like the flowers that perish?
Will nothing remain of my name?
Nothing of my fame here on earth?
At least my flowers, at least my songs!

What can my heart do?
In vain we have come,
we have blossomed forth on earth.
Let us enjoy, O friends,
here we can embrace.
We stroll over the flowery earth.
No one here can do away with the flowers and the songs,
they will endure in the house of the Giver of Life

Earth is the region of the fleeting moment.
Is it also thus in the Place Where in Some Way One Lives?
Is one happy there?
Is there friendship?
Or is it only here on earth
we come to know our faces?

León Portilla, Miguel. 1992.
Fifteen poets of the Aztec world. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.

The poet’s lament is an articulate vision about the ultimate meaning of life and death, friendship and memory: “What can my heart do? In vain we have come, we have blossomed forth on earth. Will I have to go alone like the flowers that perish? Will nothing remain of my name?”

The tragedy of Lucille’s death plunged each of us immediately into deep shock and we had no answers that could make sense of such an insensible event. But after four decades, do any of us still wonder whether her life was as fleeting as the beautiful flowers and songs of birds in Rancho Nuevo? Consider this — after all of this time there still are hundreds of people who remember her presence and admire the kindness and caring life she lived. The strength of those memories are a powerful statement that she had a real presence among us, and that there are powerful emotions attached to hearing her name. How can such deeply felt memories be meaningless when they remind of us of beauty, caring, butterflies, flowers, birds and song?

Apocalypto...How do the Maya feel?

2006-12-07T14:57:00.000-05:00

		Formato de impresión patrocinado por

Mayas excited about new Mel Gibson film

Wire services
El Universal

Jueves 07 de diciembre de 2006

Scenes of enslaved Maya building temples for a violent, decadent culture in Mel Gibson´s new film "Apocalypto" may ring true for many of today´s Mayas, who earn meager wages in construction camps, building huge tourist resorts on land they once owned

Some Mayas are excited at the prospect of the first feature film made in their native tongue, Yucatec Maya. But others among the 800,000 surviving Mayas are worried that Gibson´s hyper-violent, apocalyptic film could be just the latest misreading of their culture by outsiders.

"There has been a lot of concern among Mayan groups from Mexico, Guatemala and Belize, because we don´t know what his treatment or take on this is going to be," said Amadeo Cool May of the indigenous defense group "Mayaon," or "We are Maya."

"This could be an attempt to merchandize or sell the image of a culture, or its people, that often differs from what that people needs, or wants," Cool May said.

Gibson employed Mayas, most of whom live on the Yucatán Peninsula, in the filming of the movie, and says he wants to make the Mayan language "cool" again, and encourage young people "to speak it with pride."

The film has been screened for some U.S. Indians, who praised the use of indigenous actors. The Mayas haven´t seen it yet, but like Indians north of the border, they have seen others co-opt their culture, as in high-class Caribbean resorts like the Maya Coast and the Maya Riviera.

But the indigenous are largely absent from those beach resorts, where vacationers tour mock "Maya Villages" or watch culturally inaccurate mishmashes with "Maya Dancers" performing in feather headdresses and facepaint.

"The owners are often foreigners who buy up the land at ridiculously low prices, build tourism resorts and the Mayas in reality are often just the construction workers for the hotels or, at best, are employed as chamber maids," said Cool May.

"Apocalypto" also portrays Maya civilization at a low moment, just before the Spaniards arrived, when declining, quarreling Maya groups were focused more on war and human sacrifice than on the calendars and writing system of the civilization´s bloody but brilliant classical period.

Outsiders´ views of the Maya have long been subject to changing intellectual fashions. Until the 1950s, academics often depicted the ancient Mayas as an idyllic, peaceful culture devoted to astronomy and mathematics. Evidence has since emerged that, even at their height, the Mayas fought bloody and sometimes apocalyptic wars among themselves, lending somewhat more credence to Gibson´s approach.

Warrior-kings and priests directed periodic wars among the ancient Maya aimed at capturing slaves or prisoners for labor or human sacrifice. Entire cities were destroyed by the wars, and whole forests cut down to build the temples.

The latest trendy theory is a largely Internet-based rumor that the Maya long-count calendar predicts a global calamity on Dec. 22, 2012. Some have woven that together with prophecies from the Bible.

Mauricio Amuy, a non-Maya actor who participated in the filming of Apocalypto, says the production staff discussed the theory on the set.

"We know the Bible talks about prophecies, and that the Mayas spoke of a change of energy on Dec. 22, 2012, and it (the movie) is somewhat focused on that," Amuy said. "People should perhaps take that theory and reflect, and not do these things that are destroying humanity."

ENSLAVEMENT

While they resisted the Spanish conquest longer than most of the indigenous groups - the Mayas´ last rebellion, the War of the Castes, lasted until 1901 - many were virtually enslaved until the early 1900s on plantations growing sisal, used for rope-making, or in the jungle, tapping gum trees. Discrimination and poverty are probably their greatest enemies today.

Just as Gibson´s use of Aramaic in "The Passion of Christ" sparked a burst of interest in that language, some Maya are hoping "Apocalypto! will do the same for their tongue.

"I think it is a good chance to integrate the Mayan language ... for people to hear it in movies, on television, everywhere," said Hilaria Mass, a Maya who teaches the language at Yucatán´s state university.

Mass, 65, recalls that children were once prohibited from speaking Maya in school. There is still little bilingual education, and many of those who speak Maya can´t read it.

One sign of progress is Yucatán radio station XEPET, "The Voice of the Mayas," which began broadcasting in the indigenous language in 1982. While it began with a mixed Spanish-Maya patois, it now broadcasts in 90 percent pure Maya.

The station is trying to purge words borrowed from Spanish and revive a purer form of Maya. It broadcasts all sorts of music - from rock to rap to reggae - with Mayan lyrics.

Still, the percentage of Maya speakers in Yucatán fell from 37 percent in 2000 to 33.9 percent by 2005. Paradoxically, for a state that advertises the glories of the Maya culture for tourists, it is having a hard time keeping the present-day Maya there; many are migrating to the United States.

"For tourists, that´s what sells ... what catches their attention are the archaeological sites," said Diana Canto, director of the Yucatán Institute for the Development of Maya Culture. "We are trying to sell them on the living Mayas too, so that people get to know their cultural richness."

Today´s Maya are known mainly for their elaborate rhyming jokes, a cuisine based on pumpkin and achiote seeds, and loose embroidered white clothing. They´re largely peaceful farmers and masons who carry their goods on ubiquitous three-wheeled bicycles over table-flat Yucatán.

Interestingly, some Mayas reach much the same conclusion as Gibson´s movie, which focuses on one man´s struggle to save his family as a metaphor for saving the future of a people.

"Our culture hasn´t been destroyed, because the family is the base of it," says Maas. "Perhaps some material things have been destroyed, but the real basis of the culture is what a family teaches their children, and that survives, and has survived."

Ponte tus piyamas

2006-12-02T11:18:00.000-05:00

Put on your pajamas and get to bed...it's time to go to sleep.

After seizing the podium and protecting it from the PRD, deputies of PAN and the other parties settled in for the night. Videos of the event posted on El Universal indicate that pillows, blankets and even pajamas were brought out.

A link at http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/graficos/sanlazaro3/index.html# captures the legislators settling in for the night. The picture immediately to the left shows a couple of the legislators tucked in and protecting their view of democracy.

I don't know who these deputies are, but they appear to be men who might have been young students around the time of the "dirty wars" or perhaps were even participants in the protests that tragically ended with the massacre of students at Tlatelolco.

For some strange reason, this whole event reminded me of a poster that was given to us by Kris Purdy when she returned from Mexico in 1968. I wasn't in Mexico that summer, but many CIASP'ers were there in Hidalgo. Kris brought us a wonderful gift of a dozen lithographed posters of the student protest.

I scanned part of one poster and pasted it here. The students in 1968 were treated as insignificant complainers by the government of Gustavo Diaz Ordaz and Secretary of Gobernacion Luis Echeverria. The poster below has a caption that ironically dismisses the students by telling them "Put on your pajamas...get in bed...because it's time to sleep".

Perhaps the deputies in San Lazaro should also consider giving it a rest, or at least recognize that they're following the same advice dismissively given by paternalistic government to dissenters 40 years ago.

Politics...Mexican Style.

2006-11-30T12:45:00.000-05:00

Compared to Mexico, Canadian politics is downright sane and rational. This may sound like the wild-ramblings of someone who hasn't been paying attention to the current debate over "who's Québécois?", "who's most suited to lead the Liberal Party...an intellectual who lived most of his life abroad in ivory towers...a reformed New Democrat who is backed by the Liberal backroom boys...or perhaps a quiet francophone intellectual who named his dog Kyoto?" or "what costume will make Prime Minister Harper look uncomfortable and ill at ease?".

In contrast, consider what has taken place in Mexico over the past two weeks.

The loser of the popular vote in July, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO to friends and supporters), declared himself the president by Popular choice and appointed a cabinet on a national holiday celebrating the Mexican Revolution. He did this in Mexico City's main square (the Zocalo)— cheered on by tens of thousands of supporters — and while a parade of historically-outfitted revolutionary participants commemorating the civil war that killed millions of Mexicans converged on the capital from three directions. I didn't see any recent reports that there was a re-enactment of a famous meeting with Pancho Villa at the Bar Opera...but certainly there were gatherings in many bars saluting self-proclaimed Presidente AMLO with toasts.

Meanwhile, the location for elected legislators (San Lazaro) was encircled by newly placed security fences, and patrolled by both police and army in anticipation of potential trouble on Dec. 1st. This is the day that the actual winner of the election was to take an oath of office.

At the stroke of midnight on Thursday the 30th of November,Felipe Calderon Hinojosa became the new President and Mr. Vicente Fox Quesada became ex-Presidente Fox whose only concern was a retreat to his ranch in Guanajuato accompanied by his leading lady Doña Martita. It's uncertain whether Martha's sons will join their step-parents, or continue in their business pursuits that have made them incredibly rich during the presidency of their new father Vicente.

Aside from the fact that there is a new President, other facts were unclear as of November 30. By tradition, the former president presents a sash of office to the new president in the legislative assembly (San Lazaro). The incoming president then offers an oath of office before elected deputies in San Lazaro's Chamber of Deputies. Technically, none of this is constitutionally required, but the ritual is a long standing tradition emerging out of the Mexican Revolution.

Unfortunately, it seems that the new President was not really be welcome to enter the Chamber of Deputies...or at least wasn't invited with open arms by all of the elected members. And so, there was a rugby style scrum earlier in the week to "seize" the podium and carry out a strange version of a filibuster...except there no words and only pushing and shoving and a few punches...almost like the line-up here in Toronto last week among the people waiting to purchase X-boxes. The Partido Accion Nacional (PAN) managed to win this scrum and establish control over the podium, and their beefy presence physically kept the Partido Revolucionario Democratica (PRD) at bay.

As the deadline for transfer of power approached, PAN deputies continue to occupy the podium after a two-day sit–in and PRD members remained sitting like vultures in the chamber waiting to pounce on any weakness or open spot. PAN deputies were holding firm and save the podium for its leader, the new President and hoped that he would enter the chamber and swear his oath of office in the traditional spot...PRD remained on guard hoping that at least a few deputies would blink and let them take over the podium and thus prevent a new neo-liberal president from standing there to promise dedication to the constitution of 1917 and its revolutionary principles.

Pillows and Blankets were delivered to the PANistas occupying every inch of the podium, but apparently many preferred to remain awake all night singing traditional Mexican songs...probably the entire repertoire of José Alfredo Jimenez,Juan Gabriel and probably the sad and tragic songs of Miguel Aceves Maciel who died a couple of weeks ago. Apparently they serenaded the sunrise each day with a rousing version of las mañanitas — appropriate action for cock-of-the-walk roosters.

Foto is from Jornada, Nov. 30. credit to José Carlo González
More Fotos from El Universal are found here

No matter how this standoff ends, there will be a new president on December 1, even if no-one knows where he finally gave his allegiance to the country and democracy, or where he collected the sash of office from ex-Presidente Fox. He really wanted to go to San Lazaro and stand on the podium, but wiser counsel was arranging alternative locations and a plan B. It's also unclear whether Vicente Fox even thought about appearing in person beside Mr. Calderon, because a significant number of people in all parties are mad at Mr. Fox and his wife and believe that he spent the past few years of his sexenio in a world of his own imagination that they pejoratively call Foxilandia. It's sort of like Michael Jackson's Neverland!

And while this pillow fight continued, an incredibly violent teacher strike raged on in the beautiful city of Oaxaca. Teachers have been protesting for more than 6 months about a corrupt governor who refuses to resign. There have been many violent clashes and deaths, including that of an American photographer. Participants in the protest movement (APPO) are being arrested and dragged away from the protest lines and shipped to penal institutions in distant States. President Fox did not take the protest seriously when it began, and when he eventually acted he managed to create even more violence. Now, it's become the problem of the new President and a newly appointed "crack-down on dissent" minister of the interior.

The winner of the election, Felipe Calderon was busy appointing his new cabinet and presenting them to the press over the past few weeks. All are party loyalists, and stand for nothing new or visionary. His most controversial appointment was Francisco Ramírez Acuña who brings with him a hard-line, law-and-order, crack-em-on-the-head approach to protest and dissent. Even members of his own party warned him that this was an inflammatory choice and a dangerous move. Ironically, the appointment was announced on the same day that a warrant was re-issued for Luis Echeverria, another wealthy ex-presidente, and head of Gobernación under Presidente Gustavo Diaz Ordaz. Luis Echeverria was fingered in a lengthy and well documented report of being the trigger-man, or more correctly the intellectual author, of the so-called Dirty War of the 1960's and 1970's. Just last month, a massive report about the abuses and killings of the dirty war were published. I gather that Felipe Calderón has not had time to read this report because he's been too busy trying to find out where and how he can get the Presidential sash.

Meanwhile, on the northern border with the USA, there's real talk of building an actual impermeable wall to seal out Mexican immigrants. Ironically, the most concrete plans speculated that it would be possible to use Mexican immigrant labour to build this wall more cheaply. After all, there are an estimated 8 million of them working for slave labour in the United States. American nativists calling themselves the Minutemen, are patrolling areas where there is no wall with the hope that they can catch the illegal immigrants and turn them over to Border Patrol. Seriously, they have distributed T-shirts to some of their captives that say the equivalent of "I came to the USA and all I got was this lousy T-shirt telling me to leave".

A little further south, in the State of Sinaloa, an entire village of 21 homes was burned to the ground by narco-raiders, and a car carrying children was the target used for an "ajusticimiento de cuentas" (adjustment of accounts) by narco-competitors. The massacre of 3 children was a first in the extremely bloody drug-wars that have brutalized Mexico in the absence of strong government. But, what really upset the good citizens who voted for the President and the deputies who are in the pillow fight was a recent assasination of a Mexican narcocorrido singer Valentín Elizalde in Ciudad Reynoso this weak. His funeral attracted tens of thousands of adoring fans and overloaded mytube.com with tributes. He has become the latest Mexican iconic hero overnight, and those fighting for the podium in San Lazaro have been reduced to insignificant status in the minds of the public.

Oh well, it's time to watch the Liberal Convention and feel rational.

P.S. The movie Babel by Mexican Director Alejandro Gonzales Iñarritu is highly recommended. The confusion described beautifully in this film makes much more sense than the actual events in Mexico.

Frida Kahlo's Clothes

2006-11-30T11:54:00.000-05:00

The Miami Herald/El Universal English Language paper in Mexico City printed a very interesting story about Frida Kahlo's clothing. The link to El Universal is posted here and should be credited if this story is forwarded or cited. But the story is reprinted below.

Clothing cache sheds light on artist’s life

Wire services
El Universal

Jueves 30 de noviembre de 2006

The trunk, discovered in the back of an old wardrobe that had been forgotten in an unused bathroom, was like stepping into the past

The trunk, discovered in the back of an old wardrobe that had been forgotten in an unused bathroom, was like stepping into the past.

Curators opened the lid to find hundreds of Frida Kahlo´s colorful skirts and blouses, many still infused with the late artist´s perfume and cigarette smoke.

It has taken two years to log and restore the nearly 300 articles of clothing. Next summer, the embroidered and sometimes paint- smeared pieces will be put on display at Kahlo´s family home- turned-museum to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the painter´s birth.

The exhibit will offer the public a new glimpse into Kahlo´s flamboyant and tortured life.

The wife of muralist Diego Rivera, Kahlo is known as much for her outspoken and sometimes outrageous style as for her intensely personal paintings. She survived a horrible trolley car crash and polio as a child, was openly bisexual and had an affair with Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky.

Her tumultuous life has inspired several plays and films, including the 2002 movie "Frida," starring Salma Hayek.

Kahlo was known in part for her fashion leadership, and was featured on the cover of Vogue´s French edition.

While most women at that time were turning toward simple, elegant dresses, Kahlo was wearing long, full skirts that borrowed heavily from Mexico´s traditional indigenous dress. She often had her hair in braids, and refused to remove a mustache or trim her unibrow, both of which she exaggerated in her signature self-portraits.

The trunk of clothes was found in 2004 during a renovation of her family´s home, where she died in 1954 after a life of nearly constant pain and dozens of surgeries for broken bones she suffered in the trolley accident. Inside were dresses, tablecloths and a letter from Rivera.

The clothes were a window into Kahlo´s life. The curators of her museum were struck not only by the actual garments, but by the fact that they still smelled of Kahlo.

"There is still a trace of that very particular odor," said Magdalena Rosen Zweig, who helped restore the clothing. "It´s ... the smell of a person, cigarettes, perfume. It´s a very particular smell, something that makes the clothing come alive. It´s something that helps you understand a person."

Some of the skirts were stained by Kahlo´s oil paint, and one had a small, scorched hole from a cigarette.

"We respected that during the restoration process ... because it is part of history," Rosen Zweig said in an interview.

The clothing was fumigated, studied, logged and photographed for an exhibit catalog.

Besides providing a comprehensive look at Kahlo´s style, the clothes also reveal how tiny she was. Rivera, more than 6 feet tall and about 300 pounds, towered over the 5-foot-3 Kahlo, who weighed less than 100 pounds. The disparity prompted Kahlo´s mother to nickname the couple "the elephant and the dove."

"She has such a small waist," Rosen Zweig said. "You can´t find mannequins her size. She had a tiny waist and a very small back. Everything about her was tiny."

Her body, crippled by disease and the accident, was the main topic of many of her paintings - stark self-portraits that depicted her unending pain and inability to have children.

She noted that the clothes showed how Kahlo´s style evolved. As a young woman, she wore high-neck blouses and black gloves that may have belonged to her mother. Later, she mixed loose-fitting dresses with ornate necklaces, earrings, flowers and hair ribbons.

Rosen Zweig hopes the new exhibit will spark interest in native Mexican textiles and clothing. She said it was hard to calculate the value of the clothes.

"You can´t put a price on the rescue of this collection," she said.

President Fox's Very Bad Week

2006-11-10T12:03:00.000-05:00

The following post is from El Universal (English Language Daily published by Miami Herald)
__________________

Fox can´t hide from troubles as term ending

Wire services
El Universal

Viernes 10 de noviembre de 2006

The very bad week of lame duck President Vicente Fox began shortly after midnight Monday with a series of guerrilla bombings, and it´s been downhill from there.

On Tuesday, Fox was ordered by lawmakers not to leave Mexico on an overseas trip, and he has since been captured on TV making indiscreet statements and been sued by his own lawyers.

Nobody was hurt in Monday´s bombings of a bank building, the country´s highest electoral tribunal and a national party headquarters.

But the incidents caught the attention of international investors who until then had figured the country´s increasingly restless opposition movement was largely benign.

The drug war raging along the border and erupting on the Pacific Coast already has money people nervous about doing business here. Now add bomb-throwing radicals to the list.

REJECTION BY CONGRESS

Mexico´s lower house voted Tuesday to keep Fox from leaving next week for a trade mission to Vietnam and Australia.

They said that Fox, whose six- year term ends this month, ought to be home restoring order in Oaxaca´s capital city, where thousands of federal police and protesters have been battling for weeks.

Vietnam, maybe, said lawmakers, where the Asian-Pacific Economic Cooperation will hold a two-day summit. But the lawmakers weren´t buying a four-day stopover in Australia, Mexico´s 32nd largest trading partner and home to one of Fox´s daughters.

"It´s great that the daughter of President Fox went to study in another country," said federal lawmaker Erick López Barriga. "But maybe it would be better for him to make a working visit to Oaxaca; better to go to the border; better that he stay and try to resolve the security problems in our own country."

It was an old story for Fox, who lost his reform battles on taxes, energy and labor in Congress, and he reacted angrily to the humiliation.

"We can´t allow, in this time of democracy, the president to be kidnapped because of a few people," he said that night.

AMIGOS DE FOX CASE

The next morning, Fox´s former attorneys filed a lawsuit alleging that he neglected to pay them US$3 million in legal bills he ran up to defend against charges of laundering money from U.S. donors in his 2000 presidential campaign.

A fear of U.S. interests buying a Mexican election makes it illegal to receive foreign donations or campaign abroad.

The case had been seen as a slam-dunk against Fox but attorney Arturo Quintero won it, with the only penalty being a fine paid instead by Fox´s National Action Party.

"I worked a long time and got very good results," Quintero said in a radio interview.

The president agreed personally to square the legal bill more than year ago, said Quintero, who added that he still hasn´t seen a dime. "It´s a private matter between them," said Fox spokesman Rubén Aguilar.

SPEAKING OUT OF TURN

Fox again made headlines Thursday, when newspapers reported, and YouTube.com broadcasted, him telling a TV interviewer at Los Pinos, the presidential residence: "I can say whatever stupid thing I want. Really. I´m getting ready to leave."

Tall and strapping, even at 64, Fox is popular and engaging in a crowd. But his image has weakened.

The list of complaints against him is long, beginning with poor job growth, his failure to settle with angry Oaxacan protesters and his inability to stem the corruption, kidnappings, beheadings, dismemberment, body burnings and other grim fall-out of the country´s drug wars.

He also suffered the ignominy of the sabotage of his last State of the Nation by sympathizers of losing presidential candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador,

As if things couldn´t get any worse, there´s a cumbia-style pop song, "Fox, Hand it Over and Leave," sharing the airwaves these days with his publicly funded touts.

The last verse of the Guillermo Zapata song, very roughly translated: "You´re going back to your ranch to milk a (cow) vaca, because you couldn´t fix Oaxaca."

Carlos Martínez and Cecilia Sánchez of the Times´ Mexico City bureau contributed to this report.

Giant Tamales: Zacahuiles

2006-11-09T12:32:00.000-05:00

In parts of Hidalgo, giant tamales are made for fiestas. Here are two links to information about los tamales grandes de Hidalgo y la huasteca.

Mexico Desconocido: Zacahuil (English)

La Jornada: Lo Mas Grande de todos los Zacahuiles (Espanol)

The picture above is from the travel magazine Mexico Desconocido.

CIASP Diary: CIASP Diary: Revised reunion pictures

2006-11-02T11:52:00.000-05:00

CIASP Diary: CIASP Diary: Revised reunion pictures

Modern Twist to Ancient Traditions

2006-11-02T10:39:00.000-05:00

Celebrations of Day of the Dead are thriving in Mexico, and the great diaspora of Mexicans living across la linea (approximately 7-8 million) has increased in popularity throughout the American southwest. Las Calacas (skeletons, bones) now have an iconic status on the American side of the border!

Day of the Dead is rooted in ancient customs — both Aztec and Catholic — but, it's not immune to the impact of modernization and globalization. I've attached an internet link and a news report from the November 2 issue of La Jornada online: it describes research intended to genetically modify the golden flower placed on traditional ofrendas (home altars) and brought to the panteones (graveyards) for the Day of the Dead ceremonies on Nov. 1 and 2. The Mexican scientists hope to improve on natural brilliance.

Perhaps these Mexican scientists are motivated by the historical usurpation of another Mexican flower and they are doing this with the best intention. It is possible that they're simply establishling a Mexican proprietary claim to cempasúchil and to protect cultural claims to the Day of the Dead traditions. After all, the Christmas plant that we all place in our homes in December — the Poinsettia — was also a native Aztec plant that was also used in colonial Mexico for the cultural tradions of Christmas and las posadas. In Mexico, the Poinsettia is still called by its original name — La Flor de Noche Buena (the flower of holy night). It was an American, Joel Roberts Poinset, who introduced it into the US after he discovered it and issued a patent on it (see the history of Poinsettia) . The usurpation of custom was so thorough that the native Flor de Noche Buena was even banned from import into the US and supported by American patent law.

The matter of genetic modification is a thorny and significant — issue in Mexico. Natural variants of corn used for tortillas are gradually being replaced by genetically modified versions where the seeds are controlled by transnational groups— much to the dismay of Mexicans. They're not simply worried about the unknown long-term impacts on nutrition and flavour— they're genuinely concerned about long-term economic impact on agricultural production in Mexico. ¿Fijase?(would you believe)— the largest tortilla maker in Mexico has just opened a massive tortilla production plant in Shanghai China!

The following article is in Spanish...the original link is in La Jornada from Nov. 2, 2006

Modifican genéticamente la flor de cempasúchil; mejora pigmentos

Se usa como suplemento alimenticio de aves de corral y colorante de las yemas de huevo

JOSE GALAN

Buena fuente de carotenoides, la flor de muertos tapiza con su amarillo intenso tumbas y ofrendas. La imagen, en el Panteón de Dolores este primero de noviembre Foto María Meléndrez Parada

La flor de cempasúchil, típica de esta época y que durante las tradicionales fiestas de Día de Muertos adorna con su clásico color amarillo intenso las ofrendas, los altares y panteones de todo México, ha sido modificada genéticamente por un grupo de científicos mexicanos para obtener mejores pigmentos de uso agropecuario e industrial.

La flor genéticamente mejorada por Octavio Paredes López, ex presidente de la Academia Mexicana de Ciencias y miembro del Centro de Investigación y de Estudios Avanzados del Instituto Politécnico Nacional (Cinvestav-IPN) Unidad Irapuato, junto con sus colaboradores, produce pigmentos más intensos obtenidos de compuestos llamados xantofilas, en especial uno de ellos, la luteína, contenida en la "flor de muertos".

Los científicos identificaron varios genes como los denominados Psy, Pds, Lcy-b y Lcy-e, que están presentes en las sustancias que conforman el pigmento principal que le da el típico color amarillo a las flores llamadas científicamente Erecta tapetes, y que es una buena fuente de carotenoides, producto nutracéutico (nutritivo y con propiedades medicinales) de gran interés mundial.

"Nativa de México, se ha utilizado desde hace siglos como planta ornamental y medicinal", señala Paredes López, quien recientemente entró a formar parte de la Junta de Gobierno de la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM). "Se cultiva comercialmente y los extractos de la flor se usan como suplementos alimenticios de aves de corral y como colorante de las yemas de huevo."

Los pigmentos de carotenoides son precursores de la vitamina A en el ser humano y en animales, y se les ha asociado con aspectos medicinales en la prevención de enfermedades como el cáncer y males cardiovasculares.

De acuerdo con estudios de la compañía BBCResearch, el mercado mundial de carotenoides llegará a cerca de mil millones de dólares al finalizar 2006, y se estima un crecimiento anual de 3 por ciento. En el caso específico de la luteína obtenida del cempasúchil por Paredes López, se estima que en este año el mercado superará los 150 millones de dólares.

Benéfico para los humanos

Además de la pigmentación de huevos y alimentación animal, se usa como colorante de la carne de pollo, y desde 2000 se ha empleado en suplementos alimenticios humanos, por sus efectos benéficos en la reducción de radicales libres y contra la enfermedad macular degenerativa (que daña la retina) relacionada con el envejecimiento.

Cempasúchil quiere decir "flor de veinte pétalos" en náhuatl, pero con el avance de Paredes López, publicado en varios artículos de revistas como Journal of Plant Physiology y Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, se obtuvo una planta con una mayor densidad de pétalos y una elevada concentración de pigmentos.

Paredes López, ganador del Premio Nacional de Ciencias y Artes en 1991, ha mejorado los métodos de extracción de las xantofilas obtenidas de las paredes de las células de los pétalos de cempasúchil, los procedimientos de propagación in vitro de las plantas, y la producción de harinas con alto contenido de xantofilas.

Disminuye la producción nacional

Aunque la flor de cempasúchil es nativa de nuestro país, donde hay 32 de las 55 especies conocidas, su producción nacional ha disminuido y el mercado internacional de carotenoides está siendo cubierto por países como China, Perú y la India, que buscan modificar genéticamente estas plantas para obtener mejores pigmentos.

De hecho, gran parte de la producción de cempasúchil en nuestro país está orientada al uso ornamental de las festividades de Día de Muertos, y se ha desestimado la investigación biotecnológica que le permitiría a México competir en el mercado de los pigmentos de origen vegetal, como la flor transgénica desarrollada por Paredes López.

Flower of the Dead

2006-11-01T10:32:00.000-05:00

Today is the day of the dead and Mexicans visit the grave site of their deceased loved ones and family. Extra police and traffic-control are assigned to patrol camposantos and grave-yards of all Mexican cities and towns. The streets and roads leading to the cemeteries are congested and it's often necessary to put up barricades to control the traffic.

"El dia de muertos" is celebrated according to timeless rituals and traditions rooted in Aztec cultural practice. One central tradition is a dominant display of the golden-yellow marigold-like flower named the cempasúchil or cempoalxóchitl. It's used to decorate specially constructed "ofrendas al difuntos (altars memorializing the deceased)" erected in homes for the occasion, and cempoalxóchitl petals are spread around tombs and along the paths winding through the cemeteries. Xóchitl means "flower" in the Nahuatl language and "cempoalli" means 20.

The number 20 is important and sacred in Aztec mythology. Aztec society relied on two calendars to mark the passage of days. A "secular" calendar (xiuhpohualli) used 18 months of 20 "lucky days" and an extra "5 unlucky days". A sacred calendar (tonalpohualli) – the book of days — has a more important divinatory role. There are 20 days and each is associated with a day sign and with a specific god: the twentieth day has the flower for a day sign (Xóchitl) and is associated with the god Xochiquetzal.

A short description of the cempoalxóchitl and its importance to Day of the Dead can read at the following link.

http://www.noroeste.com/web/ver_imp_nota.php?IDPub=215290

An excellent web-site that explains the Aztec Calendar is found at

http://www.azteccalendar.com/azteccalendar.html

CIASP Diary: Revised reunion pictures

2006-08-06T09:36:00.000-04:00

CIASP Diary: Revised reunion pictures

Tribunal Decision about Mexican Vote Recount

2006-08-06T09:15:00.000-04:00

The seven magistrates of the Electoral Tribunal unanimously agreed to reject a total recount of the ballots cast in the July 2nd presidential election.

However, the Tribunal Electoral del Poder Judicial de la Federación (TEPJF) also ordered a recount of 9.07% of the voting stations. This represents 11,839 voting stations in 149 districts (out of 300). The majority of these districts are located in States and regions where the PAN candidate, Felipe Calderón, won by an abnormally large number of votes. (Aguascalientes, Colima, Baja California are States with the largest number of recount districts).

This decision to recount only 9.07% of the voting districts has been strongly criticized by Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and was called a "weak-kneed" decision. His party (PRD) and the Coalition for the Good of Everyone will continue their massive sit-in in Mexico City. This "megaplanón" has disrupted the capital by blocking main streets and business areas over the past 9 days. Angry crowds outside of the TEPJF chambers denounced the decision of the tribunal.

However, this massive sit-in and daily gatherings in the Zocalo has been surprisingly peaceful in spite of the great chaos and disruption it has created. In fact, the attorney-general has noted there has been a significant drop in crime during the past week.

The tens of thousands (perhaps hundreds of thousands) demonstrators have been camping out in the Zocalo and in 17 strategic locations throughout the city. In the middle of the week the protestors held their positions in spite of a torrential storm that dumped orange-sized hail and flooded most of the downtown area.

The intellectual community in Mexico is divided over this ruling, but the majority of them are critical of the Tribunal for "taking half-measures" to resolve the impasse. On the other hand, the majority of intellectuals also seem to be surprised that the tribunal ordered a recount of 11,839 polling stations. There is a begrudging respect that the Tribunal took this unprecedented step...but a fear that this decision is not enough to stem the tide of anger.

Election Update: Stalemate continues

2006-07-31T10:56:00.000-04:00

The PRD protests over the July 2nd Presidential election continued on Sunday with another massive rally in the Zocalo. Some estimates indicated that as many as 2 million people were in the downtown core for this rally.

The PRD and "Coalition for the Good of Everyone" insists that there was fraud and is demanding that the Electoral Tribunal supervise a complete recount of every ballot. The original ballots were placed in sealed transparent boxes, and the computation of the election results was based on a computer tabulation of results from "tally sheets" produced at each poll. The PRD wants the boxes opened, and the ballots hand-counted. There are now two main arguments used by the PRD and Coalition to justify their demands: a) the margin of victory by Felipe Calderón was excessively large (massively beyond the average number of winning votes) in polling stations located in PAN districts (e.g.Guanajuato), and in those districts where there were no PRD observers (only PAN or PRI observers), and b) that elements of the PRI, in particular Esther Elba Gordillo orchestrated a massive vote fraud in favour of the PAN candidate Calderón.

The PRD has organized a series of sit-ins, and promises not to leave until there is a ballot by ballot and poll by poll recount. Meanwhile, Felipe Calderón appeared before the Tribunal (known as TRIFE) to defend the honesty of his campaign.

The following summary "header" appeared in La Jornada today.

Los simpatizantes de Andrés Manuel López Obrador aceptaron la propuesta de instalar 47 campamentos: 31 en el Zócalo, uno por cada estado, y 16 en las principales calles del Centro Histórico y Paseo de la Reforma, hasta que se ordene el recuento del voto por voto, casilla por casilla. ''Yo también viviré -dijo- en este sitio mientras estemos en asamblea permanente. Sé que no es sencillo, pero es lo que sentimos más conveniente para la causa. Tenemos todos las pruebas para sostener que ganamos la Presidencia de la República''
Translation:
Sympathizers of Andrés Manuel López Obrador agreed to the proposal to establish 47 sit-in sites: 31 in the Zocalo, one for each State, and 16 in the major streets of the Centro Historico (area surrounding Zocalo) and Paseo de La Reforma (the main street leading from Zocalo to Chapultepec), until there is an order to recount "vote for vote", "polling station by polling station". "I will live here - he said - in this site, meanwhile we are in a permanent assembly. I know that it's not easy, but it's what we think is most effective for the cause. We have all the proof to uphold (our belief) that we won the Presidency of the Republic"

Doug Boufford's Site: Revised reunion pictures

2006-07-18T12:28:00.000-04:00

CIASP Diary: Revised reunion pictures

Mexican Election Impasse

2006-07-17T11:01:00.000-04:00

Massive Rally in Support of AMLO on July 16

As many as 1 million protestors gathered at the Zocalo yesterday to protest the July 2 presidential election and to support Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO). The protestors had gathered from all parts of the country, many having started the march to Mexico City last Wednesday from State Capitols. Sunday masses in the Basilica were cancelled because of the congestion, and Security Forces of the Justice Department stated that it was one of the largest mass rallies to ever take place in downtown Mexico.

AMLO marched beside the prominent leaders of the PRD (Partido Revolucionario Democratica) leading the masses waiving yellow and black colours of the party. One ingenious float contained a papier-maché caricature of Felipe Calderón stuffing ballots into the clear ballot boxes used by the Federal Electoral Institute in all elections (Foto by Jorge Rios of El Universal-Mexico. During AMLO's speech, he was very careful to remind his supporters that protests must be peaceful and that they should obey the law and avoid confrontation. However, he repeated his call for a "vote by vote" and "poll by poll" recount of the ballots from the July 2nd vote.

The final vote has not been certified by the 7 magistrate tribunal, and the federal electoral legislation does not require a final certification before September 6. It should be recognized these challenges to the results are proscribed by the legislation and are legal elements of the electoral process. Both the PRD, and the victorious PAN have filed complaints before the tribunal, with the PRD registering the majority of complaints based on an assertion that as many as 60% of the polling stations had irregularities. The specific grounds for challenging the polling results have not been fully documented to the press or external observers, but there have been general charges of "ballot stuffing" in some regions. The total margin of victory by Felipe Calderón Hinojosa currently sits at 243,000 votes, and the PRD continues to argue that this is the result of organized ballot stuffing. There were 130,000 polling stations for this election, and an average of about 2 votes per polling station made the difference — and arguably a recount might easily overturn the process by including some discarded ballots and excluding questionable ballots. Of course, the assumption is that this will overwhelmingly favour the PRD!

One other issue has been raised concerning the actions of some members of the PRI who worked to support Calderón Hinojosa. In particular, a senior party member associated with the old guard of PRI (los dinosaurios) named Elba Esther Gordillo was recently expelled from the party because of her support for Felipe Calderón. Although it has not been directly stated, the implied accusation of PRD is that elements of the PRI resurrected "old style cheating" — el fraude a la antigua.

But most PRD arguments challenge the conduct of the Partido Acción Nacional before the election. In particular, they've criticized Vicente Fox Quesada for his involvement in the election (limited under Mexican Law), accuse PAN of using illegal campaign funds from business and foreign sources (again, tightly controlled under Mexican Law), blame the IFE (Federal Electoral Institute) for not acting quickly enough to remove offensive campaign ads produced by PAN (these falsely linked AMLO to Hugo Chavez in Venezuela and raising the possibility of a US intervention if a leftist won), and also accused IFE of allowing PAN to tamper with the vote count.

There is no provision for a hand recount of ballots, but the PRD insists that this be done. It has also called on its supporters to monitor the 300 centres where ballots are stored to make certain that these are not destroyed. Most observers believe that the actual count of ballots was fair and above reproach, but supporters of the PRD do not have the same level of confidence in the "computer" count. The ghosts of 1988 election fraud continue to haunt Mexico, and the abuses of earlier PRI governments provides an important subtext and justification for the current challenge and unwillingness to trust the July 2nd vote.

Political observers have taken a relatively uniform position that IFE is above reproach in its count and processing of the existing ballots, but many of them have suggested that the only way to end the impasse is to conduct a poll-by-poll, vote by vote count to demonstrate that the election was transparent and fair. The public is not so certain that this is necessary, at least as public opinion is measured by opinion polls. Most of the recent polls indicate that about 37% of those interviewed are in favour of a recount — approximately the same percentage of people who voted for the PRD and AMLO in the election. The rally on Sunday was large by any count and is recognized as one of the largest demonstrations of "street power" ever. There are more than 25 million residents in Mexico City and D.F., and the rally represented a significant proportion of the entire population.

Meanwhile, Mexico is still in "limbo" and uncertain about what will happen in September. The transition of power does not take place until December, but Felipe Calderon cannot create a transitional government until he has received the certification of the electoral tribunal. The Mexican stock market (the Bolsa) has been reflecting this uncertainty, and all other institutions will also remain in a state of flux and limbo until the election has been resolved. The power of government and executive action rests in the President's Office (usually referred to as Los Piños, the equivalent of the White House) and the allocation of resources for Public Security, Education, Social Services and all other services are on hold and in an ambiguous state until the issue is resolved.

Update from Corinne (Chiovetti) Malloy-Smith

2006-07-13T14:05:00.000-04:00

Update from Corinne

Corinne sent along an update about the project she mentioned at the reunion. She also wanted to report that the updated total is now $1400.

The updated information about this project is found at the link http://www.cometothewatersmi.com/Missions.html#

Corinne placed an interesting picture from 1967 in El Rayo (Mcpo Pisaflores) on this page.

The original note from Corinne is found on this blog at CIASP Diary: Fwd: Thank you from Corinne Malloy-Smith (Chiovetti)

Revised reunion pictures

2006-07-12T12:33:00.000-04:00

There are now revised pictures on my web site of those that attended the CIASP reunion in June. The only change is that the pictures now have the names attached (apparently, some of you are slightly over 35 and have memory problems).
There is also a PDF posted on my web site, that has the contact list from the reunion AND the new thumbnail pictures with the names attached, that you can download as one PDF. You will need the FREE Acrobat Reader to view the PDFs.
Links to all of the above are located HERE

If you are ever in Kingson - please call !

Enjoy
Doug

CIASP Diary

CBC I: The Current looks at violence in Tamaulipas Mexico

KAIROS: CIDA funding cut to Human Rights and Justice Group

Dia de Muertos: From NTX/EFE via Noroeste.com.mx

Xilitla: Las Pozas and Gardens of Edward James

En riesgo, el Jardín Escultórico de Xilitla By frodriguez

Xilitla: Las Pozas is Deteriorating

Lesley Margaret Soden

LESLEY MARGARET SODEN

Mother, daughter, sister, friend, teacher, artist, seeker. Born July 29, 1953, in Montreal. Died Jan. 11 in Toronto of breast cancer, aged 55.

Phil Little: Memories of El Rayo (Pisaflores), Hidalgo

Malverde: the Origin of this Cult

Hedging Bets Against the Swine Flu

Politics and the Catholic Mass

Curious and Strange Names of Narcotraffickers

Los curiosos apodos delos narcos.

The curious nicknames of narcotraffickers.

Cosala, Sinaloa and the legend of Heraclio Bernal

Mexicans, Czechs will need visas to visit Canada

Facebook Group for CIASP

Es el mariachi tradicional victima latente de la comercialización\

Return to Pisaflores: 43 years later

Queen of the Pacific

Lucille Mason Family

Are Canadians Safe in Mexico?

Epiphany: Feast of Three Kings in Mexico

Mel Gibson and Apocalypto

Oaxaca Christmas tradition

Pueblito Canada

Update from Corinne Malloy-Smith

In Memoriam: Lucille Mason

Apocalypto...How do the Maya feel?

Ponte tus piyamas

Politics...Mexican Style.

Frida Kahlo's Clothes

President Fox's Very Bad Week

Giant Tamales: Zacahuiles

CIASP Diary: CIASP Diary: Revised reunion pictures

Modern Twist to Ancient Traditions

Modifican genéticamente la flor de cempasúchil; mejora pigmentos

Flower of the Dead

CIASP Diary: Revised reunion pictures

Tribunal Decision about Mexican Vote Recount

Election Update: Stalemate continues

Doug Boufford's Site: Revised reunion pictures

Mexican Election Impasse

Update from Corinne (Chiovetti) Malloy-Smith

Revised reunion pictures

Los curiosos apodos de
los narcos.