297 orphans need your assistance
If they talk to the judge, the guys in Cuilicán are toast! Smuggling wildlife can get you nine years in the slammer in Mexico.
I have a story on this coming out in tomorrow’s (not yet on-line) Mexico City News. These are a few of the 297 baby orange-fronted conures recovered from bird smugglers last week. There’s a story in Spanish (from Noroeste de Cuilicán) by Guadalupe Martinéz which says there were 400+ birds.
Along with losing their parents (bird buyers should know, that’s the way baby parrots get to market), the 297 orphan orange-fronted conures had their wings clipped, and the birds are too young to forage on their own. They need to be hand fed for the next several weeks before they can be released in a nature park near Mazatlán.
Tha amazing — and apparently inexhaustable — Clare Simmons had been up about 15 hours making parrot baby food and feeding the little guys when I took this photo. Conrehabit, A.C. has taken responsiblity for the project, but homemade parrot feed, and their other on-going projects will strain their budget.
Congratulations to Laura Martinez!
I should be jealous, but Martinez’ “Mi blog es tu blog” is the best — if not the best — Mexican cultural/news blog in English (Maybe I’m in the top ten in the sub-genre of Mexican cultural/news blogs written by foreigners… but I resort of titles using words like “Donkey Show” or “Nude Gay Mexican” to pump up the hits).
Her little post on the Absolut Vodka ad that appeared in Quién magazine (mandatory reading for wannabe “juniors” and… no one else) IN ENGLISH touched off a nerve with the batshit crazy right-wing gringos. Michelle Malkin took the whole thing seriously, and the crazies are off to the races. Last I checked, Laura had over 130 comments — mostly crazies talking about “the third world shithole taking over California” — on her post. And the crazies are all talking about a “boycott” of Absolut.” Hilarious!
As long as they spell your name right, all publicity is good publicity. I hope this brings here many more readers, maybe some of whom will be teachable.
Genuine psycho-ravings from Wing Nut Daily:
Has Elba Esther been in Campeche?
Francisco Ynurreta, in today’s El Grafico:
CAMPECHE, Camp.— Chupacabras have reappeared in the municipality of Champotón, leaving behind eight dead hens and a turkey, as well as a blood-drained rooster, who survived, at the home of Aurelio Tamay.
The fowl were inside a henhouse, and what – or how – entered is ununknown, as is the way it succeeded in draining the animal’s blood.
Tamay said that he heard an commotion from the fowl, and a low roar on his patio early Sunday morning, and went to investigate. In the shadows, he saw an animal of “strage form” slinking away.
Neighbors believe the attacks were the work of a chupacabra, based on the similiarity to attacks on other fowl and animal slaughters going back several years in other parts of the country.
Worried by the event, several locals formed a posse to search the city, without results.
The incident occured at the Tamay Ac family home, between 18th and 19th streets in Colonia La Playa, Champotón. There was no explanation of why the rooster survived the attack.
Tamay insisted he heard the animal screams and the roars, then say the strange animal. Later he discovered his birds killed and drained of their blood.
For now, all his birds and animals are staying in his house, and a street brigade is patrolling at night armed with clubs and machetes.
Mex Files finds Jimmy Hoffa!
He’s under Elba Esther Gordillo’s make-up. The scary ex-kindergarten teacher is STILL the head of the Teachers’ Union. In her latest inaugural address she said she wants to give the union a “new face of modernity”. A new face would be a good start.
(Photo by Yazmín Ortega, Jornada)
¡Que barbáro!
Guanabee’s Resident Scholar, Gabriel turns a jaundiced eye on Anglo version Latina porn:
It seems that to a large, non-Latino segment of the population, the word Latina is nothing but an abstract and reductive erotic label. On porn sites, the catchall keyword “Latina” is used to categorize ladies who are commonly denominated as being from that magical place called “south of the border,” who speak a “foreign” language (presumably Spanish), and who are “darker” than others, whether in their complexion or in their most secret desires.
His NSFW research report is available in its full glory here.
Last gasp?
Mexico City’s new no smoking ordinance is now on the books. However, authorities will only act IF someone makes a complaint. Up til now, you could smoke in most offices and restaurants without too much trouble (though VIPS in the Centro didn’t let you smoke except at the counter) unless there was a sign specifically prohibiting smoking.
With up to 90% of their customers smoking, some owners of the 35,000 restaurants, bars and lunchrooms in the Federal District are wondering if the new law just won’t mean more corruption.
One quoted by Milenio asks why an offended non-smoker would call 066 (the police emergency number) to report smoking, wait for an officer to show up and write a ticket — which the restaurant owner will have to pay.
What next… trans-fat tacos?
(Jornada photo by Francisco Olvera)
Absolut-ly
If I understand this correctly, a Swedish vodka advertisement in a Mexican magazine with the text in ENGLISH has Filipina anchor-baby Michelle Malkin’s panties in a twist…
The beverage of open-borders used to be Miller Light. Now, it is Absolut Vodka. The vodka maker’s latest ad redraws the map of North America to please Mexican consumers.
…I hear McCain campaign advisor Juan Hernandez and Hillary campaign advisor Dolores Huerta both approve.
I don’t know her personally, but I don’t think Ms. Huerta is much of a vodka drinker.
Show us the (illegal immigrant) money
Today’s New York Times editorial must have been written by someone who reads The Mex Files:
Immigration is good for the financial health of Social Security because more workers mean more tax revenue. Illegal immigration, it turns out, is even better than legal immigration. In the fine print of the 2008 annual report on Social Security, released last week, the program’s trustees noted that growing numbers of “other than legal” workers are expected to bolster the program over the coming decades.
One reason is that many undocumented workers pay taxes during their work lives but don’t collect benefits later. Another is that undocumented workers are entering the United States at ever younger ages and are expected to have more children while they’re here than if they arrived at later ages. The result is a substantial increase in the number of working-age people paying taxes, but a relatively smaller increase in the number of retirees who receive benefits — a double boon to Social Security’s bottom line.
We’re not talking chump change….
Exactly one year ago, the Mex Files pointed out that remittances are good for both the home country of “illegals” and the country in which they are working.
The only financial problems caused by immigration are both red herrings. Even a dirt-poor “third world country” like Jamaica can provide heath care to all its residents, so claiming “illegal aliens” are responsible for health costs in the United States is ridiculous. What causes health care financial problems in the U.S. has to do with the way it’s financed, and national priorities, nothing else.
One reason I moved back to Mexico was that I can get comprehensive health care coverage for about $250 US a year, and in Texas has squat. Though I haven’t started working (I’m waiting on my “green-go card” to get processed) I do pay Mexican taxes, just as anyone else — even tourists — pay taxes when they are in the U.S. And we’re not talking “chump change” either.
I generally don’t talk about my personal life on this forum, but – for those who were wondering – I did manage to make it to Mazatlán… thanks to the kindness of strangers… and their primos… and suegros and cuñados.. and…
I was a bit leery about taking my (rapidly) aging Volvo to Mexico, for the most part because it’s so damn hard to find parts. Even through it was only a 500 dollar car, repairing the steering ran me almost double that. Still, we’re not talking about a high-dollar vehicle. I insured it for just liability in Mexico ($126 for the year) and stuffed that sucker full.
There has been a quirk that no one, not even Bam Automotive of Alpine Texas’ mechanics (who use the “real parts”, but otherwise are the equal of any Mexican shadetree mechanic), was ever able to find. With no warning the car would lose compression and the engine would just die.
The only times this had happened before was around the Marfa Lights, which – say what you will – is too weird to be coincidence. We all believed it was just an old microchip, somewhere in the engine, not worth fixing, since it only happened now and again.
Now and again was every couple of kilometers once I got to the autocuata in Ojinaga. Damn! My “copiloto” was starting to freak, especially once he figured out that his cell phone might – or might not – work in a foreign country. I still haven’t figured out who he expected to call. That’s not how things are done in Mexico… not even within a few kilometers of Ojinaga.
Really, if gringos are going to move here, they need to learn patience – right this damn minute! – if they’re going to survive. That, and getting into “familia.net”. It’s hard to get across, even to foreigners who have been in Mexico that one doesn’t wait as long as we think; that you won’t be kidnapped, tied up and held for ransom by whomever does eventually stop; and… whomever it is that does stop has cousins, and brothers, and in-laws and a granny and… all of whom are part of the roadside assistance program. That is, if they weren’t in the bed of whatever pickup truck stopped in the first place (“usos y costumbres” in Texas require you have a dog riding in the bed of the truck. In Mexico, it’s a passle of primos).
So… the guy down from Odessa (another factoid of use for paranoid gringos… nearly everyone in northern Mexico, and throughout the Republic, has family ties to the U.S.). So… co-pilot (worried about leaving his camera equipment carted it along) and I rode back into Ojiaga with la familia (whose name I never did learn) so that brother-in-law Chito could get his old truck (a 20 year old Toyota with no ignition switch) to go back for el Volvo. Which required a chain, which we borrowed from primo José – then towed the car to primo Martín – un mechanico. Being Easter Sunday, Martín couldn’t get the junk parts off a Ford he needed… so back in the truka for a visit to another primo José, who manages a little downtown motel.
In the morning, Chito showed up – at the time agreed (another fine Mexican myth shot to hell!) to take us back to Martín’s casa – where the Volvo engine was being pulled out and oil leaks checked on the front lawn. But not before a stop to visit Mamí… and abuela… and a dozen or so cousins, in-laws, brothers, sisters, etc. from west Texas and northern Chihuahua. And get a free breakfast that mamí insisted we eat first. Which we did. I am gracious enough to accept a free meal.
On to Martín’s, where the Volvo appeared to be holding oil pressure, and running fine. The problem seemed to be some worn out “O” rings, which – not having Volvos available – were replaced with those off…. damned if I know!
And on to Lerdo. Where the car died…. bizarrely … about 5 meters from Rolly Brook’s front door! This time, I was in the capable hands of la familia Valderrema, Rolly’s adopted clan. Between and among them (they have their own street, it seems), Actually, the car didn’t stop by Rolly’s house, but at Valderrama Central – Doña Martha’s house. The whole car seemed to be shaking apart (and shaking up the copilot – who still has some trouble figuring out “no se preocupe”), so after a few of Doña Martha’s justly famous chiles rellenos, there was a…. uh…. challenge … to be resolved.
I really wasn’t thrilled by the prospect of driving that car through the “Devil’s backbone” between Durango and the coast anyway. And it was only a $500 car to begin with. So… I’ll have to go back to Lerdo to get my stuff at some point, but it made more sense to leave the driving to Omibuses de Mexico by now… and someone in the extended Valderrema family has a beater Volvo to drive around Lerdo. Which – if it keeps dying out – isn’t a problem. They can call a cousin to give them a ride.
(Yeah, for you anal retentive types, selling a used car is technically illegal for foreigners. Did I say I sold it, and it’s only a problem if I import another car. And I’ve got at least six months to find the primo of the cuñado of the compadre of the guy at customs who can resolve whatever minor legal issues there might be).
Sending in the cavalry…
Homes for the brave…
Maybe this isn’t your idea of a house, but Mexican architect Javier Senosiaian’s “Arquetura organica” — which seeks to build Mexican homes for the Mexican environment — is worth a look.
This is his 1992 “Mexican Whale”… of which Senosiaian says:
The core of the architonic concept of this house is the result of a search for man’s natural space and his historic and cultural roots along with the constructional traditions of Mexican art.
Whatever. It sure would stand out in your subdivision… unless your subdivision was the one Senosiaian designed in Lerma…
Traditional homebuilders in Mexican homes have been slow to change their thinking. As in the United States and the wealthy countries, more and more adults live on their own — either single, or as couples independent of their multi-generational family homes. Some of these “new” Mexicans want to live in suburbia, just like in the rich countries. To meet their needs, the 1990 Lerma complex included what are basically stand-alone efficiency apartments. They look… well… NUTS…
Peanuts, to be exact —
As crazy as we are
It’s rare for Mexican to commit suicide. It’s not unusual anywhere for small-town alcoholics in their late 50s to hang themselves, but in Mexico, it’s as likely as not to be reported at least some national newspaper on a slow news day.
The Mexican suicide rate is only about 5 per 100,000, about 40 percent lower than that of the United States. However, according to a study by Ramón de la Fuente Muñiz, a researcher at the Instituto Nacional de Siquiatría (INP), Mexican emigrants to the United States have a suicide rate two or two and a half times the Mexican average… or about the same (or slightly higher) rate at which U.S. natives commit suicide. U.S. born children of Mexican immigrants commit suicide at the same rate as their U.S. peers. The U.S. rate also holds true among the children of Mexican immigrants.
Mexican immigrants who return home have higher drug addiction rates than other Mexican, though whether it’s due to their having more disposable income or having spent time in a country where there are few social controls on single young men is unknown.
Do mentally ill people tend to emigrate, or is assimilation hazardous to their health?
mexfiles.net 
