Yes! Magazine: Friends Transform Vacant Building Into Popular Community Center

Categories alternative economies, mexico
Yes! Magazine: Friends Transform Vacant Building Into Popular Community Center

“It’s a cool Sunday afternoon in Ecatepec, Mexico, and a crowd is forming along the sidewalk. A slow drumbeat rises above the sound of honking taxis and chatter as four dancers step out and begin moving to the rhythm of an African beat. Up and down nearby streets, small businesses selling everything from stationery to carnitas, or pork tacos, are interspersed with shuttered storefronts and abandoned businesses. At night, store owners pull down heavy metal curtains to keep out intruders. The dancers are part of a…Continue Reading “Yes! Magazine: Friends Transform Vacant Building Into Popular Community Center” →

Culinary Backstreets: Merendero Biarritz

Categories mexico
Culinary Backstreets: Merendero Biarritz

“My mother had many celebrity customers,” says Luis Enrique Mejía Rosales, the son of Merendero Biarritz’s founder, Esther Rosales. “When they were opening the storefront, the famous [Mexican] bull-fighter Luis Procuna came up to my mother and said, ‘Call it Biarritz!’ He had come back from a tour in Europe and had fallen in love with a woman in Biarritz.” So, in 1956, when the family opened a storefront on Doctor Velasco Street, they called it Merendero Biarritz. Merendero, because they sold “meriendas,” nighttime snacks….Continue Reading “Culinary Backstreets: Merendero Biarritz” →

CityLab Latino: En Ciudad de México, la mejor aliada de una ciclista es otra ciclista

Categories biking, mexico
CityLab Latino: En Ciudad de México, la mejor aliada de una ciclista es otra ciclista

La brecha de género no solo existe en los sueldos, sino también en el uso de la bicicleta. Agrupaciones que promueven el ciclismo están haciendo talleres de mecánica y organizan rodadas, pero falta promoción desde el gobierno. “Cada vez que salgo en bicicleta, al menos una persona me dice algo”, se lamenta Gaby Cruz, 28, residente de Ciudad de México. “Hace poco, yo iba sobre una avenida en mi bici y un viejito venía en su bici en contrasentido… Yo pensé ‘no le voy a…Continue Reading “CityLab Latino: En Ciudad de México, la mejor aliada de una ciclista es otra ciclista” →

The Tablet: Organisations in Tijuana have been overwhelmed by the arrival of thousands of Haitians

Categories immigration, mexico
The Tablet: Organisations in Tijuana have been overwhelmed by the arrival of thousands of Haitians

Tijuana, Mexico— Two weeks after President Donald Trump took the oath of office in the White House, and a week after he signed an executive order to move forward with building a wall along the US border with Mexico, migrant shelters in Tijuana are prepare to bear the brunt of events 4,500km north-east in Washington DC. “Physical walls don’t accomplish anything other than ecological damage, and emotional damage,” says Gilberto Martínez Amaya, the coordinator of the Casa del Migrante shelter. He explains that due to…Continue Reading “The Tablet: Organisations in Tijuana have been overwhelmed by the arrival of thousands of Haitians” →

Univision: As path to U.S. border gets tougher, more Central Americans seek asylum in Mexico

Categories borders, Central America, mexico
Univision: As path to U.S. border gets tougher, more Central Americans seek asylum in Mexico

In the first nine months of 2016, over 4,000 Hondurans, Salvadorans, Guatemalans and Nicaraguans opened asylum cases in Mexico, authorities note. That’s more than the total number of applicants from 2010 to 2014. MEXICO CITY – Mario Rodríguez, 20, is sorting donations at the Mexico City migrant shelter where he lives: toothpaste, pens and pencils, t-shirts. Friendly but soft-spoken, he wears a flat-brim cap, t-shirt and sweatpants. Rodríguez arrived in the city just a week ago, after fleeing violence in his hometown in the Honduran…Continue Reading “Univision: As path to U.S. border gets tougher, more Central Americans seek asylum in Mexico” →

Fusion: Mexicans say ‘hasta siempre’ to Fidel Castro, a revolutionary with deep ties to the Aztec nation

Categories mexico, solidarity
Fusion: Mexicans say ‘hasta siempre’ to Fidel Castro, a revolutionary with deep ties to the Aztec nation

MEXICO CITY—Several hundred Mexicans gathered in front of the Cuban Embassy on Sunday holding roses, flags, and homemade banners to bid a final farewell to Cuba’s Fidel Castro. … … Castro’s death has struck a nerve with many Mexicans who lament the loss of an iconic leader from the revolutionary left at a time when the world seems to be shifting back towards the reactionary right. “The Cuban Revolution and Fidel Castro were important parts of our political education as leftists in Mexico,” said Uriel…Continue Reading “Fusion: Mexicans say ‘hasta siempre’ to Fidel Castro, a revolutionary with deep ties to the Aztec nation” →

Fusion: This Afro-Mexican beauty queen is challenging racist prejudices in Mexico

Categories mexico
Fusion: This Afro-Mexican beauty queen is challenging racist prejudices in Mexico

Samantha Leyva, a 23-year-old beauty queen from Mexico’s southern state of Guerrero, is breaking the mold. She’s a black activist and community organizer who supports Black Lives Matter and is challenging Mexican racism. “I have been representing the afro-descendant community of my home state with lots of pride,” she told me during phone interview. Leyva, who was born in the tourist resort town of Acapulco, won third place in this year’s Miss Mexico Pageant last month. But the convincing the pageant judges was easy compared…Continue Reading “Fusion: This Afro-Mexican beauty queen is challenging racist prejudices in Mexico” →

Truthout: US Shut Haitians Out, Just Days Before Hurricane Hit Their Homeland

Categories immigration, mexico
Truthout: US Shut Haitians Out, Just Days Before Hurricane Hit Their Homeland

TIJUANA, Mexico — “People want a bit of land, to be able to study and to have hope for a better life,” said Bernard Deshommes, 32, from Port-au-Prince, Haiti. He left after the 2010 earthquake that destroyed his home, and relocated to Chile. “When people have public safety and sanitation, they don’t want to leave their country,” he told Truthout. He is now staying in a shelter at a Pentecostal church in Tijuana, Mexico, waiting to cross to the United States. Facing economic difficulties in…Continue Reading “Truthout: US Shut Haitians Out, Just Days Before Hurricane Hit Their Homeland” →

Fusion: Mexicans and gringo expats bond over beers and ribs at Mexico City debate-watch party

Categories mexico
Fusion: Mexicans and gringo expats bond over beers and ribs at Mexico City debate-watch party

MEXICO CITY— “You want to go to Mexico or some other country? Good luck,” Donald Trump told U.S. manufacturing companies during Monday night’s presidential debate against Hillary Clinton. Thousands of miles away, the 200 people packed into Pinche Gringo, a Texas-style barbecue restaurant in Mexico City, broke into cheers and clinked their glasses frothed with beer. It was just one of Trump’s six references to Mexico last night, and a signal to drink for U.S. expats watching in Mexico. Read the full story on Fusion.

Mongabay: Hundreds of unexpected species found in Mexican UNESCO site slated for gold mine

Categories climate change, mexico, social movements
Mongabay: Hundreds of unexpected species found in Mexican UNESCO site slated for gold mine

I have a new piece out today on Mongabay.com about a gold mine concession in Baja California Sur inside a biosphere reserve. A recent ecological survey found over 900 species in the concession area and the scientists hope this could provoke a new environmental review. However, some of Mexico’s most influential business interests are behind the mine. This builds on my earlier reporting for Mongabay on the spate of mines in Mexico’s natural protected areas. Read the full article here.