The circular theory of Aztec history simplified…
Religion and cuisine aren’t the only places in Mexico where tradition and modernity co-exist…
QUAKERS KIDNAPPED!
Honoring 50 years of friendship
BY ALEX MANDA/Special to The Miami Herald
El Universal Miércoles 23 de agosto de 2006
They don´t exactly say it, but Bridget Moix and Nick Wright seem to feel that Lonely Planet and other backpacker guidebooks have kidnapped their guest house. Casa de los Amigos is a light-filled, Luis Barragán-built, three-story house in central Mexico City that was once home to painter José Clemente Orozco. It is nice to be popular and appreciated, but that was never the main point.
“It found its way into the guidebooks in the mid-80s,” says Wright. “That was a real sea change for the house. It was on the map as a cool, inexpensive place to stay in one of the biggest cities in Latin America. It then became a struggle to maintain the original mission while keeping this wonderful, thriving guest house going at the same time.”
Quakers have been working on various kinds of peace-oriented missions in the house for 50 years, but in the last 10 years the guests have been the bulk of their activity. The house´s 50-year anniversary is an opportunity to get back to its roots, according to Moix, the interim executive director of the Casa de los Amigos.
“We are seeking a process of jubilee renewal for the casa – returning to the original mission. The guest house is a tool, a means for. improving international understanding and working for peace.”
THE CASA IS FOR ME. FOR THEE, THE OXFORD HOTEL ACROSS THE STREET IS PREFECTLY FINE
The Vampire of Colonia Roma… is draining my Master Card!
I thought I had gotten over my need to own “stuff”. But, now that I’m settled — again — I find I miss “stuff” … books mostly…that went into a storage locker in Houston that I eventually stopped paying rent on, or are still sitting in a friends garage in Mexico City, or… loaned out never to be seen again.
I’ve been spending a small fortune the last few days picking up some odd “essentials” — two books on the Mexican-American War (I still haven’t located my “Diary of Samuel Chamberlain”… one of the three or four copies I’ve owned and lost over the years may still turn up).
For a time I had a nice collection of tour books of Mexico City. None came close to the reality of the city (I used to amuse myself picking out their flaws) as close to the “real” Mexico City as a small book from written in the 1970s, which an earthquake, years of rebuilding, a Periferico, Ejes and a complete change in government (and a few million more inhabitants) hasn’t dated.
I only stumbled across it by accident… at a Half-Price Books shop in Houston that had both a good Mexican section, and a gay clientele. Luis Zapata’s “Adonis Garcia: the vampire of Colonia Roma” was shocking at the time. I don’t know why. It’s a classic “piquaresque,” shocking only in that it’s so very on-target about Mexico City. “Adonis”, being a gay hustler, made it a “gay novel” and the translation was from a small press. Which means… replacing what was a $5.00 purchase back in the days when I made a bundle just cost me thirty bucks with one of the internet used book dealers.
I’m lucky… the other copies of this all-too-little known classic go as high as 70 or 80 dollars. I don’t know if the reprint rights are available, but it’s one of those “Mexican” books in English (like Rosa King’s “Tempest over Mexico”, about the hotelier’s experiences during the Revolution, or Fanny Erskine de la Barca’s 1845 “Letters from Mexico”) that wear their age gracefully, and still are relevant in a way that an old “Lonely Planet Guide” isn’t. Perhaps the viewer (reader?, whatever you call the person who looks at this) who keeps pushing me to finish MY Mexico book wants to look into this.
I’d forgotten I thought of buying an extra copy of “Adonis” a few years ago… from Amazon.com. I found one other review on the web — mostly dealing with sexual politics. Mine was sparked by my amazement at finding this Mexican piqueresaque listed under “GOTHIC” novels:
Luis Zapata’s “Adonis Garcia” is subtitled “Vampiro de la Colonia Roma” in its original Spanish, but perhaps it should be classified as “gothic humor”, not “horror”.
Adonis inhabits the world of the night — true. But, so do most prostitutes and drug dealers. Having turned his back on a promising future in electronics repair working in his father’s shop in Matamoros (on the U.S. border), “Adonis” opts for an adventurous, open life as a gay prostitute, petty thief and sometime drug dealer.He makes no apologies — “es me onda” (it’s my thing) he says. While this novel deals with Mexico City before the 1985 earthquake that obliterated much of Colonia Roma … and changed the social and political landscape … much of what was written about Mexico City in the early 80s is still true today. Mexicans — and the Mexican underclass — are survivors above all. They make no apologies, they have their dignity, and — above all — they recognize the absurdity of life.This is a joyful novel (something that doesn’t always come across in the academic translation). As the hero of a piquaresque, Adonis is a loveable rogue. His worst crime is stealing an antique mirror from some trusting little old ladies — with typically comic complications. This is not the Mexico of outsiders — feeling sorry for our poor, worrying about the socialogical effects of a marginal life (Adonis’ psychiatrist aunt worries about that for us). This is Mexican humor at its best — mordant and black at times — but willing to face the absurdity of life with a smile.
The shoe’s on the other foot now
(Mexico City Herald, 22 August 2006):
Close election in Chiapas state tests Mexico’s strained democracy
Wire services
El Universal
August 22, 2006TUXTLA GUTIERREZ, Chiapas — A candidate backed by President Vicente Fox’s party pledged Monday to contest the tight Chiapas state governor’s race if he loses to the left-leaning Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) — putting a new twist on the country’s deepening political crisis.
As the supporters of the PRD’s presidential candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador clogged the capital with protests to demand a recount of the July 2 presidential vote, the tables were turned in Chiapas, where the ruling party was crying fraud and candidate José Antonio Aguilar Bodegas vowed to take his fight to electoral courts if he was not named the winner.
A little more than 2,000 votes separated the two state candidates, according to preliminary results. Both claimed victory late Sunday, holding celebrations in the steamy state capital of Tuxtla Gutiérrez within blocks of each other — as if there were a clear winner.
With 94 percent of 4,761 polling places counted, Juan Sabines of the PRD was leading with 48.39 percent, or 517,129 votes. Aguilar had 48.17 percent, or 514,743 votes.
It’s Pat!
Appearing on Imus In the Morning to promote his new book, State of Emergency, Pat Buchanan asserted that the Mexican government has a “direct program” to reannex “the seven states of the American Southwest.” The first step is for Mexico “to push the poor, unemployed, and uneducated into the United States.”
I always regret that was talked out of my devious plot to bring down Pat when I met him in Iowa City during the 1994 Caucus. He was travelling by Winnebago, and I noticed the door wasn’t locked. Hmmm… I mentioned this to some friends of mine, a photographer and a reporter for the Iowa City Press-Citizen, speculating how easy it would be to run over to either of the two porn palaces in town and load up on … oh, S&M magazines (or better, “Latin Inches”… or even better… Dirty Papí… or …) with which to bestrew said Winnebago shortly before the aforementioned legitimate press would happen upon the scene.
Would I have really done it? Probably not, but geeze, just think what I could have done if I went to work for PAN in the last election.
For those of you just tuning in…
XicanoPwer, at ¡Para justicia y liberdad! (don’t panic… he writes in English) has a full review of the on-going “complot” against AMLO going back several years, and bringing you up to date on the latest electorial mess. I don’t necessarliy agree with all his conclusions, but this is the clearest time-line of the situation I’ve seen yet.
Geeze, I wish Kelly Arthur Garrett would go back to writing politics. The Mexico City Herald just ain’t the same. Two days now, and no real mention of the Ahumada tapes (There’s better coverage in the Houston Chronicle — ouch, that’s gotta hurt down at the Herald’s offices). Do they think they’ll just go away?
Meanwhile, in Chiapas, we have another too close to call election. Interestingly enough, when I checked the PREP results at 6 .m. last night, the Por el Bien de Todos candidate was leading by almost 2 points with close to 60 percent of the vote counted. Now, it’s about 0.2 percent — well within the margin of error. This is a very strange election all around, and no where more than Chiapas, where the PRD candidate WAS a PRI candidate, until the PRI and PAN decided to run a coalition candidate who… it seems … also benefitted from the creeping late vote count magic that put Calderón over the top in the late vote returns in the Presidential election.
If that’s a coincidence, I’ll sell you a time shares in Puerto Fulano and offer you a share in my Nigerian bank account.
Power to the People….
but to which people? Mexico has demonstrations breaking out all over… like zits on a 14 yr. old boys face. Candidates are crying “foul”, disgruntled voters are filling the streets, and the kiddos are playing hooky.
Armed w
ith pipes and clubs, teachers in Oaxaca have taken control of at least 8 private radio stations in the state of Oaxaca. Today, gunmen opened fire on a teacher held government run radio station. That’s when the teachers were prompted to take over the 8 private radio stations. Strikers then broadcast messages to parents telling them to ignore the start of the school year. No school until further notice, moms and dads. Maestros have been striking since May for higher wages and for the resignation of Gov. Ulises Ruiz.
The governor’s race in Chiapas has taken off in the same direction as the presidential election in Mexico City. Only a bout 3,000 votes separate the two candidates in Chiapas. Juan Sabines of PRD holds a slim lead over Jose Aguilar Bodegas of PRI. Both parties are declaring victory!
PAN withdrew its candidate two weeks ago, and President Fox threw his support to PRI’s candidate…. a surprising move on his part. Meanwhile, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is hoping that Sabines will be victorious. It will hurt AMLO’s own battle with Calderon if Sabines loses his race in Chiapas. Both parties are crying, “fraud”. Which part of this is new?
Meanwhile (back to center stage), time is running out for AMLO and his supporters. A president-elect must be declared by Sept. 6. Mr. Obrador admits that “there has been a drain of support”. The chaos of his supporters’ blockades of major thoroughfares, has taken a toll on the residents of df. He wants to force the country’s electoral tribunal to order a full recount of the votes.
Politically speaking, Mr. Obrador stuck his neck out by rallying thousands of his supporters to stage demonstrations and to occupy the zocalo and the Paseo de la Reforma for all these weeks. It was a risky move because it may have alienated members of his own party who did well at the legislative level. If he presses for more radical acts, he could completely erode his power base.
There’s a lot of high stakes Russian roulette being played out in Mexico these days. Stay tuned!
Do Tell…..
How cheesey does it get when a “Desperate Housewife” has to create a documentary explaining the plight of unfortunate Mexican immigrants? When is enough…. enough?
The Starplus News Blog reports: Eva Longoria Shocked by Plight of Immigrant Workers:
Eva Longoria hopes her new documentary highlights the plight of Latin American immigrants trying to survive in the United States, after spending a day working alongside them. While researching the new film with labor activist Dolores Huertas, Longoria agreed to go undercover to see just what life is like for struggling immigrants – and she was shocked by what she uncovered.
The star, whose family hails from Mexico, tells Maxim magazine, “We’re documenting a day in the life of an immigrant worker, just to show how hard these people work – how they slave away just for us to have a salad at the Chateau Marmont (top Los Angeles hotel). “I spent a day out in the field, and it’s horrendous. It’s an exploitation of people who leave everything behind: their country, their family, their lives, their language, their religion. They leave it all behind to come here and make $5 a day. My hope is that the documentary will educate people about what’s going on.”
What was Dolores Huertas thinking??? Good grief, we can only hope that little Eva finally gets educated. Eva, Eva, Eva, you were born and raised in Texas….. you’re 31 yrs old…. you’re a grad from Texas A&M…. what world have you been living in? It’s time for you to get out of “hair and make-up”. Mexican immigrants need a spokesperson with a little more “street cred”.
Goes well with Aryan Nation Brand Kosher Hot-dogs
I guess this is what you serve the true blue ‘murrican patriot… along with nachos and tacos when he’s standing guard over the AMERICAN WAY OF EATING, stemming the CLASH OF CIVILIZATIONS and keeping us safe from unemployed chile farmers and food processing workers looking for work.
The Havana Tapes… Lopez Obrador was right
UPDATE: There are excellent summaries of this, and other developing political scandals in the August 19 and 20 posts at Mercury Rising.
Journalist Carmen Aristegui aired videos yesteday of interviews with contractor and financier Carlos Ahumada who fle
d to Havana in 2004 to avoid prosecution for charges related to his bribery of Mexico City officials and department heads (story in El Informador de Guadalajara here).
There was something dubious about the whole affair. At the time I wondered how a PAN Senator ended up with Las Vegas surveillence tapes which were shown on la Mañanara, Brozo the Clown’s morning TV talk show. (A federal lawsuit in Las Vegas disclosed that the FBI was acquiring casino surveillence tapes, allegedly to look for money-launderers. If true, the tapes would have been sent to the Mexican Attorney General’s office, which apparently gave them to the politican as part of what Lopez Obrador called a “complot”). Ahumada, an Argentine-born builder and investor, had numerous business and personal interests that tied to PAN leaders. Mexicans are prejudiced against Argentines, and I thought a lot of what was said about Ahumada reflected that prejudice, rather than facts. Still, his name, and his companies, are involved in every scandal involving Lopez Obrador’s city administration, and in the affairs of most of AMLO’s political opponents. 
During his interview, Ahumada said it was “difficult to imagine that Vicente Fox was not intimately involved” in various schemes to derail Lopez Obrador’s political ambitions.
Today’s Jornada comments on the latest revelations (my translation):
Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador was right. His denunciation of a “plot” against him back in March 2004 was neither a paranoid fantasy, not a manouver to sidetrack public scrutiny of his adminstration. The machinations of the state and the involvement of the Presidency are certain. Carlos Ahumada, the keystone of the jerry-built intrige, confessed as much in Havana, Cuba in a video interview with journalist Carmen Aristegui.Nobody is making jokes about the construction magnate’s revelations now. They are substantial theads running through three separate episodes in recent national political life: the dissemination of recorded images of civil servants and Federal District Government (GDF) employees gambling in Las Vegas or receiving cash from Ahumada; the attempts to politically incapacite Lopez Obrador through a disafuero; and the now well-founded suspicions of fraud in the the recent elections.
All three events divided and polarized the country, irritated society and brought the nation to the abyss of madness. These three events demonstrate a fatuous misuse of state resources by a tiny nucleus of business interests to prevent the candidate from obtaining the Presidency of the Republic.
Carlos Ahumad’s confessions in Havana detail a sedititious plot in which at least then Interior Minister Santiago Creel, former Attorney General Rafael Macedo de la Concha, Senator Diego Fernandez de Cevallos and ex-president Carlos Salinas de Gortari are all implicated. It doesn’t take much imagination to see the hand of Los Pinos behind the plot.
With nearly the speed of light, Santiago Creel picked up the smoke signals [an untranslatable pun based on Ahumada, Smoky). It appears that a bad memory is affects the entire Mexican political class when it comes to denying responsiblity. Fernanez de Cevellos, the incoming PAN Senate leader, when confronted by Puebla authorities with wiretapped conversations between him and then-fugitive pederast Kamil Nacif famously told a television interviewer “It is my voice but not me.” If, as Ahumad affirms, Fernandez de Cevellos was in on the plot, it’s bad enough. It is much worse if the Interior Minister ignored one of the greatest scandals in national political events despite having at his dispostion the country’s intellegence services.
The testimony disclosed yesterday is only one small part of the 40 hours of recordings with Carlos Ahumada now in Cuban hands. What is yet to be revealed. The video (available on Jornada’s Web page) show a smiling and open industralist. But he raises questions that have not been clarified, in spite of the time that has passed since his capture and deportation from Cuba. Why did he flee to Cuba, and who protected him during his escape?
The Havana confessions reinforce uncertainty about the lack of transparency, and raise questions about the fairness and — of the July 2 elections. Carlos Ahumada explicitly recognizes that the intention of his governmental protectors was to wreck Lopez Obrador’s presidential aspirations. If they were able to achieve their ends, what else would they do to conserve power. For those who were already dubious about the electorial results, the Argentine industrialist’s revelations only add to distrust and social discontent. For that reason, today, more than ever, it is made indispensable count vote by vote.
But beyond the final outcome of these revelations, there is a more immediate consequence for the nation. They reaffirm the national tragedy — the intellectial impoverishment and break-down of our political class, resulting in an unscrupulous use of government institutions in the administration of justice.
More “Don’t ask, don’t tell… don’t report”
Mark Almond, a history lecturer at Oriel College, Oxford, writes in The Guardian:
A couple of years ago television, radio and print media in the west just couldn’t get enough of “people power”. In quick succession, from Georgia’s rose revolution in November 2003, via Ukraine’s orange revolution a year later, to the tulip revolution in Kyrgyzstan and the cedar revolution in Lebanon, 24-hour news channels kept us up to date with democracy on a roll.
Triggered by allegations of election fraud, the dominoes toppled. The US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, was happy with the trend: “They’re doing it in many different corners of the world, places as varied as Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan and, on the other hand, Lebanon … And so this is a hopeful time.”
But when a million Mexicans try to jump on the people-power bandwagon, crying foul about the July 2 presidential elections, when protesters stage a vigil in the centre of the capital that continues to this day, they meet a deafening silence in the global media.
Can You Spare a Peso?
Chances are that you’re not in the quite ready, but if you’re in the business of building a Mexican dysnasty, you should at least familiarize yourself with some of your fellow “players”. It’s not my job (in this piece) to trash the rich and powerful in Mexico. I simply want to “introduce” some of the movers and shakers who are playing a big role influencing and shaping modern Mexico. Be your own judge.
Chris Hawley of the Arizona Republic wrote an interesting article about Mexico’s dynasties and some of the challenges they are facing as they enter the U.S. markets and as some of their aging founders pass the baton to their young’uns.
www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/0816grupos.html
“Carl
os Slim is rich. Insanely rich. Astronomically rich. If you took his $37.6 billion and laid the dollar bills end to end, they would stretch to the moon and back seven times, that’s how rich he is.” ~ Chris Hawley of the Arizona Republic
Slim (66 yrs old) bought Telmex for a cool $443 million (in 1990). He’s made his fortune in the communications business. He has expanded by buying CompUSA and he owns a substantial piece of Saks Fifth Ave. He could afford to smile a little…. don’t you think? Slim is with Grupo Carso.
Slim’s business controls about 90% of the hard line phones in Mexico (Telmex). He’s heavily invested in insurance, cell phones (American Movil), retail, cigarettes(Cigatam), restaurants (Sanborns), and auto parts stores. http://www.newint.org/issue368/worldbeaters.htm
With the help of Rudolph Giuliani, Slim has launched a huge restoration project in the Historic District of Mexcio City. After the clean-up, the eventual plan is to push the vendors, homeless kids, and the poor out of the district in order to raise property values. Since Slim owns a substantial amount of property in the Historic District, it’s seen as a self-serving move rather than simply a nationalistic one.
Maria Asuncion Aramburuzabala (39 yrs old) sure has good reason to smile. She known as the “Beer Queen” of Latin America. She has investments in Grupo Modelo, maker of Corona and Negra Modelo. A wealth of 2 billion earned her the title of Mexico’s richest woman. Cheers, Maria!
Maria made another power move last year by marrying Antonio Garza Jr. (Bush confidant and U.S. ambassador to Mexico). After a house hunting trip to Austin, Texas last year, the speculation is that the power couple may be making a bid to run for the governorship of Texas. Maria has been quoted as saying, ” “It wouldn’t surprise me if someday I am ‘living in the great state’ campaigning by his side”
Media mogul, Emilio Azcarraga, leads Mexico’s biggest TV network
, Televisa. At the young age of 38, Emilio is worth about 1.7 billion dollars. He looks like he’s pleased with himself. With his family ensconced in a media and sports empire, he can probably get the best seats in the house at any futbol stadium in the world. Emilio is part of the Televisa Grupo. Last year, he was making plans to become a U.S. citizen so that he could increase his stake in Univision (U.S. based Spanish TV).
Led by Lorenzo Zambrano (60), Mexico’s Cemex company is the world’s large
st cement company. Lorenzo has aggressively bought up cement businesses in the U.S., Mexico, Spain, France, Latin America and much of the world. He’s bucked the trend to diversify by concentrating souly on the business he knows best. Lorenzo’s fortune is put at $2 billion.
Last year the Wall Street Journal tarnished his reputation by accusing his company of gouging the poor people of Mexico, but Lorenzo didn’t let that slow him down. Lorenzo stays low-key and lives on a hillside in Monterrey.
Here’s a link to Lorenzo’s amazing/gutsy career: http://www.economist.com/displayStory.cfm?story_id=5017200
These are just a few of the rich and powerful in Mexico who are investing their capital in the Mexico and around the globe. Last year, Mexico’s elite invested over $6.7 billion in the U.S. businesses.
“The numbers show that far from being just a source of illegal migrants, Mexico is increasingly becoming a source of investors. Here we are, complaining about illegal immigration and saying Mexicans should get out of our country, so it’s extremely surprising for Americans to find that there is a huge amount of foreign direct investment coming in (from Mexico).” ~ Dawn McLaren, a research economist at Arizona State University
mexfiles.net 
