… and leave a beautiful corpse
Death is no excuse for not looking your best:
Death didn’t mean the end of beauty for pre-Hispanic civilisations, as the ancient Teotihuacans exhumed their dead and painted them with cosmetics in periodic remembrance rituals, a new study claims.
Researchers analysed for the first time remains of cosmetics in the graves of pre-Hispanic civilisations in what is now Mexico on the American continent.
In the case of the Teotihuacans, these cosmetics were used as part of the after-death ritual to honour their city’s most important people.
Cheapo-gate revisited
D.E.A. stands for Decadence Enhancement Assistance?
Two U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents “facilitated a sexual encounter” between a prostitute and a U.S. Secret Service agent days before President Barack Obama visited Colombia for a summit meeting in April 2012 […]
[…] a third DEA agent present on the night of the incident was not involved in procuring the prostitute for the Secret Service agent.
[…]
All three DEA special agents admitted that they had paid for sexual services of a prostitute, the investigation also found, and “used their DEA Blackberry devices to arrange such activities.” In addition, the report says the agents tried to destroy incriminating information or initially lied to investigators about the incidents. All three agents have high-security clearances.
And the real scandal was the Secret Service tried to stiff the ladies.
Cubanos libres
Via Machetera:
Cuba recently announced changes in their own restrictive laws on foreign travel, putting the U.S. anti-Cuba lobby in the United States in a pickle:
… the same politicians who slandered Cuba for decades, saying Cubans “can’t travel,” and even going so far as to draft laws meant to push disaffected Cubans to hurl themselves into the sea, are now rushing to figure out how to stop Cubans from arriving in the United States and, in case they manage to arrive, how to stop them from returning to Cuba..
Cubans can now spend up to two years abroad without losing any of their rights as citizens. The U.S. … encouraging Cubans to “defect” gave Cubans, even “illegal alien Cubans” special rights under the Cuban Adjust Act of 1966, granting Cuban who entering U.S. territory automatic residency after a year and a day. SO…
…while hundreds of Mexicans are hunted down in the land of the free by armed border guards, not to mention the armed vigilantes working on behalf of the repressive national system…
… the new spin from the anti-Cuba lobby isn’t that Cubans are being persecuted but that we need to persecute Cubans for going to Cuba. Miami Congress Member Iliana Lehtinen (who last appeared in Mexfiles as the one politicizing Lance Corporal John Hammar’s arrest in Mexico) argues:
One cannot say that one is subjected to political persecution in Cuba, and then go back to visit.
That, rather than say the obvious. Cuba has been getting by without the United States dictating its policies for the last fifty years, and that’s just not right.
Not exactly Mexico-related, but did you see this?
Remember when AIG took a $182 billion bailout only to turn around and hand out seven-figure bonuses to the same guys who tanked their company?
Grab the pitchforks — it gets better.
Now the insurance organization might join a lawsuit against the U.S. government over the terms of the bailout — saying the deal that saved the company cheated shareholders.
Ecuador, which also has gotten a “fuck you very much” from their bailed out bankers, has responded beautifully… as in “be careful what you pray for… you gonna get it”:
Policing the language
Via Daily Kos, we learn that the “happy ending” to this obvious attempt to scare off Spanish-speakers by suggesting JAHE (Jugar al hablar español) can get you tossed in el carcél is that the signs have come down, but the bigger question is
Why do children in Milford, Delaware — whatever language they speak — need official permission to play?
Fun with Lenin
Well, this is interesting.
Ecuador’s presidential election is next month, and with this is the first time a President can run for re-election. Incumbents have a built-in advantage in electoral politics, and Rafael Correa is no exception. He’s polling at about 60 percent of the electorate (his nearest rival getting something like 11 percent) so it’s not like he’d really need to focus all his attention on the campaign.
Still … in a bid to at least appear to give the opposition a fair chance… Correa is taking a leave of absence from his post and Vice-President Lenin Moreno will be Ecuador’s official head of state for the next few weeks.
Hail Lenin! Hail Groucho Marx!
Despite what you might assume from his given name, Moreno was a successful business executive before going into government service… in the tourism sector. He was shot during a car-jacking in 1998, which left him bed-ridden in intractable pain. Conventional treatment unlikely to help, or to allow him to live a relatively productive life he turned to “laughter therapy”. You know, “cry and you cry alone; laugh, and your body releases endorphins”.
It may be nutty, but watching Charlie Chaplin, the Three Stooges, Cantinflas, and just laughing have led to a remarkable second career, not only as an advocate for the handicapped, but as a successful politician. So… for the next few weeks, as far as I can tell, Ecuador will be the only country in the world with a paraplegic head of state.
Might be a good time for an international summit… the world’s stressed out enough, and a president who knows some good jokes might be what we all need.
Towards a more colorful vocabulary
Via SDPNoticias, comes a list compiled by the Caracas daily, El Universal, of the various insults Hugo Chavez and associates have hurled at their opponents. Hugo is never at a loss for words,but c’mon… “Komodo Dragon”? Must have been the intern who came up with that one. ”
Beside the usual “drunks,” “crazies” and all round “pendejos”….here’s a handy-dandy list of insults probably useful on … many… occasions:
| Abusadores | Abusers |
| Acaparadores | Hoarders |
| Antibolivarianos | Anti-bolivarians |
| Antipatriotas | Anti-patriots |
| Arrastrados | Disease carriers |
| Basura de la historia | Ash-heap of history |
| Brutos | Brutes |
| Cabezones | Dickhead (close enough) |
| Cachetes de puerco | Hog jowls |
| Caimanes | Crocodiles |
| Calumniadores | Rumor-mongerers |
| Capitalistas | Capitalists (oooh, that’s gotta hurt!) |
| Caraduras | Cheeky fellows |
| Carroña | Carrion |
| Cavernícolas | Cavemen |
| Cínicos | Cynics |
| Coberos | Lying liar |
| Come mocos | Like flies |
| Contrabandistas | Smugglers |
| Corroídos por el odio | Hate-spreaders |
| Criminales | Criminals |
| Cuervos | Crows |
| Demonios | Demons |
| Desadaptados | Maladjusted |
| Descarados | Shameless |
| Desechos | Waste |
| Deshonestos | Dishonest |
| Desmadrados | Fuck ups |
| Desnaturalizados | De-natured (unnatural, weird) |
| Desquiciados | Have a screw loose |
| Desquiciados | Unhinged |
| Disociados | “reality challenged” |
| Doble cara | Two-faced |
| Dragones de Komodo | Komodo Dragon |
| Egoístas | Egoists (a big insult in Latin America, even among Conservatives) |
| Ejes del mal | Axis of Evil |
| Embusteros | Con artists |
| Especuladores | Speculators |
| Estafadores | Con-men |
| Excrementos | Shit (or shitheads) |
| Explotadores | Exploiters |
| Falsificadores | Counterfeiters |
| Flojos | Weaklings |
| Fraudulentos | Frauds |
| Fusiladores de espíritus | Spiritual firing squads |
| Golpistas | Coup-mongers |
| Gorilas | Gorillas |
| Guerrilleros urbanos | Urban guerrillas |
| Gusanos | Worms |
| Hampones | Thugs |
| Hienas | Hyenas |
| Insensibles | Not too bright |
| Inútiles | Useless |
| Ladrones | Thieves |
| Lambucios | Purely Venezuelan… the guy who picks food off your plate in a restaurant, or borrows your stuff and never returns it. |
| Llorones | Cry babies |
| Lombrices | Worms (specifically parasitic worms) |
| Majunches | Annoying twits |
| Malasangre | Bad blood |
| Mandaderos de las transnacionales | Yes-men for multi-nationals |
| Marruñecos | Another Venezuelanism… “dipship”, somebody who believe whatever rumor is floating around |
| Mensajeros de la muerte | Messengers of death |
| Mercenarios | Mercenaries |
| Miserables | Miserable ones |
| Moribundos | Really rotten scoundrels (literally, dead and stinky) |
| Moscas | Flies |
| Necrófilos | Necrophiliacs |
| Paqueteros | Hoarders |
| Perros | Dogs |
| Plagas | Plague |
| Podridos | Rotters |
| Preservativos | Condoms (Condoms???) |
| Prostitutas | Whores |
| Recaderos | “go-fers”… a nicer word than laquí (“lackey”) |
| Reposeros | Shirker, slacker |
| Retrógrados | Reactionary |
| Saqueadores | Looters |
| Sepultureros | Grave-diggers |
| Siete cueros | Literally a skin infection… figuratively… “jerk” |
| Son un cáncer | Cancerous |
| Termitas | Termites |
| Terroristas | Terrorists |
| Tienen al diablo debajo de las sotanas | LIke the devil in clerical garb |
| Torturadores | Torturers |
| Traficantes | (Drug) Traffickers |
| Traidores a la patria | Traitors to the nation |
| Tramposos | Tricksters (and not in a good way) |
| Trogloditas | Troglodites |
| Vagos | Ne-er-do-wells |
| Vende patria | Sellers of their country |
| Vendidos | Sell-outs |
| Víboras | Snakes |
| Zamuros | Vultures |
| Pitiyanquí | Malachista in Mexico… someone who favors the U.S. |
| Vampiro | Well, duh! |
Another ugly America…ho-hum
Where Texans always say “Thank God for Mississippi,” most MexPats of any sensibility always say “Thank God for the Baja”. No matter how crude, rude or bone-headed a gringo might act in “mainland” Mexico, we can usually point to someone in the Baja who has done worse.
I guess the gringos here in “real Mexico” (the 29 states and Federal District that are NOT on the Peninsula) almost have an excuse to act out, now that one of the Baja’s newest “entrepreneurs” has set a new standard for dickishness.
While I could have translated the story easily enough from SDPNoticias, instead I went back to it’s original source on the U.S. gossip site, TMZ which minced the words the bar owner (some has-been actor) used, and made no mention of the video that accompanied the story, showing Sheen berating the audience for not doing things “the way they are in the HOMELAND” .
¡Qué pendejo!
Charlie Sheen hosted the splashy opening of his bar at the hippest hotel in Cabo — El Ganzo — and it was all fun and games until Charlie hurled a homophobic slur at the audience.
[…] for some inexplicable [sic!] reason, he yelled, “How we doing? … Lying bunch of faggot assholes, how we doing?”
Charlie, who is a partner in the bar, tells TMZ two things:
1. “I meant no ill will and intended to hurt no one and I apologize if I offended anyone.”
2. “I meant to say maggot but I have a lisp.”
I don’t see anything “inexplicable” about it… he’s not the first, and won’t be the last, gringo — on the Peninsula or around the rest of the country — who brings their emotional baggage with them. And attempts to impose their values (or lack thereof) on the Mexicans.
One man’s trash is another man’s … groceries?
Rachel Levin (Al Jazeera) on another of those oddball Mexico City programs that are smarter than they appear. While not a money maker (quite the opposite) the program not only is a carrot to the stick of “mandatory” recycling stick.
In my old DF neighborhood, Santa María de la Ribera… which was, at least in theory, one of the more “progressive” areas… the trash collectors came down the street ringing a bell (“bring out your dead!”) and you’d run out with your bagged garbage and a peso or so for the collectors. AND, if you didn’t catch the collector, you’d end up throwing the trash into a big pile on corner. While some of us did try to recycle, there was hardly any way to “punish” non-conformists, and just refusing to pick up from those that wouldn’t recycle would have been a hardship — and a danger — to the rest of us… even sitting just overnight, Eva Perra, the dog I had at the time, flushed out more than a few rats out of those trash piles. I suppose this a variation on the cliche that “you catch more flies with honey,” might be “you breed less rats with vegetables”.
And, as it is, this isn’t really a “new” idea… just an innovative reinterpretation of something that’s been going on in Mexico for a very long time. The farms along the canals have been there since the Aztecs, and it’s only been in the past few years that people have come to realize how important they are to preserving the environment (and the water quality) in the Valle de Mexico. In Tenotitchtlán… where minor offenders were sentenced to “community service” cleaning the streets and outhouses, what is euphemistically labeled “night soil” was carted off for use on the farms along the canals. There’s some evidence that the leftovers from religious sacrifices were also carted off to the farms. Why not? The Aztecs were fanatical recyclers who found human bones perfectly good material for things like musical instruments.
21st century trash is a bit more than varied than what the Aztecs might have left for the garbage men, and we’re a bit squeamish these days… though the farmers are still there, and people want to eat something other than each other. Win-win (except maybe for rat-hunting pups).
Some men are following me…
It seems from her first appearance in film (in the 1949 Marx Brothers’ last film, “Love Happy”) some men really were following the woman. If it wasn’t suspicious enough for the FBI that despite the good looks, glamour and elbow (and allegedly other anatomical appendage) rubbing with the elites, Marilyn Monroe never forgot she came from a hard-scrabble, Dickensian childhood… and was too intelligent to ignore injustice and inequality. And worse… she hung out in Mexico, and with Mexicans.
The FBI files, which were obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, show the extent the agency was monitoring Monroe for ties to communism in the years before her death in August 1962.
The record reveal some in Monroe’s inner circle were concerned about her association with Frederick Vanderbilt Field, who was disinherited from his wealthy family over his leftist views.
A trip to Mexico earlier that year to shop for furniture brought Monroe in contact with Field, who was living in the country with his wife in self-imposed exile. Informants reported to the FBI that a “mutual infatuation” had developed between Field and Monroe, which caused concern among some in her inner circle, including her therapist, the files state.
“The situation caused considerable dismay among Miss Monroe’s entourage and also among the (American Communist Group in Mexico),” the file states […]
Bolaños y Comrada Marilyn
Monroe’s ties to Mexico go beyond the re-issued files. The Miami Herald previously reported the star’s last lover may have been Jose Bolanos [sic… you’d think Fox News LATINO would be able to typeset “José Bolaños”] a Mexican movie actor and director. Describing their relationship in 1992, then 60-ish Bolanos said, “The golden one…I never found another one like her.” He died in Mexico City in 1994.
Pigs
Via AOL: New Agers Trash Mayan Pyramid At ‘End Of The World’ Party
If they had asked the Maya themselves they would have learned that the world wasn’t actually ending, but why do that? Traditional cultures and UNESCO World Heritage Sites are only there as props for jaded First Worlders shopping for a cheap semblance of spirituality the same way they’ll buy Save The Whale T-shirts made in Filipino sweat shops.
They’ll also blithely ignore the real historical and cultural significance of such sites in preference for silly theories about secret civilizations, aliens or Atlantis. This sort of New Age archaeology is rooted in racism. As some locals complained, the party wasn’t really about the Maya at all.v
If these idiots really wanted to be one with the Mayans… I’m sure something could have been arranged:
News of the B’ak’tun…
While the world’s media focused on tourists sitting around in dead Mayan cities where nothing happened,the Mayans themselves were occupying living cities not only to bring attention to an the still unaccounted for Acteal Massacre of 22 December 1997, but to just remind us that they are still very much with us. Which story got the most news coverage do you think?
A waste of good reporter… Photo by Franc Contreras for “The World” (BBC, PRI, WGBN)
Real Mayans (aka, Zapatistas) in San Crisobal
… Ocosinco…
… and in Campeche
mexfiles.net 