Whose flower is this? Poinsett and “Poinsettias”
Cuernavaca, Mor. – Tired to paying royalties to foreigners, floriculturalists and local authorities are working to produce a variant of the native Flor de Noche Buena (Christmas Eve flower) and to annul the U.S. patent American producers hold n this native plant.
The floriculturalists have already initiated genetic studies aimed at breaking the monopoly maintained in the United States by commercial producers over buds and cuttings, which they have held since 1828, when the first American Ambassador to Mexico, Joel Roberts Poinsett, obtained U.S. patent rights to the plant, according to Antonio Garcia, president of the Ornamental Plant Producers Association of Tetela de Monte (Protem, for its Spanish abbreviation).
Additionally, members of the State of Morelos Historical Society (CCEM, in Spanish), through its representative Victor Manuel Flores, have asked the Federal Secretary of Governance (Home Affairs) to review diplomatic treaties relevant to annulling the patent.
The proposal is supported by Cuernavaca mayor, Adrián Rivera Pérez, and State Secretary of Agricultural Development, Víctor Sánchez Trujillo, who have committed themselves to support the iniative to produce a version of the flor de Noche Buena that bears the name Morelos or Cuernavaca , at a Autonomous University of Morelos (UAEM, in Spanish) discussion.
State authorities support spending public funds to help breeders produce their own variety of the native plant and to propagate it, cutting the need to pay royalties to producers in the United States.
“A present example is the mole, a local chile patented in Japan. We have to breed a new variety, just to recover the name, said historian Flores, who considers it unjust that the Morelos growers and Morelos authorities have to resort to these measures just to recover recognition that this Christmas ornamental originated in Mexico.
Considered like one of the most elegant and beautiful exotic flowers in the world, the flor de Noche Buena delighted Ambassador Poinsett when he first saw it on Christmas Day in 1825, adorning a nativity scene in the Franciscan church of Santa Prisca in Taxco, Guerrero.
Captivated by the beauty of the plant, ambassador Poinsett sent cuttings as gifts 
to his friends in his hometown of Charleston, South Carolina. After returning to the United States, Poinsett registered the plant in his own name. The patent was later sold to Paul Ecker Ranch de Encinitas, California.
Sold throughout Europe and South America, the plant is also known as the poinsettia.
Poinsett’s Mexican biographer, the historian José Fuentes Mares, once said in an interview that “Poinsett left Mexico accompanied by a million curses.”The Morelos variety
According to the State Historical Society, a hybrid variety of the flor de Noche Buena has been commercially cultivated in Morelos since 1965, although local floriculturalists must buy authorized seeds and cuttings from the United States breeder.
José Antonio García, president of the Ornamental Plant Producers of Tetela of Monte, says that although Morelos is national leader in the production of the potted plants, they cannot export, due to international regulations that prevent Mexico from exporting soil.Nevertheless, the producers are searching for alternative substrates (growing media) that will allow them to export potted plants, although the priority is creating a newly patented variety.
For this, the group has engaged a Tetela biologist specializing in genetics. As of this year, studies are incomplete. A second investigation has been undertaken by UAEM, backed by the Department of Agricultural Development.
“I believe that we must get a legal opinion. If Poinsett’s patent is upheld, then we must produce our own product. The Ambassador robbed the flowers and cuttings and patented them under his own name, knowing full-well of their Mexican origin,” said historian Flores.
The news from Lake Texcocobegone, part 3.14159265
It’s been a quiet week here in Lake Texcoco-be-gone. This is — por supuesto — the slowest time of the year (and, when you’re doing business, you start to dread the long holidays). I had a bad bout of insomnia for the last week or two, but I tried not to lose any sleep over it … which put me on Dracula Standard Time for a while. While it was nice to talk on the internet with Australians and Chinese, there’s not a heck of a lot to recommend that kind of schedule. At least in Mexico City, there’s no problem taking the dog for a walk at … 3 or 4 AM.
Now that it’s “officially” unofficially Christmas. My next-door neighbor, Felipe the Jehovah’s Witness owns ONE, AND ONLY ONE, CD THAT HE PLAYS OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER… usually about 1 in the AM. “¡Yo soy un testigo…yo soy un testigo!” … could work like those tapeworms that eat their way into your frontal lobes and cause unpredicable behavior. I’d never heard of Cysticercosis, but apparently, it’s a fairly common disease in rural Mexico and can cause weird and wacky behavior (jumping out of your car while driving, or joining the Mormons or such).
Anyway… I hesitated about hanging my Christmas lights on the front door, but … ah, the hell with it. Benito Juarez (who is something of a saint for Jehovahs’ Witnesses, mostly because he left them alone) said, “peace is the respect for the rights of others,” and this is supposedly the season for Peace on Earth, Good Will towards men (except for Iraqi men, according to our Christian Leader). So, if I can put up with Jehovahs Witness choir music, he can deal with Christmas Lights. My bonsai is decorated and I’ve put my teeny-tiny electric train (bonsai electric train?) around. I’ve yet to hang a piñata, but that’s coming. Hopefully, so is Santa… I’m trying to save him having to land his flying burros (led by Rudolfo) on my roof and tangling with Manches, the roof Jack Russell Terrier. They’re a bit more expensive here, but one of these is all I really want for Christmas.
AND AN IMPORTANT MESSAGE FROM EVA PERRA…
Hey, Hey… SANTA!!!! Don’t forget me! Hey… Hey… (Uh… what’s to eat? Huh? Huh?) Hey, hey… SANTA!!! SANTA!!!!
Behold, I show you a mystery — in three parts…
GUADELUPE SUITE…
Today is the official unoffical start of the Christmas holiday. Mexicans work hard… when they’re working… but if they are masters of stretching out the holiday whenever possible. So, Christmas isn’t just the 12 days between December 25 and January 6, it’s from Guadelupe to Tres Reyes. And, today is Guadelupe Day.
On a relatively quiet day, this was taken by a Japanese tourist. Today ther Basillica is visited by an estimated 100,000 pilgrims per HOUR. The Church relies on chubby boy scouts to keep ’em moving…
I don’t know how many out-of-towners we get, but they seem to be coming from everywhere. I was just outside the airport yesterday, indulging in a lunch at el Porton (a higher priced version of VIPS, which is a Mexican version of Denny’s) just watching the pilgrims going by… buses, villages camped in semi-trailers (yeah, probably illegal, but you want to stop people on a mission from God?), farm trucks, bicycles — cross-country cycling is a popular sport and it seems every cycling club in the country is on the road — motorcycles (a relatively expensive investment here. Mexican bikers are generally well-heeled people to begin with, and this isn’t quite the Sturgis group anyway. Not likely the Hell’s Angels are going to join the ride), and… just walking down the road. I was amazed by the number of guys (and some women) with all their camping equipment on their backs, some with their luggage tags still hanging from the frames, I saw leaving the airport. One indication Mexico is becoming wealthier… the NEW Basillica parking lot is already at 90% capacity. Of course all these people need to eat and sleep (one of the best-kept open secrets for budget tourists is the giant hostel run by monks around the corner from the Basilica, if you don’t mind sharing a dorm room with a couple of Guatamalan villages)… and a sizable number of them do their Christmas shopping and take in the sites.
For a lot of people, the pilgrimage is a reason for a trip to the big city. People take in the sites, hang out, do the normal tourist things… well… most tourist thing. Though you’ll see a few college students from north of the border, this isn’t the same crowd that flocks to Spring Break every year. But then again, the appearance of a virgin in Cancún would be a miracle!
As the politicos spin
Everybody is blaming everybody else for the lynching. Of course. The Feds blame the local cops (who, apparently, warned the feds two weeks before the event that their “undercover” operation was making the neighbors very, very nervous). Their latest rationale is that they weren’t looking for drug dealers… they were looking for … TERRORISTS. Of course. Well, a couple misguided youths who set off a small bomb a couple of years ago and blew up a trashcan that broke a bank’s windows had some relatives that live down that way… so – of course – the feds stormed San Juan Ixtayopan, kicking in doors and dragging people off to the carcel. They had videos after all. And who is the first guy to go on trial? The guy who was barricaded in his house with a TV reporter the whole time. Of course!Fox has to blame … oh, somebody. He’s fired the fed police chief, and our local police chief for good measure. No real surprise there, though handing the guy his pink slip during a press conference at least made it look like something’s being done.The newest twist is the old “use and customs” defense. This goes back to Cortés – local communities had the right to their own “uses and customs” as long as they practiced the Catholic religion and didn’t challenge the King of Spain. The King is long gone, and we haven’t had a state religion since 1859. But, to make peace with the Zapatistas, “use and customs” was put back in the Constitution a few years ago. Alas, “uses and customs” aren’t always nice little things like colorful native ceremonies, but also things like chasing born-agains out of your village, and voting for the PRI and… beating the crap out of coppers with video cameras outside your local school. That’ll need some rethinking.
The “use and customs” of the Salinas family continue to make the news.
“Family Values”… you mean like the Corleone family … or the Bush family?The most honest – or rather, least sleazy – of the Salinas brothers ended up a corpse earlier this week. With a bag over his head, a couple of bruises and… dumped in front of a couple security cameras (filming crimes is the new national trend). Enrique Salinas was only the bagman for his brothers, Raul the drug-dealer, and Carlos the unelected President (thanks to some shady state votes along the Gulf of Mexico, and computer problems in 1988, Carlos Salinas – the father of NAFTA and friend of Ronald Reagan, and not Cuauhtémoc Cardenas – the leftwing nationalist who actually put together a credible opposition to the PRI – became president, signed the NAFTA treaty and left office with the federal treasury for a nice retirement in the Europe’s money-laundering capital, Ireland, which conveniently had no extradition treaty with Mexico). The Salinas family values rank right up there with …. Oh, a well-known Connecticut family that claims to be Texans involved in politics north of the border. Except, as far as is known, the Salinas’s had no ties to Adolph Hitler. My suspicion is they offed Enrique for not living up to the family code. Or that he was about to spill the beans on where the loot was hidden (Enrique – like so many Mexicans – emigrated. In his case, to France, where, this poor struggling Mexican immigrant managed to get by in a modest chateau. Where he received a friendly visit from the surête – just a courtesy call. It seems le judge had a few questions about the family finances, and Enrique suddenly became home sick). It’ll be interesting to see who they pin this one on. Nice family.
Statute-tory Rape? Who done the deed?
The Emperor Cuauhtémoc was one tough kid. He was only 18 when, after a well-aimed rock ended Uncle Monctezoma’s inglorious, disasterous reign and Uncle Cuitláhuac died a month later of smallpox, he took on the hopeless task of defending the Aztec Empire. Cortés’ Falluja-style plan was simple — destroy Tenotitchlan block by block, and drive the survivors back. Cuauhtémoc and the remaining Aztecs had no choice but to surrender at Tlatlelolco, 13 August 1521.
As the monument reads: “This was neither a tragedy nor a triumph, but the painful birth of the Mexican people”. Whatever young Cuauhtémoc thought about the birth-pangs of Mexico, he kept to himself. And he kept his mouth shut when Pedro d’Alvardo, who’d already looted everything of value in the City (he even stole the gold parrot toys out of the zoo) questioned him about what might have happened to any gold treasures that were somehow overlooked. If there was any gold left, it was buried under the rubble, which was carted out to the city dump… which is now my neighborhood. It’s here somewhere, but I don’t know any more than Cuauhtémoc. Who wasn’t talking — Alvardo, the stinker, gave him a hot-foot.
Young Cuauhtémoc never even whimpered, which took all the fun out of sadism. Even when he limped off he never said a word. When Cortés “invited” the ex-emperor to join the hunt for the “rebel” Cristobel Olid (much as Cortés went AWOL from Cuba to invade Mexico, Olid went AWOL from Mexico to invade Honduras), it was with the understanding that Cuauhtémoc must have known something about fighting the Castillians. If he did, he wasn’t about to rat on Olid. He wouldn’t talk — so Cortés hanged him, 28 February 1525.
The Last Emperor still isn’t talking. The Monument to Cuahtémoc, built in the 1880s, has been the middle of a traffic circle where Reforma crosses Insurgentes since the 30s. It was risky, but worth it, if you were into Greco-Aztec 19th Century Revival to try crossing 8 lanes of always moving traffic. The infamous toe-toasting is modeled on Jacques-Louis David’s Death of Socrates , though the buff young Greek body with an Aztec face looks more like he’s doing body-builder poses than being tortured — but then Socrates doesn’t exactly look like a 73-year old philosopher either.
Worth the risk, but for the Aztec’s risks were simple things like smallpox and Spaniards and having your heart torn out by your enemies. They never had to deal with rutas and crazed Volkswagen drivers, mega-manifestiones and traffic cops. So… the traffic circle is being turned into a regular stop-light with turning lanes and silent Emperor is moving to the corner — at least he finally conquors one enemy of the Azteca. He’s taking over the Parque Austria, which was partial repayment for the damages done by that incompetent usurper, Maximiliano von Hapsburg, who claimed to be Emperor of Mexico.
This is one of the largest statues in the Americas, so moving it is no easy task. It took four cranes a whole weekend to take the Bronze Emperor off his base and nearly a week to move the pedestal. Before he’s plucked back on 11 December, he’s been undergoing a cleansing (something all good Aztecs liked) and checked over for damages. He’s not going to talk, but some time during the 1910 Revolution, or the 1912 counter-Revolution, or the 1914 counter-counter Revolution, or the 1915-21 counter-counter-counter Revolutions, or the 1968 uprisings… or a wild Saturday night sometime between 1880 and now, somebody winged him. He’s not going to talk, but —
SOMEBODY SHOT HIM IN THE ASS
The lynching
As everyone who watches Mexican television — or follows Mexican news — already knows, three Federal Policemen were lynched, two burned alive on national television Tuesday. The local police did not intervene and already everyone is accusing everyone else. 33 participants were arrested y esterday, but foreign reports are just coming out now… and, predicably, even the New York Times (Lynchings of Policemen Ignite Outrage at Violence in Mexico ) misses a lot of the story.
a href=”https://mexfiles.net/wp-content/uploads/2006/11/tlahuac1.jpg” mce_href=”https://mexfiles.net/wp-content/uploads/2006/11/tlahuac1.jpg” title=”tlahuac1.jpg”>
Foto: Jorge Carballo/El Universal
San Juan Ixtayopan Pueblo is 139-4-A on my Guia Roji… about as far geographically and culturally as you can possibly get from downtown Mexico City.
I’ve been out that way, but never in this particular pueblo … it’s a rural traditionalist community slowly being surrounded by suburbia. For those looking for the “real Mexico”, communities like this are part of it. They are part of the time-warp you sometimes find in Latin America, where traditionalism and moderity exist side by side. The traditionalists are a bit lost in the modern world … and as in other traditional communities in transition, drug abuse, alcoholism and violence are realities.
The victims were federal narcotics cops which — the reports that an unnamed mother suddenly fingered these guys as kidnappers” (as in the NYTimes report), or as child molesters, makes me think this was a “setup” by narcotics dealers. Parents anywhere in the world will fight for their kids. I lived in a U.S. city where a neighbor of mine was badly beaten before being rescured by the police because he was mistaken for a wanted child molester (the poor guy fit the general description and happened to take his second car — the same kind the molester was known to drive — to pick up his kids after school). In the “real Mexico”, justice can be kind of rough.
I’d argue it was the media and the conservatives that laid he groundwork for this. Conservatives — PAN and Televisa, etc. — have seized on every incident of missing children and schoolyard drug dealers (not acceptable, but the kinds of things that happen in any population this size) to push their political agenda, and undermine the legitimacy of the leftist DF administration. The local government — meeting parental demands for security — makes a big show out of school security. School kid now wear badges including not only their photo, but that of the person authorized to pick them up after school. And the teachers– and school security personnel — have to check the kids in and out. Picking up one’s kids is a tense situation, and people are wary of outsiders — like federal plainclothes cops hanging around watching the school. Add that this was a very closed community under threat by outsiders, where even the DF police are “outsiders” … this was a perfect opportunity for and any narco wanting to get rid of the feds.
I’m certainly not going to justify barbarism, nor claim “well, that’s life in the big city”… but it wasn’t “mindless savagry” or some dark soul of Mexico on display either. Some of the reports I’ve read give the subtle sense that Mexicans are savages. Not at all: human beings who feel threatened are savages.
Bad boys, bad boys… whatcha gonna do?
(translated from Jounada)
The Secretariat of Public Security’s (SSP) Internal Affairs Director, Manuel Arroyo Hernández, and one of his sub-directors were fired Saturday morning followin an altercation at a nightclub.Employees of the establishment, who asked for the anonymity, said that around 1:30 Friday morning, several SSP off-duty officers, including Internal Affairs director Arroyo attacked a waiter, who spit in their drink and shouted an obscenity at Arroyo. Police and employees exchanged blows in the Insurgentes Avenue bar for several minutes before the manager called the Tourist Police. Arroyo and his fellow officers were escorted off the premises.Hours later Chief of Police, Marcelo Ebrard Casaubón, called a press conference: “Before anyone else asks me, I’ll tell you right now that the director and assistant director were involved in the incident at the Zona Rosa bar. I already have requested their immediate resignation.
“(Manuel Arroyo) knows perfectly well that civil servants lead by example. If there was an problem, he should have discussed it with the gentlemen instead of throwing his weight around. We will open an investigation,” Ebrard added at the end of a security cabinet meeting.
When asked about the matter, Federal District Prosecutor Bernadro Bátiz Vázquez, offered this: “So far as I’m concerned, they’ve been dismissed, and that’s a civil service matter. If I had to investigate every barroom brawl, I’d never get any work done.”
The times… they are a-changin’!
The Safari People — THEY LIVE!!!!
Rarely found outside their native habit, the Gringi cloolis take on strange — and unrecognizable — forms during their migration to the Yucatan peninsula…
Thank, Lyn_2… who overcame her reluctance to share this gem. The strange customs of the Safari People don’t include the belief that photographers will steal their souls… I don’t think. Some Safari People worship the Litigation God, and sometimes their behavior is even stranger…
From the halls of Montezuma to the shores of Lake Texcocobebone
We had a high-level bi-lateral conference (US — and them) here last week. This was a challenge for my favorite Mexican newspaper. It’s newsworthy when the usual suspects, Colin Powell and Tom Ridge for the US; Vincente Fox and Santiago Creel for them – get together and talk about… whatever it is discredited, ineffectual high government officials talk about. Jornada in the spirit of Harpo, not Karl, Marx, covered the non-event effectively:
Colin Powell arrived in a Lincoln limousine. President Fox also arrived in a limousine. They went into the Palace. They stood on the balcony. They posed for the cameras. Then they left.
I guess the late Rodney Dangerfield was the Colin Powell of comedians. But speaking of cabinet officers who don’t get no respect, the Chairman of Pemex (Pemex profits keep taxes low, since they kick in more than enough for the politicians to steal, mismanage and sometimes use… so, the chairman of the board is a Cabinet Secretary), Raul Muñoz Leos received one of el Presidente’s famous cowboy boots up his backside last week. At least metaphorically. It appears using government funds to pay for his wife’s fat butt was not exactly what Fox had in mind, when he talked about investing in tapping new and unexplored oil reserves. But, misappropriating government funds for his wife’s liposuction treatments really wasn’t that strange. LOWERING the price of oil sold to U.S. companies by 3 dollars a barrel.. now that’s really shady.It’s no wonder Fox, and his party, are seen as losers. They are. Fox was supposed to be a Mexican Ronald Reagan… Muñoz Leos was like a lot of Reagan’s cabinet officers, who saw cutting their department down to size and running it like a business (or even better, selling it off to corporate interests) was their purpose in life. But Reagan was able to see the idea that bureaucracies are supposed to be cost-efficient. Fox can’t make the argument that cheap oil for ExxonMobile (or is it MobilExxon?) is good for Mexican workers.It’s not the best source, but it’s in English: The Mexico City News has a longish, superficial article on the doings at Pemex.
I had the best Sopa Azteca the other day, and asked the chef for the recipe. It was an old family recipe, and he wasn’t about to give away the secret, but I did learn one thing… use fresh ingredients and start with a whole Aztec…
To the Saint Mary’s Shores …
Meanwhile, life here in America’s oldest bedroom community (if your burro was plodding up the Tacuba causeway about 1535, you would have seen a sign reading “If you lived here, you’d be home now… swampside lots now available!) goes on as always. And, as always, I’m amazed at the number of gringos who can’t place this neighborhood… who think it’s out in the boonies somewhere (not since the 16th century anyway). Poor benighted souls… they think anything further away from Polanco than the Zona Rosa is “injun country”. What they don’t know is we’re the “French Quarter”… and the Spanish Quarter, and the Kenyan Quarter, and the Brazilian Quarter, and the Russian Quarter … and, yes, we have injuns too.When I go to the mercado on Sunday, I meet a few elderly French men and women in the park. Most of them came here in the 1940s, and we still have a French lycée facing the park… along with a 100 year old store specializing in bugs – right next to a Russian taco stand.The way to meet the neighbors is to have a dog. Eva Perra is the one who meets and greets everyone… I’m just along for the walk. Besides her canine buddies and boyfriends (including Filomon the Yorkie… who is madly in love with her, but alas – or thankfully – unable to consummate his love, being about a tenth her size) there are her political contacts – like her Argentine namesake, she’s been trying to organize the poor and dispossessed… in her case the pack of half-feral collies … los perros sin hogares… or at least bring them into her Perro-ista movement.
Mexican dogs have their own political persuasions. Roof dogs, like Manches the Jack Russell, are capitalists and generally right-wingers. They are sticklers for order and complain loudly about any violation – or presumed violation – of their property rights (in Peru, where property titles have been screwed up since Pizarro, a conservative economist seriously suggested drawing up deeds based on the mid-point between where roof dogs start barking). Pure bred house dogs – like Frieda Kahlo the French Poodle are the neurotic petite bourgeois … forever worried about what the neighbors are up to, and their own place in the social hierarchy. Frieda the Poodle, like her Commie namesake, is an annoying pest… if she lost a leg or two, maybe it wouldn’t be so bad… yeah… hmmmmm….
The less pure-bred house dogs are probably leftists, though you find a few reactionaries in there.
Street dogs are anarchists. Some work hard, like Paloma the taco-vending German Shepard (really… he sits in front of the taco stand all night, and when you want a taco, he informs the jefe, who’s inside watching the futbal game) or are struggling to get by, like Canello who works as a security guard at the corner newsstand in the morning, and the farmacia at night. Others want to live on the dole, like the Cantina dog across the street. Don’t know his name… he’s just the Cantina dog.
Then there’s dogs like Eva… who never forgot where she came from. Like all doggies, she’d make a good fascist, though saved by her anarchist streak from mindless obedience. And, being a Latin American, of course, she’s open to bribery and flattery.
When NOT being walked by the dog, I’ve been writing propaganda for my company. It looks like I have to really, really work now (well, not now, but manaña… or the manaña after that) since our propaganda is starting to pay off and it looks like we have a shitload of new people to train. “Those that can, do. Those that can’t, teach. Those that can’t teach are administrators”. Pretty cool trick, huh? Make the programs so good that I wouldn’t hire me to teach them. So… anybody know where I can find some excellent teachers, with experience – preferably in business or administration – and interested in making not a lot of money in Mexico?
And that’s all the news from Lake Texcoco-begone, where all the women are getting liposuction, all the men are tasty (if prepared properly) and all the tourist’s children are uncomfortable.
I don’t need to turn no stinkin’ other cheek — Padre Pistolaros
Borrowed (hey, this is Mexico…) from Reuters (8 Nov 2004)
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Angry parishioners chained shut a church in central Mexico on Friday in protest at the firing of their priest, whose habit of tucking a gun under his robes has earned him fame and the nickname “Padre Pistolas.”
Hundreds of people from the town of Chucandiro demonstrated outside the cathedral in the city of Morelia after Catholic church leaders there defrocked their gunslinging priest, Alfredo Gallegos, local media reported.
“We have closed the church with chains and that’s how it will stay until Father Alfredo comes back,” protester Gilberto Moron was quoting as saying, adding that locals would accept no other priest.
Gallegos is wildly popular with parishioners but has angered his Catholic
superiors with his habit of wearing a shiny pistol beneath his robes, despite strict laws in Mexico banning private citizens from carrying guns.
Also known for his love of cowboy boots and country music, Gallegos says he only carries a gun for protection, noting several of his friends have been killed over the years.
Locals say he has brought them huge social benefits, helping the marginalized and raising money for roads and hospital projects. “He has united us as a people,” said Moron.
Church leaders gave no reason for sacking the priest.
Anybody else notice how aptly named the Padre’s backer Gilberto is?
That pyramid scheme … evil under the fifth sun
Wal-Mart’s expansion is not necessarily a boon for Mexico
Shameless stolen from: El Universal (Mexico News) 01 Noviembre 2004
Ever since I first got wind of plans to build a Walmart on the site of the pyramids of Teotihuacán, I couldn’t believe it.
At the dawn of Mexico’s colonial era, the Roman Catholic hierarchy of New Spain built its churches on the pyramid sites. The purpose was clear. The indigenous religion would be replaced by the one brought from Europe.
Then the conquistadors put up their palaces at the pyramid locations. The object was equally obvious. The indigenous forms of self-government would be obliterated by imported and imposed ones.
WALMARTIZATION Now, the tycoons of international trade want to construct an emporium on the grounds of one of the most significant pyramids. The reason, of course, is the profit to be made from the throngs visiting the historic spot. The focus on indigenous cultural identity would be overpowered by the spotlight on modern consumer culture. But the Walmart management should have learned from the lessons of history. Millions of lives and dollars have been sunk into rescuing what is left of the temples and turrets of Mexico’s oldest and most central historical legacy. What’s more, Walmart’s competitors Costco and Comercial Mexicana are caught up in an international boycott for destroying cultural and environmental treasures in order to build their mega stores in Cuernavaca, Morelos.
Why would the company be so brazen? Why would it stick out its neck to open a store on a UNESCO international heritage site? Why would it risk becoming the target of consumer scorn. Word has it that the Walmart got permits to do this 20 years ago, so the project commenced before foreign investors had witnessed the Costco debacle. Maybe they just don’t know that the pyramids are there. Maybe they don’t know that corruption is suspected in the permit process. If they don’t know, they are finding out fast, though, I’ll bet, especially since the Frente Cívico de Defensa del Valle de Teotihuacan is pushing for impeachment and criminal charges against the local mayor who allowed building to proceed this year, as well as charges against National Anthropology and History Institute officials who let this happen. The ad-hoc organization, which complained in a letter to Mexican President Vicente Fox, claims the fine is 10 years in jail and demolition of the building. Environmental, human rights, and other organizations have taken up its call for international solidarity.
THE BIGGER PICTURE
But what does the issue have to do with environment and human rights?
I got the answer just the other day in another letter, this one fired off by Professor Jaime Lagunez Otero of the Frente Cívico de Defensa del Valle de Teotihuacan. Under the title of “International Boycott vs. Costco and Walmart,” he wrote:
“The true value of a human being depends on his spiritual development. We must be respectful of the planet and of the diversity of cultures. We cannot allow for corrupt, ignorant companies, to destroy our environment and our cultural treasures. Because the ancient religious sites are being desecrated and the peoples of the world have been offended, an international boycott has been called against foolish transnationals and their administrators.”
Lagunez signed the letter with an indigenous fare-thee-well: mexica tiahui. If Walmart, Costco and others want to remain competitive, the first thing they need to do to fare well in Mexico is to avoid building monuments to ignorance on environmentally sensitive sites.
Talli Nauman is a founder and co-director of Journalism to Raise Environmental Awareness, a project initiated with support from the MacArthur Foundation. talli@direcway.com.
Bullfighters and bullshitters — the news from Lake Texcocobegone
Today (7-Nov-04) was opening day for the bullfighting season (a quadruple header… final score: Matadores 4, Toros 0). The day is marked here in Mexico City with a more modern sport – the running of the animal rights activists. I haven’t got the final score of that spectacle yet, and will have to wait for tomorrow Jornada: bullfighting reporters are the only sports writers in the world who can talk about esthetics and use words like grace and elegance without sounding like… sissies. 
Right-on, lefty intellectuals though the Jornada folks are (and, de facto on the side of right-on lefty types like animal rights folks), they’re Mexicans first… and recognize the toros for what they are. Pampered, well-bred, spirited, folklorico taco fillers. So what if bullfighting is a decadent, brutal and cruel remnant of the barbaric past… it’s OUR decadent, brutal and cruel remnant of the barbaric past. Besides, it annoys the gringos, and Mexican lefties have to love that! I expect, as usual, a few bull-headed (literally!) foreigners were tossed from the game… and the country, as usual.
Ah tradition… also this week, the Teotehuacán WalMart opened (within sight of the pyramids). Another Mexican tradition… big, bad foreigner company throws their weight around, bribes everyone in sight, and then we are shocked – shocked I tell you – to discover there are vendepatria going on. WalMart… as expected … offered some sort of official statement to the effect that the protesters were representing local economic interests (duh… like local shopkeepers that are going to lose their livelihoods, going from middle-class business owners and entrepreneurs to barely unionized workers) and “outsiders”. Besides the “usual suspects” (artists, writers, Indian leaders, the Zapatistas…) Tezcatlipoca himself weighed in at the last minute. . Teza, as he’s known to his friends and admirers, has always been one of my favorites… Lord of the Night, the Smoking Mirror, Ruler of Reality and Unreality… and – HE WHO FUCKS WITH YOUR HEAD.
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Wally World stocked the shelves, ringed the premises with coppers, 
bussed in the stockboys and the cashiers, opened the doors and… the cash registers crashed. It’s not nice to dis the Gods — especially on Day of the Dead. Días de los Muertos was particularly spooky this year, since it was also Election Day in the U.S. While I can’t fathom what happened, and can’t possible explain it logically, this might. Tezacatlipoca himself — I have it on good authority — is appalled. So reportedly are Santa Muerta, Santo Judeo Tadeo and la Virgen de Guadelupe. Their respective spokespersons have all said so. As are the 90% of Mexicans (and most of the rest of the human race) with common sense. As am I.
One hears the word fascismo in the air. A specialist in that particular political philosophy, Dr. Lawrence Britt, compared Bush with folks like Francisco Franco, Benito Mussolini, Augustin Pinochet and … guess what? He makes a pretty good argument.
Fox (the President, not the Television network) is putting a “happy face” on it, saying maybe now we’ll get back to dealing with the border issues. Yeah, right. Part and parcel of our war on abstract nouns (“terrorism”) is our war on brown people. Never mind that the only terrorist attacks in the U.S. have been domestic ones (like Oklahoma City) or people flying in from Britain and Canada… to have a good fascist state you need a few less abstract enemies. Fear of gays – especially married ones – might get you elected (if Bush was elected — Carlos Salinas may have pioneered creative voting software, but he was a rank amateur compared to Diebolt), but there’s nothing like good old-fashioned racism to keep things bubbling along.
Just this week, the Bushistas have decided that civil servants who don’t turn in illegal aliens can be jailed and/or fined. Nothing like turning us into an army of informers… a la Joseph Stalin. Geeze, if “illegal aliens” really were a threat, you might want to stop giving tax breaks for farmers and subsidizing agriculture, like the NAFTA treaty specified (you, too, you Canucks). The people going north are not abstract nouns, or even potential abstract nouns (Pancho Villa has been dead a long, long time) but some of those 600 farm families that find every day that they’re going to starve if they stay at home. But, then too, what would you do without peons? I suppose for the good of the U.S. (and the greater glory of Archer-Daniels-Midland), it’s better that free Mexican workers and property owners lose everything and become underpaid, exploited labor. Your tax dollars at work.
I still don’t know how they did it, but the price of Mexican oil FELL three dollars for U.S. oil companies. And it’s hard to see it as coincidence that now the U.S. Air Force is overflying Mexican oil installations. Mexico is a much more important oil supplier than Iraq – and it’s a lot closer. And has an even crappier army. There’s no way anybody’s going to buy the idea that Mexicans have weapons of mass destruction (well, certain taco stands aside), but the new, improved threat is … the Latin American left. Even before yet another Latin American country (Uruguay) joined the trend of electing a president from the left, General James T. Hill of the Southern Command has been … oh, showing a lot of interest in things down here: “These developments represent an increasing threat to U.S. interests,” said Hill, commander of the U.S. Southern Command, with headquarters in Miami.
Apparently ELECTING folks who actually do something for poor folks is a threat to democracy. Especially if the poor folks are selling oil or narcotics to the world’s largest consumer of those two items. Nobody’s too upset that Uruguay elects a socialist, since we don’t buy either of those essentials from there. But Venezuela or Mexico or Bolivia — now that’s a different story. And that’s another post… that’s all the news from Lake Tezcoco be gone… etc. etc. etc.
The few, the proud, the feline…
Mexican health officials say they have failed in their effort to deal with a rat plague in a remote mountain village by sending in hundreds of cats.
Authorities in the state of Chihuahua came up with the plan after the people of Atascaderos appealed for help in dealing with an estimated 250,000 rats. But rodent control expert Alberto Lafon said not enough cats had been obtained and some had died soon after arrival. He said the villagers would just have to learn to live with the rats.
“At this point, they are going to have to take charge and learn to control them,” he told the Associated Press news agency. Residents in Atascaderos asked the authorities for help two months ago, saying at least 800 homes had become rat-infested and traditional extermination methods had failed. Experts launched an appeal asking people to donate unwanted cats, in the hope of recruiting an attack force of up to 700 animals. In the end, however, they only managed to rustle up a mere 50 cats. 
And in a further setback, fears that the cats would not be able to survive in the harsh weather conditions of the mountains proved justified when many of them died after just a short time in the village.
But there is one last hope left for the villagers, say health officials. Javier Lozano, director of health services in Chihuahua state, told AP that traditional poisons had not worked on the rats, because they had learned to avoid them after seeing their fellow rodents die. But he added that the authorities had now ordered a special poison that took up to four days to kill its victim. “Poison that slowly takes effect will be more effective,” he said.
mexfiles.net 
