Welcome back, Quetzecoatl…
(EFE Photo)
This photo was taken in Cholula this morning, as the Nahuatl prepare for the equinox… The Vernal Equinox is at 00:07 UT March 21 this year. That’s 18:07 in Mexico City March 20
Another motive for Nava murder?
Michael Werbowski suggests an “unclear motive” to José Manuel Nava’s murder. I thought it was tragic, but obvious. I was aware of the controversy surrounding Nava’s recent publication of a book on the political chincanery surrounding Excelsior’s downfall, but Werbowski believes the two are connected.
He never makes this explicit, but uses the event as a springboard for his own short history of the rise and fall of one of the once-great Mexican daily.
Franken-rice… not so nice
What’ll happen with GM corn?
Farm Futures
(3/16/2007)
Mexican officials are holding U.S. rice imports at the border and requiring certification o conclusively show that the rice is not contaminated with genetically engineered variety LLRICE601.
Mexico joins other U.S. rice markets such as Europe and Japan in putting measures in place to stop genetically engineered rice from crossing their borders.
Mexico is currently the largest export market for U.S. rice, with $205 million worth in exports in 2006.
The precautionary measures come in response to the contamination of conventionally grown rice with LLRICE601, a genetically engineered variety developed by Bayer CropScience.
The USA Rice Federation is in contact with the U.S. embassy in Mexico City in relation to the border closing.
The actions marks Mexico’s first precautionary measures on the import of genetically engineered food.
Should I stay, or should I go?
From California Catholic Daily:
The stepped up border presence has convinced many illegal immigrants to stay in the United States rather than recross the border. “It’s like a bathtub: The same flow is going in, but the Border Patrol has really clogged up the drain, so the tub starts to fill up,” David Spener, a sociologist at Trinity University in San Antonio, told the Times.
Anyone who lives on the border, and has been paying attention, notices the same thing. Workers who come to raise some money for their family, if they can’t return to take care of that family, are going to bring the family to them… somehow.
I’m enough a student of Mexican history to recognize that the old Bracero Program from WWII is the model for Bush’s “guest worker proposal.” There were plenty of abuses, and there are still left-over issues to be resolved for workers who never received their set-asides (the Braceros were to receive ten percent of their salary after returning home… and some guys going back to WWII, when Mexican ran the canneries and railroads and picked the crops so that U.S. workers could build airplanes and shoot Germans never did get their money).
But… as ONE tool for dealing with the immigration problem, a “guest worker” program makes sense. It wouldn’t be for everyone, just those workers who don’t plan on staying in the U.S. … you know, the guys the right-wingers are always complaining won’t assimilate. Or are sending money home to Tia Chuleta to put aside for their sister’s grad school expenses, or to open that little changarra on the corner. This is especially true for workers not planning a career or long-term employment: working in canneries and slaughterhouses, doing construction or farm labor or working on the Alaskan fishing boats.
For the Mexican workers, there would be an advantage… IF the program was written with avoiding the Bracero abuses in mind (labor rights would have to be monitored, and the set-asides shouldn’t be a huge problem with better accounting and tracking systems available now than there were in the 1940s). They would have some security knowing they were going to do a certain job at a certain location, and be back at a certain time.
Ideally, done though either agencies (or even better, through the Mexican unions), there would also be an advantage for U.S. employers. Along the border, it was always the custom for certain Mexican families or villages to send someone to work for a known decent employer. It was an informal process, but a good employer-employee relationship was built on trust. The employer might not know from year to year if he’d have the same exact workers, but he’d expect his workers were tuned in to what to expect, and the conditions — and came with recommendations — from their uncle, father, grandfather, padrino, etc. It was ad hoc, but worked to everyone’s advantage.
Word would get around pretty fast if a given janitorial service, or packing plant was screwing people around. This would force the employers to compete for workers, and… those with the best deals could expect the better employees.
The “compassionate conservative” spin has been that any sort of temporary worker program will create “second-class citizens”. Funny, you never hear these guys show the same compassion for other low-wage workers, nor do they seem to notice the logical fallacy — they’re not talking about citizens in the first place.
Yeah… like the Braceros, some workers are going to stay in the U.S. Most are going to be younger guys, and you can expect they’ll find girlfriends or discover some new opportunities (or even be offered a career job by their “temporary employer”.
Imperfect? Of course. But, on a smaller scale, it’s being done (Canada and the State of Iowa, among others, already contract for workers in Mexico and Central America). Of course, I expect bureaucrats and legislators will put all kinds of stupid hurdles on such a program, but if they can learn to keep it simple, it just might be one ingredient in the “whole enchillada” of immigration reform.
And a hell of a lot cheaper than blimps and fences…
… sorta.
I still don’t know if Lazaro is spinning in his urn at the Monument to the Revolution, and how much of this is Cuauhtémoc’s tendency to say to PANistas “whatever it is, I’m against it,” and how much is merely trying to work out a way to modernize Pemex without using foreign capital (which would turn over control to foreign interests).
My translation from an article by Jorge Ramos in today’s El Universal (Original © 2007, El Universal):
Three-time Presidential candidate, Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas, outlined conditions under which private investments could be included in the oil industry within existing Consititutional limitations, as well as suggesting the creation of a public company to handle natural gas distribution.
Leading a ceremony marking the 69th anniversary of his father’s expropriation of the oil industry, Cárdenas Solórzano said that the rules for private investment are clear.
“Constitutional regulations very clearly define what is open to participation by anyone, and what the limits are to participation,” the PRD founder said.
Cárdenas Solórzano outlined a 10-point plan for consideration, and called on Congressional representatives, specialists and academics to analyze and develop alternative solutions for taking advantage of the still important hydrocarbon resources in the country.
The plan calls for developing an energy and modern industrial policy to cover the entire Mexican hydrocarbon industry, as well as energy security, and fortifying the large number of providers, engineering and related service industries that service Pemex.
“To open planning to participation by not just government and legislative bodies, but also by companies that contribute to the productive sector, as well as the consumers of energy sector goods and services in a National Energy Commission could lead to an agreement with definite goals for a long-range industrial policy.”
At the end of the ceremony, a group of about ten supporters of Andrés Manuel López Obrador heckled the speaker.
At another Expropriation Day ceremony, Pemex director Jesus Reyes Heroles (which makes him a cabinet secretary), also suggested better financing for the “paraestatal” enterprise… and lessening the federal government’s dependence on Pemex revenues.
Felipe Calderón, at yet another Expropriate Day speech, said “we don’t want to leave the youth without oil,” also suggested some private investments.
All three speakers are the scions of political dynasties representing three different currents in post-expropriation politics… Cárdenas from the left, Reyes Heroles from the PRI and Calderón from the right all recognize that the state firm needs a capital infusion. But no one is suggesting — and no one is going to suggest — privatizing the state institution, or giving control to the multinationals… that’s a pipe(line) dream.
The “old Jews” of Mexico come out after 500 years
This post has become quite popular (it gets more comments than all my other posts combined) thanks to mention on a genealogy site, and a site on the history of the Sephardic diaspora.
Unfortunately, it was also linked to an anti-Semitic website, and I was forced to change the comment settings for this post to require that I approve any new commentator. At the same time, because I started to get comments on my site from neo (and retro) -Nazis I created a list of key words that would be used in normal discussions on this post’s topics, but would require the post to be approved before it appears. Apologies in advance for any minor inconveniences.
While I hope those that those of you who are looking for this post will spend the time to look at other posts as well, and learn something about the culture and history of Mexico. However, if you are one of those people who are looking for confirmation of some moronic racist ideology, I suggest you go elsewhere. I normally welcome comments (even misguided ones), but it’s my website, and I’m free to censure, censor and/or ridicule as I see fit.
…………
When I started studying Mexican history, I was surprised at how many of the early colonial leaders were “conversos”… Spanish Jews (or their children) who had to convert or leave Spain after Isabel’s conquest of Granada in January 1492. A good chunk of northern Mexico, including what’s now Texas and New Mexico were settled by Tlaxcalan and Converso pioneers (the New Mexico “Spanish” are nearly all of Jewish ancestry, according to recent DNA studies).
Shep Lenchek’s invaluable three-part series for Mexico Connect, “Jews in Mexico: A Struggle for Survival” notes that while most Mexican Jews are descended from immigrants who arrived between 1888 and 1939, there have always been “Crypto-Jews”:
The “Conversos” were under increasing pressure from the Inquisition. Looking for a place in which they could retain their Spanish identity, they focused on Mexico. In 1531 large numbers of them left Spain and Portugal for the New World.
The inquisition had not yet come to Nueva Espagna and the new arrivals soon married into prominent Mexican families, became priests and bishops and enjoyed a 40 year period during which time, many began to practice Judaism openly. Doctors, lawyers. notaries-public, tailors, teachers and silversmiths, they brought much needed skills to the new colony and were well received. They settled in Vera Cruz, Campeche, Oaxaca, Guadalajara, Morelia and Mexico City.
Conversos were not overtly persecuted, but were eventually assimilated into the general population.
The Inquisition was never as virulent in Mexico as it was in Spain, where more than 4,000 people were burned at the stake. Many more were imprisoned for the “Jewish Heresy.” Massacres were instigated that took thousands of lives. By contrast, between 1571 when the Inquisition was established in Mexico and 1821 when it ended, only about 110 people were actually burned at the stake. Perhaps the same number died under torture or in prison, either awaiting trial or after sentencing. There were no popular outcries against Jews. The Inquisition was imposed from Spain. It cannot be blamed on Mexicans.
It’s to the honor of Mexico to report that Lenchek notes:
The only recorded incidents of official anti-Semitism came in the 1930’s. Suffering from a depression, Mexican labor unions pressured the government to enact restrictions on “Chinese and Jewish” immigration. Later in the same decade, neo-Nazi right wingers, financed from Berlin, staged anti-Jewish demonstrations in Mexico City. But not a single act of violence against Jews or Jewish property can be documented.
Which isn’t to say that the “crypo-Jews” weren’t at a disadvantage when it came to remaining Jewish. But 500 years after the Conquest, some are rediscovering their roots… as Roberto Loiederman wrote for the Jewish Journal (posted on New American Media, 16-March-2007) :
… he told me he was going to visit a group of Mexicans practicing Judaism on their own — no rabbi, no shul — it sounded fascinating; I asked if I could come along.I wondered what had led these people — born into Catholic families — to follow Judaism. More than that, I wanted to see Judaism through their eyes. What do they feel when they say the prayers? What is the source of their faith?This was not the first time I’d asked these questions. During the High Holidays, I had attended services at Beth Shalom, where a vibrant group of Latino converts has revitalized that shul.
…Dr. Mario Espinoza, a Mexicali obstetrician-gynecologist, spoke about his certainty that he’s descended from Jews forcibly converted to Christianity centuries ago. He used the Hebrew word anousim (constrained people or forceably converted) rather than Marranos, which means “swine.”
For Mexicans who trace their lineage to anousim, the Inquisition is not ancient history. It continued in Latin America, including Mexico, from the 1500s until the 1800s. During that period, those whose ancestors had been forced to convert from Judaism to Christianity were harassed, tortured and sometimes killed if they were discovered to have continued Jewish practices, which is why those practices continued in secret, if at all.
… Lucia Espinoza mentioned a grandmother who lit candles on Friday night. Lupe Medrano said that when she looked through her late grandfather’s effects, she found a tallit hidden in a box.…
The group that has coalesced around the Medrano home is not the only one like it in Mexico. Far from it. The Web site of Beth Hatefutsoth, the Israel Diaspora Museum in Tel Aviv, lists a number of communities of “native Mexican Jews” — located in various parts of Mexico — who trace their origins to anousim.
How many descendants of anousim are there?
“It’s hard to figure out exactly,” said Rabbi Stephen Leon of Congregation B’nai Zion in El Paso, just across the border from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. “I’d only be guessing, but I’d say the number is very large. I have personally ministered to 40 such families. In the 20 years I’ve been here, not a week goes by that I don’t meet someone who tells me about childhood memories of crypto-Jewish practices.”
The Diaspora Museum Web site points out that even after converting to Judaism, “native Mexican Jews” have not been accepted by “traditional Mexican Jews,” nearly all of whom are Orthodox and descended from those who immigrated to Mexico from Europe and the Middle East in the early 1900s.
Bush– annoying the locals in the Yucatan
From “Yucatan Living” comes this post written by one of the sizable MexPat community, in that usually welcoming city:
Yesterday George W. Bush left Mexico, and for many of the local inhabitants of Merida and the surrounding countryside, it wasn’t a moment too soon.From what we have seen in the past few days, the Leader of the Western World appears to be very afraid, and his presence projected those fears onto our traditionally tranquil city in a most bizarre and invasive manner.
…the metal barriers started showing up around town. First stacked on street corners, then gradually blocking streets and keeping cars from parking. Eventually there were pairs of black-shirted policemen on every corner within twenty blocks in any direction from the Forbidden Zone around the hotels. Then two days before the arrival of the leaders, ten-foot-tall metal barricades were erected that connected together to form a solid metal wall around the hotel area, effectively creating a walled city of three square blocks with heavily guarded entrances. To pass through the gates on Monday morning before Bush arrived, a person had to show their ID and have a good reason to be there. After his arrival, it was impossible for most people to gain entry. Once inside this walled city, the empty streets were eerie. Businesses on the ground floors of the hotels were closed and other businesses, like taxi drivers who cater to the hotels, were also effectively shut down. Schools around the hotels and around the pueblo of Temozon were closed for several days as well. Traffic was re-routed around the [sic] Historico Centro to stay clear of the Forbidden Zone encircling the hotels. Most people we talked to were not too pleased to have their routines, their income and their studies interrupted for this circus of powerful potentates, a circus that their government paid handsomely to host.
…
Frankly, we are left puzzled and confused by our President and by his visit to Merida. We know that Bush grew up in Texas, which has a long history of relations with Mexico. We know he and his family have many Mexican friends. We know he has a better grasp of the Spanish language and Mexican culture than most gringos, so ignorance cannot be what caused Bush to leave an impression that could only create the kind of resentment his tour was supposed to ameliorate. As U.S. expatriates living as guests in this country, we cannot help but feel that his visit reinforced old stereotypes and resentments toward the U.S. that may eventually – however unintentional, however impersonal – be directed toward us. Seeing what we’ve seen these past few days, we can hardly blame any Mexican for having those feelings. And so it seems to us that no one, not the U.S. nor Mexico nor the president himself was served by this visit.
Snakes on a train!
A friend of mine once claimed you weren’t really a Chilango until you’d carried live animals on public transportation. I’m not talking about out in the country. “Chicken buses” being pretty much a thing of the past, about my only experience with livestock on buses have been as freight. I couldn’t figure out the noise under my seat on a second-class bus in Tlaxcala, til we stopped at a crossroads to let a lady out who had stored a litter of piglets in the baggage compartment.
In la Capital, I’ve seen a few Chihuahuas or other small dogs stuffed in people’s pockets (or peeking out of backpacks) and heard a few boxes squawk now and again. I once carried a very pissed off kitten cross town in a backpack… who let everyone on the bus know exactly how he felt about the indignity of the situation… loudly (he survived, and grew up to be a very, very big cat).
I lost it one afternoon on a Nauculpan bus, when I was having an already strange day (I was only in Nauculpan because I’d taken the wrong bus to begin with) and ended up on the back seat wedged between a guy with a ventroloquist’s dummy (who kept making salacious comments ) and a guy with a box of chicks… who escaped. I’m afraid the cackling gringo made everyone else a tad uncomfortable.
I’m not sure how I would have reacted to Sr. Sanchez’ companion. I’m guessing the real snakes are the other two guys…
(my translation, from an article by Héctor Molina in El Gráfico, 16-marzo-2007)
A passenger with a snake and two security guards who robbed a packet of Metro tickets were detained yesterday on Metro Line 1.
Édgar Sánchez, 28, was caught traveling between Cuauhtémoc and Insurgentes stations with a snake wrapped around in his arm.
The snake, a python, was about 60 cm (2 feet) long, accorting to reports from Sistema de Transporte Colectivo.
The only animals permitted on the Metro are guide dogs for the blind.
Also on line 1, employees of a courier service were detained after robbing a thousand Metro tickets.
The theft occurred at an Insurgentes station ticket booth. The two were picking up cash receipts, and took the package of tickets.
After being detained, the two, Luis Ángel Castro Gorgonio, 23, and his buddy, Raúl Robles Martínez. Were taken to Public Ministry Station house #50.
Metro security personnel said that the tickets were found hidden in Castro Gorgonio’s clothing.
(By the way, Luis Ángel and Raúl are probably two of the stupider crooks I’ve read about in a while. Metro tickets are still only 2 pesos a pop… so they stole 2000 pesos worth of tickets, which they’d have to unload at a discount, say a peso per– if they were lucky to find anyone willing to take hot tickets, and nobody’s gonna buy 1000 tickets at a time. Our master criminals might have expected to earn, oh… about 50 bucks each. DUMB and DUMBER).
I’m passing this along from Nezua at The Unapologetic Mexican. Yes… the Mex Files needs money too (the links are at the right, and I’ve been as unpushy as I can afford to be), but that’s a chronic condition and this is an crisis…
There are between 150 and 200 niños (children) separated from their parents as a result of the March 6, 2007 Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s raid on workers at a defense contractor in New Bedford, Massachusetts. MIRA members, staff, allies, families, neighbors and friends are doing their best to care for these children, but with limited resources.ICE rounded up and incarcerated around 350 textile workers, mostly women, leaving many children stranded.
How you can help:
1. Donate Money: The New Bedford Immigrant Families/ Niños Fund is now accepting donations. MIRA is working with the Community Foundation of Southeastern Massachusetts (SFSEMA) in distributing all funds raised to the affected children and families. Click here to donate online.
Please specify that the funds are for “New Bedford Immigrant Families / Ninos Fund.”
Or send a check to the MIRA Coalition, 105 Chauncy St, Boston, MA 02111. Please make checks out to the “New Bedford Immigrant Families / Ninos Fund.” Donations are tax-deductible and 100% of your donations to this fund will be distributed to the affected families through the Commuity Foundation of Southeastern MA (CFSEMA).
2. Volunteers: Right now we need people willing to drive New Bedford families from their homes to and from the JFK federal building in Boston. Father Fallon has generously allowed the use of the Catholic Social Services passenger van, available for volunteers. Drivers must have a valid license and have some basic Spanish language capability.
If you are available, please call Father Fallon at (508) 997-7337
We also need immigration lawyers willing to take pro-bono cases, preferably a bilingual Spanish speaker. Please call MIRA with your name and contact information at 617-350-5480 x212.
3. Material Donations: Needed items: Pampers in all sizes; Baby wipes; bottles and bottle liners; Enfamil Soy baby formula; all types of baby food and winter baby clothing. Canned food, bottled water and paper products are also needed. Donations should be dropped off between 8:30am and 4:30pm, Monday through Friday ONLY at 2 Acushnet Ave, New Bedford at the Our Lady of Guadalupe Convent.
4. Voice Your Opinion: Write to your local newspaper and call into your local radio station to decry the devestation this raid has caused. Our immigration laws are supposed to unite families not destroy them. Read the press releases and articles and then click here for tips on writing a letter with some local paper links.
5. Write and Call Your Members of Congress: Capital Switchboard (202) 224-3121. Ask them to speak directly with Secretary Chertoff to request that he “Release the Moms.” Also demand a moratorium on deportations and new immigration laws now! A sample letter is here; hand written letters have the most impact and should be sent to the district offices (goto: http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/ click on your state and then click on your Senators’/Representative’s name to get mailing addresses). Please invite your friends and families in other states to also write in!
DONATE FOR THE NEW BEDFORD FAMILIES / NINOS FUND HERE
• Read Boston Globe March 9th Oped: “U.S immigration system at its worst”
• If you have a FAMILY MEMBER detained in this raid, you can call ICE at 1-866-341-3858 to get more information about the arrested individual.
Please, even the smallest thing, even the least of these actions is a help. There are scared and suffering children involved. Thank you. For more information, see the MIRA website. —Nez.
¡Feliz día de San Patricio!
Agrarian…
………..Catholic
………………….. next door to English-speaking Protestants
(who occupied big chunks of the country) …
… and.. as a result, ended up living on remittances sent home by workers…
and spent their time in the movies drinking or singing
… and conquering John Wayne…
… where the Virgin Mary appears to Archbishop’s servants (Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin in December 1531 at Tepayac; Mary McLoughlin, August 1879, Knock, County Mayo) and regularly elsewhere…
… when they aren’t siring boxers…
Maybe the Mexicans are Irish.
Who’s to say the country where the last Viceroy was Juan O’Donaju (“O’Donohue”), and one of the great Military units los San Patricios (led by Capitan, John Reilly), the first modern President an Obregón (who some claim was an O’Brian), and artists named O’Gorman and O’Higgins shouldn’t be celebrating today…
Saint Patrick drove the snakes of the Emerald Isle, though they are still seen after the Irish, in reverence to God, who invented whiskey to keep them from ruling the world, consume mass quantities in their local houses of worship, called “pubs.”
The Mexicans, having only God’s ministers, the monks, to thank for Tequila, also give thanks to the creator in the local cantina. But, they don’t need to consume HUGE quantities to see the snakes.
There’s no rainbow… and probably no pot of gold out here in the desert. Keep the Mex Files wearing green…
Friday Nite Video
George W.’s Latin Express just don’t play that well anywhere in the Americas. Even in Mexico. But, in the spirit of Pan-American understanding, I’ll continue my “Friday Night Videos with another popular Latin star performer.
Last week I ran Columbian singer Juanes. This week I’m running a Venezualan performance artist. While he’s thrilled audiences throughout Latin America, and filled stadiums to overflow capacity, you can see, even from this May 2006 rural performance, why he’s an international hit.
One note of explanation, via Texas journalist Dick J. Reeves:
Mr. Danger is a long-standing figure in Venezuelan life, a character in a 1929 work, many times republished, by the novelist Rómulo Gallegos, who was also Venezuela’s first freely-elected president, brought down in a U.S.-backed 1948 military coup, ten months after he took office.
Gallegos introduced Mr. Danger in Doña Bárbara, a work that has been required reading in Venezuela’s secondary schools for forty years, ever since the return of electoral rule. In Gallegos’ novel, Danger is the exemplar of a type of American once common in rural Venezuela.
Having done my part to help George out, now you can return the patriotic favor, and help out the Mex Files.
“These things are connected”
It’s easy to see why so many of us who look at Latin American issues are assumed to be some knee-jerk follower of Noam Chomsky. Somehow I don’t think I’m ready to join a movement led by linguistics professor. And, I’m not… it’s just that Chomsky and a lot of us come to the same conclusions about Latin American economic/social issues.
Chomsky aruges the same conditions (and causes) exist elsewhere in the world, but this is the Mex Files, so I’ll just quote the relevent section for his longer interview by Sameer Dosani on “War, Neoliberalism and Empire in the 21st Century”, printed in Counterpunch.
… why is there a vast increase in illegal immigration from Mexico in recent years? It’s partly the predicted effects of NAFTA. If you …flood Mexico with U.S. agribusiness exports, which are highly subsidized–that’s how they get their profits–then Mexican farmers aren’t going to be able to compete. Then comes the economists’ theory, you know, turn from producing corn and beans and rice to producing flowers and [other] export crops, and you have the mode I described, and people can’t survive. So there’s a flight of people from the countryside to the cities where there are no jobs because Mexican businesses can’t compete with U.S. multinationals, which are given enormous advantages under the mislabeled trade agreements. And yes, you get a flight of population [across the border]. The price of tortillas, you know, the basic food for the poor, it’s gone out of sight, people can’t pay for it. If you’re growing your own food, you can manage, or if there’s a subsistence agriculture, yeah, you can kind of manage, but not when you abandon it.
…
Remember that when NAFTA was enacted in 1994, another policy was enacted. In 1994, Clinton militarized the border in Operation Gatekeeper. Now previously, that had been a pretty open border. The border, of course, was established by conquest, like most borders. And there were similar people on both sides, people who would cross the border to visit their friends and relatives and that sort of thing. Now the border was militarized in 1994. OK, maybe it’s a coincidence, more likely I think it’s because the Clinton administration understood that their glowing predictions [about the benefits of NAFTA] were for propaganda, and that the likelihood was that there would be effects in Mexico which would lead to substantial flight, immigration, joined by people fleeing the wreckage of Central America after Reagan’s terrorist wars there. And yes, now you have what they call an immigration crisis. These things are connected, you can’t look at them in isolation.
mexfiles.net 