World enough and time
When I started “The Mex Files” back in 2002, it was more or less for my own, and a few friends and relatives’, amusement. I started to take it seriously about a year ago, when I was at loose ends — and dead broke –after returning from Mexico to try and (unsuccessfully) revive a FUBAR avocado exporting deal.
I had to do something, and the Mex Files was something worth doing. I was hired, based on the blog as it was then (and a damn good resume, if I say so myself), to edit a bi-lingual, on-line publication in the very sparsely populated Texas Big Bend country.
I can’t go into the details (there’s still pending litigation and all that), but things just didn’t quite work out. It wasn’t funny being left high and dry and broke, but there was some comic relief when the publisher threatened to sue me for writing the the Mex Files, claiming it was a competitor. My lawyer laughed at her.
Most of what’s published isn’t even of much interest (unless you’re fascinated by small town political gossip) and as to the Mexican coverage, I think the reporter’s name is Babelfish Altavista:
Manuel Benavides, Chih.- It is gratifying for the government to keep their word because thus recovers the credibility of the population in its authorities and in their own governmental task, affirmed the governor Jos? Kings Baeza Terraces at the inauguration of the highway that now connects the northern Mexican village of Manuel Benavides with the border town of Ojinaga on Wednesday 25 of April.
(Translation of the translation: Chihuahua Governor Jose Reyes Baeza Terrazas inaguarated the promised highway linking Manuel Benavides and Ojinaga on Wednesday, April 25)
It was probably just as well I didn’t stay. Apparently, that publication has either gone belly-up, or just ceased production without a by-your-leave to its readers and advertisers.
On my own, and with some backup from Lyn and Lorena, the Mex Files became a useful small circulation publication. I took up freelancing and writing for a few of our local newspapers to get by, and hoped that donations to the Mex Files would at least let me eat and pay rent.
Even though the Mex Files is pretty good at what it intends to accomplish, and gets a relatively healthy 25 to 30,000 hits a month, I can’t afford it any more. It’s not so much living on beans and tortillas, as having to hope the overdraft charges are caught up before the supermarket cashes the checks for the beans and tortillas that bother me.
I’m putting together a project close to what I originally intended out here: a readable bilingual, bi-national regional on-line publication. Right now I’m working on the funding, finding advertisers, writers, etc.
The new publication (name a closely guarded secret until I get the domain registered and the site purchased– obviously, with no connection to the “other” local publication) will be a paid, subscription site for the Big Bend-Coahuila-Chihuahua region.
I’ll still be posting the Mex Files, but I can’t put in 10 or 12 hours of research a day, and write at 2 or 3 in the A.M. (my only excuse for the sometimes glaring editorial errors). I just won’t be posting as much, or as often. If others want to start posting, and find it worthwhile, please let me know.
For those of you out this way, or looking to reach a border market, have I got a deal for you!
I appreciate all the donations the Mex Files received, but there are still have HUGE expenses to cover which still need to be made up, even if the site can’t be updated every day.
Corn again
Dow Jones, via Wallaces Farmer (Urbandale, Iowa) reports that that there is brisk trading on the Sinoloa white corn harvest:
Traders said selling and buying was brisk across Mexican purchasing centers and the increased local activity dominated by the white corn market damped trading interest in other markets.
“There has been good activity this week, a lot of trading is taking place now with the Sinaloa crop, which will enter the main harvest season in the next few weeks,” said one trader by telephone from northern Mexico.
“The market has been busy and most of the trade has been concentrated in the white corn market,” said one trader with an importer in Mexico City.
…
Some yellow corn shipments from the U.S. received under recently issued duty-free import coupons for 2007 also continued at modest pace both through Mexico’s Veracruz port on the Gulf coast and overland from the U.S. by truck.
Who benefits? Obviously, there is not white corn shortage in Mexico, and speculation in yellow-corn (used for ethanol) was never a real factor in the tortilla jump of earlier this year.
Indians to las Indias
Add into the mix of Indians in Mexico… Indians.
From Delhi News Agency:
NEW DELHI: India and Mexico are all set to sign a bilateral investment protection agreement (BIPA) on Monday that will enable India Inc to access North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)- a trading block comprising of Mexico, the US and Canada.
The agreement, for which the Union Cabinet gave its approval on May 18, is expected to be signed by Finance Minister P Chidambaram and the visiting Mexican Finance Minister M Eduardo Sojo Garza-Aldape, sources said.
Mexico, being part of Nafta and having a large number of important partners including the EU, offers good opportunity to Indian companies and enhanced market access through investments and joint ventures, said an official source.
NAFTA, created in 1994, has become a powerful trade body with strong trading relations with European, African and Latin American markets.
Over the years, India has maintained good relations with Mexico. Bilateral trade between the two countries has increased to USD 1.5 billion from USD 251 million in 1999.
Among others, Indian exports to Mexico are engineering goods, chemicals and pharmaceuticals, gems and jewellery, and textiles, while Mexican exports to India are dominated by crude and petrochemicals.
Mexico’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is estimated at USD 768 billion and per capita is around USD 8,000.
Investors of Indian origin have pumped in over USD 1.6 billion over 60 business ventures in Mexico, apart from recent joint ventures in pharmaceuticals and IT sectors by Indian companies.
This looks like a win-win. The Mexican economy is still dependent on that one huge northern market. And can’t compete on labor. The U.S. and Canada continue to prefer doing business with the People’s Republic of China, with it’s non-existent labor laws and “captive” work force. And, for political reasons, the U.S. is trying everything it can to make it difficult to use Mexican labor in their own country.
In agriculture, the hugely subsidized corporate exports from the U.S. and genetically modified crops from the U.S. have both been contentious. To the shock of U.S. agricultural negotiators, Mexico signed an agreement with Pakistan, which wasn’t on anyone’s radar.
I hadn’t heard before this about an Indian deal, but it makes sense. India has become a major supplier of off-shore services to the U.S. and Canada, but hasn’t been doing much in the way of goods. Coming in through Mexico, like the Chinese goods come in through the U.S., will give them the NAFTA market.
And, there has always been some Mexico-India trade (not a lot but some — where do you think the Indians got their chilies from anyway?).
Both have a middle-class without the money to spend on the accouterments who want and need goods that aren’t quite the same as those sold in the richer countries. I can see a good market for things other than Mexican petrochemicals ahead, or in Mexico, for Indian built goods.
India has the advantage of being an English-speaking community, but until now has not been able to sell in the largest and richest English speaking market. By working through Mexico, it will have access.
India and Mexico are both highly dependent on remittances, and here, I think is the real advantage. The Indians have turned the “brain drain” to their advantage, sending abroad doctors and engineers, or offering the services of well-educated people at home. Everyone knows about the Indian telephone services. Mexico, being Spanish-speaking really can’t compete for telemarketing (though it is the preferred location for Spanish-speaking markets, their only competitor being Argentina, and no one like Argentine accents). However, Mexican accountants and data crunchers and programmers have no need to use English particularly, and learning to use well-educated emigres… or invest in “off-shore” services could be a valuable new industry for the Mexicans.
Border fence… the two sides
Fer:
Agin:
Jagaurundis, Ocelots, Tigrillos, Bears… and
Several nonprofit organizations and advocacy groups issued a statement this week calling for the Department of Homeland Security to “slow down” plans to construct 70 miles of fencing from Roma to Brownsville and consider the environmental consequences.
Minutemen or kitties? Who are the real scardy-cats?
Grumpy old men discuss immigration
Paul Kane of the (registration required) Washington Post reports on the civility of the United States Senate’s consideration of immigration law changes:
During a meeting Thursday on immigration legislation, [Arizona Republican Senator and Presidential candidate John McCain] and Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) got into a shouting match when Cornyn started voicing concerns about the number of judicial appeals that illegal immigrants could receive, according to multiple sources — both Democrats and Republicans — who heard firsthand accounts of the exchange from lawmakers who were in the room.
At a bipartisan gathering in an ornate meeting room just off the Senate floor, McCain complained that Cornyn was raising petty objections to a compromise plan being worked out between Senate Republicans and Democrats and the White House. He used a curse word associated with chickens and accused Cornyn of raising the issue just to torpedo a deal.
…
McCain, a former Navy pilot, then used language more accustomed to sailors …
“[Expletive] you! I know more about this than anyone else in the room,” shouted McCain at Cornyn. McCain helped craft a bill in 2006 that passed the Senate but couldn’t be compromised with a House bill that was much tougher on illegal immigrants.
…
Cornyn seems to be under the impression that making “illegal” entry a criminal offense is somehow different than the present system, where it’s an administrative law one. Which means, of course, that one needs to have a criminal trial and court and federal judge (who earns a lot more than an Administrative Law Judge). McCain was a sponsor of the imperfect, but relatively progressive Senate Immigration bill which was politically incorrect to the then Republican majority House of Representatives last year.
But how does it play in Parral?
(From an article in the Mexico City Herald):
MONTERREY – Many in Mexico expressed disappointment Friday with the U.S. Congress´ immigration reform proposal, arguing it doesn´t let enough Mexicans enter the United States legally to work, while focusing on an arduous path to residency for those who have already taken the illegal path.Mexican news media and activists attacked what they viewed as a measure to limit the number of seasonal workers allowed into the United States – even as the compromise´s proponents said it would let in many more.
Migrants as well as U.S. employers who need workers for low-skilled jobs had hoped the U.S. Congress would streamline and vastly expand the existing guest worker program, allowing more to cross legally, work a few months, then return home with their savings to build homes and businesses.
The new proposal did include a new guest worker program, but it appeared to limit the number of times workers could renew the temporary visas.
At the U.S. Consulate in Monterrey, which hands out more temporary work visas than anywhere else in the world, Edmundo Bermúdez, a 36-year-old from the northern city of Durango, was especially offended by reports that preference would be given to migrants with degrees and specialized skills.
“The United States already has enough people with college degrees. Who is going to cut their tobacco?” asked Bermúdez, who has been working intermittently in the U.S. for eight years.
In Mexico, he makes about US$10 a day, while in the United States he earns US$8 an hour.
The proposal, unveiled Thursday in Washington, focuses on securing the border and giving illegal residents a long, and many argue expensive path to legal residency. Undocumented immigrants could seek lawful permanent residence once they pay US$5,000 in fees and fines and the head of household returns to their home country.
The bill seems worse that that… also dividing families, and making it prohibitively expense to become a legal resident.
Paybacks are a bitch
Cross posted from the Low Rent Correspondent, a Canadian-produced Mexico site… and a very good one at that!
15 May 2007
Stars and stripes over the Chapala Malecon
Photo by Steven H. Miller
A steady stream of feature articles muse about an influx of Americans moving to Mexico. Some one million Americans supposedly now live here. In Chapala, a municipality south of Guadalajara and the home of a large expatriate enclave, the local government recently began flying both the U.S. and Canadian flags at its recently renovated wharf and malecon.
The mere sight of a Mexican flag drives clowns like the Minutemen nuts, but here in Chapala, the Stars and Stripes gently flutters over a government-owned site – and none of the locals seem bothered by that.
No time for losers, for we are the Champions
It took me a while to realize “Sex Drugs and Rock n Roll” were three different things, but, as Carlos Monsivais once pointed out, “In Mexico, there is futbol, the craziness surrounding futbol… and everything else.”
(my translation, from the original in Jornada) :
México, DF. Under the group name “Fanáticos Club Band,” several Mexican friends have introduced the new musical genre of fut-rock, singing exclusively about futbol, with an inaugural CD, including the songs that are already receiving good reviews over the Internet.
La vida no es la misma sin futbol, (“Life’s not the same without futbol”), Los reyes del barrio, (Neighborhood Kings”), Campeones (“Champions”) and Pegada al corazón (“Stuck in the heart”), with a rock sound and lyrics celebrating THE sport, are now available over the Internet at http://www.fanaticos.com.
The project started a year ago, with the futbol-mania surrounding the World Cup in Germany, when Joel Jáuregui, the heart and soul of the new genre, thought of mixing his two passions.
“I had some personal setbacks a year ago, problems with my health and an operation. I started asking myself why I was working so hard at things that weren’t fun. So, I started working on the Fanaticos project, said the 39-year old Monterrey publicist.
Jáuregui, who had been the singer in a few bands when he was younger, wrote the lyrics, and brought together musician friends and recorded the songs in another friend’s studio.
“We only want to play/and don’t care where it is./We don’t care who plays/nothing’s the same without futbol/life just ain’t the same.” they sing in “Champions,” which – as they say — “is not affiliated with any team or nationality, but with the essence of futbol.
Everyone’s read about the Cananea shootout, which seems to have been scripted by John Ford (yeah, I know.. The Magnificent Seven was made by John Sturgis, but you get the point).
According to English-language media reports, about fifty banditos (called “narcos” in our updated westerns) rode into town, preceded to spread death and destruction (killing four local policemen) and then… in rode the calvary (mobilized now) at which time the banditos rode out of town on stolen horses!
It was that last detail that made me a little dubious, initially, but that sounds about what happened.
None of it is funny, of course, but what hasn’t made it into the papers (or, only in passing in the U.S.) is that the Mexicans are … once again… questioning where the narcos are obtaining their weapons and trucks. AR-45s are mentioned in several reports. Maybe they bought them off the internet? A report in El Universal on the “Slaughter at Cananea” (look for that title to show up on a direct-to-video movie within a few months) quotes hostage who identified himself only as “Juan” mentioned the banditos driving around with turret mounted guns.
Sort of like these… which come with the kit for making your own gun turrets, for a low, low $6800 (by the way, the manufacturer is moving to my town of Alpine Texas (not on the web, but reported in the Marfa, Texas Big Bend Sentinel, March 08, 2007.
——-
Several of the American press reports (and most of the other English-speaking ones) noted that Cananae has a bloody past, the site of… in their words… “a town that helped spark the 1910 Mexican Revolution when U.S. forces crossed the border to help put down a miners’ strike” which is a very nice way of saying the Phelps Dodge Copper Company hired goons and hit men — and brought in the Arizona National Guard — to put down the 1906 strike.
Also, so far not making the foreign press is that six high ranking police commanders were unceremoniously sacked today, or that there have been several less spectacular narco-executions in the last day or so.
We’re more worried about scaring off the tourists, than about stopping the gun running:
Nogales [Arizona] officials want to see measures taken to ensure that the violence plaguing northern Sonora in the past 60 days does not migrate across the border.
…Acting City Manager and former Police Chief John E. Kissinger is concerned about the “psychological effects” and the potential spillover into the United States, he said.
“It may not be specifically the violence that spills over, but the harmful effects that this could bring upon tourism, international trade, and commerce.
¡Hablame!
Ah, TelMex. If you ever want to REALLY hear foreigners start whining, ask about the telephone service. “Bixaorellana” got a lot of useless advice and heard a heap of woes from others when she started posting her TelMex story on the Lonely Planet’s Thorn Tree Mexico Message Board (slightly edited)
10 May:
I’m trying to move from one place to another in Oaxaca. The problem is, every time I find a house I like, it’s impossible to get phone service there.
I currently own my phone line, & want it transferred to the next place. For the record, when I moved the last time (one year ago), the charge for moving the line was 543 pesos. It is now a whopping 1,020 pesos.
Monday I went to Telmex on Garcia Vigil, armed with all the info they needed, including the numbers on the phone pole that is directly in front of my prospective dwelling. Upon checking the computer, the Telmex rep immediately told me that “yes, I could transfer my line there.”
She asked me to wait while she called the highway office, since that’s where the maps are kept. She then came back, saying it was not a sure thing, and could I return in a week to check again. She said that in the meantime she would put in the order for service. She returned to her computer, frowned, then approached the manager, who was standing out in the customer area.
She came back to me to tell me the order could not go through, and that the manager said they wouldn’t be selling lines in that area for at least two months.
Upon my return home, I phoned the prospective landlady to tell her what happened. The next day, she went to Telmex to ask for a second line for herself, which would be installed in the rental house (a few blocks from her home). She was told they could install it in two or three days! The charge for this service would be 2,300 pesos.
Now, from my extensive and tortuous relations with Telmex, I know damned well that if it’s possible to put a new line in a house, it is equally possible to transfer a line there.
Yesterday I phoned the 800 number & spoke to a person who told me that indeed I was correct in this perception, but that there was nothing she could do about it. She then passed me to her supervisor. He also said that it was very peculiar that one client was told that she could have a new line, but the other client was denied a transferred line to the same location.
He promised to look into it, taking my phone number and email address. To date I have not heard back from him, and calling the 800 number (the only one I have for him) only gets me put on endless hold.
(later, that same night)
After endless calls to the 800 number, including connecting with someone in Tabasco, I hit on the option for having a new line installed. The pleasant, efficient lady who answered said that the address to which I wished to move is not registered in the system, but for me to call tomorrow at the same time. She gave me a folio number to reference when I called back.
Afterwards, I phoned the prospective landlady to tell her what was going on. She said that maybe I’d rather look for a different place, since this has been so difficult. ??? NOW, when there’s a ray of hope? Turns out that two guys turned up willing to pay more for the house than what she was going to charge me. Well, fine. I didn’t argue with her, as what was the point.
Then I called Telmex back to ask them to cancel the order that had just been put in. Ha! I can only cancel it tomorrow afternoon for some reason.
Interesting side note about the “consideration” [as someone suggested]: in the process of trying to get a phone for a previous prospective rental, I buttonholed a phone guy on the side of the road. He’s an electrical specialist for the phone company, based in Oaxaca. He said he’d see what he could do. He phoned me the next day to say that there was a possibility, and that he would keep me informed. At that time I delicately asked if there was anything I could do to speed the process, such as giving the installation man a gratuity. My Samaritan gasped, saying such things were strictly prohibited by Telmex, and that getting people phones was their job.
It turned out that he was not able to get me the line unless I was willing to wait several months. When I got to know him better, he told me that Telmex is rife with corruption, internal politics, & the dreaded envidia. Who’d have thought it?!
15 May
I reported above that I had to cancel my solicitud, due to the landlady renting the place out from under me. When I called to cancel, I got contradictory information from the several Telmex representatives to whom I spoke. (due to calling multiple times, trying to get a straight answer)
Yesterday I got three (3) phone calls from Telmex! The first one was to ask me if I had indeed requested that my solicitud be canceled. I said yes, & the person told me it was “pendiente”. Okay, that was encouraging. The second call was to inform me that Telmex was getting ready to transfer my service to the new address. (the one that was rented out to someone else).
No, no, no! I explained the whole cancellation thing to this person. Then I got a third call, asking me to confirm that I wanted the solicitud canceled, and wanting me to prove my identity. I read off the number from my passport, which satisfied this caller, although I suspect it could have been any string of numbers.
I guess all’s well that ends well, but SHEESH ~~ what if I’d not been home for the 2nd caller?
And, finally, May 16
This morning I went to look at a house that I agreed to take if Telmex would move my phone line over there.
The area is rural, so there are no numbers on the houses. However, armed with the name & phone number of the neighbor across the street, plus a rough croquis, I tackled Telmex.
THEY RECOGNIZED ME.
Yep, as I was sitting there waiting my turn, one of the phone reps asked me what I needed. I didn’t think that odd, as they often go up and down the line asking that. He said, “Didn’t you just get a solicitud?”
I explained about having that house rented out from under me. Then the manager walks up, and the two men converse. I didn’t pay any attention until I realized they were talking about me. This allowed me to paraphrase Robert DeNiro (in “Taxi Driver”), and, indeedm they were discussing me. I re-explained why I canceled my solicitud.
When my turn came up, the phone rep with whom I’d been talking went out of his way to tell the lady at the desk to BE SURE to use my datos that were already in the computer. The gerente made sure they were in the computer! He was adamant.
After a roller coaster of emotions wherein I was told, Yes! you can get a line, and Whoops ~~ maybe not, and some murmured phone calls by the lady, I was informed that indeed the transfer can take place, & I can keep my current phone number. Just to make sure that my attitude doesn’t become too positive, it seems that the transfer can take up to 90 days.
*sigh*
I find it interesting that after my phone conversation with the supervisor the other day (a) the original denied line was miraculously able to be installed, & (b) it looked like heaven & earth were being moved today to insure that I got the requested service.
Hmmmmmmm — is it possible that the squeaky wheel got the grease?
[http://digg.com/offbeat_news/Talk_to_me_luck_and_patience_needed_in_Mexico/blog]
Long Live Big Brother!
A pilot project to place a high-tech network of surveillance towers along a stretch of the U.S.-Mexico border has met boisterous opposition in this Arizona town, where some residents call it “Big Brother.”
The U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency is installing a network of nine towers with ground radar and night vision cameras to monitor a 28-mile (45-km) stretch of border near Arivaca, southwest of Tucson.
It is the first trial for the communications and technology arm of the government’s Secure Border Initiative announced in 2005. Dubbed “SBInet,” authorities say it will be extended across some 6,000 miles (10,000 km) of the Mexican and Canadian borders in segments in coming years.
Residents of this remote, high desert ranching town of 1,500 people have packed four public meetings in recent weeks to oppose the project, which is due to go live at the end of next month.
“It’s like Big Brother. It will place the whole town under surveillance,” community activist C Hues told Reuters as residents gathered for a meeting late on Tuesday with CBP and Border Patrol representatives.
“The government will be able to watch and record every movement we make, 24 hours a day. It will be like living in a prison yard,” she added.
Residents of the community are particularly concerned about one 98-foot-(30-meter-)tall tower topped with cameras and radar that will be placed just south of the town, which lies about 12 miles (19 km) from the border.
“Why are they doing it here and not at the border? It’s horrifying, it makes no sense,” said Melissa Murray, a gallery owner from nearby Tubac.
Well, Melissa. Being an unincorporated community chock full of artists and desert rats (sounds a lot like folks around here), we can expect the same kind of nonsense around here.
Out here, we’re trying to get the Border Fence Coalition (fencecoalition@yahoogroups.com) up and running to help protect our lives, property and environment from being sacrificed to the fear-mongers.
All they will call you will be deportee
I’ve posted before about the Swift Meat Packing raids in Marshalltown Iowa (here and here and here). The January 12 raids rounded up “illegal aliens” at the plant which just incidentally happened to be unionizing in the middle of the day. This threw children on the tender mercy of the local Catholic Church, which was hard pressed to deal with the emergency.
Nothing was heard from the workers, who were whisked off to the Texas concentration camps (“Ritmo” and T. Don Hutto ).
WHO-TV, Channel 13 Des Moines reporter Kerry Kavanaugh and photojournalist Brad Argo, managed to track down some of the deportees, most of whom were from Villachuato, Estado de Mexico.
…many believe there are more people from Villachuato in Marshalltown, than here in Villachuato.
“Well there are a lot of places we could go, Marshalltown is one of the places that has a lot of people from Villachuato,” Alvico says.
Alvico recounts the day of the raid, “Everyone felt really bad because they were leaving their families there and everything they had earned. I left my home, my things.”
…
We wanted to see who is working. We traveled just outside of Villachuato to “el campo” or the fields. That’s where we find 16-year-old Fermin Laguna picking strawberries. Laguna says he dropped out of school to work full time in “el campo.” Laguna says his reason is simple, “…so that I can give my family food, and support my family.”
On this day in “el campo”, about a dozen people are picking strawberries. You might consider *them the lucky ones. Today they have a job. Laguna says he gets paid based on how many boxes of strawberries he fills. On a good day, he makes 120 pesos, or $12. On a slow day he makes 60 pesos, or $6 for an entire days’ work.
“It’s not worth it, but there’s nothing else,” Laguna says.
All of the people we met say “nothing” leaves them with one alternative.
“We’re planning on going back,” says Leticia Cabrera-Rodriguez. In fact, most people we talked to in Mexico say they want to return to the United States someday, with or without papers.
The two part series is on the TV channel’s website.
mexfiles.net 